Chapter 451 - 423 Profit (Another Return)

[Little Octopus: Big Brother, today, all three universities in New York suspended classes and demonstrated. They’re also contacting students and staff from other schools.]

[Little Octopus: Rocksen might try to persuade some state governments to deploy the National Guard to quell the riots.]

[Lille: We can offer free aid to all the peaceful folk, make them feel safe to protest.]

[Little Octopus: Alright, and by the way, Big Brother, the blueprints for the power plant are locked down. Do you want to check them again?]

[Lille: No need, just keep an eye on Brick’s human experiments for me; we need to get the second generation of Prosthetics online as soon as possible.]

[Lille: Staff expansion situation.]

[Little Octopus: Nationwide summary: 367 retired soldiers turned into Cyborg warriors, 1347 implant surgeries to be completed in the next seven days, estimated increase of 120%~160% within the next month;

qualified workers, 35535 in training, 135264 implant surgeries to be completed in the next seven days, estimated increase of 300%~340% within the next month.]

[Little Octopus: Night City summary: 441 OCT users; 1333 interdimensional workers.]

"Mano, hearing you talk like that, I kinda feel sorry for those little Japanese guys."

Upon exiting the room, the three chatted in the elevator.

Jack began to reflect: "The first guy I ever fought was a little Japanese guy."

"How did that happen?" V asked with interest.

"That guy bragged about buying an original Arasaka tablet and flaunted it here, looking down on us for our second-hand stuff from the street stalls.

He was kinda showing off... anyway, super annoying, he kept pushing his way over to us."

"Can’t blame you then."

Jack shrugged: "But he bought it with a high-interest loan. Later, the loan sharks came to collect one of his kidneys, and after that, he disappeared. I don’t know if the Scavengers caught him and took his other kidney.

If he had hung out with us, maybe the Scavengers wouldn’t have targeted him."

"Ha, what about his high-interest loan?" V scoffed, "Funny enough, my first fight was with a member of the Tiger Claw Gang, sort of.

Back when I was hanging out on the streets, this brain-dead guy I’d talked to a couple of times kept insisting on buying me drinks. Luckily, I was clever enough to see through it; he’d taken a loan from the Tiger Claw Gang through an online loan service, planning to use me as a sex doll...

If I’d had a gun back then, I would’ve offed him right there—though I guess if the Tiger Claw Gang couldn’t see me, they probably would’ve wrecked him first."

As V spoke, he looked towards the silent Lille: "Mox once approached me too, even said with my looks, I was missing out by not being in their line of work."

But Lille was pondering something else.

The atmosphere suddenly got a bit awkward.

Smack!

V slapped Lille on the back of his head: "What are you zoning out for again!"

Lille rubbed his head, somewhat helplessly: "I didn’t have as exciting a childhood as you guys."

V nonchalantly gazed outside the capsule: "So, what do you think of my looks?"

"Pretty good, definitely a big loss not going into that field—I mean, the mercenary business."

V’s eyes widened: "Wait, do mercenaries even need to look good?!"

"Turns out they do." Lille replied slowly while working on the data, somewhat nonchalantly.

What he was thinking was that if it weren’t for V’s appearance in Atlanta, he really couldn’t think of any other strategy off the top of his head.

It was just brain overload, not understanding the point.

Beyond reviewing some data, Lille was also pondering another issue:

He could keep tracking the Brain Demon Gang, but kept being strung along by Munemasa, with no clue when they’d catch him.

Beep beep—

An NCPD pickup drove past the street. The Centaur Mecha in the vehicle’s bed entered sleep mode. Through the gaps in the mecha’s armor, you could see the operator looking utterly exhausted.

Today’s Night City was far more chaotic than the old Night City.

The trio stood at the skyscraper entrance, watching the police cars rushing to the next location, observing the residents walking by, anxious and cursing quietly...

Suddenly, Jack asked a question: "Mano, do you think we’re making things worse by doing all this?"

Lille glanced at Jack: "What? Doubting yourself?"

Jack thought for a moment, then continued, "We’ve pretty much blown up every gang, and I think they deserved it, but... but, why does it seem even more chaotic in the streets?"

With every gang "blown up," serious issues emerged in the area.

