Valerie shot into the room in a blur.
In just one second, four of the Scavs who had been engrossed in the television suddenly lost their heads.
"Heh~"
Standing among them, Valerie let out a laugh of pure satisfaction, her face alight with pleasure and delight.
"CYBERPSYCHO!!!"
The remaining two Scavs screamed in terror and reached for the guns at their waists.
But the next instant, toxic substances inside their cyberware began leaking, allowing chemical fluids to seep into their internal organs.
"BLEAGH!!"
Both men immediately went limp, dropping to their knees and vomiting mouthful after mouthful of shit-green liquid.
"Die, you pieces of shit!"
Jackie charged into the room at that moment, pulling the triggers of both pistols.
BOOM! BOOM!
Two deafening shots later, the remaining Scavs' brains were splattered across the wall.
"Not bad teamwork." Levi walked into the room, looking pleased with what he'd seen. "Valerie disrupts the battlefield, while Jackie and I serve as the heavy hitters, dealing damage and drawing enemy attention."
"You? A heavy hitter? Don't make me laugh."
Valerie turned toward Levi, looking thoroughly unconvinced. "You're a netrunner. Just stay somewhere safe and provide support like you're supposed to."
"Huh?"
Levi turned to look at her. "Valerie, would you believe me if I told you I'm actually stronger than you?"
"Seriously? No way." Valerie immediately looked eager to put that claim to the test. She still remembered wanting to fight Levi earlier, only for the match never to happen.
"All right, all right, you two." Jackie shook his head and stepped forward. "How about we look for some loot first? Besides, having a strength contest in the middle of a bunch of corpses would be pretty damn weird, don't you think?"
"Yeah, fair enough."
Levi nodded.
He knew perfectly well that he couldn't actually beat Valerie in a fight right now. But if they were comparing raw physical strength alone...
Valerie was no match for him anymore.
He just needed to figure out how to trick her into an arm-wrestling match.
Levi silently resolved to find a way to fool Valerie, whose Intelligence attribute was only 3.
The three of them then began searching the Scavs' hideout, but in the end, they found nothing apart from a few thousand eddies in cash and some chunks of meat stored in a freezer.
"Fuck..."
Levi stared at the chunks of meat inside the freezer. Just before his cyberoptics could finish analyzing them, he narrowly managed to look away.
But he already knew exactly what they were.
Still...
Levi recorded everything, intending to show it to Tony later.
After all, Tony only knew that the Scavs existed. Levi had told him what kind of scum they were, but without seeing the evidence firsthand, there was no telling what Tony might be imagining.
So Levi decided to give him a proper taste of the horrors of 2077.
"These fucking animals..."
Jackie came over and took one look inside. His expression immediately darkened.
Seeing how disgusted the two of them looked, Valerie grew curious and started coming over to take a look herself.
"What's in there?"
"Don't look, Valerie. You'll lose your appetite for dinner."
Levi reached out to stop her, then handed her the few thousand eddies they'd found.
"You and Jackie can split this money. I'll take the bounties on these guys."
"Sure."
Valerie accepted the cash without asking how much the bounties were worth, though she could guess they probably weren't much.
After all, unlike ordinary gang members, Scavs were good at concealing their identities, so they rarely had particularly large bounties on their heads.
Still, Valerie looked at Levi and spoke up, sounding somewhat dissatisfied.
"Levi, that wasn't nearly enough fighting. If we're supposed to be getting used to working together, those guys weren't even worth the effort."
"Hmm..."
Levi rubbed his chin, considering her words.
Just then, however, he suddenly received a call from Regina.
"Hm?"
Levi raised an eyebrow when he saw Regina's incoming video call, then answered it.
"Hey, Levi."
Regina appeared in his cyberoptics, her voice as steady and husky as ever.
"I've finished moving that last batch of cyberware."
"Oh?"
Levi turned and walked toward the window as he listened.
Valerie and Jackie exchanged a glance before heading back into the Scavs' hideout to continue looking for anything valuable.
"So you finally sold it all." Levi sounded a little emotional. "I'd almost forgotten about that."
"Heh."
Regina clearly didn't believe him. She chuckled softly, and her cyberoptics flashed.
[Payment Received: €$87,500]
[Current Balance: €$151,342]
Looking at the payment notification and his suddenly swollen bank balance, Levi couldn't help grinning.
"Thanks, Regina."
"Mm."
Regina nodded, but instead of ending the call, she continued looking at him, a hint of admiration appearing in her eyes.
"There's something else. You did a good job with that Tyger Claws hideout in northern Kabuki."
"You're only hearing about that now?"
Levi looked at Regina in confusion. "I finished that job days ago."
"I knew about it less than ten minutes after you made your move," Regina replied calmly. "The moment the shooting started, word reached me."
"After all, there aren't many people in Night City who'd dare start a gunfight inside a Tyger Claws hideout. Even fewer in Watson."
"So?"
Levi leaned against the window and waited comfortably for her to continue.
"I originally thought Wakako Okada would come after you," Regina said, leaning forward slightly. "Either her or the Tyger Claws. I'd already prepared to step in and help you once you were backed into a corner. Then you'd owe me a favor, and I could use that to get you working for me."
'You sly old fox.'
Levi's mouth twitched as he listened to Regina openly explain her scheme.
'Wasn't she a journalist who used to go around digging up dirt on the corps? How the hell did she get so calculating?'
'Wait...'
'If she weren't this calculating, she probably wouldn't have survived long enough to become a fixer.'
"But as it turned out..." Regina continued, admiration creeping into her voice, "not only did you avoid getting taken down, you actually managed to reach an agreement with Wakako Okada? Impressive work."
"She's actually pretty easy to deal with when our interests align."
Levi gave Regina a knowing smile as he said this, prompting her to fall silent for several seconds, seemingly pondering what he meant.
However, Regina didn't press him for an explanation. Instead, she continued.
"Anyway... even if you're working with Wakako, you can still take jobs from me."
"What kind of jobs?"
Levi's eyes immediately lit up. Finally, something he was interested in.
He'd already been considering hanging up on her.
"There's a cyberpsycho near your location."
Regina's cyberoptics flashed, and she sent Levi a set of coordinates.
"The NCPD hasn't arrived at the scene yet, and MaxTac doesn't know about it either. I want you to capture him alive. Knock him unconscious, cripple him if you have to. As long as he's still breathing, that's all that matters."
"Oh?"
A glint appeared in Levi's eyes. He didn't refuse.
"What about the pay?"
In the game, Regina only paid a few thousand eddies for capturing a cyberpsycho. She practically worked V like a slave!
And these were cyberpsychos they were talking about. Most of them could toss NCPD officers around like rag dolls, and it usually took MaxTac to bring them down.
That was why Levi was curious how much Regina would offer for the same job in the real world.