Chapter 961 - 14: Night City Now (Part 6)

Saint Domingo is the light and heavy industry area, while Watson District is a high-tech area for prosthetics and such. Here, Fiona’s ideas are expanded.

She was already a leader in the field of sports neurology. Coincidentally, after Lille left, this became one of the few, or even the only, high-tech areas in Night City.

The school in Dog Town has now become legitimate, and Night City has lowered the standards for underage prosthetic implantation. In a sense, the Dog Town Sports Academy has become legitimate, just with more resources available.

With voluntary participation from children, young people, and adults, as well as strong city support and the backing of two super experts, Little Octopus and Jostar’s mom, skill chips and prosthetics have become the most common products here.

If the export of third generation prosthetics still faces some difficulties, then the export of skill chips faces no problems at all since the cost is mostly in the software.

As for the Vortex Gang, they are the most radical "volunteers" of them all.

Lille didn’t choose to continue observing Watson District. He had already hacked into the city network, allowing him to see street conditions directly through the city’s patrolling drones and surveillance cameras.

Compared to the desolate appearance two years ago, the industrial area has significantly downsized, and the factories destroyed in battles have all been dismantled, replaced by a landmark building complex—the Night City Sports Center, which houses a variety of sports facilities including soccer, basketball, swimming, and running.

Outside the sports center are numerous prosthetic factories. Occasionally, you can see Vortex Gang members on the streets, with the faint sound of heavy metal music playing in the background. It seems the Vortex Gang has retained quite a bit of their habits...

The car turned towards the city center, and V said:

"I thought you would say this operation is inhumane, considering it’s human experimentation."

"You can’t become successful overnight."

Human rights are not the priority now, or rather, the imagined beautiful days cannot be achieved immediately. Reality doesn’t support it, and Night City is very scarce in resources. Only ideals support the city’s operation.

City life gave people a false sense of security, but if you describe the situation as a war...

In war, children have no human rights, and neither does anyone else.

As people born in this era, they either accept reality or are forced to accept it. If they don’t accept it... they wouldn’t choose to enter the Sports Academy and participate in this explicitly experimental project.

V continued: "Actually, strictly speaking, Fiona is under the protection of the Animal Gang. The Vortex Gang wishes for them to be more radical, but the Wild Man King thinks modification lacks soul. Fiona, however, wants to use both modification and explosive injection, but...

It’s us suppressing everyone’s ideas..."

V wanted to ask Lille how he thought she was doing, but she was a bit stubborn when the words reached her lips.

Lille naturally replied: "That’s enough."

Overthinking doesn’t suit V, nor does it suit Jack—or rather, as the most lawless individuals in this city, they don’t need to consider any intricate social structures, flawless designs, or efficiency maximization.

"I thought you would furrow your brow, then start pointing fingers—come on, let me draw you some eyebrows..."

"Buzz off, we’re almost at City Hall!" Lille waved his arms to block V’s big hand. "What’s there to point out? You’re already so amazing, shouldn’t everyone listen to you? If you say it’s right, then it’s right. If you say it’s wrong, it’s wrong."

Watson District flashed by, and the car entered the City Hall and Haywood.

Company Square still stood tall, but the battle scars remained unrepaired, and there were even significant changes; many skyscrapers had disappeared.

At the last moments of the battle two years ago, David took on Lille’s commission and hacked into Arasaka Tower. Now Arasaka Tower is just an empty shell, with much of its business having withdrawn from Night City, the same goes for Military Technology.

The primary operations of the two companies were armed services and munitions products, the former being impacted by the local City Defense Army and assimilated gangs, and the latter by the developing local industry.

Although the two companies can still wage price wars, the people of Night City aren’t mellow either. If someone asked them what they thought about the withdrawal of the two companies causing economic problems, most would say:

Those two companies should have fucked off long ago.

"And then... because they withdrew, Ryan implemented a very radical policy: decommissioning city-owned property."

Lille nodded slightly, feeling a tinge of surprise:

This Ryan was braver than he had imagined.

What city ownership, state ownership, the law is just a cover. In essence, it’s just robbery. Those with more power can take back industries and land, it’s that simple.

As the situation in Night City changed, the cost of maintaining Night City rose steadily, and the benefits diminished, making the significance increasingly minimal. Ryan seized this opportunity and decisively reclaimed the land—

V punched fiercely: "At that time, I was really pissed off, so I killed all the soldiers from the two companies! Killed them all!

I didn’t think too much, I was just..."

She paused as she spoke, glancing at Lille, who suddenly realized: "Avenging me?"

"Why do you have to make it sound so disgusting—okay, okay, yes, avenging you!"

Jack laughed heh-heh from the back, making a terrifying sound. Lille and V turned their heads simultaneously, leaving the big guy awkward.

