Cassidy didn't notice Mercer's gaze, just sighed and said:
"The Raffen Shiv are just scum and trash kicked out of their nomad families. I bet a few of these were exiled by nearby clans.
They probably knew about this temporary shelter from their time still in the families.
Our luck's rotten; these bastards must've been active on the nearby highways, maybe too far from their main base.
And this haboob was too fierce, so they chose to hole up here.
My fault too... been out of the game so long I forgot to tell you to kill the lights.
If we'd set an ambush in advance, it wouldn't have been such a mess. Two grenades, four guns, and we could've wrapped it up in one clash."
"Don't blame yourself. You're just an old cowboy who was kidnapped not long ago," Mercer joked, helping him toss the bodies outside. The dust was still raging, and the battered first floor was no longer fit for resting.
A shame about that coffee. Mercer hadn't even gotten a sip.
"Hah, but you're right." Cassidy didn't argue, sighing. "Seems it's not just you all who need to readjust to the wilds... me too."
"You look like you've been settled for a long time?" Mercer turned to ask.
"...Yeah. Got married, had a kid, thought I could live a stable life. Planned to farm for BioTechnica with the family in New U.S. territory, retire early... barely touched a gun since.
Then the kid died sick, and the wife... killed during the war hauling supplies for Militech and New U.S... got blown up by a landmine.
After the harvest sold, BioTechnica jacked up seed prices, ruined the family's farming. Whole clan fell apart."
He sighed. "I drifted awhile, left home. Only a month out, the Raffen Shiv grabbed me, and then all this... almost got you kids killed too.
Maybe I really am old. Maybe after I get you to Night City, I should just find a quiet spot and wait to die."
Cassidy's expression darkened.
Mercer was silent a moment, then tossed the body he was holding outside, leaned against the doorframe, and exhaled. "You just aren't used to it again yet. Wanting a peaceful retirement in this world... that's a luxury dream."
"...You're right. Not time to relax yet." Cassidy forced a smile.
Daichi and Leon had pulled the car up to the entrance, and Lucy and Kyoko came down from upstairs.
Mercer started to greet them and keep moving bodies, but Kyoko grabbed him, eyes wide:
"What are you doing! You're covered in blood!
Sit down, quick... Lucy, get the purified water from our car!
Hurry, take off your clothes, you're full of holes, doesn't it hurt?!"
"It's fine... Stop tugging at me here. Let's move, to the bathroom.
The living room's unusable... sand blowing everywhere."
Mercer obeyed, leading Kyoko to the bathroom. He stripped off the grimy jacket he'd scavenged earlier and checked his netrunning suit in the mirror.
"Damn, should've swapped clothes sooner instead of worrying about dirt... The netrunning suit's shredded!" "This thing must be worth tens of thousands, huh? Tsk, not sure if it can even be fixed."
Mercer winced as he unzipped the back of his suit and pulled it partly down, revealing his bloodied upper body. It wasn't actually that serious, just covered in debris from the exploded wall. Those Raffen Shiv grenades were really packed with gunpowder.
"Now's not the time to worry about that!" Kyoko scolded, telling him to hold still as she helped pull his netrunning suit down to his waist and took out the medical kit from the individual survival pack.
Inside were sutures, disinfectant, some anti-inflammatory pills, assorted antibiotics, anti-radiation meds, and the like.
Kyoko even brought over a stool for him to sit on, then stood beside him.
As Mercer let Kyoko carefully tweeze out the debris, he called out to Leon outside, "You sure your shoulder's okay?"
"Looks a lot better than yours."
Leon also opened his netrunning suit and sighed regretfully as he touched the fabric. "Wish I'd changed too. These Raffen Shiv clothes are just foul and filthy."
"Come with me, kid. You've got a hole through your muscle, and Raffen Shiv bullets aren't exactly clean. We need to disinfect it thoroughly... might sting a bit."
Cassidy stepped toward Leon, which eased Daichi's worries about how to treat the wound.
Meanwhile, Lucy carried her backpack and brought purified water to the bathroom. She seemed to want to help Mercer but wasn't sure what to do. After a moment's thought, she said, "I'll clean up the battlefield for you and get rid of the bodies."
"I'll help too," Daichi agreed, and the two set to work gathering the bodies and searching the house and the Raffen Shiv's aerodyne vehicle.
Mercer stayed tough and silent; he found he could handle the pain pretty well.
Leon, on the other hand, wasn't so composed. He went to the bathroom upstairs, and as soon as Cassidy started probing his wound with disinfectant swabs and tweezers, he began howling in agony.
"Ow! Shit, ahhh!!"
Cassidy held him firmly with one hand, not even flinching, keeping Leon pinned. "Endure it. Learn from your boss."
"It's not the same! If he got poked like this... ow!!"
Leon's comical shrieks from the second floor made Mercer chuckle, until Kyoko smacked his back in annoyance. "Stop moving! You're bleeding all over!"
"Alright, alright, Doctor Kyoko." Mercer laughed and sat still.
Then, he turned and noticed Kyoko's red-rimmed eyes.
Before he could say anything, she gritted her teeth and muttered, "Leon deserves it. It's his fault for saying that jinxed stuff in the aerodyne vehicle. Serves him right."
Tears trickled down as she spoke.
"Don't cry, it really doesn't hurt," Mercer reassured her gently.
"I—" Kyoko bit her lip, sniffled, but kept working. "I'm sorry I wasn't much help."
"You too?" Mercer shook his head, reaching out to pat her still-damp hair; her earlier wash was all for nothing. "You've done great. You located those guys for us, provided suppressing fire... If we're keeping score, your KDA were high in both engagements. And now you're treating my wounds. When did you learn all this?"
