Chapter 309 - 288: Joy with the People Brick

Lille planned to replace those old small and large vehicles in Adkaduo with Mackinaws, so the vehicles Brick received were also of these models.

The first delivery consisted of the Vipers modified with Canary G240, and the second batch was the Colby Peak, also from Thunder Company models, two-seater pickups considered entry-level light off-road pickups.

This thing was significantly more expensive than the previous Vipers, costing 80,000 euros each, making a total of 320,000 euros for four vehicles.

However, Brick was out of money again, so the total price was raised to 360,000 euros.

It was evident that Brick was desperate, not caring about the money at all—

Of course, another reason was that the same model vehicles were bought by the Six Street Gang and the Tiger Claw Gang from him for 100,000 euros each.

"Girl, can’t you just start a car rental service?"

Pan’an, arms crossed, shook her head, "It’s not impossible, but if the vehicle gets scrapped, the compensation will have to be 150,000 euros. That’s the insurance business; you must understand that, right?

Selling it to you directly at a low price and you’re still not happy? Look at this engine, finely tuned turbocharged, press the gas pedal, and it’s pure music."

She opened the hood and waved Brick’s subordinate over to check.

Propping the hood with a rod, Pan’an then walked towards the body of the car, pointing to the machine gun on the roof.

"Just upgraded your turret, it reacts unbelievably fast."

As she said this, she winked at one of her clansmen, who then plugged a personal link into the vehicle, and the entire turret rotated rapidly indeed very quickly.

It must be said, this feeling was quite fascinating for the Vortex Gang, as they were always just installing things on themselves; using such technological vehicles was quite rare.

"I don’t need to introduce the model, do I? MK31, you’ve already tried it, can blast a Columbus Freight in 5 seconds, handy right?

Now look at these tightly fitted metal armor plates... damn, talking about it makes me almost not want to sell it."

"Cut the crap, I never said I wouldn’t buy!" Brick signaled his subordinates to drive the vehicle away, "When can the rest of the guns arrive?"

By now, Brick had taken over a warehouse—more precisely, his former loyal subordinates had taken it for him.

The warehouse was stocked with several barrels of Ethanol 2, all snatched from the fuel station, probably enough for a few days.

Each subordinate was holding firearms supplied by Lille, not looking destitute at all.

As for the accounts, the money just received had been spent again.

He had already contacted other arms dealers in the city, but by now, everyone knew the Vortex Gang was in internal conflict, and their asking prices were sky-high.

These damned dogs, thinking about looting in crisis, yet Mysterious Hero was decent enough not to raise the price.

Brick secretly rejoiced, truly worthy of Mysterious Hero.

Pan’an answered, "We’ll bring the next batch to you guys, what about your Centaur Mecha? Hurry and finish refurbishing them, we need to leave."

She definitely did not want to be caught up in the internal strife of the Vortex Gang.

Brick did not waste words and immediately led Pan’an and her people into the warehouse.

The convoy of military technology vehicles was hijacked—with Mysterious Hero’s help, but heavy cargo like the four Centaur Mechas was retained by the Vortex Gang.

These four Centaur Mechas were almost crouching, compressed against the wall; Big Shield covering the cockpit was firmly locked, and the Plasma Gun placed underneath the shield.

Dum Dum had connected many wires on top, but had still not succeeded in bypassing the ICE to start the machines.

Seeing Pan’an come over with equipment, Dum Dum unplugged the wires connected behind his head: "Are you sure you can get this thing started?

I must remind you, if you trigger the ICE, an abnormal data flow will be transmitted to the headquarters of military technology, and if the company finds it, we’re done for.

And... who knows if this impressive cannon will explode; that would be even more troublesome."

"Why don’t you keep trying?"

"Stop fucking arguing, Dum Dum, get out of the way."

Dum Dum left begrudgingly.

Of course, he was somewhat unconvinced.

Among the gangs, the Vortex Gang had the highest technical capability. In his view, if it weren’t for Royce occupying all the facilities and computers in the whole food factory, he could bypass the ICE of the Centaur Mecha himself.

Maybe he could even develop a new driver compatible with the mecha himself.

Pan’an stepped forward, connected her personal link, and behind her, Cassidy and others held guns, waiting for Lille to crack the Centaur Mecha.

[Unauthorized link detected...]

Lille connected to the Centaur Mecha.

Just like Dum Dum said, bypassing the Mecha’s ICE was difficult: using brute force cracking could cause the Mecha to transmit location information to military technology.

However, using an even more violent method of cracking could also eliminate the built-in software of the Mecha—

But that would damage the driver.

