Cyberpunk - V Reborn - Chapter 4 - David Martinez 01.

[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV

Watson, Nightcity.

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...

David walked through the streets of Nightcity once again, as in the old days. The first thing he was going to do was to go to the apartment where he woke up; there he would find anything that might be useful for getting answers.

Heading back to the subway station, he noticed that he had gained 200 eddies in his account. "Who did this? After all, he had almost nothing when he swiped his card. Could it have been that mysterious person, or maybe Vik..."

Taking the train, he returned to the place where he had taken the train for the first time in the last two days. He exited trying to find just the landmarks that would lead him to his apartment, since he hadn't even paid attention to where he lived with the near-death situation he had gone through.

"Back to that dump..." Johnny appeared beside him and David didn't even want to respond.

"Look there! The Bum is listening to my music!" he said, and David saw the bum with a Samurai album.

"You're not going to make me buy that from the bum, are you?" David asked, already knowing that Johnny would nag him until he bought that vinyl.

"You know our friendship is on the line right now. You were without me for 6 months, did you forget all the explosions and gunfire?" Johnny asked, provoking him.

David sighed, seeing no other alternative. He approached the bum, who was using a device to watch a BD on his head and probably mentally masturbating.

"Hey!" David didn't mind giving the man next to him a light kick.

"He's got a good neurochip," Johnny said, and David decided to save time by taking the BD from him.

"Hey, what's your problem?!" The bum got angry and looked at David.

"Take one more step and I'll break your head," David intimidated him, making the bum cautious with those eyes.

"I want your vinyl, how much are you selling it for?" He asked, pointing to the cover with Samurai on the title.

"100 eddies," the bum spoke with a scowl.

"100?! I wouldn't pay even 50, you better give me the right price and not try to rob me, I know how things work!" David threatened him again.

"Alright! 50 eddies," the bum grumbled and handed over the cover to David.

"Are you happy now?!" David asked his holographic friend as he transferred 50 eddies to the bum and started walking back, entering the alleys near his apartment.

"Haha! Hope you have a record player!" Johnny exclaimed, looking forward to hearing his music the old-fashioned way.

"You know I don't... Hm?! What's this?" David looked at the vinyl cover, and at the end, there was a signature. "Is it original? Johnny, is it yours?" David asked, seeing that it was made with hand-applied ink, although a bit faded, it was worth a lot if true.

"Holy shit, V. I mean... David now... This is original," he exclaimed, and David was quite surprised by that.

"We've found a way to make some eddies. You know where to find someone who would pay for this..." Johnny said, and David nodded.

"Kerry Eurodyne..." David answered for him.

Then, leaving the conversation aside, he returned to the starting point. Before arriving, he was surprised to see some policemen at the entrance of the place, examining the area and conducting an investigation.

He sighed and would have to explain after all since it had been 2 days since he broke in the door, while he slowly approached, with the policemen noticing his presence. One of them seemed to recognize him immediately. "What have you done this time, kid?" the policeman said to him with a furrowed brow.

"I..." he tried to shake his head.

"You're bandaged," he said, seeing through the openings in his jacket. "We came here two days ago and have been conducting an investigation because there was blood all over the place. What did you do, David!?" he said, looking threatening.

Seeing that he couldn't lie, David ended up telling the truth. "I did an implant wrong, almost died from it, but I'm here now after having the components removed by a medtech in South Watson," he said.

"Kid, what would Gloria think of you, you're already killing yourself like this?" the officer said.

"Gloria?" Johnny appeared beside him and vanished.

'Who is she...' He couldn't help but think.

"It's true... Your mom died not long ago because of a gang. Now you're ruining your life by getting some prosthetic, we saw that the blood was yours, otherwise we'd be considering you as a suspect in some murder..." The other officer spoke, while David raised an eyebrow at the information about his current life.

"Your mom was killed by a gang, that seems sad..." Johnny reappeared beside him with his usual sound, looking surprised, scratching his chin, and thinking.

David didn't respond, for obvious reasons; after all, only he could see Johnny, while the officer looked at him with a mix of pity and anger. It seemed like they knew his mother.

"I'm confused," he said, "I haven't been well since I had to go to the doctor. I managed to remove what was harming me and now I'm better," he spoke.

"Kid, I saw that your rent is overdue. I'll pay a month for you, because I knew Gloria, and she once saved a friend of mine," he said. David had no idea what Gloria had done to save his friend, yet he accepted.

