Mission, begin.

"There really are a lot of people."

Today was the day of the gig. After their fixer, Faraday, dropped them off and negotiated with what were clearly Arasaka security personnel, Karl, Oliver, and Jack were allowed to enter a warehouse in Arasaka's waterfront transport port carrying their weapons. Once inside, they realized that even though they had arrived an hour early, they were still among the later batches of people to show up.

Because aside from them, there were already upwards of twenty mercenaries inside, equipped with all sorts of cyberware and holding various heavily modified firearms, waiting around.

"There sure are a lot of people."

In response to Jack's exclamation, Karl offered a brief acknowledgment before observing their future fellow mercenaries. As he took a closer look at their various cyberware and weapons, he realized he actually recognized most of them.

"Subdermal armor, mantis blades, Saratoga submachine guns, Kenshin pistols, Nova pistols... Oh, Oliver, even your hard-to-get SOR-22 kinetic precision rifle is here. Looks like they're all pretty capable people."

None of these weapons were cheap; at the very least, bottom-tier edgerunners couldn't afford them. But then again, it made sense—how could anyone sent by the various fixers still be using weapons like a Lexington?

"You didn't need to state the obvious."

Oliver looked at the SOR-22 kinetic precision rifle in his hand, then glanced at the Saratoga submachine gun in Jack's grip, and finally at the Kenshin held by Karl. He realized that if the three of them blended into this crowd of mercenaries with their current gear, it would be impossible to tell what distinguished one squad from another.

"Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three... Karl, Oliver, counting ourselves, that's twenty-six people now. Say, if everyone is getting a hundred thousand in payout, how much money did the employer actually spend on this?"

"You're forgetting the cut for the fixers and a whole bunch of other expenses. Either way, it's definitely a number we can't even begin to imagine, Jack."

Oliver felt that it was a sum he might never touch in his entire life. "The gap between people really is bigger than the gap between dogs."

"As if you've ever even seen a dog in Night City."

Karl chuckled. "I've seen plenty of cute dogs. I even used to keep one."

"How come I've never seen it?" Responding to Karl's showboating, Oliver flipped him off. "Corporate suits aren't dogs?"

"The two of you can stop bickering. Someone else is coming in. Look over there, don't they look familiar?"

Jack nudged them both with his elbow, signaling them to look toward the entrance of the warehouse they had entered not long ago. When Oliver and Karl looked over, they saw it was indeed an acquaintance.

"Isn't that the guy from before..."

Watching that lone, muscular blonde man carrying a heavy machine gun in one hand, Oliver recognized him. "The one fighting outside the braindance parlor. I remember he had two other teammates back then; how come it's just him?"

"Maybe they died, or maybe he thought they weren't qualified enough for this gig."

Karl didn't seem to have a deep impression of the muscular man and replied casually, "After all, nothing in Night City is surprising."

As Karl was speaking, he noticed that the blonde muscular man had actually spotted the three of them and was walking straight in their direction.

*Looking for trouble?*

That was Karl's first thought, but then he realized it didn't seem to be the case, because as the muscular man approached, his expression actually revealed a look of relief, as if he had finally found what he was searching for.

"You must be Karl, Oliver, and Jack, right?"

The blonde muscleman called out all three of their names right off the bat, then introduced himself. "Name's Mane. I used to do work for Faraday too, but for this gig, Faraday said he only had three slots, so I took a contract from another fixer instead. For the escort mission later, want to team up?"

"Mane?"

Karl wasn't in a rush to answer. He first sent a message to Faraday to confirm the man's identity before speaking up. "What made you think of teaming up with us?"

"Just for this gig."

Mane glanced at the other squads before looking back at Karl and the others. "Since we kind of share that Faraday connection, I figured you guys are trustworthy. Plus, I'm a bit curious about your skills. I've been working with him for quite a while, and he actually passed over my crew in favor of a rookie squad. I never would've expected something like that to happen."

"And on top of that, you're flying solo, right?"

Karl could see through Mane's muscular exterior to the shrewdness hidden underneath. Coming alone to execute a life-or-death gig with a payout like this was extremely dangerous, so he was trying to use a shred of the fixer's connection to huddle together for warmth.

To make it on the streets as a mercenary taking jobs through fixers, Mane was naturally no fool. He understood that there is strength in numbers.

"There's that too, I suppose."

Having his motives seen through didn't bother Mane at all. Recognizing that Karl was the leader of this group, he stared at Karl and asked, "So, what's your verdict?"

"What are you good at?"

"If I need to, I can use my subdermal armor and lug this Type-31 heavy machine gun right up to the front lines. Is that enough?"

Being on the front lines meant, in other words, that if Karl and the others had any second thoughts behind his back, they could shoot him dead at any moment.

"More than enough."

Karl reached out and shook Mane's hand. "Pleasure doing business."

"Pleasure."

A smile appeared on Mane's face. "Boss."

"Just call me KK. You can treat it as a callsign."

Since Mane had temporarily joined the squad, Karl didn't mind filling him in on their situation.

"Jack handles things similar to you—relying on firepower suppression with you two to deal with enemies. Oliver is our medic and sniper; if there are injuries or if we need long-range support, you can turn to him. As for me..."

Karl thought about his own role and gave a peculiar reply. "Once the fighting starts, you'll figure it out."

"Once the fighting starts, I'll figure it out?"

Mane didn't quite get it, but seeing that Oliver and Jack both wore completely understanding expressions, he let the matter drop.

It was just a single gig, after all; a basic understanding of each other's cooperation was enough. If they managed to survive and finish this job, who knew when the next collaboration would happen?

While the mercenaries were getting familiar with each other or observing their teammates, time passed quickly.

Right at nine o'clock, a corporate suit wearing Arasaka attire walked into the warehouse, flanked by a group of Arasaka security personnel.

The mission had begun.