Chapter 32: Rebecca’s Wine [Please Keep Reading]

Moonlight.

Beside the "Heart-to-Heart" club, which seemed wrapped in emerald neon, was a spot where drunks could catch a breeze and chat. The walls were decorated with rock-punk graffiti, and bursts of laughter drifted out from time to time.

Lin Yue gazed at the sky, a single large ice cube clinking in his drink as water droplets dripped onto his feet.

"Champagne should be drunk while it's still fizzy."

Rebecca leaned against the railing, slid over to Lin Yue's side, and took a large gulp of the fine wine, a look of satisfaction spreading across her face.

Lin Yue nodded, though the bitterness of the alcohol made his brow furrow slightly.

Rebecca teased him, "Eh... don't tell me you can't hold your liquor? How innocent."

Determined to prove her wrong, Lin Yue took a hearty swig of champagne, only for the bubbles to come fizzing out of his nose the next second.

Rebecca clutched her stomach and pointed at Lin Yue, laughing hysterically. "You show-off kid!"

Lin Yue coughed and wiped the champagne from the corner of his mouth. "You're more of a kid than I am."

Rebecca retorted, indignant, "Don't look down on me. I'm not that much younger than Pilar."

Lin Yue held his palm above his own head, then slowly moved it over to the black hair clips on Rebecca's pigtails, leaving the implication unspoken.

Without a word, Rebecca grabbed Lin Yue's clothes, trying to climb onto him to land a few punches on his head.

Having had her fun, Rebecca slumped onto the ground, swinging her legs. Feeling hot from the alcohol, she unzipped her jacket, revealing a beautiful, pale pink tattoo on her chest.

"Stare again and I'll pluck your eyes out!"

Lin Yue sheepishly looked away. He had just been curious about what the tattoo meant. Really.

In the distance, by a bonfire, several troubled customers danced with wine bottles in hand, as if it were possible to forget that this was Dogtown, a place littered with corpses.

"You're a really strange guy." Rebecca sounded as if she were talking to herself, or perhaps to Lin Yue. "Every time you work and see something new, you act like a rookie, yet your hands are incredibly skilled. Your head is full of endless tricks. You found a good boss in Dogtown and led us to make a fortune..."

"Pilar says you're too kind—like a scammer... You know, for a crew like ours, we don't usually get such steady work."

"It's been really comfortable lately."

?

Lin Yue thought to himself, *Wow, she sees right through me.*

Just as Lin Yue had perceived, Rebecca’s personality was merely a facade; she didn't care about anything on the surface, but in reality, she understood much more than she let on. The team could all feel the favoritism shown by their boss, "Rin."

As for Lin Yue’s constant curiosity, it was simply the shock of a reincarnated soul. Imagine it: when this city, laden with data streams and neon, manifests before your eyes, and all those futuristic tech, cyberware, and hacking skills—things that were once beyond reach—suddenly become deeply intertwined with your own life, shock is the most natural reaction of all.

"Is the military really that suffocating?"

"What?" Lin Yue realized Rebecca was likely asking about his predecessor's time in the Barghest. Although he possessed the original owner's memories, the feeling was detached, like watching a movie someone else starred in; Lin Yue felt no real connection to it.

"Maybe? I was just in Dogtown, training every day, running errands for Hansen—occasionally burying a few dead brothers. That's all." Lin Yue honestly recounted the general memories he had.

Rebecca made an "oh" sound and fell silent for a moment.

"Hey, jerk, how did you know my name?"

Lin Yue was speechless. What was he supposed to say?

Should he tell her not to get to know a boy named David Martinez? Not to let Maine install the Projectile Launch System? Not to let Dorio block trauma team bullets for her lover, or even better, not to let Pilar get close to a cyberpsycho who was currently relieving himself? Or should he tell her that he knew their entire life trajectories—that Rebecca would die beneath the Arasaka Tower, torn to pieces by Adam Smasher?

He couldn't say it. He was even lost regarding his own future.

This city blinded people with its cutting-edge technology and bizarre, kaleidoscopic life. No one could stay out of the mud and live unscathed.

"Did the boss tell you?" Rebecca didn't seem to expect an answer; everyone had secrets, and she understood that.

Lin Yue shook his head. "Maybe that person... mentioned it when he introduced your team?"

