By midday, V emerged from her room, looking refreshed. The slight curl of her lips and the relaxed lines on her face made it obvious she was in a great mood.
And why wouldn't she be?
Three meals a day, zero responsibilities, and a 1,000-euro daily salary — who wouldn't be grinning?
As soon as she stepped out, the living room's surveillance camera swiveled toward her.
A red infrared beam scanned her face.
Once her identity was confirmed from the whitelist, the camera returned to standby mode.
A flash of orange passed through V's eyes as her cybernetic scanner identified the device.
"NCPD's home surveillance system? You actually bought this?"
"Why, is it bad?" Leo swiveled his chair to face her.
"It's alright. Good enough to ID some small-time crooks and alert the cops. But if a team has a decent netrunner, you might end up being the one watched inside your own apartment."
[That won't happen, Father. Even rogue AIs couldn't breach your devices without me noticing.]
Shironeko's confidence let Leo cross his legs with ease. "Relax. I'm a halfway decent hacker myself. The amateurs won't touch me."
V wasn't entirely convinced, but since she was freeloading, she decided to play along.
"Alright then. I'll order lunch."
"Brazilian barbecue this time."
Thirty minutes later, synthetic Brazilian barbecue was served. Thanks to a lethal level of spices and additives, Leo barely managed to choke it down.
His curiosity got the better of him again, and he asked the question he absolutely shouldn't have.
V, the street merc, had no clue — but Shironeko did. She pulled up a soul-crushing answer from the AllFoods website.
Most of the "meat" they ate came from biotech protein farms — the primary ingredients? Crickets and worms. Premium items like steak or pork chops came from hydroponic meat vats.
Leo swore he'd bring real meat and vegetables back from Gotham next time. No more synthetic slop.
After lunch, he returned to his computer.
V cleaned up, wandered around aimlessly, and eventually walked over. "Got anything for me to do? I can't just laze around all day."
Leo was busy typing with his mind — a surprisingly satisfying experience.
Without looking up, he said, "You're getting paid to do nothing. Enjoy it."
"It just feels… off." V finally showed her honest side.
"Then think of it as being pampered."
He used her own words against her, earning a massive eye-roll.
"Whatever. It's your money." She glanced at his screen. "You making a list of legendary netrunners in Night City?"
Even as a street-level merc, she recognized some of the names.
"Alt Cunningham, Spider Murphy, Rache... wait, who the hell is Songbird? One of the Big Three was Rache Bartmoss — the best of them!"
The more unfamiliar names Leo typed, the more confused she looked.
Alt Cunningham, Spider Murphy, Songbird, Sasha Yakovleva, Lucy, Kiwi, T-Bug, Hanako Arasaka.
Some were unknown to her, but one name jumped out — Hanako Arasaka.
That was the Hanako — daughter of Saburo Arasaka, heiress to the Arasaka Corporation.
In Night City, if you were online and breathing, you'd heard of her.
"What kind of list is this? You've even got Arasaka's princess on it!"
"No need to freak out," Leo said coolly. "It's a list of hackers. I'm looking to recruit one for our team."
"Our team?" V waved her hands dramatically. "Hanako Arasaka? You're insane."
Leo nodded. "That one's mostly a placeholder. I doubt we could recruit her unless we somehow overtook Arasaka itself."
V rolled her eyes so hard they nearly got stuck. "You seriously off your meds? Even if I ignore the ones I don't know — those first two are dead. You think you can recruit them?"
"Alt Cunningham, Spider Murphy… one's not dead, the other is questionable. What, don't believe me?"
Her side-eye said it all.
"Who knows — maybe we'll meet them one day. Work together, even. But that's for later. V, pop quiz — can you spot the common factor among all the names on this list?"
She scanned the list quickly, then pointed. "Okay, quick check — T-Bug, male or female?"
"Female."
"Then it's obvious — they're all female hackers. This your type or something?"
Leo facepalmed.
But… she wasn't wrong.
"No, the real commonality is that I know them. I'm familiar with their personalities."
"Yeah, right…" V was not buying it.
Leo didn't argue. He'd prove it soon enough. Once he recruited one, she'd see.
Removing the impossible and the untrustworthy (T-Bug and Kiwi), he had three candidates left: Songbird, Sasha Yakovleva, and Lucy.
Purely by skill, Songbird was the top pick. Sasha and Lucy's exact levels were uncertain, but they were definitely elite.
Unfortunately, the harder the skills, the harder the recruitment.
Songbird was the President's right hand, top CIA operative, and a living warhead on legs. He might be able to contact her through Shironeko — but recruiting her into the team?
Yeah, no.
That left Sasha and Lucy.
Leo rubbed his chin. Both were high-spec, both attractive, and seemed like they'd get along.
In terms of safety, Sasha was definitely the more stable pick.
Lucy was still being hunted — a runaway from Arasaka's child-hacker program. Their team probably couldn't protect her yet.
So, after all that effort, the only one he could reasonably approach right now was…
"It's settled — Sasha Yakovleva, you're up first!"