Cyberpunk: I'm Not a Scavenger - Chapter 44: Colleagues? (Patreon)

Diamond Street, MUSE Bar.

The bar’s suggestive pink sign flickered in the acid rain. The security guard who should have been at the entrance was nowhere to be seen.

Pantheon pushed open the doors and was hit by a wave of shrieking heavy metal and the heady scent of sweat and perfume.

The dance floor was a wild spectacle.

A girl dressed in outrageous kitsch pressed herself against a tattooed Japanese-American thug. Nearby, an impossibly muscular Animals member of indeterminate gender held a doll whose entire body had been fitted with silver synthetic skin.

Pantheon stopped, stepped outside, and checked the sign again.

No mistake. This was the place.

Back inside, he skipped the introductions, drew his Malorian, and fired three shots into the ceiling.

He would not need his Wingman against a bunch of Scavengers.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The deafening shots drowned out the music.

Bullets struck the ornate chandelier, sending shattered glass and sparks raining over the room.

“Ah!”

“What’s going on!”

Screams broke out, and the crowd descended into panic in the dim light.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Three more shots rang out. At last, the bar went quiet, everyone staring at Pantheon in terror.

Pantheon lowered his revolver and calmly reloaded, one round at a time.

“I’m giving you ten seconds.”

“Ten.”

“Nine.”

The countdown sounded like an alarm set by the Grim Reaper.

The patrons might not have been Night City’s toughest fighters, but they knew how to read a room and save their own skins.

People began rushing for the exit before Pantheon had even finished talking.

Others were so afraid of passing him that they smashed the windows with chairs and climbed out through the broken glass.

Thugs, hostesses, and bartenders fought their way through the door, afraid that one second too long would earn them a bullet from that monstrous revolver.

Pantheon finished loading and surveyed the bar.

“Time’s nearly up!”

Some of those still inside clearly wanted to leave, but something frightened them even more than Pantheon did.

Pantheon understood why they stayed. That did not give him the right to forgive them on behalf of their victims.

They had chosen to stay. Now they would pay the price.

By the end of the ten seconds, the once-noisy bar was deathly quiet. Broken furniture and glass littered the floor.

The Scavengers who remained had quietly surrounded him.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

A few emotionless claps came from behind the second-floor railing.

A man in a floral shirt and a holographic mask that obscured his face in a shifting mosaic leaned over the railing and looked down at Pantheon.

“So you’re King? Quite the grand entrance.”

This was Jae-Hyun Lee, leader of the Scavengers here and a key figure in their bloody trafficking operation.

He blew a pale blue smoke ring, his eyes cold and threatening.

“I don’t get it. Why have you got it in for us Scavengers?”

“You used to collect corpses for REO. Aren’t we practically colleagues?”

“What, now that you’ve made it big, you want to put your own brothers out of business?”

The word “colleagues” broke Pantheon’s composure on the spot.

In all his time in Night City, Pantheon had heard countless insults. None of them, put together, stung as much as that one remark.

“Who the fuck are you calling a colleague?! Don’t lump me in with you!”

Pantheon went red with rage, his eyes almost blazing.

“You animals are the reason I’ve got such a bad reputation!”

“Kiwi?!”

“Copy that.”

[Edgerunner]!

Thump-thump! Thump-thump!

His two hearts pounded like the rain outside as his three lung lobes greedily drew in air.

“Kill him!”

Jae-Hyun Lee’s expression changed abruptly, and he roared.

“Bang!”

The basement door flew open, and more than a dozen heavily armed Scavengers poured out.

More rushed in through the side door and down from the second floor.

Nearly thirty men closed in around Pantheon.

The lights abruptly went out, plunging the bar into darkness.

“If numbers were all that mattered, cockroaches would have conquered the world ages ago.”

Pantheon scoffed and plunged straight into the crowd.

The Scavengers were a disgrace even by Night City gang standards, with some of the worst equipment and fighting ability around. In a crowd this dense, Pantheon hardly had to aim. A single bullet could pass through one man and kill another.

He tore through them like a tiger among sheep. Hardly any of them could keep pace with him. They probably shot more of their own men than he did.

Their weapons were mostly secondhand junk, and the small-caliber rounds could not even penetrate Pantheon’s armor.

Pantheon ducked and weaved, moving so quickly he seemed to leave afterimages.

He shifted aside from a lethal shotgun blast and seized a katana as he passed.

With [Swordsmanship Mastery] enhancing his movements, he wielded it like a master.

One backhand sweep cut two Scavengers in half, guns and all.

[Stronger with Every Battle] continued building momentum. His attacks grew faster and faster, and even an offhand swing could strike a vital weak point.

He tore through the crowd in a relentless blur. The roar of his Malorian mixed with the Scavengers’ screams in a bloody cacophony.

Within five minutes, dozens of Scavengers lay in pieces. Their blood seeped through cracks in the floor and trickled into the basement.

Pantheon scratched his ear. The system’s endless notification chimes were getting on his nerves.

[Flash of Inspiration] (White)

Description: Three heads are better than one. At least one of them should have an idea.

Effect: Reflexes +1. Special effect: You can always come up with ideas others would never consider.

[Human Anatomy] (White)

Description: That's quite a stance, kid. Must be a slipped disc.

Effect: Technical Ability +1. Special effect: None.

What the hell were these garbage traits?

Scavengers really were pathetic!

He shook the blood off his gun barrel and looked toward the second floor. Jae-Hyun Lee had vanished as soon as things turned against him.

“Kiwi?”

“Jae-Hyun Lee drove away through the back exit. He’s already out of camera range.”

Kiwi sounded faintly regretful. If she had been there in person, she would have had plenty of ways to keep the bastard from escaping.

The little bastard sure could run.

Pantheon frowned and tossed the katana aside.

Not a bad weapon. Shame the blade had dulled after cutting through so many people.

Next time, he would ask Wakako to find him a better blade.

The thought passed through his mind. He shook his head and refocused.

Stepping over the bodies, he found the steel door to the basement.

Downstairs, the light was even dimmer, and compressors rumbled without pause.

Freezers lined both sides of the passage, packed with sorted implants and healthy organs.

Shelves were piled with equipment, weapons, and even clothing stripped from the victims.

Pantheon’s face darkened. These organ thieves had treated human beings like livestock. Following Kiwi’s directions, he found the shipping container.

He carefully worked the door bolt with one hand, keeping his gun ready in the other.

As the door opened, an enormous head topped with pink hair suddenly appeared in front of him.

Pantheon instinctively raised his gun.

“Don’t shoot!”

A frightened cry came from inside the container.