In Night City, Lucy might not count as a top-tier Netrunner. After all, the entire story of "Edgerunners" takes place outside the main plot line. Aside from David and Lucy, who had some talent, the rest of the squad were "edgerunners" in name only—completely incomparable to the black hands or V who slaughtered their way through Arasaka Tower.
But if placed in 2022, Lucy's theoretical level is undoubtedly a dimensionality-reducing attack. As long as she learns the current operating systems and adjusts the hardware compatibility, Ryu does not doubt her competence for the job—this amount of knowledge is effortless for a cyberbrain.
She was the first. Ryu had a grander plan: to use Cyberpunk as his talent base and build a team of genius Netrunners completely loyal to him!
Not only that, but elite scholars from other industries could also be brought over!
This sounded a bit fantastical, but the feasibility was extremely high. Because the living environment of the main world was paradise compared to Cyberpunk. As long as he could abduct them, no one would harbor dissatisfaction.
Arranging legal identities for them here would also be a piece of cake for the Kuse Group.
There were only two difficulties facing Ryu:
First, the target must trust him enough to agree to that dangerous "smuggling" process;
Second, the selection of targets must be cautious—better to go without than accept low quality!
Night City is a man-eating demon's den, true, and the people inside suffer greatly, also true, but not every one of them is innocent...
It would be like picking a few sane elites from greater India to be executives in your own company—honestly, the risk is unusually high!
(Damn it, Indian junkies are counted in the billions; Night City's ratio might not even be that high.)
Just look at the Americans and Brits next door!
Because of the [Villain] effect on Ryu, people attracted to him upon first meeting likely wouldn't be decent people... so he was destined to only look among acquaintances he had spent time with, which further narrowed his selection.
This is why he specifically chose to bring Lucy over—definitely not just because she is a beautiful girl!
Hmm, I'll bring the cat over in a while too~
"Let me introduce you. This is Lucyna Kushinada, a returnee. Her mother is Polish."
In the Kuse residence, Ryu calmly introduced the cybernetic girl to his family.
"She is a genius in network technology and vital for the company's upcoming development plans. I also had to rely on a long-standing friendship to invite her here."
"Nice to meet you, Uncle, Auntie. Just call me Lucy... Please take care of me."
The silver-haired girl bowed somewhat stiffly in the Japanese style. It was worth noting that she spoke English when touring the Medical Integration Organization earlier, but now she had switched to Japanese.
"Lucyna... is a good name. In Latin, it means bright, hope. Your parents must love you very much."
"..."
"I am Ryu-chan's mother. Since you are his friend, I hope you won't feel restricted here."
"Haha, how rare. When was the last time this guy brought a girl home, Kaede?"
"If you don't count Chika-chan, it must have been Ruri."
The middle-aged couple looked teasingly at Ryu and the awkward Lucy, but they didn't go overboard. After a moment, saying "leave the space to the young people," they left.
Ryu twitched his lips: "If I'd known, I would have let you stay in a hotel... Anyway, before your residence is sorted out, stay at my house for the time being."
"Okay." Lucy looked around absently.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing... It's my first time living in a place like this, I'm a bit unaccustomed to it."
"It's just a bit larger than an ordinary home, nothing special." Ryu signaled to the maid. "Let Ruri show you around the house. I ran around so many places today, I need to rest early. I have to go to work tomorrow."
Going to school, parents, home... these concepts were very strange to Lucy.
In the Cyberpunk era, not only was the value of human existence alienated, but various social relationships were also completely different. Educational resources were monopolized, almost everyone lived in rented housing, and parents and children became estranged.
For men and women, starting a family had become a risky endeavor, especially for people like mercenaries.
In the squad Lucy belonged to, the boss Maine and the big sister Dorio were very intimate, being both comrades and lovers. Lucy had no doubt they were in a relationship where they would die for each other—but even so, they still did not build a family, or even cohabit stably, deliberately avoiding that unreachable dream.
