The Creators: From Night City

Page 268

Note that all recordings must be completely destroyed, including cloud backups and other physical copies.

When taking action, it's best to fake it as an accidental death or suicide scene. Don't make a scene like last time, which would be more messy to deal with and force us to send one of our brothers to take the blame.

(Attached: a photo of the troublemaking note.)

Next came the 'samurai's' reply.

Recipient: Inukai Yoshitoshi

That troublemaker anonymously reported our people to the NCPD's Oversight Division today about their involvement in transactions. Fortunately, the person in charge of handling complaints is our own, and the complaint record, along with the video evidence, has been formatted at the system level. Furthermore, you can continue doing business with peace of mind; he will soon be no longer a threat.

Rivers' veins bulged and his teeth clenched so tightly he could hear the two communication records.

"Who is this samurai?" he asked angrily.

“I don’t know,” Valerie shook her head. “Inukai Yoshitoshi didn’t survive at all. He had a special suicide program installed in his body. We had to go to great lengths to salvage this information from the remaining data in his brain.”

Valerie's words sent a chill down River's spine. A secret that could lead participants to use a suicide procedure to keep it must be something big.

"Jimmy, what have you gotten yourself into?" River thought to himself.

“Detective, let’s get started,” Valerie said, stepping aside to make way for the interior. “You probably don’t think your friend would choose to surrender under these circumstances.”

“Absolutely impossible. Knowing him as I do, he will fight to the very end and will definitely try every means to preserve that video.” River walked into the apartment and began to look around at the furnishings.

A single man's apartment is naturally quite messy, with empty takeout boxes piled on the computer and old-fashioned sci-fi figurines in the same style that Jiang Bing had previously arranged.

'The computer must have been checked a long time ago,' River thought.

He continued to scan the furnishings of the room, his gaze sweeping from the sofa to the wardrobe, from the bed to the various ornaments on the coffee table, and then over the clutter on the windowsill, the washing machine and other furniture, the microwave, the small refrigerator, and a few potted plants, eliminating them one by one.

These places must have been searched by others before, so Jamie naturally wouldn't put things in these conspicuous places.

Finally, his gaze fell on the box placed in the corner by the door.

That's a children's AR toy set.

River picked up the box, saw the game title "The Great Battle of Heywood" written on it, and couldn't help but shake his head with a wry smile.

"An AR toy for kids?" Valerie asked, puzzled.

"It's a gift Jamie wanted to give to my nephew Dorian. His birthday is in two days, and he's been asking for it. The two of them have always gotten along well."

He thought for a moment, then opened the box, revealing four sets of plastic firearms and matching AR glasses.

"The item isn't inside." Jiang Bing said this with certainty. He had already checked the item, and if there was anything fishy, ​​it wouldn't escape the eyes of the 'craftsman'.

Although River didn't know why Jiang Bing was so sure, he thought about it and put the things back in their original places, then opened the wardrobe.

He carefully examined several of the casual clothes he had given to Jamie, but unfortunately, he found nothing.

When he finally glanced at the bathroom, his eyes lit up as if he had just thought of something.

He walked around the corpse on the ground and squatted down in front of the toilet.

"The water tank has been checked; it's not inside." Jack was in charge of this area, and seeing the detective's actions, he quickly spoke up to warn him.

"What about the drain?"

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Rivers reached into the toilet drain and began to grope around inside. Soon, he raised an eyebrow, as if he had discovered something.

"I knew it."

As if confirming his suspicions, he immediately moved the toilet aside, looked around, and found a handy tool to smash it open.

Then, ignoring the pungent smell of feces and urine, he pulled something out of the S-shaped drainpipe.

It was a rectangular chip wrapped in layers of takeout insulation film.

“When we teamed up, we were both rookies who had just joined the NCPD. Once, we were assigned to investigate a smuggling case. We cornered the smuggler in the toilet, but no matter how we searched him, we couldn’t find the ledger chip on his body.”

Chapter 520 Dark Matter Club

As River unwrapped the layers of waterproof bags, he continued in a nostalgic tone, "We finally thought he had flushed the thing down the toilet. We even held our noses and searched through the septic tank of that building, but we still found nothing. In the end, we had to dismantle the toilet and find that damn chip in the S-bend of the drainpipe."

"It was around that time that we both learned that the toilets commonly available on the market can just hold a standard-sized chip. Jamie once said that if he wanted to hide some money, he would exchange it for an anonymous chip, rush here, and his wife would never find it."

As he said this, River's eyes were filled with undisguised sorrow.

"I even laughed at him back then, saying he was disgusting."

Although the chip was wrapped in layers of insulating film, no one still wanted to insert it into the brain-computer interface slot behind their ear.

Valerie hacked Jamie's computer, plugged it in, and extracted its contents.

The video showed a dock with a very familiar layout, so much so that the three musketeers of "Anti-Entropy" who had just been there instantly recognized it as the eastern dock controlled by the Vortex Gang in Watson District.

Of course, that place is now considered to be in a state of "reverse entropy".

