I walked into the Coyote Cojo and made my way over to the bar where Pepe was currently lazing around.

"Ah, Maliketh, what can I getcha?"

"Same as usual," I grumbled, sitting and resting my chin on one of my hands. He gave me a quick nod as he got to work, but not before pausing and looking at my hands.

"A job go wrong?" He asked, pouring vodka into the glass.

"Training."

He looked back, looking all too confused, before shrugging. "Don't hurt yourself too much. Remember that you're still human no matter how much chrome you get."

"Of course, no need to worry." I laughed as he rolled his eyes and snorted before passing my drink to me. I took a quick sip before placing it back down and getting more serious. "Padre in?"

"Not yet. Should be here sometime soon, though."

"Damn." I frowned, taking another sip, this one a bit longer. "I need a job, bad."

"Well. sit down, relax, and maybe talk to some of the chooms here. You're a stranger; how about you familiarize yourself with Heywood's children, and you'll go far. That's a promise."

"You're the man, Pepe." I shrugged, downing the rest of my drink and giving him a wave before heading off in a random direction.

I did as he said and began mingling with the locals, introducing myself to the various people of Heywood. Some were nicer than others, but there weren't any noticeable people, at least from what I've seen.

Eventually, I watched as Padre walked into the bar. I immediately got up and made my way over to him. The people surrounding him noticed my approach and got on guard, which earned Padre's attention.

"Ah, Maliketh. I assume you were looking for me? Did I make you wait long?" Padre asked, smiling slightly.

"I was, and nah, I just got here."

"Good, I have another job; come, let us talk."

I gave the older man a nod, and he started walking away, closely followed by his guards. I followed behind them, and we approached his booth and took our opposing seats. We sat silently as another guard came over and handed Padre a drink. The older man took a sip, visibly relaxing before looking at me.

"Are you willing to take on something a bit more dangerous?"

"I am." I nodded, leaning forward to hear him better.

"I expected nothing less." He smiled; this time, it was a bit wider, reaching his eyes. "6th Street has been giving me a bit of a headache recently. People not knowing their place and all that. I'm sure you know well of such situations yes?"

People acting out of rank? Yeah, I had seen shit like that happen way too many times in my past life. In Night City, though, taking on more than you could handle likely led to a horrible death.

"I am."

"Good. I need you to show them their place. They have a Militech Cache in one of their residential houses. Steal it; I don't care how loud or quiet you are. Just bring me that cache."

"A whole cache?" I asked while scratching my chin. He nodded, and I felt inclined to ask another question. "I feel like this is really heavy duty, Padre. Are you sure I got this?"

"Do you doubt your abilities?" Padre asked, raising an eyebrow.

I didn't answer. It wasn't that I doubted my abilities; he was either overestimating my abilities, trying to get me killed, or he knew of my abilities.

More specifically, my Nen and/or Haki.

Which isn't too surprising. I wasn't exactly going out of my way to hide Nen after all.

"Here." Padre placed a shard on the table and slid it to me. "That should have all you need to know."

I looked at the shard momentarily before picking it up and shoving it into my NeuroPort. Information flooded my mind and vision. Location, job details, where the cache was within the building, and much more that I could use.

"So what will it be?" He asked, leaning back and putting his total weight on the comfortable seat.

"I'm not one to turn down a job, Padre. Especially not one I know I can complete." I grinned, standing up and placing the data shard back on the table.

"Good, I'm sure you saw a glimpse of the drop-off site?"

"I did. It'll be there."

"Show me what you can do, Maliketh."

I nodded and made my way out of the door. This wouldn't be easy. I was sure of that, but I had a few tricks up my sleeve, and Ten and Ren would come in handy if my cover was ever blown.

It was time for a real challenge.

— Later —

I peeked over the ledge of the building I was on top of and looked down to the residential house that belonged to 6th Street. The Militech Cache was inside, and if the data shard was to be believed, it was heavily guarded. More than that, they expected an attack sometime soon, although they didn't believe Padre would be the one commissioning it.

Well, didn't matter to me. I had a job to do.

Going in quiet wasn't happening. I wish I could just activate Zetsu, sneak down there and shove the cache into my pocket dimension, but there were too many thugs patrolling.

It wouldn't work.

I reached into my pocket dimension and pulled out the Militech Ticon. I aimed it right at the head of one of the patrolling thugs-

*BANG*

A single shot was all it took for his body to drop and for chaos to ensue. The other thugs patrolling instantly started looking around frantically, throwing themselves behind cover and hoping they were out of my sight.

Most of them weren't, sucks to suck.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

With those three shots, three more fell dead, and now they knew where I was. I hid behind the ledge as they returned fire at me.

I reloaded my ticon and opened my aura nodes, activating Ten. I shot out from the cover and pulled my sword from my pocket dimension.

