Cyberpunk: Cross-dimensional Science and Engineering

"You're really bullying honest people! I bet that McCoy is going to blow a gasket soon. Too bad we can't do a video call right now, I'd love to see his reaction."

"If it were face-to-face, we couldn't play like this. Wanderers with guns face-to-face are a lot more volatile than you think."

"Cheers, to Pig-head McCoy!"

In the bar, Lille decided to have a drink with V to kill the boring three hours.

Two problems were solved in a flash—the armored vehicle could be exchanged for the wanderer's car later.

And they also had a way to get through the border checkpoint—they'd just stuff the prototype smart weapons from the vehicle into the new car, and it'd make it through the checkpoint without a hitch.

As for what happens after crossing the checkpoint… they'd deal with it when the time came.

Feeling sentimental? Forget it. There was no way the Bimong could pass the checkpoint.

Military Science won't broadcast their losses on the news, so no one would know their vehicle had been robbed, but getting through the checkpoint was a different story.

The checkpoint would relay collected data to the Orbital Rapid Response System, making the chance of getting caught 99%.

Sometimes greed didn't pay off, even though Lille did love that vehicle.

"This drink has quite a unique taste." V downed her drink and continued, "You were speaking up for those wanderers earlier. I thought you sympathized with them.

Turns out you swindled them out of 50,000 Euros instead. You're quite the villain."

"I think the drink's getting to you." Lille just sipped his drink lightly, given his weak internal organs. "The money is mine, and he didn't accept the offer.

And... the car will stay with them, they'll make a good profit."

Though they couldn't sell off the Bimong Armored Vehicle, they certainly couldn't drive it around.

But the dismantled parts still held lots of value, and disassembling and modifying vehicles was a must-do for wanderers.

V raised her glass: "This is the first time I've seen anyone make those middlemen eat crow—absolutely fantastic. Just for that, drinks are on me today!"

Lille wasn't fazed: "With enough money, you can make anyone eat crow."

It was broad daylight, and the bar wasn't busy. The two quickly fell into a dull state, watching the sandstorm sweep over the small town.

Thankfully, the wanderer responsible for delivering the car and the documents arrived quickly. He was visibly nervous, clearly a young man.

Lille didn't say much. He was just a courier. Too much talk would be meaningless.

On the contrary, purposeful conversation might alert McCoy.

One hand handed over the money chip, and the other took the modified car and the data separation chip.

A Thunder Power Galina "Viper," a typical crappy car, nicknamed "moving tetanus trap," clearly modified many times over.

There were signs that weapons had been mounted on the roof but had since been removed—whether long ago or recently was unclear.

The good news was that the cargo hold was modified to conceal smuggled goods from full scans, and it had ample space.

Just enough for five Yinglongs and two Eight-star Guns—the other three had to be stuffed under the seats.

The Raccoon Dog rifle posed a problem. The two had to dismantle it and stow it in the trunk.

Dismantling it pained V—because they'd need to find a skilled gunsmith to reassemble it later.

This was a high-tech sniper rifle, capable of piercing Bimong's armored plate with a single shot, not some run-of-the-mill junk.

Other items… well, as long as the whole vehicle wasn't scanned, it wouldn't count as smuggling—who doesn't carry some weapons these days?

Of course, this would increase the cost of getting through the checkpoint.

V pinched his nose and looked at the small car: "Ugh… this car reminds me of my old beater in Atlanta, except it smells worse."

"That's exactly right. Wanderer cars are passed down from generation to generation, with the smell passed down too.

Let's see who our smuggler is."

He inserted the separation chip, and his prosthetic eye displayed the mission information.

[Client Name: Jack Wells]

[Location: Night City]

[Mission: Smuggle a batch of unidentified goods]

[Goods Drop-off: Place in designated location after crossing the border checkpoint.]

[Additional Note: The goods likely came from an Arasaka convoy hijacked months ago. Details unknown, but after the Atlanta incident, no one cares about the Arasaka anymore. Probably someone trying to unload the goods during the chaos.

The client offered little money, and nobody in Snake Nation wants to take this job, especially now.]

[Client Location: Abandoned Farm (Coordinates)]

After reading through it, Lille stroked his chin—

Great, now he was playing through the two prologues from the game.

He glanced at V again, remembering that she was supposed to return to Night City after a year or so, then meet Jack while stealing cars, becoming good buddies.

So, Jack had been smuggling these days?

Consider it a change brought by the butterfly effect.

"What's up?" V noticed Lille staring at her, a bit puzzled. "Is there a problem with the client?"

"Not really... you're from Haywood, right? So is the client."

Lille sent the information over. V read it and shook her head: "Don't know him. Looks vaguely familiar, but... I don't know him."

Good—Lille thought.

If these two were childhood friends, he'd have to consider the possibility of V reporting back to Arasaka.

After some thought, Lille suggested: "How about this—you drive, and I'll talk to him. Just remember, we're from the Buckley Family.

If he asks what that's like, just say—"

"Wanderers from Haywood—I remember. But why the sudden role swap?"

Lille paused for the first time.

V seemed to have remembered something: she recalled why Lille had told her to stay quiet in front of the sheriff.

The reason being: the moment she opened her mouth, her rogue vibe would be exposed.

So, the reason he wanted her to handle the conversation was...

V's expression grew meaningful: "Heh, you little devil."

Lille shrugged: "What can I say, my education is too high to pull it off."

"Idiots—we'll do as you said, then. Anyway, bringing these smart weapons directly won't alert Military Science?"

"No, the one that lost the stuff was Kantao. They have no obligation to and won't report to Military Science. Otherwise, the news of the prototype weapons being lost would've spread like wildfire.

We're smugglers anyway, bringing a few high-end weapons is normal."

"Alright, anything else to watch out for?"

Lille scratched his head and said: "Okay, prepare yourself because I think Military Technology might ambush us on the other side."

"Why?"

V was a bit surprised, knowing how unscrupulous corporations could be.

But letting them go past customs only to rob them on the other side? Seemed a bit...

"We're now wanderers fresh off from the clan, smuggling high-value goods. Customs won't mind tipping off nearby Military Tech agents for a little extra cash."

"Another fight?" V felt a headache coming on. "But we dismantled the Raccoon Dog."

"Even if it wasn't dismantled, we couldn't use it—you could use these smart guns if you were capable."

V ignored that option. Without a smart link, smart weapons were inferior to old-fashioned firearms.

Smart weapons required a smart link in the hand, accessing sympathetic nerve signals, converting them into data, and then computing them according to preset programs.

Ultimately, they executed tracking shots based on the user's needs.

Veterans like Zhu Shen could even use smart submachine guns as anti-rocket weaponry.

Without such system support, smart weapons' tracking efficiency was almost nil, and the bullet's fuel remained unspent, resulting in much lower impact energy compared to traditional kinetic weapons.

"I'd rather use my little handgun—this has to be fixed up well when we get back. I hope this client is competent."

V pulled out her waist holstered "Final Night" and examined it. It was a fully automatic pistol, modded from a Lexington, with a small knife under the barrel, usable as a dagger if needed.

"Considering he's seasoned, he shouldn't disappoint us," Lille shrugged.

Despite his words, Lille still had a bad feeling——

Arasaka's goods, Jack, V... all elements were present, and he was the unfortunate hacker character.

Thinking that, he noticed the "Weapon Offline" message on the car's dashboard screen.

Then he looked at the Eight-star Gun...

Maybe he could hook it up to the car?