Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 208 67. The Great Empire Mall

"finally reached."

Rolling down from the roof of the car, Karl brushed off the dust on his body and moved his stiff hands and feet: "Taipingzhou, here I come."

"I can finally take a breath."

Oliver held onto the car door and panted, staring at the Taipingzhou neighborhood in front of him: "It looks quite different from Night City."

"Taiping Prefecture was planned as a holiday resort in the past, so it certainly looks different. If you look at the streets, you can hardly see the super skyscrapers that you see in the city. Except for some buildings, most of the buildings in Taiping Prefecture are of the same height and are designed to be spaced far apart. Those hotels and accommodations that look like villas are specially designed for tourists from all over the world."

Jack looked at an abandoned three-story hotel that was crumbling and said, "It's just abandoned now."

"The sun is shining."

Carl looked up at the sky. He could easily see the big sun in the sky. "When I was in the city, every time I looked up, I could only see tall buildings, advertising slogans of various companies, or colorful lights. A place like Taipingzhou where you can see the sun just by looking up doesn't seem like being in Night City."

"It's a vacation. You designed the environment to be like the city, dark as a sewer. Who would come?"

Oliver looked around and looked to the right in surprise: "I can actually see the blue sea. I thought I could only see the oily, heavily polluted, black and yellow sea at the docks."

"You only see it like that from a distance. If you look closely, it's not much different."

Jack also looked at the sea which rarely showed a hint of blue:

"I heard that when the Taipingzhou area was being designed, there was a plan to design a special isolation and water purification process in the open sea to ensure that the seawater flowing into the Taipingzhou beach was suitable for diving and swimming. However, with the shelving of the Taipingzhou development plan, the design that was said to cost a lot of money was also abandoned halfway. What we see now should be the sewage discharged by factories in other areas, which has not yet flowed here."

Listening to Jack's words, Carl thought about the relevant laws in Night City prohibiting the discharge of industrial wastewater:
"Although I know that it is common sense for those companies to ignore the law, I remember that there are quite a few companies in the city that are tit-for-tat. Don't they want to disgust their rivals with sewage discharge?"

"What's so disgusting? You're all doing this. Are you trying to blow up the other party and then wait for the other party to blow up you?"

Oliver sighed and looked at the sea again: "Looking at this sea, thinking about the scenery it may have had in the past, and then thinking about the place of Saint Domingo, sometimes I really don't know what to say."

"If a company really cares about the lives of its employees, it's no longer a company."

Carl said, watching V walk over after checking the car, and asked casually: "How is it, V, is the car okay? It was making a lot of clanging noises on the road, which was scary."

"It's okay, it's an old problem, all assembled cars are like this, it sounds scary, but it's actually like that."

V said nonchalantly, and asked another question: "Speaking of which, are you guys here now, ready to work?"

"almost."

Carl turned his head and looked at a building complex. He took the intelligence and introduced it to the outsider V as a temporary Taiping State resident: "The most dazzling pearl in the central part of Taiping State was originally planned to be designed as a commercial city, a large empire shopping mall that accommodates all open transactions. That place is where we are going."

“The most dazzling pearl, the shopping mall.”

Listening to Carl's words, V looked at the abandoned buildings, but he couldn't see any pearls among the ruins.

“All I saw were collapsed and abandoned buildings.”

V continued, "Just like a small town abandoned by humans in the Badlands, it gradually became silent in the wind and sand."

"You speak in a very literary way. Are you reading a book?" "The inheritance of knowledge among us wanderers starts with books."

V said, pulling out a uniform produced by Constitution Military Industry: "Well, now that the location is determined, when do we start?"

"Do it?"

Oliver, who was standing next to him, looked over and noticed the gun in V's hand.

V This means that while giving them a ride, you are also planning to go with them to deal with the Animal Gang?
It turns out that what V said before, that we are all friends and there is no need to care so much, not only meant that he is not afraid of gang members and can send them to their destination, but also meant that he is ready to go together?

Jack watched V's performance from the side, opened his mouth to say something, but in the end he said nothing.

As for V, Jack didn't know why, but he felt that he got along well with him and he inexplicably believed in his abilities. It felt as if V's joining was not a big deal.

Oliver stared at V, looked at him, but didn't say anything.

But Carl naturally threw a few things at V.

"Then get ready first."

"This is the Fuerkang Model 3. I remember it was the best model on the market, right?"

V took it and looked at the thing in his hand with a little surprise. This thing was not cheap. Carl threw two tubes at him at once.

"It's better to be prepared. Take it."

Carl pointed to the other gadgets that were thrown at him at the same time: "There are also necessary grenades and smoke bombs. Bring them all. You don't have enough space around your waist."

"Too."

V naturally put the things where they belonged, and asked Carl: "So, when do we take action?"

"Now."

Carl summarized in the team communication when V came in.

"Goal: Get the car entrusted by the middleman. Possible enemies: The Animal Gang in the Great Empire Mall that has recently expanded from the west to the central part for unknown reasons. Number: 30 elite members of the Animal Gang. Key target: The leader of this group, the Savage King, the temporary boss of this area."

The intelligence has been summarized and the target is clear.

"Focus on the vehicles entrusted by the middleman. If you encounter any obstacles, clear them and evade them. If necessary, prioritize safety and directly engage in fire. As always, Oliver will provide fire support. T-BUG will be responsible for external hacking. KK, Jack, and V will break in."

It is also clear how the operatives will act.

All that is needed next is.
"start to act."

At the same time as the KK team began to act, in the Great Empire Mall, the Savage King happened to curse. This burly female leader of the Animal Gang cursed her client:
"A maggot that burrows into a cesspool, he wants us to occupy the Great Empire Mall and defend against the counterattack of the Voodoo Gang before he starts paying us. The next time I believe in the high rewards of long-term network monitoring commissions, I'm a fool."

(End of this chapter)