Chapter 307 - 286: Several Birds with One Stone

"Welcome back to News 54, and now for a safety reminder,"

"A fierce gunfight erupted in Watson North District, and preliminary investigation reports show that the firefight seems to have been initiated by a gang known as the Vortex Gang."

"Around 9:30 PM, the NCPD received multiple reports of gunfire in the Watson North District."

"Witnesses described a chaotic scene: several gang-modified vehicles speeding through the streets, gunmen shooting out of windows, and the walls and pavements on both sides of the street riddled with terrifying marks from the barrage of bullets."

"The criminals used not only modified vehicles but also highly prohibited military-grade armored vehicles and heavy weaponry."

"Due to the current anti-corruption turmoil within the NCPD, a large number of officers did not arrive at the scene in time."

"Residents living in the area are urged to take immediate shelter on the spot, and citizens are advised to stay vigilant and avoid the area if possible."

"This is the 11th serious street gunfight in Watson District in recent years, and experts suggest that the area should consider introducing a military technology peacekeeping force to maintain order..."

The TV was broadcasting the incident that had just happened, while Lille divided the cash among the drooling Adkadoos.

A Canary G240, priced at just over twenty thousand a pop, who would have thought after all these years, it would sell for more than sixty thousand each when resold.

These Adkadoos had never seen anything like it, Pan’an counted on her fingers, a little incredulous about this kind of deal...

Reverse depreciation!

Lille had bought all of Roshan’s machine gun turrets and accessories in one go, ten sets in total, for a hundred thousand Euros.

After paying off that portion, there was still five hundred and fifty thousand left.

As per the previous sponsorship agreement with the concept stocks at Mackinaw, that is, with Thunder Power’s end, Mackinaw’s modded vehicles would be sold to Wanderer at cost price.

This cost price included Sherman’s labor costs, slight adjustments tailored to the use scenarios, and anti-skid chains for desert terrain, thirty-five thousand per vehicle.

That is to say, deducting the money promised for swapping Adkaduo’s cars for free and paying Roshan, there would still be a profit of over ten thousand per car...

Not only did they upgrade their vehicles, but they also made a profit, such a deal was just too lucrative!

If this girl knew that Lille had collected tens of thousands in interest from Brick, her reaction would probably be much stronger.

"Damn, Lille, you’re really good at business. With this back and forth, we got new cars for free and made some cash...

It’s just that the Vortex Gang doesn’t look like a bunch of good guys, are you sure we want to help them?"

V patted Lille on the shoulder, just about to praise him when Pan’an beat her to it and said what she was thinking!

Then V could only stop in her tracks, suddenly at a loss for words.

Lille looked puzzledly at V, who had paused, and replied, "We can’t judge by appearances, the Vortex Gang is a threat to the entire Watson District, even to Night City.

If we don’t lend a hand to Brick, he probably won’t last until next week, and Royce will still be able to strut around with his gang.

But if we give Brick a hand, the two of them will be at each other’s throats..."

The Vortex Gang would be severely weakened: the ones who understand the Vortex Gang best are the Vortex Gang themselves. Outsiders can suppress their momentum with a heavy hand, but it’s difficult to inflict real damage.

Otherwise, the corporations would have taken down the Vortex Gang long ago.

Without finishing his sentence, the surrounding Adkadoos all gave a thumbs up.

Cassidy the elder didn’t mince words, "Sly as a fox! This is killing several birds with one stone! I’m gonna write this down and read it to the kids!

Sol is just too straightforward. I think Adkaduo should include ’learning to be sly’ in their curriculum to avoid being constantly scammed by city slickers."

The elder was over 50, wearing a cowboy hat, sporting a mustache, and though old, he was still robust and rugged in appearance.

Passing down wisdom is an important part of education, and for the Adkadoos who still use traditional methods of education, such stories are indeed very meaningful.

It’s just that the cussing is probably going to be passed down as well.

V withdrew her hand, and together with Jack, they nodded in agreement: they agreed with the former statement.

It seemed the Wanderers really did have a keen eye, able to see through Lille’s sly nature after just a few encounters.

V was about to say something when Pan’an again spoke first, "But why did you want us to ditch the oil?"

"If Brick had both oil and guns, what would we do if he really took down Royce outright?

Stoking a fire is the art of carrying water. Balance is key.

Moreover, as you said, the Vortex Gang is no easy foe; we need to find a way to exert some control.

