Chapter 16: Show Some Respect to My Brother!
Fatal mistakes often come from arrogance.
Arthur squinted, a cigarette dangling from his lips, eyes fixed on the chaos ahead. Watching people stumble toward their own doom—yeah, that was just another Tuesday in Night City. He didn't feel bad about it. He wasn't a hero. Sometimes, letting a little chaos happen helped clear the rot.
Maybe taking out a couple of scumbags wouldn't change the world, but if it made life even a bit easier for someone else?
Good enough.
"Hey, old man, you hear that?" one of the Uzumaki gang punks jeered. "Tell your little bro to forget about that big-ass beauty. I've still got time to hit up Twisted Street before bedtime."
The crew burst out laughing. Loud. Dumb. Overconfident.
They didn't notice the man beside Arthur. Didn't see the flickering pupils, the stiff twitch of shoulders, the stillness that wasn't peace—it was restraint on the edge of failure.
Arthur saw it. Felt it.
That wasn't a man anymore. That was a bomb in a trench coat.
The punk in the mohawk jumped up onto the container and mimicked Arthur's earlier gesture, slapping the patient's shoulder like it was all a joke.
Arthur dragged deep on his smoke and sighed. He imagined Yama—the king of the underworld—rubbing his temples in frustration, watching souls queue up faster than he could process them.