Chapter 23 - 21: The Author Hasn’t Thought It Out

Chapter 23: Chapter 21: The Author Hasn’t Thought It Out

"......"

"Why do you think the company created us test subjects in the first place? Because the Guard Team is short-staffed? No. Thousands of Dusk People in Night City are ready to die for a paycheck every single day — why would they bother spending a fortune manufacturing us?"

Zoe took a step forward. This time, Yin Zhen didn’t pull the trigger.

"Every female test subject in our batch was made for one person: Lucia Dracula — Bloodthorn, the youngest elder on the Eternal Council. She was parasitized by a Mutant on the West Coast. Her body is rotting away, slowly, but she refuses to die."

"The Saint Group just hit a major breakthrough in consciousness-transfer technology. They can move her mind into a new body. We’re all candidate vessels for Lucia. If it weren’t for someone— anyway, Lucia is out of time. If they can’t get their hands on me, they’ll come for you next!"

Yin Zhen tilted the barrel of her gun slightly downward. "You want me to run with you?"

Zoe reached out her hand. "Come with me. I’ll help you remove the chip from the back of your neck. We leave Night City together, head for Rebel Army territory — somewhere we don’t have to be vessels. Somewhere we can... be human."

Yin Zhen didn’t move. She had a rough idea of what the main storyline of the Red Corpse World was now — but that didn’t mean she was getting on Zoe’s train.

For Zoe to topple the Blood Clan’s rule and liberate the oppressed, she would have to sacrifice enormous numbers of people. When that time came, it wouldn’t just be cannon fodder dying — supporting characters, even major ones, would all be cut down to fuel Zoe’s growth.

Cannon fodder?

Try busloads. Try entire cities worth of bodies.

Besides, there was someone else occupying Yin Zhen’s attention far more right now.

Lucia Dracula.

The moment that name crossed her mind, a laugh welled up from somewhere deep in her chest — the kind she couldn’t have suppressed even if she’d tried.

Zoe blinked. "What’s so funny?"

"Nothing. Just... the strange feeling that I might actually be the main character here."

Assassinating Lucia was dangerous. Deadly. One wrong move and there’d be nothing left to bury.

But that adrenaline spike — that bone-deep thrill of dancing on the edge of a blade — it carved open a release valve for every drop of boredom, frustration, and suffocation she’d been bottling up these past few days.

She hadn’t gone looking for trouble. Trouble had found her.

And God help her, that kind of misfortune made her feel alive.

"I’m not leaving," Yin Zhen said.

Zoe stepped forward, voice urgent. "Do you understand what staying means?"

"Yes." Yin Zhen lowered her gun hand, though her finger stayed on the trigger. "I have my own business to take care of."

Zoe exhaled a disappointed sigh, gave a small nod, and turned to go.

"Wait — Zoe. Can you at least tell me how you escaped from Lucia in the first place?"

Zoe’s brow furrowed. She didn’t even know where to begin. It was complicated — it involved the Rebel Army mole embedded inside the Saint Group who had helped her from the shadows, someone she absolutely could not expose.

And she had people on her tail. She couldn’t afford to waste another second.

Before Zoe could open her mouth to refuse, Yin Zhen backed off and softened her tone.

"Zoe, there are still so many others like us inside the Saint Group. You don’t have to tell me everything — just the most critical part. Because if I run with you and we say nothing, S718, S719, all the ones after them — they’ll die because of what we did. We can’t be that selfish."

"I have to kill Lucia. I have to make the Saint Group and those nobles understand that consciousness transfer is a dead end. Even if it costs me my life — even if it only buys everyone a little time — to me, it’s worth it."

Zoe’s pupils trembled. Yin Zhen’s words had clearly struck her somewhere vital.

In a classic story, a protagonist with a noble heart would always cave to moral leverage. Always.

Yin Zhen watched Zoe’s expression carefully, ready to play her Good Person Card at a moment’s notice.

