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Chapter 264 c
🕑 Added 2025-06-03 15:04:00 +0000 UTCChapter 264 c
Hellman broke out in a cold sweat. He wasn’t blind—he could see for himself that Leo wasn’t lying. This really was deep in the Badlands, far removed from Night City, out in the savage frontier.
Once he realized his situation, Hellman actually began to calm down. He noticed that, although these people didn’t look like corporate personnel, they also weren’t part of the Raffen Shiv. That, at least, was good news. If he’d been captured by the Raffen Shiv, then Hellman truly wouldn’t have known what to do. They were like Viking raiders living in 2077—civilized rules simply didn’t apply to them. Hellman had even heard that some Raffen Shiv still practiced primitive rituals like raw meat consumption. He didn’t know if those rumors were true or exaggerated, but not running into the Raffen Shiv was undeniably fortunate.
Moreover, if these people had really wanted him dead, there was no way he’d still be conscious. The fact that he was still breathing meant there was still room to negotiate. Composing himself, Hellman sat down on the ground. “You guys... who are you?”
“You don’t need to worry. We’re not from Yorinobu Arasaka, and definitely not Raffen Shiv. The reason we found you is because we want to talk about the biochip—the one you developed for Arasaka. The relic.”
“You’re really not with Arasaka?”
“Anders Hellman, I know you defected from Arasaka. Tell me, with how the Japanese operate, do you think if we were from Arasaka, you’d still be alive right now?”
“Okay, okay, I get it. So who’s your boss? If they can offer a better price than Militech, then of course we can talk.”
Hellman instinctively assumed the other side had been sent by another corporation. He couldn’t figure out which one—it could be Kang Tao, or maybe Biotechnica. Despite Biotechnica’s close relationship with Militech, internal opposition to Militech still existed. After all, every company had factions. This was something Hellman, who’d worked inside Arasaka for decades, understood all too well.
“I’m the one asking questions here, not you. We’re not Arasaka, sure, but if you don’t cooperate, I won’t mind letting my associates help you wake up to reality.”
As Leo spoke, he thumbed over his shoulder toward Emmerich and Crispin, who very cooperatively began cracking their knuckles, stretching their fingers with sharp, deliberate pops.
Hellman was instantly alarmed. Had he guessed wrong?
For the sake of not getting a facial reconstruction, he quickly gave in. “OK, OK! I get it! Ask what you want, just please don’t hurt me.”
Leo waved a hand, signaling Emmerich and Crispin to stand down. “That’s better. Play nice, and we won’t touch you. I’m a man of peace, after all.”
Panam, who’d been standing in the distance without joining them, shivered a little. A man who’d orchestrated the destruction of an entire Militech transport convoy calling himself “a man of peace” was somehow more ridiculous than giving the Nobel Peace Prize to a Night City politician.
“I know the relic can store a full personality construct—”
Leo didn’t even finish before Hellman interrupted him in agitation. “A construct? Impossible! And from your tone... you have a relic on you?”
Unfazed by the interruption, Leo simply nodded. “Yes.”
Hellman instinctively thought Leo was lying—but then reconsidered. The man had no reason to lie.
Furrowing his brow, Hellman cautiously asked, “Where’d you get that relic from?”
Leo didn’t answer immediately. He paused to think. Regardless of Hellman’s value—whether or not he could help free Johnny Silverhand—he was destined to be locked away by Rogue. Hellman had seen their faces, and from every angle, there was no chance he’d be allowed to walk away free.
With that in mind, Leo didn’t bother hiding anything. “Got it from Yorinobu Arasaka.”
“Yorinobu Arasaka? Yorinobu Arasaka? Yorinobu Arasaka?” Hellman repeated the name several times before his expression suddenly shifted into one of shock. “That time at Konpeki Plaza... that was you? That was you guys?!”
“More or less,” Leo said casually. There was no point explaining that it had basically just been him alone fighting—Emmerich, Crispin, and Panam hadn't been there. Hellman wouldn’t believe it anyway.
Hellman’s expression shifted again, clearly not expecting that the people who had carved a path through Konpeki Plaza’s defenses were now standing right in front of him. No wonder they’d managed to extract him from a fully armed Militech convoy.