Kyoko grabbed his hand and put it back. "Don't move, your wound is bleeding again. I started learning this from the day you said we were leaving."
"Mhm, Kyoko has been working hard too."
Remembering his conversation with Lucy, Mercer decided not to speak to her in a condescending tone as if she were a child, and said earnestly:
"You've already done a lot. In every battle, someone could get hurt, or even die.
You can't think you've contributed nothing just because you weren't injured.
It's not like only those who get hurt are entitled to credit, right?
Otherwise, wouldn't Daichi, who drove for Leon this time, be a zero-KD carry?"
"Zero-KD carry, hehe, I'll say that to him later." Kyoko forced a spirited laugh.
"Don't come crying to me if he beats you up."
Mercer teased, quickly steering the conversation to Sailor Moon. As expected, she perked up right away when that topic came up.
By the time the wound was treated, Kyoko's mood had returned to normal.
Compared to the sensitive, or rather deeply insecure Lucy, Kyoko was a true optimist.
In this world, a personality like hers was actually a remarkable gift.
—--
It wasn't until nearly 9 p.m. that the sandstorm finally subsided.
Cassidy used a portable stove to cook a pot of the nomad specialty "canned meat stew." Mercer didn't dare look too closely into what kind of meat it was, but it tasted surprisingly good.
After eating their fill, the finally quiet night allowed everyone to get some decent rest.
Early the next morning, under Cassidy's direction, they tidied up the house and set off again.
The Raffen Shiv vehicles and bodies were handled by local nomads Cassidy contacted. He discussed with Mercer and suggested using the money from selling the cars to prioritize repairing the house.
Any extra would be transferred to Cassidy's bank account, to be repaid to Mercer once he had his own account set up.
Mercer didn't refuse, only saying to keep accounts clear and split the proceeds evenly later.
They drove off-road from Montana, sometimes taking highways, sometimes racing across the wilderness.
Cassidy hadn't lied; after calling a few old friends to secure their route, the rest of their journey felt almost like a vacation.
They encountered no more enemies; in fact, they hardly saw anyone at all.
Only when supplies were running low would Cassidy contact some nomads, who reliably delivered food, water, fuel, and other essentials right into the wilds.
Cassidy would pay using the proceeds from their earlier spoils.
Mercer often marveled at his luck; saving Cassidy's life might have saved all of them. Otherwise, who knows how many troubles they would have faced along the way.
At first, the kids other than Mercer often suffered from insomnia or slept poorly in the vehicle.
But once they grew accustomed to life under the starry sky in the dusty wilderness, everyone quickly immersed themselves in the long journey.
Even though the world was harsh, the stars were always beautiful. On the rare overcast days, they breathed in the fresh air after rain and watched snowflakes dance across the landscape. In this cyberpunk world, even the weather defies reason, sometimes scorching, sometimes freezing.
Yet no matter the season, it's a sight that never fails to make novice netrunners gasp in awe.
They'd endured their share of misfortunes: wheels skidding on icy roads, crashing into dirt paths, and getting stranded.
They'd also experienced the thrill of a high-speed chase by border patrol while smuggling across the frontier. Finally, in December, they successfully reached California.
After detouring through Southern California into Northern California, Night City was now within reach.
To be precise, Night City sits right between the two, a neutral city belonging to no state or nation.
But before entering, Mercer still needed a safe temporary shelter outside the city, a place to shield them from the elements until he secured a fake Night City identity and residence.
Unsurprisingly, the only option was a nomad camp near Night City.
And that nomad clan could only be one: the Aldecaldos.
A family led by a man named Saul, which included a girl called Panam.
Mercer was prepared. Once in the camp, he wasn't in a hurry to rush into Night City; he wanted to see his in-game wife first.
In the game, if you play as the male protagonist, Panam is the only female romance option.
As someone without any interest in same-sex relationships, Mercer always prioritized completing Panam's side quests in every male playthrough, just to romance her.
Having relived the process of meeting and falling for her multiple times, he knew her inside out.
Now, finally getting the chance to see her in real life, he'd been looking forward to it for ages.
But even Mercer hadn't anticipated that his encounter with Panam would come much sooner than expected.
—--
"Mercer! There's a firefight up ahead, looks like a group of nomads clashing with Raffen Shiv! I've gotta help! They might be the ones here to meet us!"
Cassidy's voice shouted through the car's intercom.
Mercer's cybereye focused into the distance, where six vehicles were tearing across the wilderness, a fair 3v3 showdown, with both sides exchanging fire while racing.
"Alright, let's go together. Remember to hail them on the public channel."
With that, Mercer slammed the accelerator and began wildly firing at the Raffen Shiv members.
As soon as he was within net range, his eyes lit up as he started netrunning.
The fight was effortless and enjoyable.
During the long journey, by studying his own crew's vehicle systems, he'd quickly developed quickhacks specifically for standard vehicles, like "Initiate Overload," "Full speed ahead," and "Emergency Brake."
The Raffen Shiv thugs were driving along when suddenly one car's accelerator locked, sending it screaming into a ditch.
Another jammed its brakes, causing the vehicle to spin out and flip over in a dramatic skid. Another engine caught fire directly. The person inside didn't even have time to save themselves before the nomads, shouting loudly, riddled the driver's seat with the vehicle-mounted machine gun.
Mercer and the others slowed their car to a stop, while the nomads parked opposite them.
A group got out of the vehicles, led by a middle-aged man. Mercer glanced at him and then looked away. Not familiar.
But the ones behind the old man made Mercer's eyes widen slightly.
Holy shit.
Scorpion, Mitch, and Panam!!
--------
Bonus chapter @ 800 power stones.
If you're a fan of Hunter × Hunter, you might enjoy my other translation. HxH: Dying Makes Me Stronger. It's a hidden gem fr.