Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 390 3. Welcome to Los Angeles

"Welcome to Los Angeles, foreign guests, I think I should say this, but you don't need me to say this to welcome you."

In the narrow bar with old decoration and broken metal chairs everywhere, the bar owner at the plastic bar stared at the new customer who walked in from the door. His middle-aged face covered with scars did not show any special expression. He just greeted calmly: "Tell me, what do you want to eat and drink."

Several guests who came in looked at him. One of them, a young man with blond hair and a small mustache, asked curiously, "Boss, how do you know we are outsiders? Although your bar is indeed on the outskirts of the city, it can't be that every new guest is an outsider. Can you remember all the people in the city?"

"I can't afford a prosthetic eye with that capability."

The boss, who had no signs of prosthetic modification on his body, answered the blond youth's curiosity: "It's just that outsiders like you can tell at a glance."

“You can tell at a glance.”

The blond youth looked at his clothes: "It's just a normal windbreaker."

"Hehe, sit down, guest. If you order something good, I don't mind chatting with you and telling you why. If you want to get information from me, you have to spend money first."

"Okay, we're here to eat anyway."

The blond young man didn't mind sitting down on the half-broken metal chair. He moved his butt a little on the half-moon-shaped base disc to ensure that half of his butt would not be exposed in the gap, and asked:

"Then what's delicious here? Boss, you know we are outsiders. You can't expect us to know what's on your menu."

"I don't have anything delicious here, just something edible."

The middle-aged scarred boss smiled a weird smile that twisted his scar: "And the prices are very expensive. Everything is a rip-off."

“It’s a black shop.”

The blond young man glanced to the side and found that the other three companions who came into the bar with him also sat down. He looked at the black-haired young man who seemed to be the youngest among them. After the other nodded, he turned his head back and said, "But we just happen to have this money to waste."

The bar owner noticed the blond youth's actions. He looked at the youngest black-haired youth with a subtle gaze, then turned back to look at the blond youth who seemed to be naturally familiar with him:
"If you want me to recommend something, I have some synthetic beef that I just snatched from the protein farm this morning. It's 45 euros for 500 grams. I can use the microwave to grill it for you. No bargaining."

"Forty-five euros for five hundred grams?"

After hearing the price, the blond young man couldn't help but smack his lips.

As far as he could remember, in the city where he came from, even a steak carefully prepared in a restaurant would only cost around twenty euros.

Although those restaurants did not have particularly sophisticated cooking skills and simply threw the bloody raw materials - he didn't know what they were exactly - into the pan and fried them with synthetic butter, the steak was obviously much more serious than the one the boss claimed was snatched from a protein farm and only baked in a microwave and cost forty-five euros.

The blond young man shifted his gaze. This time he was no longer just staring at the youngest black-haired young man, but turned to his other two companions - a young man with a crew cut and a burly man. The blond young man looked for their opinions.

"I want a piece."

The young man with a crew cut thought about it and ordered one first, and the burly man next to him also ordered one.

The blond young man looked at the black-haired young man, and the black-haired young man shook his head.

So the blond young man turned around and said, "Give me three grilled steaks, boss."

"Three portions for one hundred and thirty-five euros."

The scarred boss calculated the price and stared at the blond young man: "Pay first."

"alright."

The blond young man glanced around and said, "How should I pay? I see you don't have any equipment to scan and transfer Euros. Do you think I can do it online with a receiver?" "Cash."

"Ok?"

"I only accept cash here."

Accepting cash in this era
Well, although it is a niche commodity, cash is indeed in circulation.

The blond young man reached into his windbreaker pocket. In order to prevent special situations, he had the habit of carrying cash with him. This precaution was originally just to avoid the tracing of transaction flow caused by some special transactions, but he didn't expect that it would actually be useful one day.

"One hundred and thirty-five euros."

The blond young man counted the money and handed it over first. Then, looking at the boss who was about to turn around to get something, he suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, boss, do you have anything to drink?"

"I can drink anything here, it depends on whether you dare to drink it."

He said similar words to what he said before about food, but this time the boss didn't say whether the food was delicious or not, he only asked whether he dared to drink it.

"Do you dare to drink?"

Hearing this, the blond young man became curious: "How expensive is that?"

"My wine here is only five euros per glass, starting at 300 ml."

"Only five euros?"

Seeing the owner, who was selling wine at a very high price just like a black shop, suddenly offering a very discounted price the next moment, the blond young man was a little confused: "What kind of wine do you have here?"

"There is only one kind of wine, and it's called 'Angel's Dream'."

Angel's dream?

For some reason, the blond young man remembered the description of this city in the past.

Los Angeles used to be known as the City of Angels.

"What type of wine is this, a blend?"

"Gobi lizard, mixed with Chun Er wheat fermented wine to make biological wine. Before drinking, add five drops of captured rat blood and some additives. It can be drunk. Take a sip and I guarantee you will have an angelic dream."

"It doesn't sound like something a human can drink."

"Of course not, because I just made it up for you, an outsider."

The boss smiled and said, "It's just ordinary rum mixed with some special potions. It burns the throat a little when you drink it, and it burns people to death and they go to heaven to see angels. That's why it's called Angel Dream. If you drink it, you can see angels, isn't it just like a dream?"

"What if I go to hell?"

"We are already in hell now."

Before the blond young man understood what the boss said, the door of the bar was kicked open and several figures walked in.

At this moment, the blond young man heard the boss's low voice:
"One cent for one piece of information. Looking at them, you will understand why I know you are from outside the area, because our local youths all look like that or something even weirder!"

(End of this chapter)