Chapter 1 Mental Assessment Normal_2

Li Pan recognized her as someone familiar at a glance, especially with the light green uniform of medical staff.

"Do you also live on this floor? The NCHC Medical Health Center?"

"Th-thank you! You're Li, right? I almost didn't recognize you with the shaved head, I'm Orange."

Li Pan remembered then,

"Oh, you're Yamato's mother, aren't you? I heard you always work the night shift."

Li Pan recognized her, this woman, her son Huang Dahe, loved to play ball in the open-air parking lot. That kid was much smarter than Li Pan, reportedly getting into Ye Corporation's private academy on a scholarship, a genius test-taker from the slums. After graduation, he'd be a bona fide corporate dog under Ye Corporation, with a bright future indeed.

Orange forced a smile, nodding toward the emergency news in the elevator,

"Yeah, emergency overtime again. Cerberus and Red Dog are at it again. I heard they used a level seven Ultra Gravity Ray Gun, and half a block has been blown to rubble."

Only then did Li Pan pay attention; the speaker in the elevator had long since broken, and the projector screen flickered with graphic images of a violent shootout. He had thought it was just another trashy plasma movie advertisement.

Since the end of the corporate wars, the old king of the world, the financial conglomerate Takamanohara, had been forced into bankruptcy and reorganization. Naturally, the old corporate security forces and the conglomerate's mercenaries and gang groups, unwilling to accept defeat, descended from rulers to the lower ranks of society. Thus, many corporate remnants joined the underworld, and some radical elements formed the extremist organization 'Akai Tengu,' commonly known as Red Dog, attempting to use violent means to expel the outsiders from Otherworld, the Ye Corporation.

Faced with harassment from these local gangs and criminal terrorists, the Ye Corporation decisively chose to call the police.

After all, they were legitimate monopolistic merchants. The inheritance from Takamanohara had been won fair and square.

So, under arbitration by the Earth Zero Public Safety Committee, Public Security System Substation 0791 was authorized to form an independent armed force, the mobile police unit CERBERUS, specifically tasked with brutally exterminating these foolish stray dogs.

And Red Dog was certainly no vegetarian; hence, these increasingly bloody and escalating 'dog fights' had become the daily highlight of life in Night City.

Li Pan couldn't help but be astounded at the long rolling list of casualties in the news.

"That's terrible. Damn, four hundred and fifty-three tax-paying citizens with social security records were killed or injured. Geez, the death lottery jackpot is going to double this time. Oh, I mean, you're going to be busy now..."

"Sigh, you bet. The chips have probably melted into the floor; we might have to scrape them off with a shovel to recover them. This will take us until tomorrow to clean up..."

Actually, the NCHC, Night City Medical Center, this so-called public medical system, is more aptly described as a morgue. After all, since the corporate wars, the financial system 0791 had collapsed, and the medical insurance accounts were bankrupt. If you got sick, you could only rely on various expensive aristocratic hospitals, private medical insurance, or unreliable underground clinics. NCHC was only responsible for collecting bodies and cleaning up.

"By the way, Orange, can NCHC still do mental health evaluations? I've been looking for a job recently, and I need to update my mental health certificate."

Orange took a step back subconsciously when she heard this closely cropped young man in front of her mention routine mental health evaluations.

Li Pan didn't mind, knowing it was a normal reaction upon hearing others say he might have cyberpsychosis potential. He calmly rolled up his checkered shirt sleeve and showed his left arm to her.

"I broke it while working an illegal gig at the landfill. The boss had a bit of a conscience, at least. He didn't pay my wages, and he fired me, but he compensated me with a prosthetic limb taken from a disabled veteran.

It's illegal, with no registration number, unable to connect to the security network. It has to be updated manually."

Seeing his rusty metallic limb, Orange knew it wasn't any high-grade military implant, possibly just some junk from the landfill, likely a low-tech Level 1 assistive prosthetic. She figured he probably wouldn't rip her head off, so she reassured Li Pan,

"Any implanted body has to use some sort of immunosuppressant, especially if it's not custom-made, there would be rejection reactions. If possible, you might try using a Hibernation Compound; it can stabilize mental deviations for a short time.

Also, I advise you not to use NCHC public medical consulting services—just lining up will take five years. Here's a private communication link. It's a friend of mine, they've recently started a mental health maintenance business. If you need a certificate, go to them. The price is fair, and you know, whether you're sick or not, they'll issue you a certificate."

"Oh, thanks a lot! You've been a huge help!"

After exchanging contact information and adding each other as friends, they struggled out of the elevator, which had jerkily descended from the forty-eighth floor to the ground floor. Since Li Pan had an interview in the city, Orange drove him to the subway entrance before parting ways.

"The executives of Night Corporation are all vampires! Yes! Real vampires! I'm not scaring you! Their prosthetic bodies are made from bio-engineered humans coordinated with genetics! Level Six technology! These bastards claim to be the Blood Clan! They maintain their youth by feeding on human blood!! Do you know how many streetwalkers from the Central District have disappeared? Buy some silver bullets, dumbasses!"

Li Pan walked past the man shouting with a sign at the subway entrance, expressionless. You couldn't call the man crazy, after all; what he said was the truth. The corporations of this world weren't made up of a few hundred or a few thousand people. A more appropriate name would be the super-capitalist conglomerate Konsens, spanning across the Multiverse with unlimited dominance over the Celestial realms.