funbook-pk Chapter 112 The Badlands (thanks 'Tork')
Chapter 112 The Badlands (thanks 'Tork')
Chapter 112 The Badlands (thanks 'Tork')
Afterlife bar.
Gloria raised her head and gulped down the spicy tequila, directly killing a Johnny Silver Hand.
After finishing the drink, she put down the wine glass, quickly covered her mouth with her hands, and coughed a few times, as if she was choking on the chili smell in the wine glass.
Gloria managed to regain her strength before letting go, and said a little embarrassedly, "Mr. Tang, I just laughed."
Tang Yu also suffocated the 'Johnny Silver Hand' in one mouthful. The taste was really spicy. Only Johnny's crooked head could think of soaking chili in agave.
He thought anyone would have to cough for the first time, and when Gloria looked up, her cheeks were a little red.
"Just get used to it. Sometimes life is like this glass of wine. The sweetness and sourness of beer and the bitterness and spicyness of tequila are all mixed in. You can't tell what it tastes like, but it's all on top."
Gloria was thoughtful, and then asked seriously: "Mr. Tang, do you come here often?"
Tang Yu put down the wine glass in his hand, feeling a little emotional: "Well, there used to be more people coming, but now there are fewer people coming. This welcomes middlemen like you to talk about business, and I don't welcome people from companies like me to drink."
He thought that since they were all in the next life, it was just a matter of giving Gloria a set of rules on the way of the middleman, which could be regarded as helping her again.
"There are many places where you will deal with the afterlife in the future, especially Rogge. You need to know some of the rules of the Tao."
in fact.
Anyone who lives in Night City has heard the rumors about the Reborn Bar, especially Queen Rogge.
Almost all mercenaries wanted to take jobs from Rogge, because they were all big jobs, and they might become famous and rich overnight.
Afterlife is a paradise for transactions, entrustment, buying and selling, and information. This time, the client is from the tribe of the homeless, and he deliberately chose the afterlife bar, which is enough to show that the signboard of the afterlife is well known far and near.
Gloria was a little surprised, knowing that Tang Yu was going to teach her, and immediately became serious.
Tang Yu continued to explain: "A middleman, to put it simply, is an intermediary who bridges the gap between the gold master and the mercenary."
"There are quite a few middlemen in Night City. They are divided into three, six, and nine grades. There are only a few who can really play on the stage."
"There is no other free middleman like Rogge in the entire Night City, but even she has to be restricted by the company at certain times."
"The former era of freedom has passed, and now without a company background, it is difficult to join the middleman business and step on a piece of land."
Gloria's pupils shrank slightly. She didn't expect that Rogge, the majestic queen, would also be affected by the company. She is the strongest middleman in Night City, which shows how deeply the company's influence has penetrated.
She knew that without Tang Yu's support, it would be impossible for her to step into the middleman business in her life, so she couldn't help listening more seriously.
In order to explain more clearly, Tang Yu used the middleman Faraday as an explanation. She had confronted before.
"For example, the Faraday you have dealt with before, he is backed by military technology, he is more like an agent of the company to a certain extent, and the commissions he sends out are basically related to the company, and he is not really a middleman in Night City. "
"Because the real middlemen are not rootless, each middleman has his own territory, controls the resources and intelligence in the area, and just finds people to work for the company, which is somewhat meaningless."
"Even in this age of decline, if middlemen want to gain a firm foothold in this industry, they must abide by the rules of 'integrity and cooperation'. In Night City, where the law is trampled underfoot, your reputation is your signature. "
Gloria understood and understood Tang Yu's subtext that if she wanted to become a real middleman, she could not only rely on Tang Yu's strength, but also had her own connections and strength.
Tang Yu gave a few examples at random, so that Gloria would know the power of several middlemen.
"Take this entrustment as an example. Dakota is one of the intermediaries in the bad land where the wanderers live. She never betrays the mercenaries, but she never allows others to betray her. It is necessary to go to the bad land with her." deal."
"In the urban area of Night City, there are even more intermediaries who can be called names."
"Wakako Okada, Westbrook's intermediary, is a gentle old lady who has a close relationship with the Tiger Claw Gang and does not reject good or evil."