“You said something earlier about the construct on the relic—how do you know about that?” Hellman’s surprise deepened. “Don’t tell me the relic’s plugged into your neural interface right now?”
“Who do you think I am, the reckless Jackie?” Leo shot him a glare. “Of course not. We used other... let’s say, methods, to verify it.”
Hellman frowned. “Other methods? What methods?”
“Well, since you insist,” Leo suddenly turned his head and shouted at an empty patch of ground, “Johnny! You’re up.”
Hellman, still confused, turned to look at the space Leo was shouting at—only to see a spider-shaped robot crawling into view.
“Johnny? You named a robot?”
It wasn’t the name that confused Hellman. He’d seen bots get designations before. But a name? That was new. And why Johnny, of all things?
He didn’t immediately associate it with Johnny Silverhand. For one, Silverhand had been dead for over fifty years. While old Samurai fans still memorialized him, Hellman wasn’t one of them. And besides, in Night City, the name “Johnny” was about as common as “Little Handsome” or “Little Cutie.”
“Hello there, you Arasaka corporate stooge. Your pompous attitude is making me sick.”
Unprovoked and already being insulted, Hellman was left dumbfounded and annoyed.
It wasn’t that Night City lacked artificial intelligence—Delamain’s entire fleet of cabs was AI-run—but those AIs all had limited personalities and clearly mechanical voices.
This robot was different.
So Hellman didn’t think it was AI. He figured Leo was just controlling the robot and using it to insult him.
Leo, seeing Hellman’s indignant face, knew the guy had misunderstood. He spread his hands.
“Don’t look at me. I’m not the one talking. I’ll be straight with you: the robot contains Johnny Silverhand’s construct. As for how? Because I plugged your fancy new relic chip into it.”
Just as Leo predicted, Hellman was stunned. “Johnny Silverhand? A construct? That’s impossible!”
Johnny sneered. “What, you want me to bombe another one of your towers to prove it? or sing Chippin’ In? Don’t push your luck asshole.”
“Chippin’ In” was Samurai’s breakout track, often cited by fans as their best. Hellman had never met Johnny, but this level of venom matched the videos he’d seen online. More importantly, he doubted Leo would go to the trouble of controlling a robot just to insult him in-character.
They were adults—not kids pulling pranks.
Suddenly, something clicked in Hellman’s mind. “You said you put the relic into the robot and it became Silverhand? Then where exactly did you get that relic?”
Leo rolled his eyes. “Didn’t I just tell you? You’re not even sixty and already going senile?”
Hellman remembered—Leo had said he got it from Yorinobu Arasaka.
“Yorinobu... Yorinobu Arasaka...” Hellman’s lips curled into a cold smile. “I knew his plan would fail, but I never imagined it would turn out like this. Arasaka’s high-end tech falling into the hands of mercs.”
Now it was Leo’s turn to be confused. “Yorinobu’s plan? What plan?”
Hellman, apparently done hiding things, answered plainly. “What else? Resurrecting Silverhand.”
Leo and Johnny locked eyes, both drawing a sharp breath. “What did you just say? Resurrect Silverhand?”
“Don’t look so shocked. Didn’t you know Yorinobu is actually a Johnny Silverhand fanboy? Okay, maybe you didn’t—but he really does admire him.”
Yorinobu... admired Silverhand?
Leo wanted to laugh. Was this some kind of April Fool’s joke?
But it wasn’t April, and this wasn’t a joke. The way Yorinobu acted—so out of step with his corporate heritage—made Hellman’s claim hard to dismiss.
“Johnny? Hey—Johnny!” Leo called out a few times, snapping Johnny out of whatever thoughts he was lost in.
“So what do you think? The Arasaka heir, now the man in charge, is your biggest fanboy. Any thoughts on that?”
“Yeah—fuck off with that noise.” Johnny rolled his eyes.
He felt… conflicted.
The people who killed his girlfriend and himself had been Arasaka.
Now the guy who offed Saburo and ran the company was a fanboy.
Was he destined to be eternally entangled with Arasaka?
“Enough jokes. You,” Leo turned to Hellman. “I want you to extract Johnny Silverhand’s construct from this bot.”
But Hellman’s answer wasn’t what Leo wanted to hear. “It’s not that simple.”