Now I ask you, what will they do if they’re out of fuel?"

"Look for oil."

"And an angry boss will definitely be all concerned with dealing with traitors, combine the two and you get the result I want."

Everyone had an epiphany, the matter indeed needed to be done just right.

The next thing was obvious: Brick would definitely hit an oil station first, his mind filled with thoughts of traitors, he was almost certain to attack Brick’s assets.

This also had another benefit, the Choo2 fuel certainly couldn’t be hoarded secretly. When the time came, all they had to do was see where the shootout happened, and that would lead them to a way in to untangle the Vortex Gang’s power network.

Lille hadn’t forgotten their primary objective: targeting the Vortex Gang, reducing the crime rate in the Watson District.

A large criminal organization often has a legitimate business network to help launder their ill-gotten funds into legal money.

After all, the most valuable and universally used currency in the world, the Euro, is fundamentally a legal tender.

The dirtier the gang, the larger the business entity needed to clean their money and make it legitimate—

That’s why, discounting those most powerful violent organizations, a bank is the key to really rake it in because of the recognition and protection these organizations provide.

The Vortex Gang definitely didn’t own a bank, but Lille wanted to know which legitimate industries were under their flag. This was the key to money laundering.

Everyone was marvelling at how sly Lille was, V took the chance to steer the conversation toward a topic that would never be robbed by outsiders:

"Let’s split the money already!"

"What’s the rush... I’m dividing it now."

Lille started counting the money.

The remaining 550,000 less Roshan and Cheson’s 340,000 left 210,000.

After the joyous expense of 200,000 for the six Mackinaw vehicles from Mackinaw, the remaining 10,000 was Lille’s earnings.

Plus, four sets of machine-gun turrets were being retrofitted and could definitely be sold to Brick. After finishing those, they’d still make a little profit.

Sherman drove the car into the base’s parking lot, and the line of Adkaduo showed envious expressions:

Brand new from the factory, shiny Mackinaw!

Cassidy, with his clanspeople, picked up the spray paint eagerly and ran downstairs to start tagging the cars, painting the mark of Adkaduo, along with their own artistic style—

Sherman looked at the satisfied smiles of those collecting the cars and also smiled contentedly, "This is how a car collection ceremony should be! Let me take a picture for you, don’t worry, my Prosthetic Eye holds the copyright to its images..."

Click.

The Prosthetic Eye captured this harmonious scene, Adkaduo leaving their family mark on the cars.

Adkaduo working on retrofitting the vehicles to add turrets picked up the pace, secretly imagining that the person spraying paint was themselves.

This scene was recorded.

Lille and two others leaned against the window on the second floor, watching this unfold below, where Pan’an grinned, giving Lille a thumbs up.

It had to be said, this big sister’s smile was genuinely bright, so Lille responded with a smile and a thumbs up as well.

Slap!

Lille felt a knock on his head, turned around, and saw it was V who had knocked!

Jack was whistling on the side, then he started looking at his own arm.

"Smile!" V’s face was stern, "Where’s the money!"

"Hold on!" Lille rubbed his head, "Don’t we still have Jefferson’s subsidy! Just go to him and collect it all at once later!"

"You calculate now how much there is!"

"Hold on..." Lille started tallying the Vortex Gang bodies captured by the scanner.

So far, including the hijacking and the recent scanning and killing, the list totaled 22 people, with a bounty of 15,400 Euros, doubled to 30,800 Euros.

Plus the remaining 10,000 Euros, that’s a clean profit of 40,000.

"Only that much?"

"Sigh, I told you not to hurry!" Lille said irritably, "Come in, I need to keep adjusting your neural components.

Jack, you come here too, fix your arm, and then I’ll see about upgrading it."

"Good brother, you finally remembered my arm."

Jack’s arms were already pretty badass in standard combat, combined with the Lizard Rage components, they could exert hundreds of kilograms of force and wouldn’t slow down reaction and movement like using Linear Frames would.

But as the intensity of combat increased, Jack started to reach the limits of these Boxing King’s Arms.

Lille was thinking maybe he could adopt the design philosophy of an Exoskeleton for the arms to add a passive exoskeleton designed for extreme pressure and tension to increase stability.

But before he could walk into the adjacent prosthetics surgery room, the nearby television broadcasted breaking news:

"Breaking!"

"We’ve just received news that an oil storage warehouse in the Watson District has exploded!"