Chapter 956 - 9: Night City Today (Part 1)

"Night City, Night City, remember the last question: why do typhoons always have feminine names?"

"The answer is, when it ’comes’, it’s wet and wild, and when it leaves, it takes your house and car..."

"Guess the answer? But the European Union’s storm isn’t that simple, it’s taking more than just houses and cars."

"I believe you all watched yesterday’s emergency news! A terrifying man-made storm claims the lives of six European Union executive committee members, three lost in the Berlin chaos, one still unaccounted for, and the other two chased away like dogs!"

"My God, a German revolution! These Europeans either ate gunpowder, or it’s the same gunpowder we’re using!"

"I knew Burger King wasn’t dead!"

...

"Welcome to your investment, I care..."

"This is terrifying, this chaos has completely crushed... sorry, my wording isn’t too accurate, disrupted the functioning of financial markets..."

"The European stock index has been silent for a full 24 hours since the great crash, mathematically, this should count as a 100% drop!"

"Maybe not very precise, but this panic has swept the globe, with significant increases in the New Dollar, African Franc, and Mexican Peso, the New Dollar making the largest gains!"

"But just now, we received a message: a massive explosion occurred around Washington, with the White House and Pentagon claiming it’s an accident, a transport rocket exploded in the outskirts during transportation, no casualties reported yet..."

"But could this really be true? It’s definitely not true!"

"It’s such a relief to speak the truth: two years ago, the Yen hit rock bottom, the Euro hit rock bottom yesterday, and today, the garbage New Dollar was shoved back into its coffin, but do you think I will suggest you invest your funds in local giants like the South American Union or African Union?"

"No! Brother, forget about that stuff, forget about cryptocurrencies that could be wiped out by a wave of northern capital at any time, invest your funds in Night City now!"

...

"Big news! Burger King orchestrated the great crash, even the Washington explosion was his doing!"

"He’s literally Superman!"

...

"Big news! The biggest crime boss in Night City is back! I’d love to see how they’ll match up with the City Hall now, after all, we all know the NCPD has been at odds with them—"

"But we also know, rumors have been around for two years that our City Hall was already under Burger King’s control, something about City Defense Commander being Dog Town’s giant Kurt Hansen, Burger King threatening Ryan and Perares... saying we’re a city ruled by criminals."

"Honestly, if that’s true, everything makes sense: how else could you explain the City Hall actually starting to act in these two years?"

"Then I wouldn’t have to choose between supporting the big guy to take down Night City Hall or supporting the City Hall to keep driving out moronic companies and rebuilding the Taiping State..."

"To conspiracy theory enthusiasts, this could also be a conspiracy: I’m throwing a smoke bomb at you, maybe that’s the truth."

...

All the streets of Night City were buzzing with news, reporting on the two major events happening on the same day:

It’s amazing that before these two events happened, both the European Union and New America announced good news, the former announcing the continuation of their outer space development strategy, while the latter was about setting up the Space Army.

But within two days, the European Union capital was bombed, sending the entire European network into complete paralysis, with rebels large enough to plunge the whole EU into turmoil, and industrial production coming to a complete halt, affecting most companies.

As for the latter, it’s quite similar: a violent explosion occurred on the outskirts of Washington, and the already garbage New Dollar fell further, becoming almost cheaper than toilet paper by weight, nearly undoing all President Miles’ efforts over the years.

The TV on the street is showing the devastation in Berlin, with information pouring out now that the control of the European Barrier is lost:

People saw the Ecological Park burning, the collapsed Europa Tower crushing the skyscrapers, the streets filled with heavily armed troops...

[This riot has tremendous impact, look at these houses...]

Someone shook their head regretfully: "Rest in peace to the deceased, you deserved better, but societal forces are just so powerful, when chaos ensues, no one can remain unaffected..."

[They are worth millions or even tens of millions of Euros...]

"How much? Haha..."

The expression of pity vanished, replaced by an uncontrollable smile: everyone in this society harbors a bit of anti-rich sentiment, which is a neutral term here.

[My God, the trees are dead...]

"Haha! It’s come to this, and he’s seriously discussing dead trees!"

People gathered around the TV laughed together, mimicking the funny European accent in the video.

Night City is also raining now, and a storm is imminent: the city is far more coastal than Berlin, with terrain similar to Foxstone, both cities becoming natural harbors after the sea level rise.

However, compared to Europe or even Washington, the situation here is much more relaxed, one could say it’s more relaxed after seeing so much fun compared to Washington or Berlin.

Furthermore, far fewer homeless people will freeze to death this year:

The Taiping State is being rebuilt, although the ruins have just been cleared, at least those unfinished buildings are now being used.

Thanks to large-scale recruitment by gangs and the construction of the City Defense Army, Night City now has enough manpower to maintain regional security.

The ambitions of the criminals, or rather, the ambitions of individuals in this free and wild society are not disappearing overnight, just that they’re now intimidated by more powerful people, and those more powerful people, not only intimidated by even more badass individuals, also have... fairly decent jobs.

At the edge of the crowd around the TV, David Martinez was staring blankly at it.

"There’s no way to survive..." Lucy was also somewhat incredulous.

David and Lucy are typical little thugs, fond of trendy culture, engaging in shady activities to sustain themselves, but it’s not impossible to give up those acts for a stable life, as essentially, they still live by the day.

The coerced thugs and Lille are fundamentally different:

When bombs capable of destroying a whole street explode in front of them, they are scared to death, let alone resist...

From the start to end, regardless of the predetermined fate or now, they never thought they would be involved with such matters, let alone witness the sinking of the Arasaka Aircraft Carrier.

The majority think Lille would never return, that other thought is just an imagination they don’t even believe themselves.

But it’s true.

[Lark: Ryan hopes you can mediate between the Mox Gang and Tiger Claw Gang.]

[David: Okay.]

[David: Is big brother really back?]

[Lark: Almost certainly, the question now is when he’ll be back from Europe, to be honest I’m a bit worried about V and Jack, the explosion in Washington was massive...]

[David: Wasn’t that supposedly their doing?]

[Lark: Bro, you might not grasp the magnitude of that explosion, I know what model the space plane that exploded was, its fuel explosion yield is over 500 times that of the explosion you saw in Dog Town.]

[Lark: The explosives and weapons they carry won’t easily blow up a space plane, I can’t imagine how they did it, unless they detonated it up close.]

[Lark: Such an explosion, is extremely hard to escape from.]

David thought for a moment:

[David: But since big brother made it back alive, it’s normal for the other two to also return alive, right?]

[Lark:...I hope so too, you better hurry up and get to work.]

[Lark: Sigh, mediating between these gangs feels like handling Congress politics...]