Chapter 328 - 303: Dividing the Money

Tokyo.

Huge black twin towers of a skyscraper stood on the ground, with floating cars constantly entering and exiting the helipads at the top.

With an exaggerated height of over 600 meters, it could look down on every man-made structure in Tokyo, even in all of Japan.

Everyone could only look up, but if you got too close, you could not see the label at the top of the tower—

Arasaka.

In the special suite at the top, the screen displayed one scene after another.

Company Square’s massive blackout, Lizard Man soaring over Night City, a blurry figure confronting Military Technology Forces in Evil Land, the brawl in Watson North District...

Numerous blurry images and timestamps were listed on the screen, with confirmed intelligence, intelligence pending confirmation, and the progress of ongoing verifications all laid out in front of him.

In this world where the quality of information flow is extremely poor, this would be a heaven for intelligence operatives.

Arasaka Saburo’s private room.

This man, over 150 years old, was pondering at his desk—

Even he received only blurry and fragmented images and intelligence.

If others saw this chilling entrepreneur taking time to study these events, they might be shocked.

Because, after all, these events seemed only to occur in Night City to the outside world.

They were not as secretive as Arasaka privately circumventing the European Space Agency to set up mass launchers on the Moon, not as brutal as the unification war waged by Military Technology, not even as deadly as the refinery explosion caused by Kantao in Hang City.

But these incidents... just happened to interfere with his plans.

The clearest image was a first-person view, obviously recorded with a Prosthetic Eye.

"Ah! You freaks, perverts!"

The person recording the video screamed.

The woman in the image quickly shot him another bullet, "You say we’re perverts?"

"If not perverts what are you! Do we have a feud? A business conflict? No!" Jotaro gasped, "Or are you really under some kind of banner of justice..."

Smack!

Another shot, the person in the image was quite decisive.

"I... Ah! Damn it, can you let me finish?!

Motherfucker, you can’t kill me... You can’t kill me!

I maintain Cloud Peak; I maintain the business of the Tiger Claw Gang! I maintain stability in this city, providing these damned sex dolls a workplace!

If you kill me, they’ll starve to death! If you kill me, will you pay their salaries..."

Bang!

"Ah ah ah ah ah, you... you! Killing me will topple Cloud Peak; Tiger Claw Gang will be done for, only leaving brutal guys!

You think these sex dolls will thank you..."

Bang!

The person in the image didn’t care and shook their head, "Right, I can provide them jobs."

The image paused, focusing the camera on the shooter’s face—

A somewhat young face, but the expression was quite mature.

[Code Name: Burger King]

This should be the clearest current photo of this guy.

The mess this guy caused happened to catch the attention of Night City’s web monitors to Arasaka’s intelligence, and then during this operation, data from Soul Killer leaked.

The losses from both far exceeded expectations, although numerically, their losses were far less than Military Technology. But strategically... it was unacceptable to San Lang.

To fall into the hands of those barbarians in the West.

Especially now, since this guy had also wiped out Vortex Gang, who knows what he might discover?

In the image, the floating car carrying Perares left Watson North District with the sunlight perfectly shining on the car—

This composition greatly displeased San Lang.

Everything this guy said had been realized, and there was no hint of doubt about himself in his demeanor. From a nobody to now, he’d gained territory, people, and possibly technology—

A potential rising force that had repeatedly interfered with his plans.

Although the world’s social hierarchy was so rigid, even he would not guarantee that no new players would enter the game, especially in Night City.

If left unchecked, it might become another behemoth like Meta Group and Jilafa Company—and it might very likely rise on the shoulders of Arasaka.

San Lang finally made a decision.

"I need to make a trip to Night City, arrange the schedule."

[Takemura Goro: Do you need to inform your son?]

San Lang nodded slightly, "Let me see what my unworthy son thinks about these matters. Tell him to prepare for an intelligence briefing.

Secondly, keep my trip confidential. The reason for visit... there was another gathering in Dog Town, although I missed the peak moment of the banquet, it’s not too late."

[Takemura Goro: Yes.]

Across the ocean, Arasaka Yorinobu in Night City jumped up from the sofa upon receiving the message.

[Arasaka Yorinobu: Full stop!]

[Network Surveillance: What? Why?]

[Arasaka Yorinobu: Terminate!]

...

Zap—

The Colby machine gun pick-up elegantly drifted across the road in a beautiful arc, then screeched to a halt in front of the door.

