Chapter 604 - 575: Matt’s Family Conditions

"I used to live in Westbrook, my dad was part of the management at a small company, and we lived in a skyscraper," he said.

"You might not believe it, but I didn’t go down to Night City for the first time until I was almost 8 years old."

Matt lay on the prosthetics surgery table, feeling a bit nervous.

As he said, he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but his circumstances were clearly much better than those of the street kids, even better than David’s, who at least had a mother.

Lille was conducting a comprehensive physical examination of Matt to determine the subsequent prosthetics implantation plan.

One thing was certain: the scale of the implantation would be relatively small; after all, this was a 10-year-old child.

"I see, rich kid, what drugs have you used?" asked Arasaka.

"Uh... I attended a school specializing in military technology. My dad said there was a program that signed up and got money, and that’s where I trained," Matt replied.

The Wild Man King raised an eyebrow: "Which program? The one that... ’empowers students?’"

The primary activity area for the Animal Gang was in the downtown, where the low-spec combat prosthetics conditions made it easier for them to evade the downtown prosthetics detectors.

Of course, the Wild Man King was not among these.

Lille had her by his side because there were some growth drugs he might not know about, but the Animal Gang were experts in this field.

However, the project mentioned by the Wild Man King was one Lille knew about; it was a military technology initiative, subsidized or even provided free to community schools to supply their students with arms, prosthetic eyes, high-speed neural pathways...

In short, it was a corporate project.

Besides a high-level neural interface, Matt had no other advanced prosthetics. Overall, he was fairly clean and it was unlikely he was from the typical community schools on the ground level.

Sure enough, Matt shook his head: "Not that one, seems like it was... ’The Path of the Peak?’"

"Wow, I’ve heard of that— a joint project between military technology and biotechnology, using advanced drugs on children.

If I remember correctly, it mainly uses NeuroGrowth hormones to stimulate growth; no wonder you’re so big for your age," Arasaka remarked.

Though barely ten years old, Matt already stood over 150 cm tall and weighed nearly 50 kg; these figures were certainly not ordinary.

But... considering the outrageous and brutal experimental plans of these two companies, these values weren’t too far beyond imagination, showing no signs of forced growth.

On the contrary, his cellular data was quite excellent.

Lille repeated the hormone’s name: "NeuroGrowth growth hormones, promoting overall bodily development... what else?"

"Let me think." The Wild Man King pondered a moment. "ErythroBoost, the red blood cell enhancer, AnaboFlex-Steroid, synthetic metabolic flexible steroids, and a new kind of drug, something called Adaptation Recovery Substance.

Basically, these are drugs used in conjunction with high-intensity training. I’ve heard the company takes good care of this, definitely not just to churn out cannon fodder..." she added after a pause.

She hastened to add: "I mean the kind of low-level cannon fodder you can grab anyone off the street, swap in a couple of prosthetics, and call a soldier."

Matt’s physical data was too good.

Bone density, fat content, red blood cell concentration, blood oxygen level, muscle mass—all were at exceptionally high levels compared to his peers, even after a decline from living as a vagrant.

His neural tolerance and immune system conditions were unbelievably good...

Seeing these data, the Wild Man King thought: Geez, a natural-born iron-pumping saint!

Lille was not the Wild Man King; what he thought was: with such a cultivation plan, if the child didn’t die young or training wasn’t interrupted, he would have an excellent tolerance for prosthetics.

A man-made, congenitally engineered saint for machinery.

Upon hearing this, Matt shivered a bit—this was his first time lying on such a wild-looking surgical table for prosthetics implant surgery.

Burger King, a bloody murderer who slaughtered hundreds in a night, also performed prosthetic surgeries?!

After roughly understanding his situation, Lille tapped on the table and said, "Not bad, your physical condition is quite good. What sport do you want to pursue?"

"Soccer!"

"Why soccer?" Lille asked as he extracted a bit of Matt’s bone marrow and transferred it into a biological culture medium.

The boy, completely unaware that the surgery had already begun, eagerly began to explain:

"Because it’s profitable!"

"..." Lille opened his mouth. "Why such a strong desire to make money? How did you end up on the streets?"

"I..." Matt’s mood darkened, "My mom secretly borrowed a large sum of money behind my dad’s back—from the New Federation Bank, Arasaka Bank, European Bank... all these official banks.

Later she couldn’t pay it back, and overdue calls started going to my dad which cost him his job. We lost our house, had no access to the networks, and had to leave the skyscraper."

"But I didn’t see your dad or your mom?"

"That was just the beginning—" Matt’s eyes were a bit vacant. "She kept the borrowing secret from my dad for a long time because she was borrowing money to pay off debts, which meant taking on lots of... irregular black-net loans and Korean loans...

