Chapter 51 - 49: Three Brawny Men (Seeking Continuous Reading)

Unlike Atlanta, in Night City, the gangs themselves are colossal.

Even the organizations made up of veterans in Atlanta might have higher ranks.

But in terms of the city’s ecological hierarchy, the Six Street Gang holds a much higher position.

The Six Street Gang and other Night City gangs are essentially large, organized crime syndicates, almost straddling the line of becoming corporations—put simply, half-corporations.

They have their own people, their own businesses, and even their own laws.

Robbery, extortion, and intimidation are the low-level jobs given to fresh recruits.

True high-ranking members of the Six Street Gang, wearing military boots, combat vests, knee pads, and cargo pants, are called "newbies" once they complete their professional training.

At a higher level, like the Six Street Gang leader "Sergeant," they wear baseball caps with old-style American flags and eagle patterns, negotiating deals at the table.

What deals? Military arms deals.

Smuggling guns is the most lucrative business for the Six Street Gang. It’s said that 30% of the black-market guns in Night City are sold by them, and they secretly produce a large quantity of ammunition every year for sale.

Apart from the arms trade, they also have close ties with Wanderers outside of Night City, working as both strategic partners in smuggling.

Additionally, the Six Street Gang has many skilled technicians who refurbish second-hand or cheap cars into armed vehicles for sale, a business also quite popular among mercenaries.

The reason they can operate on such a large scale... is due to their corporate connections.

Some military-oriented companies use their relationship with the Six Street Gang to sell special, high-end products to certain customers.

This is also why their legal existence is recognized.

These businesses often overlap with those of the Valentino Gang.

The Father kept a close watch:

"You have a few options: The first is the weapons dealer on Woodhaven Street, Lama Armory.

The boss is a woman, connected with the Wanderers, and weapons can be smuggled elsewhere or through the border and then resold.

Second is the ’Factory’ across from Watterson Street, where there’s a professional reseller who used to be in sales for a company and now also has company connections.

Both of these aren’t run by the Six Street Gang but are secondary sellers coerced by them. They run their own businesses, occasionally helping handle hot items and are very suitable for you.

How you proceed depends on what information you can gather."

The Father handed out two Separation Chips.

Lille thought for a moment and asked, "Can I choose both?"

"Of course, kid, but don’t bite off more than you can chew. I advise you to think carefully."

Lille swept both Separation Chips into his palm. "Thanks for the advice. By the way, I also have some second-hand prosthetics to deal with.

You know, the kind old Vic won’t touch, stripped from the Six Street Gang."

"Didn’t expect you’d have the knack for that, but Scavenger work is dirty and smelly. Haywood doesn’t look kindly on Scavengers. You could try Preaching Seaside.

There’s an unlicensed prosthetics doctor there, takes all kinds of dirty stuff—though I think the Six Street Gang wants to replace him."

"Got it, thanks Father, big help."

"No problem, you’re all Haywood kids. Helping each other is what we do."

After saying goodbye to the Father, the three of them returned to Jack’s garage.

After spending some time going over the content of the Separation Chips, by the time Jack and V pulled out the chips, Lille had already marked the key points on the wall.

Jack looked puzzled. "So, what are we doing? I get that we’re finding someone to fence our goods, but what does this have to do with the Six Street Gang?"

Lille explained, "The stuff V and I did in Atlanta, plus our actions at the border, were too big. The Father is currently tussling with the Six Street Gang and can’t handle it.

The Valentino Gang doesn’t have friendly company clients backing them, and the Father doesn’t want to draw company attention.

So, to offload the goods quickly, we have to find customers ourselves—customers always exist, but without a middleman to mitigate the risk for us."

The Valentino Gang is essentially a large-scale crime syndicate, relying on loyalty among members to maintain their position in Night City.

It’s a tough piece of crap to swallow—but if the corporations really want to, they can pour resources into having the Six Street Gang swallow it, and the Father wouldn’t be able to withstand it.

"But... the companies are taking losses in Night City every day, right? Can it be that serious?" Jack scratched his head.

He didn’t really understand why they needed to be so cautious.

In his mind, as long as you don’t die on the job, you’re fine.

Having spent some time in Atlanta, V felt differently. In Atlanta, if you committed a crime, you’d be endlessly hunted until you were brought to justice.

Unlike in Night City, where if you scan any street thug, you’ll see NCPD warrants on them—

Even NCPD cops would avoid acknowledging them as long as they weren’t committing a crime in front of them.

If you upset a corporation, V recalled the cyber monster Notte; who knows how many of those they had in their ranks?

"It’s very serious—so we have to handle this ourselves, weave a lot of lies, find many intermediaries to cover our tracks.

But... if it succeeds, we’ll be bona fide boss material, I guarantee that.

Feel like having a drink at the Afterlife?"

Hearing "Afterlife," Jack’s eyes lit up, and V showed interest too.

The Afterlife bar, the dream of every street kid in Night City—it was seen as a place to strike it rich.

It’s where the top intermediaries and elite mercenaries of Night City hang out. If you want to become a legend, a visit to the Afterlife is a must.

V shrugged. "If we can broadcast what we’re doing, Rogel will probably invite us to work overnight, too bad we’re..."

She glanced at Jack mid-sentence, and the two exchanged a knowing look—

Yeah, they had a scheming bastard among them.

"Reputation, money, and your life, you have to give up one—and for now, it’s the life you’ll bet."

Lille ignored the exchange between the two fools and tapped the wall with his erasable marker, like a teacher calling the class to order.

"Back to the point, this job is huge. We need to rob the Six Street Gang to the point where they can’t do business, forcing their suppliers, dealers, and customers to go through us.

"That’s it?" V was surprised. "I thought it’d be some complicated operation I wouldn’t understand."

"When in Rome, we follow Night City’s rules."

"But..." Jack seemed worried. "If the Six Street Gang, with their thousands of guys, goes after us, what do we do?"

"They won’t acknowledge it. If they get scared, the only ones scaring them could be the Valentino Gang. The Father isn’t stupid."

V suddenly caught on: "Wait a minute... so if we fail, we get dumped in the river; if we succeed, it’s credited to the Father’s brilliant maneuvering?"

Lille nodded.

"So what’s in it for us?"

"Money—ever wonder why intermediaries make so much just sitting there while a mercenary like you busts your ass for a small cut?

Besides, they say what they want, but in the middleman circle, it’ll be known that three badasses took down the Six Street Gang, making them submit to the Valentino Gang."

Of course, Lille hid his true intention—he had to navigate these treacherous waters to establish data barriers, the other reasons were superficial.

But the idea of three badasses taking down the Six Street Gang, making them submit to the Valentino Gang?

V and Jack exchanged glances—now this was interesting.

"All right, but I must correct you: one badass guy, one badass girl, and... you’re at most half a person."

"Haha, screw you, idiot. So—we’re all in?"

"Of course." Jack flexed his burly arm. "After what they pulled in here a few days ago, no way we can let it slide."

V shrugged. "Big jobs are more fun."

Lille smiled and tapped the wall with his marker, pointing to the female weapons dealer near Saint Domingo.

"First target: Roshan Kaplan. Let’s see what goods she has in transit."