1

Case, a washed-up cyberspace cowboy stranded in Chiba City after punitive nerve damage ended his hacking career, drifts through Night City bars and clinics, numbing despair with stimulants. He recalls his fall from elite console thief to street hustler and his failed, costly attempts to find a neurological cure.

Ratz the bartender needles Case about Linda Lee, the young addict Case took up with and whose need unsettles him. Linda warns Case that dealer Wage may plan to kill him as an example. Anxious, Case seeks information from the ancient importer Julius Deane, who offers no clarity.

Noticing a tail—a lean figure with mirrored lenses—Case panics, tries to rent a gun, settles for a spring-steel “cobra,” and triggers an arcade security incident while trying to shake the pursuit. The tail proves to be a woman with mirrored implants; Case escapes out a window and later trades up to a shabby .22 pistol from Shin.

Case returns to the Chatsubo. Wage arrives with muscle, but a potential hit dissolves into talk; Ratz and a riot gun deter violence. Case, exhausted, pays Wage with a flask of pituitaries to clear his debt and staggers out into dawn, suspecting Linda has robbed him of his RAM.

At his coffin in Cheap Hotel, Case finds the mirrored-lens woman waiting with a flechette pistol. She confirms Linda is gone with his Hitachi and denies working for Wage. Introducing herself as Molly, she reveals retractable finger blades and “collects” Case for her employer, stating they only want to talk—marking a decisive turn in Case’s fortunes.