Woodhaven Street was becoming crowded, and the pungent scent of char in the air was being overtaken by the sll of cheap alcohol while the grease from synthetic at wafted in the alcohol-laden air.
Although the food was cheap, the atmosphere on the site was surprisingly lively, and the diners were genuinely happy.
The reason was simple, in Night City 15% of the population earned less than 2,000 Euros a year, with a monthly inco not exceeding 170 Euros, and more than half of these people were concentrated in Saint Domingo.
The cheapest food available on the market, like the Pink Tortilla XXL, cost 10 Euros per serving, which was more expensive than many bullets, and a bucket of fried chicken chunks from a fast-food restaurant would set you back upwards of 30 Euros.
Street food made from black market synthetic at or other cheap ingredients might be a bit cheaper, but not by much.
All in all, 170 Euros wasn’t even enough to rent a decent house, and each month it was necessary to scavenge for food one or two tis.
There were many reasons for these distorted prices, wars between corporations, unification wars, and various financial crises and inflation resulting from wars...
One could say that since the beginning of the 21st century, the world had been in a state of frightening inflation, with prices of basic necessities rising particularly sharply.
Although no one knew what had gotten into the Six Street Gang, free food and drinks?
It was almost unimaginable.
Even disregarding the holess, the average annual inco for the entire population of Saint Domingo was only about 3,000 to 4,000 Euros, so a al given away for free was still not sothing they could simply overlook.
To these people, every single penny was worth splitting in two to spend.
"Aweso!" a man missing an arm downed his drink with his remaining chanical arm, "The Arican Dream is fucking aweso!"
The soldier standing guard next to him laughed, "Feels good, doesn’t it?"
"Aweso." The man was emboldened by the alcohol and, swaying his head, patted the soldier’s shoulder and gave a thumbs up, "The Arican Dream... This is it."
A mber of the Six Street Gang handed him a small energy wallet, "Watch this, charge it up and bring it back, and you can exchange it for more drinks."
"There’s such a good deal? Go ahead! Anything to do with the Sixth Level Version... it’s my thing! I dare not kill, but stealing electricity, I’m your guy!"
Then, with a slap, the man collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Lying on the ground, he kept mumbling gibberish, and even a translation software couldn’t decipher what he was saying.
From the rooftop, V saw this and chuckled, "Already passed out after just starting to drink?"
[Lille: That man won’t live much longer, his nerve endurance has already made it difficult for him to stay sober on a normal day.]
"So being drunk ans bad nerves?"
[Lille: To be precise, being able to process alcohol and whether the body can secrete certain catalysts are related. You’ll feel terrible and dizzy before the alcohol is broken down.]
[Lille: But at the sa alcohol concentration, whether one collapses from drunkenness is very much related to nerve strength. It’s normal for a person with weakened nerves to fall imdiately upon drinking.]
"So is what we’re doing considered poisoning?"
[Lille: No, he wouldn’t have lived long even without the drink. This is more like treating him to a feast before his death.]
No one knew whether the man passed out on the ground had just recovered from an illness, was suffering from nerve breakdown due to excessively long work hours, or had undergone so other trauma.
All that was known was that he couldn’t even hold his liquor now.
The people here had a hysterical sense of dissonance when relaxing, as if they wanted to drown themselves in the pleasure of alcohol and the satisfaction of at in their stomachs.
But in reality... it was just a bit of alcohol and synthetic at.
Jack had beco sowhat silent by now, just watching the lively scene on the field without speaking and silently eating his at.
Soon David arrived at V’s "table" with two Hackers from the team, Lucy and Qi Wei—
More precisely, the "barrel", where beer and synthetic at were placed on a rusty tal barrel, with a canister next to it holding fuel, and a wire sh on top that served as a simple grill.
"This task is a guarding job; originally it was a long-term mission, but we don’t have that much ti, so it turned into what it is now," said V, getting straight to the point as she began to explain the division of labor for this job.
But as she started to speak, she felt sothing eerie: tasked with these things, her whole body beca uncomfortable.
Fortunately, she was just conveying Lille’s intentions; reading off the notes was all that was needed.
David sat up and nodded attentively.
[Data transmission in progress...]
"We have four main defense areas, the first being above us, the highway over Peizhuo Petrochemical’s dam, but that place is covered by another group."
