"Don't be so nervous," Arthur said confidently.
"I'm old friends with the Voodoo Boys. I used to hang out with them all the time."
He waved a hand nonchalantly, as if the bullets whizzing past them were just mosquitoes.
Arthur genuinely didn't believe the Voodoo Boys would start a fight with him out of nowhere.
Sure, he'd been out of Night City for a while, but it wasn't like he'd wronged them recently.
He was here to invest! To boost employment in Pacifica!
Who in their right mind would reject free money?
Just as he finished that brilliant thought—
"Bang bang bang!"
"BOOM!"
Suddenly, a round of gunfire raked the street.
Then a grenade exploded nearby, rattling the ground.
Arthur cursed under his breath, grabbed Lucy, and ducked behind the Sword in the Stone they had "borrowed" earlier.
He patted the sleek car lovingly, hoping its armor was as tough as it looked.
Lucy stared at Arthur, cigarette trembling between her fingers.
"Such a warm welcome," she said dryly.
"Truly unprecedented hospitality."
Arthur scratched his head, baffled.
"I don't get it. I thought we were on good terms."
Lucy's face was frozen in that dead-eyed expression of someone who realized they'd made a huge mistake trusting an insane person.
Even in Night City, grudges don't usually last ten years!
What the hell did Arthur do to them?!
Across the street, bullets continued flying.
Occasionally, someone even lobbed grenades with alarming enthusiasm.
Lucy drew her pistol and fired two half-hearted shots in retaliation.
She wasn't built for gunfights — she was a hacker, damn it.
And Pacifica was Voodoo Boys' home turf.
If they really got serious and called in their netrunners, Lucy doubted she could even log into a vending machine without getting fried.
Arthur, meanwhile, stood up, shook his cigarette, and grumbled:
"Zhuo, this must be because I blew up their server back then... stingy bastards still holding a grudge after ten years!"
Lucy didn't even have the energy to comment anymore.
Just then, Arthur's phone buzzed.
He answered casually — as if they weren't under heavy fire.
"Yo, Arthur! Damn, I didn't expect you to crawl back from hell! How's the welcome party I prepared for you?"
The voice was familiar — and triggered a flood of bad memories.
Arthur dug through the trash bin of his mind until the name popped up:
Maman.
A woman from the Voodoo Boys.
Petty. Vicious. Held grudges longer than Arasaka held contracts.
Arthur growled into the mic:
"You damn old hag! All because of one little server explosion? It's been more than a decade!"
"I'm here now to boost the economy! Open a factory! Create jobs for Pacifica!
Shouldn't you be thanking me instead of throwing grenades at me?"
The woman on the other end snorted.
"Cyberpunks like you are born to rot, Arthur."
"You blew up Poseidon.
Our entire system was down for three months.
Do you know how many of my brothers died because of that blackout?"
"And now you show up wanting cooperation?"
"F**k you!"
Click.
The call ended.
Arthur glared at the phone in disgust.
"Maman, that stinking b**ch!
What's three months of downtime compared to lifelong employment opportunities?!"
Lucy ejected her empty magazine and slammed in a fresh one.
"Less talking," she said, "more thinking. Otherwise, we're both going to die here."
Arthur scratched the back of his head.
"Hey, come on! Being buried together isn't so bad.
You're a psycho, I'm a psycho — it's perfect!"
Lucy gave him a look that could have melted titanium.
"Just do something, you freak!"
Arthur chuckled and pulled out his last trump card:
The NCPD hotline.
He called.
The line connected after a few rings.
"Hello, this is the NCPD. What's your emergency?"
Arthur didn't hesitate:
"I'm under attack in Pacifica!
A bunch of psychos are trying to seize my private property!
As a law-abiding citizen of Night City, I demand protection!"
There was a long silence on the other end.
Arthur tapped his foot impatiently.
"Hello? You hear me?"
"...Sir, uh, you said private property? In Pacifica?"
"Yeah! My registered asset number is S***9527B.
You can look it up.
I've been paying taxes on that dump for over a decade!"
Another long silence.
Arthur rolled his eyes.
"You better hurry up!
If I die, I'm demanding a tax refund!
And don't think I won't!"
On the other end, the dispatcher frantically checked the database.
Sure enough, the system showed a property in Pacifica paying taxes religiously for over ten years.
An actual taxpayer in Pacifica.
A real, living unicorn.
The dispatcher's forehead was already sweating.
He cleared his throat nervously:
"Please hold, sir.
We're... escalating this to our superiors."
"You better!" Arthur barked.
"Because if I turn into hamburger meat, it's on your head!"
Arthur hung up and dusted off his jacket, feeling quite pleased.
Lucy gave him a weird look.
"You think they'll actually come?"
Arthur grinned.
"They might. After all...
Where else are they gonna find another idiot willing to pay taxes in Pacifica?"