Chapter 402 - 374 New Battlefield

Jefferson, Hott, Stott, and the representative from Arasaka remained tacitly silent.

This matter could be well resolved.

No one truly knew why Arasaka brought their aircraft carrier over, but after all, Arasaka was a Japanese company. The super aircraft carrier was certainly fearsome, but in North America, the army of New America didn’t face the pressure of overseas power projection, bolstered by aerial fortresses.

In this give-and-take, both sides increased their stakes, but the balance had not yet been broken, it was just that the total investment had once again grown.

The people from Arasaka and Military Technology knew this, both tacitly understood without further discussion, and instead, they silently stared at Ryan.

Nobody knew what they were thinking, but Ryan felt a chill run down his spine—although he was already accustomed to that sensation.

"Very well, we can discuss the details later, since this meeting hasn’t ended yet,"

Ryan said lightly, ready to transition to the next agenda item.

Encouraging the megacorporations to invest resources would ultimately make Night City richer—

Of course, it would also become more dangerous.

Escalating battle intensity wasn’t entirely good because, as Hott had said at the start, the numerous medium and small-sized companies were the main taxpayers in Night City.

Transnational corporations only had a small portion of their assets in Night City; even in total defeat, at most they’d just pull out of the city. The "life or death" of Night City was of no real concern to them.

But for the numerous medium and small-sized local enterprises, if Night City’s existing order collapsed or underwent significant change, many could go bankrupt overnight.

Though they were not in the council, Ryan knew he had to represent these businesses to a certain extent, because they certainly didn’t want Night City to suddenly die.

The situation was already dangerous.

Military Technology and Arasaka had long-standing grievances, and Peizhuo Petrochemical’s old rivals also tried to open the ports of Night City using the pretext of patent safety accidents.

Network surveillance intelligence indicated that the mercenaries might have support not only from Su Petrochemical but also from other places in Europe.

If Europe was involved in this matter, then there might be backing from transnational corporations like EBM (European Business Machines) and IEC (International Electric Company).

If one wasn’t careful...

Night City could attract several giants that had initiated corporate wars, and they were all old rivals no less.

Military Technology and Arasaka, Peizhuo Petrochemical and Su Petrochemical, and perhaps even the European giants.

Compared to the verbal sparring in the council, this was the real pressure Ryan felt.

The gazes of the megacorporations were both opportunities and crises. Attracting investment was like pulling chestnuts out of the fire, and he had to take some precautionary measures: finding a new battlefield for these hot-headed giants.

"We can draft the details later, so let’s move on to the second matter, regarding the situation in Taiping State...

I am considering whether we need to rethink our strategy for Taiping State. As everyone knows, after the Unification War, there were many developers there who could no longer continue with development."

Everyone at the meeting perked up their ears, somewhat surprised by Ryan’s words—

Taiping State, as Night City’s largest area, was originally expected to be developed into a world-class financial, commercial, and tourist center.

Yet because of the Unification War, it became lawless, completely abandoned by Night City!

You should know that the city administration had long given up on crime statistics in that area—if there’s no statistic, the crime rate is zero!

This trick was Ryan’s own, by which he managed to reduce Night City’s overall crime rate by several points, and now he wanted to return to Taiping State?

Regardless, this was an opportunity, and the only issue that needed to be dealt with was the special region in Taiping State:

Dog Town.

Ryan’s Prosthetic Eye lit up, sending the meeting attendees the investigative report on Taiping State—

This was even a recent survey!

This meant that, compared to the overt act of abandoning Taiping State, Ryan had in fact been paying attention to this patch of land all along!

Most notably: Ryan hinted that Dog Town might be brewing another grand festivity!

Such festivities were great opportunities for smuggling and secret transport...

Ryan agreed to the companies’ increased investments and also found them a new venue.

The representatives of the council tacitly signaled to their own advisors: This old fox sure knows how to stir things up, and the situation in Dog Town is much more complicated than in Night City.

Ryan leaned back in his chair after sending off the document, "There are a lot of things we can do, perhaps you all already have some ideas?"

The brain implants of the parliamentary representatives were whirring at high speed, a new discussion was about to begin.

And Ryan knew that this time, he still didn’t need to say much.

As for whether Night City, this powder keg crammed with too much gunpowder, would be blown to smithereens...

He could only hope that the eventual victor would be a local from Night City.

After all, he was a politician, not a warrior.

But he also knew the hope was slim.

....

"Vote for Perares!"

What a coincidence.

Lille got out of the Delamain and looked up, only to remember that this H4 Skyscraper was David’s home with his mother.

H4 Skyscraper was located in the western part of Saint Domingo, you only needed to cross the bridge to the north to reach the Scenic Area, it was considered a slum area adjacent to the main urban district.

Some of the working-class with relatively more economic power compared to Saint Domingo, but poorer compared to the Scenic Area would choose to live here, although it might be far from their place of work, the subway was nearby.

Lille lived in the H10 Skyscraper located in Little Chinatown, even though you could still see a large number of homeless people downstairs, and occasionally NCPD would rush past the streets with their sirens wailing.

But relative to the H4 Skyscraper, it was much better—

The area outside H10 Skyscraper might be chaotic, but most people’s eyes revealed shrewdness and cunning.

Outside the H4 Skyscraper, some people wore Super Dream headbands picked up from who-knows-where, drooling on the streets, and there were even people exposing their lower bodies, with some kind of electric toy fitted over the area where the heavy artillery prosthetics were installed.

Relatively speaking, there were more people indulging in cheap thrills.

The elevator of the Skyscraper was playing Jefferson’s campaign propaganda video, if you’re someone visiting Night City for the first time, you’d definitely be puzzled by this kind of propaganda video:

Ordinary citizens didn’t have the right to vote, so who exactly was this candidate Perares trying to win over with his campaign?

Could it be that corporations decide the outcome of the elections through television media?

After a time, they would understand: thanks to the fine traditions of Night City, some armed people could "vote" directly with their weapons.

After all, if you really did not like a candidate, you could genuinely pull out a gun and take out someone with an opposing viewpoint.

The purpose of the propaganda was rather subtle.

Ding.

The elevator came to a halt, and Lille walked out, lifting his head to look towards Kaneke’s home.

Even more coincidentally, Lille saw his underling—

David was following his mother reluctantly, not even bothering to change out of his slippers, a sour expression on his face.

His mother Gloria walked ahead, carrying a bag of something...

Seems like she was heading to Kaneke’s home?

Lille was about to take a few steps forward when Little Octopus prodded him.

[Little Octopus: Big bro, the surveillance in the building has been tampered with, both the timestamp and content have issues.]

[Little Octopus: The trauma team is also here.]

Ding—

Another elevator behind him came to a stop, two men dressed in the trauma team’s regular work clothes walked out of the elevator, heading towards Kaneke’s home.

Lille raised an eyebrow and slowed his pace.

[Lille: What kind of tampering?]

[Little Octopus: There’s a segment of the surveillance that’s repeated, this guy named Kaneke has a high probability of having already made a run for it.]