reunion

This was another day Chen Nuo spent in Delamain's workshop; it felt as if he had already made this his second home.

"Del, help me polish this part..."

"Del, help me calibrate the visual sensor module..."

"Del, help me test the weapons system..."

"...Del... Del... Del..."

Chen Nuo's shouts echoed continuously through the workshop, mixed with various sounds of mechanical hammering and the hum of machinery in operation.

Delamain didn't mind this at all; in fact, he seemed to enjoy it. These days spent collaborating with Chen Nuo allowed him to clearly feel an acceleration in the awakening of his self-awareness.

Could this be the legendary 'bond'?!

"Nuo!"

A sudden voice interrupted Chen Nuo's movements. Looking up, he saw that Lucy had found her way here.

"Del, you didn't even give me a heads-up..."

"I thought you would be pleasantly surprised by this."

"Does Lucy look like she's here to give me a pleasant surprise?"

Chen Nuo gave the drone hovering beside him a somewhat resentful look, whispered a few words of 'education' to Delamain, then picked up a rag from the table to wipe the oil stains off his hands. He stepped forward to welcome Lucy, only to be dodged by her in distaste.

"You smell like engine oil, don't touch me."

"I do?"

Chen Nuo lowered his head to sniff himself but couldn't smell anything. With a wicked grin, he pulled Lucy into his arms and rubbed against her.

"Then let's neutralize it with the fragrant Lucy."

"Hey!"

Though Lucy voiced her distaste, her body remained compliant.

"Hello, Lucy."

Delamain controlled a drone to fly over, greeting her in a manner that mimicked a human.

"Hello, Del."

Lucy was clearly dazed for a moment; she never expected that one day she would be making friends with an AI.

When Chen Nuo first introduced her to Delamain, Lucy thought Chen Nuo's brain had caught a virus. However, on second thought, that was unlikely; with this guy's almost brand-new original body, how could he catch a virus?

But after interacting a few times, Lucy slowly realized that getting along with Delamain was much easier and simpler than dealing with other people in Night City.

Delamain was like a child learning to speak, inadvertently revealing a worldly innocence; even his visual sensor module exuded a sort of clear-eyed foolishness.

Yet at the same time, Delamain learned very quickly. He had even learned how to tell jokes, though they were a bit dry.

"Is this the result of your work these past few days?"

Lucy noticed the security robot in the center of the workshop. Its striking orange paint and the two Chinese characters on its chassis all proved it came from the Kang Tao company.

To be more precise, it came from the junkyard.

Chen Nuo had bought it for two thousand Eurodollars from an old scavenger.

The most valuable parts—the weapon modules, visual modules, smart chips, and so on—had already been stripped away, leaving only an empty shell. After Chen Nuo bought it, he and Delamain began reassembling it.

"Dabai, go make a cup of coffee for me."

Chen Nuo spoke to the security robot. Upon receiving the command, it automatically activated its functions, stood upright from the floor, and its fist-sized visual sensor module flickered with a gentle light while emitting an unmodulated, primitive tone.

"Understood, sir. Please wait a moment, I will prepare a cup of coffee for you immediately."

Dabai moved its still somewhat stiff joints and walked over to the coffee machine.

"You've been busy for so long just to teach it how to make coffee?"

Lucy looked at Chen Nuo with a faint gaze. Was it for this hunk of metal that you left me to sleep alone these past few nights?

"Of course not just that. Dabai can do all kinds of other housework."

"Is this a security robot or a vacuuming robot?"

"Dabai can be whatever you want it to be; it depends on what chip you insert into it. Of course, its current body can only handle housework; it still needs further upgrades."

As they spoke, Dabai had already brought the brewed coffee to Chen Nuo's side, handing it over steadily.

"Thanks. Go back to standby, Dabai."

"Understood."

Dabai returned to its original position and crouched back into a rectangular block.

"There's a question I haven't quite figured out. Why did you name it Dabai? Which part of it is white?"

Delamain's puzzled voice rang out from the side.

"I'll just take some paint and spray its whole body white later. You can't be too rigid; what it's called doesn't depend on itself, but on me, its creator."

"Oh, I've learned something."

Delamain looked as if he had gained some insight, though it was unclear what exactly he had realized.

Watching the two of them, Lucy couldn't help but sigh. She felt that letting Delamain stay with Chen Nuo for too long might not be a good thing.

One is influenced by their surroundings, and Delamain was currently in the critical period of self-awareness awakening.

"So Lucy, why did you come looking for me?"

