Chapter 27: The End of the Journey

Cassidy did not notice Mercer’s gaze, merely sighing as he spoke:

"The Raffen Shiv are nothing but scum cast out from Nomad clans. I suspect a few of these were kicked out by nearby families. They likely knew about this makeshift shelter from their time in those clans. Our luck wasn't great; these bastards were probably operating on the nearby highway, perhaps a bit too far from their base. With the dust storm hitting so hard, they chose to hide out here... It's my fault, too. I've been out of practice for so long that I forgot to tell you to kill the lights. Otherwise, if we’d set an ambush beforehand, it wouldn't have been such a hassle. Two grenades, four guns—we could have wrapped it up in the first encounter."

"Don't blame yourself. After all, you're just an old cowboy who was kidnapped until about five minutes ago." Mercer joked, helping him drag the corpses outside. The dust was still raging, and the battered ground floor was no longer fit for resting. It was a pity about that coffee; Mercer hadn't even had a chance to take a sip.

"Ha... but you're right." Cassidy didn't argue, letting out a sigh. "It seems I’m not the only one who needs to readapt to the wasteland; you lot do, too."

"You look like you’ve been settled for a long time?" Mercer turned his head to ask.

"...Yeah. I got married, had a kid, and thought I could live a quiet life. I was working with my clan in the New United States, farming for Biotechnica, basically starting my retirement early. I hadn't touched a gun in years. Then, the kid got sick and died, and my wife was killed while transporting supplies for Militech and the New U.S. during the war—stepped on a landmine... Once the crops were harvested and sold, Biotechnica hiked the price of seeds, making it impossible for the clan to farm. The whole family was left in shambles."

He sighed again. "I drifted for a while, left home, but only a month later, I was snatched by the Raffen Shiv, and now this... I’m almost as bad as you kids... Maybe I really am just old. Perhaps after I drop you off in Night City, I should just find a quiet hole and wait to die."

Cassidy’s expression was despondent.

Mercer remained silent for a moment, tossed the corpse he was holding outside, and leaned against the doorframe, letting out a breath. "You just haven't readapted yet... trying to retire quietly in this world is a luxury, a dream."

"...You're right. It's not time to let my guard down yet." Cassidy offered a faint, strained smile.

Daichi and Leon had already driven up to the entrance, and Lucy and Anzu were walking down from upstairs. Mercer was about to greet them and continue moving the bodies, but Anzu grabbed him, her eyes wide.

"What are you doing! You're covered in blood! Sit down, quickly. Lucy, go get the purified water from the car... Hurry, take off your shirt. You've got so many holes in you, don't you feel the pain?!"

"It's fine... don't strip me here. Let's go to the bathroom. You can't stay in this living room, the wind is blowing sand everywhere."

Mercer was obedient, leading Anzu to the bathroom. He peeled off the filthy stolen jacket and looked at his Black-Ops suit in the mirror.

"Damn it, I should have changed clothes earlier. The suit is shredded! This thing cost tens of thousands, didn't it? Tsk, I wonder if it can be repaired..."

Mercer winced in pain as he pulled the zipper on his back, peeling the garment down to reveal his blood-soaked upper body. It wasn't actually that serious—mostly just peppered with stone shards from the exploding wall. Those Raffen Shiv grenades had been packed with quite a bit of gunpowder.

"This is not the time to be worrying about your clothes!" Anzu said, huffing, and told him not to fidget. She pulled the suit down to his waist and took the medical kit from the personal survival pack. It contained needles, disinfectant, anti-inflammatory pills, various antibiotics, and anti-radiation meds. She brought a stool for him to sit on and stood by his side.

Mercer let Anzu carefully extract the stone shards with small tweezers and asked Leon, who was nearby, "Is your shoulder really okay?"

"Looks better than yours..." Leon also peeled back his own Black-Ops suit, touching it with a pained expression. "I should have changed, too... Sigh, these Raffen Shiv clothes are just so stinking dirty..."

"Come here, kid. Your muscle's got a hole in it, and those Raffen bullets aren't exactly clean. You need a thorough disinfection. It might sting a bit." Cassidy stepped up to help Leon, which relieved Daichi, who had been worrying about how to treat the wound.

Lucy delivered the purified water to the bathroom, wanting to help Mercer but not knowing how. After a moment, she said, "I'll go clean up the battlefield and toss out the bodies."

"I'll come too." Daichi agreed, and the two busied themselves moving the corpses and scavenging the house and the Raffen Shiv vehicles.

Mercer was stoic, not making a sound—he realized he had a high pain tolerance. Leon, however, was a different story. Up in the second-floor bathroom, Cassidy was poking around his wound with a disinfectant-soaked swab held by tweezers, and Leon shrieked almost immediately.

"It hurts! Damn it... Ah, ahhh!!"

Cassidy, his expression unchanging, held him down with one hand, making it impossible for Leon to move. "Suck it up, learn from your boss."

"It's not the same! If he were getting poked like this... Ouch!!"

The strange wails coming from the second floor made Mercer laugh until Anzu slapped his back in annoyance. "Stop moving! You're spurting blood everywhere!"

"Alright, alright, Dr. Anzu." Mercer laughed, sitting still.

Then, he turned his head and saw Anzu’s reddened eyes. Before Mercer could speak, she gritted her teeth and muttered, "Leon deserves it. It’s all his fault for saying those cursed things on the AV... he needs to learn a lesson." She was crying as she spoke.

"Don't cry, it really doesn't hurt." Mercer smiled to comfort her.

"I..." Anzu bit her lip, sobbing, her hands not stopping. "I'm sorry... I didn't help at all..."

