My time with Fei-Fei felt all the sweeter despite my setback.

  And didn’t Katsuo have a great timing?

  While I was pumping up my intensity, ready to end this whole thing, my transfer request came through, and my coffers had suddenly inflated by two-hundred thousand.

  I thought of how grandma might be surprised, but stopped immediately, as I had no desire to keep thinking about my grandmother while having sex.

  That isolated event did end up making me last longer, which I’m sure Fei-Fei must have appreciated.

  The two-hundred and thirteen gonks I had already put in the ground aside, I was going to hell for that. Jesus Christ. Thinking of grandma during sex?

  “One second,” I said, as I ‘dismounted’ from Fei-Fei to lie next to her. “Need a breather,” I lied, trying my best to banish more thoughts of grandma. It was so hard. Like a mind-virus that kept multiplying infinitely no matter how many of those strays you caught. I needed to look into meditation at this rate, Jesus Christ.

  The flesh was willing, and the body was capable of delivering, courtesy of Nanny, but it was the mind that refused to cooperate.

  “It’s okay,” Fei-Fei breathed. “Need… a minute… too.”

  What? She wasn’t even the one doing all of the moving! What the heck, man? Was she really just that weak? Eh, whatever.

  “How long has it been?” I asked.

  “Forty-five minutes,” she said.

  “How long do you have?” I asked.

  “Until Katsuo calls again,” she said with rolled eyes. “I don’t wanna think about that right now. You wanna just… talk?”

  “No,” I said, with an imperious tone. “I came here to have sex and nothing else.” I chuckled, just to make sure she knew it was a joke. “Fei-Fei… thank you.”

  “For letting you fuck?”

  Pft. “I’m letting you fuck,” I said.

  Fei-Fei seemed ready to fire back, but instead she just deflated, holding onto my body with a firmer grip. “Yeah, I won’t lie, having you is… a privilege.”

  “Stop. My ego can only take so much inflation,” I said. Fei-Fei giggled. “I mean, does Katsuo really suck that much?”

  Fei-Fei gave a heavy sigh in lieu of an answer.

  “He doesn’t take feedback?” I asked. “Or do you just not say anything?”

  “I say things,” Fei-Fei said. “I tell him what to do, like I do with you sometimes, but… it’s not the same. It’s… really fucking not,” she said. “When I tell you to do something, you listen, but… sexily.” I chuckled at that. “I mean it! You actually give a shit is what I’m trying to say. When we have sex, it’s not one person bringing their own one-sided strategy against someone else. I feel like we’re both in this together, and I don’t have to pretend to enjoy it. We’re working towards the same goal. With that asshole, it’s just… he pretends to care, but really he’s annoyed. He’s not doing it for anyone else but himself, and when I put in my two cents, suddenly I’m the asshole for ruining the mood. That… curious glint in his eyes, always on you, just… it doesn’t exist with him.”

  “Katsuo’s never been the curious type,” I said, thinking about all those times he refused to work harder than me in school, only to inevitably fuck up and get a lower grade than me.

  All culminating into the first occasion where he fucking cold-cocked me into oblivion, ruining my chances of getting a good grade on the exam that was to occur not five minutes later. Miserable bitch, what the fuck did I ever do to him? I sighed. Whatever. “Fuck him,” I whispered. I held onto Fei-Fei as well, a fellow victim of Katsuo. The only person that truly understood me.

  As much as our first time had me stressed out, Fei-Fei had dashed my worries about being the type of person that just took pleasure instead of reciprocating it. All this time, I thought sex was just… a thing a guy did as good as possible, while the girl rewarded you with the feeling of their hole, and a well-placed scream of ecstasy or a stream of piss every now and then. Like in the pornos.

  Being with Fei-Fei had, honest-to-god, turned me well away from all the pornos I once watched. None of that manufactured, fake crap could compare to the real deal, and the real deal was more than just power and domination. It was more than just taking from the girl and feeling great about it.

  It wasn’t love. I needed to make sure that I knew that, because I didn’t want things to get complicated, and I could recognize, intellectually, that love didn’t factor into matters.

  It was connection. It was the sociality of homo sapiens distilled into a brief period of time. It felt fucking good, fucking. And it was right. Even if it didn’t create another generation, just the feeling of the act was enough to satisfy any man.