*BANG*

One of the fuckers that was shooting at me got beamed in the face, but beyond taking a few steps back, he didn't go down. Oh, someone with some decent chrome then, I'll handle his ass now then!

I rushed him, letting my protective aura protect me from the bullets as I closed the distance between myself and the chromed-out ass. I launched my sword at his chest, but he dodged the attack, throwing a punch at me. I dodged it and brought my sword to meet his arm. One had to give, and with my indestructible blade, it was clear which would.

His arm went flying in the air, and the shock of losing it gave me the chance to bury my blade in his head, likely killing him instantly.

*BRRRTTTTT*

I winced in pain as the rain of bullets hit me. Ten protected me from death, but it was no end-all-be-all shield. It still hurts like bitch to get shot.

I launched myself around, zigzagging past the bullets. I got hit more than once, but that was fine.

*BANG*

Another asshole down. That was the last one, or at least the last one outside.

I looked at the door, then at the camera above it, and flipped the piece off. The door was locked, and though I could open it with some hacking, I wanted to do something else.

I activated Ren, grinning as the aura exploded around me, before I ran full speed at the door and shoulder bashed it, breaking the thing open.

Immediately, bullets rained down on me, but with my Ren active, I was much faster than before. I wasn't really dodging the bullets. It was more like I was running really fast and avoiding the bastards whose aim was frankly horrible. I used my Inverted Spear of Heaven to cut through the group of thugs, one after the other.

Even as I got shot a couple of times and the bullets dug into my flesh, I continued moving around and slicing these fuckers up as much as I could. I went after the ones with the largest guns first. More specifically, LMGS, full auto assault rifles, anything that would give me a severe headache, I took out the thug using it.

Eventually, the only people left were the guys with melee weapons and a few with pistols who had seen their friends get slaughtered and decided to run. I let them go. It was okay if they left after all. I wouldn't be here for much longer, so I didn't have to worry about reinforcements.

I dropped deactivated Ren and activated Ten. Then I approached the cache and opened my pocket dimension before pushing it in.

Now that the job was complete, it was time to look around, maybe yoink some nice weapons while I had the chance.

I picked up the LMG and a few of the ARs and made my way around the place. I picked up any pistol I could find as well, not necessarily for myself. It didn't hurt to have extra firearms around to give to people.

I also made sure to throw some more bodies with decent cyberware in my pocket dimension. I didn't have infinite room; in fact, it was pretty small, only 5x5x5 meters, but in time it would grow with my systems.

Plus, there was still plenty of room.

I was done here with most of the weapons picked up and the bodies that had any worth stored. Although, it didn't hurt to see what they had lying around.

I doubt Padre would get upset if I took some of the 6th Street's shit for myself. I'll just consider it a bonus.

I opened a door and looked down the dark stairs. I flicked a light switch, and it turned on, so I began making my own.

Upon reaching the bottom, I raised an eyebrow and crinkled my nose in disgust at how fucking dirty it was. These guys were really as bad at cleaning as they were at shooting.

Talk about a letdown.

I walked through the basement, regretting my decision to come down here with every step. It looked dull, and there didn't seem to be anything around-

I stopped in my tracks as I stared at shiny metal latched on the basement wall. I made my way over, something was clean down here? Impossible!

Upon getting closer, my eyes opened like a kid in a candy shop. I grabbed a hold of the weapon with one hand and dragged my fingers along it with the other.

A sniper rifle.

More than that, I felt like I had seen this sniper rifle before, although the name wasn't coming to me right now.

Well, I'm definitely taking this shit with me.

I picked it up off the wall and gently pushed it into my pocket dimension.

A damn good haul, if I do say so myself.

— Later —

"Job's done." I grinned, walking up to Padre, surrounded by six of his people.

"I see that." He smiled, gesturing for me to show him the cache. I opened my pocket dimension and reached in. I had to use some effort to pull it out, but eventually, it dropped in front of them.

Padre's eyes widened but only minutely. So minutely, in fact, that if I didn't have my All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods, I wouldn't even have noticed a change. This means he knew about my pocket dimension, but maybe not to the extent that I had just shown.

Which makes sense. Not every day you see a guy with a majestic beard pull out a fucking military cache from thin air.

"Very good." Padre nodded, walking over to the cache and inspecting it. "Pay our choom for his services."

One of Padre's men walked over and handed me a case. I opened the case and saw stacks on stacks of paper eddies. I didn't even know how much this was, but it had to be a fuckton.

Another of Padre's men handed me a glass. I raised an eyebrow as another pulled out a bottle of some sort of wine and poured it into my cup. Then he walked over to Padre and poured him a cup.

"To better business." Padre raised his glass, and I was thoroughly lost, so I just decided to go with it.

"To better business."

— Chapter End —