"No matter how ravenously time devours all, we must strive to earn our reputation in the fleeting moments we have left—so that the scythe of time cannot touch us."
A deep, magnetic voice echoed from the radio, its tone calm and deliberate.
Time flowed like a river. The sun and moon chased each other without pause.
Outside the window, bright sunshine bathed Night City in a rare moment of perfect weather.
The sky stretched like a soft blue veil, tinged with dreamy mistlight, turning the entire horizon into a surreal backdrop.
The pool on the lawn outside shimmered under the sunlight, its surface rippling gently. A warm breeze slipped through the cracked window, rustling the pages of a photo album on the desk.
The half-open album fluttered softly, revealing sealed photographs inside—each one showing the same two people: a boy and a woman.
As the pages turned, time seemed to fast-forward.
The boy grew visibly older in each picture, his body taller, his face sharper.
The woman, however, remained unchanged.
Eventually, the boy stood taller than her.
His soft, childish features had transformed into a handsome, confident smile. Still a bit youthful, but clearly grown.
The scenes varied—photos at amusement parks, diners, arcades…
One showed the boy in a school uniform, standing in front of Arasaka Academy on his first day.
Eight years had passed since Xu Wanxue adopted Lin Mo.
And eight years was more than enough to change a lot of things.
To avoid unexpected incidents, Lin Mo had avoided making big moves, choosing instead to follow the life path laid out by the simulator—successfully surviving to the age of sixteen.
During these eight years, many key events from the game had occurred right on schedule.
Due to historical baggage, the New United States had little control over the Free States.
In 2069, President Rosalind Myers took office and proposed the Unification Plan, aiming to expand federal control.
The Free States pushed back. Armed conflict erupted—the Unification War began.
Night City claimed neutrality, but it couldn't escape the fallout.
In early 2070, troops entered the city's outskirts.
To avoid a full-scale war, Councilman Lucius Rhyne took swift action and called in Arasaka Corporation—recently recovered from the Fourth Corporate War—for protection.
Within days, an Arasaka supercarrier crossed the ocean and docked in Night City's bay, descending like an emperor returning to claim his throne.
And truly, Arasaka had returned to the world stage.
Fearing global escalation, President Myers quickly signed a peace treaty with the Free States. The war ended.
The result:
Night City was declared an International Free City, no longer under any nation's laws or control.
But Arasaka's help came at a price.
They rebuilt their former headquarters in Night City and re-established their power on the western coast of the Americas.
Their global influence soared to new heights.
Some events unfolded just as expected.
Others diverged—because of Lin Mo's influence.
Thanks to the simulator, he could preview one simulated day ahead.
This power to glimpse the future let him manipulate key events and profit handsomely.
He dabbled in stock predictions and quietly grew a hefty savings.
But the biggest win was how he used those predictions to help Xu Wanxue climb the corporate ladder at Kang Tao.
Lin Mo never confused his priorities.
His quality of life—his very future—was built on her success.
The higher she rose, the better his life got.
And since it was his "occasional insights" that helped her advance, she became more and more indulgent toward him. Their bond grew stronger.
With a big sister like that…
Lin Mo often found himself thinking:
Damn. Living off my sister? Kinda rules.
A high-ranking R&D supervisor with a stable, long-term position in Kang Tao?
Even in the chaos of Night City, he lacked for nothing.
Life was all designer clothes and fine food.
Why bother becoming a merc?
Taking shady gigs from fixers that paid less than his monthly allowance?
He wasn't some tragic dumbass like V. Why throw himself into that kind of mess?
Still, those thoughts only ever lasted a moment.
This world runs deep. Have you forgotten all the conspiracies from the game? Even corpos can end up face-down in a gutter!
Even in comfort, Lin Mo constantly reminded himself.
Corporate backstabbing, ruthless assassins, rogue AIs, deranged cyberpsychos…
He remembered the Corpo lifepath intro from the game:
Your boss offers you 40,000 eddies to assassinate her superior—a high-level Special Ops Director.
Sure, in the real world, 40k wouldn't even buy a corpo executive's kidney, let alone their life.
But it showed how brutal corporate life was beneath the surface.
Only power could protect what you had.
So one day, Lin Mo snapped out of his comfort zone.
He converted a storage room into a private gym—stocked with training gear, combat simulators, and smuggled combat chips.
But of course… Xu Wanxue found out.
She was having none of it.
"You're seriously working out every day like some dumb Animal?!"
"Those muscleheads are so obsessed they've lost their damn minds. If you end up looking like that—! I swear, I'll slap the sense back into you!"
Right around then, Arasaka Corporation founded Arasaka Academy, hoping to extend its influence in Night City's education system.
Xu Wanxue signed Lin Mo up without hesitation.
Can't have him lazing around the house all day.
She knew her little brother was a prodigy.
He'd absorbed so much knowledge as a kid, school was basically pointless.
But she needed to give him something to do.
For the first time, she used her authority to force him into something he didn't want.
So Lin Mo, sighing like a condemned man, packed his bag and went to school.
Still… even the mighty sisterly tyranny couldn't derail his long-term plans.
According to the simulator, he'd meet someone important there:
David Martinez.
A classmate destined to one day have a drink named after him in Afterlife.
A legend in the making.
Someone with the potential for a story worth telling.
And someone Lin Mo wasn't about to let slip by.
He figured the reason he'd gotten his kidneys ripped out in a past simulation was because he worked alone.
So if the lone wolf act wasn't gonna cut it…
Then this time, he'd build a crew.
.
.
.
📢 System Booting… Welcome, Chooms! 📢
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