Devil in Night City (Cyberpunk) (Patreon)

Chapter 12: The Afterlife

“I can’t believe we’re actually here, choom!” Rebecca exclaimed as she shook my arm back and forth, all the while having an actual fangirl moment as the bouncer to the Afterlife let us in after confirming my identity.

“Stop drawing attention to us, Rebecca!” Lucy whisper-shouted at her from my other side, a bit of an embarrassed blush dusting her cheeks.

Ignoring their bickering, I felt a slight sense of accomplishment settle into my chest at knowing that I was one step closer to leaving this fucking shit world.

The thought that there was a very big possibility that I would have to leave behind Gloria, Rebecca, and Lucy once that happened only crossed my mind for a few moments before I dismissed it as an unfortunate setback.

The girls knew very clearly what kind of man I was, and while I would miss them a bit, there were plenty of fish in the sea, as they say, and I would quickly get over it. I was honestly more upset about having to find another awesome combination as the one I had going right now.

The combination of a voluptuous milf in Gloria, a short nymphomaniac and gremlin in Rebecca, and the femme fatale that Lucy played was a rare combination that would be hard to replace.

Of course, if the opportunity presented itself, I would take them with me, but I wasn’t holding my breath for that. I would hope for the best but expect the worst, as I had done most of my life.

It was a great motto to live by in my humble opinion.

I didn’t let any of these stray thoughts show on my face as I walked with the still-bickering duo and soon dismissed them as I headed to the bar and sat on the stool, getting the bartender’s attention.

“Get me a Johnny Silverhand.” I requested calmly of the woman, who quickly got to work as Rebecca and Lucy ordered their own drinks.

“Can’t say I’ve seen your faces around before. Finally moving up in the world, eh?” the woman commented idly as she slid the drink toward me.

“Something like that.” I smiled, putting on my usual charm, getting eye rolls from Lucy and Rebecca as I quickly downed my drink. “Another, please.”

“He’s just being humble.” Rebecca suddenly chimed in with a smirk as she threw an arm around me and gave the bartender a confident look. “Lucius here is going to take us straight to the top of Night City, choom!”

“At least you’re confident.” The woman — who, if I remembered correctly, was named Claire — snorted in amusement as she slid me another drink that I quickly downed too.

“Oh, wait. Now that I take a closer look at you, aren’t you that madman with no chrome to speak of that somehow managed to find the cold body of Bartmoss?” Claire blinked in recognition as she took a closer look at me.

“Word travels fast as always in Night City, I see.” I smiled, not answering any further as I felt Lucy subtly pinch my leg — something that she had taken to doing when she wanted me to be careful with what I said.

“Gotta be honest, you don’t look like your typical merc.” Claire commented as she took me in properly, roaming her eyes up and down my form with an appreciative look. “You look more like the typical corpo kid having a rebellious phase.”

“Ouch.” I winced playfully, not offended at all, since in my opinion it sure as hell beat cutting out parts of my own body and replacing it with cyberware that would drive me insane in the long run.

While not knowing much about this world’s history or lore, I still kept my theory that all cyberware was specifically made to drive you insane by the corpos in an attempt to control the regular populace. It’s certainly something those bastards would do.

“Is that how you two saw me at first too?” I turned my amused look toward Lucy and Rebecca.

“I did at first, but once I found that you were in the merc business without any cyberware, I dismissed it as nonsense. Only someone insane and badass would do something like that.” Rebecca said with a small grin and a shrug.

“Was that after or before you ran me over?” I asked with a raised eyebrow, getting a small scowl from Rebecca at my teasing her and receiving a small jab to my side, getting a small chuckle from me.

“…And you, Lucy?” I asked, turning to my other lover, who was calmly sipping on her drink without a care in the world while still listening to our conversation.

“No. I thought you were a genuine corpo assassin or something. Some of the best cyberware is mostly invisible, and only gonks working for the corpos can afford that thing.” Lucy said calmly after a moment.

“Hehehe. You should know better than anyone that I’m all-natural, Lucy~” I teased as I brought my arm around her and pulled her close before kissing the crown of her head, causing her to cutely squeak in surprise.

