Who was Johnny Silverhand?
If you asked that question on the streets of Night City, chances are you'd get a couple of bullets and a "Who the fuck do you think you are?" in return. But if you had the means to make people cooperate and answer honestly, you'd get something like this:
"A maniac."
"A rockerboy."
"A legend."
"A motherfucking scumbag."
All of these labels fit Johnny Silverhand like a glove.
But if you asked Karl for his personal impression, it would be:
"Slurp slurp slurp."
"I'm not a fucking dog!"
"Aren't you literally a dog right now?"
Karl pulled back the finger that almost got bitten, eyeing the mutt bouncing erratically on the floor. He crossed his arms and said:
"So, Mr. Johnny Silverhand, you were supposed to have died over fifty years ago during the Arasaka Tower incident. But you were used as a test subject by Saburo Arasaka with the Relic, and killed in the process. Your engram's been stored inside ever since, right?"
"What, you want me to walk you through how I stormed Arasaka Tower? Want a front-row seat to bask in my glory?"
Johnny's projection crossed his arms as well. "Didn't you already scan everything? You want me to spread my legs and let you peek inside?"
"No need to be crude. I'm straight."
Karl dropped his arms and waved it off.
"I'm just saying—there's something off in your memory. According to your recollection, Saburo Arasaka personally came to Night City in the Americas and used you as a test subject. But as far as I know, in the years surrounding the Arasaka Tower incident, Saburo was based in Japan. He was neck-deep in handling attacks from the Japanese government and rival corporations. There's no way he had time to come all the way to the Americas just to personally deal with…"
Karl paused, finding the right word. "A small fry like you?"
He said it in Chinese. The dog body had built-in language recognition, so Johnny understood perfectly. His brow twitched.
"You're saying I wasn't important enough for Saburo Arasaka to handle personally?"
"Of course not."
Karl answered flatly, staring Johnny down.
"To put it bluntly, Mr. Silverhand, your memory data might be corrupted. I find it hard to believe that Saburo would abandon his son Kei Arasaka and the entire North American branch just to deal with you in person, then turn around and sprint back across the Pacific to battle Japanese corporate forces."
He continued, his tone steady:
"Do you really think you were more important to Saburo than Kei or the whole North American Arasaka operation?"
Johnny frowned.
He was arrogant, even reckless—but not stupid. Especially not about his own memories. As Karl laid out the contradictions, Johnny's projected form grew more serious.
"You're saying... my memories are wrong?"
"More or less. At the very least, you're not the real Johnny Silverhand."
Karl explained patiently: "The Relic stores a snapshot of personality data. Meaning, what's recorded is the version of Johnny Silverhand from the moment he died. That version is dead. You're just a copy."
"A copy?"
Johnny didn't seem too shaken. In fact, he looked surprisingly calm. "Still me though, right? Doesn't matter."
"Now that's a line."
From the second floor, Jack muttered, "Doesn't matter which version—I'm still me, huh? That's bold. Compared to the mangy mutt act earlier, this... this is the Silverhand I saw in the old archives."
"So, you are Johnny Silverhand?"
Karl smiled. "Great. Then let's settle the bill, Mr. Silverhand."
"Settle... what bill?"
Karl pointed to Johnny's current body.
"I won't even count the damage you did messing around in my Relic. But that body you're using now? That's my dog. I'm generous, so I won't charge you for labor or miscellaneous fees. Let's just say you owe me one million eurodollars. So—when are you paying up?"
"One million eddies?!"
Johnny's eyes went wide. Back in his day, that could buy you a top-tier hypercar.
"Oh right. Inflation. You wouldn't know."
Karl pulled up a price list on his phone and showed it to Johnny.
"Here's Night City's current cost of living. Prices have gone way up. It's not as crazy as it sounds."
"Not that crazy—wait a sec!"
The dog leaned in, glanced at the numbers, and then snapped back. "What about stuffing me in a mutt's body?! You people—who the hell are you even? Wasn't I in Arasaka's hands? Where's my body?!"
"Long gone."
Karl raised his phone out of reach, casually lifting the mutt's body with one hand and carrying it over to the floor-to-ceiling window of the apartment. He made sure Johnny could get a good look at the skyline.
"This is Night City. The year is 2077, Mr. Silverhand."
"2077...?"
Johnny's sense of time in the Relic was a blur. He hadn't realized that over fifty years had passed since he last saw the world.
His dog eyes locked instantly onto the skyscraper towering above all others.
"Arasaka Tower... They're still here?!"
"Just like how you're back after fifty years," Karl said. "Arasaka Tower is back in Night City too—same as before."
He set Johnny down and let him take it all in.
Take a good look. Absorb it. Familiarize yourself with it.
Because after that… you're paying what you owe.
Even if you're just a dog—debt's still debt.
-
-
-
-
🔥🦾 CYBERPUNK: THE RELENTLESS 🦾🔥
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📢 CHOOMS, JACK IN! 📢
Cyberpunk: The Relentless has 500+ chapters ahead available on Patreon! 💾🔥
Night City doesn't slow down for anyone.
Here, every alley hides a threat, every deal can turn into a bloodbath, and every second could be your last.
🌃 Chrome.
🔫 Bullets.
💀 Cyberpsychos.
🏢 Corpos.
🩸 Street wars.
If you want to stay ahead of the public release, Patreon is where the real action begins.
Don't fall behind, choom. Night City eats the slow. ⚙️🔥
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🛑 ALSO AVAILABLE ON PATREON:
🌃 Cyberpunk: Dogtown Legend
👩👦 Cyberpunk: Lucy Adopted Me and I Got a System
🧠 My Cyberpunk 2077 Simulator
🤖 My Girlfriend's a Cyberpsycho—Who Knew?
🛡️ Star Wars: The Rise of Mandalore
🌌 Star Wars: Relics of the Past
🏰 Game of Thrones: Secrets Beneath the Dreadfort
⚡ The Rebirth of Harry Potter
🌹 R18: Reincarnated in Her World
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔗 Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/MrMagnus
👤 Patreon Name: SrMagnus
🐦 X / Twitter: https://x.com/SrMagnusBook
⚠️ Power Stones decide which novel updates faster!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━