Under the eerie blue light, Misty cold air swirled and floated. Four or five bathtubs sat on the white tiled floor, filled with floating ice and contorted corpses.
The scene was far more terrifying than in the game.
The smell of refrigerant and cadaver mixed into a hellish stench, mercilessly filling their lungs, forcing them to stop breathing.
Berry was the first to give in, bending over with a 'waah' and vomiting a puddle of clear water, then stumbling out of the room, clutching the doorframe. "You guys go, I can't take it, V."
She continued to vomit as she walked, only recovering somewhat when she leaned over an office desk outside.
"Damn it, V, hurry up and finish it, I'll cover you." Jackie grimaced, holding his gun and guarding the doorway, constantly urging V to go in with his eyes, acting very slyly.
"This is just messed up." With both companions hiding, V could only pinch her nose and, with a bitter expression, walk in, pushing aside bodies in the bathtubs to search for their target.
"Damn it, I'm telling you, V, I've seen plenty of dead people, but this... this..." Standing at the door, looking at the chilling scene, Jackie continued to add to V's mental burden. "This is just disgusting, what is this? A human meat freezer? These goddamn Scavengers, they're truly inhumane..."
"I swear... this is the last job. I'm never taking a job like this again."
As Jackie spoke with a tremor, V pushed aside a body in a bathtub and saw the target's face submerged in the ice water.
"V?" V's movement caught Jackie's attention.
"This should be her, target confirmed." V frowned, lifting out the naked rescue target.
Outside the door, Berry rested on the desk for a while before she barely recovered.
"Damn it, I'd rather have a firefight with the Tyger Claws than do this kind of work again." Berry thought it would be just as disgusting as in the game, but reality taught her a harsh lesson.
"What's this?" Berry's hand touched something paper on the office desk. She looked down and saw a stack of eurodollars.
Seeing the money, Berry raised an eyebrow. Although the feeling of nausea hadn't completely dissipated, the green banknotes still provided her with ample comfort. Berry quickly opened a drawer, and inside, there was indeed another pile of banknotes quietly waiting for her.
Damn, these kidney-stealing bastards have so much ill-gotten wealth.
Looking at these green bills, Berry's breathing quickened. With so much money, she could already envision the cool parts on her new cyberware.
Adhering to V's 'loot everything' spirit from the game, Berry didn't hesitate. She immediately reached out and stuffed stack after stack of money into her jacket pockets. When her jacket couldn't hold any more, she stuffed them into her pants pockets, making her jacket and pants pockets bulge, looking like a complete money grubber.
"...Let's go, take her out."
Jackie and V ran out, one after the other, V still holding their target user.
"Berry, hurry, Trauma Team is coming." Jackie looked at Berry, who was busy stuffing money, and almost froze. Just moments ago she was throwing up her guts, and now she was so happy picking up money.
"Alright, coming!" Stuffed with money, her figure looked somewhat bloated. Berry picked up her sidearm from the table and followed the two through the side door to the balcony.
Walking onto the balcony, the glaring sunlight made the three of them squint. The roar of an engine reached their ears; a hovering vehicle bearing the Trauma Team logo had flown over and was docking beside the balcony.
"Docking in progress. Stand clear! Security protocols initiating. Obey all instructions."
A red alert projection shone from the hovercar onto the balcony. The hatch opened, and several fully armed Trauma Team members descended.
"Hurry, place the patient on the ground." Within the red-framed warning zone, a squad soldier opened a stretcher and ordered V at gunpoint.
V jogged forward and placed the client onto the support frame.
"Step back five paces!" V, who was still crouching and hadn't let go, was yelled at and shoved away by a nearby soldier.
"Hey, can you motherfuckers be a little more polite?!" Berry stepped forward to steady V, gritting her teeth and glaring furiously at the Trauma Team members.
Receiving no reply, after using a defibrillator to shock the prone client, two members lifted him. Several soldiers pointed their guns at the three—V, Jackie, and Berry—as they slowly retreated back to the hovercar.
The doors sealed, and the engine flared as the vehicle departed. The entire process took less than half a minute, as if they had never been there.
"Those goddamn sons of bitches!" As the hovercar sped away, Berry's eyes were blazing with anger.
"Forget it, Berry. Those jerks are always like this." V smiled, patting Berry's hand that was steadying her, and offered comfort.
"Yeah, Berry, let's hurry up and go. The elevator goes straight to the garage." Jackie agreed.
"Alright, let's go." Berry swallowed her displeasure. Since they had already fled, she couldn't settle the score, so she put her gun away and returned inside with the two others.
When the Trauma Team arrived, the Scavengers in the main hall had all fled. Now the hall was a mess, scattered with overturned debris, and the three—Jackie, V, and Berry—navigated through it.
"The Trauma Team is just a bunch of Scavengers wearing white coats, no different from those guys." Jackie spoke about the Trauma Team. As a child born and raised in the city, he had seen plenty of these people descending from the sky on heavy vehicles.
"'Save a Life in Seven Minutes or Get a Refund,' sounds damn good, but these guys have completely turned the doctor's duty of saving lives into a business, and the worst kind at that.
If you have money and are a Platinum Member, no problem. These guys will be on site with guns drawn in a minute, pulling you out of a hail of bullets. But if you're broke, fuck, they won't even budge if you die right in front of them."
