Leo's brain rapidly reviewed the whole "Euros trying to blast their way into Night City" incident.
That event didn't exist in the original plot.
From that angle, the beginning of it all traced back a long way—to the time he had stormed Biotechnica Tower in an emergency, forcing the corp into a panic.
That incident caused Biotechnica's gene-editing equipment to go missing for a few dozen minutes.
More importantly, it exposed a potential breach in Biotechnica's database security.
And Biotechnica's database security wasn't just their own problem, because they held a critically important patent:
the genetic engineering tech behind CHOOH2 wheat.
That patent was tied directly to the lifeblood of two energy giants: PetroChem and SovOil.
PetroChem was native to the Americas.
SovOil took the incident as proof that PetroChem was incompetent, went full Soviet-style on the mic, raging about it, and declared it would increase its control over North America to personally guarantee tech security, patent security—
and, of course, respect for intellectual property.
Leo had returned the machine in under an hour that very same day.
But once corps saw profit, less than an hour was more than enough time to start making plans.
The Europeans outside of SovOil were persuaded.
They started thinking—
maybe it really was time to open up a new market.
If the market didn't expand, profit growth would slow.
This was an opportunity.
Leo didn't know how the corps had fought and bargained behind the scenes, but the final result was this:
NetWatch turned a blind eye to certain kinds of Net smuggling.
Night City's corps and city government turned a blind eye too.
NCPD firepower got upgraded.
The definition of "civilian weapons" got broadened.
Arasaka's carrier was tacitly allowed to dock in Night City...
And in the end, whether the European market could break into Night City still depended on product performance. It still depended on the mercs serving as "frontier pioneers"—
the gold rush crew led by Muramasa—
being able to bury the gangs of Night City, who had already been beaten bloody once, and establish a new underworld order.
They failed.
Muramasa was in Leo's hands.
The next step was dealing with the fixer:
Dexter DeShawn.
Assuming he hadn't already skipped town.
That was the European angle—the reason Jefferson gave Leo this job:
Don't let outside corps carve up the power of Night City's local corps.
Don't let outsiders make the city even more complicated.
Then there was the second angle—
NetWatch's angle.
Leo was tracking AI.
And from that angle, the whole thing got murky as hell.
Leo had first served as bait, tearing through the Tyger Claws, zeroing Jotaro Shobo, drawing out an Arasaka Soulkiller strike, and letting NetWatch profit off the fallout.
NetWatch had gained more than just some characteristic source fragments from the Soulkiller program.
They had also found more traces of Soulkiller activity.
Bryce had been investigating a netrunner named Dante. This guy used to run with Westbrook crews, then fled to Maelstrom after the Tyger Claws got smashed, and after Maelstrom got smashed too, he ran to Pacifica.
Then the Europeans arrived—
and interrupted the investigation into Dante.
For his own reasons, Leo helped the local gangs, got them genuinely on his side, provided them with supplies, and helped them weather the shock of this foreign incursion.
While helping the 6th Street Gang, Muramasa first started to show its hand and was confirmed as a rogue AI. NetWatch and Night City Hall—meaning Mayor Rhyne—jointly commissioned Leo to deal with Muramasa.
While helping the Tyger Claws and Maelstrom against Brainiac, Leo got more information on Muramasa—
and on the existence of the micro transmitters.
But Muramasa's design for those micro transmitters was deeply connected to the same kind of tech Night Corp used to brainwash the Peralezes.
And Dante...
[Maekawa: Dante used to be good friends with Wakako's boy toy, Nanchang Xun—probably. Took a lot of work before he dared talk.]
[Maekawa: Dante got trapped in the Net by Soulkiller. Heard it happened when he made a move on Holt.]
[Maekawa: So if you're looking into a Dante too, this Dante might not be your guy.]
Leo didn't think so.
NetWatch was tracing Soulkiller because they wanted to know whether Arasaka had found some way to deploy digital souls.
Even though the exact time Dante got trapped by Soulkiller was unclear, it was obviously a long time ago—
If these two "Dantes" were the same person...
then the Dante currently alive was one hundred percent a person replaced by a digital soul.
So what was he doing?
What did Arasaka want him to do?
How many of these things were connected?
Right now, Leo could only be certain of one thing:
Night Corp was running a major conspiracy.
The overclocked transmitter burst apart.
Elizabeth collapsed to the floor and weakly said, "What... did you do to me..."
Leo completely stopped moving.
