There's an old saying that there's only one path worth walking in Night City, and that's the path to the afterlife.

As long as you're a mercenary, once you step through this threshold, sooner or later everything in Night City will open up to you.

As a bar and club, the Afterlife has a place in the Night City mercenary circle as much as the heart, and all the top mercenaries and first-class middlemen of the big names come here to relax or negotiate an important business.

This place does the biggest business in Night City, and it has the most zero contract pay.

When you come here, you'll find all sorts of bigwigs, such as the legendary middleman Rog, Night City's best broker, Dexter DeShaun, and the guy who once drank with Morgan Blackhand......

Of course, there is a prerequisite for everything, and that is that you must be famous enough on the streets.

Otherwise, even if you walk to the door of the next life, you can only eat a closed door.

As the most legendary top mercenary in the past six months, Vincent naturally has this qualification.

After receiving a message from Watson District middleman Regina Jones, he quickly gathered the team that night.

That's right, as the old police officer said, after a lone wolf career for half a year, Vincent began to miss the days when he was paired with his good brother Jack Wilson.

So, in order to continue to cooperate with his good brothers, he deliberately formed a team.

And the members of the team naturally want to pick the roles he is familiar with.

Coincidentally, the current Night City is the year 2076, and the characters in the anime "Edge Walker" are still alive.

Vincent thought about it for a moment, and simply approached Mann directly, and used the resounding name of the Living Hades of Night City to recruit them.

When they first met V, Mann and his team were thrilled.

That cyber Lori Rebecca even went directly to Vincent in person to ask for an autograph.

But then, hearing Vincent's request, Mann and his team began to hesitate.

After all, although V's name is loud, it is a lone wolf, and once the team is co-opted, the position of the boss will change hands.

Lucy, Rebecca, Dorio, Kivi, Pila, Falco......

These team members are accustomed to Mann being in charge and identify with Mann as a leader.

At this time, someone suddenly jumped out and said, 'You all have to forget with me', even if this person is a famous V, they will definitely not agree immediately.

In order to completely integrate this team, Vincent took a lot of effort.

What about sharing prosthetic access channels, customizing military-grade prosthetics, introducing them to Night City's most awesome middlemen, taking them to the afterlife bar to meet the world, and single-handedly killing cyberpsychosis in front of them......

All kinds of means of giving sweet dates and showing muscles were used in one go, and only then did they succeed in subduing them.

Of course, when it comes to acceptance, it is actually a bit reluctant.

It should be said that they all saw a bright future after joining Vincent, so they will jump ship as a team.

After getting Mann's team done, Vincent set his sights on David Martinez, the protagonist of the anime "Cyberpunk: Edgerunner".

Although this guy is young, he is physically gifted and can withstand many powerful prosthetics in the laboratory.

The most rare thing is that he is still a rare pure love party in Night City, which makes his prosthetic ability to withstand a new level.

If you ask what the relationship between the two is, then all I can say is that love is the highest level of suppressant in Night City......

In the original anime, David ends up dying under the Arasaka Tower, becoming the youngest legend in Night City.

Although his most legendary deeds are nothing more than his death at the hands of Adam Hammer, which is completely incomparable to V, who singled out Arasaka Tower, V is the protagonist of the game and the most special existence in Night City.

As long as he is eliminated, David in the later period can indeed be regarded as one of the top mercenaries in Night City.

So, Vincent decided to recruit David as his younger brother in advance.

It just so happened that David's mother, Gloria, often traded ill-prosthetics with Mann, and Vincent used this connection to find the contact information and home address of David's family.

But alas, when Vincent came to the door, David had already suffered his worst day.

His mother, Gloria, was seriously injured by a street gang and bullied by his classmates himself, and is now in a moment of great uncertainty about the future and the world.

In the original book, David's mother was sent to an underground clinic at this time, but because they had no money, they had to choose the cheapest medical package.

Of course, David's mother failed to rescue and was sent directly to cremation by the cheapest package.

When David returned to the clinic again, he saw a jar of cold ashes.

He didn't even get to see his mother for the last time, and he was clearly arranged by this cyber society......

It was precisely because of this experience that David's ignorant anger and rebellion were aroused, and he embarked on the path of a marginal walker.

But in this world, the powerful and reliable Uncle V appeared in front of him in time.

As a time-traveler who has watched the anime, Vincent felt that David's mother's death was a problem, and thought that the doctor might have colluded with the scavenger, and after curing David's mother, he sold her prosthetic body.

Thinking of this, Vincent didn't say a word, kicked open the iron door, and led David into the underground prosthetic doctor's clinic.