  But there was a trick to having a healthy relationship with it as well. Not just ‘moderation’ because that only described the end-result of a healthy relationship, not the process of attaining one. The trick was to view life in an entire spectrum. In this scenario, life meant dreams, goals, basic needs, and human connections. Find a balance between all those things, not just the one thing most likely to give you the most dopamine of them all. A lack of balance in this regard would only make you into another drug addict, only your drug was naturally produced in your brain. But there was no difference.

  “I’m grateful,” I said. “To have you as well. Unlike what you’d expect from a smoking hot specimen like me, I don’t… really get… that much attention. From girls.”

  “David,” she said, in a warning tone, and I had to chuckle.

  “Listen, I’m an outcast, not an incel. I’m not gonna fall in love with you,” I said.

  “I just gotta make sure,” she said. “I really, really can’t afford that drama.”

  I felt my heart clench slightly at the pain in her voice. An uptick in empathy was to be expected post-coitus, so I didn’t pay that feeling any mind. “I haven’t asked you before, mostly because I know the answer, to some extent, but… how do you really feel about being forced to be with Katsuo?”

  “Fucking terrible?” she said.

  I clenched my jaws slightly at that. “Yeah, and what can I do?”

  “Fuckall,” she said, with zero hesitation.

  “Okay then, what could God do. Or better yet, Saburo Arasaka.”

  “Well, he could… let me not go through with this bullshit,” Fei-Fei said. “See, the problem is I’m not a person. I’m an apology gift. If my company didn’t have to apologize, then I’d no longer need to do anything. But they do, so I… yeah.”

  “What did they do?” I asked her. “Your company.”

  “They lost some kind of high-tech cyberware,” she said, though I already knew that. “It was… a Sandevistan, I think. Top of the line, experimental stuff. Manufactured by a subsidiary of ours.”

  It didn’t take me a second to connect the dots. A subsidiary of Kang Tao that produced Sandys? QianT. What was mine called again? QianT “Dragon Spine” Sandevistan.

  Fuck.

  Fuck.

  Fuck!

  I withheld my reactions for a moment as my mind raced to consider any and every angle of this situation. Did she know how the Sandy looked? Was that why she was interested in me? Did I just walk into a trap? Or did she like me for who I was, and all of this was some great coincidence?

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  I held the proverbial finger over my Sandevistan’s activation input while I spoke. “The Sandevistan is a type of boosterware,” I said. “Speeds up your bodily movements by a certain factor.”

  “Whatever,” she said. “Can’t believe I took the fall for this bullshit. Well, my father did, but he’s not the one paying the price, is he?”

  I pored over every inch of Fei-Fei’s reactions and speech, but I couldn’t crack into any ulterior motive. Her attitude hadn’t changed a single bit despite the change in topic. Was she just this good at masking her emotions?

  “It’s not right,” I said. “You shouldn’t have had to pay the price for that.” I spoke this statement for the sake of triggering a wider range of reactions, still to make sure that she wasn’t hiding her knowledge.

  “The fuck am I supposed to do?” Fei-Fei asked. “My dad’s a traditionalist, and the Arasakas are scummier than any Night City lowlife.”

  Still nothing. Time to bring in the big guns. “Watch yourself,” I said. “Arasaka Corporation is the greatest in the world. I won’t let you badmouth it.”

  I could feel Fei-Fei shrink in my grip, and it felt awful to do this, but I needed more data. I still couldn’t tell if she was fucking with me, if she knew that all of her life’s misery was situated exactly right next to her. “You… don’t have to say that stuff. My room is bug-free.”

  Naturally. Even in Night City, there were places where one could still have privacy, especially for the rich and powerful.

  Besides, I had the bedroom scanned the moment I came in.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, because I could no longer resist the disgusting feeling in my chest, telling me I was the biggest scumbag in the world. “I’m… Fei-Fei, I come from nothing. Arasaka is all that I have. I shouldn’t have said that, but…”

  “No, it’s fine,” Jing Fei hugged me tighter. “I know the position that you’re in. And I want to say: I admire your tenacity. I only wish success for you. I just… don’t wanna dance around my words with you.”

  “Fuck Arasaka,” I muttered. Fei-Fei laughed. “No, sorry, I was just being a paranoid gonk. I really can’t fucking stand these people. Surprisingly enough.”

  “Wow, what a shocker,” she said.

  “Fei-Fei, I want you to wish upon a star,” I said. “But, like, an evil, fucked up star that can only grant murder-based wishes.”

