[Lucy: What is the Moon really like? Why did they get involved here?]
On the way back, Lucy asked Lille a question she had been wanting to ask, because this big brother... gave off a feeling that he knew everything and had been through every level.
Gangs, NCPD, corporations... all had been directly attacked by them, not once did this mysterious big brother show a hint of cowardice.
And he didnât have the naivety of a street kid; if he was crazy, it always seemed tempered with a sense of easeâ
Of course, all this was based on the fact that they still didnât know about last nightâs nuclear bomb explosion in Night City.
In any case, whether it was courage, knowledge, or ability, the aura that Lille exhibited was definitely not something a simple street thug could possess.
[Lille: Itâs normal, the Moon only has oxygen, water, and concrete that donât need to be imported, but production still relies on a lot of equipment, and the equipment requires energy supplies...]
[Lille: All in all, the situation with space colonization is very complicated, you can simply understand it as them being very poorâvery, very poor, they need to import materials from Earth, otherwise, they canât maintain basic operations.]
[Lille: Canât leave Earth, they will try to influence the ground, and Night City, well, it has orbital airlineâs Moon flights, so itâs normal for them to monitor the situation here.]
[Lille: Alright, itâs nothing to do with you guys for now, report back to the network surveillance folksâand oh, hide the part about my involvement. Just say you picked up a copy of the report from the ground.]
[Transfer: +5000 Euros]
Considering that this job was mainly for network surveillance and didnât involve a shootout, 5000 Euros wasnât a small amount, not to mention the commission from network surveillance that hadnât been collected yet.
David was already longing for the Moon ticket that was within reachâ
Itâs just tourism.
This kid had a completely different idea from Lucy; the latter was holding onto the thought of forsaking everything, abandoning the company, Night City, and her past experiences to start anew in an unknown place far awayâthatâs why she wanted to go to the Moon.
In other words, she was like the naive young people who thought they could arrive on the Moon with a tourist ticket, enter on a tourist visa and then stay there illegally.
To some extent, Lilleâs words burst her bubble: the Moon was not an idyllic and independent utopia, but a place that had to trade with Earth and, in some ways, needed to strengthen its ties.
Freedom? Starting over? Nonexistent.
As she was pondering this, David suddenly spoke up excitedly:
"Lucy, with this, Iâm only 50,000 Euros short now, how about you?"
"I..." Lucy checked her account balance, in truth if she sold the stuff at hand and put together a thousand or eight hundred, she could already make the trip.
If it were the old her, sheâd probably take a flight next week; she couldnât stand to stay in this damn Night City for a second longer.
Now... it didnât feel so urgent.
"Iâm still a bit short," Lucy said after lighting up a cigarette, "Not in a hurry, to be honest besides the orbital airlineâs ads, Iâve hardly heard anything about the condition on the Moon."
From the back seat, Qi Wei stuck something on her head and popped her head forward from the back: "Sounds even more like Night City, I would do some thorough investigation before I went if I were you."
"I know."
If you looked at it from another angle, wasnât Night City also the "Moon" in some peopleâs hearts?
The great Internet collapse turned all networks into local ones, with the authorization and ability for ultra-long-distance communications mostly in the hands of the large corporations, or rather, those with money and power.
In the outside world, Night City is also seen as a city of dreams, but in truth, its public safety situation could be considered rock bottom internationally, yet because of Night Cityâs unique geographical location and historical background, it has some capital and can broadcast a lot of immigration ads every year.
But in reality... this place canât be said to be bad, but itâs definitely not as good as advertised.
Qi Wei also lit a cigarette and continued in a tone of someone who had been through it all: "However, those who are tricked into coming to Night City canât leave, you know.
Sometimes I think maybe itâs not that Night City is that good, but setting foot in Night City is like stepping onto the path of pursuing dreams; this path, this feeling, truly makes it hard for some to give up."
The car was filled with smoke, each person lost in their own thoughts.
Speaking of which, Lucy felt that her mindset had changed a bit too quick: previously, she definitely wouldnât have been able to stand someone lecturing her with this crap, I just want to go to the Moon, none of you have been there, you donât understand at all, what right do you have to judge?
Maybe it was because the person speaking carried too much weight, Lucy felt that Lille really had been there, subconsciously taking his words as the truth, the perspective of a true "been there, done that" person.
