The walk from the desert camp to Night City took most of the morning, and the heat made every step of it worse than the last. Finn's shirt, who he had changed to suit the world's fashion sense, was soaked through by the time they were near even a road. Ciri had stopped talking an hour back, and the only one who seemed unbothered was Avallach, who kept pace in his robes without a single complaint or visible drop of sweat.
A car came up behind them fast and blew past close enough to kick up a wall of hot air. Ciri stepped back from it.
"What was that?"
"...Cars," Finn said. "The preferred method of transportation."
She kept her eyes on it as it went. "...How does it work?"
"Not really important right now, unless you want to become a mechanic."
A sign spanned the road overhead. WELCOME TO NIGHT CITY.
Finn turned to Avallach. "What is your actual plan here?"
"I have repeated the plan many times and—"
"Not that plan. I mean once we're actually inside. This isn't some medieval city we can just integrate into easily. We need cash. We need a place to stay. I doubt we could find one easily. The locals probably couldn't find a place to stay in this dense city, let alone us, who are foreigners by any measure possible."
Avallach walked another few paces before answering. "Integrating with a world's society has never been my strongest skill. Most of the time I do not do it at all. I prefer to stay outside civilizations. I chose this world because it is a remote one. Eredin will take a considerable time to find it, if he finds it at all. If the crwydren has a way to acquire what we need, then he is welcome to do it."
Finn sneered. "Gee, who could've guessed that?" He dug the book out of his bag and opened it, reading while he walked. "I'll try to figure it out. No promises though."
—
The scene of Night City hit Ciri all at once.
It was the noise came first, then the smell, the exhaust fumes that made Ciri's throat uncomfortable. The buildings were enormous and ugly, concrete stacked on concrete, every surface covered in signs or screens or both. One of the screens was showing something that made her face go red and she pulled her attention away from it fast. Trash lined the gutters. The whole place reeked of bad smell.
"How big is this place?" she said. "What kind of world is this? What are these… debauched moving drawings that looked so real? The moving boxes. How is this city so dirty with trash? It really smells."
Finn had his nose in the book. "Such is the way of the modern concrete jungle. it doesn't smell like shit like a medieval city, but it smelled of everything else..."
Before leaving the camp that morning he'd gone through the notes he'd written about this place, everything he'd pulled from the internet in his own world before any of this had started: the districts, the names worth knowing, the factions. He'd written the useful parts down in this book and was hoping now that the timeline matched closely enough for any of it to matter.
"Where do we go now?" Ciri asked.
"Wait a moment." He found the page. "There's this thing called fixers. They might be able to help us get some money."
Ciri turned briefly to Avallach, then back to Finn. "Where are these fixers located?"
"Many places across the city. But if we want somewhere to stay and some money without too much trouble, we need a high-end one."
"And how do we get money from them? Odd jobs?"
"We could trade gold for the local currency. Gold is almost always valuable across worlds."
"And how much gold do you have right now?" Ciri asked. "Is it enough?"
"I traded gold in Westeros and the Pokemon world. I still have a lot. Don't worry."
"Then we shall find a fixer to trade gold." Avallach said. "But I should warn you. These people are not to be easily trusted."
"I know, sage." Finn nodded. "At the end of the day they're just a little step closer towards a black market dealer." He closed the book. "Let's go. I need to find a map so I can locate what is called a Japantown."
—
Japantown was noisier and narrower than the outer edge of the city. Paper lanterns hung between electric signs with Japanese characters on them, and the advertisements got a lot more erotic and debauched the deeper in they went, bigger and harder to miss. Ciri had taken to keeping her eyes at street level.
Which was where she noticed the people properly.
"Do they… have metal in their flesh and heads?" she asked. "How does that even work? With magic?"
"Magic as you know doesn't exist here, Zirael," said Avallach.
"And how do they do it?"
"It's called cyberwares. Implants," Finn said. "They just operated on themselves. Medical science here is quite advanced. More than your world or even mine."
"And what functions does that cyberwares give the wearer?"
"Many things. Communications, for day-to-day tasks, even combat. An arm could hide blades or guns. Or give you the strength of ten men."
"Guns?" Ciri asked. "That weapon you used when we were ambushing the Wild Hunt? They have that here?"
"It's the preferred method of warfare," said Avallach. "I do not like these guns. It has no elegance to it and is only meant to kill."
"Sooner or later your world will invent an archaic form of it." Finn shrugged. "It's already clear that it's heading that way during my travels there."
Two joytoys stepped out of a doorway and directed themselves at the group. Ciri's face went red immediately and she turned away.
"I didn't know that you're so prude, Ciri," Finn teased.
"I'm not, it is just—" Ciri muttered. "Shocking."
"Well, you're just going to get used to it." Finn stopped in front of a building across the street, colorful enough to stand out even here, bright lights running along the entrance. "I think we've arrived."
Ciri read the sign above the door. "A… pachinko? What is that?"
"A gambling place, or some sort. This is Wakako Okada's place, apparently a great fixer, according to my notes anyway… I just hope the timeline here matches the timeline of the world I know…"
Avallach took the book from Finn's hand and tilted it toward him, reading the page over. "You know a lot of things about other worlds… It seems your world is one of the special ones…"
Finn pulled it back. "What does that mean?"
"Continue on." Avallach moved past him toward the entrance. "Let us finish our business with this fixer and get a safe place as soon as possible."
Finn frowned, but walked forward either way.