Chapter 246 - 228: Persistent David (Thanks to Honorary Father Frozen)

Lille was sure that behind Hiro stood Jotaro. The key was where to catch this guy and then take down Cloud Peak along the way, finishing the job for the network monitoring.

Therefore, he needed to dig as much information as possible about this criminal gang from Hiro’s memories, such as Jotaro’s location and his relations with Cloud Peak, among other things.

Anna and Reaver were driving towards the police station while Lille still had a bunch of people left.

First, he had to deal with the Flecks siblings. Lille looked at them, "You two... first off, what jobs do you do?"

Ivan raised his hand, "Hardware engineer, uh... mainly working on Super Dream devices. Previously, I provided some equipment to, well, those bastards."

"Where do you get your supplies from?"

"Mox Gang, a guy named Hal. We... were more like partners."

"And you?" Lille looked at the sister, Martha, "What do you do?"

"I do outsourcing for DTR Company, help them with deliveries. The car is mine, I can drive, and I have some connections at the docks too."

DTR Company, fully named Dikel, Tanaka, and Rogers Logistics Company, was a giant in the North American logistics industry, even managing several flying cruise ships for transoceanic transportation.

One of the shareholders of this company was quite unique: the Meta Group, a company actually founded by a family of Wanderers.

Lille thought for a moment and said, "Are you averse to working outside the city? If you have no work, I can arrange for you to work with Adkaduo out there, the Wanderers outside the city."

The two exchanged glances, then nodded.

Martha said, "I can work anywhere, I’m not picky about jobs."

Ivan also said, "Same here."

"Alright, then you’re headed out of the city. Just wait here, Adkaduo will be here soon."

After finishing, Lille looked again at Ivan, "Ivan, this is your second chance, make sure to seize it."

Ivan nodded diligently, like a pecking chicken, then pulled out a small bag from his pocket.

"Inside are my experiences working with Super Dream devices, along with my network access license, room password... basically, my whole net worth is in here. You can use my network permission for hacking."

"And mine too," Martha also handed out a chip. "Because of this idiot, I guess I won’t be coming back to Night City."

Lille raised an eyebrow, "But if I use your network permissions, then it’s no longer just about Night City. The network monitors will come after you too."

"Screw it," Ivan managed a weak smile. "Let them come after me, I’m already a criminal anyway."

Martha nodded too, without any objections.

Clearly, the two were terrified, having gone through such a thrilling day, it’s no wonder most ordinary people would lose hope here.

Life as a Wanderer seemed quite appealing.

Changing the subject, V said to Lille, "This Ivan guy... what do you think of him?"

"There are many such average people in the world, for whom concepts of good and evil are too distant, survival is the first priority."

"You’re quite kind-hearted," V scoffed. "As for me, I wouldn’t help such people, saving his life is enough."

"No problem," Lille shrugged. "But most people in the world don’t have absolute morals or stances; it’s the moderates who are the majority, often led by the nose by those with strong views.

If you don’t want to climb up only to find you’ve just replaced the person you once despised, sitting on his golden toilet he fashioned...

Isn’t that a kind of failure too? I’m helping him because I’m also trying to change some... unseen things. We can use someone with his technical talents."

"You sound like a politician full of hot air. Just make the decision, no need to explain so much to me.

What are we doing now?"

"We’re going to Ivan’s house; we’re going to hack into the NCPD network using his address."

After that, he also looked toward David’s group at the door, this little gang had managed to get themselves injured and wrecked a van.

Seeing Lille come out, David struggled to move away from the leaning vehicle.

Lille waved his hand, "Got something to say?"

"Yes, boss, can I join in on what comes next?"

Lucy shook her head, covering her face on the side.

"Reason?"

David gathered his thoughts and said, "I...I encountered a VERY tough guy when I came here, and I want to beat him with my own hands."

Lille raised an eyebrow, "So you’re still a combat fanatic?"