  She giggled. “Murder fantasies are more for boys, I think.”

  “Just give it a try,” I said.

  “Katsuo,” she said. “No. It’s… can’t just be one person. David, I’m between a rock and a hard place here. Either I say no, because I do still have human rights, and I’ll be blackballed from the corp world and broke as fuck, or I say yes, and it’s either Katsuo, or Jin, or whoever’s next on the list once either of the fuckwits die. Killing isn’t the answer.”

  “It’s money,” I said. “And connections.” I sat up and looked at her lying on the bed. “And mark my fucking words, Fei-Fei, one day I’ll have both.”

  “No,” she said, in a tone that brokered no argument whatsoever. She didn’t say it to negate my own dreams, but to reject my over-the-board gesture. She couldn’t afford some little guppy like me bullshitting to her. Couldn’t afford hope. Her survival in high society hinged on her reducing her levels of hope to the lowest possible extent.

  “I’m just being a good choom here,” I said. “Don’t read too much into it.”

  She sighed, clearly unhappy about the topic of discussion.

  I’d take care of Katsuo eventually, sure. But that wouldn’t free Fei-Fei. What remained then, but to become such a badass corpo motherfucker that not only could I go from an Arroyo slumdog to a Westbrook king, but also bring someone else up with me?

  And who was a better target of my benevolence than the one person I had fucked over to this extent?

  Fei-Fei, I’m sorry. I’m fucking sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get screwed over like this. And I know that the right thing to do would be to return what I stole, but I’m… I’m sorry, but I’m not a fucking saint. I’ll help you.

  I swear. I’ll help you.

  I laid back down next to her. “Whatever,” I said in a long breath. “Right now, it’s just you, me, and bliss. Now let’s work hard to blow each others’ minds.”

  Fei-Fei’s sullen expression softened into a slightly dishonest smile. I chalked it down to her not being fully able to get back in the mood after this conversation.

  “Ah ah,” I said. “I need enthusiasm, not resignation. I’m not Katsuo. You don’t owe me shit.”

  “Can we just lie down together?” she asked.

  I killed my disappointment the moment it rose and gave in with enthusiasm. “Sure!”

  I gave her a tight, one-armed hug.

  “I changed my mind,” she said.

  Whookay!

  000

  Katsuo POV

  Everything… everything had gotten so fucked up!

  How? How?

  Fei-Fei was being more of a bitch than usual, Jin was starting to openly abuse him, and now David was… Fuck!

  Katsuo lined up a column of glitter, brought a crisp, hundred eddie note to his nose, and gave the line a swift huff.

  Glitter was, generally speaking, a bad idea. To people without top-of-the-line biomonitors and optical apps that made him acutely aware of exactly how much he could take before literally dying. With all those aids in hand, it really wasn’t that easy to overdose.

  Katsuo inhaled deeply, taking in all the rage and anger that was thrown out into the universe in disordered waves of red and black, and melded all those motes of emotion into his body, where it burned in a core at the very center of his being: a core called hatred.

  Katsuo scoffed at the very idea that he had hesitated to kill David to begin with. Now, though? There wasn’t a single inch of doubt in his mind. David needed to die. Die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, DIE, DIE DIE!!!!

  “Shih-neeeeeeeeeeeeh!” Katsuo roared.

  Enough with the frenzy. It didn’t matter. Anger never killed a gonk. Only action ever did. And action was all that Katsuo needed. He had all that it took now, courtesy of his father. All that was left to do was amass the sakki. The bloodlust that welled in his heart was plenty. It was to the point that he couldn’t imagine how he had ever been able to hesitate to begin with.

  “Fuck me,” Katsuo laughed. “Such an idiot! I was such an idiot!”

  No. Even once the glitter wore off, Katsuo couldn’t imagine a scenario where he wouldn’t be able to personally pull the trigger, not that it would ever become necessary.

  No. Katsuo would keep his hands clean, and get rid of his biggest rival in one fell swoop.

  000

  Jin sat on his little sunlounger like an Asian deity of legend, legs crossed, and his chin resting on his upraised fist, with a bloodthirsty grin on his face. I didn’t read into it very much. He was clearly just being the edgy brat that he always was. I truly despised having to check in with him, but I’d already gotten my fill of the party, and I really wanted to get going. And there was only one way to get away from a party like this, according to Allister, and it was to talk to the head fucko.

  “Were my BDs to your liking?” I asked him.

