Cyberpunk Edgerunners: David Martinez With A System

If you want to read some chapters ahead and unpublished fanfics you can check out my patreon or just take a visit.

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….

David wasn't sure who he was referring to with that last remark—

The ones who lingered near the crematorium, despite knowing exactly what it was…

Or something else entirely.

Either way, it didn't matter.

He took another deep drag of his cigarette, inhaling the artificial chemicals, then flicked the burnt-out stub onto the ground.

With a slow, deliberate motion, he crushed it underfoot.

….

In this high-tech future, smoking had long since lost its health risks.

With cybernetic lungs, cancer wasn't even a concern anymore.

For most people, smoking was just another form of indulgence—a vice like any other.

Some gangs even hunted down illegal substances just to feel a real high.

But for David?

A single cigarette was just enough to clear his head—to pass the time while he waited.

BEEP—

A sharp machine tone rang out.

The crematorium unit came to a stop.

A metal canister tumbled into the retrieval slot, landing with a hollow clang.

The label on the front read:

GLORIA MARTINEZ

David stared at it for a long moment.

"…In the end, we all return to dust."

A quiet sigh escaped him.

"…Sorry, Mom."

His voice was low.

Apologetic.

Reaching down, he carefully retrieved the canister, cradling it like something fragile.

Then, with steady hands, he slipped it into his backpack—nestled among military-grade cyberware and data chips ripped straight from dead Scavengers' heads.

The chips weren't exactly clean.

His first time salvaging cyberware had been messy, and a few were still stained with blood.

Not that it mattered.

The owners sure as hell weren't feeling any pain anymore.

With the bag slung over his shoulder, David turned and walked toward the exit.

His footsteps echoed through the silent, empty corridor.

"Fucking ironic…"

….

"Good morning, Night City!"

"This is your boy Stanley, and it's another fine-ass day in the city of dreams!"

"I love this city—just like your mama loves you. You remember her, right? She dumped your ass at an orphanage, then ran into you years later and bummed a cig off you!"

"Every day, this place welcomes a hundred fresh-faced newbies—but half of them won't even last a year."

"That's on a good year, folks!"

"Why do they keep coming? Because every street rat thinks they can be the next Morgan Blackhand or Weyland the Old Snake!"

"There's a saying out here—remember it well."

"The cowards starve, the bold feast."

"But here's the kicker—the bolder you live, the sooner you die."

"If a bullet don't punch your ticket, Night City will burn you out from the inside."

"So where do all those so-called Night City legends end up?"

"The fucking graveyard."

"In this town, we don't care about where you came from—"

"Only whether you can walk your own path."

"Welcome to Night City."

"Welcome to the City of Dreams."

The elevator speakers blared Stanley's signature radio broadcast.

The same old Night City wisdom—

Half mockery, half prophecy.

Because Night City really was a place of dreams—

And also a city of vice.

That very desire was what kept the three megacorps locked in an endless shadow war, fighting for dominance.

That same desire was why gangs clashed over territory, tearing each other apart in the streets.

And that same desire was what drove every desperate soul to claw their way up—

Or crash and burn trying.

Just like Gloria's dream.

She had hoped that by sending David to Arasaka Academy, giving him a better education, he could escape this life.

That he could break free from the cycle of poverty and violence.

That maybe, just maybe—

Her son wouldn't end up like everyone else.

But how could that ever be possible?

The hierarchy was already set in stone.

Even the so-called legends immortalized in Afterlife—the very names that rookies worshipped—were nothing more than drunken anecdotes to the megacorps.

Hell, one of them was even Arasaka's own lapdog.

And now, here he was—

A nobody, struggling to survive in this city of violence and greed, determined to one day stand at the top.

The road ahead?

Hellishly steep.

But that was a problem for the future.

Right now, there was a far more urgent issue to deal with.

[ACCESS DENIED]

[RENT PAST DUE]

A bright red holo-prompt blinked across his apartment's front door.

"…You've gotta be shitting me."

One minute he was making grand declarations about punching Arasaka and stepping on Adam Smasher's skull—

The next?

Locked out of his own damn apartment.

"Talk about a fucking buzzkill."

Honestly, he should've expected this.

David's rent had been overdue for weeks.

Even V—who had drifted around Night City for half a year—constantly pulled the same shit.

The difference?

V's apartment was at least decent.

This place?

It was so much worse.

Homeless squatters lined the corridors, curled up in filthy blankets or passed out drunk.

Trash piles were stacked in every corner.

The stairwell reeked of piss and rotting food.

This was Santo Domingo—one of the oldest slums in Night City.

Without that "generous donation" from the Scavs…

And without the five-figure advance from Maine, who had bought military-grade cyberware from Gloria…

David would've been out here too—

Sleeping under a stairwell, just like the rest of these washed-up nobodies.

"…Whatever. Not thinking about it."

Shaking his head, he focused on the door panel.

His eyes flashed orange—

[ACCESS ALLOWED]

With a soft beep, the lock clicked open.

David pushed the door aside, stepping inside.

….

The layout was exactly as he remembered.

No different from V's shitty pre-megacorp apartment.

Probably mass-produced across every mega-complex in the city.

He sighed.

"Finally home."

Stretching lazily, he tossed his backpack onto the cheap coffee table—

Then dropped himself onto the couch.

Thud.

"…Tch. Hard as fuck."

He ran a hand over the stiff fabric, grimacing.

Even furniture from his past life felt better than this crap.

Then again—

Considering how dirt-cheap the rent was, it wasn't like he could complain.

Just as he was about to zone out, his holo-phone lit up.

An incoming call.

"Huh?"

….

Venom x multiverse on patreon.

Cyberpunk x genos on patreon.

In deadpool on patreon.

Cyberpunk x David with System on patreon.

….

If you want to read some chapters ahead and unpublished fanfics you can check out my patreon or just take a visit.

[P].[A].[T].[R].[E].[O].[N]

http://patreon.com/Kazuma_trash