Chapter 1: Welcome Back to Night City
"Breathe in—cough, cough, cough!"
Standing by the border checkpoint of Night City, Arthur took a deep breath of the "fresh" air and almost gagged on the chemical-laced stench.
"This is it... This is the real taste of Night City!" he muttered, half in admiration, half in disgust.
As a traveler who had inherited the memories of his body's previous owner, Arthur remembered that the air quality had been just as bad a decade ago. Some things, it seemed, never changed. Over time, Night City had only gotten louder, dirtier, and meaner.
The towering garbage mountain off in the distance, glowing ominously under the dying sunset, was still there too. A man-made Everest built from generations of consumerism, neglect, and corporate apathy. Fixing it would've been simple—at least technologically. But the corpos at the top? They didn't care. With high-grade cybernetic lungs and smell filters, the stench was just another distant problem for the "lower classes" to deal with.
And the poor? Well, they could always take out another crushing loan to get a better nose.
Business was business in Night City.
Arthur shook his head and pulled a worn ID document from his jacket, tossing it casually into the checkpoint booth's window. The border officer inside barely glanced at it before stamping it and flinging it back through the slot like a piece of trash.
"Welcome back to Night City, Mr. Arthur!" the officer droned mechanically, eyes already shifting to the next poor soul in line.
Arthur stuffed the document into his pocket and snorted, "Right. Welcome back to my kennel, like a stray mutt who couldn't survive outside."
Hearing that, the bored officer's eyes lit up a little. He leaned forward and pitched his voice low.