David followed the glimpse of white, his eyes locking onto its source—a young woman with short hair, pink at the roots and fading to white at the tips. She looked to be in her early twenties, wearing a cropped jacket over a tight black leather bodysuit. Her makeup was dark and smoky, her features strikingly beautiful.
"She's gorgeous."
That was David's first thought.
Then, he noticed something odd about her movements.
She seemed to be deliberately drifting closer to a group of Arasaka employees on the metro.
"David?"
Oliver's voice snapped him out of it. He turned, meeting Oliver's puzzled expression.
"We were asking if you have any food preferences—what's got you so distracted?"
"Sorry," David quickly apologized. "I spaced out for a second."
"What were you looking at?"
Oliver followed David's line of sight but only saw a few Arasaka corpo grunts chatting amongst themselves. He smirked.
"Checking them out, huh? Well, makes sense. If all goes as planned, you'll be working there after graduation."
"Wonder how much Arasaka employees make a month."
Jack also glanced at the corpo workers, shaking his head.
"Even here, on the metro, they're still talking about work. No downtime at all."
"Can't be that much," Karl muttered, rubbing his stomach.
He was starving. His meals at Arasaka Academy were kept simple to maintain his cover—just bread and synthetic milk, both for breakfast and lunch. It wasn't nearly enough to keep up with his energy demands.
"Honestly, I'm more concerned about what we're gonna eat. So, David, got any food restrictions? I'm ordering takeout now—by the time we get to my place, the delivery drone should have it waiting at the door."
"Food restrictions...?"
David thought for a moment.
"Nope, I'll eat anything."
"Good. You know, first time ordering takeout, I just realized—there's a price difference between human and drone delivery. The drone costs way more. Practically the same price as the food itself."
Karl's complaint was met with Oliver's pragmatic response.
"Check the terms for both options. If a human courier screws up your order, they're not responsible for it. But if a drone delivers it, the company takes full responsibility. It's more expensive, but at least you're guaranteed to get your food."
"Guaranteed how?"
"Even if the courier gets flatlined on the way, another drone will take over and make sure your order arrives on time."
"So if a human dies, tough luck—both the food and the guy are gone. But if a drone gets wrecked, another just picks up where it left off?"
Karl thought it over. He was starving, and he didn't want to risk any delays. Paying extra for a sure thing was worth it.
"Alright, I'll get a few pizzas—no, wait, that might be too filling. Fried rice sounds better, goes well with meat. And maybe some—"
As Karl muttered to himself, David turned his attention back to where he had seen the woman earlier.
The pink-white-haired woman had already moved through the crowd, now standing directly behind the Arasaka employees.
Then, David saw a flicker in her cybernetic eyes.
"Click."
There was no sound.
But David saw it.
At the nape of each Arasaka employee's neck, in the slot where their cyberware chips were inserted, a small chip ejected from each one.
David didn't recognize what kind of chips they were.
But he did see how fluidly the woman's hand moved, catching each chip in midair like she had done this a hundred times before.
"A thief."
David immediately understood what was happening.
She had hacked into their systems, triggered the data ports in their neural interfaces, and forced the chips to eject—then swiped them effortlessly.
The chips embedded in corporate employees were never worth less than a hundred eddies—and that was the bare minimum. For Arasaka employees, especially those with firearm-related augmentations, some chips could sell for thousands.
David watched as the pink-white-haired woman stole them, but he didn't say a word.
Because this was Night City.
This kind of thing happened every day. There was nothing surprising about it—especially when the victims were corpo employees.
The only thing that caught David off guard was that someone so beautiful was pulling this kind of job.
He turned his head away, deciding not to stare at her any longer.
When you were having a conversation, you couldn't keep getting distracted.
But just as he looked away, the pink-white-haired woman felt his last glance.
She scanned the area and quickly noticed the Arasaka Academy uniform on his back.
"Arasaka."
Her cybernetic eyes flashed, scanning him and immediately locking onto his Arasaka Academy ID.
Identity confirmed.
If he was Arasaka, then...
The pink-white-haired woman took a step closer to David.
From her perspective, all she could see was the back of a young Arasaka Academy student standing in front of her.
The metro was crowded. She noticed he was talking to someone, but due to her angle, she could only see the person directly in front of him—a blond-haired man in his twenties with a thin mustache.
No visible threat.
But even if he was a threat, it didn't matter.
She was experienced. She knew how to mask her movements in a crowd. The moment she forced his chip to eject, the only risk was that it might be visible for a split second—just long enough for the blond man to maybe notice.
But even if he saw it, he wouldn't have time to react.
At most, he'd think he was seeing things.
And by the time he realized what happened and warned the kid, she would be long gone—vanishing into the crowd like she was never there.
Tonight's conditions were perfect.
Her cybernetic eyes flickered, and with her hacking prowess, she quickly breached the vulnerability in the Arasaka kid's neural interface.
"Click."
She anticipated the silent chip ejection and was already reaching out to grab it midair—
—when another hand snatched it first.
Her eyes widened.
The one who caught the chip was not the Arasaka kid.
It was the blond-haired man—the one she thought wouldn't have time to react.
He held the chip calmly, his gaze locked onto hers with an eerie stillness.
"Shit!"
The pink-white-haired woman instinctively tried to back away into the crowd—
But before she could even move, the sound of a real "click" echoed.
A gun safety disengaged.
Two guns.
One pressed to her temple.
One aimed at her forehead.
She wasn't alone.
There were more people around her.
Her body froze.
"A thief?"
The blond man's voice carried a hint of irritation.
"Today... I really hate thieves."
----------------------------------------------------
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