Chapter 986 - 31: Africa’s Warning

Night City is too small, inherently lacking compared to the enemy, whether in energy or minerals.

European Union workers and bosses are at each other’s throats, with production capabilities needing to be allocated to military supplies, and likely to remain in turmoil for a long time, making it unlikely to rely on them for support to Night City.

Lack of resources means industrial capability is necessarily limited, but Lille possesses a very inconspicuous yet crucial ability:

By utilizing cross-dimensional communication for coordination, losses in processes can be reduced, and required Technology Points for material transmission, as well as energy consumption, can be further diminished.

This means that for the same scale, the same level of industrial technology, Night City and Latovia have stronger production capabilities than the enemy.

With command after command issued, the entire Night City is glowing with new life:

Now there’s almost only one kind of shootout on the streets of Night City: citizens robbing company dogs, escalating into shootouts as it spirals out of control.

The identity of "company dogs" is undergoing subtle changes as well; the gangs are exemplars of coercion and bribery, and the local Night City dogs will do anything for money, and with increased municipal funding, the companies in Night City find it impossible to catch all the moles.

This means all the supplies, technology, and equipment companies have been storing in Night City over the years have suffered the most violent robbery, and when the situation spirals out of control, the outsourced NCPD members in Night City, which are gangs, brazenly occupy the "abandoned" facilities and institutions, boldly proclaiming city ownership.

Of course, companies don’t want to stand idly by, but now the entire city is against companies, even their usual "sugar-coated shells" can scarcely work:

The collapse of the European financial system causes the Euro to plummet, and maintaining its operation is enough to make them troubled. How can they have surplus resources to tempt Night City’s greedy folks?

The company’s withdrawal coincides with the issuance of Night City’s new policies; chips with cross-dimensional communication functions are produced in mass and distributed to people, implanted in their bodies, and the signals converge, merging into the vast Night City network...

In this world, the population accessing the cross-dimensional network will quickly surpass two million, three million...

Lille needs more relay stations and data processing centers to maintain this communication, while expanding production in the other world to match the production of the two worlds.

However, a small issue needs to be resolved first:

"...Where do I live now?"

The previously rented room is definitely gone, V probably doesn’t live in the Super Skyscraper now.

Seemingly the crownless king of Night City, but actually has no place arranged to live—everyone silently ignored this point.

The reason is simple, Lille has never been arranged similar matters, from start to finish, he’s only been arranging for others...

V heard this question and was stunned for a moment, then laughed happily, Lille helplessly said: "Why are you laughing? This is serious."

"I’m laughing because someone just miraculously forced the retirement of the Terrorist Mobile Team captain, confidently talking about bombing that Europe, this new America, but now standing on the street asking me: where should he live?

So funny, why don’t you go back to Los Pas whatever and open a luxury ward there, the equipment is still complete..."

Lille suddenly stopped, looking at V—

He suddenly realized one thing, this chick has been active mostly in Evil Land for the past few years.

"You don’t have a place to stay, do you?"

V’s laughter abruptly stopped.

Lille sneered: "Why don’t you laugh now? Is it because your savings are gone and you can’t find a place to stay?"

V put away her smile, looking coldly at the busy streets, with apartment ads playing not far away...

In the past, she only stayed in Night City for a short while; without absolute network security, it’s uneasy to sleep in this city.

As for anything else, when holding a million in savings, who could have thought the European Bank would collapse one day?

Thus she could only return to: "...what to do?"

Lille looked up at the billboard, where an advertisement for Taiping State construction was being played, with apartment buildings, shopping malls, and luxury residences already erected, but such luxurious products, few in this city can afford...

"Go inspect the development situation..."

Just as Lille finished speaking, a Delaman Taxi stopped in front of them.

[Illuminati: Oh... an AI on the verge of becoming a dangerous critical entity, it seems this city is even more open and inclusive than I imagined.]

[Illuminati: A room has already been reserved for you.]

Inside the car, V suddenly recalled the scene when they returned to Night City from Atlanta, renting a room in the Super Skyscraper.

"...Do you remember when I said I wanted a house of my own?"

"Remember."

"You joked then that we could first eliminate however many people in the world, doesn’t seem so exaggerated now."

Lille shook his head: "Actually...it wasn’t exaggerated, more exaggerated things are still to come—though today we should rest first."

V didn’t think much, put her hands behind her head, leaned back on the sofa, and began to rest.

This network-complex city, even Lark doesn’t dare say she can guarantee to clear those corporate spies and equipment, but Lille can.

Tonight, those well-informed agents dare not use the network.

As for Lille’s more exaggerated things...

Perhaps he needs to appropriately increase the contact between the two worlds.

...

In a wondrous shake, Lille’s consciousness switched back to Latovia.

This country’s situation is almost similar to Night City, Lille’s iron-fisted rule encounters no internal resistance in both worlds, and every order is executed most efficiently.

Here, the integration of Eastern European small countries is complete, Latovia’s newly formed standing army has entered these countries’ cities, introducing new equipment and technology, recruiting massively, and engaging in large-scale construction.

Europe’s network adjustments have also concluded, the entire European Union is bound to the Chariot—

Now, it’s time to retaliate.

[Intelligence Summary]

[Christopher: Your Majesty, since the last attack, the Middle East has not dispatched any more assault forces, our Dai has obtained incredible intelligence.]

[Christopher: Most Middle Eastern cities have fallen, but the technology they use is slightly different from Rox Group’s.]

[Christopher: No living people found in these cities, signs of massive autonomous intelligent robot activity confirmed.]

[Christopher: We’ve captured some robots, but the information inside is too complex for hackers to gather more insights.]

[Christopher: Communication cables were destroyed, before the destruction, the African Union sent warning messages:]

[Christopher: "They are not humans, we are fighting against robots claiming to be Ultron."]