Luxury?
No—this was far too luxurious.
Kiwi felt as if ten thousand wild horses were stampeding through her chest.
She pounced on the food like a starving beast, sweeping dish after dish into her mouth. In the blink of an eye, most of the table had been completely cleared.
Only after eating her fill did she finally leave Xiao's apartment, her stomach round and her expression utterly satisfied.
Not far from Xiao's residence, in a cramped and dimly lit basement, a tall girl with short white hair lay sprawled across a battered sofa, resentment written plainly across her face.
Her delicate features looked like a flower struck by frost—beautiful, yet drained of all vitality.
She was the "partner" Kiwi had mentioned.
A hacker as well, and Kiwi's proud disciple—Lucyna Kushinada, better known as Lucy.
Over the past few days, Lucy's phone had been connected to Kiwi almost nonstop. Naturally, she knew exactly what her master was doing at this very moment—relaxing in a bright, spacious luxury apartment, enjoying good food and fine drinks.
Meanwhile, Lucy herself was stuck hiding in a damp, shadow-filled basement, chewing on one-Eddie slices of cheap pizza and washing them down with garbage coffee that tasted like forty-two-proof cement mixed with melted plastic.
The contrast was so brutal it made her mood plummet straight into the gutter.
So, the very next day, Lucy decisively demanded a swap.
Today, she would be the one showing off her skills. Kiwi could take a break.
Xiao was briefly surprised by Lucy's arrival, but he quickly regained his composure.
He already knew that Lucy was Kiwi's disciple. When Kiwi had mentioned having a partner the day before, he had immediately guessed it would be her—the infamous Night City "Widow," the legendary netrunner from the Edgewalker days.
What he hadn't expected was that Lucy would dare to appear before him so openly.
After all, Lucy was a wanted criminal of Arasaka.
Every prosthetic in her body was a high-end Arasaka product.
More than that, Lucy herself had been trained by Arasaka as a so-called "miner," someone sent into the Old Net to excavate forbidden knowledge.
Later, when her companions were brutally killed by roaming AIs, she joined others in staging a rebellion, causing chaos inside an Arasaka facility before fleeing alone to Night City.
Since then, she had lived as a fugitive—keeping her head down, avoiding the central districts, never daring to expose herself so brazenly.
Yet Xiao immediately understood why she wasn't afraid.
His gaze caught on the prominent Mechanicus mark on Lucy's body—and it was clearly of a high rank.
Lucy's mark was different from that of ordinary believers.
It belonged to a special category: Kindhearted Person.
Unlike regular followers, Kindhearted Persons did not need to undergo the initiation rites of the Mechanicus. But that privilege came at a cost—tithes.
From the moment one gained that status, no matter what they earned, one tenth had to be paid to the church. If the gains couldn't be divided, they had to be compensated with an equivalent sum of money.
And while they skipped the initiation ceremony, Kindhearted Persons were still required to follow certain doctrines in order to receive the protection of the Mechanicus.
In truth, this group was sharply polarized.
Most were people who refused to be "brainwashed" but had been pushed into desperation by megacorporations. The rest were simply the wealthy—those who paid generously to buy peace of mind.
After all, aside from growing premium crops and breeding livestock, the Mechanicus' largest business was machine blessings.
Through devout prayer, priests could allow primal power to flow into machines, awakening the machine soul within.
The more active the machine soul, the stronger the protection and enhancement it granted. And when a machine soul was truly pleased, it could even defy physical laws—creating miracles out of thin air.
In this cyberpunk world, humanity had largely conquered disease and disability—but had gained new enemies in return.
Cyber viruses.
Like digital demons, they launched fundamental attacks on prosthetics, forcing them out of control. Tragedies where implants went berserk and burned their owners alive were not uncommon.
Yet under the protection of an awakened machine soul, even cyber viruses crafted by top-tier hackers struggled to breach that near-indestructible barrier.
Because of this, countless wealthy individuals regularly sought blessings from the Mechanicus, donating vast sums of money.
These people were labeled "Kindhearted Persons" by the priests—valuable benefactors and pillars of the church's expansion.
Naturally, Kindhearted Persons were divided into ranks.
The more they donated, the higher their level—and the stronger the protection they received.
Lucy was a second-level Kindhearted Person.
That meant she had donated at least over 100,000 eurodollars and could directly receive protection from Level-5 priests, with coverage exceeding fifty percent.
With the Mechanicus standing behind her, Lucy no longer needed to fear Arasaka's wanted list.
Even if Arasaka tried to make trouble, it would be meaningless. After all—who could prove Lucy wasn't a Mechanicus agent planted inside Arasaka?
As long as she didn't openly challenge the corporation, Arasaka could only pretend not to see her.
As for mercenaries?
Xiao snorted inwardly.
They didn't have the guts to touch a Kindhearted Person of the Mechanicus.
In Night City, even killing a Mechanicus priest usually wouldn't draw much attention beyond the victim's personal circle.
In a church that worshipped machinery and strength, defeat—or even death—was simply proof of one's inadequacy. Publicizing it would only bring shame.
But attacking a ranked Kindhearted Person?
That was another matter entirely.
Do that, and the Inquisition would come knocking that very night—like ghosts checking your water meter.
By then, death would be the least of your worries.
The Inquisition showed no mercy. They wouldn't stop until their target was torn apart and utterly erased.
Some mercenaries once thought the rumors were exaggerated.
They were wrong.
After killing a fourth-level Kindhearted Person who had donated tens of millions, they were visited the very next day by a high-ranking mechanical priest—Odson—and his entourage.
The mercenaries still clung to hope.
But it didn't take long for them to realize how badly they had misjudged the situation.
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