“Tsk. I know that now.” Lucy muttered against my chest, refusing to look up as I saw her neck turn red, making the bartender chuckle at our interactions.

“You bet your sweet ass he is!” Rebecca exclaimed next, joining into the hug as well.

“You’re an interesting bunch.” Claire said, sounding truly amused. “Hope you stick around longer than the other newbies who make it this far.”

“Of course we will!” I declared with a confident grin while I had one arm around each girl. “Just you wait. Pretty soon this whole city will know our names.”

I said nothing as I felt Lucy stiffen slightly in my arms at my last words and silently figured it probably had something to do with her past, so I let it be. Lucy, while opening up a lot since we became lovers, was still pretty tight-lipped about her past.

We stayed and chatted for a few more minutes before we finally left the bar when somebody came and told us to follow them.

We were led to one of the many private booths, and inside were the figures of a middle-aged blonde woman and a Black man with scars on his face.

I immediately recognized the two from their appearances as Rogue Amendiares, the owner of Afterlife and our client, and Nix, a netrunner that was interested in the Old Net and the person that would eventually lead you to Bartmoss in the game.

With Rebecca having another small fangirl moment to the side that was quickly handled by Lucy as she harshly pinched her side, causing her to shut up, we entered the room.

Before we could say anything, Rogue threw me a small glance before speaking.

“Sit.” She said simply, signaling the seats to the side and across from them.

Nodding at her, we did as she asked and waited for her to begin speaking as Rebecca nervously fidgeted in her seat.

Rogue finally looked up from what she was doing and gave us her full attention as she crossed her arms and gave me a serious look.

“I’ve been hearing a lot of interesting stories about you lately, Lucius.” Rogue began calmly, her gaze focused entirely on me.

“Crazy, wild stories of a nutjob with a death wish running solo without a hint of chrome to be seen. Didn’t believe the stories at first until I saw your face on TV a while back as you dealt with a cyberpsycho.” Rogue revealed, causing me to raise an interested eyebrow.

‘Should’ve known there were cameras present. Actually, it’s a fucking miracle that it took that long before somebody managed to record me with all the tech of this world.’ I thought internally, remaining silent since it seemed Rogue had more to say.

“Imagine my surprise when you went up against him and defeated him pretty quickly without much trouble. At that point, I was all but sure you had to be a fucking Saka assassin with that type of skill.” Rogue paused as she gauged my reaction and took a drag of her cigarette.

I only smiled at her accusations before tilting my head curiously. “Is this going somewhere?” I asked politely.

Rebecca and Lucy beside me were a bit tense at the atmosphere and looked ready for anything, with Rebecca silently glaring at Rogue while Lucy assessed the situation.

The two were already keenly aware of just how ridiculously strong I was just by working together with me and seeing me in action with their own eyes. They knew me better than anyone in this world, and despite not telling them how I had gotten this strong, they knew one thing for certain.

The idea of me being a corpo was ridiculous, and pigs would sooner rain down from the sky before that happened. I was a prideful man and utterly despised taking orders from someone, a fact they had come to know well.

Jobs and requests were fine, obviously, or otherwise I wouldn’t be here right now, but outright bowing my head to someone else?

Never.

“A while back I got some information about interesting things happening around the city.” Rogue continued as if she hadn’t heard me and disregarded the girls beside me.

“Word of a devil going around and flatlining dozens of lowlifes to the point that he became the local boogeyman to the gangs in town spread like wildfire. Any place he visited, only bodies were found, sparing no one, and he even looted their place clean for good measure.” Rogue said, finally catching my attention.

‘Shit. She knows, doesn’t she?’ I inwardly thought, not letting any emotion show on my face as Rogue watched me closely.

Lucy and Rebecca, still unaware of such information since I was planning on keeping it to myself or telling them later, whatever caught my fancy, let out small gasps before I saw them turn to me with questioning looks from the corner of my eyes.

“The gangs were only the beginning, of course, and soon he started targeting the corpos themselves with no discrimination, with each of them blaming each other and causing a minor clash amongst them.”