You know, once people who take those kinds of loans get kicked out of company territories, those people just..."

Matt said, appearing to evoke painful memories—

He once was a child living in Night City, not much needing to "enter" Night City, living comfortably, even with a corporate cultivation program.

But as the debts exploded, his previous life collapsed in an instant like a crumbling skyscraper.

After that, it was endless debt collection.

Ironically, the head of the illegal loan and debt collection business, or rather, the gang leader was right here—

Wild Man King scratched her butt nonchalantly, noticing Matt looked at her nervously. Jack, V, and Lille also turned their gazes toward her, and only then did she feign innocence by shrugging her shoulders:

"Then why don’t she just not borrow? Paying back what’s owed is only right. Some idiots just like to use effortless methods to satisfy their unrealistic desires, that’s not my fault, is it?"

Though she appeared calm, Lille could feel her panic.

In fact, even without the perception of negative energy, he could tell: this burly woman even rattled off three idioms in a row!

No choice, Wild Man King had to panic, based on previous experiences with these three bosses, they could be quite unreasonable.

Night City’s entertainment industry had been thriving for so many years, yet this was the first time someone was tackling this issue—who knew what they might do next?

Matt shook his head, "My dad said the same thing. Before we parted, he told me never to be like my mom, but I’m really scared of you guys..."

"It’s right to be scared..."

We aren’t here to warm hearts, but this phrase was left unspoken—

Wild Man King spoke halfway and stopped under Lille’s gaze, but once Lille looked away, she quickly added, "What did she spend it on?"

"My dad said it was for stock trading."

All present revered solemnly; Wild Man King had an ’I told you so’ look on her face—this was even better than she had imagined!

She had thought it was loans for luxury prosthetics or fancy cars, but it turned out to be literally burning money like fuel.

The onlookers soon reined in their glee as Matt suddenly began to cry, crying heartbreakingly.

Maybe it was this unguarded, extreme outburst of emotion, Lille seemed to "percieve" some vague images.

In the images, a gentle woman always looked at him with love and care, soothing him with a bowl of hot homemade food whenever he cried over training issues, listening to his problems, telling him stories, and watching matches with him...

It seemed to be Matt’s mom.

"But... how could my mom be this kind of person? I don’t believe it..."

In contrast to those broken, soft images, what appeared in Lille’s mind afterward was a very clear image:

A woman stood in a dirty, shabby motel room, staring at the air, her body shaking, as if waiting for something...

In the vision, Matt stretched out his little hand, but it was quickly slapped away by the woman.

Even the soft whisper in her mouth could be heard:

"Rise... rise... rise..."

Matt’s voice choked up slightly, "Always cheering herself up to face tomorrow; always keeping the house tidy; always telling stories to lift spirits when I’m down...

And this mom, which one is real?"

Matt tried to wipe his tears, but it was the mechanical arm on the surgery table that did it for him.

He suddenly stopped sobbing, but the tears flowed out even more uncontrollably—

Previously, it had always been his mom doing this: a tender mother always has a crybaby child.

"She...she wouldn’t even explain to me, and after a few days wandering the streets, she just killed herself, continually apologizing to me.

I want to play soccer because I know it’s the most lucrative sport; I want to make big money, I want to win.

If I had money, would my mom still be alive?"

After finishing, Matt thought about wiping his tears again: "But... but she’s already dead, I just want to earn a lot of money, pay back those people, and maybe bring my dad back."

[Surgery Completed.]

The probe specialized in maintaining the prosthetic eye penetrated the eyelid, and the blurry vision began to clear, with a line of text appearing above.

Lille patted his shoulder, "Then you’ve got to work hard. Soccer is the most competitive field. Also, this prosthetic eye is pretty high-end, ’crying’ will cause the tear glands, repurposed for storing maintenance fluid, to expel too much fluid, reducing its lifespan.

To win beautifully, you can’t cry anymore; otherwise, you’ll lose a lot of money even before playing a match."

"I...I understand..."

"By the way, how much does your family owe?"

"I heard my dad say it’s about 300,000 euros..."

"That’s nothing."

Lille slapped the surgery table, and the thing suddenly stood upright.

As Matt went from lying to standing, he had to forcefully maintain his posture, and his sadness seemed to suddenly vanish.

Looking around: all were flashy street gang leaders, and there seemed to be some regret,

but as to how much they were moved... it wasn’t apparent.

He suddenly felt very embarrassed.

Very embarrassed, and very much wanting to play soccer right now...

Even if it meant getting his head blown off by a professional player.