Cyberpunk Maniac

Half an hour later, the subway entered the urban district of Night City, and Li Pan, with a sky of blue in front of him, felt great and hummed "A shot will flip your lid" as he walked out of the subway station.

At the entrance of the subway station, holding coffee cups, dressed in bulletproof vests, and armed to the teeth, the NCPA Night City police were standing in formation as if under martial law, eyeing every piece of social trash arriving from the poor districts through all sorts of mirrored cyber eyes.

If you're found owing taxes, breaking the law, or with a bounty on your head and still dare to swagger into the city center, you would immediately be locked on by a barrage of smart weapons, then riddled with dozens of rounds, breaking your body into sticks, before being handcuffed, bagged, and carted away in a trash bag.

But Li Pan had no troubles at all. After all, he was feeling so blue that even he believed he was mentally sound. Plus, what did it matter if the subway's closed-circuit monitors caught him firing a gun and hitting someone? It's self-defense. These days, no proper taxpayer would take the subway, this free mode of public transport. And if you don't pay taxes and don't have insurance, safety systems naturally won't alert the authorities. No alerts, no performance metrics. So why should these cops, earning only a basic wage of five thousand a month, give a damn if you die?

So in the end, in a place like Night City, it's hard to live as a great good guy.

In his previous life, Li Pan was indeed a timid otaku, but even in that world, he could survive by staying inside. However, after arriving in this kind of place, it was clearly impossible. First, staying home meant no money, and second, whether in this world or another, if you can't adapt, you're eliminated by the environment. Especially after losing a hand and being brutally beaten by society, Li Pan said farewell to his previous life's cowardly and kind self.

Of course, it's not like his former life was entirely useless. After all, he played first-person shooters for many years and even took part in online competitions. Li Pan had at least inherited a tiny bit of shooting talent.

This Earth 0791 didn't ban guns. So with that tiny bit of talent and the 'Endless Night' pistol he found after rummaging through his home, plus, most importantly, the military ballistic co-processor attached to the illegal veteran prosthetic he picked up from a junkyard, Li Pan's 'combat ability' wasn't enough to strut around Night City, but at least he could crush those street punks who took over subway seats to watch videos, do drugs, and fool around. At least he saved money on buying a car; he could take the subway for free when going out.

And the new job Li Pan found, the one he was able to get an interview for, was somewhat related to his slight combat prowess.

"What logistics management internship, I thought I'd be sitting in an office, I even rented formal wear specifically. Turns out it's just overseeing the warehouse..."

A towering man over two meters, his head included, now replaced with alloy metal, ignored the complaints, tossed a set of employee rules, work clothes, and a safety helmet into Li Pan's disappointed hands,

"Be grateful. If it weren't for your old man saving my life on the battlefield, I wouldn't even offer this job to you. What's more, you're a legitimate company employee now, with social security included!"

Li Pan shrugged and put on the coverall work uniform, "Lucky for me daddy was a medic..."

In this life, Li Pan was a standard war orphan. Both his parents were soldiers since ordinary people looking to apply for low-interest educational loans had to first serve in the military to obtain citizenship rights. Unfortunately, they met with a corporate war.

In this sort of multiverse-level war among the Celestials, millions of people were turned to cosmic dust under the brilliance of electron-positron naval guns every second, and his parents in this life were no different, inevitably becoming stars in the sky, with no way of knowing whether they were even stars in this universe.

In a way, Li Pan had to 'thank' the company because he managed to complete his education and afford his mortgage thanks to the war orphan loan obtained with his parents' lives. Of course, loans had to be repaid, starting right after graduation.

Ha, think a company would just give you money for nothing? As if... Even getting a loan without interest is lucky enough...

But, in reality, Takamanohara had already gone bankrupt, while Ye Corporation continued to pay the war compensation to avoid agitating more veterans and prevent Akai Tengu from wooing even more former corporate soldiers, like the metallic hulk in front of him.

This guy's physique was that of a highly cybernetically enhanced alloy warrior. Underneath the cheap synthetic silicone skin were bulging ceramic bulletproof armor and alloy bones, making him as big as a gorilla.

Probably this fella was the type of Space Marine, the classic Space Tempest Warrior who led the charge into space stations, the classic cannon fodder whose body was barely a fraction of its original, picked up by Li Pan's father and then thrown back to Earth for cyber-conversion.

He managed to escape the final annihilation of the Takamanohara fleet and now, largely thanks to his full military prostheses, even got a job in the company. Not far from becoming a CEO, marrying a rich and beautiful woman, reaching the pinnacle of life, just one step away from a promotion and raise, right? Truly one lucky bastard...

But what was his name again? Eh, it doesn't matter, after all, Li Pan had sent his resume to everyone in his parents' contacts trying to find a job.

"Follow me. I'll get you entered into the system and show you the warehouse layout. Oh, and you passed the psychological evaluation, right?"

"Don't worry, I'm as blue as the runs."