Chapter 98 - 93: I Just Owe You

Chapter 98: Chapter 93: I Just Owe You

Yin Zhen finished reading the entire letter aloud to Zoe, then pushed down the strange feeling stirring in her chest. "This is Ian’s farewell letter to you. He doesn’t want you putting yourself in danger."

Zoe’s eyes were glassy with unshed tears. "But why did he write it in a language I can’t read?"

"He was worried the letter might be intercepted. He knew..." Yin Zhen paused for a moment. "He knew I was by your side and could translate it for you."

Zoe nodded and pressed the communicator against her chest, right over her heart.

"May... are we really just going to... leave him?"

Yin Zhen placed a hand firmly on Zoe’s shoulder and looked her in the eye. "Zoe, this is your story. The decision has to be yours. But whatever you choose, I’ll be fighting right beside you."

With that, Yin Zhen walked off to the side and sat down alone, leaving Zoe space to think.

She reopened the forum. The thread already had quite a few replies.

[Lucia is with the Rebel Army]

— posted by Xian Yu Not Idle.

[Naming is Too Troublesome]: What do you mean? Xian Yu, where are you? Why aren’t you responding to squad messages?

[Signal Not Good]: Did something happen to Xian Yu?

[Ye Se Walks Alone]: Are you saying Lucia is a Player?

[Guan City Native]: I have no idea what you guys are talking about. What’s a squad message? You can form squads? How come I don’t have that feature?

[Stayed Up All Night]: I’ve been catching up on Night City intel — isn’t Lucia the captain of that Bloodthorn Squad in the Guard Team?

[Wind Rises]: Bloodthorn Squad is gone. I just finished collecting their bodies this afternoon. (yawns)

[Stayed Up All Night]: You’re not serious, are you? Bloodthorn Squad was elite — the best the Night City Guard Team had. Who the hell could take them out?

[Naming is Too Troublesome]: It’s true. Lucia went missing three days ago. The Guard Team has been scrambling ever since — raiding Rebel Army hideouts. White Phosphorus, Bloodthorn Squad’s vice-captain, was leading the operation. But this afternoon, the Rebel Army killed them.

[I Want to Quit]: So is Xian Yu saying Lucia got kidnapped by the Rebel Army, or that she actually joined them? If I go tip off the Guard Team about Lucia’s whereabouts, do I get a reward?

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: No reward. They’ll ask where you got your information. When you can’t answer, get ready to sit in the electric chair.

[Wind Rises]: Holy shit! I almost went and did it. Good point — the Guard Team’s higher-ups already know we Players exist. I’m just going to keep my head down and keep doing my corpse-collecting thing in Night City.

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: Lucia is a piece of trash! Why does anyone care about her!

[Guan City Native]: You got a grudge with Lucia or something?

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: No grudge. I just can’t stand her!

In Adeline’s penthouse apartment, she was leaning against the floor-to-ceiling window, staring out at the skyline of buildings and billboards, lost in thought — and then, all at once, her irritation boiled over.

"Ugh, fine! I owe you one!"

Adeline opened the forum again and sent Nan Jiamu a private message.

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: Form a squad. I’ve got something to tell you all.

Barely a moment after she sent it, Adeline received a squad invitation from Nan Jiamu. She accepted, and a squad chat channel appeared in her System Panel.

Adeline tried to view the previous chat history, but access was blocked.

[Winter Night Fire]: What’s going on with Lucia?

Bai Qiang’s Identity in the Red Corpse World was already public knowledge — all of Nan Jiamu’s squad members knew.

But Blossoming Prosperity’s Identity in the Red Corpse World was known to no one except Bai Qiang.

Adeline had no idea what Blossoming Prosperity was up to or why she’d suddenly gotten tangled up with the Rebel Army. But Bai Qiang felt a twinge of guilt toward her. After turning it over in her mind, she decided to cover for her — at least for now — and keep her Identity from being exposed.

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: That’s actually why I joined — to tell you about this. Lucia is on a covert mission. I’m worried she might interfere with whatever you’re planning next.

[Winter Night Fire]: What about your other half? Is she joining the squad?

Adeline inwardly sighed. So Nan Jiamu was already suspicious.

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: Can’t you tell? She’s a hopeless introvert. Stop trying to drag her into things.

[Winter Night Fire]: (thinking) Didn’t you say you barely knew her?

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: (cursing) That was said in anger, okay?! I didn’t mean it!

[Winter Night Fire]: Turn on the comm bracelet I gave you. The action plan is finalized — I’ll send it over.

The forum chat only supported text and emotes. No maps or other files could be transmitted.

Reading that message, Adeline let out a short, amused snort. Oh, so you want to track my location, do you?

