The next day.
Kai got up early.
As usual, the smart home assistant began its daily routine.
Curtains, hot water, voice reports, everything in the automated schedule started up.
Kai headed into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face.
After reporting the weather, traffic, and other updates, the smart assistant continued with unread work messages.
"You have received one unread text message from Meredith Stout of Militech."
"You have received three transfer notifications from Arasaka Corporation Finance."
"You have received one front desk message from Arasaka Corporation Special Ops."
"A new issue of Night City Insight, which you are subscribed to, is now available."
After finishing up in the bathroom, Kai returned to the living room and picked up the Dragon Fist glasses from the table.
"I didn't expect to wake up to this many messages overnight."
Kai gave them a quick look.
Meredith had sent a congratulatory message, even adding a small smiling emoji at the end.
Kai immediately replied.
"Looking forward to our next collaboration."
He had originally planned to rest at home today, but then he noticed the three transfer alerts, all from Arasaka's Finance Department.
After checking the details, he saw the funds had already been deposited into his personal account.
One was mission compensation for completing the collection of live-body performance data from the military-grade Sandevistan.
One was a medical reimbursement for twelve thousand eddies, covering the hospital costs for Gloria and David after the car accident.
And one was the six-month bonus for all Counterintel employees, calculated based on the department's base monthly salary.
Altogether, the three transfers came out to nearly one hundred twenty thousand eddies.
That was no small amount of money.
Then a thought suddenly occurred to him.
Now that he was serving as deputy director in two departments, shouldn't that mean he ought to be getting double pay?
Inside the Arasaka Corporation, when someone held multiple positions, salary was usually based on the highest-ranking post.
But in his case, he was not holding a higher rank alongside some lower secondary title.
He was serving in two different departments at the same rank, which basically meant one person doing two jobs.
If he only got paid one deputy director's salary, no matter how you looked at it, he would be the one losing out.
He would have to ask HR and Finance about the salary issue.
His thoughts gradually drifted from pay to something else, and suddenly he remembered Arthur saying he had prepared a surprise for him today.
The message from the Special Ops front desk, meanwhile, was just a notice that his deputy director office had already been prepared.
"Looks like no matter what, I'll have to go in and sit through work today."
After a simple breakfast, Kai changed into his work clothes, once again a well-tailored suit paired with his Dragon Fist black-framed glasses.
Once he was ready, he headed out.
Ten minutes later.
Arasaka Tower.
Floor Thirty-Three, Counterintel.
Kai stepped out of the public elevator.
The moment people in the department saw him, his subordinates immediately stood up to greet him warmly.
Some congratulated him.
Some wished him good morning.
And a few female subordinates in short uniform skirts tried to find an excuse to report work to him in person.
Kai refused all of them.
He had already drawn plenty of attention just by returning to Arasaka Tower.
Now that he had been promoted and favored by the board, even more eyes were on him.
Plenty of people wanted to use this moment to build connections with him, but just as many were hiding ulterior motives.
The workplace inside Arasaka Tower was like a bunch of monkeys climbing a tree.
Look down, and all you saw were smiling faces.
Look up, and all you saw were monkey asses.
Instead of going back to his own office, Kai walked to the department front desk and asked,
"Is Mr. Jenkins in his office?"
The receptionist immediately stood up and politely answered, "Hello, Mr. Kai."
"Mr. Jenkins is in his office, but he has a meeting in ten minutes."
"If you need to see him, please do so quickly."
Kai nodded, left the front desk, and headed straight for Arthur's office.
When he reached the glass doors, he entered the security corridor. Two scanners sent out blue waves of light to verify his identity, and once confirmed, the mechanical gate opened from the center to both sides.
Arthur Jenkins was inside, busy sorting through documents. When he saw Kai arrive, he copied the meeting materials onto a chip and stood up.
"Kai, you came at the perfect time."
"The surprise I prepared for you has already arrived."
Kai was honestly a little curious now. What kind of surprise could a forty-something lifelong bachelor possibly come up with?
Arthur picked up the data chip, slotted it into the neural interface at the back of his neck, and continued,
"This time, I truly am congratulating you on taking on the deputy director role in both departments."
"And after all these years working under me, your results have been obvious to everyone."
"I'd already wanted to get you some kind of gift, but I never knew what would suit you."
"You take public transit to and from work all the time, and you're still single."
"So here, take this."
As he spoke, Arthur reached into the inner lining of his suit and pulled out a metallic chip card about the size of an ID card, shimmering with a deep golden sheen.
The most eye-catching thing about it was the large capital letter "R" in the center.
Rayfield?
Kai recognized it almost instantly.
A dedicated Rayfield vehicle authentication chip.
Back in his previous life, he had intentionally collected all sorts of famous luxury cars and piled them up in his garage, so he still had a pretty good memory for this kind of thing.
As a globally famous automaker, Rayfield only produced high-end supercars for the wealthy.
Seeing that Kai's reaction remained fairly calm and not all that excited, Arthur smiled and explained his thinking.
"With a blue beast like this, picking up girls is definitely going to get a lot easier!"
"Luxury car, beautiful women, that's what matches your current identity."
"No need to be polite with me."
"If you really want to thank me, then just bring me a few more surprises in return!"
Kai could see from Arthur's lively mood that the man had really been in a great state lately.
Apparently stomping hard on Susan had restored some of Arthur's masculine confidence, enough that he was throwing money around much more freely now.
Kai did not want to brush off his old boss's goodwill, so he accepted the Rayfield authentication chip.
As the two of them walked toward the office door, Arthur explained where the car had come from.
"The previous owner was the CEO of Night Corp. He let me have it at a friend's price, considering he needed something from me."
"I've got a meeting to get to, so I won't keep talking. The car's parked in the underground garage at Embers. Go authenticate it and pick it up when you've got time."
That was honestly more surprising than Kai had expected.
Arthur's "surprise" had turned out to be a luxury car.
Still, in his previous life, as a top-tier netrunner, making money had been absurdly easy.
His regular rides had also included famous Rayfield supercars like the Caliburn.
And precisely because he had already gotten tired of driving those, he had chosen to ride the train instead, just to experience life in Night City a little more directly.
Maybe that was what people meant by saying simplicity was the real thing.
So when it came to this luxury car Arthur was using to win him over, Kai could only say that yes, it counted as a surprise.
Just not that much of one.
That said, even with the salary of his dual deputy director posts, buying a Rayfield outright would still be difficult for him.
He could not have paid cash for one.
The value of being deputy director in two departments had never really been about the salary.
The real key was the authority in his hands, because authority was what opened the door to rent-seeking and all the value that came with power.
If he were willing to say yes, then the number of people eager to give him luxury cars and beautiful gifts would probably form a line stretching from the Arasaka Tower lobby all the way up to the door of his office on the thirty-third floor.
As one of the world's leading megacorporations, Arasaka's business spread across the globe, and the profits in its industries were almost unimaginable.
Holding power inside Arasaka meant holding wealth, and resources, and nearly everything else.
A Rayfield was nothing more than a toy for someone who truly held power.
(End of Chapter)
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