The first time Ethan heard his sister's voice that night, the room stopped feeling like home.
It became too small. Too quiet. Too fragile.
And when she said his name in that soft, trembling voice—
the fear he had been holding down all day finally found its way into his chest.
The psychiatric hospital in District 1 was absurdly expensive, but at least their service matched the price. After a brief verification process, they connected his call almost immediately.
To help stabilize patients, family members were allowed to speak with them once a month. After tonight, Ethan likely wouldn't get another chance until winter break.
So he waited.
Ten seconds.
Twelve.
Then the line clicked, and a young girl's voice came through, small and careful.
"Brother…"
The second word broke.
"I thought… I thought you didn't want me anymore either…"
Her voice choked with tears.
Ethan's eyes tightened instantly. "Luna, don't say that."
The name came out softly, almost protectively. He leaned back in his chair, but the hand holding the phone unconsciously tightened.
"When I'm on break, I'll come to District 1 and see you myself."
There was a pause.
Then a tiny, obedient answer.
"Okay, Brother."
A faint rustling came through the line, followed by her voice again, trying hard to sound cheerful.
"It's morning here. I already had breakfast. Milk and bread."
Ethan forced his tone to stay steady. "It's night here. How are you feeling? Are you doing better?"
"Mm… the doctor said I'm improving."
Then her voice grew smaller.
"But I keep having nightmares lately."
A warning bell went off inside Ethan's mind.
"What kind of nightmares?"
He asked the question casually, but every muscle in his body had already gone still.
Luna hesitated. When she spoke again, her voice trembled.
"Last night, I dreamed I was driving through a street covered in giant billboards. There were neon lights everywhere… and I was shooting at people outside the car."
She swallowed hard.
"So many people died…"
Ethan froze.
A cold shock shot through him so fast it almost felt physical.
A street full of giant holographic signs.
Gunfire.
Chaos.
Night City.
His mind immediately connected the image.
Could Luna be a player too?
No.
That didn't fit.
Players saw the interface. They entered simulations consciously. They interacted with the system directly.
Luna wasn't describing a game panel.
She was describing dreams.
But if this wasn't a coincidence… if it had anything to do with Night City…
Then the danger around her was far worse than he had imagined.
A giant red warning sign seemed to flash across Ethan's mind.
His first instinct was to press further, to ask for every detail, to confirm whether she had seen anything else—names, buildings, symbols, weapons, anything.
But he stopped himself.
Hard.
This call was routed through District 1.
District 1.
The heart of federal authority.
Which meant there was a very real chance this call was monitored.
And if he showed too much interest—if he asked the wrong question, with the wrong urgency—it could place Luna directly in the General Affairs Department's sight.
That absolutely could not happen.
Whether she was a player or not, being noticed by them would never end well.
Ethan swallowed every question he wanted to ask.
Then he smiled, even though she couldn't see it.
"That's one hell of a nightmare."
He made his tone light. Easy.
Then he changed the subject immediately.
"Listen to me, Luna. Cooperate with the doctors. When I graduate, and when you're better, I'll bring you back to District 21. We'll live together."
He paused for a second, then added quietly, "I'll come see you next month."
"Okay, Brother."
Her voice brightened slightly.
"I really miss the weather in District 21… It's always windy here. The kind of wind that sounds like it wants to tear the building apart."
Then, after a short silence, she asked in a hesitant little voice:
"Brother… have you found me a sister-in-law yet?"
Ethan blinked.
Before he could answer, she rushed on.
"If you do… don't forget about me, okay?"
That line hit him harder than anything else that night.
Harder than the blood at school.
Harder than the black-coated officers.
Harder than the thought of Night City bleeding into reality.
For one brief second, Ethan's throat tightened so badly he almost couldn't speak.
He didn't care whether the General Affairs Department wanted to rule the city, the country, or the entire damn world.
He didn't care what hidden war was being fought in the dark.
He only wanted one thing.
To survive.
To take his sister away.
To build back the life that had been broken for them long ago.
That was all.
And because it was all, it mattered more than anything.
At that moment, Ethan suddenly remembered the first time he entered the game and awakened the S-rank talent Reincarnation. The system prompt from that day surfaced in his mind like something dredged up from deep water:
At the moment of approaching death, memories of the past become ten thousand blades, piercing the anger in your heart.
