North Oak — Night City's true haven for the rich.
No poverty. No gangs. Just power and privilege.
Perched on a northeastern mountain slope, it was the city's last oasis of untouched green. Forests stretched across the hillsides, and crystal-clear streams wound through vast private estates.
This was the only place in Night City where clean air and nature weren't just a memory — but a luxury reserved for the ultra-elite.
If your bank account ended in more zeroes than you could count, this place welcomed you with open arms.
A Delamain taxi glided to a smooth stop in front of Mansion No. 7.
The door opened with a soft hiss, and Lin Mo stepped out.
"Thank you for choosing Delamain. Wishing you a pleasant evening," the AI intoned, before disappearing back down the road.
At the estate gates, a surveillance camera pinged his identity.
The sleek security system responded with a hum, and the gates parted in silence.
Inside the property, armed drones patrolled the grounds, while hidden ADU turrets nestled beneath rooftops and flowerbeds. A powerful ICE firewall cocooned the estate's entire network in digital armor.
It was overkill for two people.
But Lin Mo and Xu Wanxue had lived alone in this place ever since her promotion.
She was no longer just the head of R&D at Kang Tao.
Now, she was Vice President of QianTi Corporation's Night City Division.
Top-tier corpo class. An executive among executives.
Lin Mo had barely set foot inside when a call came through.
Xu Wanxue's face appeared in his retinal projection.
"Lin Mo, what's going on? You skipped class again?"
She looked exhausted, her tone a mixture of frustration and helpless affection.
"I just wanted to come home early. You know I've already mastered everything they're teaching. Sitting around until night learning nothing? Not really my style," Lin Mo said calmly.
She sighed. "Fine… I won't push you. But heads up — I've got overtime again tonight. I probably won't be home."
Her voice was tired. But then he heard it — a sharp inhale. Familiar. Too familiar.
"You're taking stims again?!" Lin Mo's eyes narrowed.
He'd once thought that the higher Xu Wanxue rose, the easier her life would become.
But this was Night City. And in a world ruled by corpos, the grind never stopped.
"Can't help it. We're in a critical phase of an R&D project. I need to be there constantly.
If we succeed, QianTi's stock will soar — and I'll finally have more time for you.
Actually… maybe we could take a trip back to China. What do you think?"
She was clearly wired — high on stims — but her tone still softened when she spoke to him.
"I'll pass. I've still got things to do here in Night City," Lin Mo replied.
"Alright, alright, I get it… My little hero itching to play street samurai again? Off to right wrongs and smite injustice?" she teased.
Lin Mo just smirked. "So what's the big project your team's working on?"
"That's classified. Not that I don't trust you — I just don't want you getting dragged into any trouble. If one of our competitors caught wind of what you know and decided to abduct you…" she trailed off with a grimace.
"Let me guess. It's the Sandevistan project, isn't it?"
She froze. Then: "Oh for fuck's sake. How do you always—?!
Ugh, I shouldn't have said anything!
Damn it, your instincts are always dead-on…"
"I just made a logical deduction," Lin Mo said, satisfied. "Anyway, tomorrow's Sunday. I might head out for a bit. Don't worry — I'll be back before you are, no overnight stunts. If that's all, I'll let you get back to work."
"Just promise me you'll take a Delamain. Our competitors are circling like vultures.
And you're the only family I've got in this city…" she said, eyes soft with concern.
"I'll be fine."
After a few more words, they hung up.
Lin Mo slumped into the couch, unmoving.
His face was still, but his mind was racing.
And then… he smiled. Broadly.
Images flashed through his memory — iconic cyberware from the game.
But his mind always circled back to one implant.
The foundation of every melee build. The king of speedtech.
QianTi Sandevistan Mk. IV.
The Sandevistan line of speedware had first been developed during the Fourth Corporate War in the 2020s.
A technological milestone.
The kind of gear that could only exist in a cutthroat dystopia like Cyberpunk's — where constant warfare between megacorps fueled an arms race of one-man superweapons.
Sandevistans were one of its greatest products.
With a simple neural trigger, the user would enter a state of localized time dilation — slowing the world around them while maintaining full speed themselves.
That's why they were called speedware.
To others, it looked like the user had become a ghost slipping between seconds — moving in slow time, striking at full speed.
While everyone else crawled, you moved like lightning.
For a few seconds… you were a god.
Elite mercs, corpo spec-ops, top-tier killers — all relied on Sandevistans.
And for years, they had been dominated by just two corporations:
Dynalar and Zetatech.
In Cyberpunk 2077, Zetatech manufactured the Mk.I to Mk.III.
Dynalar covered Mk.I to Mk.IV.
Those were the best on the market.
But in the later stages of the game, QianTi released their top-tier Mk.IV and Mk.V "Reality Bender" series.
And Militech introduced the legendary Mk.V "Peregrine."
In this reality, only up to Mk.III had been released so far.
Which meant the cutting-edge tech was still in development.
And now, thanks to his sister's slip-up… Lin Mo knew the Mk.IV was coming.
"No wonder Dynalar and Zetatech stopped at Mk.III.
They got leapfrogged by QianTi and Militech," Lin Mo mused.
"I better write this down."
He jotted it into his digital notebook.
Then, since Xu Wanxue wouldn't be home, he microwaved a single-serving dinner — some synth food from the upgraded vending machine.
Ever since they'd gotten rich, even the vending machine outside their front door had gone top-shelf.
BDs, meals, drinks, ammo — everything could be ordered in seconds.
Drone delivery, no fuss.
The ultimate NEET survival rig.
He even remembered one time the machine had two strange buttons.
Press one, and a joyboy would show up to game with you.
Press the other, and it'd be a joygirl.
He only saw it once.
The next day, Xu Wanxue had the whole thing overhauled.
"Bad for a teenager's development," she said.
"Unacceptable."
After eating, Lin Mo pulled out his simulator and checked his stats:
[Current Character Stats]
Body: 4
Reflexes: 10 (Human Limit — further improvement requires cyberware)
Tech: 3
Intelligence: 4
Cool: 4
Over the past eight years, he hadn't slacked.
Even after being forced to attend school, he trained whenever he could.
He'd manually increased both Body and Intelligence by 1 point.
The other +3 points — which he used on Reflexes — came from simulator rewards.
That jump had pushed him to 10 Reflexes.
And it taught him a truth he couldn't ignore:
Humans have limits.
Without cyberware or help from the simulator, further growth would be near impossible.
Through trial and error, he figured out how to gain attribute points: Combat simulations.
Every time a battle scenario appeared in the text-based BD runs, there was a chance for a stat reward.
By using training chips and simulating combat in virtual space, he'd earned three points that way.
But after that?
Nothing.
The rewards stopped.
His guess?
The fights were too low-stakes.
To keep growing, he'd need real combat.
After all, the simulator wasn't going to let him become some cheap "Level 1 sword saint" just by grinding in the safe zone.
Still — with Reflexes at 10, the human ceiling — he'd reached the top of unaugmented potential.
"Below me… are only peers and prey."
.
.
.
📢 System Booting… Welcome, Chooms! 📢
My Cyberpunk 2077 Simulator is now live with 20+ chapters ahead on Patreon! 💻🔥Dive deeper into Night City, level up faster, and stay ahead of the game with exclusive early access! 🧠⚙️
🔗 Join here: www.patreon.com/c/MrMagnus👤 Patreon name: SrMagnus
Thank you for your support, and remember—chrome up, never back down. 🌆💥