Chapter 197 - 180 Thank you, Burger King

Wanderer hit the jackpot with this strike.

In one night, three battles. The first, an assault on Stone Ridge Mountain and its tunnel, lasted no more than 30 minutes, resulting in the death of 35 Night Wandering Ghosts, the taking out of a military technology urban patrol unit, and the capture of a large quantity of guns, ammunition, and hand grenades.

The second battle, a raid on the Night Wandering Ghost camp, was meant to be kept under 10 minutes, but due to the intervention of a Centaur Mecha, it was dragged out to 40 minutes, thus overlapping with the subsequent fight.

The third, military technology included, from start to finish — from the start of the firefight at the Night Wandering Ghost camp, up until the annihilation of the military technology soldiers — took a total of one hour and twenty-two minutes.

After this fight, they seized two slightly scratched Bimong Armored Vehicles and a Ragnar Armored Vehicle, three heavily-used Ragnar Armored Vehicles, and two Scorpion-tailed Lion Floating Cars with damaged engines.

In the underground cellar of the Night Wandering Ghost camp, there was a whole warehouse full of military biscuits — not tasty, but very filling — along with military high-energy drinks that contained an extremely high amount of sugar and very little water.

Additionally, countless types of military firearms and ammunition, along with high-tech junk.

Of course, the most conspicuous was a Mo Xi.

The Night Wandering Ghost camp burned with fire as the Wanderers began to regroup on site, transporting supplies, and tending to... the wounded.

The dead included Cedric and two greenhorns from Rhodonite, who had been turned into mincemeat by a rocket.

Eleven people were seriously injured but still hanging on by a breath. They received a timely blood transfusion and, for the time being, were not dead, although even if they survived, they would have significant physical disabilities.

Fortunately, in this world, physical disabilities were not such a grim prospect as there were always treatment options available.

Light wounds — practically everyone had some, but none were quite at the last gasp.

In the flickering firelight, Lille sat in front of Mercedes. The woman’s golden hair had been burnt off in large swaths, her clothes tattered and revealing nearly half of her body. You could see large patches where the synthetic skin of her prosthetics met her flesh.

Her left arm was completely broken, and both of her legs had only half a lower leg left, with a large chunk missing from her left thigh.

This woman was so exaggerated with her implants, which typified corporate style, excellent at preserving her life and dealing with common thugs.

But facing top-tier mercenaries and war weapons, not so much — after all, she was an agent by training, and a clear mind was more important to her than powerful yet risky prosthetics.

If Lille hadn’t been trying to keep her alive, she would already be dead.

Besides Lille, only Navi and Sol remained — they had some secret matters to discuss.

Lille stepped forward and administered a pharmaceutical to Mercedes.

"Ha—" Mercedes took in a long breath, then expelled a large clump of a mixture of electrolytes and blood.

She raised her head, looking at Lille and said, "Cough... what do you want?"

Lille shook his head, "More accurately, it’s what you need. You’re finished, sent by the company for PR and ended up getting your team wiped. You thought about gambling once more, faking records within the company, pulling the border troops with you. And then what?

The border troops were wiped out — First question, how long does it take for the Border Commander to report the situation here?"

This time Lille had been smart. Before waking up Mercedes, he had hacked into all the prosthetics inside her body and was monitoring her vitals at all times.

With the aid of a lie detector during the interrogation, although he hadn’t done it in a while, he hadn’t forgotten.

Mercedes felt a burning pain and nausea in her body. Honestly, her mental defenses were already naturally shattered.

A cyborg, especially a corporate employee of this level, would use a variety of hormone control devices to keep calm at all times, but in reality, this was a dependency.

Now, Lille had placed a mirror in front of her.

The mirror showed her current appearance: half her body was naked and charred; her hair dry, blackened, and singed as if half bald.

Ugly, exposed, and helpless — all it would take was for one of these vicious Wanderers to shoot her, and she’d be done.

In fact, even if the Wanderers spared her, she was done —

So why hadn’t they killed her yet?

Her mind raced, and she quickly came to a logical conclusion: obviously, there was still an opportunity for cooperation.

Truth be told, she didn’t need to think too hard about it, because every second she lived depended on what she said next — and it had to be the truth.

Lille’s first question also obviously had plans beyond murder and violence.

"... You’d best evacuate quickly. It won’t take more than an hour for the company troops to get here. The squad arriving will conduct a site reconnaissance, reconstruct the scene of the battle, and submit a complete report of the battlefield and summary of the event."

The truth, but Lille noticed some details.

"That is, an incomplete report has already been sent? Then you’re useless..."

"Wait! It’s not like that! The incomplete report will be uploaded in 10 minutes, but such reports are usually considered highly flexible. The company’s high-ups won’t make decisions based on preliminary reports!"

Lille acted as if he didn’t hear, starting up the smart link of Yinglong, with the gun undergoing self-check, the barrel rotating, and slowly lifting.

Without the enhancement of prosthetics, most people in this situation would find it very hard to stay rational and think quickly.

