Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 187 46. Exoskeleton

"Have you become a formal employee of the Dangerous Girl Agency recently?"

Early in the morning, Carl had just woken up when Blanca called and started complaining.

"You're not willing to work for me, but you turn around and go be a bodyguard for those detectives with cat-ear prostheses?"

"It's just a part-time job. They pay me a lot of money and allow me to work on assignments. Of course I'm willing to do it."

Karl rubbed his eyes, which were a little blurry after waking up from sleep: "I have been doing it for a few days. You suddenly called me today. Is this the official notification that you have obtained the intelligence?"

"To be precise, I was still working overtime when someone told me that the name of the famous mercenary KK appeared on the list of the Dangerous Girl Agency."

"Still working overtime?"

Data was flowing, and Carl opened the window of the apartment, and mixed colors of light immediately shone in from outside.

Look at the sky.

"It's already morning."

"Seven twenty-two in the morning."

Blanca's voice revealed a sense of resentment: "I have been working for thirty hours straight, and the last injection of the active agent was just injected ten minutes and twenty seconds ago."

"As expected of a company member."

Karl sighed: "Fortunately, I didn't listen to your nonsense and become a company dog."

"It's as if your current personnel status has nothing to do with the company."

Maybe she was really tense from working overtime for too long. After chatting with Carl, Blanca felt a little more relaxed, as if she could breathe more comfortably:

"But if you had agreed to be my subordinate, you would probably still be working overtime now and wouldn't be sleeping so well."

"So, why did an overtime worker come to me, a mercenary with nothing to do, and complain to me after hearing the news this morning? Isn't that your nature?"

"Guess what the intelligence officer handed over when I received the news about your list?"

"Hand over something."

Carl didn't mind guessing the mystery that Blanca deliberately raised.

Blanca is now a manager of ACPA, a military technology company. Although Carl did not hear Blanca brag about her position in detail, she is in a high position as long as she is involved in ACPA.
There are many types, but the ones that Blanca revealed to me and mentioned.
"I think it's the 'outsiders' who have entered Night City, right?"

Communications cannot be made explicit because of the possibility of being intercepted or eavesdropped, so Carl used words that only he and Blanca could understand to make guesses.

Blanca didn't keep the secret this time: "As you expected, outsiders are here."

An ACPA trainee in the same batch as that guy.

Carl thought back to the time when his opponent was only one Adam Hammer away from killing him.

This long-term task, which was the first one I received, is finally going to make progress.

"Are all the staff present?"

Carl got up and started washing.

"pioneer."

"understood."

The tense situation in the city has passed. Can we send someone in to take a look first?

"Are you still targeting me?" "The information about you becoming a regular employee of Dangerous Girl was delivered to me by the Intelligence Department."

Another meaning of this sentence is that the people below don’t know.

"It seems that the people in your company really want to get the relevant data test, and they are willing to make such a sacrifice for this."

Blanca had told Carl a long time ago that the people in the military technology company were very interested in the combat data of the ACPA personnel who controlled the exoskeletons in the city, and wanted to let those former trainers cause trouble for Carl by allowing those personnel to seek revenge and redress their shame.

Now it seems that even though he has become a formal employee in official terms, the ideas of the people in the military technology department have not changed at all.

"Wouldn't your company feel it was uneconomical to just send these people here?"

"Perhaps they think you are no match for them?"

Blanca's words made Carl laugh. "My boss gave me all my information, and my whereabouts and data were sold out by the company. I am no match for a team wearing exoskeletons. This kind of joke is good, Blanca."

"How arrogant! Aren't you afraid of falling into the gutter?"

"It's not so much arrogance as it is..."

Karl spit out the tap water with a bitter taste in his mouth: “I believe in the ability of you company dogs to plot against your subordinates and betray people.”

"That's not a very nice thing to say."

Blanca spoke quietly, but her tone relaxed at the end: "But what you said is indeed the truth, Carl."

Blanca, who had no shame or guilt at all, said, "That's how it is in the company. You sell me out, I sell you out, and we climb up the ladder with greater benefits. If you stay in this kind of place for a long time, everyone will become like that."

"So, you wanted me to be a company dog ​​before?"

"No, maybe it's more of a selfish motive."

What Blanca said next was a little beyond Carl's expectations:

"I just think that you might be different, the special one."

"After you said that anyone who enters the company will become like that, you immediately said that I am the special one. What kind of speech technique is this? Are you trying to arouse some kind of pride in me?"

After buying a bottle of real water to rinse his mouth, Carl gulped down the remaining water in one go. After washing up, he was completely awake:
"Maybe after I join the company for a short time, I will become like your former subordinate and sell you out when the opportunity arises."

"That may be the case, but by that time, I may not be able to find another KK to help me."

Blanca's words were soft but clear: "So, you didn't forget the restaurant and time we agreed on, right?"

"Of course not. After all, the employer has already paid."

Carl is now more concerned about something else:
"What about the intelligence on the people who entered Night City? When will it be sent to me? I have nothing to do right now, so I can go over and kill him now. Do I need to leave him alive to send a message to his classmates, or can I just kill him directly?"

"Are you always so quick to change the subject? Go to the delivery point in Little Chinatown. I've recorded the code for the time we agreed on. You can pick up the goods when the time comes. The information is all in it. As for the person, you can do whatever you want with him, but remember not to destroy the recording chip on the back of his neck. I'm keeping it for face-saving communication with the people in the research department."

"I understand. You can kill, but you can't attack and damage a fatal point, right?"

After Carl silently took note of it, he asked a key question: "Then is the exoskeleton allowed to be lost?"

This question did not make Blanca hesitate for even a second.

"It's my job."

This sentence means.

can.

(End of this chapter)