"Do you understand what's going on now?!"
Liam shouted.
Maine's stubborn brain finally clicked—this was a setup.
"Dolio! The Barghests are coming for all of us!"
Separated by only a thin wall, their shouts echoed clearly in each other's ears.
Bullets from Liam's pistol bounced off the bulletproof drone with no effect. He quickly backed up, hoisted the sniper rifle, and squeezed the trigger amid the dense hail of gunfire.
The ultra-penetrative Nekomata tore through the drone, sending it crashing to the ground in a burst of sparks.
"Nice shot!"
Maine chuckled, praising Liam for taking out the troublesome drone, then frantically called his team to retreat over the comms.
Goddamn it! Liam thought.
"You idiot Barghest… your boss sold you out. How does that feel?"
Liam pressed his lips together, saying nothing. His heart was racing.
He quickly stowed his gun and ran full-tilt in the opposite direction without looking back.
At this point, it wasn't a question of whether Maine's crew would be spared—he could barely keep himself alive.
What the hell is happening?
[Call: Mr. Hands]
[No answer]
In the darkness, Liam's vision blinked red with the active call icon. In his mind, he pieced everything together: Hands had tasked a Dogtown middleman to have him scout the scene; he had been ordered to stop the edgerunners from investigating this shipment…
Where did it all go wrong?
Wait!
The question Mr. Hands had asked with a smile thundered in Liam's mind:
"Do you know her?"
Sasha? Liam had thought he'd covered all his tracks. Why would Hands be so sure he knew this crew?
His heart sank. Even if he didn't know why the Militech netrunner had taken out Hamster, one thing was certain:
This was corporate chaos. He was the bait.
Throw the bait in the water and watch big fish and small fish fight for it. A fight to the death—leaving the company itself a swirling mess.
No one answered the call. Finally, Liam understood what that line meant:
Night City never trusts anyone.
His arrogance, his belief that he understood Hands completely—even his illusion that he was a "player" on equal footing with Hands—was gone.
Mercenaries dying in the hands of middlemen? Happens every day in Night City.
A blood-soaked reality.
Motherfucker... you played me?
Liam glanced back at the Heavy Hearts club, bathed in the ominous green laser slicing the sky. He wanted to throw his gun at Hands's face—and maybe pull out his pistol and fire a few rounds.
But reason always won in his mind. He gritted his teeth, clenching his fists, and ran with all his strength.
Stopping meant the worst possible ending.
Since the start, he'd been so focused on leveling his stats that he'd forgotten this world ran on darkness. On human hearts. Nothing could predict them.
Forget rewards. Staying alive comes first.
Liam felt he'd already done all he could for Maine's crew.
Unconsciously, he noticed several others running in the same direction from a distance.
He laughed at the absurdity. Heroics were for legends with top-tier chrome. He was just a rat in a maze. He'd tried to warn them, they'd ignored him, and now the Barghest had finally woken everyone up.
Bunch of idiots!
Liam didn't bother caring. He quickly scaled a building in Dogtown, sliding down along the metal scaffolding.
His goal was the usual gathering spot of the Voodoo Boys on the hill to the right side of Dogtown—a position with paths leading to other parts of the city. The gang would naturally cause chaos whenever Barghest appeared nearby, giving Liam the perfect opportunity to slip away and lay low.
On the other side, Maine and his crew sprinted in the same retreat direction. Abandoning their vehicles was a reluctant choice—Dogtown's roads were crawling with Barghests.
"What did Sasha say?" Dolio asked, his voice low.
Rebecca turned her head, shooting a drone into temporary pause, then spun back to run. "Maine, what about the middleman?"
Maine shook his head. "We can't reach him. That kid—he's being used as a bullet shield by the Barghest. Sasha said Militech and Arasaka are going at it—"
"—Most likely trying to take out our whole line at once."
"The data's fake. Arasaka's runners are trying to secure the files. No one touches it."
Pila shouted, "The drone's on us! Damn it! I told you tinkering with my research at home was the real work!"
"Shut up, idiot!" Rebecca fired, taking down the drone for him, cursing her "cheap older brother" the whole time.
She also noticed the young man sliding down from the distant unfinished building, his mood strangely unsettled.
Although that guy somehow knew her name, everyone had fallen into a mess this time. Maine hadn't expected this job to pull in the heavyweights of Night City—the Corps.
The middleman had said at first: some client just wanted to mess with Dogtown, make them miserable, and the pay was good. Naturally, everyone took the job.
After all, it could cover six months of expenses—who wouldn't want that?
"Cough... This is Colonel Kurt Hansen."
The PA system, wired into every corner of the district, crackled to life. Hansen's gravelly voice boomed from the megaphones.
"Dogtown is our home, the only place we rely on to survive. We must arm ourselves, defend against oppression!"
"But now… damned Militech and Arasaka want us to lay down our weapons and obey them!"
"Here, there is no compromise…"
"Residents of Dogtown, take up your weapons and eliminate the trash invading our sanctuary!"
"I, Kurt Hansen, swear to protect the rights of every Dogtown resident! Let the company's lackeys go to hell!"
"If the Corpsviolate our rights, I'll make all of Night City see their true faces!"
What a masterclass in redirection, Liam thought.
He saw the play immediately. Hansen was losing a shipment, so he'd pivot the narrative, blame the Corps, and let them fight over the scraps while he consolidated power.
Before crossing over, Liam never understood why Dogtown could exist in Night City untouched.
Even New United States and Night City's official authorities refrained from commenting.
Theoretically, Militech, Arasaka, Kang Tao… any of them could have directly confronted Dogtown—even New United States could have teamed with Militech to flatten this private enclave!
But none of that happened. Reality was a perfect illustration of "don't stir the hornet's nest."
No matter which company moved first, someone was always watching for weaknesses and profit.
When the clams fight and the snipe is in the middle, the fisherman benefits—whoever strikes first loses.
Not only that, the Corps needed to stay away from this plague. Hansen wanted them to fight; he could just watch the chaos from the sidelines.
And don't forget—Hansen had Cuba's "Pharmaceutical" group backing him. Every time a cigar was lit in Havana, someone in the world died.
(Note: "Pharmaceutical" is euphemistic. This is background lore; treat it as such.)
This explained why Hansen could live comfortably in Night City—everything lined up perfectly. Liam finally understood.
His clearest knowledge of this world stretched only from 2076 to 2077, mostly stories of a few legends. How this world would continue, whether it would develop the way he imagined, was unknown.
Night City's first lesson? Harsh, unforgiving—and it woke the confused Liam completely.