R.B.

Shock.

I learned for the first time that my family sees stars in our eyes and now I find out that I was the only one who didn't know about it?!

Ordinary people don't see anything, I learned that a long time ago. But the fact that they can see too, means that they knew about mine too, but they themselves kept silent when I was oblivious.

Secrets from my own family! I can't believe it! Especially about the general ones!

When I was asked about magic, I was already offended and simply referred to the urban legend about awakening at 30 years old.

When I was asked about me, I simply made an excuse about my talent with both eyes, having awakened magic at 15. When Ruby brought up our talented mother as a counterexample, I simply brushed it off, saying that she was not an innocent maiden.

Mom pouted with tears in her eyes and said that she would have repeated the same thing anyway, so that she would have had us. Ruby, almost crying, went to hug her mother and sulk at me with her.

- Yeah, yeah, sorry, my bad. I'm just still upset that you hid it from me. - I blew out one cheek, but the other was still puffed up.

- Anyway, don't try to do anything or look for anything about magic. - I pointed at Ruby. - And don't even think that incognito mode in the browser will help you, it doesn't protect you from anything. And VPN in this case too!

I stopped her, so she was really down. As soon as I saw that she was about to perk up, I immediately understood what she was thinking and voiced her thoughts, returning her back to melancholy.

- Don't think that I forgot about you, quiet brother. Just try to get into the darknet, I promise that you will be tracked down and hacked before you understand what to look for! - Aqua just turned his head away and scratched his cheek.

What a bastard! He was actually planning to do that!

- And please, Mom, don't ask anyone, please. - She stuck out her tongue and comically hit herself on the head, not even planning to deny it.

How lucky am I with my family? Besides me, there are two other reincarnators and a mother who became one in her teens and hasn't even changed since then.

For now, I decided to put off the issues with Lala. She doesn't bother me too much, she hasn't created any too bizarre inventions yet, and her family doesn't bother us yet. I'll have to be careful with her sister Momo, so as not to give her a reason to fall in love and decide to create a harem for me.

Hmm... and if you think about it... shouldn't all sorts of self-proclaimed suitors of Lala be bothering us at this very time?

After my coming out, we sorted out other issues, like the reason for my blood loss.

I didn't hide anything, telling them about my cool eyes, or rather about their basic functions.

Ruby and Lala blushed, and the former threw a chair cushion at me, calling me a pervert.

I hurried to reassure her that my hypersensitivity doesn't work on her and my mother. I was about to tell Lala not to be embarrassed, since I had already seen everything during our first meeting, fortunately I was wise enough not to mention it.

The memory alone made my head burn and I made an even more Herculean effort to seal my eyes shut as they began to rage, visualizing the memories from the bathroom into a three-dimensional scene.

Ruby looked at me as if I was nothing, while I raised my head with my eyes closed and tried to catch my breath with visible steam coming out of my nostrils and ears.

After walking my family to the taxi, having arranged for my temporary release from school, I was left alone with Lala.

I turned away from her as she looked straight at me with rosy cheeks, nose and ears, along with a mesmerizingly embarrassed expression, which made my heart beat faster and I caught my breath even harder and faster in an attempt to distract myself and cool down.

As I was about to go to bed, I looked into Lala's room and saw her in her pajamas, lying under the blanket, looking now at the door, now at the wall in my direction.

Feeling a pang of guilt, I decided to fall asleep as soon as possible.

[ Do you want to continue the life of David Martinez? ]

– Yes.

[ The transfer begins ]

[ 2075. April 11. ]

So wait... WHAT THE HELL?!

In front of me I saw the living, fucking Raych Bartmoss himself! The Living Legend, who changed the whole world beyond recognition!

Of course, he was in a wheelchair, but his eyes could not lie and displayed his real name.

Did he seriously monitor his transportation to the dump and kidnap the most notorious person in the world?!

– Damn! How can you grasp everything so quickly on the fly and be so slow at the same time?! - and right now this legend was yelling at David.

- What are you yelling about?! This is actually my first experience with a cyberdeck!

- Quiet! I couldn't do anything to you back then, but now I can easily fry your brains. - He rolled the wheelchair closer to the chair and, on the third try, hesitantly sat down in it. - If it weren't for your promise, I certainly wouldn't help some kid, let alone teach him.

He took out a cigarette case and took out a cigar. He cut off the end, lit it and took a drag.

- Haaa, Colombians know how to make cigars – as if he was born again.

- Shouldn't you be focusing on rehabilitation now?

- That's what you'll do. You're a sorcerer, an esper, or a shaman, or whatever you think you are. Just cast a spell and heal me if I start dying.

- I can do a lot, of course, but I haven't matured enough for miracles yet.

- You're fucking kidding me. - Bartmoss took another drag and continued speaking, exhaling. - I saw you walk on water, like a fucking Jesus.

A few minutes of silence passed, Bartmoss was lost in thought and looked only at the ceiling.

- Okay. - He exhaled smoke. - You now know programming languages, but it's too early to let you near demons, at least with a cyberdeck. Let's start learning how to bypass corporate ice...

I was watching with interest all this time.

In fact, I was worried about Bartmoss, because there were as many theories among the inhabitants about his fate as there were alternative universes with his history.

Who would have thought that I would be so lucky. For me, the better combination of circumstances would be to receive a corpse that was just starting to rot and return Bartmoss's consciousness from the Network.

