T/N Yes you read that title right. The author had given up on giving a name to this chapter.
...
"Young people these days are really this open?" Viktor adjusted the volume on the boxing match playing behind him as he watched the two cling to each other. "Not worried about an outsider watching?"
His voice snapped Berry back to her senses; realizing their position, she immediately pushed V away and turned her head aside.
"Sorry, Berry. I swear I won't bring up getting more implants ever again." V clearly hadn't realized how serious Berry was about this and quickly apologized.
"Who cares what you do? Your body, your decision." Berry held out a hand, blocking V from hugging her again.
Even an idiot could see Berry was angry. V scratched her nose, awkward and guilty.
"Updating your current implants and sterilizing things shouldn't be an issue though, right? It doesn't break your rule," Viktor finally stepped in to calm the quarreling couple.
"…Fine. Go ahead. And tell Vik to clean out the garbage in your head while he's at it." Berry relented.
She suddenly remembered the virus in V's brain. Joke or not, they couldn't delay this — V was weird enough already. Berry didn't want her becoming even stranger.
"Alright, V. Sit down, relax, and don't tense up." Viktor slid toward the surgical chair.
V lay down like she was at the dentist. The bright lamp shone on her face — her eyeballs were already cybernetic, so an upgrade didn't break her promise.
"Gonna get you something good. A Kiroshi optical implant." Viktor put on his mechanical-assist arms, injected a stabilizer, and prepared.
"Wait, Vik!" Berry stopped him.
"Use the stuff I stored. The best ones." Berry looked at V with a complex expression and turned away.
"That's for the new—" Viktor caught himself halfway. "Alright. Looks like Berry's treating you today."
"Huh? What do you mean?" V asked, confused. But Viktor had already gone to get something, and Berry clearly didn't want to answer.
"Here it is." Viktor returned with a long chilled metal container. "Rare stuff. Only I've got it."
"What is it?" V asked as Vik opened the container.
"Kiroshi again," Viktor said, pulling out a top-grade optic with artificial nerve links. "But this is the premium line — Kiroshi Mk. III. For picky clients."
"Lie back. Don't move." Before V could ask why he was using something so expensive, Viktor injected anesthesia. Her vision blurred.
Berry turned her head away — she didn't want gruesome visuals ruining her appreciation of V's beauty later.
"These'll sync with your current tech." After some terminal work, Viktor removed V's old knockoff optics and installed the new ones.
"Let's see the magic. Booting them up…" V followed his instructions.
"You'll feel weird at first — blurry colors, skipped frames…"
After a while, V stepped off the chair.
"Damn — everything's so clear!"
She looked around in disbelief. She could see every tiny shift in Berry's expression.
Viktor also scrubbed her brain clean of viruses — though seeing V's "pervy-looking" eyes struggling to adjust to focusing, Berry suspected the virus had already rooted deep and couldn't be fully erased…
"Vik, V owes you a lot, right?" Berry asked.
"A lot. Minor injuries, emergency saves, all added up… over twenty thousand."
"I'll pay it off." Berry transferred the money.
Viktor's eyes flashed yellow — payment confirmed.
"Berry! Where did you get that kind of money!?"
Still excited about her new optics, V was stunned speechless.
Thinking about the new premium eyes too — at least 20–30k — V was in disbelief. Berry, who used to burn through money like wildfire and even spent V's savings, suddenly pulled out that much cash like it was nothing.
"Berry never told you?" Viktor looked just as surprised.
"Berry!?" V stared at her.
"She doesn't need to know." Berry smirked, savoring V's anxious expression.
Finally, she got the upper hand again.
So, V liked being the dominant one? Where was that swagger now? Curious, aren't you? Too bad — not telling.
Berry's sudden wealth, from broke to casually dropping thirty thousand, came from her collaboration with Viktor.
Vik had supply channels for cyberware; Berry had extraordinary manufacturing skills granted by her system. With blueprints and samples, she could produce knockoff cyberware at low cost.
Sure, the performance was only 70–80% of the original, but the cost was just 30–40%. And without virus risks like second-hand ware, the cheap knockoffs became popular among budget clients.
Berry made a fortune.
And then there was Arnold — her combat unit.
For two or three months, she hadn't let Arnold rest. Thanks to his overwhelming combat ability, countless gigs were completed with high efficiency.
As a proper heartless capitalist, Berry pocketed every eurodollar Arnold earned.
Soon, "The Terminator" Arnold became famous in Watson — cold, ruthless, efficient. Fixers loved calling him for big, difficult jobs.
All part of Berry's plan.
She used Arnold to infiltrate the merc world and collect corp intel.
Because while Berry's crafting skills were incredible, she couldn't make things from thin air. Without blueprints or samples, she couldn't build advanced tech. She wasn't magic — every circuit and component had to be manually crafted
By coincidence, all the high-tech weapons, robots, and electronic components belonged to big corporations. So whenever Arno received a job that had anything to do with a company, Berry would always take it with great enthusiasm, working hard through the whole process—she wanted to see if she could "pluck" something good from them.
She was like the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout, desperately hunting for any unknown technological scrap.
And with that constant accumulation, Berry managed to load a lot of new tech into the two new bodies she was building. Once they were officially deployed, the combat power on her side would undergo a complete transformation.
What was that saying again?
A tiny maintenance room in a small megabuilding can shake all of Night City.