19. We’ve Arrived

"Did you guys pull off a big job this time?"

Inside his ripperdoc clinic, Viktor asked casually while tending to Jackie's wounds.

"You could say that. A corpo job. Nearly lost my life out there," Jackie replied. "After selling the guns and everything else, we each walked away with about forty thousand eddies. The gear from those Maelstrom gangers wasn't worth much, though we did manage to keep one Crusher shotgun."

"Still, coming back alive is a win in itself."

Viktor pulled out a barrel-fed stapler and pressed it against Jackie's hand. With a sharp click, the wound was sealed. Having finished the final touches, Viktor patted Jackie on his uninjured arm, stepped back, and sat down in his chair. "All set. Take some hyposprays with you when you leave. Next time you run into something like this, stabbing yourself with one first will make a world of difference."

"How much for the treatment and the hyposprays, Vic?"

"Consider it a celebration for pulling off a big job. This one's on the house." Viktor waved off Jackie, who was reaching for his credits, as well as Karl and Oliver, who were waiting nearby. "Just keep bringing your business my way."

"Ding."

Viktor turned back to his computer, eyes glued once more to the boxing match he never seemed to tire of watching.

"Thanks, Vic. I'll bring some food and drinks by later, and we can have a few."

Jackie rotated his shoulder, satisfied that it moved freely, then turned toward Karl and Oliver. "Alright, let's go celebrate a job well done."

"Any restaurant recommendations?" Oliver asked. "I'm not too familiar with Watson."

"There's a decent sushi joint over in Kabuki. How about we head there?" Jackie said, glancing at Karl to gauge his opinion.

"Sushi, huh?" Karl hesitated for a second before nodding. "Fine by me. It's been a while. Let's give it a shot. But isn't Kabuki a total snake pit? Are there actually any decent spots there?"

"Those people have to eat something when they're done with their business, right? Trust me, the food there is pretty good—even if I've never actually had 'authentic' sushi before."

With Jackie's enthusiastic recommendation, the three of them piled into Oliver's car and headed toward Kabuki. Along the way, they spent the time discussing how they planned to spend their forty thousand eddies.

In Night City, forty thousand eddies was more than the total net worth of ninety percent of the population. Even among mercenaries, very few ever managed to save up that kind of money. Most lived day to day, burning through their pay as soon as it hit their accounts. Even those who tried to save rarely saw their balance climb above ten thousand.

The gear and combat prowess of the average bottom-tier merc often didn't even match that of a standard Maelstrom grunt.

Jackie was the first to decide how to spend his share. "I'm thinking of setting aside ten grand to save up for a car or a bike. The other thirty? I'm heading back to Vic's to get some subdermal armor installed. The armor that Maelstrom psycho was wearing today wouldn't even let a Copperhead penetrate it. Once I get a set, I'm going to be unstoppable."

Jackie wanted to pay for professional-grade subdermal armor at Vic's rather than dragging the dead Maelstrom member's body back to strip her cyberware for a DIY install for two reasons. First, as a man with Mexican heritage, while he joked about death often, he held a deep respect for it. Desecrating a corpse wasn't his style; he’d feel like a Scavenger, and he despised those bastards. Second, cyberware taken from someone else was usually tuned specifically to them; secondhand parts were hard to calibrate, prone to malfunctions, and could even trigger cyberpsychosis. It simply wasn't worth the risk.

Cyberpsychosis was a mental disorder triggered when the human brain couldn't handle the dissonance between the body and the added cyberware. Victims often became dangerous and insane as their implants pushed past safe limits. Even the NCPD struggled to handle cyberpsychos; in Night City, such cases were usually left to a specialized unit. Jackie had no intention of becoming that kind of monster just to save a few bucks.

Oliver, curious about Jackie's plan to save for a vehicle, asked, "Ten thousand is enough for a decent used car, isn't it? What exactly are you looking to buy?"

"At the very least, it needs to be a four-seater," Jackie said, shifting his body as he and Karl squeezed together in the passenger seat. "It needs to have more room than this bucket of yours, that's for sure."

"Piss off. This car is meant for picking up girls. What are you two grown men complaining about? Besides, this thing is worth twenty-nine thousand eddies even used."

Oliver retorted sharply at Jackie's jab, which only led to more skepticism from Jackie.

"You use this nomad-style cargo runner to pick up girls?"

"Girls in Santo Domingo are practical."

"Forget it. It's not like I haven't seen the girls in Santo Domingo. Your neighborhood borders the Badlands—wind-blasted, rough skin, yet they have all these demands. The girls in Heywood are the ones who are fiery, passionate, and honest."

"I think the girls in Heywood are too wild. A couple of words and they're already in the car heading home."

"Enough, you two."

Watching them get more animated, to the point where he was being squashed like a sardine in the middle, Karl put a stop to their pointless bickering and pulled the conversation back on track.

"Instead of that, Oliver, what are you planning to do with your money?"

"Me?" Oliver thought for a moment. "I'll rent an apartment first. Sleeping in the car or in hotels isn't a long-term solution. Then, I'll get some cyberware installed. You can't survive as a merc without decent hardware. After that, like you guys said, I'll see if I can try my hand at being a squad medic or a sniper... Oh, right, Jackie, I'm thinking of finding a place in Watson. Any recommendations?"

"The megabuilding in Little China. The rent is decent, and there are cheap eateries all around. It's convenient for food."

"That place, huh?" Oliver remembered it as the spot where he and Karl had first met. He gave a nod, then glanced at Karl. "Karl, what about you? What's your plan?"

He recalled that Karl didn't have a place to stay either.

"I'll go take a look, too. If it's alright, I'll move in there. Being close is convenient. As for the rest of my money after rent, I haven't really decided yet, but I'll probably look into getting a better pistol. I need to get rid of this Lexington."

Chatting the whole way, the three of them followed the navigation and arrived at their destination.