The Peizhuo Petrochemical dam area is considered a separate large zone, with open terrain and no cover, making it almost impossible for enemies to sneak up to the dam and snipe from there.
With the main venue at Woodhaven Street as the center, one splits northward into three regions. The region directly to the north is the deepest, while the other two regions are more like small fans. Part of the fan-shaped area consists of buildings in the urban zone, and the rest is unfinished construction sites and other wastelands.
The urban areas can be monitored by Hackers who take control of already hacked traffic caras, cars, and other smart devices, but wastelands without surveillance caras have to be patrolled by people.
These two districts were the ones David was in charge of patrolling with his team.
"In a nutshell, you patrol, and if you see any suspicious characters, shoot them on sight."
Lucy raised her hand, "I want to know, who are the enemies? Are they dangerous?"
"Like you, rcenaries, probably quite skilled. As for whether or not they’re dangerous..." V paused for a mont, looking at Lucy curiously, "I rember the first ti we t, you robbed Lille...Burger King, didn’t you find that dangerous?"
In V’s mory, when Lucy was a thief, David was still a model student; now David thinks about pulling off a big job every day, so why has this girl seed to beco more timid?
According to Lille’s words, wasn’t Lucy the street kid, and David the exemplary citizen?
Lucy felt a bit embarrassed: Who knew that stealing a chip on the subway could turn out to be from a big shot!
"...That was an accident."
As to why she had beco more cowardly...
David casually wrapped his arm around Lucy, grinning from ear to ear, "Don’t worry, although saying nothing will go wrong is a bit absolute, we can definitely handle it!"
"Sigh... we’re in charge of Sector Two, let’s head over and check out the place."
Lucy covered her forehead, picked up two bottles of alcohol and synthetic at from the ground, and they both left the place.
Qi Wei remained there, looking at the backs of the departing couple, seemingly lost in thought.
V glanced at her, "Those two seem pretty close, huh?"
"Close indeed, they’ve already slept together."
"Oh~ That explains it." V shook a can of beer, "I can see you’re seasoned. Are you very familiar with those two?"
Qi Wei scratched her head and sat down on a broken wall nearby, "The girl was brought in by . She doesn’t seem to be like us, raised on the streets.
The first ti I saw her, she was just a girl with no direction, knowing so hacking skills but nothing else.
Latter on, sohow, she beca motivated, as if she had found a goal.
Just like you are now."
"What do you an?" V pointed at himself, not quite understanding the ambiguous statent, "What do you an by ’just like us now’?"
"It ans... full of vigor. Can I ask, what drives you to do all those crazy things?"
"Why?" V thought for a mont...
If she had to say, the dream that had followed her since childhood was simple: having seen so many amazing things, she just wanted to be the coolest person in Night City, to show off in style.
But saying that seed a bit cheap.
[V: Did you hear ? I’m asking you!]
[Lille: ? Wasn’t he asking you? I started out purely for survival! That’s still one of my goals now.]
The external brain refused to provide a satisfactory answer, and V fell into thought.
Then Jack spoke up, looking at the people celebrating wildly in the arena, a sudden realization hit him: wasn’t this his favorite kind of, aweso Thursday?
Free drinks, good buddies gathered together having a great ti.
To be able to treat people to als, to be respected, that was his goal—to be a man of substance.
So he naturally said, "Of course, to be a man of substance, to be a significant figure."
A plain answer, but... V felt that this answer was strangely similar to her own thoughts.
Qi Wei looked towards the "big shot", her gaze shifting emotionlessly towards the towering skyscrapers in the distance, "That’s what everyone in Night City thinks."
"What, you got sothing to say?"
"I just think, people like us, called ’punks,’ are either escapers ashad of their past or drears who lose themselves chasing grand ambitions."
Hearing this, V snorted with laughter, finishing her beer in one gulp, disdainfully said,
"That sounds like a loser’s confession. Once you’ve made enough money, you won’t have those thoughts. You should hang out with us more; guarantee you’ll make enough."
"That’s true, it’s just a bit too thrilling."
"Alright, ti to get to work."
As he finished speaking, the Six Street Gang connected the power to the surrounding speakers, the volu of the raucous rock music increased, driving the atmosphere to a climax, and the sergeant’s voice rang out—
"You little brats, all fattened up by the Arican dream, huh?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)