"You too?" Mercer shook his head, reaching out to pat her still-damp hair—her recent wash had gone to waste. "You've done great. You pinpointed the enemy's location for us and provided covering fire... If you count the stats, your KAD assists were high in both fights, and now you're treating my wounds... When did you learn how to do this?"

Anzu grabbed his hand and put it back. "Don't move, the wound is bleeding again... I started learning the day you said we were leaving."

"Yeah, Anzu has been working hard too..." Mercer thought about his conversation with Lucy and decided not to treat her like a child anymore. He said seriously, "You’ve done plenty. In every fight, there's a chance of injury or death. You can't think you're useless just because you weren't the one who got hurt. You don't have to be injured to earn merit, right? Otherwise, Daichi, who was driving for Leon, would be a zero-KD freeloader who got carried."

"A freeloader... hehe, I'm going to tell him that later." Anzu managed a smile.

"If you get beat up for it, don't blame me." Mercer joked, quickly shifting the topic to *Sailor Moon*, and sure enough, she perked right up.

By the time the wounds were dressed, Anzu's mood had returned to normal. Compared to the sensitive, insecure Lucy, Anzu was a true optimist. In this world, that personality was a valuable talent.

By nine that night, the dust storm had finally passed. Cassidy cooked a pot of "canned meat stew," a Nomad specialty, on a portable stove. Mercer didn't dare to inquire about the meat's origins, but the taste was surprisingly decent. After they were full, the quiet night finally allowed everyone a good sleep.

The next morning, under Cassidy's organization, they tidied up the house and set off again. Cassidy had contacted local Nomads to clear away the Raffen Shiv vehicles and bodies. He and Mercer discussed using the money from the cars to prioritize repairs for the house, with the remainder being transferred to Mercer's bank account once he had one. Mercer didn't refuse, only saying to keep good records and split it evenly later.

They drove across the country, starting from Montana, alternating between highways and off-road driving through the wilderness. Cassidy hadn't lied; after he made a few calls to old friends to finalize the route, the rest of the journey felt like a vacation. They encountered no more enemies, and, truthfully, they barely saw anyone at all.

Only when supplies ran low would Cassidy contact other Nomads—those Nomads were incredibly reliable, delivering food, water, and fuel straight into the wilderness, which Cassidy paid for with the proceeds from the scavenged gear. Mercer often marveled at his own luck; saving Cassidy’s life might have saved all of theirs. Otherwise, who knew how many more troubles they would have faced?

At first, the children, besides Mercer, struggled with insomnia or slept uncomfortably in the car. But once they grew accustomed to life in the starlit, dusty wilderness, they all became immersed in the long trek. Even though the world was harsh, the stars were always beautiful. On rare overcast days, they smelled the fresh air of the wilderness after the rain and saw fluttering snowflakes.

In this cyberpunk world, even the weather was irrational—hot one moment, cold the next; raining in November, snowing in December. But every bit of it was scenery that made the little hackers gasp in wonder.

They endured the bad luck of sliding on icy roads and crashing into a dirt path, leaving them stranded. They experienced the thrill of a high-speed chase while smuggling across the border. Finally, in December, they arrived in California.

After taking a detour from Southern California into Northern California, Night City was within reach. To be precise, Night City sat right in the middle of Northern and Southern California, existing as a neutral city belonging to no state and no nation.

But before entering, Mercer still needed a safe, temporary residence outside the city—a place to provide them shelter while he sorted out the fake residency and housing needed for Night City.

Unsurprisingly, that place could only be a Nomad camp near Night City.

The name of that Nomad clan could only be one: the Aldecaldos.

A clan led by a man named Saul, which included a girl named Panam.

Mercer was prepared. Once they entered the camp, he wasn't in a rush to go to Night City; he wanted to see the woman who was his in-game wife. In the game, if you chose the male protagonist, the only female romance option was Panam. As someone with no interest in men, Mercer prioritized Panam’s side quests every time he played a male file just to romance her. Having experienced the process from meeting to falling in love several times, he was intimately familiar with it.

Now that he had the chance to see her in person, he had been looking forward to it for a long time. Yet, even Mercer didn't expect that his encounter with Panam would happen much sooner than he had anticipated.

...

"Mercer! There's a firefight ahead. Looks like a group of Nomads is clashing with the Raffen Shiv! I have to go help! If things go well, those might be the people coming to meet us!"

Cassidy’s voice came over the car radio. Mercer’s cybernetic eye scanned the distance. In the wilderness ahead, six cars were tearing across the landscape in a fair 3v3 duel, both sides firing at each other while driving.

"No problem, let's go. Remember to open the public channel and call out."

Mercer stepped on the gas, picked up his Kenshin pistol, and began firing wildly at the Raffen Shiv. As soon as they were within his network range, his eyes glowed as he began hacking.

The battle was easy and enjoyable. Throughout the long journey, he had studied the vehicle systems of his own cars and developed quick-hack programs specifically for standard vehicles, such as 'Engine Overload,' 'Full Throttle,' and 'Emergency Braking.'

The Raffen Shiv guys were driving when suddenly, one car’s throttle locked, and the driver screamed as the vehicle flipped into a ditch. Another had its brakes slammed, causing the entire car to drift uncontrollably and flip over. Another had its engine catch fire—the passengers couldn't escape in time, and the Nomads, shouting, riddled the cockpit with machine-gun fire.

Mercer’s car slowed to a halt, and the Nomads parked their vehicles opposite them. A group of people climbed out. Leading them was a middle-aged man; Mercer glanced at him and looked away—didn't know him.

But the people behind the old man made Mercer’s eyes widen slightly.

Holy crap...

Scorpion, Mitch, and... Panam!!