Only David, while driving, raised his fist, still filled with yearning: "How do you know if you donât go, right?"
"...Drive your car."
...
The situation on the Moon was far from something that could be explained by Lille in just a few words, but to sum it up, it really was very poor, and if it werenât for aiding the development on the ground, the value of the Moon colonies would be quite limited.
So in this world, the reason people explored the Moon and ultimately established the colonies there has always been just one:
"Itâs not some kind of tourist destination at all." Lille continued as he walked, "The main reason the European Union sponsored the European Space Agency to build the Moon colonies was, from the start, to turn it into a base for expanding control, the first link in the entire system.
"This base can be armed with weapons to deter ground forces, and can act as the command center for the construction of a near-Earth orbit system..."
"What is a near-Earth orbit system?"
V asked sincerely, and Jack, knowing V would ask, had kept silent.
Lilton was here, pointing out to the two of them the components he needed to moveâ
The three were now moving items in the Voodoo Gangâs small warehouse.
With the hint, the two of them each took down items from the shelves, and Lille continued:
"...you can simply think of it as a device to control the sky; imagine one day corporations placing a huge lid over everyoneâs heads."
"Then we wouldnât be able to see the sky?"
"Generally, thereâs no need to go as far as preventing people from seeing the sky, but itâs definitely possible to decide who canât see it."
Lille looked around, picked up a piece of broken aluminum foil, covered it over a rubber band, and then inserted a wire into it.
"Hit whoever you want to hit, just like thatâspecifically, they could make meteors fall precisely on some peopleâs heads."
Upon opening the foil, the rubber band was already punctured by the wire.
As human technology developed, the range of development would expand along with the territory controlled by military forces.
From land to sea, from sea to sky, from the sky to... outer space beyond the atmosphere, and even to other planets.
"Thatâs quite interesting." Carrying a box of parts, V said with interest, "Itâs surprising that Orbital Aerospace would take people on a tour of their evil plan base."
"Thatâs not new, just like military technology is also shown off to people with their war machines; they even sell their main war machines."
The complexity of the Cyberpunk Worldâs society lies right here.
There havenât been any trade wars here; theoretically speaking, most companies wonât challenge the free trade system.
This is an age where capable people seek to control others, not truly focusing on destroying others.
Bang.
The goods were loaded into trucks; all the useful items of the Voodoo Gang were moved out, and it must be said that the moving efficiency of the muscled men of the Animal Gang was indeed high; all that was left in the building after this round was trash.
Brigitte and Placid, the two top hands of the Voodoo Gang, were tied to hacker chairs, their still-living minions lying around them, each with a look of bewilderment in their eyes...
Brigitteâs head kept flashing with electrical light; she was becoming desperate: "We can work for you! Thereâs no need to be so extreme! We... we donât really have any grudge, right?!"
Hearing this, Lille walked over to her: "Youâve done plenty on the net, and in this round of chaos, if I werenât tough enough, I would have been played to death long ago."
"But... but that was work! We held no personal grudge... If the Voodoo Gang is finished, Taiping State... Taiping State will be taken over by corporations, will be..."
Lille reached out to grab the cables behind Brigitte, to make one final check.
"It will be taken over by many, but definitely not the corporations you imagine.
Youâre right, we have no personal grudge: but you need to make room for my little brothers.
So, blame... why is there always business grievance between us?
Goodbye, ranyon (scouring cloth)."
In despair, Brigitteâs world turned dark and blurry with the surge of electricity!
Batty Hotel, all the devices that Voodoo Gang had hoarded for years were activatedâ
High-frequency and high-energy chaotic signals would sweep across Taiping State, appearing on detection devices like a small sun.
Considering the time, the companyâs agents and the forces pursuing them were already on their way, this location being their first stop.
Soon the news of the Voodoo Gangâs demise would spread throughout Night City, with new powers scrambling to fill the void here...
A local development group, a mix of old crime figures, would fill the void here under the subsidies and support of Night City Hall.
The Batty Hotel exploded a second time, the firelight reflecting off the slowly departing convoy.
While their influence had peaked, Night City was no longer suitable for them to appear.
So the next stop...
Dog Town.