"You have a noble soul," Zoe said, a look of shame crossing her face. "Compared to you, I really am too selfish."

Yin Zhen quietly let out a breath. Good — the Good Person Card could stay in reserve for later.

Zoe reached into her pocket and tossed Yin Zhen a syringe about as thick as a finger. "This will dramatically boost your spiritual power, keeping your mind sharp and strong even under sedation. You need to inject it twelve hours in advance. The effect builds gradually and peaks at the twelfth hour."

"The boost comes with severe headaches and hallucinations. Saint Group equipment can’t detect it — for now. As long as you can tear Lucia apart on a mental level using your spiritual power, she’ll die. But... Dracula’s people will absolutely make you pay for it."

[Obtained: Spirit Enhancement Agent Y-7 Type]

Yin Zhen caught the syringe with one hand, the light in her eyes burning with startling intensity.

Zoe pressed her lips together, then added, "There’s a mechanic shop on Night City East Lower District Ninth Street called Rusted Nail. If you ever need help, go find the owner and tell him, ’An unyielding will is the Source of life.’ He’ll take care of you."

[Golden Event Card "Defection" has been updated to "Fateful Encounter"]

[Event Details: The author hasn’t figured this out yet. (Here, take the pen — this plotline wasn’t in the outline. Absolutely unbelievable.)]

Zoe stepped back, and her body began to dissolve into water.

"I hope the next time we meet, you’re still the same person you are At this moment — the one with a noble soul..."

Bang!

A gunshot cracked out of nowhere from the darkness. Zoe’s eyes flew wide. A horrifying hole exploded open in her forehead, blood erupting from the back of her skull — and the sphere of water encasing them both detonated outward.

Yin Zhen spun around instantly, snapping Super Sensing online and driving all five senses to their absolute limit.

She caught a blurred silhouette — someone with a sniper rifle, perched on a rooftop impossibly far away. The glare of the neon lights made it impossible to tell if they were male or female.

But Super Sensing told her one thing clearly: that was not the Bloodthorn Squad, and it was not a pursuit operative.

The figure vanished as quickly as it had appeared. When Yin Zhen turned back around, she saw blood-streaked water spreading in all directions, soaking rapidly into the ground.

That shot hadn’t killed Zoe. But she was badly hurt — no question about it.

Who wanted Zoe dead badly enough to take that shot?

Even the Bloodthorn Squad and the Saint Group would want Zoe taken alive for Lucia Dracula’s sake. That was the whole point.

Zoe was a test subject. She’d only existed for roughly eight days since her creation. What kind of enemy could she have possibly made in that time?

Unless... a Player?

A Player with their own exclusive Event Card?

And did that Player even know that the target they were trying to kill was this world’s main character?

Yin Zhen’s thoughts buzzed into a chaotic mess. She forced every scrap of curiosity and confusion back down and fixed her gaze on the bloodstain Zoe had left behind.

Super Sensing was still active. With Zoe’s second escape, the drones overhead had already dispersed. The security camera at the alley entrance made no electrical hum — broken. No other scents, no sounds of movement anywhere nearby.

Yin Zhen moved fast. She crouched down and pressed her fingertip into Zoe’s blood, then brought it to her mouth.

A moment passed...

[resonance Failed. (What exactly did you think was going to happen? Go home, go to sleep — you can have whatever you want in your dreams.)]

The bloodstain on the ground swiftly corrected itself under some powerful, unseen will — every drop turning back into water, leaving no trace that might endanger this world’s protagonist.

Yin Zhen stood up and looked toward the direction Zoe had fled. Under normal circumstances, she should put a bullet in herself right now — fake a failed interception.

But as the next most viable vessel candidate in this batch after Zoe, she no longer needed to bother.

Yin Zhen pocketed the Medicine and her gun and walked away. She had barely turned the corner out of the alley when she walked straight into someone.

Adeline!