Now, having such a teacher, new horizons are open to me with the potential of a world-scale icebreaker and the destruction of the entire Network with the help of the monstrous data processing ability of my eyes.

Six months have passed since the last time, which is quite a lot in a day, although not bad for me overall.

The next year blurred for me in a veil of events.

In addition to constant training and mentoring from professionals in their field, I secured the foundation for both of the gangs, putting the creation and promotion of what I know best - entertainment and prosperity as the main areas. Along the way, raising the service sector from the bottom.

Created and supported creativity, gave jobs to residents and a chance for education in the form of competitions and scholarships: secondary for children and higher education for adults.

Limiting ourselves to Night City alone would have been a fatal mistake.

I launched the roots of my influence in all corners of the earth, thanks to the influence and agitation of Bartmoss. Of course, the intelligence services of countries and especially the Network Watch became interested in us when they identified Bartmoss's trail, but they can't do anything, since they can't travel through the Black Barrier.

Breaking the rotten capitalism, which has morally and humanistically degraded back to the 19th-20th centuries, will not be easy. There is an opportunity, and quite a chance of success in its implementation, but it is limited to a single attempt.

Turn the titanium foundation of global corporations into a soap bubble in the blink of an eye. To spoon-feed people a hope and raise them from their knees, giving them the goal they want - Human Rights, and not the miserable semblance that corporations have defined for them.

What about the ones who lost themselves in braindances... We'll try, though chances are low, because they lost self-identity and ambitions, living others lifes in a dreams.

- Damn, if I listen to myself from the outside, I sound like a communist. For a liberal socialist, my ideas are too radical.

Mainly entertainment programs and normal cartoons for children were put into production. Of course, with the subtext of individual independence and the desire for freedom, simultaneously expanding horizons, it was not without.

But in reality, everything is far from simple. Developing and supporting small and medium-sized businesses, even receiving revenue from this, it has to be poured in again, while not all bring profit now or promise it in the near future.

Not having large capital(money), I had to play by dirty rules, that is, conduct deals with corporations.

  - At this rate, I will not have my own Caliburn (Rayfield) anytime soon. – licking chocolate, almost natural, ice cream, which was also one of our production projects.

After the recent defeat of Maelstrom, a cold truce with a keen sense of territoriality formed between the gangs. Thanks to this, the Animals got their own legal territory, and the Tiger Claws did not start looking at Kabuki again.

As a result, the situation was as follows: most of the Animals under my clone in poor Watson, the wealthy area of ​​Westbrook under the Tiger Claws, the heavily populated Heywood - Valentino, and finally Santo Domingo - a promising, but not rich area and the main artery of ground transportation between the NUSA(New United States of America) and Night City - your beloved Sixth Street.

As for Pacifica, no one gives a shit about Pacifica. To put it mildly, it's like a dump in Detroit, which is in Detroit. It's even embarrassing to call it a ghetto, everything there is so shitty and there is nothing.

De facto they are led by Voodooists, but compared to other gangs they are just small fry, slightly better than Rogues.

The true ruler of Pacifica is Barghest, but even they don't care about Pacifica, limiting themselves to Dog City. Officially, they are not part of Night City and as such a gang.

All because of Kurt Hansen, who founded a foothold here after the Fourth Corporate War, some kind of autonomous occupation region of the NUSA, with a big emphasis on autonomy from the latter. With their weapons, they can easily finish off any gang and even wage war on the city.

In short: screw the corporations, give us a happy, normal life and means for the lives of all subordinates.

As for studying, I got into the advanced class in Arasaka Tower after the recent distribution based on academic performance. Officially, I received a scholarship from a legitimate company that indirectly belonged to Sixth Street.

But my mother did not stop working overtime, despite all my requests to rest. She called her earned money my financial cushion.

It was very painful for David to hear this and to see his mother's exhausted state, so he began to massage her, saturating her body with chakra, which accelerated the body's recovery and brought it into tone.

Continuing to absorb the knowledge and experience of running a business, while marveling at Bartmoss's skills, I did not notice how I managed to wake up.

I slept only three hours, but my body and mind were fresh, so I had to get up. Having sent the clones to work, I went to the kitchen to make breakfast, and at the same time re-digest the information.

I will need to interact with David, because he constantly cooks Mexican cuisine, although given the ingredients in Night City, only spices save disgusting tasteless artificial protein food, which they call meat, not even having fruits or vegetables in common market.

Having prepared four full plates of this, I ate half of it, which was already too much for an ordinary person. Taking coffee, I went to do my routine work.

- Wait a minute... How long was I away from Ryozanpaku? - I got goosebumps down my spine when I imagined the faces of the masters with glowing rays from their eyes.

- I'm finished. - I sat down at the chair, already feeling how the masters were taking out their worry for me and irritation for ignoring training on me.

After thinking it over, I decided to finish this semester externally, by writing all exams, and devote myself to training. Lala has already settled in and become quite popular, so there shouldn't be any problems...

Who am I kidding, if I'm not around, something will definitely go wrong. I can't send Ilulu, I'm too used to her, and she also helps Lala's bodyguards.

Hiring a professional bodyguard or a killer for protection sounds wrong, but it's necessary to protect her if something happens.

A schoolgirl sorceress immediately comes to mind, who could protect Lala, while being her friend, but I don't know anything about the magical world, let alone connections.

"Okay, I'll solve problems slowly, as they come up." I lay down on the bed with my hands at my sides. "First, I need to meet with the masters..."