Chapter 584 - 555: Batty Grand Hotel

Taiping State, due to the war between New America and Night City, saw its developing tourist destinations and the World Financial Trade Zone shattered by conflict.

Investors withdrew their funds, leaving unfinished buildings everywhere. The locals, already dispossessed of their land, now lost their jobs and ended up as vagrants. Moreover, the increasing chaos attracted outsiders and lawless ruffians, plunging the area into further disorder.

Afterward, Arasaka’s return to Night City meant that only Northern California had yet to be reclaimed, but New America still had to consider its largest competitor. Taking into account the years-long war, they signed the Alvin Treaty with Night City, declaring a ceasefire.

Since then, companies that attempted to restore order and continue investments were met with resistance. The Voodoo Gang and locals left them battered and bloodied until the NCPD planned to lead efforts to restore order, provoking even larger riots—

Later, Night City gave up on reestablishing order and excised Taiping State from its jurisdiction, turning it into a truly lawless land.

Frankly, this move was interpreted by the outside world as irresponsible, but in reality, if the NCPD joined forces with the corporations, it was not impossible to take down the place; it would certainly result in many deaths and the risk of escalating the war.

Considering the chaos of the region and the situation in Night City at the time, giving up was actually a good choice.

Now, with no police or corporations, if someone still wanted to scrape a living here or engage in illegal activities, they could hire mercenaries themselves.

Most people barely scraped by amid the chaos, but the entire area had not devolved into complete anarchy for one reason:

There was a very fearsome local gang maintaining a basic level of order.

What constituted basic order? For instance, a marketplace that still operated normally.

The Voodoo Gang’s headquarters, the Batty Hotel, located on the tourist coast, was a once-glittering... unfinished building.

There, an orderly market thrived, and one could even spot live chickens, suspicious meat that was prohibited from sale in Night City due to potential disease transmission—

Primarily avian flu. Night City had experienced an outbreak, which was why there were no birds, leaving the skies clean.

But today was different—

"Hurry up!"

Brigitte, a short-haired African American woman from the Voodoo Gang, wore earrings with a distinctive oceanic religious flair. She was dressed in a formfitting hacker suit, which was exceptionally efficient at heat dissipation. Its special heat-conductive outer layer and the semiconductor-filled sandwich could dissipate heat far better than artificial skin, without the need for implanted prosthetics.

Over her hacker gear, she donned a thick leather trench coat. The coat’s surface, made of tough synthetic fiber, offered some bulletproofing, and integrated circuit boards in the lining could serve as real-time communication components when needed. The design was clever and the materials costly. It was clear she was an experienced hacker with a high status.

She was the leader of the Voodoo Gang, the enigmatic legend of Taiping State, a shadow that instilled fear in the hearts of locals.

Yet that fear was in a bad state now, with all the skin around her cervical spine completely burnt through, filled with fuzzy carbonized tissue. Her clothes were riddled with black burn marks, obviously scorched by an instantaneous high temperature, with many areas burnt through.

The Voodoo Gang was a shadow that Night City feared, but a nuclear blast was like the sun, and an Electromagnetic Pulse like a passing breeze.

A breeze blew, nearly destroying her fearsome avatar on the spot. If it hadn’t been for the advanced near-AI software in her head that automatically engaged its defenses, she would probably be dead already.

The Electromagnetic Pulse was too powerful, and the epicenter of the explosion was too close to the Batty Hotel. The current traveled along surface signal towers, burning through the entire Voodoo Gang’s setup, just as she was working in Cyberspace.

In the real world, the nuclear blast was a miniature sun, indeed eye-catching, but as it exploded over the coast, the damage was limited. The main casualties were the Terrorist Mobile Team and NCPD along the coast.

But in Cyberspace, the Electromagnetic Pulse was a true storm, one that destroyed everything in its path.

This storm could easily sweep away any hacker who was in Cyberspace at that moment, and she was no exception.

The Voodoo Gang’s base beneath the Batty Hotel caught fire instantly, and many hackers who had been in Cyberspace with her, hoping to take advantage of the chaos, were burned into idiots on the spot!

Without these facilities, the Voodoo Gang had no way to maintain local order!

So they spent the whole night in intensive maintenance: first extinguishing fires, disconnecting lines, moving intact servers and equipment aside, then disassembling damaged servers for circuit inspection, software checking, data recovery...

Brigitte was exhausted, having nearly fried her brain and forced to work overtime under stress.

But she had to appear imposing—

[Data Recovery Progress: 54%]

[Percentage of Data Completely Lost: 33%]

[Databases Pending Confirmation: 13%]

It was almost over.

Bang!

The door to the basement was smashed open—a fat man!

An extremely overweight black fat man was thrown in, slamming hard onto the ground!

The fat man was dressed in gaudy clothes, with a gold chain around his neck. The chain was pressed under his heavy body, scraping against the ground, and as he slid, it suddenly choked him—

The huge fat man made a strange noise as he writhed and twisted, reaching out to grab the gold chain.

"Disgusting."

Following the fat man’s entrance, another muscular black man stepped in, with dreadlocks and skin and clothes that also showed signs of being scorched by high temperatures, though not as apparent as Brigitte’s.

If anything, he had an external memory enhancement device attached near his temple, its black casing charred.

In his left hand, he held a pistol, his body covered in blood as if he had been through a battle. It had some intensity, but just some.

Placid, the Voodoo Gang’s second-in-command.

"Well done." Brigitte picked up the pistol from the table and walked toward the fat man.

In Night City, too much had changed these days, and they were involved in quite a few things. The fat man in front of them was their intermediary—Dexter Deshawn.

But as soon as trouble started... he thought about running away, just like last time.

How could they possibly let him escape?

Not to mention, they hadn’t even been paid yet.

Dexter comically tugged at the gold chain choking his neck. His strength out of control, the chain snapped on the spot. Before he could mourn the loss of money, Brigitte’s pistol was pressed against his chin—

Dexter reacted quickly this time, "I’ll say anything you want to know! I’ll tell everything!"

"Of course, you will, ranyon (doormat), but not before you pay a price for leaving without a word."

Bang!

The bullet struck Dexter’s shoulder directly. The large caliber pistol’s force punched a hole through his shoulder, and then Placid delivered a kick!

Before Dexter could even scream, his entire right arm, along with his shoulder and prosthetic, were kicked off, flying away!

"Ahh!!"

Only then did Brigitte put down the pistol with satisfaction, "Now we can have a proper conversation."

...

"Batty Hotel... this place is indeed Voodoo Gang’s turf, but how do you know they’re here?"

Wild Man King asked earnestly.

Although Taiping State was chaotic, the places under the protection of the Voodoo Gang still maintained basic order to conduct normal transactions, and there were quite a few of such places.

The Batty Hotel was indeed a significant venue, but who could be sure directly? After all, all venues had shut down now, and everyone was hiding in dark corners waiting for basic order to be restored.

For Lille, although the plot didn’t match the original work, it was like Arasaka Tower in Company Square—there couldn’t be much of a mistake. The Voodoo Gang had been here for a long time.

For Wild Man King: Damn, this place was only a few steps away from the Great Empire Mall. No wonder the Voodoo Gang was desperate after they took this place. They’ve been spamming them with junk emails.

"Intelligence." Lille, without turning back to look at the pitch-dark Batty Hotel, turned to the kid Gomert and said, "Matt, kid, short on cash?"

Matt thought he was just there to be a human display and was caught off guard when Lille suddenly had a job for him.

It was that job...

He froze, pointing to himself as if he didn’t hear clearly:

"I’m going after the Voodoo Gang?"