"Heywood's middleman, Father Sebastian, once served as a pastor in the Valentino gang, but anyone who dared to swear in front of him was sent to see God."
"The middleman Danotinovic, who is active in the municipal center, has a wide network of contacts. He has a hot relationship with companies, media, mercenaries, and street boys. He smuggles all kinds of prohibited things and is worth a lot of money."
"Besides, there are quite a few intermediaries with decent strength wandering around the streets and alleys of Night City."
"Santo Domingo, where you live, has a go-between, 'Old Captain' Muammar, who usually does small tasks."
The middlemen mentioned by Tang Yu are all people he has dealt with many times, but anyone who can make a name in Night City basically has his own sphere of influence and faction.
After hearing this, Gloria gradually became solemn. She never thought that there are so many skills in the middleman business.
Compared with these seasoned middlemen, there is still a big gap between her now.
All her reliance comes from Tang Yu alone, and more efforts are needed to really get on the stage of Night City.
Tang Yu said these words not to put pressure on her, but to let Gloria understand that if she really wants to help herself, she must be fully mentally prepared to meet the challenge.
He had absolutely no intention of letting Gloria carve out a territory in Night City on her own.
Instead, I expect her to be able to sit firmly in power when she really has the opportunity to take charge of one side.
As for this opportunity, it was naturally Tang Yu who planned for her and sent her to the middleman stage in Night City.
Gloria looked at Tang Yu with a focused expression, and said sincerely: "Thank you, Mr. Tang, you really taught me a lot, and I will seize the opportunity and work hard"
Tang Yu is a person who looks at the action and the result. It is useless to say good things, so he got up and said, "It's almost time, let's go to the box and wait."
The three left the bar and walked into the pre-booked box.
The private room of the Laid Life Bar is top-notch in terms of security and concealment, signal shielding, physical sound isolation, and all conversations cannot leave this private room, unless you say something.
The three of them sat on one side of the box, and some drinks and fruits were placed on the table.
Sasha sat on Tang Yu's right hand, looked at the box curiously, reached out and touched the leather cushion, and seemed to have a different feeling about it.
Tang Yu noticed her actions, but didn't make a sound.
Gloria sat on Tang Yu's left hand side, checked it, and it was almost the appointed time, and the client should be coming soon, so she took the initiative to tell Tang Yu about the information.
"Mr. Tang, Regina Jones has resigned from News 54. She has noticed that something is wrong. Military Technology is arranging special agents to investigate the last big exposure."
"In order to avoid being discovered, she destroyed the traces and left the news station, and now she is working alone, mainly to sell intelligence and various news."
"According to her own idea, she wants to continue to investigate the cyber madman incident, and wants to research some dry goods."
Tang Yu nodded and thought it was reasonable. Regina Jones took this path because of the big exposure.
Military Technology took advantage of Arasaka's trick, and will definitely investigate the insider's affairs. It is wise for Regina Jones to resign, otherwise she will be suspected, and she will lose her skin even if she is not dead.
Suddenly, footsteps came from the door of the box, and the two people walked straight into the box.
Tang Yu followed the sound and found that the other party was wearing simple clothes, jeans and a sleeveless jacket, which was a typical style of a homeless man, but it was a little strange to wear a medical mask.
After the two entered the room, the door of the box was automatically closed, the conversation mode was turned on, and the signal shielding equipment was activated.
One of them, a tall and strong man, asked in a buzzing voice, "Which one of you is Gloria?"
Gloria signaled the two to sit down and talk, and then said generously: "I am, now you can talk about this commission in detail."
The fierce man did not sit down, but took the initiative to stand aside, waiting for an elder in front of him to take his seat.
The elder wore an old-fashioned cowboy hat, the brim of which was faded and threaded, and looked a bit worn out. After looking at the three of them, he said in a hoarse voice.
"Since I didn't mistake the person, I'll just say it bluntly. This commission needs to go to our tribe to complete the investigation."
Gloria noticed the strangeness of this commission, and asked, "You mean to go to Badlands."
She knew that most of the vagrants lived on the bad land, where scavenging, looting, robbery, etc. were rampant, and tribal conflicts were often staged, which was extremely dangerous.
If you want to complete the commission on the Badlands, you will probably have a lot of trouble.