"Now that you're back, we'll close the case, but don't try this again and continue studying as your mom always wanted, got it?" One of them said while David nodded to them, despite not fully understanding the meaning of their words.

"Studying... That's weird..." Johnny commented as they walked away.

"Let's look into that later." David said and finally entered the place, as the officers had said, there was dried blood on the floor. He sighed, "I'll have to clean this up later..." he murmured. He entered and locked it with a new lock after he had broken the last one.

"And now, what's the plan?" Johnny reappeared, leaning his elbow on the sofa. David sat on the sofa in silence.

"Let's think about that after I take a nap..." David said and closed his eyes, opening them later.

"You finally woke up." Johnny said, and David got up.

He started to rummage through all the documents in the house.

"Here's an interesting photo..." Johnny called him and he saw his mother in one of the frames wearing the jacket he was wearing at that moment. He picked it up and looked. "This kid seemed to have a good mom, she was better than I was at his age, after all, I had to survive on the streets..." David murmured while Johnny looked at another paper. "You should see this," he said, and David approached a few more documents.

No, it was a newspaper. There was the accident his mother had been involved in. He began to read while finding out that Gloria was a nurse, which made sense with what the officer said when he mentioned his mother had saved his friend.

"It seems like this kid was with her..." Johnny said, and David nodded, it said that the only survivor of the conflict that occurred in the middle of a track was her son. The gangs in question were the Tyger Claws and Maelstrom...

"Tyger Claws and Maelstrom... those bastards," David couldn't help but growl, and Johnny nodded beside him.

"What's the plan? You're not going to let this guy's mom die in vain, are you?" he said.

"Of course not, but first we need to get back on our feet. I don't have any equipment. I'm a normal person, again." David commented.

"We could sell the record to my old acquaintance, or try robbing some corps..." Johnny said while pointing and looking at another paper. David approached, leaving the newspaper aside, and saw a student ID.

"What, this kid really studied... At Arasaka... how?"

"I already don't like this kid," Johnny complained.

"You're complaining about a dead guy, you know that, right?" David mocked.

Anyway, he continued talking. "But you're right. this seems like a good opportunity to rob some corps," He says, as he starts to tidy up the house and his belongings, getting ready to go to class, after all, he still needed to check the situation of his life, trying to discover more and earn some more money.

So, after tidying everything up and organizing his home, he slept and woke up the next day feeling better. He put on a T-shirt and his usual jacket over it, and taking the subway, he went downtown.

"So the first thing we have is to rob Arasaka, then kill some corps, and then blow up the building!" Johnny was speaking beside him as he moved through the crowd of people minding their own business, while there were many corps in this part of the city.

"Johnny, can you shut up? Are you really going to keep talking about that? We're not going to be able to do any of that, you know that, don't be annoying about it. You've said that 8 times since we left the apartment," David complained as he crossed the street and approached the building, spotting a facial recognition camera at the door. It was not on the main building but on a side building made just for students. As they approached, the door recognized him and opened.

"You might as well do what I suggested..." Johnny said, hoping David would create chaos here.

David rolled his eyes and continued on, the place was full of students, all dressed in clothes much nicer than his.

"Disgusting corp offspring, their kids are the same," Johnny complained beside him, while David ignored him.

"Well, I wonder how this kid managed to study here, after all, you can see the difference in the standard of living they have," David murmured as he approached, walking through the hallway. Some students looked at him strangely, as if he were a pest or wondering why he was there.

"Can we beat them up?" Johnny asked, not liking those looks.

"Can you stop with your prejudice, they're just kids..." David said, he wouldn't be so cowardly to that extent.

"They'll grow up one day, David," Johnny warned him, and David didn't want to respond.

He went anywhere he might find information. However, he was stopped by some strange students who stood in his way as he crossed several corridors of the place.

"Look what we have here, it seems that after mommy was gone, he decided to show up," one by one, 3 of them stood in front of David, while he narrowed his eyes.

The student in the middle smiled while catching David's eyes, but a bit surprised seeing his reaction, which seemed somewhat unusual, like someone indifferent.

"You know me, right? So tell me, what exactly did I study here?" David approached with a malicious smile, while the others were a bit surprised by this, not quite understanding David's words or his animated smile.

"Don't look at me like that. We're going to have a long conversation," David widened his malicious smile, seeing that he had finally found someone who could give him information.

"And you said they were just kids... look at you now, wanting to beat up those same kids..." Johnny couldn't help but comment as he saw David approaching them.