The fragile stability of David's double life shatters when his mother, Gloria, is caught in a gang firefight and left to die by the corrupt corporate paramedics of Trauma Team. Grief-stricken and facing eviction, David discovers that his mother was scavenging high-end military cyberware to fund his elite education. Armed with her final heist—the legendary QianT Sandevistan Mark Six—he confronts a sleazy backalley ripperdoc named Doc to chip the mil-spec spine. When the corrupt doc attempts to cheat him by botching the installation to claim the rare chrome, David unleashes his long-suppressed rage. He overrides the system, beats the ripperdoc to a pulp, and successfully integrates the spine with the secret assistance of Nanny, his newly unlocked nanite AI. This violent transition marks his official descent into the criminal underworld. The raw power of the Sandevistan allows him to effortlessly decimate a predatory squad of scavengers who try to harvest his body, earning him thousands of eddies and catching the eye of the legendary fixer Rogue. He begins to live on the edge, using his superhuman speed and biological regeneration to clear gang hideouts and fund his tuition. But as his physical strength grows, his elite classmates at the academy continue to look down on him, unaware that the street rat they despise is secretly becoming the most feared solo in Santo Domingo. When his main rival Katsuo Tanaka tries to humiliate him yet again, David uses his passive speedware enhancements to effortlessly dodge every punch, leaving the wealthy bully grasping at thin air. Yet this victory is short-lived, as the heavy toll of his double life begins to fracture his mind, prompting a sudden call from his mercenary crew that threatens to expose his secrets. As he stands on the precipice of greatness, a mysterious financial audit flags his bank account, threatening to freeze all his hard-earned money and ruin his chances of corporate ascension forever.

Desperate to secure his school tuition, David partners with Maine's elite mercenary crew for a high-stakes heist targeting modified biker fuel from the ruthless Tyger Claws. Working alongside the chaotic siblings Pilar and Rebecca, as well as the cynical netrunner Kiwi, David takes charge of the infiltration. The mission quickly descends into a chaotic bloodbath as they are ambushed by thirty-four heavily armed gangsters. Using his Sandevistan, David slices through the enemy ranks like a reaper, but his momentum is suddenly halted when he faces Kaze Oni, a legendary cyber-samurai who also possesses speedware. The two warriors clash in a terrifying bullet-time duel, exchanging lightning-fast strikes that push David's newly optimized body to its absolute limits. As his critical nanite replication levels climb dangerously close to a fatal threshold, David is forced to rely on pure swordsmanship rather than raw speed. Just as Kaze Oni is about to deliver a decapitating blow, Rebecca intervenes with a heavy shotgun blast, saving David's life and securing their escape with the valuable cargo. This harrowing encounter earns David a massive twenty-thousand eddie payout and cements his reputation as a rising star among Night City's fixers, particularly El Capitan. He begins to realize that his biological enhancements can make him stronger than any chrome, but the thrill of the slaughter leaves him questioning his own sanity. He must decide whether to embrace his monstrous potential or maintain his humanity, even as a rival fixer named Spring Roberts prepares to drag him into an even deadlier trap. This victory forces David to upgrade his gear, leading him to purchase a high-end Tetratronic Rippler cyberdeck and Kiroshi Sentry Optics. He painstakingly rewrites their operating systems to eliminate corporate spyware, preparing himself for a deeper dive into the Net, unaware that his growing confidence will soon put him in the crosshairs of the city's most dangerous netrunners.

To maintain his disguise as an affluent elite student, David spends a fortune at the luxury store Jinguji, outfitting himself in a dazzling neokitsch ensemble inspired by his mother's high-vis jacket. He attends a high-class corporate party in North Oak alongside his classmate Allister, who introduces him to the arrogant heirs of Arasaka and Militech. David dominates a high-stakes virtual war game against a rival Militech hacker, using his superior programming skills and Sandevistan-boosted reaction times to humiliate his opponents and win a massive twenty-five thousand eddie wager. His display of wealth and competence catches the eye of Fei-Fei, a beautiful Kang Tao heiress who is trapped in an arranged political marriage to David's bitter rival, Katsuo Tanaka. Seeking escape from her destiny, Fei-Fei seduces David, leading to a passionate encounter in the mansion's private rooms. This forbidden tryst serves as the ultimate act of defiance against Katsuo, allowing David to systematically dismantle his rival's pride from the shadows. However, the triumph is tainted by a heavy sense of guilt as David realizes he is slowly adopting the ruthless, predatory mindset of the corporate overlords he despises. He is forced to confront the dark reality of corporate brand-loyalty protocols, which purposefully induce cyberpsychosis in users who mix different cyberware brands. David tries to warn Maine about this insidious corporate conspiracy, but the veteran solo dismisses his concerns as mere paranoia, leaving David to watch in horror as his commander slips further into madness. This friction threatens to tear the crew apart just as they prepare for their most ambitious heist yet, leaving David stranded between his loyalty to his friends and his burning desire to reach the top. Determined to secure his financial future, David travels to Tijuana to establish a shell corporation, only to discover that his ancestral family is being brutally oppressed by a local cartel. He unleashes a devastating one-man crusade against the gang, slaughtering over a hundred members in a single night and claiming their massive financial assets to fund his family's medical upgrades.

To secure the mysterious Militech Apogee Sandevistan for Maine, David undertakes his first full-dive Netrunning mission alongside Lucy and Kiwi, plunging directly into a heavily fortified Tyger Claw data fortress. Operating through Kiwi's data highway, David acts as the vanguard, using his newly optimized Sword program to defend his companions against waves of lethal Black ICE. His superhuman reaction times allow him to effortlessly slice through digital guardians, but the team is suddenly ambushed by T3nsh1, the legendary guardian netrunner. When a catastrophic Brainwipe program bypasses David's defenses and tears through his mind, his consciousness is plunged into a surreal afterlife where he confronts the specter of his dead mother and the weight of his sins. In this moment of spiritual crisis, David rejects his guilt and embraces his own absolute superiority, allowing Nanny to completely reconstruct his fragmented psychology. Reborn as a digital monster, David unleashes a colossal, reality-bending sword attack that decimates T3nsh1 and shatters the data fortress itself. He wakes up in the real world, physically intact but mentally changed, possessing a cold, detached perspective on his own violent actions. He decides to walk away from the mercenary life to protect his remaining humanity, but his attempt to find peace is shattered when he is cornered by Katsuo Tanaka. David effortlessly humiliates his rival in a physical confrontation, proving his absolute dominance, but the burning agony in his spine warns him that his connection to the Sandevistan is reaching a critical breaking point. He must now find a way to reconcile his monstrous power with his fragile human soul before the city claims him. In a final bid for answers, David seeks out a Catholic priest for confession, seeking absolution for his many killings, but the ritual leaves him feeling emptier than ever. He realizes that his true salvation lies not in divine forgiveness, but in his own unyielding will to conquer his destiny, setting the stage for a final, desperate heist that will decide the fate of everyone he loves.