The elder in the cowboy hat replied frankly: "That's true, because the thing I want to investigate happened in our tribe. This matter is imminent. We tried to find several middlemen, and finally it was Regina Jones who recommended you to us." .”
Gloria held her ground, vaguely guessing that this incident was related to the other party wearing a medical mask, and asked earnestly, "What happened to your tribe?"
The elder in the cowboy hat sighed, his tone was unusually heavy.
"Speaking of this matter, we also find it strange. Recently, members of our tribe have started to die inexplicably one after another, and we can't find out the cause of death at all."
"At first, we thought it was a problem with the water source, but after changing to a clean water source, some people continued to be infected and died."
"Later, we suspected that the infectious disease was transmitted through the air, and we wore medical protective masks, but still had no effect."
"We have found many ways to try to find out the truth about the death of the clansmen, but we have not gained anything."
"In order to prevent new infections, the bodies had to be piled up away from the tribe and away from the water source."
"The strange thing is that the piled up corpses will disappear the next day, and they can't find where they went."
Hearing this, Tang Yu also noticed the seriousness of the problem.
Infected diseases, dead bodies disappeared, all signs indicated that this tribe was being targeted.
The elder in the cowboy hat couldn't hide the depression in his heart. Obviously, the continuous death of tribe members had caused a great psychological burden on him.
"So, we arranged for people to check the situation and wanted to know where the body went."
"But I didn't expect that something more painful happened. The tribe members sent were also missing the next day. When they were found, they had already died in the desert, leaving only a pair of residues and bones."
Gloria's face was a little chilled, and she couldn't help but think of the scene. On the bad land with dark moon and high winds, terror ran rampant, recklessly harvesting the lives of the tribes.
Tang Yu frowned slightly and thought about it. The crux of the problem is why the infected corpses disappeared?
And the guards were also dead, leaving only bones and remains.
Is it really a cyber zombie?
People who died of infectious diseases slowly woke up in the middle of the night, unsteadily got up from the ground, and when the guards were not paying attention, they swarmed up and shared them.
After eating and drinking enough, the group of cyber zombies scattered and fled, wandering on the vast bad land.
Not a bad idea.
Tang Yu quickly dispelled the idea of a joke. Being a well-informed man, he has not seen any company that can develop the T virus.
The reason for such a bizarre death in this tribe must be something else.
Seeing that Gloria kept silent, the elder in the cowboy hat seemed to think that the other party didn't quite believe what he said.
He took out a microchip, put it on the table and handed it to Gloria, and said.
"We took some photos and videos, you can take a look and make a decision."
Gloria picked up the chip and put it into the bio-nerve socket, the aperture of the prosthetic eye rotated and began to read the content.
After a while.
After Gloria finished reading, her face looked a little heavy, and then she nodded to Tang Yu, indicating that what the other party said was true.
Whether or not to accept this entrustment depends on Tang Yu's intention.
Tang Yu analyzed that there is a high probability that the company will be involved in this incident. Infection and stealing corpses seem to be engaged in drug research no matter how you look at it.
As for the specific drug research, you have to go to the site of their tribe to find out.
The elder in the cowboy hat also knew that this commission was difficult. After all, no one would want to do this kind of work, so he begged.
"We are willing to pay the full amount or even double the reward. As long as you can investigate the cause of death, everything is negotiable."
"If you are willing to send people to our tribe, even if you fail to investigate, [-] euros will be used as a deposit, which will be your compensation."
"In addition, this is the current address of our tribe, not too far from the outskirts of the city, so please consider it accordingly."
Elder Cowboy Hat transmits tribal address to Gloria.
Thirty thousand euros is not a small sum, even if there is no gain, it is still a steady profit.
But the higher the reward, the greater the risk.
Tang Yu judged that this infectious disease is not transmitted by air, water, contact, etc. If the transmission medium is such a high-intensity, I am afraid that the entire tribe will die.
He suspected food poisoning, or rather, food poisoning.
The source of food for the homeless tribe is different. Most of them travel in small groups to find supplies and food. Some come from looting and scavengers.
If someone intentionally poisoned, the death of some people is completely in line with the logic of representation.
Tang Yu asked: "Is there any necessary connection between the dead of the tribe and the dead?"