The Six Street Gang was decimated; low-level thugs popped up, causing a local civil war that prevented any business activities;

The Tiger Claw Gang was smashed to pieces, all sorts of demons and ghouls surfaced in Westbrook, with incessant shootouts on the streets, People dared not venture out at night, shops did no business, and all industries withered.

The Vortex Gang was struck down, creating a massive gap in Night City’s technical trade.

Lille laughed and countered, "We didn’t obliterate the Valentinos either, yet didn’t they too hatch a mole within themselves to rise to power?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah, that’s true..."

"If we hadn’t intervened, right, they probably wouldn’t have weakened, and the streets wouldn’t be in such chaos.

The Six Street Gang would continue to assist in distributing biotechnology vaccines, he’d make money from it, and the issues with the river would remain unnoticed, leading to many deaths in ignorance.

The Tiger Claw Gang would continue their dirty dealings with the deputy mayor, and the lawful Jotaro would keep abducting innocent pedestrians.

Royce of the Vortex Gang would gain control, kidnapping people off the streets to transform them with prosthetics, and make them shoot Black Superdreams...

Valentino, someone whose ascension to power completely contradicts the values of your gang, will eventually become unrecognizable to you—a lapdog of the deputy mayor’s office, turning into another Tiger Claw Gang is just a matter of time.

If we don’t thrash them, they’ll be beaten by something else. Do you know what that is?"

Jack shook his head, and V waited curiously for Lille to reveal the answer.

"It’s profits, it’s money, the source of all these problems is their gradual abandonment of the principles upon which their gang was founded, and their relentless pursuit of more money.

As they expanded, they began to realize how crucial profits are to sustain an organic entity within society.

Profits will shatter the bonds holding these gangs together: kinship, friendship, dreams, honor, racial ties, community relations...

In the end, they are bound only by profits, fundamentally attaching themselves to the groups that offer the highest profits in the world.

The guys popping up now are only doing so because someone is sponsoring them, running operations that yield higher short-term profits than these weakening gangs.

But with our involvement, everything changes."

"They’ve become twisted," V summarized.

Lille, slightly surprised, looked at V, "That’s essentially it, very accurate summary."

Jack scratched his head, "When you put it that way, it seems like we’ve turned into a stumbling block that always hinders their path to make money."

"That’s exactly right," Lille shrugged, "Our relationship was never sustained just by money, so sooner or later, like these unfortunate gang leaders, we’ll be squeezed into a corner by those chasing higher profits.

Then either get crushed or assimilated."

"That sounds... terrifying, like being against the world."

"It is quite terrifying, but what’s truly inverted are these gangs, those chasing profits only become puppets to profits.

Remember? They weren’t making any money when they started, nobody is born with everything.

They are more like those who chose to become puppets after struggling for a while."

"Tch," V grimaced, "I have to disagree with that; there are indeed people who are born rich."

Lille smiled, "You’re right, but then, some rich people have what you want, some rich play as you wish, some rich do what you dream of...

So you just do nothing? Just lie down on the ground? Do you actually want to do these things, or do you just want to be rich?

If it were me, I’d want to do these things, it doesn’t matter whether the rich have done them or not.

They should pray though, they’d better hope their assets don’t block my path, otherwise, things might get ugly for them."

"Wow," V also laughed, "Sounds like a bandit, but I like it."

An NCPD convoy passed by, the red light turned green, and the two men walked down the stairs, ready to cross the street.

Jack chewed on Lille’s words, staring at the green light for a long time.

It wasn’t until V and Lille turned to look at him that he snapped out of it, sprinted over, and hugged Lille:

"Heh, mano, I’ve always said you were meant for great things, your words just now were spot on!

I’m going to put that in my handbook, just like this: ’When I’m doing something, others had better pray they’re not in my way’,

what do you think..."

[Little Octopus: Big brother, I think what you said makes a lot of sense, so what’s our objective? What are we ultimately doing this for?]

[Little Octopus: (._.) Humbly asking for guidance.]

[Lille: But those who really make big money, those at the top of the food chain, are not guided by mere profits but by grand objectives that surpass other groups and individuals, along with outstanding execution.]

[Lille: Fools chase profits, the strong decide profits.]

[Lille: Mental mobilization, prepare for battle.]