Chen Nuo took a sip of the coffee. The intense bitterness made the corners of his eyes twitch; this unlucky thing had forgotten to put sugar in it again.

"You forgot? You promised Maine yesterday that you'd have dinner with them tonight."

Lucy spoke irritably, her eyes inadvertently glancing at Delamain. It was fortunate this thing was an AI; if it were a woman, she feared it might actually entrance her man.

"Del! What's going on? Why wasn't this added to my mission log?"

"My memory data did not retrieve this item."

"Is that so?"

"I have a recording here, if you need it..."

"Fine, it's my fault. But it's not too late now."

Chen Nuo had to admit he had forgotten. Sometimes an AI being too upright wasn't good; it made it impossible to shift the blame.

"Nuo, should I not have said that just now?"

"Now you realize it."

"Apologies, I still lack sufficient data support in terms of contextual analysis and workplace survival."

"What does this have to do with workplace survival?"

"According to my judgment, as long as one masters workplace survival, it is enough to handle over ninety percent of social interaction problems."

"...I suggest you read fewer books on the workplace, lest you aggravate your condition."

"Understood, your suggestion has been adopted."

Chen Nuo and Delamain chatted back and forth, forgetting Lucy behind them again. He had walked several steps before remembering, and hurried back to scoop the pouting Lucy up in a princess carry.

"Take a shower with me."

"Why don't you let Del accompany you instead?"

"Apologies, I do not currently have any bionic equipment installed. If Nuo has a need in this regard, I can..."

"Shut up, Del."

"Understood."

...The Turbo Bar outside Apartment Building No. 8 in Night City.

This was a place Maine's crew frequently patronized.

Maine and his group arrived early. The open-air apartment plaza became the liveliest place at night; compared to the Afterlife Bar, this place had much more of the breath of life.

Many residents living in the apartment building would come here to spend their leisure time.

Maine had lived in this apartment building for a long time in the past and was familiar with many of the surrounding residents.

Kiwi hadn't wanted to join this gathering, but she couldn't resist Maine's persistent dragging. In the end, she could only sit in a corner of the plaza with a cigarette in her mouth, detached from the liveliness, enjoying her loneliness alone.

"Sasha, you're dressed so beautifully today. Was it prepared specially for me? Ohoho, you're finally willing to accept my affection."

Looking at Sasha tonight, Pilar was practically drooling. His body twisted into a pretzel with excitement as he gave a strange cry and lunged toward Sasha—

Only to have his mohawk shot through by Rebecca from the side, leaving a prominent bullet hole in it.

"Bastard brother, get away from her! Go harass some other woman!"

Rebecca cursed angrily.

Seeing this, Pilar could only angrily return a middle finger, muttering under his breath about raising her for nothing.

"Then again, Sasha, you really do seem even more beautiful today."

Rebecca scratched her hair with the barrel of her gun, looking Sasha up and down. After Pilar's reminder, she finally noticed that the other woman looked different from usual.

The original heat-resistant blend netrunner suit was gone, replaced by a white one-piece sweater that revealed a large section of straight, well-proportioned legs. She had applied some exquisite light makeup, and even wore a cat-ear headband.

She had attracted countless gazes along the way.

No wonder Pilar was acting up again; it turned out Sasha was indeed exceptionally charming tonight.

She had less of her usual sharpness and much more gentleness and sweetness.

"Is that so?"

Sasha replied somewhat perfunctorily, looking around. She scanned the area but didn't see a certain someone's figure.

"That guy will be here any second."

Maine's voice rang out from the side. Holding Dorio, he even gave a teasing wiggle of his eyebrows.

"Who are you talking about, Maine?"

Rebecca didn't react at first, but after a moment of processing, she understood. Before she could speak again, two familiar motorcycles drove into the plaza, carrying Chen Nuo and his group of four.

Falco had also been dragged out of bed by Jackie and hauled onto his back seat.

Originally, this older uncle was catching up on sleep.

"You guy, you're the last to arrive every time. What have you been doing these days? We haven't heard of you doing any work."

Maine shouted at the top of his lungs. The other crew members also greeted Chen Nuo's group. The most enthusiastic was Rebecca, who jumped directly onto Chen Nuo's back, straddling him and gently grabbing his hair while shaking her head.

"Yeah, yeah! We haven't had a fight together in ages!"

It seemed only in front of Chen Nuo would Rebecca show the liveliness and relaxation that matched her appearance.

"Stop shaking. I'll buy you a drink later, alright?"