The beauty of the past replays before you, praying for your peace.
But your heart still breaks.
Back then, he had only half understood it.
Now he understood perfectly.
It was precisely because the past had once been beautiful that remembering it hurt so much.
"Luna," he said softly, "wait for me in District 1. Be good. I'll come pick you up myself."
"Okay."
Her voice was tiny again.
"I won't go anywhere. I'll wait for Brother."
When the line disconnected, the room fell silent.
Far away, eleven time zones apart, the girl on the other end finally lowered the receiver. Her wet eyes could no longer hold back the tears, and she cried until her small face was soaked.
Ethan sat motionless for several seconds after hanging up.
Then his expression darkened.
If he assumed the worst—that Luna really did have some connection to Night City—then sooner or later, the General Affairs Department would notice. And District 1 was the last place on earth where he could hope to hide her once that happened. That district was the center of federal power. Surveillance there would be airtight. Their ability to hunt would be magnified tenfold.
He needed a plan.
No matter what happened, he had to go to District 1 within a month and confirm the truth with his own eyes.
If Luna's condition was tied to Night City, then with her fragile mental state, it would only be a matter of time before she exposed herself in some way.
Which meant he had to prepare to get her out.
Fast.
Quietly.
Completely.
Maybe to somewhere lawless, somewhere the General Affairs Department couldn't impose total control. District 31 came to mind immediately—a filthy, chaotic place where gangs, smugglers, mercenaries, and ghosts of every kind mixed together.
It would be dangerous.
But danger was still better than certain capture.
Ethan rubbed his forehead and exhaled slowly.
There was no point thinking in circles.
If he wanted options, he needed power.
And if he wanted power—
He had to go back into Night City.
He pressed the V-mark on his arm and summoned the interface again.
A red prompt bloomed across the black screen.
---
The rising darling of Night City has returned to the city of dreams.
At this point, you have just partnered with Jackie Welles. The name V is not yet legendary, but your heart already burns for a big score—one to build your name, and one to upgrade your gear.
By chance, Jackie connects you with one of Night City's most notorious fixers.
Dexter DeShawn.
---
The system rolled the scene out in vivid detail.
Jackie's voice practically boomed from the text itself:
"Dexter DeShawn! The baddest fixer in the Afterlife. Big gold arm, bigger reputation. The kind of guy who doesn't even need to raise his voice to own the room."
Ethan kept reading.
Dexter appreciated V's ability. He offered a top-tier job backed by Militech. The target was Arasaka's secret tech—the Relic. Ethan and Jackie were to infiltrate Konpeki Plaza, steal the chip, and deliver it to Dexter.
Payment: forty percent of the reward.
The options appeared.
[Accept]
[Decline]
Ethan stared at them for a moment.
This was dangerous. Obvious, towering danger.
Militech and Arasaka were giants. He and Jackie were ants trying to run between their feet without getting crushed.
One mistake, and there would be nothing left of him but a story.
But this was also exactly the kind of mission he needed.
A chance to gain levels.
A chance to gain information.
A chance to see how the real rulers of Night City moved behind the curtain.
And Ethan knew one truth better than most:
You could not outplay a world you didn't understand.
So he chose Accept.
The simulation accelerated.
He negotiated Dexter up to forty-five percent.
He and Jackie took the Flathead drone into Konpeki Plaza.
They pulled off the infiltration.
They stole the sterile container holding the Relic.
Then everything went to hell.
Hidden behind the one-way glass, Ethan and Jackie witnessed Saburo Arasaka—the emperor of Arasaka himself—murdered by his own son, Yorinobu.
The hotel locked down.
Security flooded the building.
They were identified as assassins.
Forced to flee.
In the chaos, the Relic's storage case broke. Jackie shoved the chip into his own system to preserve it. They fought their way down through alarms, gunfire, and pursuit. In the parking garage, security caught them again.
They escaped.
But Jackie took bullets covering Ethan's retreat.
By the time they reached the vehicle, Jackie was dying.
When Ethan read that part, his jaw tightened.
Even though it was only text, the scene still hit hard.
Jackie gave V the Relic before dying in the car.
Then came Dexter.
Of course it did.
Ethan reached the hotel meeting point with the goods, told Dexter Jackie was dead, and handed over the prize.
Dexter wasn't relieved.
He was furious.
