Chapter 551 - 522 Entering Taiping State

[Interdimensional Main Consciousness Transfer Time: 1 hour 33 minutes]

[Estimated Technology Points deduction: 200]

Taiping State was a lawless land.

This place was located to the south of Night City, separated by a river. In the original city planning, it was meant to be built into a world-class vacation and tourist center, bringing richer industries to Night City and attracting more investors.

However, while Taiping State was flourishing with construction, the Unification War broke out, and Southern California was completely reclaimed by New America. The army advanced from the south all the way here, completely severing Night City’s original plans.

The vacation destination turned into a battlefield, and what was more troublesome was that although the war ceased with Ryan moving to Arasaka, signing the Arvin Agreement that declared the end of the war,

the problem was, at the same time as the Arvin Agreement was signed, a special forces unit known as the Netherworld Dog had already infiltrated Taiping State and successfully launched a raid, occupying a piece of local territory. Moreover, they still occupied that territory after the war.

This meant the place would never become a vacation destination: because that territory is still considered a war zone to this day.

That was exactly where Lille was headed this time – Dog Town.

Of course, before entering Dog Town, there were some tasks Lille had to do. They couldn’t possibly enter Dog Town with their bodies in a semi-disabled state; if they really entered Dog Town in their current condition, they would probably be dealt with by the company agents and Netherworld Dogs scattered everywhere in no time.

The three needed time to recover their bodies, repair their prosthetics, and prepare their equipment and even vehicles; at the same time, they needed to gather intelligence to clarify the current status of the company.

To be honest, even though the Terrorist Mobile Team had been hit hard and the company had been startled by the nuclear explosion, they had not yet mobilized troops to find them, which was quite abnormal—

It wasn’t that Lille was being narcissistic, but during this operation, they had displayed impressive technology, surprising and unexpected destructive power, and a defiant disobedience...

Combined, it was unreasonable for the company not to react.

After all, this world was shaped by major monopolistic companies trying to stabilize their positions while attempting to monopolize more industries.

Gathering intelligence was also needed because many details of the entire assassination attempt on Ryan were somewhat bizarre; he needed more intelligence to deduce the full picture of the event.

But... before that, they had to deal with the person hiding in the abandoned amusement park.

Taiping State was an outlaw land, so there was no law to speak of locally. If one had to say, there were only two rules:

One was not to annoy the local gang, the Voodoo Gang; the other was, if you had problems, you had to pay and hire mercenaries.

The locals were not to be trifled with.

The state of Lille’s trio was very poor, so having a local appear now was absolutely the worst-case scenario.

"Voodoo Gang?" V’s voice was soft, his hands holding the Final Night behind his back, casually following behind Lille.

One of Jack’s arms swung normally, while the other gripped the hidden Golden Harsh Mistress beneath the torn pant leg.

Lille, now without the Octopus Arm and with all cyber prosthetics shut down due to the nuclear electromagnetic pulse, was also a bit uncoordinated in walking due to the tumor pressing on blood vessels and nerves.

Unlike the other two men, having lost his prosthetics and equipment, his muscles were in a state of complete weakness, and he was even missing an eye.

He looked... quite frightening.

Lille shook his head: "Not very likely."

Logically speaking, the more prosthetics one had, the more likely they were to be paralyzed by the electromagnetic pulse in this nuclear blast. The Voodoo Gang, being mostly hackers, would probably be busy inspecting their equipment and tallying casualties, hunkered down in defense.

Mercenaries with high levels of cybernetic augmentation would have also likely suffered significant damage; staying at home waiting for a prosthetics doctor to make repairs was the best choice.

The only ones who could be out were those with a lower degree of cybernization... ordinary people.

Of course, it’s not ruled out that they were just unlucky and the person inside was a hiding mercenary.

The target location was an abandoned bungalow, with a warehouse at the back and a stall at the front; the sounds were coming from behind the house.

The three approached slowly, sticking to the wall and moving inward; it was then that Lille began to hear a trembling voice...

This voice information was synchronized and transmitted to the Marvel World, and the Little Octopus immediately expressed doubt:

[Little Octopus: Big brother, it sounds like someone is shivering.]

Lille signaled to V and Jack with a glance, raising three fingers. The two immediately split apart and approached from two directions, until they reached the side of the wall, then quietly began counting in their minds...

One...

Two...

Bang!

A swiftly moving figure suddenly dashed out from Jack’s side!

Jack immediately wanted to shoot: although he was exhausted, he would not miss at this distance!

But just as he had aimed, the shadow got tripped by the sand and fell flat on his face on the ground—

"Yi!!!"

It was a child, who, after getting a mouthful of sand, scrambled back in fright, but it was clear that his legs were too shaky with fear to stand, so he could only move across the ground at a bizarre angle and posture, begging for mercy as he did so.

"Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! I didn’t see anything, didn’t see anything..."

"Quiet!"

Jack squatted down swiftly, pointing the handgun right in front of the child’s eyes, scaring the latter into silence, his twisting body even freezing as if time had stopped.

"A child?"

V and Lille, who caught up, also noticed the child squirming on the ground.

The child looked to be about 10 years old, with dirty short hair, reeking of a foul smell, and his clothes were black and stinking, virtually riddled with holes.

However, he seemed quite healthy, and there were no traces of prosthetics, only a broken neural interface socket.

Jack and V glanced at each other, then looked at Lille.

Lille was surprised: they had encountered a homeless child.

Perfect, they needed someone to carry messages, as the three of them were a bit too conspicuous.

So Lille squatted down and asked slowly, "Kid, do you desire power?"

The child looked at Lille’s missing eye, the black smoke emanating from his body, the burns, the tattered overcoat, and the chaotic hacker cooling fins twinkling in the moonlight...

And burst into tears, nodding while crying.

This man didn’t look human, more like a cyber madman.

"Good, what is your name?"

"Matt..."

"Very well, Matt..."

Having a local guide would speed things up, especially since Lille did not even know which part of Taiping State they were in.

Lille, limping, led Matt aside, while the latter watched V and Jack head towards the wreckage of Mackinaw, screaming in his heart:

I want to talk to humans! Even those who just look human would be fine!

"Let’s fix your neural interface first."

Taiping State was a lawless place, but to be on the safe side, it was better to use someone unassociated with them as a "zombie" to act.

On the other hand, his cyber prosthetic damage was quite severe, so a comprehensive repair was needed.

Matt’s neural interface just had a minor fault, as neural interfaces that stopped operating would receive very minimal damage in an electromagnetic pulse.

However, after Lille finished speaking, Matt, who had already been quietly crying, cried even harder.

To repair the neural interface? Here? In the abandoned amusement park of Taiping State?!

Wouldn’t it be better to say you want my organs directly?!

Or does this evil cyber lunatic want to experiment on my head?!

But feeling the weight of the Yinglong submachine gun in Lille’s hand, the homeless kid couldn’t utter a word.

About to be dissected by a cyber madman.