"Welcome back to Truth Sleuth, where today weâll be talking about the bloody movement that occurred in Watson North District."
"A gunfest that lasted a solid five days, which ended in a way youâd never imagine."
"The heroes of Night Cityâthe âTerrorist Mobile Teamââlaunched at the last moment, and the result was that all five Floating Cars were shot downâ
Yes, you heard right, those exaggerated armored Floating Cars! If one of them had your house in its sights, your place would be rubble in two minutes!"
[Sound of sharp intake of breath]
"Of course, it wasnât all Terrorist Mobile Teamâs faultânor was it NCPD corruption, but hey, Iâm just saying, maybe it was, you know?"
"Our âthugsâ seem to possess some companyâs... I didnât say Military Technology International Armament, Iâm talking about some company, thugs got their hands on some companyâs advanced weaponry, no wonder the Terrorist Mobile Team couldnât hold up."
"However, the magic of it is that when every Scorpion-tailed Lion turned into flying coffins, the riot calmed down!"
"At the scene, only the perpetratorsâ lower halves were foundâyeah, just the lower halves. [Picture][Mosaic]"
[Sound of disgust]
"NCPD says theyâll soon be able to figure out the whole story from these lower halves, which really elevates the phrase âkeep it in your pantsââ
After all, we all know the former NCPD Deputy Chief couldnât keep it in his pants."
"But then again, why does NCPD always end up associated with âlower halvesâ? If theyâre spending our taxes on their lower halves, we might as well use it on our own lower halves."
"At least that way, weâd get to have some fun out of it."
[Laughter]
"Thatâs Todayâs Truth Sleuth for you, folks. Remember, the truth is way more complex than what you see on the surface. See you next time."
The deal wasnât closed yet.
In the storage room, Brick and his brothers were all strung up on the wall.
Having no feeling in your body can drive you insane and uncomfortable, but it didnât seem to affect him much. His only request was to get a hit of Black Lace for a bit of bliss.
Royce, on the other hand, was tied to a pillar in front of him, his head connected to an abundance of cables.
A bit weird, but considering this was Vortex Gang territory, not too outlandish.
In another room, Lille packed away his neural connection.
[Lille: Done, heâs all yours now.]
"Ptooey."
Brick spat a mouthful of machine oil onto Royceâs face.
"Ugh... fuck..." Royce woke up groggy, pain flooding every nerve.
"Didnât expect this, did you, you little bastard?" Brick chuckled maliciously, "We meet again."
"Brick? Fuck your mother, I knew..."
"You knew shit."
Brick couldnât move, but mounted on the wall he was hung on was a pistol.
Without any further ado, he blew Royceâs head clean off.
Blood splattered, and in the dim warehouse, Brick ended the life of this traitorâ
The civil war within Vortex Gang was officially over.
But... how many of Vortex Gang were left, exactly?
Another head on the wall, Carter, now somewhat sobered up from the stimulation of Black Lace, asked, "Done?"
"Finished," Brick repeated Carterâs question, "Dammit... but what the hell was all this fighting for..."
"Bullshit, of course itâs about getting some respect! Only idiots would be minions to that old pervert Royce!
Weâll start over, no big deal, remember how Vortex Gang expanded from ten members to thousands? Itâs no problem for us two brothers...
No, three brothers to go from three to three thousand!"
The third brother, Jostar, still hadnât regained the ability to think straightâ
But then, joining Vortex Gang, his ability to think straight had pretty much already left him.
Brick sighed, "Youâre a freaking geniusâhey, Jostar, right? What do you wanna do once weâre out of here?"
Jostarâs expression was somewhat blank; his young brain and nerves werenât that resilient yet.
Instinctively, he responded, "I donât know, find a girl to mess around with?"
"Still hung up on that, huh?" Brick pursed his lips and tossed the inhaler over.
Jostar instinctively caught the contraption.
"Stick with me, badass prosthetics changed out every day. Youâll forget all about women, only pussies play with women!
Real men play with prosthetics!"
...
In another room, V, having heard this, looked thoughtfully at Lille.
Lille was fiddling with a Linear Frame.
[Panâan: NCPDâs bringing people over.]
Lille put away his tools and swept the parts on the desk to one side.
A few minutes later, Jefferson walked in, his expression not exactly pleasant, more like complex.
The monitors showed that outside this shabby apartment building, NCPD vehicles were packed tight.
Reaver and his partner were up front. Lille could see him winking at the cameras non-stop, signaling Lille to look towards the back of the convoyâ
At the very end of the convoy sat a very composed middle-aged man wearing glasses, exuding a different vibe from the other officers:
Extraordinarily calm, but you could tell from his eyes and slight facial expressions that he was always on alert and thinking.
He seemed like a big shot.
Back to the negotiation.
Lille extended his hand slightly, palm up: "Please, have a seat. The meeting place Iâve chosen may not be very refined."
"That... is not important."
Not very refined?!
Jefferson looked around the room. The walls were adorned with black market prosthetics, various structural pieces, conduction devices, motors...
Finished homemade limbs were mounted on the ceiling, like a Slaughterhouse...
Jefferson had only seen traditional slaughterhouses in pictures, but that did not prevent him from feeling uncomfortable at the sight of human prosthetics hanging from the ceiling.
Adding to the unease were the multicolored unknown liquids on the walls and the graffiti covered by those liquidsâ
This place used to be the Vortex Gangâs turf.
He looked past Lille, through the one-way glass, and saw skulls hanging on the walls inside, one of which was blown apart and hung on a pillar with the steaming brain matter still oozing out!
It was like some sort of heretical ritual!
Not very refined... you sure are modest, Jefferson thought.
"I really appreciate your contribution to quelling the riots. I didnât expect that just after commissioning you to handle the Vortex Gang, such chaos would break out here."
"No need to thank me."
Lille, without blushing or skipping a beat, gestured for V and Jack, who were almost rolling their eyes, to go play elsewhere.
Jefferson continued, "I didnât expect the Terrorist Mobile Team to suffer such heavy losses. Everyone is paying close attention to this incident, but fortunately, it was brought under control in the end.
I guess those inside are from the Vortex Gang?"
"Donât rush." Lille opened two cans of Dumb Monkey, took out a Separation Chip and showed it briefly to Jefferson before placing it on top of the can.
The mechanical arm pushed the can forward.
"Letâs settle the previous commission. This is the kill record for this time, all of them had criminal records and were wanted gang members..."
Hm?
Jefferson raised his eyebrows upon hearing this, feeling that something was off.
The can scraped across the table with a clanking sound, slowly arriving in front of Jefferson.
"In total, 1073 people, with a total bounty amounting to 536,651 Euros. According to our contract, that would be 2,683,255 Euros. Given the large sum, letâs round it down and make it an even 2,683,000 Euros."
Hm?
Hm?
Hm?
Question marks appeared above Jeffersonâs head as his brain seemed to stop functioning.
"This... isnât right, is it?"