The wound he hadn't had time to stitch shut kept bleeding outward until V walked over and pinched his face.
"Yo, Leo?! Your condition getting worse?"
[Little Octopus: Uh... big bro looks normal to me? Seems like he's just thinking.]
Bryce frowned. "What are you doing?"
"I'm wondering if you've figured out what's going on with Dante yet."
"Not yet. Doesn't look like he's tied to the Voodoo Boys this time. He's completely hidden himself."
"The equipment Dante left behind with Maelstrom was an antenna array, right?"
"Yeah—but it's not like Muramasa's stuff. This AI's gear is way more advanced."
"Of course it's more advanced. It's the upgraded version."
"What are you talking about?"
Bryce looked puzzled.
But that description happened to line up with one of NetWatch's existing records on Muramasa:
Muramasa was a rogue AI that escaped from Arasaka's database. After escaping, it was briefly sheltered by the Tsunami Design Bureau—what had since become Tsunami Defence Systems.
Tsunami Defence Systems had one particular business line:
upgrading customers' existing weapons.
[Muramasa may have received some level of upgrade at the Tsunami Design Bureau, but after the Bureau expanded into the company now known as Tsunami Defence Systems, it escaped their database as well.]
Leo could state with certainty:
Muramasa's contract had come from Night Corp.
But he had no way to explain that to Bryce.
And even if the contract really had come from Night Corp—even if this was Night Corp crying thief while doing the stealing—
what exactly could he do about it?
On the contrary, he still needed a shiny new identity to walk into Dogtown with, get his hands on some real high-end tech, and figure out how to solve his body problem.
Right then, Bryce's expression suddenly changed drastically.
No one entering these private rooms was allowed any overly complex communication with the outside world. That was part of the secrecy and security protocol.
But emergency alerts didn't require much information density.
Signals like that could pass the restrictions.
Bryce had just received exactly that kind of alert.
He shot up from the couch.
"Someone's trying to assassinate Rhyne! And it's an AI!"
In one room, Elizabeth was on the floor, struggling through the confusion.
In the other, Bryce was panicking like his ass was on a skillet.
Leo stood between the two rooms.
V was pinching his face.
Jackie was resting.
Little Octopus was tapping on Leo's data-brain.
The Legend was running self-diagnostics in cyberspace, occasionally humming fake engine noises to itself.
Who would've thought—
it was tonight.
Rhyne was going to be assassinated.
Night City's mayor was going to be assassinated.
Tonight.
In the original story, Rhyne's death had been fixed. Once the gears of the plot started turning, he had simply reached the end of the line.
And now—
that end was tonight.
Especially because this night mattered equally to both worlds.
[Update from the other world: Vote counting in the election is accelerating. A result may be available in two hours.]
[Mr. Barnes is beginning to show an advantage.]
Bryce suddenly lifted his head and said to Leo in a rush, "Shit—Rhyne wasn't just talking out his ass! He wants to talk to you, he—"
Of course he did.
He was going to hire the most badass merc in Night City to save his life.
In the other room, Elizabeth had managed to push herself up a little from the floor, her expression ugly as she said:
"I only have one request..."
Poor Elizabeth.
She still thought this was just Night City's favorite outlaw giving her a rough intimidation play.
But this was really just another commission—
one indirectly issued by an AI proficient in human psychology, sociology, economics, and every other branch of the social sciences.
The content of that commission was simple:
Don't interfere.
It had already succeeded.
He was now the strongest underground emperor in Night City.
Once the lower layers of society stabilized, all upper-level resources would inevitably flow down through his hands.
The upper class didn't want him dead—they wanted him maintaining order.
The lower class didn't want him dead either—they wanted him leaking grease, handing out benefits, cutting them in.
People had started shifting from seeing him as a thorn in their side to seeing him as the single most important middleman in the city.
Whatever he wanted to do—
he could do.
Want to start a company? Fine.
Want to keep playing local emperor? Fine.
Want women, glitter, villas, rollercoasters—
all fine.
All he had to do was look away.
And the dream could continue.
Both V and Jackie noticed Leo's state was off.
Leo only said:
"...V, remember what you said about Atlanta?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Do you want something more real, or something that only looks better?"
"Can't it be both real and better?"
Leo covered his face and leaned back in the surgical chair, looking up at the ceiling.
That answer didn't surprise him at all.
So he laughed.
"It can. We just need to try a little harder."
"All this effort still isn't enough?"
"Not enough."
"Then we try harder."