Cyberpunk: XYZ

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Chapter 47: Little Monsters II

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X exhaled slowly, his mind racing. Little Monsters wasn't just a name; it was an army.

And now, he had to face the interesting truth: the army was his, even if he hadn't built it himself.

X returned his attention to the second map, to what the Little Monsters call home.

The first step was decoding the locations.

Each dot corresponded to seemingly random spots across the city, abandoned apartments, forgotten warehouses, and even a derelict sublevel beneath Kabuki.

X methodically cross-referenced each point against his own clinic records and city blueprints.

It didn't take long for the pattern to emerge.

Every green dot marked a place tied to despair; a shelter for runaways, a squatters' hideout, or a building where tragedies had unfolded.

They were places M had repurposed, transforming sites of hopelessness into sanctuaries.

X stood up, and the moment his focus faded away from the computer, he started hearing things again, the sound of vehicles driving down the streets, rain, and Joi.

"X? X! Are you okay?" There she was, eyeing him with concern and puzzlement.

She didn't know for how long she was calling him, and he couldn't hear her, so focused that all the noise was thrown into the background.

He no longer had Z who would archive everything X didn't notice. Now, he has to rely on himself.

"Yea... Yeah," X uncertainly nodded, eyeing her strangely, "Joi, my dear. Can you catalog every meeting and conversation we had since you woke up? Can you do that for me?"

"Of course," Joi nodded, "But... Do you need anything else?"

"..." X blinked twice, his vision falling upon what he needed most, "My coat." He put it on and walked out.

The rain today, it wasn't toxic. It was unusually fresh, the polar opposite of how X feels right now.

He didn't feel safe. He felt watched and not in control, paranoia overwhelming his mind.

He couldn't focus much, feeling his mind a blundering mess, thinking of so many things at the same time.

Is this a window of how X was before Y and Z? A mess of a mind. Is this why they were necessary? How would such a mind change X now?

X visited the nearest location under the cover of darkness. The address led him to a crumbling tenement in Vista del Rey, its windows boarded up and its facade covered in graffiti.

The Little Monsters seemed to be well organized, although a bit defenseless as X didn't find it particularly difficult to hack into their private communications.

That allowed him to look within, piecing together the logistics and their living environment.

Inside, the scene was shockingly different. The walls were cleaned and reinforced with cheap but functional materials.

LED strips bathed the narrow corridors in a faint, comforting glow. Rooms were sparsely furnished with scavenged chairs and mattresses, yet they felt lived-in.

On one wall, a tag stood out: "Be warned. I am watching. Here is Home. Here is peace."

There seemed to be a lot of old-gen cameras within, although most malfunctioning, but he was able to see a small group huddled in the common area; teens and young adults, wary but alive.

There was a relatively clean kitchen, and several areas for all kinds of activities, as simple as sewing clothes to recycling broken tech.

The green zones weren't random; they were part of an intricate network.

M had orchestrated supply drops, coordinated safe travel routes, and even ensured the availability of stolen cyberware for those too damaged to function.

The infrastructure was mind-boggling. It wasn't just a movement; it was an ecosystem.

The more X uncovered, the more the mystery deepened. M had operated with surgical precision, tapping into Night City's darkest cracks and turning them into footholds.

One particular discovery made X baffled: encrypted schematics for a hidden vault beneath Japantown.

The files referenced a storage facility stocked with stolen medical supplies, cyberware components, and even tactical gear. The name of the vault? "Sanctuary."

How? Just how did M achieve so much in so little time? It's not as if he always had control right? Just how much of X's memories for the past months are actually real?

X first thought that M only sometimes takes control, at night, but evidence shows otherwise. What is real and what is not; is now up to question.

Sanctuary didn't seem to be just a resource hub; it was a command center.

X found video feeds of Monster's higher-ups meeting there, planning raids, and coordinating their efforts.

Now, that was difficult, getting that video feed and information regarding the Sanctuary hard.

It was only because M is a part of him that X found the process easier. Otherwise, it would've taken him several hours at least to make a dent; while in a deep dive.

Beyond logistics, X discovered M's psychological reach. The Little Monsters weren't just soldiers or survivors; they were believers.

M had woven a narrative so compelling that even X found it hard to untangle.

The Little Monsters are Night City's little creation, created out of people's despair and hopelessness.

M seemingly never shows himself. It's merely his actions that drive them, his words that guide them.

X felt his grip on the investigation tighten as he realized the sheer scope of M's influence.

M seemed to be their anchor. They're united... Because of him. He's the biggest monster, thus why they fear him, respect him, and bring out their curiosity. What had he experienced that made him so... Monstrous?

But there were darker revelations, too. As X retraced M's steps, he found signs of calculated violence.

X pieced together that M had been quietly reshaping the balance of power in Night City, eliminating obstacles to his growing network.

The actions were discreet, trying to minimize their connections to the Little Monsters as they were certainly not ready for battle.

X scoured his own memories, trying to pinpoint when M had begun this crusade, but everything felt hazy.

Z, his once-reliable archivist, had failed him. Important details were missing, overwritten, or corrupted.

Conversations he should have remembered were gone, replaced by fleeting impressions.

It was as if M had built walls inside X's own mind, hiding the extent of his actions until it was too late.

As X stared at the map again, he felt an uncharacteristic pang of uncertainty, dissecting a reality where his darker self had outmaneuvered him at every turn.

M wasn't just a monster; he was a creator, a visionary, and a manipulator.

The word "Home" lingered on the screen, its meaning now painfully clear.

To the Little Monsters, it was a promise of belonging. To X, it was a reminder of everything he had failed to see.

The search for M's traces has just begun, but X knew one thing for certain, the monster was never lurking in the shadows. He was everywhere.

X turned around and walked away, his whistles resounding amidst the heavy rain, his mood seemingly abnormally good.

"Hello hello," X soon reached the cheery blossom market, taking a seat in one of the stalls, "Some kebab French tacos my friend."

"Good mood, huh?" The stall owner raised a brow.

"Hahahaha, no," X let out a laugh before shaking his head, "I'd say a bit of a crazy mood."