Luckily, that was precisely the effect Lille wanted: to clear all the programs on the Centaur Mecha, then it would be easier for him to operate.

The cost of bypassing the ICE was too high; it was better to use computational advantage to destroy the entire software of the Mecha.

Zi!

The Mecha sparked electricity, and Dum Dum was stunned.

Because according to the data shown on the adjacent diagnostic terminal, the hardware information for the entire mecha could not be read!

This meant the Centaur Mecha had bricked!

But before he could react, the mecha suddenly stood up, and the computer popped up a large number of distorted red frames and gibberish, appearing and disappearing, then a normal-colored frame popped up, turning into readable hardware and component information...

Lille was helping Little Octopus make the whole mecha’s information visual, AI and humans working together, looking somewhat scary, but remarkably efficient.

The Centaur Mecha suddenly popped up, and then immediately softened back down, reverting to locked mode.

However, the adjacent screen now displayed in the largest font, "Ready."

Pan’an withdrew his personal link, "Done, want to flash the other three? I’ve got some unused vehicle armor in my car, half price for you."

Brick hesitated for a moment, then waved his hand grandly, "Flash them! But I’m broke right now..."

"Okay, then the total is 300,000."

"Why so high! The first two times you only charged ten to twenty percent interest!"

"Take it or leave it," Pan’an smiled, "Don’t forget how you got this mecha, this price is fair.

Besides, who else in the city will help you crack it? Military technology, right?"

"Son of a bitch..." Brick muttered under his breath, because he realized Pan’an actually had a point.

Mecha was not mysteriously spirited to him, he would never have snagged it; now in the city trying to find someone who could hack a Centaur Mecha...

It’s kind of funny, tasks like these used to be what others sought the Vortex Gang for.

"Alright, and remember the half-price armor, too, weld it on and it could pass for a low-end ACPA armor. Take it and use it."

After flashing the remaining three Centaur Mechas, Adkaduo laid the armor on the ground and strode off.

As the car left the warehouse, Pan’an saw a few young folks with low-level modifications mingling with those seasoned Vortex Gang members.

The old-timers seemed very welcoming to these newcomers, generously offering them their inhalers to sample some fierce stuff you can’t find on the market.

The rookies were even more thrilled; where had they ever tasted anything so exhilarating from birth till now?

No sooner had they inhaled than they began writhing and shaking on the ground, and even their clothes and pants showed strange liquid marks.

A display of utter disgrace.

"These people... are absolutely insane."

...

Now looking at these four Centaur Mechas, Brick was brimming with confidence.

Even though he was in debt by hundreds of thousands, he had faith in the Vortex Gang; as long as he regained control of the gang, he could quickly repay this money.

The current problem was who would drive these behemoths: untrained folks posed a high risk of losing control.

He glanced at the prosthetics surgery room makeshift from scrap metal next to him, his good brother Carter still lying there, high on Black Lace.

Even if he was awake, it couldn’t be him operating this thing.

Especially since they from the Vortex Gang, each with several types of cyber modulators installed, drives all mismatched, some even homemade.

Carter had a Si Anweisitan installed on him, which was hard to make compatible with the Centaur Mecha—

Military technology software was definitely compatible with Si Anweisitan, but the pirated software used by this mysterious character was another story.

It would be better to find someone with less extensive prosthetic modifications and then gradually adjust.

Brick called out to DumDum, "Next round, charge at the Dance of Death, otherwise we won’t even have a place to talk, damn it.

Get two newcomers to try out these big guys, tell them wearing this makes them gang leaders, any drugs they want the gang will cover them, first dibs on the good stuff."

"Can the new ones handle it? Ours are as clean shaven as they come."

"Where are they from? Are their backgrounds clean?"

"He said he’s from Westbrook, I’ll ask some more." DumDum scratched his chrome dome and called a brother in from outside, spoke a whole lot...

In the midst of talking, he suddenly burst out laughing, laughing so hard he couldn’t straighten his back!

Brick stepped forward and gave DumDum a hearty clap, "I asked you to get details, and here you are laughing your motherfucking ass off!"

Still chuckling, DumDum responded, "Hahaha... Boss, this kid is a riot...

The guy who came with him said this guy once wanted to join the Tiger Claw Gang and so... haha!"

"Spill it, damn it!"

"Turns out this kid had saved up a bunch of money, planned to go to Tiger Claw Gang territory for some fun. When that bitch walked in, he realized it was his mom!"

Brick paused for a second, then laughed out loud too.

The atmosphere filled with mirth for a moment, and after having their laugh, Brick added, "Haha... you don’t often come by someone that stupid, he’s the one!

Bring him in!"