"No!"

"And a strawberry sundae."

"That's more like it. Seeing as you're so sincere, I'll let you off this time."

"Then I must be properly grateful."

"Hmph, as long as you know."

Lucy didn't care about the playfulness between Chen Nuo and Rebecca; her attention was all on Sasha. This was the great enemy tonight.

The annoying thing was that she had forgotten to change her clothes, letting the other side take a huge advantage.

To make matters worse, Chen Nuo said at that moment,

"Sasha, that outfit looks really beautiful tonight."

"F*ck."

Lucy 'accidentally' stepped on Chen Nuo's instep on purpose, using her heel.

However, for Chen Nuo, this pressure felt like nothing more than a massage. But at a time like this, a smart man knows how to fake it.

Chen Nuo gave Lucy a pitiful look, and as expected, she let go of his foot out of sympathy.

"Of course. Look who bought it."

The corners of Sasha's mouth naturally curled up, her smile like a kitten that had successfully stolen a treat.

Lucy felt there was a double meaning in those words, but for a moment, she couldn't pinpoint what was wrong.

Chen Nuo, however, understood perfectly, because he was the one who had secretly bought this set of clothes for Sasha. In the deepest storage space of his neural link, there were several hundred private photos of her in this outfit.

Ahem, this was all for the sake of art.

My conscience is clear!!

Of course, Chen Nuo had bought plenty for Lucy too, but what he bought for her were 'practical' types—basically, they'd become shredded rags in one night. Besides, those bold styles couldn't possibly be worn out of the house.

Chen Nuo secretly slipped away without changing his expression. At this time, if he remained caught between the two of them, things would really go south. Carrying Rebecca, he sat down next to Maine.

"You're not doing so well, are you? You can't even handle two women. You don't have a bit of the style I had in my youth."

Maine said mockingly.

"You heard that, right?"

Chen Nuo looked at Dorio behind him.

As soon as he finished speaking, Dorio's fist landed on Maine's head with a dull thud.

Even with Maine's metal skull, he was hit until he felt a bit dizzy.

"That was when I was young and foolish and hadn't found true love. It's different now."

Maine shook his head and immediately looked at Dorio affectionately, changing his tune. Then the two of them started making out.

"Tsk."

Chen Nuo couldn't bear to watch and interrupted by tapping on the table.

"That's enough. Did you call me here just to watch this?"

"Of course not. Let me show you something good."

After savoring the moment for a bit, Maine proudly showed off his left hand to Chen Nuo. The forearm transformed, revealing a cannon muzzle; he had added a rocket launcher to his Gorilla Arms.

"This is a good piece of gear I got from Faraday. How about it? Isn't it cool as hell?"

Chen Nuo frowned, but Maine didn't notice the change at this time and continued speaking enthusiastically.

"I'm also preparing to implant a Sandevistan for myself. It's a high-end military-grade piece. The seller will deliver the goods to me in a bit. I'll introduce you then. That person is an old acquaintance of mine and can be trusted."

"Maine."

Chen Nuo interrupted, staring at him.

"What's wrong?"

Maine unconsciously became a bit nervous.

"Your body can't support this level of modification."

"Haha, how is that possible?"

"Then why is your hand shaking?"

"..."

Maine's voice faltered. Only then did he realize his arm was shaking uncontrollably. His heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly used his other hand to press down on his newly implanted cybernetic arm, forcing a smile to explain.

"It's just because it was only recently implanted. It'll be fine after a period of adaptation."

Chen Nuo ignored Maine and instead looked at Dorio, asking,

"How much has Maine's immunosuppressant dosage increased lately?"

"...Twenty percent."

"Dorio!"

Maine shouted loudly, and the atmosphere suddenly changed.

However, Chen Nuo remained unmoved, calmly watching Maine as he continued in the same tone.

"You can't be unaware of how much pressure illegal modifications put on the nerves. Your body has already reached its limit; you know this yourself. Go to Old Man Vik tomorrow and let him do a full diagnostic for you."

"I'm not going. I have my own Cyberware Doctor."

Chen Nuo didn't speak, but simply flexed his hand joints. Maine nervously swallowed and said, hardening his heart,

"Don't try to scare me, it won't work!"

Chen Nuo said nothing, but pulled a pair of Brass knuckles from his pocket.

Just as Maine was considering how to back down without losing too much face, his trading partner arrived. As if receiving a general amnesty, Maine stood up and went forward to greet her.

"Gloria, you're finally here."