My name is David and I am a student at Arasaka Academy.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those rich young men with nothing to spend their money on. I can study in an aristocratic school like Arasaka Academy because my mother asked me to do so.
In fact, our family was not wealthy. My mother worked at Night City Medical Center in Watson District as an emergency medical technician.
As for Arasaka Gakuin where I study, it is located in the Civic Center.
We two depend on each other for life, and she is my only remaining relative.
We live in a super skyscraper apartment in Santo Domingo. The living environment there is very ordinary. You can see homeless people everywhere on the roadside and streets. It is also far from the bustling city, but the advantage is that the housing prices are cheap.
Santo Domingo, the Civic Center and Watson District are quite far apart from each other, so many times we have to spend most of our time commuting.
Just from these descriptions, you should all be able to tell that my family background is actually not very good, and can even be said to be a bit "poor".
You must still be wondering, how can I get the money to study in an aristocratic school like Arasaka Academy from such a poor family?
To be honest, I don’t really know. After all, the person who paid for the tuition was my mother. She paid for me to study at Arasaka Academy.
The only thing I know is that our family is not well off, and attending Arasaka Academy will only make our family's situation worse.
For ordinary people like us, the schools that children from rich families choose at will require my mother to pay thousands of times the sweat and price.
I don’t know what the price is, but I know it must be very uncomfortable. Even though I advised her not to do it many times, she still stubbornly let me study at Arasaka Academy, nagging her vision of being able to stand out in the future.
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She watered and protected my seedling with a love that was so heavy that it was oppressive. She placed all her hopes on me, but I could not see the day when I would blossom and bear fruit.
I feel bad too.
After all, this school is not a place I am qualified to stay in. I have been under tremendous pressure since enrolling.
Bullying from classmates, lack of learning equipment, heavy workload...these pressures were like a mountain, weighing me down to the point where I could hardly breathe.
But I have no choice. Do I have to run home and cry to my mother? She is even more tired than me! She has to work overtime until late at night and early in the morning every day before she can come back. Every time I go home, I can’t see her. I only get up every morning.
Only then can I see her tired figure lying on the sofa.
At this time, I didn't even have the energy to cry, so I could only pack up my things and go to school alone.
But at least academically, I didn't live up to my mother's expectations, and my academic performance was pretty good in school.
Unfortunately, this kind of excellence is a kind of "original sin". With a low social status, I am not worthy of this kind of "excellence" in the eyes of many classmates from wealthy families.
Since there was no way to overpower me academically and gain a pitiful sense of superiority, they used cold violence, verbal insults and other methods of bullying, as if this would make their self-esteem feel better.
I ignored their clown-like behavior and started to be a loner in school.
This situation continued until one day, a new classmate suddenly came to our class.
His name is Lin Mo, my best friend and noble person in this life.
He was sitting at the table next to me. Whether it was his words, deeds, or attitude towards others, he was different from the rich kids I had seen.
Since then, I have made my first friend since I entered school.
He took the initiative to chat with me and asked me to borrow homework to copy. He dozed off in class every day and needed my help to cover him up. When the teacher asked questions and couldn't answer them, he also needed me to help remind him from behind...
He is obviously a rich man, but he doesn't seem to have any airs. Except for studying hard during exams, he seems to be messing with his own personal affairs at other times. He even asks me to help him with his homework.
Of course, he said he was asking me to help, but in fact he gave me a lot of "ghostwriting fees." He saw that my family was in a difficult situation, so he used this euphemistic way to provide me with financial "assistance."
I am very grateful to him. Thanks to him, my days at Arasaka Academy no longer seem so boring.
However, in the day-to-day college life, I don’t know from which day he began to stop coming to school and took many days off in a row.
I thought something had happened to him, but one day he came back, and his demeanor became a little different from before.
He bought a sports car and gave me a ride home after school.
On the way back, we talked to each other for a long time and talked about many things. Then he suddenly asked me if I wanted to work with him and join the "Garbage Disposal Studio" founded by him.
I agreed, and from then on, I began my career as a marginalized person.
The so-called "Garbage Disposal Studio" is naturally a cover. In fact, it is just a sign used by Lin Mo to act as a facade for the team.
What we do has almost nothing to do with "garbage disposal".
I officially became a "marginal person" in the reserve force, and I was beaten every day. In the studio team, I was an inconspicuous person, doing some trivial tasks at most.
But on the other hand, I am also very lucky to have met such good team members. Each of them has become my best friend in the future, and we all have a lifelong friendship.
Perhaps, this is the reward of fate for me. I could only make one friend, Lin Mo, in school for so long, but now I can have so many friends with me.
At first, I just regarded this job as my deputy position, thinking that it would not be a problem to continue doing it like this. After all, people have to look forward.
