Japantown.Rocky's clinic.
Rocky scrolls through the inbox at his clinic terminal, and the corner of his mouth lifts. By late morning, three of the black clinics that received his sample pack have finished testing and already sent purchase orders. If this pace holds, most back-alley rippers in Night City will be doing business with him soon enough. Once the green vials start circulating, nobody wants to miss a cut.
He uses the remaining funds to order another batch of raw materials and then ramps up production.
…
The next day.North Industrial Zone.A basement clinic.
Freshly open for business, the ripperdoc on duty, Sidney, gets a visitor ping. He unlatches the door and finds a young man in a black jacket on the threshold.
"What is it?" Sidney asks, wary but calm.
"Sidney?" the man says.
"That's me."
"Delivery for you. Payment is €4,500."
The man slides a heavy bag forward. Sidney has already guessed the sender. He opens the sack and sees dozens of neatly sealed syringes filled with clean, bright green fluid.
"Who sent you?" Sidney asks, more out of curiosity than expectation.
"I just deliver. Pay first."
The clothes and posture say mercenary. Paid muscle seldom knows who is really upstream. If you want the chain, you find the middleman, and middlemen do not talk. Whoever "Ascension Technology" is, they prefer to stay out of the light.
Sidney wires the eddies without playing games. If someone hired mercs to run product and collect, you do not sample the Night City debt-collection package for fun.
Funds received, the courier turns and leaves to make the next drop.
It is Rocky.
Yesterday's outreach generated seven clinic orders, mostly consisting of twenty to thirty doses each, to test the waters. He finished production and chose to hand-deliver the first wave. He considered hiring runners, but he does not have a trusted pool, and he will not throw this at Jackie. Using fixers risks a leak if a corp starts tugging. Better to wear a different jacket and move quietly.
The clinics are located throughout the city. It takes time, but the deliveries and payments go clean. By noon, Rocky is back at the shop with roughly thirty thousand in deposits. Costs are already close to covered. Time to restock and keep the doors open.
With Wakako's nod and his workmanship getting word of mouth, traffic to the new clinic grows. The name "Ascension Technology" starts showing up in ripper backchannels in Japantown.
…
Three days pass.
More small orders trickle in. The second-batch demand will take a bit; first buyers need time to move stock.
Night in Japantown glows.Under the towers, TURBO runs hot.Street vendors crowd the plaza with food and plastic cups of neon liquor. Cars ring the open space, and mercs cut loose between gigs.
Maine's crew is here, celebrating a job wrapped. Maine and Dorio lean together on the steps, trading low conversation. Pilar and Falco work the crowd and cheer the street show. Kiwi drinks alone, face unreadable. Lucy is absent tonight, probably not on this contract. Rebecca stands to the side with a drink, watching the noise with bright eyes.
"Huh? That store changed," she says, tilt-curious.
She points across at a shop that used to be dark by this hour. The sign now reads Open.
"Pilar, what is that?" she calls to her brother.
"How would I know? No sign, no nothing. Maybe it sells XBDs," Pilar says, waggling those long chrome fingers and earning a hard glare.
"Get lost." Rebecca flips him off, then boots him aside with a surprisingly strong little kick.
Kiwi, drawn by the racket, follows Rebecca's finger. Data traces flicker through her oculars. She has the listing in seconds.
"Ripper clinic. Opened three days ago," Kiwi says.
Across the steps, Maine lifts his head at that and looks over.