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: Turning it on right now. My other half is taking a bath — I’ll remind her to turn hers on once she’s done. Don’t rush me.

[Signal Not Good]: What do we do about Xian Yu?

[Winter Night Fire]: She’s probably raised suspicions with someone in the Rebel Army. She’s still alive for now. I’ll go get her — don’t worry.

After leaving the squad chat channel, Adeline immediately sent a private message to Blossoming Prosperity.

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: Winter Night Fire is suspicious of your Identity. I’ve already covered for you. Handle the rest yourself!

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: Don’t thank me. Your big sis is just more mature and magnanimous than certain people — I don’t throw childish tantrums!

In the ruined stadium.

Yin Zhen read Bai Qiang’s private message and couldn’t help but smile. "Who’s the childish one, exactly?"

The message right before Bai Qiang’s was one from Nan Jiamu, asking her to activate the comm bracelet and receive the action plan.

Yin Zhen ignored it for now. She’d turn it on later, once she was back in Night City — specifically from outside Adeline’s building. That was the safest play.

The immediate problem was Ella. If Nan Jiamu rescued Ella before the operation and Ella told Nan Jiamu what had happened today, Nan Jiamu would almost certainly figure out that Lucia and Blossoming Prosperity were the same person.

Lucia showing up in Rebel Army territory was one thing — Blossoming Prosperity showing up there was a different matter entirely. Especially since Ella had seen her, and everyone knew how close Blossoming Prosperity and Zoe were.

Kill Ella?

The thought flashed through Yin Zhen’s mind for just a second before she dismissed it. When there was no other choice, she could do whatever it took to see her goals through — kill anyone without hesitation. But when there was a choice, she preferred to keep a little less of her comrades’ blood on her hands.

Before this round was over, Ella couldn’t stay here.

After nightfall, Yin Zhen sought out Jenny. After a friendly round of negotiations, she swore herself into the Rebel Army’s ranks, offering up intelligence on several Extraordinary Ability User squad leaders from the Guard Team as her initiation offering.

Jenny agreed to let her temporarily leave the hideout and go back to Night City to lay low and wait for further word.

Zoe walked her to the edge of the abandoned outpost. She was still torn, unable to reach a decision.

"Zoe, what is Ian to you?" Yin Zhen asked.

Zoe shook her head. "I don’t know. He’s one of the people who created me. He taught me so much, let me out of the lab, gave me life and a way forward. According to the books, that should make him... a father?"

Zoe shook her head again.

"But not quite. I can’t think of him as an elder. He matters deeply to me — if I just stood by and watched him die without doing anything, I’d be devastated. I’d hate myself. But there’s also this voice inside me saying: listen to Ian. He’s right. I shouldn’t go after him. I should go destroy the Source of all this evil — that’s my purpose."

"That’s your head and your heart fighting each other," Yin Zhen said quietly. "That’s completely normal. The fundamental difference between Wisdom beings and androids is that we have emotions — we can’t make purely rational decisions." 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

Zoe dropped her gaze and stayed silent for a long moment.

The night wind swept through the ruins, stirring up pale gray dust. At the far edge of the city, the glow of neon signs bled across half the sky — like a fire that would never burn out.

"May, what would you do if it were you?"

"I wouldn’t let someone else make the decision for me," Yin Zhen said. "And you don’t need to either."

"That sounds like you said everything and nothing at the same time." Zoe muttered, deflated.

Yin Zhen smiled, picked up a small piece of scrap iron from the ground, and used her dagger to scratch a word on each side — "save" and "don’t save."

"Zoe, since you can’t decide, let fate do it. I’ll flip it. Whatever side faces up — you go with that."

Without waiting for Zoe to respond, Yin Zhen flicked the iron coin into the air.

Zoe’s eyes chased it automatically, watching it spin end over end in the air — just like her heart at this moment, tumbling up and down, back and forth, with no idea which side it would land on.

The iron coin came down, and Yin Zhen slapped her hand over it on the back of her wrist, covering it.

Zoe stared at that hand, her fists clenching tight with nerves.

But Yin Zhen didn’t lift her hand. She just looked at Zoe with a smile. "You already have your answer, don’t you?"

Zoe froze. Yin Zhen was right. The moment she saw the iron coin get covered, the scales inside her had already tipped.

What she’d been hoping for, what she’d been afraid of — it was all crystal clear now.

Zoe’s eyes went red. She stepped forward and pulled Yin Zhen into a hug, holding on tight.

"Thank you, May. Thank you for teaching me all of this. You and Ian are the most important people in the world to me."

She buried her face in the crook of Yin Zhen’s shoulder, her voice coming out muffled.

"I know what I’m choosing."