The elder in the cowboy hat looked at Tang Yu. Judging from Gloria's frequent look at him, this should be the right one, so he said solemnly.
"The deceased were basically a family, and occasionally there was a single one, but there was not much connection between the families. The tribe was relatively large, and not everyone could maintain harmony."
When Tang Yu heard his words, he basically confirmed his judgment.
This tribe was kept in the dark from the beginning to the end. It is very likely that a certain force used it as a test object, poisoned it to death precisely, and then dragged away the corpse for further research.
Back and forth.
Only if the experiment is successful can death be avoided.
If the experiment is not successful, according to this situation, even if the tribe does not die, it will lose its mind and flee in a short time.
It is extremely difficult for homeless people without a tribe to survive in the bad land. If they fail, they will encounter people from the Chaos Knife Society, who will be cut into sticks and hung on the car as sacrifices.
Tang Yu asked casually: "How big is your tribe?"
The elder in the cowboy hat replied: "Originally there were 340 nine people, but now 40 people have died due to infection. Some tribe members feared for their survival and escaped hundreds of people overnight."
After he finished speaking, he couldn't help but started to shed tears, covered his nose and mouth and sobbed, and suddenly burst into tears, blaming himself endlessly.
The fierce man next to him seemed to want to comfort him, but he didn't know what to say, so he looked at Tang Yu for help.
The entrustment has been clearly explained to investigate the cause of infection and death.
Tang Yu was [-]% to [-]% sure in his heart, even if the investigation could not find out, it was not too dangerous.
But what he really wanted to test was Gloria, to see if she had the guts to take on this horrible badland commission.
Seeing the old man in the cowboy hat sobbing, Gloria felt extremely complicated. Obviously, this commission was not easy. Infected diseases, missing corpses, and tribe fleeing. If this matter is not investigated clearly, a tribe of thousands of people may die. perish.
From the bottom of her heart, she couldn't stand it, and wanted to help the other party get out of the whirlpool.
But now, as an intermediary, she can't just rely on emotion, and rashly promise the other party before the matter is considered clearly, which is not only irresponsible to the customer, but also irresponsible to the mercenary.
Without detailed information, the work of mercenaries will become extremely passive.
Gloria fell into deep thought, trying to find out the key to the commission.
She tried to abandon all emotions and only focus on the commission itself. Her brain was running fast, and her thoughts gradually began to boil.
Infectious diseases, missing corpses, transmission routes and other elements were pieced together in her mind, trying to solve a perfect answer.
Sudden.
A gleam of light flashed in Gloria's eyes, as if she wanted to understand something instantly!
She immediately looked back at Tang Yu beside her, her eyes full of confidence, but she still wanted to seek affirmation from him first.
In an instant.
Gloria's eyes met Tang Yu's, sincere and enthusiastic.
Tang Yu didn't say anything, just looked at her quietly.
Gloria froze slightly, and did not get Tang Yu's clear approval as before.
But she soon understood that this was a test for her, a test that determined her confidence.
Tang Yu has already sent her off for the first time, and she has to cross the river by herself for the rest.
Gloria understood the meaning of Tang Yu's gaze, and she couldn't back down at this step, because this was a choice she was confident and sure of.
She seemed to have received the greatest support, no longer hesitated, looked at the elder in the cowboy hat, and said bluntly.
"This commission."
"I take it!"
Johnny: "Tell me, what's your idea for instant noodles? Are you looking for my gossip material? Get some new writing material, so you drag me back from the main road?"
Son V: "The big boss of 'Toke' gave a reward to the rudder master! I can't thank you enough!"
Johnny: "Okay, we can cooperate like this, get the instant noodles into the small black room, and I'll just say a few words!"
Son V: "Deal!"
Instant Noodles: "Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh???"
Johnny: "The big boss of 'Toke', met an old friend in a foreign land, looking back on the past, how beautiful, you were eighteen that summer~you were eighteen that summer~you were eighteen that summer~"
Son V: "Johnny!!!"
----
PS: Nothing tonight, just finished work, so tired
Special thanks to the big boss of Tocco for rewarding the work, the big guy is proud, and the big guy makes a lot of money!
Tork, the starting point of reading iOS100.00
(End of this chapter)