In today's world, the only way to find a truly promising job in society is to "join a company."
But now, I find that I seem to gradually like this job... Maybe one day in the future, I can become an official marginalized person... really pick up weapons, and then kill people.
Lin Mo was responsible for the psychological counseling and persuasion work on my mother's side.
I don’t know what kind of ecstasy he poured into my mother. Someone who loves me so deeply must not be able to let me do such a dangerous job.
But in the end, she actually agreed to Lin Mo's request for the first time.
Things gradually developed for the better, and my mother gradually began to get involved in the studio business.
She quit her job at the medical center and began to devote herself to the construction of the studio. She was appointed by Lin Mo to be responsible for logistics work, specifically to provide a place for our team of marginalized people to rest and recuperate.
On the surface, she also became the person in charge of this garbage studio. She recruited subordinates and began to invest in the garbage disposal business in Santo Domingo.
The empty name of "Garbage Disposal Studio" now has substantial business.
But these days did not last long.
As our team's reputation gradually grew on the road, we inevitably encountered many difficult things... and a person who wanted to take Lin Mo's life.
His name is Roy, the chief technology officer of Moore Technology, a big shot who stands at the top of the world.
For various reasons, we had irreconcilable conflicts with him, which eventually led to the other party placing a bounty on Lin Mo's head.
Yes, Lin Mo is "Mo Ying", the former legend of Night City.
For what happened next, you can search for [Night City Nuclear Explosion Incident]. One of them is about Johnny Silverhand, and the other is about him.
And in that incident, I actually killed someone. I personally used a sniper rifle to shoot down the company security guard sitting on the floating car.
At that moment, I clearly realized...I will never be able to go back to the youthful campus life I once had.
But it doesn’t matter!
Bullshit youth, the days of campus life only left me with depression and dullness. Even if there were no accidents at home during my studies, I successfully graduated from college, and in the end I would just continue to be a dog running around for life in the company.
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I want to be a human being, a living human being, and I will never work like a dog in vain for the company!
At that time, I understood very clearly what I should do.
But it seems a bit late.
...The final outcome of the whole thing was that Mo Ying disappeared in the nuclear explosion.
I will never forget that dazzling explosion, like the sun suddenly appearing in a starry night. The moment it appeared, the whole world would pay attention to it.
Because that is "sunrise", it is always worth climbing a mountain to look far away, and it is worth remembering that moment.
Mo Ying finally left.
His disappearance left the team without a backbone, but we always believed that he would come back one day.
Life must go on, and the people in our team have started their own lives. My mother is still working hard to manage the business of the studio, trying to make the studio bigger and stronger, and even become a real small company.
Some of the other people in the team have become intermediaries, expanding their connections and accumulating resources;
Some choose to travel around the world, intending to relax and look for traces of Lin Mo;
Some join a friend's team of marginalized people and continue to be a marginalized person.
I was the last person who joined my friend's marginalized team and started a formal marginalized life.
...
...
(After a long silence)
My name is David Martinez and I am an ordinary edgewalker.
My starting point was very ordinary, just an ordinary Arasaka Academy student.
But precisely because it is ordinary, it has infinite possibilities.
I may have never thought before that I would one day become a marginalized person, using firearms and equipment to complete tasks assigned by middlemen every day, in order to obtain generous rewards.
I adapted very well to the new team.
The team atmosphere is very harmonious, each teammate has his or her own characteristics, and they are all trustworthy partners and friends.
Brother Mann, who is carefree and not serious on weekdays, but becomes serious when he needs to;
Pila likes yellow, loves handicrafts, and has an out-of-the-box personality;
Falco, who is elegant and easy-going, looks like a trustworthy adult, but is very sullen secretly;
Sister Dolio, who is kind, gentle and has a delicate personality...
And Qiwei, who doesn't talk much and has a bit of a mean attitude; sister T-BUG, who likes to talk philosophical sentences and is calm and collected; Gekko, who is a bit dull but extremely reliable in critical moments...
The entire team, including myself, consists of eight people. A marginalized team of this size is extremely rare in the entire Night City.
After all, there are only so many tasks and rewards, and each additional person means a smaller reward. The number of people as high as eight means that we must take on tasks that are more difficult and more rewarding.
Fighting against criminal gang dens, attacking company convoys, rescuing important figures from a certain party, or even eliminating company agents who come for revenge... Every task is of the highest difficulty, and any mistake will cost us our lives.
But fortunately, the two intermediaries responsible for handing over to us are quite reliable.
They are Jack and Roger respectively. The former is an old friend of Lin Mo's team in the past, and the latter is the queen of the Afterlife Bar. The two of them definitely have no intention of cheating or deceiving us.
As I gradually grew up, more and more prosthetics were installed on my body, and my role and status in the team also increased.