"There are other reasons. I used to deal in Black Superdream back at Arasaka Academy, and I want to know what lies behind these Black Superdreams."

Man slapped David on the back, "Isn’t there something more important you’re not mentioning? To make a name for yourself in Night City, what’s better than mixing it up with the big brother?"

Honestly, Lille felt that the three of them were enough to smooth things over.

But having followers was definitely a plus—never knew how many more things they would need to handle in the future, and having more little brothers wasn’t a bad thing.

"Alright, but with the state you’re in now, you’d better find a prosthetics doctor to take care of you—once we’re at the clinic, plug me into the system, and I’ll help you check your drivers."

.....

Lille and his team grabbed a large bag of Super Dream Devices from Ivan’s place.

Honestly, the kid had a richer inventory than Lille had anticipated.

The Super Dream recording device required reading signals from different regions of the brain and modulating correctly to convert them into electrical signals.

This meant that Super Dreams were graded.

The lowest grade of Super Dream only recorded visual, followed by auditory; these were the two most basic Super Dream signals. Just having these two signals was enough for most people to get hooked on Super Dream.

The tactile sense was moderately priced, but had the widest coverage, and a complete tactile system wasn’t cheap.

Then came the sense of smell and taste. These sensory systems involved overly complex nervous system states and required a high degree of precision. They were the hardest to replicate and usually only available in high-end products.

However, these breakdowns just categorized the average prices of the systems. In reality, each sensory system kit had high-end products.

For instance, the tactile system included systems that could precisely differentiate thermal energy, and the olfactory system had ones that could analyze chemical formulas, and so on.

And Ivan... actually had an olfactory modulator and the related software drivers.

Usually, the devices for recording stimulating Black Superdream were not simple, but Ivan’s stuff exceeded Lille’s expectations.

Especially this olfactory modulator...

It was military-grade.

The modulator contained a text segment, mentioning someone found a military technology reconnaissance drone in Evil Land and handed it over to Hal from the Mox Gang for decryption, who then contacted Ivan...

The technical decryption was pretty quick.

One was working for the Mox Gang, and the other for the Tiger Claw Gang, neither standing in the way of each other’s profits, making it a pleasant cooperation.

Then... Hal seemed to have struck it rich, while Ivan stored this technological device in the warehouse, conflicted about handing it over to the Tiger Claw Gang.

Then their decrypted military technology drone... Lille sent a string of serial numbers to Mercedes, and surprisingly, it turned out to be one they had brought down.

There was also a set of immersive Super Dream editing equipment here that could be slightly modified to serve as a fixed access chamber, also equipped with a cooling tank.

Lille’s recent research and the newly bought Crow Micro-Control Adapter found their use, and he began the modification on the spot.

"So we’re staying here as your bodyguards?"

V found a sofa and sat down, surrounded by machinery and various mechanical maintenance fluid smells.

It looked incredibly dirty to the company employees but utterly punk to the street kids.

"This place isn’t bad at all, Ivan really knows how to pick a spot," Lille said, settling into the access chamber.

"Right, just wait. If things aren’t done properly, we might even run into the Terrorist Mobile Team, so better be careful."

"What do we do then?" Jack chimed in, "You just had me use this to scare that cop, and I was worried about blowing our cover."

"Scared of what, we scare them first," V immediately said, "NCPD doesn’t have the authority to summon data from the Terrorist Mobile Team. I don’t believe they’ll come knocking this time."

"Indeed, V’s right."

Jack smirked, "Oh, you guys agree now? Okay, I bet 50 Euros that the Terrorist Mobile Team will definitely come knocking."

"Stop jinxing it, I’m about to enter Cyberspace," Lille said, then sent himself a message.

[Lille: Absolutely do not move this time, I will find you some work.]

[áḱß: Will follow the instructions!]

The real world disintegrated, electricity flickered, and the digital world replaced all of Lille’s senses.