Behind the pick-up, there was a Centaur Mecha.

And atop the mecha was Doom Doom of the Vortex Gang, who had hidden in the warehouse last night, guarding the mecha and the few remaining gang assets.

Bang!

The mecha jumped down from the vehicle.

"Boss, I’m here to rescue you!"

The mecha’s cannons deployed, and out of the broken wall emerged a Vortex Gang member with delicate limbs but a huge head—

Oh no, there were three of them.

The light flickered in Brick’s eyes as he emerged from the door, immediately locking eyes with Doom Doom.

"What are you doing?"

"Boss...?"

The situation was a bit awkward for a moment.

Brick scratched his head, "Don’t freak out, come down quickly."

"I..." Doom Doom’s face turned red, "I can’t get down!"

"Can’t get down? No worries, come in and talk. Even though people are gone, the money’s lost, and the goods are all gone, we’ve got new technology!"

Brick patted his all-metal body, clanging loudly.

The so-called new technology was the brand-new metal prosthetics on his body, or rather, a full-body prosthetic.

Full-body prosthetics in this world are a separate category of prosthetics, a kind of silver change causing a qualitative change.

As the name suggests, full-body prosthetics use a complete set of metal prosthetics to replace everything below the human head—even including all body parts except the brain.

Various hardware with different functions are combined together under a unified system scheme, aiming to eliminate those biological parts to the greatest extent.

The ultimate dream of Vortex Gang.

But compared to replacing parts time and again, it’s very troublesome and difficult for this full set of prosthetics to achieve the effect of a human body, but now Brick has gotten his hands on this technology.

"Full-body modification?" Doom Doom hesitated for a moment, then suddenly got excited, "That’s freaking awesome! Where did you get this? Hook me up with one too..."

"It’s just a framework, still need to do some research."

"Haha! Fair enough, we can hit the streets..."

"Can’t hit the streets! Damn it, were you the one always catching people on the streets?"

"I’ve never caught anyone, but what’s wrong with catching people on the streets..."

"It’s unethical! Get it! Unethical!"

Not just Brick, even Carter and Jostar next to him suddenly got worked up, almost jumping up to throw a few punches at Doom Doom.

The reason was none other, their moral sense had significantly sharpened under Lille’s intimidation.

"So... how are we gonna test it?" Doom Doom spread his tiny hands.

"Still wondering, still wondering, still wondering..." Brick leaped onto the mecha and slapped Doom Doom a few times, "Keep wondering and I’ll mount your head on a public toilet..."

Indeed, this was the method Lille used to educate them.

Doom Doom was just dizzy from the slaps, but the three of them truly experienced what it was like to be stuck in a manure pit!

Lille personally led a team to bring back the guy who liked to go out and catch people for strange prosthetic surgeries, and then hooked that kid up to a manure pit, turning him into a Black Superdream for their experience!

The scene was too twisted; who could imagine someone stuffing high-precision sensor prosthetics into a public toilet?

That kid was still in the toilet, becoming an insurmountable horror experience for Brick, Carter, and Jostar.

Cameras captured this scene, Lille nodded in satisfaction.

In the future, any lunatics wanting to give themselves fancy modifications could seek out the neutered Vortex Gang, perfect for testing new technology and prosthetics.

This city was so twisted, naturally, there would be an endless supply of prosthetic maniacs and lunatics.

Under Lille’s leadership, Adkaduo would take over Watson North District, and if people merely needed prosthetics and software out of necessity, they now had an additional option.

Moreover, how local companies used to pay Vortex Gang for protection, now they had to pay Adkaduo.

This money would continue to be used to amplify and enhance Adkaduo’s quality and armed power, purchasing high-tech technology and equipment for research.

With this positive cycle, someday Adkaduo might become, or even surpass, those massive corporations...

By then, Lille hoped the changes he enacted would spread, and the world would have one more option.

This is what Lille hoped to achieve.

Before that...

"Time to split the money!" V shook Lille’s body, "Time to split the money!"

"Hold on!"

[European Bank Information: Dear customer, you are cordially invited to participate in the following survey.]

[The results of the survey will be used to provide you with better social services and business assistance.]

[All private information will be used internally by the bank, so please do not worry about privacy breaches...]

[What is your occupation and how would you like to use this account...]

Lille, his eyes only seeing after-images from being shaken, replied:

[Split the money!]

"Split the money!"