In less than three months, I have become the mainstay of the team, and the prosthetic body I am best at using is [Sianwistan] - it is also the prosthetic component that Lin Mo is best at using.
My talent is quite good, maybe because I am still relatively young, but my prosthetic body is tolerant relatively well and I can use Sianwistan many times.
And this also corresponds to the saying, just because I am an ordinary Arasaka student, I have unlimited possibilities.
In this way, more than half a year has passed, and our team has become a well-known ace team in the Afterlife Bar.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! As your reputation grows, a lot of troubles will follow, and the energy of everyone in the team will be almost exhausted.
Even though we take a break every time we finish a job, we still can't stop those fools who come to cause trouble and seek trouble for you.
Just when I thought I might retire if I keep doing this for another year or two, something happened that caught me off guard and made me cry with joy.
——My best friend Lin Mo is back!
We met in a warehouse, just over half a year ago, but it seemed like we had been apart for several years.
We talked a lot and teased each other that everyone had changed a lot.
And then, since he has returned, he is naturally unwilling to remain silent.
Under his leadership, our team has done many things one after another.
The leader of the attack on the Arasaka Company's convoy was Adam Hammer; he assisted Hansen, the leader of Dog Town, in dealing with the new American agents inside Dog Town, allowing him to finally prove his innocence.
Hansen is very optimistic about us and even sold many weapons and equipment that are prohibited from circulation on the market. This has greatly enhanced the strength of our team.
An interesting thing also happened during this period, that is, the returning brother Johnny Silverhand was arranged by Lin Mo to be a temporary substitute player in our team.
At first, we didn't know he was a legend from the old days.
It wasn't until the day when we all met frankly that he told us some things in the past.
I was extremely shocked when I heard that he was Johnny Silverhand more than fifty years ago. It felt like a character you had only known about in books since you were a child, and now suddenly appeared in front of you.
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To be honest, I could never have imagined this scene in my past dreams... A legendary figure from the past appeared in front of me, chatting happily with me...
Obviously more than a year ago, I was just a student of Arasaka Academy. In the game, I might be just an ordinary passerby NPC.
Brother Silverhand is very optimistic about me, saying that although I am about the same age as Lin Mo, I do not have Lin Mo's bad temper at all. Compared with Lin Mo, I seem to be more pleasing to the eye.
He asked about my past, and I briefly told him some of my past.
He didn't make any comments about my past. After all, it was a personal matter. How can outsiders evaluate right and wrong?
In the end, Brother Silverhand just patted me on the shoulder and said that I did a good job, because not everyone has the courage to change everything. To use a Chinese idiom, that is to burn the boat.
I understood that he was talking about my choice to become a "marginal person".
Once, I also asked him why he still clings to this city. He has died once. Now he has finally regained his life. He has struggled all his life in his previous life. Can't he enjoy it now?
"Death is not the end of everything, numbness and accommodation are." He answered me this way.
At first I didn't understand what this meant, but then after thinking about it carefully and knowing that Brother Silverhand was a person who died once, I finally understood the meaning of this sentence.
Yes, death is not the end of everything - some people are alive and they are dead; some people are dead and they are still alive.
The end of your life will only depend on when you choose to be numb and accommodating, not the moment your life ends.
No one? Or famous all over the world?
I choose the latter.
So my life has reached a new turning point.
My most trusted brother Jack has brought an unprecedented "commission" to our team. The difficulty is so high that it can be said to be "as difficult as climbing to the sky".
——Attack European banks and take out all the security guards there!
This commission is undoubtedly the biggest deal that the team has ever received since they started working together.
Your chance to make a name for yourself is now!
Can ordinary people become famous all over the world?
I pondered for a long time and finally figured out the answer.
I think so.
...
I sat blankly at the front seat of the concert venue, watching Brother Silverhand standing on the stage and singing enthusiastically, with a high voice that seemed to pierce people's numb hearts.
This is the seat he has reserved for me. This concert is held for free. If I don’t reserve some seats in advance, I’m afraid there won’t be room for me in the entire square.
The fans were in tears, the fans were cheering loudly, the fans were shouting, but they couldn't cover up Johnny Silverhand's roar...
I think he sings really well, and I'm a little envious of his charisma. After all, it's not easy to become famous like him and "live with greatness and die with glory" like him.
But now, I have the choice to become an extraordinary person like him.
So, after he stepped down, my friends and I went to another location - the entrance of the European Bank.
The heavy rain is still falling, and the seedlings I planted in the past seem to be about to grow up, but I don’t want to bloom or bear fruit, I just want to catch the fire and burn vigorously!
My name is David Martinez, an ordinary edgewalker. I came here today to do something big with my friends.
We use the fire in our chests to turn into a prairie fire.