Cyberpunk Patriarch

50 + chapters available in patreon🎉🎉🎉

Special offer available just check it out.

----------------------------------------------------------

What Maine said was a bold statement, and Arthur couldn't help but feel a twitch at the corner of his mouth. Maines idea of wanting to be admitted to the Bad College was simply a pipe dream.

While Arasaka Academy doesn't prioritize grades, the academy was established specifically for Arasaka to cultivate talent for the company. Therefore, they still have high standards for the intellectual abilities of the students they accept.

Arthur pointed to Jack, who was standing next to him. "This is Jack Wells, Mrs. Wells's son. He's currently working in the mercenary industry. If you ever have a chance, take care of him."

Maine smiled and patted Jack on the shoulder. "Make sure to talk to Mrs. Wells for me when you get back. Tell her I'm not too familiar with this bastard Arthur, and ask if she can remove me from her blacklist."

Jack scratched the back of his head. "If I speak up for you, I'm pretty sure my mom will just pop a beer bottle over my head."

Maine chuckled, not at all offended. He turned to Arthur and said, "By the way, we've got a mission coming up. Arthur, you interested in making some extra money?"

Arthur, distracted by Pyrrha's performance in the distance, didn't immediately respond. Pyrrha was balancing several wine bottles on a tray with incredible precision. Arthur noticed that Pyrrha's new arm seemed to be a high-end model, as the bottles appeared to wobble but remained perfectly balanced.

Although it was already dusk, the neon lights in the bar had already been switched on, and people were strolling in groups along the street.

Arthur turned his attention back to Maine's question and replied without looking at him. "Is this mission another one from that six-eyed freak?"

Maine was momentarily taken aback, unable to respond, while Arthur turned his head to look at Jack. "Cyberpunks usually get their jobs through middlemen. There are generally only two types of tasks."

He leaned in slightly, lowering his voice. "One is the good kind, where the company hasn't assigned it yet, and the other is the bad kind, the one the company wants to offload."

Maine immediately bristled at this, clearly not happy about Arthur's suggestion that working for a company wasn't all that great. He had done his fair share of company jobs, and as far as he was concerned, there was no problem with them—just a little bit of danger involved.

"Don't listen to him. Company missions come with their benefits. They pay better," Maine argued.

Arthur rolled his eyes and continued to focus on Jack. "The reason they pay more is because no one in their right mind in Night City would take their jobs otherwise."

He paused for effect. "Look, the company has its own operations team. If they've outsourced a task to a middleman, it means the job is more troublesome than they initially let on. Usually, it means another company is involved."

Arthur leaned forward, his voice low and conspiratorial. "Maybe the company will send you on a job to steal a disc from a girl's house on Twisted Street, but the disc might contain something much more interesting—like evidence that a Night City congressman has been spying on a widow in her bath."

At these words, Jack's eyes widened in surprise. He looked Arthur over in disbelief before asking, "How do you know so much about this? Have you really stolen one of these discs before? And… are there actually congressmen in Night City who spy on widows while they bathe?"

Arthur was caught off guard and momentarily speechless. Meanwhile, Maine burst out laughing, slapping Arthur on the back in a way that almost knocked him off his feet.

"Hahaha, you've got it, Jack! You're sharp, I like you!" Maine said, still laughing.

Jack stood there, confused, not fully grasping the situation. He had no idea Night City was so chaotic.

Arthur sighed and scratched the back of his head, clearly thinking about the past. The story Maine was talking about was actually quite old-fashioned and fit the characteristics of Night City perfectly.

The previous mayor had died suddenly in a freak windstorm. In the wake of his death, both Military Technology and Arasaka had backed different council members to run for mayor. However, an unexpected turn of events occurred.

To pass his policies through the city government, the late mayor had secretly controlled one of the council members. The key to this was a video—a video of the congressman secretly watching his wife in the bath. The footage was highly compromising, and the mayor had kept it on him at all times.

Do you remember the mayor who died of a supposed "madness" attack? That's him. After he passed away, the disc was taken back to Twisted Street by a girl who lived there.

That's where Arthur had come in. He'd taken the job of stealing that disc. It seemed like an easy enough task—how hard could it be to steal a disc? He figured it would take him no more than half a day, and he would be walking away with a few hundred thousand Eddies in his pocket.

But things didn't go as planned. What was supposed to be a simple heist turned into a nightmare. After securing the disc, Arthur found himself pursued by Military Technology for over half a month. He had to flee to the Badlands, where he hid until the mayoral election passed.

The whole ordeal had made him realize just how much support Arasaka had for that congressman—he had a weird hobby of spying on widows while they bathed.

Maine finished explaining the situation with a smile, but Jack still looked incredulous.

"Is that really what happened? That's… that's insane! Arthur, do you have a backup plan for this kind of thing?"

Arthur shook his head. "Backup? No, Jack. That kind of thing can't be backed up. If you try to do that, you'll stir up a hornet's nest. Before you know it, you'll be dead, and maybe the river in Night City will be your final resting place."

Maine leaned in and said, "Arthur, you're overthinking it. This time, the job isn't as complicated as you think. It's just about stealing the whereabouts of a company dog. It's as easy as a mouse sneaking into the kitchen and stealing a piece of cheese."

Arthur scratched his head, thinking about it. In fact, this sounded a lot like the first mission in the original story—David had been tasked with stealing information on Tanaka Katsuo and his father. But thinking of it like a mouse stealing cheese made him uneasy. It didn't sound quite so simple.

"Forget it," Arthur said, shaking his head. "Even though Military Technology is involved, this isn't going to be as easy as it sounds."

It wasn't that he was afraid of the company, but rather that there was no need to get involved in something so troublesome.

Another reason Arthur didn't want to take the job was that the middleman handling this mission was Faraday. Faraday was a snake—a scumbag even among Night City's lowest scum. Countless cyberpunks had fallen into his trap, only to be chewed up and discarded like trash.

---------–––--––-------------------------------

Visit our Patreon for more:

patreon.com/Samurai492