Players Invade Cyberpunk

"Tch..."

"Seth, stop."

Seth unwillingly wanted to fight them, but Reyes called him off and then said to Faraday

"Let him go, after all, your target is me. Whatever you want to talk about, talk to me."

"That's not..."

The mercenary captain raised his gun to blow Seth's head off, but Faraday said

"Let him go."

Seth unwillingly looked at Reyes: "Boss..."

Although Reyes was sweating profusely from the pain, his tone was calm

"Go, if you die, who will collect my corpse."

"..."

Seth moved his lips slightly, finally covered his wound, bowed his head, and walked out through the cracks between the mercenaries.

"Haha... I thought he was a tough guy, turns out he's just a coward."

"Abandoning the boss to save himself, it seems the old captain's reputation is just that..."

His ears were full of ridicule, yet Seth walked out with his head down, without saying a word, his hurried figure like a stray dog disappearing into the rainy night.

"Cough cough..."

Reyes coughed twice slightly, looking at Faraday approaching him

"Aren't you afraid he'll go find someone?"

"Who can he find?"

Faraday's voice was low and slow

"That group is too busy to care for themselves right now, the Sixth Street Gang won't care about you, all the mercenaries in Santo Domingo I could name have been sent away by me."

"As for your ragtag bunch... if you want them to come here to die, go ahead and try."

"..."

Reyes gritted his teeth but said nothing, seemingly acknowledging the truth in the other's words.

In Santo Domingo, the old captain's reputation wasn't small, but mostly circulated among the lower class, whereas in the mercenary circles, he was far inferior to Faraday, backed by military technology.

Faraday grabbed a chair from the side, sat in front of Reyes, and asked somewhat nostalgically

"How long have we known each other, Muammar Reyes?"

Reyes seemed resigned, relaxing his whole body on the sofa

"Vittorio Faraday, it's been forty-seven years, right? I still remember the first time I saw you, you were like a shark arm wandering the streets of Haywood."

"Is that so? It's been so long, huh."

Faraday closed his eyes a bit nostalgically, as if returning to that time

"You know, I really envied you and Daniels back then..."

"Able to afford schooling, food, even getting into big companies, earning a salary I couldn't even dream of, much better than me, wasting away on the streets..."

"I envied you, I hated you..."

"Honestly, I never thought you'd see me and Daniels this way."

Reyes propped up the cigarette he just had with one hand and took a puff

"Also, why do you talk like a whining woman now? I haven't even screwed you."

He wore shorts and a shirt, cursing colorfully, forming a stark contrast to the neatly dressed Faraday.

"..."

Faraday took a deep breath, maintaining his image

"Look at your ragged appearance now, Reyes, I once took you as a goal, I dreamed of surpassing you for years!"

"I desperately wanted to get into a company, take off those damned ragged clothes, put on a suit, afford meat, drive a car, live in a house..."

"But not a single company wanted a street thug, they would just laugh and drive me out, some wouldn't even let me in the gate..."

"So from that day on I vowed, I would leave the damned streets, climb up step by step, trampling everyone who despised me underfoot..."

"Now... I've succeeded, and look at you... Reyes..."

Faraday straightened up, looking down at Reyes with a condescending posture

"I once envied your life, your status, and you?"

"You resigned from the company, returned to Santo Domingo, returned to the place I desperately wanted to escape, became a middleman and didn't seek progress, stuck in mediocrity, hanging out with car thieves, hanging out with trash that will never make it, unkempt."

"Look at the place you're staying, it's like a kennel, all for a connection you barely had with Watson District, offending Huang Ban, now you're going to lose your life, isn't this world fascinating?"

Faraday glanced around the surrounding, a small space filled with the smell of engine oil, littered with repair tools and worn-out tires

"Do you know where I live now? I live in the highest floor of the luxury hotel in Charter Mountain, where I used to not even be able to look up to, even the air is cleaner than below, thanks to you I even tied connections with Huang Ban, I can climb higher in the future."

Reyes listened to Faraday boast about his wealth, what car he drives, which building he lives in, what women he sleeps with, what rich people he interacts with, he just smoked his cigarette one puff at a time until it burnt out, exhaling mist onto Faraday's face.

Once the mist cleared, Faraday looked at Reyes, Reyes' face was pale, but he still smiled and said

"So... you still haven't worked for a company, right."

"....."

"You've never worked for a company, don't know what it's like inside, self-righteously fantasizing that now you have the qualifications to interact with them, the qualifications to sit equal with company dogs, thinking you've left the lower class, becoming... an upper-class person."

Reyes flicked the remaining cigarette butt at Faraday's body, the scattered ash dirtying that expensive suit

"But I've worked in a company, I know what it's like, let me tell you, now they see you basically the same as forty-seven years ago, at best you've just gone from being a dog in ragged shirt to a dog in a suit."

"I know about your rise to fame, no need to say more, betraying brothers, betraying the boss, betraying middlemen, betraying mercenaries, climbing step by step to the position you have now..."

"In your eyes, back then I had a promising future, wealth, and power, but let me tell you, all companies see is profit, back then I was no different from you, both were lower-class people."

"We both come from a resource-scarce lower class, Faraday, that's why I left that company and returned to this land that nurtured me, to stay with the people here, and you..."

"You look down and fail to see the people around you, forget what the lower class of Santo Domingo is like, forget the logic of lower-class living."

"Do you know what we these lower-class people in your eyes rely on to overcome the gangs and company oppression?"

"Unity."

"No matter the difficulty or injustice we face, the brothers and sisters of the lower class in Santo Domingo will support each other and overcome challenges..."

"You, someone like you would never understand this, Faraday."

"You shouldn't have let Seth go."