[Jack: When are you going to fix my voice?]

"Soon, once I’ve finished talking with Ryan about things, we can start preparing. Just in time to use some new technology for an upgrade."

So it wasn’t Lille’s illusion; the skyscrapers indeed had decreased:

City ownership of corporate assets, Arasaka, and Military Technology surely couldn’t withstand, unless they decided to nuke this city.

But this brings us to a subtle point—is it really necessary to nuke Night City? Can they really nuke Night City?

Thanks to Ryan’s "Night City Bitch" strategy, there are still industries from Biotechnology, Peizhuo Petrochemical, and Kantao here.

No matter what the decisive factor was, in the end, they didn’t do it, just like how Japan quickly nationalized Arasaka’s assets when Arasaka lost the Corporate Wars.

However, not planning to reclaim the assets doesn’t mean they would leave anything for Night City.

V lazily swung her legs and then rested them on Lille’s shoulder: "...But they reacted quickly, probably because they anticipated it. By the time we moved with those second-rate gangsters, they blew up the warehouses and factories...

All in all, by the time we got in, there wasn’t much left, and both Arasaka Tower and the Military Technology Building were empty.

It was like the second round of fighting after Dog Town. Anyway... it was intense, and we won."

After winning, the City Hall turned into what it is now:

A large number of corporate-owned skyscrapers, including educational facilities like Arasaka Academy, were vacated, replaced by public universities, middle schools, elementary schools, and kindergartens of Night City.

You can see from afar that the slum areas in Haywood have been renovated, worthy of being called school districts.

Of course, according to V and Jack, Night City is striving to ensure all minors have access to education—

This is Perares’s wish, while Ryan’s method was to revise the law mainly targeting those unwilling to attend school, who just want to mess around every day, setting up juvenile detention centers separately...

In essence, it’s a labor reform center. Once inside, it’s not typical education.

"The Valentino Gang is responsible for this part, but Father always wants to add some religious things in, but Ryan and Perares don’t agree, and he even approached Jack..."

[Jack: I said I don’t care.]

Lille glanced at Jack with slight surprise: "I thought you would advocate for benefits for the Valentinos."

[Jack: Sigh, it just feels weird. Now that I’m a Night City boss, we can’t do those... nepotistic things.]

[Jack: Plus, think about it, when Misty and I were together, we read a lot of books that said God doesn’t allow this or that, and the Valentinos did it all. If it weren’t for us keeping them in check, there would have been chaos!]

[Jack: Valentinos haven’t been able to follow rules for so many years; how dare they teach kids?]

Lille gave a thumbs up: "With such high awareness, I underestimated you, buddy."

Jack scratched his head:

[Jack: Eh, my head’s not that bright, it’s not about awareness, but I do think it’s better with the Valentinos around. We all have families; how can we let those without families teach kids? Uh, what I mean is...]

He stopped because both V and Lille seemed to be without parents.

But neither minded; V because she really didn’t have parents, Lille because he actually had parents and two mothers.

This is roughly what Night City is like now—

There are no more gangs, or rather, in a sense, gangs have been integrated, directly entering social production as law enforcers and industry participants in different regions.

Through the wealth Lille left behind, the development direction of Night City is fundamentally within the framework of independence. The deterrence of two living legends makes everyone comply with their will and adapt to their values to a certain extent.

If they find it unbearable, can’t do it, or simply want to martyr themselves, they can test just how tough their destiny is—

In fact, V and Jack have dealt with such people in the past two years.

The vehicle slowly drives towards Afterlife, with a historic empty building above the nightclub newly renovated, the most distinctive change being the largest burger sculpture in Night City—

At first glance, it seemed handcrafted by a master, with the burger in the picture even having a genuinely metal mouth.

Along the way, pedestrians turn their heads, cars obediently give way from afar, feeling utterly curious while starting the photo function in their prosthetic eyes—

But no one dares to surround the car to take pictures, not even the most fervent fans dare to ask for autographs.

Arriving at the place, there is just a parking spot nearly twice the size of a regular one in the parking lot, apparently reserved for Big Mike.

Johnny stands on top of the car, twitching at the corners of his mouth while looking at the big burger above:

[Johnny: This city has really changed a lot... now I can’t even say that line anymore.]

That line is: The city really hasn’t changed a bit.

V is overwhelmingly pleased, stretching lazily: "Hey, we haven’t used this parking spot for almost two years—remember the apartment we rented in the Super Skyscraper? I haven’t been back almost at all in the past two years, staying in the Evil Land to avoid being targeted by the corporations."

Lille’s poker face almost frowns, removing V’s foot that was about to kick him in the face: "Smelly feet..."

"Who are you calling smelly!"

"I’m talking about your feet that haven’t been washed in two years..."

Bam!

A dull sound comes from inside the car.