Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 146 5. Preparing to Go to the Bad Land
After Carl accepted the deposit and expressed his willingness to take the mission, the blue-eyed middle-aged man hung up the phone.

"What do you say, Carl? Do you have any idea?" Oliver said, "Let's go through the process?"

"What kind of process can there be? I am not familiar with the Badlands. This time it depends on you, a kid who grew up in the Saint Domingo area."

Saint Domingo is close to the Badlands, and no one in the team knows this better than Oliver.

After hearing what Carl said, Oliver, who was used to Carl making team decisions, also reacted and rubbed his head a little embarrassedly:

"Yeah, I was the one who was really stupid. A local guy actually asked an outsider about this."

"So, what is the origin of the Night Walker, the target of this kidnapping? Is it a gang in the wasteland?"

"It's almost the same as calling it a gang, but in fact, most of the wanderers in the wasteland call it a family. Nightwalkers, in simple terms, you can think of it as the Whirlpool Gang in the wasteland."

"The Whirlpool Gang?"

Jack, who hated the Whirlpool Gang the most, took a sip of soda after hearing this and said, "So they are another bunch of kidnapping lunatics?"

"It's just like, not really the Uzumaki Gang. They are more interested in modifying vehicles than modifying themselves. They are like car enthusiasts. Do you understand, Jack? If the degree is multiplied by ten, it will be almost like them. You have never seen a car like that. It looks like a moving, creaking mechanical hedgehog. All kinds of weird modifications you can think of can be seen on it."

"Modified car"

After hearing what Oliver said, Jack came to his senses: "In other words, their vehicles might be equipped with some kind of heavy firepower or something?"

"I guess so. They are relatively poor and can't afford vehicle-mounted missiles, but they definitely have plenty of vehicle-mounted machine guns and other stuff. They might even be able to give you a vehicle-mounted howitzer. Anyway, as far as I remember, the Six Street Gang had fought with several gangs of Night Walkers in the Bad Land. Some of them were easily defeated, while others suffered heavy losses due to firepower. Anyway, it's hard to say for sure about this aspect."

"Aren't the Night Wanderers a group? How could the difference in their equipment be so huge?"

Carl, who didn't know much about the Badlands, asked this question and got Oliver's explanation:

"Rather than calling them a gang, it's better to call them Night Wanderers. Rumor has it that they are made up of exiles and banished people from various wanderer families. Their composition is very complicated. How could they have a unified management? Occasional cooperation is the best they can do."

"A loose alliance of rebellious people who left their families."

Carl felt that he understood a little: "That is to say, even if we find a group of night-wandering ghosts, we may not be able to torture them to get information about the kidnappers."

"more or less."

Oliver nodded: "This job is not as lucrative as imagined. Dealing with the night-wandering ghosts is a small matter for us, but how to correctly find the night-wandering ghosts is a serious matter."

"Is this what that guy meant by testing ability?"

Carl thought about it and asked Oliver a question: "Do you have any connections in the Bad Land, or do you know anyone who is familiar with the Bad Land?"

"I'd like to say yes, but in this regard, I can only say don't count on me."

Karl looked at Jack, and Jack shook his head: "Don't count on me, I'm not familiar with it either."

Oliver and Jack are not familiar with each other, so naturally there is no way they can count on Carl, a newbie who has only arrived in Night City for a little over a month. He isn't even familiar with the neighborhood yet.

Carl drank the soda in his glass in one gulp.

"We can't just run headlong into the Badlands like a headless fly. It doesn't matter if we're reckless in the city, since you're familiar with the area anyway. But in the Badlands, we have to drive, and we're unfamiliar with the place. If the car breaks down, we won't even know where to run."

Carl's words hit the point directly, leaving Oliver and Jack silent.

Insufficient intelligence information is indeed the most fatal flaw of their team.

Fortunately, today is their lucky day. Just as the three of them were thinking about what to do, a voice was heard in the team communication.

"Are you still there, how many?"

"T-BUG."

Hearing T-BUG's relaxed and leisurely tone, Carl joined the team's communication: "Have you thought it through?"

"Of course, one day is enough for me to think carefully. Fortunately, you will have the top hackers in Night City to protect you." "Welcome."

Oliver joined the team's communication: "May I say that you are the best? Among all the hackers I have ever met, no one can compare to you."

"I am self-aware."

T-BUG's voice was steady and contained a hint of smile: "Just compliment me more and I won't refuse."

"It's time, girl."

Jack also joined the communication, and after hearing what he said, T-BUG on the other end of the communication raised his eyebrows.

It’s time, isn’t it?

When T-BUG was thinking about whether the team had received the mission, she received 15,000 Euros from Carl.

"This is?"

"The deposit is 60,000, 15,000 per person. Keep it for now. I have sent you the attachment. Take a look at it. You can get 150,000 in the end for this mission."

“How generous.”

T-BUG had no embarrassment and directly accepted the 15,000 yuan. He then spent a minute reading the attachment.

"The military technology guy was kidnapped, and an unidentified client asked us to help rescue him, Night Wanderer."

T-BUG laughed in the communication: "We are just lacking intel on the Badlands, right?"

"I guessed it right."

Carl asked on the comms: "So, any ideas T-BUG?"

"There are very few things in a region that can be hidden from the company. Apart from the company, street gangs or middlemen know the most."

T-BUG said, "Wait a moment. I'm looking for the middleman in the Badlands to see if there is a middleman who specializes in business in the Badlands. We can leave local matters to the locals. We can entrust that middleman to help us find the traces of the night-wandering ghosts."

It's outsourcing at every level, right?

However, it must be said that T-BUG's idea is clever. In ancient times, generals had to ask locals to lead the way in wars. When they are on a mission, it is of course most appropriate to ask locals to help.

"Now I understand why so many mercenaries would want to become middlemen after they quit their jobs."

Jack sighed, "The living legend in the Afterlife bar where we are now is Roger, a mercenary who retired and became a middleman. It turns out that this feeling of going from listening to doing things to having others listen to doing things is really cool."

"Mercenaries who make it to retirement have accumulated countless connections. With these connections, they can certainly work as middlemen safely."

Oliver said, "When I can no longer do this job, I want to be a middleman."

"Come on Oliver, it's not that easy to be a middleman after retirement. I'm afraid the enemies I made during my mercenary career will come back to kill me."

Jack said, "By then, we may not be able to pick up our guns."

"Even if I retire, I will still shoot one person at a time."

"I haven't even become famous yet, but I'm already thinking about retirement."

Karl looked at Oliver and shook his head: “What about adapting to the life of the elderly in advance.”

"In Night City, it's a great achievement to survive to old age."

As soon as Oliver finished speaking, T-BUG had already found what they wanted.

"Dakota Smith, the most famous middleman in the Bad Land. Carl, I've found her number and sent it to you."

(End of this chapter)