Mercedes continued, "I can help you! I still have access within the company! I can help you hack into the border checkpoint, help you with anything you want to do!!"

The barrel pointed at the terrified woman but ultimately did not fire.

Lille confirmed that Mercedes had lost the ability to think normally. It seemed that for her career as an agent, she had hardly ever taken any extreme drugs; her neuronal activity was still within a normal range.

Without prosthetic control, facing a life-threatening situation, she wasn’t much tougher than the average person.

Lille put away the gun —

"The load’s ready, get her in the vehicle."

...

Mercedes spilled everything.

Just as Lille guessed, she faked military technology data, which led to the current situation.

Looking back at all this content, she completely broke down—because in her eyes, she was finished.

In the car, Lille suddenly said, "So, do you think we’re like the Lizard Men?"

"What the hell does that matter! Military technology was screwed over by you guys overnight; over a hundred people, and the equipment you walked away with is worth millions!"

"Of course, it matters. I’m asking you a question."

The barrel of a gun proved to be the best sedative.

Mercedes dejectedly replied, "Not like, but it’s meaningless now."

"How is it meaningless if I told you I have information on the Lizard Men?"

Lille’s words made Mercedes’s ears perk up—if there really was information on the Lizard Men, she wouldn’t have to carry the blame for this mess!

At least she wouldn’t be sunk.

"You see, we’re acquainted through confrontation. You, for your PR work, followed orders from above, on your regular duty.

During duty, you encountered the Chaotic Blade Association—or shall we say, the Night Wandering Ghost causing trouble, robbing Moore Technology’s transport convoy.

So you found the Adkaduo Tribe among the Wanderers, who are most familiar with the Night Wandering Ghost, followed the trail to the Ghost, and then, found clues pointing to the Lizard Men—"

"That explains why they robbed a pile of biological experiment trash because the Lizard Men needed it!"

Sol and Navi’s expressions turned to shock; the direction of the story seemed plausible.

But the motives and narrative Lille was spinning... something seemed off, didn’t it?

In another Wanderer vehicle, Jack was munching on cookies, continuing to replenish his energy, while V sat beside watching the self-driving Mo Xi:

Though West Tuan was gone, this ride seemed pretty good, right?

Yep, as soon as they heard Lille wanted to take a live prisoner, they knew someone was in for a bad time and didn’t seem surprised at all.

"After disappearing from Night City, the Lizard Men went to Evil Land, mingled inexplicably with the Night Wandering Ghost, while you’ve been hiring the Adkaduo to investigate the matter, all the way till today.

Until today, the border commander made a mistake in command, got outwitted by the Lizard Men and the Night Wandering Ghost, and inexplicably attacked friendly forces, i.e., us.

This caused mutual damage, and in the chaos, the Lizard Men and the Ghosts escaped—"

Mercedes, Navi, and Sol perked up their ears: "Escaped to where?"

Lille said slowly, "The Night Wandering Ghost hijacked a Mo Xi, smashed through the border wall, let the Lizard Men go, and a group of mysterious people took them towards the Mexico border—anyway, that’s what the database of the Night Wandering Ghost says."

Everyone exchanged looks.

Mercedes immediately interrupted, "This... that’s too fake, right?! The Night Wandering Ghost and the Lizard Men..."

"It’s not fake," Lille shook his head, "The boss of the Night Wandering Ghost, his hands are fitted with very high-end prosthetics, got any leads on that?"

Lille pulled up a photo.

Unmentioned though it was, Bowen’s arms were indeed high-end, but looking at the hardware, it might be even more impressive than the Boxing King’s Arm that Jack used.

Mercedes paused for a moment: "...A full bionic arm from the biodynamic system launched over twenty years ago... where did he get that?"

"Awesome, I couldn’t tell, but your company’s news spread far and wide, that’s a bit useful, right?

I even faked something in the database, thanks to this dipshit not having any data written in the database about himself, no one could tell this was a forged electronic signature."

"Alright, but smashing through the border wall... the border wall is actually..."

Mercedes’s face turned pale: the border wall was still intact, which meant Lille meant...!

Looking at the direction the car was heading: even though the convoy took a detour, it was indeed moving towards the border wall!

"You see, once the whole affair is verified, you’ll have accomplished a great feat, except for that stupid commander who out of prejudice and stereotypes muddled things up, causing the Night Wandering Ghost to flee.

Now, tell me what the border troops’ automated structure looks like so we can help you intercept the Night Wandering Ghost—

We might even help you recapture the Mo Xi."

After listening, Mercedes tentatively asked, "...And the Lizard Men?"

"They ran off, how the fuck would I know, I find it damn unlucky!

Who knows what experiments biotechnology is conducting, with corporate dogs chasing my ass all the time."

Lille spat out a mouthful of saliva.

As if he genuinely didn’t know.

V and Jack were full of praise:

Kid, it’s a waste of talent not to be a Super Dream star.

After speaking, Lille glanced at Mercedes: "Aren’t you going to thank Burger King?"

With the gun still pointed at her, Mercedes squeezed out a complex smile: "Thank you, Burger King."