---
We finish the pizza while chatting about more mundane things—the gang situations, the usual Night City buzz—and order drinks to sip while we keep talking. I lean forward a bit and say,
"So really, I need you to make sure he gets the right BD program. And you both—stay off the highway. Avoid the bad ending."
She nods, her face turning serious.
"Of course. I'm still pretty skeptical about all this... but I'll trust your word."
"Good," I say, taking a sip. "You'll see. Wednesday—right as David's about to be let out of school—a fight's gonna break out on the mega highway, just a couple blocks from Arasaka Academy."
She nods again, slower this time, nursing her drink, listening closely.
"Gloria," I say, "I want to help you guys. David, specifically."
She pauses. Her eyes flick toward me, suspicion clear in them. Like she's bracing for me to say something dangerous. I press on.
"Let him drop out from Arasaka."
The look she gives me—like she's two seconds from leaping across the table and choking me out. I raise a hand.
"Wait. Please. Hear me out. I know how much you've sacrificed to get him in there—I do. But he hates it. And let's be real... do you really think they're gonna let him climb the ladder to become some big corpo boss? They're gonna rip the soul from his chest and ask for more bare minimum if he isn't stabbed in the back first."
She's gripping her pistol now, knuckles white. You can practically hear her grinding her teeth.
"You don't think I know that?" she snaps. "But I'd rather him sell his soul than end up another street rat."
I nod.
"I get it. I do. But please—I'll make him something better than that. In the future I saw... he became a top-tier merc. An edgerunner with serious rep. But only after too much pain. If he'd had direction—someone to actually guide him on his path—he wouldn't have died the way he did."
She's silent, but I can see it sinking in. Her grip on the pistol loosens. Then she looks at me with that same fire.
"So you know the events after I die?"
"Yes." I meet her eyes. "And trust me—if someone like me had been there from the start instead of some chrome-crazed merc with a thing about taking in strays, he'd have changed Night City."
I pause, then ask:
"Do you want your son to achieve greatness?"
She looks conflicted. Torn. But finally, she nods.
"Yes. I do. But I don't want to attend his funeral before mine. Can you promise me that? If I let you take him under your wing... he lives to bury me. When I'm old and grey and done with the world."
I stand from my side of the table and walk over to her, hand outstretched.
"I promise to help your son become a top figure in Night City. And he will make it to your funeral, when you're finally old enough to go peacefully. I guarantee it—with my life."
She stands too. After a pause, she takes my hand. A firm shake.
"Alright. Let him finish the week out at school. I'll watch for what you said. If it all checks out—we'll talk details. You get your shot."
"Deal," I say.
She gives me one last look.
"Let's see if you're full of shit."
I say goodbye to Gloria and toss a few extra eddies on the table—80 for the pizza. Kind of wild, honestly. I blink at the receipt for a second. Eighty? Then again, maybe the ingredients were higher quality than the usual synth-junk they pass off in Night City. Probably the most real food I've had since I got here.
I step outside into the buzz of the city, neon lights crawling over buildings like tech-infested vines. Pulling up my system interface, I search for a gym near my apartment. Found one just a few blocks away, good enough. I sign up on the spot and pay for the next six months—600 eddies gone. Painful, but necessary.
I glance at my account: 5000 eddies originally. After the annual metro pass, that pizza, and now the gym membership, I'm sitting at 3500. Still decent, but I need to think about income soon.
As I walk, I pull out my knife and test a theory.
"Inventory," I mutter.
The blade shimmers and vanishes from my hand. A second later, I pull up the system interface and, sure enough, it's sitting neatly in my Melee Weapons slot under the Backpack tab I also put away my bat on my back but leave my shotgun in my leg holster.
Nice.
That opens up a whole avenue—loot weapons, cyberware, gear… and sell or store as needed. No need to walk around loaded down like a fool. I wonder if I can eventually access a storage space or warehouse system too. Would be useful if I start collecting serious hardware.
My thoughts wander as I walk—specifically to the other protagonist I know exists in this timeline. Vincent… or Valerie, depending on the roll of the dice. They'd be out there somewhere in Night City. But I wonder—Will they have a system like mine? Or do they just naturally become that powerful through sheer force of narrative?
Either way, I need to find them. If they're even close to the version I knew, they'd be major players even if they don't fuck up the heist at Konpeki Plaza. Getting them integrated into my plans could flip the whole game.
But first things first.
David and Gloria. Their survival is the priority. Everything else comes after that.
---