Leo gave the three of them a look, signaling them to step outside first.
All three looked puzzled.
Were they really going to let those two off just like that?
Still, trusting Leo, V, Jackie, and Lucy left the workshop one by one.
"Th-thank you…"
"Don't thank yet. Let ask you: if I let you go today, can you promise you'll never do this again?"
Gottfried nodded frantically. "I promise—I swear."
Leo shifted his gaze from him to Frederick, who was visibly shaken. "What about your son? Can he promise, too?"
"M-?" Prompted by his father's glare, Frederick quickly answered, "Yes, of course, sir. We'll never do this again. We…we'll find so other way to make a living."
Hearing their assurances, Leo acted as though he believed them. He flashed a bright, sunny smile—like soone back in his holand might.
"Really? I don't believe you."
The father and son froze. Then they saw Leo stepping outside the workshop, pulling out a grenade and tossing it in. He shut the door, cutting off their panicked shouts.
Boom!
A single explosion tore through the air. The father and son were blown into a bloody ss, beyond any hope of survival.
So people might not understand. They might think these two were just making a living, not deserving to die. But that was far from the truth.
To draw a comparison everyone could understand: a regular braindance was like sharing a Japanese adult film in a chat group; people who downloaded it might actually thank you. A black braindance, however, was so disturbing that any normal person would feel sick watching it, getting no positive emotions—only negative ones. Sharing sothing like that would only get you beaten senseless by an angry mob.
With the father and son's editing skills, they could have easily edited regular braindances and never gone hungry. Why bother editing black braindances? It all ca down to money. Editing a single black braindance paid ten tis what a regular one did—maybe more. Once you got used to extravagance, it was hard to go back. They'd already made a fortune off black braindances. Asking them to return to editing ordinary ones for only a tenth of the profit? If they were willing to do that, they'd never have ventured into black braindances in the first place.
Besides, many people who started editing black braindances for quick cash eventually quit. The extre content was so damaging to the mind and body that nobody could do it for long. But when Leo and his team walked in, these two showed not the slightest discomfort.
They were passionately discussing how to make those gut-churning scenes even more revolting, and actually enjoying themselves. Even in Night City, you rarely saw people that twisted. For deviance taken to such an extre, a one-way ticket to hell seed right. Let the big man upstairs judge them personally.
After leaving the factory, they headed to the designated drop-off point. Leo slipped the original black braindance—the one showing the murder of the priest's son—into a hidden slot inside the vending machine's output tray. Then he called Regina.
"Regina, I've placed what you wanted at the specified location."
"Nice work, Leo. Damn, I wish there were no jobs like this. Hopefully we can catch whoever's really behind it. We're done here."
A few days later…
Early one morning, while Leo was in the middle of a workout, he got another call from Regina.
"Leo, it's Regina."
"Hey, more work for already?"
"You could say that, but not exactly. Strictly speaking, it's a follow-up to the last gig."
"The last one?"
"Brice Stone. Ring a bell?"
"Yes, I rember. So he needs my help again?"
Brice Stone's son had been murdered and turned into a black braindance. Leo, together with V, Jackie, and Lucy, had tracked down the original footage through a dark braindance dealer in Jig-Jig Street. They followed the trail, found the raw file, and had Regina deliver it to the client. Leo had assud that ended the matter. So why was there more?
"Couldn't that raw footage help him find whoever killed his son?"
Finding clues in a black braindance original wasn't sothing just anyone could do. And if the killer was clever, they might not have left any trace in the first place.
"No, it did help. But the clue it gave him led to huge trouble."
"It's inconvenient to explain over the phone. Co by in person; we'll talk face-to-face."
"Sure. Where should I et you?"
"The Afterlife."
Leo ended the call and phoned his friends, telling them to et him at the entrance to the Afterlife. V and Lucy took it calmly, but Jackie got excited the mont he heard about it.
"Leo, did you say Regina wants to et us at the Afterlife? So we're finally getting into the Afterlife for real?"
"Why are you so pumped, Jackie?" Leo couldn't quite get it.
"The Afterlife, man—it's the heart of Night City! Susan Forrest, Old Snake, Morgan Blackhand…every legend you've heard of hangs out there," Jackie said, growing more and more animated. "If we're about to talk business at the Afterlife, that ans we're on the fast track to hitting the big ti!"
…
Unlike Embers—where high rollers spent their money atop towering luxury complexes—the Afterlife, as a rcenary cca, was tucked into the city's backstreets. It felt a lot more down-to-earth.
"Isn't this maybe a little too 'down-to-earth?'" Leo murmured as he climbed out of the SUV, eyeing the entrance. He'd been in Night City for a while and had heard about the Afterlife countless tis, but seeing it in person left him puzzled.
For a supposed sanctuary of rcs, he'd expected bright neon signs and flashy holograms. Instead, everything looked pretty ordinary. So ordinary, in fact, that if he hadn't known where he was, he'd have assud it was just another bar.
Jackie laughed. "Don't judge a bun by its folds, amigo."
With that, Jackie headed inside first, leading them downstairs. The walls along the stairwell were plastered with posters and graffiti, and trash littered the corners. It was Leo, V, and Lucy's first visit, but Jackie was acting like a tour guide.
"This place used to be a morgue—can you believe it? It's been here longer than any of us. Back then, people were still buried in the ground the old-fashioned way."
They went down the steps and through a corridor until they reached a burly rc standing guard by the door—the Afterlife lay just beyond. He remained still when he saw them approach.
"Hold it. Who are you?"
Jackie pointed to himself, then gestured at the others. "I'm Jackie, and this is Leo, V, and Lucy."
The guard didn't even blink. "Yeah? These nas supposed to an sothing?"
Jackie grinned. "They will soon enough. We're friends of Regina Jones—she booked a spot for us."
The guard said nothing, but his eyes glimred as he clearly sent an internal ssage.
"Ms. Regina, I've got three people here who say they're looking for you… All right, got it. She wants you to head to booth four. If you don't know where it is, ask Claire at the bar."
He'd directed the first line to Regina, and the second to Leo and his crew.
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