Sure enough, the prosthetic doctor was standing next to the operating table, haggling with a gang of scavengers over the phone.

Standing outside the operating room, David heard the full conversation between the prosthetist and the scavenger, and his chest welled up with anger.

Seeing this scene, Vincent not only did not stop him, but handed him a pistol.

David didn't hesitate to take it, pointing it at the prosthetic doctor's head through the glass.

Just as he was full of anger and was about to pull the trigger, a trace of hesitation suddenly rose in his heart.

Vincent didn't verbally urge or bewitch David, but smiled and patted him on the shoulder, took the gun from his hand, and then raised it without raising his head, and pulled the trigger decisively.

"Bang!"

A gunshot rang out, and the prosthetic doctor was killed instantly.

Vincent stuffed the pistol into David's arms, smiled and said no thanks, and then called Mann and others outside the door, took David's mother away from the operating table, and rushed to the clinic of 'V's stepfather' Victor.

David looked at Vincent's back as he walked out of the clinic in the sun, and an indescribable desire and impulse rose in his heart.

- He's going to be like V!

As a result, David dropped out of Arasaka Academy and joined Vincent's team.

To this day, he is still the most admired little fan of Vincent in the team.

……

……

In the evening, Night City begins to stir.

In the lower part of Watson, the dimly lit staircase doorway leading to the Afterlife Bar is the roar of engines from far and near.

The two big men in charge of security turned around, and the high-end prosthetic eyes flashed through the data stream, scanning the three expensive silver-gray Type 66 Avengers driving in front of them.

After the scanning was completed, the two big men glanced at each other and regained their composure.

Soon, three silver-gray Avengers stopped at the door of the afterlife bar.

Vincent pushed the door open and got out of the car with the strong man in the co-pilot.

"Knock knock—"

Vincent knocked on the window of the car next to him, and when the window was rolled down, he looked at his companion in the car and whispered:

"It's still the same, I'll go in with Jack, you guys are guarding outside, and if there is any situation, get out of the car immediately and take care of it!"

Counting Vincent and Jack Wilson, there are nine people on the team.

Unless it's a big car, two cars won't fit.

So in general, Vincent, Jack, and David are in a car, and Mann, Pila, Rebecca, and Dolio are in a car.

Falco, the best ex-wanderer on the team, usually shares a car with two hackers, Lucy and Qiwei.

At this time, sitting in the back seat of the mann car are Rebecca and Pila, a pair of living siblings.

And Rebecca is an extremely rare cyber loli among mercenaries, with a high degree of prostheticism all over her body, her skin has been modified to light cyan, and her eyes are like anime characters, showing colorful colors.

At this time, she was holding a lollipop in her mouth, her hands were pillowed behind her head, her legs were on the passenger seat, she glanced at Vincent and Jack at the window and said with a big grin: "Boss, no! ”

"This is the afterlife, who dares to make trouble here?"

Pila next to him smiled, put his arm on his sister's shoulder and said, "You don't know this, the boss is not afraid that something will happen to him in the next life, but that something will happen to him in the next life!" ”

"Alright, you two!"

Mann glanced at them in the rearview mirror, then turned to look at Vincent and nodded.

"Don't worry, Boss."

"You're still reliable!"

Vincent patted Mann on the shoulder with emotion, then turned and walked towards the door of the Afterlife Bar.

Jack smiled and punched Mann, turning to follow Vincent's footsteps.

At the same time, David, who got out of the car, also hurriedly walked over.

"Eh, eh!" Vincent grabbed his arm and said angrily, "Didn't you say, I'll go in with your big brother Jack, and you stay outside to help us." ”

"But ......"

Before David finished speaking, Jack smiled and grabbed David's shoulders and whispered, "Don't do it, there is one less person in Falco's car, you hurry in to protect Lucy...... This is an opportunity specially reserved for you by your brothers, you have to seize it! ”

As he spoke, Jack smiled and winked at him.

David was a little embarrassed for a while, and said hesitantly: "I, I didn't mean that to her." ”

Jack patted David on the shoulder with his big hand and laughed, "Come on, you like Lucy, who can't see it!" ”

"If you want me to say, love will be boldly spoken, like you hide it, if you die one day, won't you regret it for the rest of your life?"

David was stunned for a moment.

Vincent glared at Jack angrily, then smiled and patted David on the shoulder, "Go ahead." ”

With that, Vincent turned around, took a step, and walked with Jack into the stairs at the entrance of the Afterlife Bar.

David looked at the backs of the two in a daze, then looked back at the car where Lucy was, hesitated slightly, gritted his teeth and walked away.

(End of chapter)