12. An Ordinary Day?

"Good morning, Night City!"

Waking up to the familiar voice of the Night City broadcaster, Stanley, Karl slowly opened his eyes. He scanned his surroundings, noting that Oliver and Jack were sprawled haphazardly across the sofa, surrounded by a litter of empty bottles, while he alone had ended up on the bed.

"Did this TV stay on all night?"

Karl let out a yawn, rubbing his eyes. He hadn't touched the booze yesterday; he’d simply been exhausted from a long day. When Oliver and Jack started their drinking contest, he had planned to lie down for a quick nap before joining the fun, but he had drifted off before he knew it.

He really was that tired.

Yawning again, he chose not to disturb Oliver and Jack, who were sleeping like the dead. He walked into the bathroom—identical to his own back home—and splashed cold water on his face. After a rough brushing using his finger and some water, he finally felt a flicker of alertness.

The water in Night City tasted foul and was only suitable for washing. If you wanted to drink it, you had to buy actual purified water, which cost more than a bottle of liquor.

Still, you had to buy it.

He grabbed a bottle from the vending machine—twenty eddies, the price of a synthetic rib-eye steak—used it to rinse his mouth, spat it into the bin, and then took a long, thirsty gulp. Once he finished the three-hundred-milliliter bottle, the lingering taste of yesterday's food and drinks finally faded.

He checked his messages. None of his recent clients had sent new work, nor had the fixer, Faraday.

"So bored."

Looking at the slumbering pair, Karl suppressed the urge to buy more water just to splash it on them. After some thought, he decided to buy them breakfast instead. He left a note, grabbed his Shingen pistol, and headed out. In Night City, you had to be careful every second.

Descending to the ground floor, he stepped out of the elevator and looked toward the food stall he had first seen on his arrival in 2075. It looked much the same.

Apart from the fact that the Chinese cuisine had been replaced by sushi, and the owner was a different person, the stall remained unchanged, as did the regulars who frequented it. They were like machine parts; when one broke, it was swapped out to keep the mechanism running. He wondered when this machine would finally collapse, beyond the point where simple replacements could keep it going.

He approached the stall and ordered two large sushi platters to go, plus a bowl of meat-free ramen to eat right then. Sitting on a seat that was just as greasy and battered as before—now with an added hint of fresh blood—Karl just wanted to enjoy a decent meal.

But fate had other plans. It seemed he wasn't destined to eat in peace. Before the owner could even start cooking, gunfire erupted nearby. This owner clearly learned from his predecessor; the moment the shots rang out, he dropped everything and dove under the counter.

Fine.

Karl gripped his Shingen and looked toward the source of the noise. The last group of Maelstrom gangers who had interrupted his meal were currently buried in someone's foundation.

As he watched, a bullet whizzed toward him, only to be sliced in two by a flick of his monowire. He had seen plenty of "braindances" featuring samurai cutting bullets with katanas. Compared to them, with his internal 'Militech Paraline' cyberdeck providing the necessary processing power, slicing a bullet with a monowire wasn't all that difficult. Of course, he could only do it for stray shots; his current setup wouldn't allow him to stand against a concentrated hail of machine-gun fire.

He identified the two groups trading fire. Neither wore any gang colors. In other words...

"Street thugs who couldn't even get into a gang?"

Night City gangs had standards; not just anyone could join. These thugs were likely even beneath the Scavengers. Which meant... they weren't worth the ammo.

"This hellish City of Light—the splendor really hides some spectacular trash."

Karl had no interest in dealing with a bunch of punks firing Lexington pistols at each other. Besides, in his peripheral vision, the NCPD were already arriving.

The NCPD weren't much good at dealing with real gangs, but they were quite efficient at beating up bottom-feeders like these.

"NCPD, stand down!"

With a boisterous roar, the officers, finally finding someone they could easily bully, charged at the thugs with reckless abandon. Although most NCPD officers also carried Lexingtons, there was a difference in quality. Compared to the thugs' jammed-prone pieces, the officers' weapons were heavily modified. They fired with a loud, crisp sound that reminded Karl of a street-corner popcorn machine.

*I haven't had popcorn in a while. Should have grabbed some before the movie yesterday.*

Under the "brave" suppression of the NCPD, the thugs were either incapacitated or cuffed within minutes. By the time his steaming bowl of ramen was placed before him, the incident was already over.

Karl glanced back at the owner, who was busy again as if nothing had happened, and at the other diners who had resumed eating. He looked at the scene of the shootout, less than a hundred meters away, and fell silent. He looked down at the fragrant ramen, finally deciding not to overthink it.

Eating was more important.

"Our NCPD officers have successfully suppressed yet another act of gang-related villainy! Let us offer our highest respects to these brave, honorable officers who protect the citizens of Night City!"

As the official spokesperson accompanying the police live-streamed the announcement, Karl finished his ramen, though his stomach felt a bit unsettled.

Eating greasy ramen first thing in the morning was a bad idea.

Rubbing his belly and carrying the two bags of sushi, he prepared to head back. Suddenly, he noticed a figure walking past the police cordon where the bodies were being processed. The person was hunched over, stumbling, and behaving in a deeply unsettling way.

For some reason, a headline from yesterday flashed through his mind:

*'Cyberpsycho remains at large before MaxTac could arrive.'*