Chapter 465 - 436: Brain Demon (IX) (4000 words! Am I awesome or what!)_2

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After entering society, a person might end up with many names.

Worker, boss, Little So-and-so... or a nickname given by friends, and if you do something big, people will give you a resounding title, of course, notorious deeds will earn you corresponding nicknames as well.

Although he hadn’t been involved with the gang for too long, Jostar was definitely a member of the Vortex Gang now, even enjoying the treatment of a big brother, earning the nickname Jostar.

Sometimes he forgot his real name wasn’t this.

His real name was Yoshida Hirokazu, having just turned 18, he was about to become a man.

Before everything happened, he lived in Night City, a large urban area. Although the streets were chaotic, he wouldn’t see most of it because he attended a fairly decent middle school.

There wasn’t an exaggerated rate of school shootings, nor was there much bullying: everyone was poor, prosthetics were hardly stronger than firearms, so the rates of shootings and bullying maintained a delicate balance.

Like all young people, he watched movies, played games, made first purchases, played with adult toys, and of course thought about getting a girlfriend.

The tuition wasn’t too expensive, but certainly not cheap, his mom worked as a waitress in a restaurant and made a decent living. If anything was imperfect in his family, it was that he didn’t know who his dad was.

Until that day when his girlfriend of three years got into the sports car of some rich kid from who knows where, his formerly reserved girlfriend turned into a cream puff in front of him in that car...

Because their prosthetics weren’t on the same level, this incident and him getting beaten up by the other party happened at the same time.

Sometimes the world shatters with just one small whim of a rich person.

He had heard of the Tiger Claw Gang, and heard legends of gangs...

Thus, he chose to be a street kid—the gangs would definitely help him regain his dignity. That was the rule in Night City, if he wanted to find an opportunity to fight against the rich, he needed to join a gang.

But sadly, reality smashed his dignity to the ground a second time.

How could a waitress with a decent salary not own a proper set of attire and prosthetics?

His own mom, completely relying on the business of sex dolls to sustain herself.

He couldn’t accept it at the time, but now thinking back... there really wasn’t anything wrong with it.

His current memories stopped at that night on Ellen Street, his startled mom, the corporate dog who thought and then wickedly smirked, and...

Confused, helpless, fleeing with his wounds covered.

In the mirror, his own reflection became more distant, Yoshida suddenly found himself lying on the bed, surrounded by darkness, and it seemed like someone was moving on his body.

But this feeling wasn’t clear, looking around, this place seemed like his own home.

There were countless figures moving about in the house, a woman cooking by the stove, a boy using virtual reality goggles by the dinner table, a woman cleaning the house, a mother giving instructions to her son as she left the house, the perfunctory child...

"...Hirokazu, you must study hard, the environment is tough right now, jobs are hard to find..."

"...Hirokazu, are the school courses tiring? Try this, I heard it contains some amino acids..."

"...Hirokazu, mom is a bit tired today, can you wash the clothes..."

"...Hirokazu, it doesn’t matter if you lost the sports game, have some food, win it back next time..."

"...Hirokazu, you’ll be 16 after today, smile a bit."

There was also the mother and son posing together by the window.

Yoshida walked to the window and looked out, seeing a familiar noise dot shaking amidst the endless data stream.

"Hirokazu... where did you go?"

"Hirokazu... mom doesn’t have much ability, but mom only has you..."

"Where did you go?"

By the window, the silhouettes of the mother and son posing for a photo became ever more distinct, Hirokazu in his illusion stood with his mouth open, wanting to say something but unable to speak.

He wandered around this big city, seeking love, but this love had actually always been right there.

After a round, he had actually always been in the same place.

Fierce pain awakened Yoshida. The gray and blurred digital world suddenly froze, the jumping characters and noise dots became clearer and more vividly colored—

He reached out to touch that increasingly clear, increasingly familiar figure...

The sense of space returned, colors refilled his world, and that figure became ever more familiar...

The dark dress and thick shawl that eternally covered the second layer of clothing, the slightly stooped back, the hair that was always tied up in front of my face.

"Mom...?"

Zz—

The world was suddenly pierced by a mosaic, the familiar silhouette on that head was not the familiar face.

Accurately speaking, it was a deformed brain bound by some complex prosthetic, swollen brain white matter squeezed out from the cracks of the skull, filled with tubes and injections, covering the eyes and nose, only leaving a little mouth.

"Hirokazu."

Yoshida, or should I say Jostar, regained normal vision, clearer than ever before.

Two long mechanical arms moved away from his face as more arms sliced through his body, then filled his torso with new components.

A series of error codes almost obscured his vision, as various never-before-seen prosthetic components were integrated into his body.

Complex electrodes and high-end materials brutally stuffed into his brain—

Pain dominated all his sensory nerves!

But Yoshida just blankly stared at the slight glimpse of lips on this monster...

"Mom?"

Bang!

A loud noise came from behind as Doomtoom, covered in an unidentifiable liquid, burst through the crowd with two guns in hand!

People hacked by the skill chip joined fists and feet against Doomtoom, their prosthetic junk left them weak, but there were just too many of them.

It seemed the load-bearing structure was damaged, the entire underground space was slowly collapsing!

It looked like it might collapse at any moment!

"Jostar! Are you fucking alive? If you’re alive, make a sound! This motherfucker’s about to collapse! Time to bolt!"

Boom!

Debris and shock waves caused the already cracked access pod to shatter further, speeding up the flow of liquid!

Jostar instantly woke up: Pain was almost breaking his nerves, but he thought of something:

Brains can’t be exposed to the air!

If the liquid dries up, what would happen to the people inside?!

"Don’t..."

Hisss!

A mechanical hand stabbed directly into Jostar’s throat.

"Hirokazu... Mom got you a singing chip, go be a pop star!"

The "monster’s" electronic voice sounded, and Jostar became even more certain that this was his mother!

Memories substantively "surged" from his head: he had dreamed of becoming a rock star at six during a community singing contest but was beaten by a kid with an awesome singing chip, and he hadn’t sung since...

"Jostar! Hang in there! Hang on until I get you out, and you’ll be the Brain Demon Gang’s big tough guy!"

An upgraded mechanical arm suddenly shot out like a sharp sword, but soon...

Boom!

The broken arm smashed back!

"Go to hell!"

Doomtoom, now half-bodied, pushed away a cyber zombie creeping up on him while holding the Sadara Shotgun in his hands.

Flashing electricity, swinging mechanical arms, the gradually collapsing underground space, and his unrecognizable mother...

His equally powerless self caught in between.

It was as if his past self and his future self had just fought, and the self who didn’t want to lose suddenly hoped neither side would win.

But neither side could afford to lose.

Jostar stopped thinking.

Bang!

The room trembled.

"The Brain Demon Gang really came up with some freaky shit..."

The mechanical arms in front of him were seized and twisted to the sides by two stronger Octopus Arms. Another arm picked up the glass shards from the ground and pressed them back onto the glass chamber, then sealed it up with sealing glue.

This hero just like that appeared before Jostar’s eyes.

The colossal Jack stood between Doomtoom and Jostar, literally holding up the soon-to-break ceiling.

Bullets hit a spot slightly to the side of his head, V snapped off Sadara’s shotgun shells, and with a snap, propped it to the ground, looking at the stunned Doomtoom and said:

"Long time no see, fallen on hard times?"

Lille looked towards Jostar who seemed to still be conscious: "Still alive?"

Iron Skull frantically nodded.