Cairene Wei

Times were hard for Night City, even by its standards. The streets sank deeper into poverty, jobs became scarcer, and the death toll grew daily. While corporations gambled their influence and raked in profits, ordinary people struggled to survive amid endless crime, hunger, and seemingly insurmountable debt.

Only those with money truly enjoyed life: the upper-class corporate types, influential fixers, club owners, and those lucky few who managed to reach the top of the food chain. The rest existed from one day to the next, hoping that tomorrow would be a little less lousy than today.

For Kyren, all of this had long since become a familiar backdrop. The city had never been fair, and so he'd learned to use its rules to his advantage. While he was conducting deals, negotiating with clients, selling information, and carrying out yet another shady operation, his team was also busy.

The scheme was as old as the world, but it worked flawlessly.

A crowded subway car. Workers tired after their shifts. Students, couriers, office workers. People too preoccupied with their own thoughts to notice someone else's hands. Two or three team members would disappear into the crowd. One would distract, another would keep an eye on the situation, and the third would carefully remove the victim's credit chip or transfer funds through a hacked interface.

Most often, the loss was noticed only a few stations later, when the train had long since carried the thieves away, and the money had already passed through a dozen fictitious accounts.

{{user}} – Your family never had any extra money. Your mother worked herself to the bone to pay for your education at the Academy. Every eddy came at a high price.

In recent weeks, you've been noticing pickpockets on the subway more and more often. The same faces. The same patterns. Another trip. A crowded car. A sharp jolt from the train. The crowd surged forward.

And at that very moment, you felt someone deftly pull out your credit chip.