"Saburo Arasaka is dead! Do you understand what kind of storm you've dragged to my doorstep?"
"You didn't just steal a chip—you got tangled up in the death of a god."
Then Dexter calmed down. Or seemed to.
He told Ethan to wash up in the bathroom.
The moment Ethan read that line, his eyes narrowed.
Too convenient.
Too smooth.
Too fake.
Then the next prompt appeared.
---
You were ambushed from behind by Dexter's bodyguard.
Caught off guard, you were knocked to the floor.
Before you could recover, Dexter raised his gun.
"Don't blame me, V."
"Looks like in the end, I'm still just a nobody."
Then he fired three shots into your head.
You are dead.
Reincarnation triggered.
---
Ethan stared at the screen.
Then laughed once.
A short, cold sound with no humor in it.
"So that's how it is."
No professionalism.
No loyalty.
No ethics.
Just betrayal the second it became convenient.
His expression sharpened.
If Dexter wanted to play like that, then fine.
He chose revenge without hesitation.
The new simulation loaded instantly.
He borrowed Wilson's bike and sped after Dexter, rage burning under his skin.
But just as he was about to leave, someone stopped him.
A green-haired girl.
Small.
Sharp-eyed.
Holding an assault rifle like she belonged with it.
The text called her Rebecca.
A grin tugged at the corner of Ethan's mouth.
So Belica had been Rebecca all along.
That made far more sense.
Her attitude in the prompt was pure tsundere chaos—demanding to come along to "repay" him, acting like she wasn't concerned at all while clearly insisting on being part of the revenge run.
The option appeared.
Take her or leave her.
Ethan selected Accept immediately.
The picture that followed in text alone was vivid enough to feel real.
He and Rebecca tore through Night City on the bike, engine screaming, neon blurring by in violent streaks. Rebecca wrapped her arms around his waist from behind, laughing into the wind as she asked how Dexter had screwed him over.
By the time they reached the eastern highway near the Badlands, they found Dexter's vehicle.
Rebecca fired first.
And Ethan finally understood what "small but terrifying" really meant.
Her shooting was absurd.
Bullet after bullet punched into the rear axles with almost impossible precision. Dexter's car spun, flipped, and rolled into the roadside in a spray of sparks and glass.
Dexter and his bodyguard crawled out.
Rebecca pinned them down effortlessly.
When the bodyguard tried to return fire, she put a bullet through his skull before he could even aim.
One shot.
One kill.
The bastard dropped.
Dexter raised his hands.
Surrender.
Then, instead of panicking, he smiled.
That smile alone made Ethan wary again.
Dexter started talking.
About Reincarnators.
About how everyone in Night City feared them, hated them, misunderstood them.
About how reincarnation looked like a gift—but was really a curse.
His offer came with money, information, and one condition.
Spare him.
The game presented Ethan with two options.
[Accept Deal]
[Refuse Deal]
For the first time in a while, Ethan hesitated.
Dexter was a snake.
Everything about him screamed trap.
Any deal with him would be poison.
And yet…
The information he hinted at touched the exact nerve Ethan couldn't ignore.
Reincarnators.
What they really were.
What their death-and-return actually meant.
That was one of the most important unanswered questions in Ethan's entire life.
He thought for a second.
Then made a compromise.
Hear him out.
Then kill him anyway.
As soon as that thought formed—
The screen glitched.
A warped line of text flashed across the interface.
Virus detected.
Ethan frowned.
Then the prompts exploded.
Virus detected. Virus detected. Virus detected. Virus detected. Virus detected—
The words multiplied so violently they swallowed the entire display.
"What the hell—?"
A burning pain tore through Ethan's head.
Not ordinary pain.
Not a headache.
It felt like his brain had been dunked into boiling oil.
His thoughts came apart. Signals misfired. Reality lurched.
Through the storm of warnings, he caught one final fragment of the simulation.
Rebecca shouted his name.
Then, between walls of red error text, the last message appeared:
---
Johnny Silverhand raised his gun and blew Dexter's head apart.
He stole the dead man's cigar, took a slow drag, and looked straight at you.
"Wake up, Samurai."
"We've got a city to burn."
---
The world tilted.
Consciousness began to break apart.
And in the final instant before darkness swallowed him, Ethan had only one thought left:
Johnny Silverhand… who the hell are you?
--------------------------------
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