"That person?" Rebecca's large eyes were filled with confusion.

"Yeah, that guy came from the east side of Asia, a... hacker. The boss needed hands when he was looking for work, and that's how he knew your name." Lin Yue nodded inwardly. *Yes, Earth, the Chinese gamer Lin Yue.* It sounded perfectly reasonable.

Rebecca was sometimes quite simple; she actually nodded in acceptance of such a ridiculous excuse.

"No wonder you didn't snipe us when we were raiding that hacker den. So you weren't Hansen's man back then... The fixer Hands knew, sold you out, and then used you to bait us, is that it?"

Although Rebecca’s imagination didn't perfectly align with the facts, she got one thing right: Hansen wanted him dead, and Hands was baiting them.

Holding back was true, and being betrayed was true; Lin Yue hadn't realized that the Barghest were actually coming for him. It was at that moment—the severed arm, the scent of death—that Lin Yue truly accepted he was just a living soul at the bottom of Night City, not some high-and-mighty "gamer."

"Maine sent you, right?" Lin Yue didn't look at Rebecca; his mind raced, knowing what everyone was thinking. Right now, Rebecca’s doubts were likely Maine's doubts as well. There was no such thing as a free lunch. Lin Yue used the identity of "Rin" to find work for everyone and build wealth with zero cost. At least in Maine’s eyes, it was that mysterious fixer Rin, backed by corporate resources, who was handing out jobs—and the pay was quite generous. For cyberpunk mercenaries accustomed to licking blood off a blade, this was a sweet, sweet gig.

Rebecca felt a bit embarrassed. "My brother was right, you really are smart."

Lin Yue smiled and gently clinked his glass against hers.

"Dogtown is complicated. Hansen has his trusted people, like Yuri, or Gago who handles the books... and then there are the gangs: the Scavengers, the Animals, the Voodoo Boys... Do you want me to ask the boss to have us partner up with them?"

Lin Yue needed manpower to build his fortune, but Dogtown was a place of backstabbing, and he would never team up with gang scum.

"By the way, thanks for the money from Maine. Really." Lin Yue was genuinely grateful and had no intention of returning the transfer; sometimes, accepting someone's care was a form of politeness.

"If you want to thank him, do it in person." Rebecca was thoughtful. "But come to think of it, yeah! Those weirdos who play with the net—Maine and the rest of us have never dealt with them—"

"Rumor has it they only cause trouble on the net. That's what Sasha says."

Lin Yue froze. Rebecca assumed he didn't know Sasha.

"Oh! Forgot you didn't know. Our crew has a hacker, a... well, a very cute girl, like a cat." Rebecca introduced her nonchalantly, winking as she spoke. "What do you think? Want to meet such a cute chick?"

Lin Yue was defeated by this wild card.

"But Maine won't let her come to Dogtown. Sasha has called me a few times, and Dorio has received calls too." Rebecca sighed, hugging her knees as she spoke slowly next to Lin Yue. "It's hard to guess what she’s thinking. She's very smart, but Maine feels she shouldn't be in the cyberpunk business... Her sister looks down on us because she went to the police academy; she seems to want to join the NCPD."

*So that’s how it is,* Lin Yue understood. It seemed Sasha could have had a better life without turning to cyber-crime. He also understood Maine's thinking; as a sensitive big brother, he was likely just trying to protect her.

The two watched the moon in silence.

Rebecca muttered, "Regardless, don't do something stupid like jumping out to block bullets again—"

"Also, Maine said you've installed a lot of cyberware. You should stop for a while."

Lin Yue nodded, his expression serious. "Next time, you block them for me, but with your build..."

Rebecca gritted her teeth and jumped up!

Maine and the others walking out of the Heart-to-Heart club watched as Rebecca kept tapping Lin Yue on the head, while Lin Yue wore the dead-pig expression of someone whose skin was thick enough to take anything.

"They're at it again." Dorio shook her head, speechless. Maine chuckled, and Pilar stood by, carelessly puffing on his cigarette.

"You jerk, attacking my physique!"

Rebecca's indignant voice echoed over the lively bonfire at the Heart-to-Heart club...

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[Yuri]: A high-ranking member of the Barghest in the "A Day in the Life" side quest of the 2077 Phantom Liberty DLC.