Padre, real name Sebastian Ibarra, is one of Heywood's best-known fixers. He has Valentino's ties and keeps a solid relationship with Jackie. Many of Jackie's gigs come through Padre, and this one is no exception.
"Hey, Jackie, fast work as always. A merc I can trust." He glances over. "And you, L. Long time. How've you been?"
"Not bad. I'm about to open a Ripperdoc clinic. Prep is almost done."
"Congrats on the new business. Where's the clinic?"
"Japantown."
"That's a pity. If you'd set up in Heywood, I'd send my boys to keep your books busy."
"Work finds you anywhere."
"True."
Rocky and Padre trade a few lines. Over the last two years, Rocky has taken plenty of gigs with Jackie, so Padre knows him and likes the kid's attitude.
They hand over the recovered cyberware and collect payment for the job.
Rocky gets €2,000. Since he kept the other salvaged implants, the bigger cut goes to Jackie.
He rides into Night City's night, planning to crash at home.
A new message lands in his HUD.
[ Dear Mr. L, your shop in Japantown has been renovated per your requirements. Please inspect at your earliest convenience. Thank you for choosing the Night Group renovation team. ]
Oh? That fast. Perfect. I can install the modules and then study stimulant production.
Still downtown, Rocky swings the bike around and opens the throttle for Japantown.
Traffic is light. He reaches the clinic quickly.
The new clinic sits across from the TURBO restaurant beneath Megabuilding H8 in Japantown. Maine's crew likes to celebrate and cool off at TURBO after jobs in Edgerunners, and Lucy's place is next door.
The storefront has room to breathe and a clean night view. Rocky likes it. No more stepping out after work into a filthy, cramped alley.
Why pick Japantown? He thought it through.
First, he wants to avoid overlapping with Vik. He won't open another clinic in Little China.
Japantown and Kabuki are both in Watson and about the same distance from his apartment. Japantown is more prosperous.
Japantown has active gangs and heavy entertainment, which draws a steady flow of Night City edgerunners.
Those are Rocky's customers. Heywood has the Valentinos he knows, but Japantown has a pull all its own.
Who doesn't want to walk a few minutes after work to hit Jig-Jig Street for fun or ride a tower elevator to relax on a rooftop?
So he chose Japantown.
He unlocks the door with access auth and steps in.
Fresh interior. Operating table, storage cabinets, cold units, workbench, and the boxing corner he set up. His pulse ticks up.
"Yeah. My own clinic. This feels right."
Owning a clinic has been his main goal for two years. The system changed his long-term plans, but the result of his grind still makes him happy.
He walks the place, finds no issues, and runs through each device to test and refamiliarize.
He cleans and stores the implants he pulled off the Scavs, then opens the Module Store.
[ Download Basic Production Module Integration Pack ]
Account − €10,000
Choose to install.
[ Installation successful ]
Five different workbench devices appear in a small side room he cleared, all skinned in a cyberpunk style.
World-adaptive correction has changed their look from the source; only the core functions stay the same.
Once they are placed, he studies the synthesis bench.
He powers up the system terminal. The "recipes available" list is empty.
Cheap has a reason. This bench ships with only a generic synthesis rule. All original recipes are stripped.
That may be fine. Those recipes might not help him anyway. Using the bench as a prerequisite for recipe expansions is good enough.
He opens the Analysis function, an expansion bundled with the pack.
He sets a cyberware piece on the bench. The scanner hums and begins analysis.
[ Synthetic Lung Lobe ][ Model: Biotechnica Type-1 ][ Durability: 73% ][ Note: Low-end synthetic lung lobe mass-produced by Biotechnica. Transplant improves stamina recovery by 15%. ]
He thinks it over. The analyzer's best feature is showing durability and detailed function. Useful, but not a game-changer.
He flips to the Alchemy Table terminal. It also has no recipes.
He opens the Module Store and downloads the Titanfall Stimulant Alchemy Table expansion.
This time, the button shows no prerequisites and isn't grayed out. He spends €9,000 and installs it.
The Alchemy terminal now shows new recipes.
He checks them. The stimulant requires two secondary semi-finished potions combined. Both sub-recipes sit in the same system.
The materials are ordinary. The trickier compounds are the same additives used in market energy drinks and common stimulant drugs—no corp-core formulas involved.
He runs the math. A dose costs about €50 to brew. Each bottle takes three minutes.
Market value is about €500 a dose. If he wholesales at €300, he clears €250.
On paper, that's €5,000 an hour. Reality says no. He cannot run the bench 24 hours. Capacity caps at 20 bottles per batch, and he must reset between runs.
More critical is distribution. He can only move product through black clinics to mercs and gang crews to avoid corp attention.
Small-scale sales and a not-cheap price mean demand will outstrip his production rate.
So he needs to solve one problem now: how to sell stimulants quickly.
He stops there. Materials still need to arrive before he can act.
He emails Vik that the clinic renovation is done, tidies the shop, and heads back to the apartment to rest.