Late at night.
Kai was getting ready to head out for his night run, already changed into a full set of workout clothes at home.
A pure black hooded sweatshirt, paired with black elastic wool-blend track pants, comfortable and easy to move in.
White reflective stripes ran along the sleeves and both pant legs, making him more visible at night so cars would be less likely to hit him by accident.
Then he grabbed the Kenshin pistol, checked the fully loaded magazine, chamber, and firing pin safety, and after confirming everything was in order, tucked it into the back of his waistband.
Since he was wearing the black-framed Dragon Fist glasses, he could only pair them with in-ear Bluetooth earbuds.
Finally, he poured himself a cup of cool boiled water in the kitchen, gulped it down in a few swallows, set the cup aside, and headed out.
After several straight days of night running, Kai's body had basically adapted to the rhythm.
When he reached the seawall railing again, he was no longer gasping the way he had at first. His breathing was only a little heavy, and a thin layer of sweat had formed on his forehead.
The sea breeze at night was cool, unlike the sticky heat of the day, and there were fewer people around, which let him run however he pleased.
Kai leaned against the railing and took a moment to steady his breathing. His throat felt dry.
He turned and glanced around the area, looking for a convenience store or vending machine nearby so he could buy a bottle of water.
Very soon, he spotted a supermarket and a pharmacy not far ahead, both still open, so he got up and headed over.
When he reached the entrance, he saw a few scattered vehicles parked outside the supermarket.
Some people were pushing shopping carts and loading things into their trunks.
Because the supermarket sat partway down a slope, once a cart was pushed onto the road, it would start rolling downhill on its own.
Kai noticed a middle-aged man with a limp using his body to brace a large shopping cart. The basket was piled full, packs of tissues, semi-prepared meals, and other necessities.
The limping man struggled to lift a case of beer and put it into the trunk.
His old left-arm cyberware had the word Militech printed on it, but it clearly was not very responsive, making the whole loading process look exhausting.
An elderly woman with white hair was sitting in the front passenger seat, leaning out the window to remind him to be careful.
Coming out this late to shop, and buying mostly basic household supplies, they had probably gone to the pharmacy first and then stopped by the supermarket on the way back.
A few street punks were squatting around the nearby greenbelt, smoking and staring at the passing shoppers with bad intentions.
The frail, limping man in particular seemed to have caught their eye.
People like him were not unusual on the streets of Night City.
Most were disabled veterans from the wars, struggling to survive after retirement, trapped in the hardships of life at the bottom.
Not everyone could be like Johnny, with enough musical talent to become a rock legend after coming back from war broken and damaged.
Kai walked over, helped the man steady the large shopping cart, and braced one foot against the rear wheel to stop it from rolling.
Then he freed up a hand and began transferring the goods from the cart into the trunk one by one, arranging them neatly.
He finished in no time.
The middle-aged man looked surprised by Kai's help. Then he tore open one of the unopened boxes, pulled out a beer, and handed it over.
"Thanks."
Kai finished shutting the trunk and took the beer.
"Which war?"
"Six years ago. The Metal Wars. One Arasaka incendiary bomb cooked my whole leg clean through. Honestly, sometimes I regret not slicing off a piece and tasting it."
"Why not get a leg replacement? Militech should provide them for free."
The limping man shrugged helplessly and leaned against the back of the car.
"I'm not looking to turn into a cyberpsycho. Besides, my old mother's still alive."
After saying that, he turned and glanced behind him.
Kai hooked a finger under the beer tab and popped it open. At the same time, the corner of his eye swept over the area, where the punks' vicious stares were now fixed on them.
He did not treat it as anything serious and took a drink of the gene-grain beer. It tasted awful.
"All right. Get home early and take care of your mom. I'm borrowing the cart."
Kai dragged the cart aside and watched the limping man hobble back to the driver's seat.
Once he got in, the man stuck the beer out the window and shouted with a big grin,
"Fuck the corps!"
Then he floored it and sped off.
Kai shook his head helplessly and got ready to drag the cart into the supermarket to buy some water.
But before he could even take a step, someone kicked the cart flying.
It happened so suddenly that the large cart shot a good distance uphill before crashing against the edge of the greenbelt and stopping.
Kai turned his head slightly and looked at the other party, his expression calm.
A little Black punk with dreadlocks had kicked the cart away. He swayed in place, pacing back and forth a few steps, his face full of dissatisfaction.
"Heh. Since when does Night City still have good Samaritans?"
Kai could not tell whether the appearance of this group of street punks was a coincidence or if someone had arranged it on purpose.
He activated the Dragon Fist scanner and ran a sweep.
Information on the nearby punks popped up.
Vik had previously installed a module into the smart glasses that could access partial NCPD personnel records through a program backdoor.
That included criminal records.
Sure enough, these guys were all in the system, small-time thugs with prior arrests.
One of them, however, was different.
He wore a specially modified glowing mask that interfered with the scan signal, making it impossible to read his identity.
Wandering around in the middle of the night, wearing a glowing mask, hunting for targets, Kai almost instantly thought of Scavs.
But he did not seem like the kind of person who should draw their attention. He did not have any high-end cyberware on him.
Harvesting organs was only one of the Scavs' businesses, and honestly one of the lower-end ones. Most of the time, their real targets were rich people carrying expensive cyberware.
The Kenshin pistol Kai carried for self-defense had more than enough ammo to kill all of them.
Or he could call in Arasaka Special Ops. He only needed to stall for a short while, and within five minutes, this whole pack of punks would be dead.
He could also choose to use the Dragon Fist hacking module to break into their cheap neural operating systems and fry a few brains for fun in a single second.
But Kai had come out for a night run to relax.
He did not want to start killing people and ruin his mood.
The Scav in the modified mask did not seem inclined to let Kai go.
Maybe he had taken one look at Kai and, seeing no obvious implants, decided he was just an ordinary person and started getting ideas.
At the Scav's signal, the other five punks also closed in, blocking Kai's path into the supermarket.
The one who had been squatting before now got up from the greenbelt and walked over, speaking through a voice changer.
"Leave your gun, your glasses, and anything else valuable, and I might consider letting you walk away."
Kai knew it was a trap.
If he handed over the gun and the glasses, then outnumbered like this, there was a very good chance he would get dragged off somewhere and wake up missing a kidney.
He was still fully organic for now, and his original kidneys were working just fine.
He had no intention of replacing them with synthetic ones.
So he reached toward the back pocket of his pants, ready to settle things.
With the hand speed and gun feel he had trained in his previous life, blowing the heads off a few small-time punks like these would not be difficult.
The Dragon Fist glasses rapidly locked onto their heads, giving Kai extra targeting data while also preparing remote intrusion.
The moment they saw him moving to draw, the five punks tensed immediately.
The little dreadlocked punk even pulled out a knife and started threatening him.
The masked Scav held a gun in his hand, his finger resting on the trigger as he toyed with it.
"Don't try anything. Put your hands up nice and slow!"
Kai decided this night was shaping up poorly.
All he had wanted was a run, and instead he ran into a bunch of Scavs trying to rob him and carve him up.
No matter how good his temper was, he was not made of clay.
He had already tolerated enough.
Just as the two sides faced off and Kai was about to make his move, a streak of icy blue shot down from the upper slope like a flash of light.
Before Kai could even react, the figure slammed into him with lightning speed and swept him away.
By the time he came back to his senses, he found himself curled up inside the metal basket of the shopping cart, being pushed downhill at full speed.
(End of Chapter)
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