  “Wraith Killer,” he said. “I need more Wraith Killer.”

  Uhhh, he doesn’t only kill wraiths. How did I break that? “The merc’s name is D,” I said. “I’ll keep a lookout, always.”

  “I need this shit, David,” Jin said. “And if you can’t deliver…” he threatened. I resisted scoffing with every fiber of my being.

  “That depends entirely on the merc,” I said.

  “I don’t want to hear excuses, David.”

  Wow. Wow. Get me the fuck out of here!

  “No excuses here, young master,” I said. “Your will is my command. If D does not deliver, then I shall record the BD myself.”

  Jin laughed. “Fuck me, man. You’re a tough-ass nut to crack, you know that? You ever been scared before in your miserable little life?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “How come I don’t scare you?”

  “Because, my undergrown choom, you’re about as scary as a psychotic middle-schooler who is best friends with your school’s principal.” I didn’t say any of that, of fucking course. Still, those were my true feelings. Jin didn’t scare me. It was what Jin represented that frightened me.

  “Your power and acclaim is truly awesome,” I said, doing my best to act sincere. “I cannot help but—”

  “Nah, fuck off,” Jin waved me off, his expression trully annoyed now. “I know fear and worship, and none of that is coming from you right now. But I get it. I fucking do. I don’t want you kowtowing before me like we’re in a xianxia or something.” The hell was a xianxia? “I was just curious is all. But honestly, I just need things to be constant between us. You get me the good shit, I’ll give you clout.”

  I felt a flare of rage bubble up in the depths of my core, and I let it speak for me, a slight gamble, but one I didn’t expect to regret. “Then let’s cut past the song and dance, and be realistic. I wanna delta. You want your BDs, and I want clout. Want, want, want.”

  “Want, want,” Jin said with a giggle. “Well, you can fuck off if you want, I give you permission! Thanks for tonight, man. Hope to see you soon!”

  “Yeah, I can’t wait for your next installment of eddies,” I said, hoping that it came across as a joke. I was rich enough that the paltry sum Jin could offer to buy my BDs was literally nothing compared to what I already earned. Jin did laugh, which did end up making me feel better.

  Jin had eyes. He knew that my net worth far, far, far exceeded what little I could earn from selling him BDs. “Though that shit does have me curious, though,” Jin said. “Where do you get all your cash from?”

  “Mexico,” I said, hoping that that was enough of an answer.

  “How come Katsuo thinks you’re a fucking brokie, then?”

  I threw up my hands in defeat. “Katsuo’s microscopic understanding of the world doesn’t compare to the real thing. We were sorting shit out, meaning less money for me. In the fucking meanwhile, I was going to Arasaka Academy. How easy do you think that is for a brokie? It’s fucking impossible, choom. Still did it. You think anyone can afford that on a joytoy’s pay?”

  Jin laughed. “Fuck all that shit. I know you’re real. Real recognize real, am I right?”

  “Right,” I lied.

  “You’re… my Nobunaga Oda,” Jin said. “And I’m Tokugawa Iyeasu.”

  “Thank you,” I lied. “That’s… thanks, man.”

  “I need you, man!” Jin said. “You and I gotta get close. I like the way you think, and I know we can accomplish crazy shit working together. Whatever. Next time, we’ll talk okay?”

  “Okay,” I said with a nod and a feeling of genuine joy in my heart. I did enjoy this development, despite Jin’s presence in it.

  “Mata ne, David-kun,” the brat uttered. I responded with my own ‘mata ne’ and left him behind me.

  Really? Tokugawa? Oda? History wasn’t my strong suit, but holy fuck. He was calling me the war-hungry bastard who earned himself an early grave, while he was the mastermind who conquered the Sengoku Jidai? Laughable.

  He had straight up told me I was going to go under for his goals. The little bitch had another thing coming for him.

  I sent a text to Allister.

  ‘I’m fucking off. Have fun.’

  ‘You think I have fun in this fucking place?’

  That was the most irritated I had seen Allister.

  ‘Sorry, bro. Stay strong.’

  ‘I’ll try.’

  I chuckled. A couple of sailors escorted me to a speedboat tied to the side of the boat, where I could access it from some ladders. I climbed down them, got on the boat, and one of the sailors drove me back to the shore. I didn’t climb up the ladder to terra firma so much as I just jumped from the boat, my patience utterly done. I made a beeline from my motorbike and started driving it out from the docks and into the city.