I never had anything against Jackie Welles. In fact, I even liked him and that was what worried me the most about him having my back at all times. Since he first appeared in Cyberpunk 2077 I was surprised and pleased by that extreme camaraderie he showed towards V. That was the main obstacle to killing him.
Betrayal is expensive
From the first moment I entered Night City as a Corpo I made it clear: I will not let anything or anyone get in my way. I don’t care how many ethical laws, moral rules or traffic regulations I have to violate to reach my goal of reigning in dystopia, but I will. And for this you have to attack the neck of the big shots.
One of them is Dexter DeShawnthe guy who hires me to do the job of retrieve the Relic for Evelyn, the owner and mistress of Lizzie’s. If I want to mark territory, I have to go for the guy with the mechanical arm and Evelyn throws me the bait, which I take with pleasure. A proposal to stab Dex in the back is all the lure I need, and it includes Judy. The neurodance expert blows my mind with her demonstration of a detective mode like Batman that seems from another universe. It’s a pity that such talent is waking up in porn products.
However, you have to tread carefully. A little phone call from Militech’s Meredith Stout tempts me into betraying both Dex and Evelyn so I can make amends for the botch-up the Maestrom pulled on them. I’m not saying I’m going to accept, but I don’t lose anything by listening to the offer. I meet on a channel and I find what she puts on the table tempting, although I’m not stupid either. An infinite credit card that tracks my movements? There you stay Stout, make that informer Gilchrist the one to drop you a line.
The truth is that that pasta would not have been bad for me right after. I’m going to pick up the Flathead I need to sneak into Yorinobu Arasaka’s room, but Royce has other plans. Brick had paid him and this estranged leader sees no reason why he can’t gun me down for the exact same money again. Not having 10,000 euro dollars ends with a bullet in my head.
In my steadfast policy of no violence unless absolutely necessary, I decide to load the game before starting the mission. He takes me away from the meeting point with Jackie and I do one of those errands Regina has scattered around Night City. Rescue one Lucy Thackery, a girl who bought her brother’s freedom from the Maelstroms, but is now enslaved in a cyberware repair clinic in North Longshore.
In stealth mode I am a beast, I must say. I can hack cameras from a distance, open doors in a flash, and be a shadow to the Maelstroms that guard the place. What I can’t hack into is Thackery’s mind, which is not only kidnapped by these mind dwarves, but even more so decides to take pity on one of them. Let him help him rescue a Malestrom, what I was missing and even more so, the ungrateful person throws it in my face. It is at that moment that I realize an unusual ability that I possess: I can’t hear a thing while I’m counting money for a reward.
The Konpeki Plaza disaster
After paying Royce I get the same warning again. I have to send Dex to hell and the actual phrase is to get “Dex’s dick out of my mouth”. White and bottled. Be careful, as soon as you leave the Maelstrom lair, a Militech division appears, led by… Gilchrist? The bloody snitch Stout had accused and who had more bruises than teeth? The same. Not that he’s going too far, but it now seems to have been confirmed that he wasn’t the mole who leaked the information about the Flathead shipment. And I don’t know anything about Stout, she’s probably dead in a ditch.
Next meeting point: Afterlife, the joint of legends and an old morgue rebuilt for the occasion. Jackie waits for me outside her and as we have drinks with the waitress, chatting about what her posthumous drink will be like at the venue, I start to think. CD Projekt RED must have included some kind of decision that will put me between a rock and a hard place regarding Jackie. Despite everything, he is the only person with whom I would hesitate to change my indiscriminate policy.
If it lasts too long Cyberpunk 2077, I will end up taking affection and I do not want to. However, going out to fight in the streets without a right hand is not the best of situations. The rational part of me tells me to pull the trigger when necessary and the sensitive part is still trying to figure out what it feels like. Dex and T-Bug don’t give a damn about that as they explain their plan to get the Relic back. In that same conversation in the Afterlife booth, I don’t hesitate for a second to lie to Dex about Evelyn’s intentions.
Arriving at Konpeki Plaza is like coming home. I demonstrate my Corpo skills by mercilessly assuring that I am an arms dealer, so nobody bothers me. I only raise an eyebrow when I find myself Hideo Kojima sipping daiquiris at the bar, but this is no time to chat about Silent Hill. There is a mission to accomplish.
I like the Flathead part, it’s on rails and ends with us going into Yorinobu’s room. A piece of cake until the said darling of the Arasaka shows up and has a meeting with Saburo. That man is over 150 years old, it is impossible for him to be alive. In fact, he’s gone a few minutes later in a fit of his son’s rage, and Jackie and I are the only ones who’ve seen it.
Trying to escape from the apartment we run into Militech, they catch up with Jackie and I’m annoyed to choose the option where I reproach him for his positive attitude. Hell, it shouldn’t be like this, not with him. The Relic begins to go critical and Jackie puts it in her head to keep it, but she doesn’t get very far. We get to the car we had rented, Jackie offers me the Relic and dies. I’m… a little sad, really, but at the same time relieved.
Cyberpunk 2077 he has done the dirty work that I will never know if he could have done. I no longer have any bond to cling to, no relationship to sustain. The limits are set by me, not by the people around me. Once dead, I do respect his wishes and send the body to his family. I meet Dexter in a filthy motel and he does what I could imagine: he betrays me. God knows how I survived being shot, but now good old Johnny Silverhand take control. Such a moron will surely play in the coming weeks.
