Chapter 68: D.O.G

January 20, 2074.

After rain, the sky always clears.

Even Night City is no exception.

The slanting sun pierced through layers of thin clouds, shining on the gleaming glass of towering skyscrapers, leaving patch after patch of warm shadows.

Last night's violent storm seemed to have washed the city clean of filth, making even the air feel fresh.

Occasionally, a few Floating Cars sliced through the cotton-like clouds, emitting a huge roar as they passed overhead, stirring up gusts of cool breeze.

David Martinez walked slowly along the bustling street, with a clear sky above his head, yet his heart was filled with turbulent sorrow.

Tomorrow was the final deadline to submit the tuition fee, yet he still had not mentioned the tuition hike to his mother, Gloria.

The wages Gloria earned by working eighteen hours a day, combined with his full scholarship, were barely enough to cover even a fraction of the new tuition.

In Night City, money is the true spring of life.

In just these few days, three or four of David's classmates had already stopped coming to school.

Their family situations were roughly similar to his: those from poor families who had exhausted their entire household's strength just to barely meet the high price threshold of Arasaka Academy.

If you cannot pay the tuition, no matter how good your grades are, it is useless.

Sometimes, David did not even know what he was living for.

Studying hard for ten or twenty years, risking all one's assets and energy, just to exchange for an ordinary position at a Corpo.

Tempered for decades in a scorching furnace, only to end up as a conscientious little screw?

What is laughable is that the ultimate dream of many is within easy reach for some.

The children of Corporos and nobles have already had their middle and upper-level positions reserved within the Company, waiting only for the right timing.

Those hardworking poor students, grinding their brains and exhausting their entire lives, only to fight for these scraps that others sneer at.

Even if luck and ability coexist, and one successfully makes it to the end, one merely becomes an ordinary Company employee.

To street gang members and Edgerunners, a Corpo dog is just a Corpo dog; who cares that these people were once ordinary individuals who reached today only through arduous effort, shedding blood, tears, and sweat.

They will simply aim their knife tips and bullets at those they see as Company lackeys, without a word of explanation, treating them all "equally."

To the big Corporos, ordinary Company employees are merely consumables, not even necessarily counting as low-end firewood.

Countless employees die suddenly at their workstations every year.

In Night City, the data on employees dying from work ranks among the highest, even when looking across the entire New America.

Even public opinion is not friendly toward Company employees.

People generally hold hostility toward Corpo dogs; whenever the news mentions that someone from a certain Company died accidentally due to some reason, no one expresses sympathy, they only clap and cheer.

These people transfer their hatred toward the corporate giants onto the innocent ordinary employees.

Truly, they are out of place everywhere.

So, what have these poor students been striving for all their lives?

Is it worth being forced to forever bear the mindless insult of "Corpo dog"?

Spending an entire life only to jump willingly into hell with eyes wide open is truly ironic.

David ruffled his hair, yet could not vent the fullness of his irritability and confusion.

Wearing his school uniform, he silently waited for the red light to turn green, his toes unable to stop rubbing back and forth against the hard asphalt road.

"David."

A familiar male deep voice carried over on the gentle breeze, waking the contemplative David.

"Brother-in-law?" David shuddered, got a jolt, and woke from his wild thoughts, slightly startled.

"School let out early today too?" Yahweh asked softly, walking slowly across the crosswalk with David, going against the crowd, cutting through the bustling street.

"Ah..." David nodded, his eyes unable to stop looking around.

"Looking for your sister?" Yahweh chuckled softly. "We came home very late yesterday; she was like a little lazy bug, and she hasn't even gotten up yet."

David glanced at the holographic clock hanging on a nearby high-rise building and raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't you say earlier you had something to ask us? Now that we've met, is it convenient to talk about it?"

"Uh... it's a bit hard to bring up." David scratched the back of his head, feeling uncomfortable all over.

"About money?"

"Mm."

Talking to a smart person is always convenient and simple; before he even opened his mouth, the other party had already guessed the reason.

"How much?" Yahweh said, walking into a large shopping mall.

David followed behind him, frowning, his mouth opening and closing, repeating the action back and forth several times.

"I actually... want you two to help me persuade Mom... I don't want to study anymore."

In the end, he still could not bring himself to beg for money.

Yahweh sighed softly, stood at the entrance of the mall supermarket, and casually grabbed a shopping cart to push.

"Did the tuition go up?"

Yahweh narrowed his blue eyes, thought for a few seconds, and deduced the only possibility.

"Mm."

David didn't have time to ask Yahweh how he guessed the real reason he was unwilling to go to school.

A wave of heart-piercing sorrow had already choked his throat, the suffocating pain almost making him unable to speak.

He did not want this, but there were no other choices left.

"Whatever decision you make, your sister and I will support you unconditionally." Yahweh gently patted the boy's drooping shoulders. "But you must tell Mom the real reason yourself."

"Why?"

"Do not deceive those close to you..." Yahweh stroked his chin, his blue eyes fixed on David's confused expression, smiling somewhat meaningfully. "Do not lie under the banner of 'for your own good'."

"Won't brother-in-law lie to sister?"

"It is precisely because I have withheld too much from her that it has become increasingly difficult for me to speak the truth."

"Ah?" David was startled, and all his worries were cast from his mind.

"You lied to sister?"

"Not regarding feelings; that is not what I mean." Yahweh shook his head. David's expression, as if facing a great enemy, revealed a meaning of "I never thought you were that kind of person," which made him somewhat unable to hold back a smile.

"I simply wish to say, do not underestimate your own family." Yahweh pushed the shopping cart, took bags of snacks from the shelf, and continued, "Those who can face difficulties together are family. So do not always think of showing off your strength alone..."

"So why did you lie to sister?"

"My situation is different from others'..." Yahweh rubbed his brow in pain. "But in the end, I will tell her the truth, just not now..."