Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 596 10. The Festival Begins

The float festival is a grand event that sweeps across the streets of Japan. Before the festival begins, the streets have already been decorated with dazzling lights, luxurious flower decorations dotted around, and the air is filled with refreshing fragrance. Carl and Johnny Silver walk side by side on the bustling streets, and wherever they look, they see prosperity.

Johnny Silverhand's dog nose was twitching like a turbocharger, as if he was sniffing the scents around him, and then Carl saw him stretch out his paw, grab a decorative flower, crush it with his paw, and sniff it closely.

"The real stuff? The scent is so strong that it makes my head hurt. Those Arasaka bastards must have played some tricks to get these. A few days ago, I saw with my own eyes those bastards in suits squatting in the alley with their heads almost plugged into the communicator, just for these fucking petals. Damn it, they are still playing medieval court tricks in the 21st century, they really should all have holes drilled in their heads to ventilate."

"After all, it's Saburo Arasaka's funeral, so it's only natural for the people below to express their condolences and loyalty."

Carl's tone was calm, as if he was not surprised that Johnny Silverhand could smell something. After all, the modification of the ball included a smell recognition function, so that it could quickly judge the danger in the face of deadly poison gas. It was not surprising that Johnny Silverhand could sense smells. What really concerned Carl was another matter.

He stretched out his hand and caught the cherry blossoms that were slowly falling from the sky, then looked at the chrysanthemums that decorated the surroundings.

Shinmagi, a white autumn chrysanthemum highly revered in Japan and often used for memorials and festivals, was once ubiquitous in Japan, but is now extremely rare in America.
These falling cherry blossom petals and decorative flowers will probably only be used once, right? Just thinking about it, you know it will cost a lot of money.

Nowadays, fresh real flowers are even more expensive than fresh vegetables. These falling petals and decorative flowers may be enough to cover the food expenses of an ordinary person on the street for a week or even a month.

When Carl thought of this, he didn't want to lament how luxurious Arasaka Saburo's funeral was. His idea was simple, even a little plain:

"These flowers are quite fragrant. It seems a bit wasteful to use them to commemorate Saburo Arasaka. I'll pick a few and take them back. Although it's not auspicious, they should be fragrant for a day or two, right? I'll fill a bottle with some water, and maybe it can improve the air at home."

Carl wasn't the only one who thought this way.

On the streets of Japan, many people have their eyes on this opportunity to "get rich". After the float festival is over, Arasaka Corporation will only be left with a pile of "garbage". However, to the high-ranking corporate dogs, these are garbage; but to the lower-class people, they are treasures, not to mention these already precious flowers.

If there hadn't been Arasaka agents and Tiger Claw gang members standing on the street to maintain order, someone would have started "stealing flowers" a long time ago. Under the gaze of those people, no one dared to do it for the time being, but this act of stealing flowers would only be postponed until the end of the festival.

It is foreseeable that as soon as Arasaka's company dogs leave, the Tiger Claws will be the first to take over the flowers, and the people on the streets will also join the scramble after the biggest threat is gone. By then, Arasaka Saburo's festival will have just ended, and Japan Street will probably have to hold a few more festivals for others.

Oh no, maybe there is no one at all to commemorate the others.

Implicated by his fame, Carl, whose face had changed as always, sat down at a street stall with Johnny Silverhand. There was still some time before the festival began, and Carl and Johnny Silverhand, who had arrived early, had already prepared most of the things. Now they just had to wait for the festival to begin.

During the final waiting time.
Carl glanced over the stall and discovered that perhaps because it was located on Japan Street, the stall served authentic Japanese cuisine.

Japanese cuisine
Although Carl was not hungry, he had nothing to do anyway, so he might as well order something to try.

He glanced at the various foods on the menu, and then said to the busy boss: "Give me a grilled chicken skewers, a tempura platter, and a bowl of Japanese ramen." "Okay, please wait a moment! Today's grilled chicken skewers (焼き鳥) are highly recommended."

Listening to the boss's poorly accented Japanese, Carl roughly understood the value of the "authentic Japanese cuisine" on the sign, but he didn't care too much and just nodded slightly.

This happened so often that he was no longer surprised.

"Are you hungry? That's all you want to eat?"

Johnny Silverhand watched as Carl ordered, then chimed in on the channel: "These things are not as good as protein bars."

"Actually, Japanese ramen is OK. The authentic ones are a bit greasy and too strong in flavor. I'm not used to it and need to eat it with something else. But the inauthentic ones are actually quite good because of the quality of the noodles."

Carl responded to Johnny Silverhand in the channel. It was not uncommon for him to bring a dog with him on the streets of Japan. After all, the streets of Japan nowadays were crowded with people from large and small companies, including many high-ranking dignitaries, and those people were often accompanied by bionic animals. It was normal to take the opportunity of attending Saburo Arasaka's funeral to bring their pets out for a walk.

But that is only limited to Liuliu and talking in the chat channel. If the dog starts to speak human language, the situation will be completely different. No matter what, a dog that can speak human language is always rarer than other dogs.

While Carl and Johnny Silverhand were chatting, the boss showed extraordinary promptness. Carl only waited for two or three minutes, and then everything he wanted was placed in front of Carl.

There is pure wheat and synthetic barbecued pork ramen, a tempura platter made with synthetic vegetables, minced meat and shaped shrimps, and grilled chicken skewers made of unknown meat, sawdust and plastic.

Mmmm, very classic Night City food.

Before Carl, other than the ramen skill, he probably couldn't even touch anything else, but now...
He ate the noodles naturally, then picked up the fried shrimp with chopsticks and put it into his mouth. After chewing it for a while and finding no springy texture at all, but only soft meat, Carl picked up the grilled chicken kebab with a normal expression and took a bite.

"Damn, except for the noodles and the batter on the fried shrimp, this stuff tastes terrible, damn it."

Carl has adapted much better to Night City than before. He can now eat things that he absolutely could not eat before, and his body can accept it. But even if it's acceptable, it's still really unpalatable.

Although Carl appeared calm on the surface but was in turmoil inside, he barely finished eating the food to fill his stomach. At the moment he put down his chopsticks, he saw the arrival of the float platform.

The memorial ceremony for Saburo Arasaka has begun.

(End of this chapter)