Therefore, seeing the normal interaction of the Kuse couple, she felt like netizens seeing a heartwarming story—feeling completely uncomfortable all over.
She was used to cold-blooded, dark stories...
"Miss Kushinada, please come this way."
"Okay, thank you... um, just call me Lucy, everyone does."
"You are Lord Ryu... the Young Master's honored guest. That would be too rude."
"Your name is Ruri, right? Don't mind that sort of thing, I really don't care~"
"Hehe~"
Ruri smiled amicably and asked, "Miss Lucy is a returnee; did you live in Poland before? I will ask the kitchen to prepare some local ethnic dishes from now on. Do you have any dietary restrictions or allergies? Any favorite dishes?"
"No... I guess I count as an American?" Lucy pondered for a moment. "There's nothing to watch out for in my diet. As long as it's food you guys can eat, I definitely have no problem with it."
"America... Okay, I understand."
Ruri frowned inadvertently, but Lucy didn't see it, and she quickly relaxed her expression.
This girl shouldn't be a dangerous person, and wouldn't threaten Lord Ryu and the Master and Madam... but she was definitely hiding something!
She made Ruri suspicious, huh. It couldn't be helped; after all, she was a person who popped out of thin air—Ryu looked at the backs of the two women leaving and couldn't help but smile.
He had already sent people to prepare Lucy's new identity. First, hire her under the title of "Foreign Expert," then process the immigration procedures. Fortunately, there were a bunch of makeshift setups in the Americas, so managing it was very simple.
Compared to the incompetent Japanese government, Rurikawa Tsubaki and his parents were actually harder to fool.
The Kuse couple definitely noticed something too, but at most they would think Lucy's background was unclear. They would never guess even if they died that this was a "future person" from a parallel world!
True identity or whatever, let's talk about it later~
If a worldview like Ultraman with all its gods and ghosts continued to invade, then in the future, the main world might see aliens, giant monsters, and Tiga every other day... Would a cyber girl really stand out among that lot?
He leisurely returned to his own room, closed his eyes to meditate for a moment, then casually took out a piece of white paper from the drawer, his gaze focused and composed.
Ding!
An invisible force withdrew from Ryu's body. There were no options exchanged—this time only the negative trait was completely cleared, and the young man immediately felt refreshed.
"[Stepping Stone] is finally gone..."
For these past two months, whether in the main world or Night City, he had been cautious, and finally, he had landed safely~
—Swish!
The golden hourglass turned; a new cycle was about to begin!
Immediately, standard font resembling laser printing emerged on it:
...
[System Card · Random]
[Current Theme: Have a Taste of Another World]
[Drawn 20 Points (Pseudo). Can be arbitrarily combined from the following options.
Positive buffs deduct points; selecting negative effects increases points.
Note: Please make a decision within twenty-four hours.
The effects of all options will last for one month.]
—Positive—
-12:
Otherworld Teleportation: Delicious in Dungeon (Limit: 30 Days)
-7:
[Channeling Spirit Descent], [God's Left Hand], [Lion's Heart]
-4:
[Basic Element · Three Times Daily], [Basic Enchantment · Three Times Daily], [Basic Healing · Three Times Daily]
-2:
[Dwarven Alcohol Tolerance], [Elven Hair], [Orcish Appetite]
—Negative—
+7:
[Lost Soul], [Frailty and Sickness], [Rusted Blade and Blunt Sword]
+4:
[Weakened Elemental Resistance], [Weakened Mental Resistance], [Weakened Physical Toughness]
+2:
[Merchant's Greed], [Noble's Arrogance], [Commoner's Dullness]
...
Hmm? A second Otherworld!
Ryu's eyes lit up. After seeing the name clearly, he was slightly stunned, and then Uncle Mads' little tune inexplicably began playing in his mind...
As a "Gourmet," if he was going to that world, he definitely had to prepare in advance—Sichuan peppercorns and star anise, he couldn't bring too little of those!
________________________________________
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