He had one rule for taking jobs: he had to be allowed to cause destruction at will and kill whoever he wanted.
Those seven years were Arasaka's last act of rcy and Adam Smasher's final taste of freedom. Good tis never lasted long. When the Fourth Corporate War broke out, Arasaka summoned Smasher back. After that, he never returned to rcenary work and devoted himself fully to serving Arasaka.
All of the data fixers had on him confird the sa story.
People still argued about how strong Adam Smasher truly was. During the Fourth Corporate War, Johnny Silverhand had ford an assault team to raid Arasaka Tower. They ran into Adam Smasher and were wiped out, with Johnny losing his life to Smasher. It proved that Smasher surpassed Johnny in combat strength.
So might assu it was normal for Johnny—a rocker—to lose a fight against a soldier like Smasher, but that wasn't entirely true. Johnny had served in the military before launching his music career, and he had fought in the Central Arican conflict. Even Arasaka Tower's securities couldn't stop him and his team from forcing their way in and planting a nuclear device.
They only failed because Smasher arrived. Had it been just the guards, Johnny would have succeeded.
Now that Smasher was confird to be at Konpeki Plaza, they had no choice but to prepare for a possible showdown with him.
"Soone at Smasher's level definitely has a Sandevistan, and I'd bet he's running a secret Arasaka prototype that outperforms anything on the market," Leo thought. "With my Talent: Ti Zero, maybe I could handle that part. The real problem would be his raw strength, speed, and endurance—not to ntion all the advanced weapons built into him.
"According to every fixer's intel, Smasher's entire body was cyberized except for his brain, so his strength, speed, and durability completely outclass a human's. Even with Gorilla Arms, nobody could match his strength. I've got Strength Level 9 and the powered arm-guards I built, but comparing myself to Smasher is anybody's guess.
"My custom bulletproof combat suit can reduce the impact of gunfire, but it doesn't do much against lee attacks. And with that level of augntation, even an unard punch from Smasher might hit like a speeding truck.
"On top of that, Konpeki Plaza probably has at least a hundred heavily ard guards. If they call for backup, the special Arasaka rapid-response team could arrive from Arasaka Tower in about three minutes. If we end up fighting Smasher and can't bring him down quickly, we'll end up like Johnny Silverhand.
Maybe worse. Arasaka has Relic tech, which ans they must have a digital holding cell for souls. The real nightmare would be dying and still not escaping corporate servitude."
Leo understood how powerful Arasaka was, so he had no intention of letting Jackie go in alone. He couldn't co up with any solid plan off the top of his head. As he passed the bar, he glanced at Rogue's private booth and switched on the scan mode in his tactical goggles.
Inside, he heard Rogue's irritated voice loud and clear.
"Wakako, did you lose your mind? Should I call a doctor? You know I can't stand Ken, yet you let him stay at your pachinko parlor?
"Don't play dumb. I know Ken's back in Night City, and my people saw him walk into your parlor. Now he's vanished. If you didn't hide him, who did?
"All right, fine. We'll see about that."
Leo scratched his head. It sounded like Rogue and Wakako Okada were in the middle of sothing unpleasant. After a mont's thought, he decided to head over to Rogue's private booth. As usual, Crispin Weyland, Rogue's personal rc, stood guard outside.
When Crispin spotted Leo, he greeted him warmly.
"Hey!"
Leo noticed that Crispin was still wearing the powered arm-guards he'd crafted. He walked over and patted them.
"How are they working out for you?"
"Great," Crispin said, throwing a few playful punches in the air.
Rogue's voice ca from inside.
"Is that you, kid? Co in."
Hearing how annoyed his boss sounded, Crispin imdiately stopped joking around. Leo walked into the booth and sat on the couch across from Rogue.
"You need to get sothing for you again?"
"Yes," Leo replied bluntly.
"All right. You've got money, so tell —what is it?"
Rogue never really understood Leo. Unlike most rcs who scraped by in Night City, he had enough earnings from his business dealings with Padre to live comfortably, yet he still took dangerous jobs. Rogue had no clue why, but she did know Leo could afford to pay, and that was enough. She picked up a glass of tequila and took a sip.
"I need powered armor."
"Pffft—" Rogue spat the tequila all over the table. Even she, usually calm and collected, looked stunned. "You're serious?"
"Completely."
She rubbed her temples with a helpless sigh.
"You really have no idea, do you? Do you know how rare that stuff is? Only Kang Tao, Arasaka, and Militech have the technology to make powered armor, and it's top secret.
"Plus, having the tech doesn't an they can mass-produce it. None of these three corps have equipped their own Night City security forces with powered armor yet. That should tell you sothing."
It was the first ti Leo had heard Rogue so adamantly emphasize how difficult sothing was.
"Co on, you're Rogue. Is there really anything in Night City you can't get?"
She burst out laughing.
"You're not treating like a fixer; you're treating like so goddess who grants miracles. Sorry, kid. Even if I had that armor, I wouldn't dare sell it to you. The heat would be too intense. Every suit from those three companies has a distinct look and would be identified the second you showed it off."
It seed his attempt at a shortcut had led nowhere. Leo shrugged.
"Fine, worth a try anyway."
In 2077, humanity had indeed cracked the code on powered armor. But for reasons like low yield rates, limited output, and massive production costs, none of the major players in Night City had outfitted their security with it. Still, each ga-corporation had a small elite team that used it.
In such a short tifra, the only way Leo could think of boosting himself enough to take on Adam Smasher head-on was to acquire powered armor. If even Rogue couldn't do it, he'd have to forget about it.
Now Rogue had her own question.
"Kid, why do you need powered armor? Regular bullets can't get through that special combat suit you're wearing, right?"
Rogue was sharper than most. Although she'd quit rc work for a fixer's life years ago, she still spent a few days every week training as she used to. Her keen eye told her that the white trench coat–style custom combat suit Leo wore wasn't any brand on the market or from a corp. That ant only one possibility: Leo had made it himself.
She already knew about the small-ti partnership he had with Padre and suspected that making guns wasn't his only skill. Leo didn't bother explaining too much. He stood up, ready to leave.
"Wait, have you heard the na Stella before?" Rogue asked just as he was about to walk out.
Leo paused. "Stella? Rings a bell."
Stella was also a legend in Night City, though different from the likes of Johnny Silverhand, Morgan Blackhand, or Andrew Weyland. Those icons gained fa when they were young, but Stella's rise ca much later in life, around age fifty. In an era when top-of-the-line dicine could keep soone in their eighties looking half their age, that shouldn't have been so unusual, but Stella had co from the streets, where people didn't have access to that level of care. He was one of a kind.
Despite being a legend, Stella's na didn't asure up to giants like Johnny or Morgan. Part of it was that Johnny and Morgan both had fa in other fields—Johnny with his band Samurai, Morgan through classics like The Solo's Manual, which every aspiring solo had read. The other reason was that Stella's rise and fall happened in the span of just one week. He flashed by like a teor, and hardly anyone rembered his na anymore. He never even visited the Afterlife, so he didn't have a drink nad after him there.
"Does this have sothing to do with what we were just talking about?" Leo asked. He knew Rogue hated pointless chatter.
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