"If poor kids need medical care, they either go see unlicensed Black Market Doctors—they have a one-third chance of living, a one-third chance of dying from unlicensed drugs and surgical infections, and a one-third chance of dying because the doctor eyes their cyberware."
"As for the Family Doctors arranged by the Night City government, those appointments are backed up for ten damn years."
"But I don't think the rich people have it easy either. Trauma Team aren't angels; they are Mercenaries who take money. You might not even be dead, and they've already dismantled your high-end cyberware to sell it. Yeah, they do this stuff discreetly and cleanly. The Council has investigated a dozen times and found nothing. If three of their managers hadn't died, the public would truly believe nothing was going on."
"Rich people, poor people—everyone has to die in the mud of Night City. This is Night City. This is where we roll every day..."
The three of them were back in the car. The echo of Jackie's words lingered in Berry's ears. She stared blankly at the parking lot outside the window, her heart unable to calm down for a long time.
"I'm preparing to log off now. See you in the future." In the end, it was the sound of the Bug that startled Berry awake.
"...Uh, listen, chica (Girl), I need to ask you something." Jackie leaned back into the driver's seat, looking sheepish as he faced V. "Um, could I borrow your car?"
"Hmm?" V raised a questioning eyebrow, looking at Jackie, not understanding his intention.
"I made plans with Misty, but... I can't exactly take the subway! That would be too embarrassing."
"That's fine. I gotta save face for my choomba, Jackie. Feel free to use it." V was very generous and agreed immediately.
"Berry? You don't mind, right?" Jackie turned his head to look at Berry.
"Huh?" Berry seemed to snap out of a daze. "Oh, the car. V's car. If she agrees, that's fine."
Even though Berry was a money-sucking beast at home, V had managed to replace her vehicle and buy a new one.
It was a Hera Series EC-D I360 model from Tianqiong Corporation, a four-seater family car with a matte black shell. Its greatest feature was being cheap and durable, so much so that Tianqiong Corporation had even suffered losses because of it.
In 2023, they released the first model of the Hera Series. It turned out to be so durable and easy to repair that it nearly bankrupted the company.
However, after learning the advanced technology of "planned obsolescence" from other companies, this situation stopped occurring. Still, compared to other unscrupulous products, the Hera Series remained known for being cheap and durable.
But even for a car primarily marketed as cheap, V couldn't afford the full price. This was largely thanks to Berry, who had completely drained her wallet.
Adding to the tragedy, V's apartment was only rented.
As the protagonist of a game, having a car loan, being unable to afford a home, and only being able to rent—who could be more miserable than V, except perhaps the Dragonborn who starts in rags in Elder Scrolls V and relies solely on loot?
"Alright then, I'll drop you guys off first." Jackie squinted as he started the ignition, seemingly imagining the happy time he would soon spend with his girlfriend, Misty.
"Oh, I almost forgot. I still need to call Wakako and tell her the job is done." Jackie put the car in neutral; he had nearly forgotten that detail.
"You drive, I'll do it." V's eyes glowed blue as she initiated a video call to Wakako.
"Oh, right, Jackie, you can't go out with your girlfriend without money." While V was on the phone, Berry took out the money she had looted from the Scavengers, counted out about a third, and stuffed it into Jackie's hand.
"Whoa, Berry." Jackie first marveled at the thickness of the stack, but then reached out to push it back. "This isn't mission pay. This is what you earned yourself, Berry. You should keep it; I can't take it."
"Hey, that's not right, Jackie. What are we, strangers?" Berry's youthful appearance didn't quite match the street slang she was using, but she didn't notice anything unusual. "This isn't splitting the take; it's a gift for my big brother."
"Alright then, Berry, you truly are a great sister." Unable to resist Berry's enthusiasm, Jackie nodded and gratefully accepted the money. He had originally intended to say 'good little sister,' but remembering V sitting next to them, who clearly had designs on Berry, he decided not to say anything that might cause a misunderstanding.
"...Okay, thank you." V hung up the communication. "Wakako said Watson is about to be locked down by the NCPD. We need to hurry back. I don't want to sleep in a motel full of needles and condoms."
"No problem!" Jackie, doubly happy because he got to see his girlfriend and received a decent sum of money, smiled so broadly his eyebrows lifted. He shifted gears and hit the gas pedal in one fluid motion, and the car shot out of the parking lot.
It was around ten o'clock at night. Streetlights and neon signs on the buildings were all lit up, illuminating the streets in dazzling colors, blinding the eyes. The light pollution was severe.
Driving on the smooth road and looking at the night scenery outside the window, the three finally calmed down from the tension of the fight.
"Oh, right, V." After only a brief moment of quiet, Jackie, who was driving, seemed to remember something. He frequently turned his head toward V, winking suggestively. "Um, I recall you mentioning earlier that you had something you wanted to say to Berry."
Stared at by Jackie's strange look, V, who was leaning her hand against the car window, was initially confused, but then suddenly seemed to realize something, and a blush crept onto her face.
"Ah, this, right now...?" V, who had just been decisive and competent, suddenly became hesitant, speaking haltingly—a complete 180-degree change.
The strange interaction between the two caught the attention of Berry in the back seat. She frowned, looking at the oddly behaving V, her large eyes filled with confusion and scrutiny.