"Judy, there are two guests I think you should meet." Hearing Suzie's voice, the woman named Judy paused her braindance editing and looked o
"Judy, there are two guests I think you should meet."
Hearing Suzie's voice, the woman named Judy paused her braindance editing and looked over at the two men entering Lizzie's Bar's underground BD editing suite.
She vaguely recognized the young man with the buzzcut and the blade on his hip—but she needed a second to place him. But the guy on the right...
"KK?"
Her eyes locked onto the black-haired young man, and Judy couldn't quite understand why the KK she'd so often seen in raw braindance footage was suddenly standing in front of her.
"Nice to meet you," Karl nodded politely at Judy, subtly studying her as well.
The young woman had bright green hair with pink tips in a punk-styled cut. She wore simple clothes—jeans and a cropped white shirt. Her exposed skin was decorated with tattoos of floral patterns. At a glance, she came across as someone free-spirited, maybe even reckless.
So this is the braindance editor who used to be ranked alongside JK as the top of Night City... Karl thought. Just based on looks, JK seemed more like the seasoned professional. She looks about Oliver's age, maybe.
The impression JK had left on him was so strong, Karl couldn't help but compare the two.
As Karl and V took a moment to assess her, Judy had already heard from Suzie what they were there for.
"So let me get this straight: you captured a Scav, and you want me to use neural extraction to pull up his dream fragments—see if he reveals where the kidnapped person is being held. And, if possible, you want to learn the process too. That about right?"
Surprisingly, Judy didn't refuse. She simply raised a brow and replied, "Bring him in. I can walk you through the steps while I work, but whether you learn anything is up to you."
"You're actually willing to help?!" V looked shocked.
He hadn't expected Judy to be so agreeable. He figured he'd have to pay her or something. But this kind of request wasn't trivial—and she just accepted it without a second thought?
"If it's to save someone from a bunch of Scav bastards, then yeah, I'll help. Just don't expect me to hold your hand while teaching—I'll explain as I go."
Judy seemed to be one of the rare, justice-driven types in Night City. Her attitude toward Scavs was... uncharacteristically helpful.
Suzie, unsurprised by Judy's response, quickly left after making introductions—she had a bar to run, even if KK and V were the guests.
Soon after, V brought in the unconscious Scav, who was currently lost in "dreamland."
"Put him on that BD chair," Judy instructed. "But lay down one of those plastic sheets first—I don't want that Scav scum dirtying up my gear."
As V followed her instructions, Judy glanced at the blood-soaked clothes and the half-severed gash on the guy's neck—clearly a strike that stopped just short of a killing blow. She couldn't help but look at the sheathed thermal katana on V's hip.
She'd worked on editing the raw BD footage of V and Karl's fight with Adam Smasher—the one that had spread all across Japantown after the original BD editor was killed en route. To even view the footage properly required frame-by-frame slow motion. The action was just that fast.
And in all those clips, neither the hulking Jack nor even KK, who had taken out Smasher's optics, had caught her attention quite like V—the guy who'd charged headfirst into Smasher's grasp, wielding a glowing blade like a madman.
What kind of person has the guts to rush Adam Smasher head-on? she wondered. Who the hell has that kind of nerve?
Still, her hands never stopped moving. She quickly calibrated the BD equipment. While she mostly handled editing, this dream extraction stuff wasn't far off. For someone as talented as her, it was child's play.
By the time V had the plastic sheet laid down and the Scav strapped in, Judy was already good to go.
"Pull down the interface. Connect the neural link. Oh—and engage the chair's restraints. Last thing we need is a twitching Scav rolling off mid-dream."
After V had finished setup, Judy called him and Karl over to begin the lesson.
"A dream is basically neural activity continuing in the absence of conscious control. Certain brain regions remain active, forming a dream state. Braindance tech connects directly to those regions, so with the right adjustments, you can record dreams like any other BD."
Of course, it was nothing less than what you'd expect from Night City's top braindance editor. As she explained, Judy operated with practiced ease, setting everything up while walking V and Karl through the process.
It took less than twenty minutes to extract the dream.
"I tried to stimulate his short-term memory," Judy said. "So the BD should include recent events—probably the abduction. But we'll need to inspect it more closely to find the location."
She saved the footage onto a BD shard and looked at the two of them.
"This is freshly cut, so it might be disorienting. We'll need to connect it and fine-tune the details. So… who wants to test it?"
"I'll do it." V didn't hesitate. "It's my job—I'll take responsibility."
"That was fast." Judy raised a brow.
Karl, watching V insert the shard without a second thought—even after saying he'd be "careful"—could only sigh in silence.
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