“You might not know this, but things have been a bit tense as everybody is searching for the culprit with no success, either with offers of recruitment or putting him down for good.” Rogue finished as she finished her cigarette and threw the bud away before leaning back and smiling at me.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

Silence descended again into the sealed room as I stared blankly at Rogue, pondering on what to answer, before Rebecca’s voice distracted me.

“Holy shit! The devil is you, choom!?” Rebecca asked with a loud gasp while looking at me with pure awe in her eyes and plenty of lust. “…That’s so hot. I’m fucking the devil.”

Lucy, on the other hand, while surprised, quickly got over it and settled back into her default expression. But knowing her a bit now, I could tell I had won some brownie points with her for some reason.

I gave Rebecca a small glance before turning back to Rogue and shrugging. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now, are we going to do business or not?”

As if I was going to admit that out loud and give Rogue something to use against me. Rogue was neither my friend nor someone I trusted, and the only reason her head wasn’t rolling off her shoulders right now was due to her importance and the fact that we could get some really nice jobs from her.

If she was smart, she would keep her mouth shut about that little bit of information. If the bitch betrayed me, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill everything she even slightly liked and had built over the years, saving her for last and slowly taking my time with the old bitch before finally putting her out of her misery.

‘Oops. My true nature is slipping.’

Smirking at me with some approval in her eyes, Rogue nodded. “That’s what I thought too. Now about Bartmoss…”

=====

Hours Later

“I can’t believe you turned down all that cash for a favor!” Rebecca complained loudly as we drove back home after our business had concluded.

“We’re mercs, Becca. Reputation is more important than hard cash this early on.” I said calmly with a shake of my head as I casually drove my car.

‘Speaking of, now that we have a bigger house, I should start thinking of upgrading my car too.’ I thought, looking at some of the scrapes and bumps it had accumulated over time.

Our meeting with Rogue had gone as I had expected it, with a measly sum of cash but a favor to call in whenever we wanted, as long as it was reasonable, and spreading our names to higher people up the food chain. Which was great, since it meant better rewards.

“He’s right, Rebecca. With a few jobs under some of the people Rogue knows, we will recoup what we would have made easily.

Besides, this way it also keeps us from dealing with the corpos, who would be the only ones interested in Bartmoss.” Lucy chimed in, sounding pleased with the situation.

“Whatever. I still say hard cash is better!” Rebecca huffed with crossed arms before shaking her head and turning to me.

“Anyways, when were you going to tell us you were the Devil, choom?” She demanded as she started poking my side.

“In time.” I responded with a small smile, amused at Rebecca’s pout since I wasn’t ticklish at all, so her attempts were useless. “I didn’t want to get you two involved in case the corpos ever caught wind of my true identity, and I was right to be cautious.”

“If Rogue was able to figure it out, it’s only a matter of time before they do as well. What we should be doing right now is saving up some money and finding a place to lay low when things turn to shit.” I explained calmly, my mind already going to the Badlands due to how empty it was.

“A plan B, huh? What do you have in mind?” Rebecca asked curiously, apparently mollified by my answer.

“Wait, before we move on, I have a question.” Lucy spoke up as I looked at her sitting in the back of the car through the mirror.

“What is it?”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to answer, but I’m curious. What made you target the corpos like that?” Lucy asked while looking at the reflection in the mirror with a serious look.

“It’s nothing special.” I shrugged calmly. “If you think there’s some deeper meaning behind this, then I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you. They just had some information I wanted and I took it. Simple as that.” I said with a half-truth as a way of explaining my need to get more knowledge or abilities with my power.

“Oooh, did you find anything juicy?” Rebecca asked, clearly interested.

“Just what you would expect from a soulless corpo. Biotechnica, for example, seems really interested in seeing if humans and animals are compatible.” I revealed, getting them to grimace and drop the issue even forgetting the earlier question.

Enjoying the bit of silence, my thoughts turned to the protagonist of this world.

‘I wonder if V and Jackie already met? It has been some time since I arrived here now.’