The filming took place late at night in very dark conditions, but Jamie's body camera had night vision enabled.

After the green correction, the image clearly captured the goods they were trading.

It was a group of people, a group of children.

The children, of varying ages and genders, were all unconscious and crammed together like sardines in a can, into a honeycomb-like shipping container, which was then lifted onto a cargo ship by a gantry crane.

"A child?!" Everyone was surprised.

"The goods they're talking about are a bunch of kids?" River couldn't believe it.

Night City is never short of orphans. These children, who have lost their parents for various reasons, will soon disappear into the city streets if no one takes care of them.

Hailey was like that, and so were most of the orphans under 'Slippery's' control.

In the Coronado Farm area, homeless children are able to get enough to eat and survive on the streets thanks to the care of the "Orphanage Gang".

The homeless children in Watson District appear to be treated as commodities, being sold in organized groups.

Compared to these children, the few boxes of finished 'glitter' products piled up on the dock seem insignificant.

A gunfight quickly broke out in the scene, but Jamie was clearly very agile and escaped the scene in a flash, leaving only this shocking glimpse of evil to disappear under the cover of night at the dock.

“Where will they be taken?” River asked.

“You’ll have to ask your colleagues.” Valerie’s fingers flew across the screen as she quickly zoomed in on and extracted the key moments from the video.

It was a team of police officers in NCPD uniforms, accompanied by several members of the Tiger Claw Gang, watching from a distance the silent loading and unloading taking place at the dock controlled by the Vortex Gang.

“Zoom her in,” River suddenly said, pointing to someone in the image.

The fluorescent green image was continuously magnified.

"Do you know her?" Valerie asked.

“Harley Pokel, deputy director of the Watson Division’s investigation department, but rumors circulate within the department that she’s the director’s mistress.” As an insider at the NCPD, Rivers clearly knew many inside stories that outsiders didn’t.

"It seems the big shot who could make the Vortex Gang and the Tiger Claw Gang cooperate has finally shown up." Valerie's words showed no surprise or fear.

What a joke! She's dealt with countless people in higher positions. A deputy director of an NCPD branch is nothing, and even a branch director is nothing.

"Find her," Jiang Bing said, his voice devoid of joy or sorrow.

"Let's have a good talk with her about who's involved in this business."

………………

Rivers's rumors were true; Harley was indeed the mistress of Robert Carristy, the NCPD's Watson District Chief.

However, this identity did not affect her behavior of keeping a gigolo.

Westbrook, Japan Street, Dark Matter Club.

This club, located in the southern section of Jinting Wood Plaza, is a very niche and high-end private club, known for its luxury, seclusion, emphasis on privacy, high-quality partners, comprehensive services, and high prices.

Of course, it's also possible that they aren't that famous, since they only serve a small group of loyal members, and their customers are mainly referred by word of mouth from existing customers, so they don't do any large-scale advertising.

The Dark Matter Club occupies a very large area, from the 30th floor of the building all the way to the top 68th floor.

The club offers a wide range of entertainment options, and due to its luxurious decor, spacious layout, and comprehensive facilities, and most importantly, its high-end atmosphere, it is frequently used by celebrities for high-end concerts, offline fan meetings, and press conferences.

And that is exactly the case today.

Jiang Bing, dressed in a striking red, black, and blue color-blocked suit and leaning on a cane that was hard to find anywhere else in Night City, stood at the entrance of the Dark Matter Club.

Following behind were the famous Three Musketeers of Anti-Entropy.

Arresting people, especially in high-end places like the Dark Matter Club, is something to be avoided in large numbers. This is because it not only has a bad influence, but it is also extremely easy to trigger large-scale conflicts, allowing the target to get advance notice and escape.

More importantly, these high-end clubs are all backed by intricate relationships, and if a conflict were to break out, they would inevitably suffer the consequences.

Of course, none of the above were within Jiang Bing's considerations; he simply thought that so many people were unnecessary.

If it weren't for the fact that the deal with Mr. Blue Eyes needed to be absolutely foolproof, he wouldn't have participated in this task himself, but would have chosen to hand it over directly to Valerie and the other two.

Standing at the entrance of the spotless club, with the high-quality carpet beneath his feet, Jiang Bing recalled the last time he went into a nightclub to arrest someone.

However, the Phoenix Club is far inferior to dark matter.

This gap is comprehensive, and the differences are obvious from the very beginning.

In front of the elevator, several security personnel stood with their hands behind their backs, watching the endless stream of visitors and preventing any unscrupulous individuals from taking advantage of the situation.

This is mainly because the band 'Ganglie' is holding an offline fan meeting on the 52nd floor.

This group, recruited globally by media giant MSM to compete with the increasingly popular music production AIs, consists of three audition candidates who perfectly blend charm, talent, and stage presence. As a popular Japanese all-girl band, the three final winners happen to be young Japanese-American women born in the United States. It has to be said, what a coincidence!

Chapter 521 The 'Fierce' Combination

The three members of Ganglie are Hong Huo, Lan Yue, and Zi Li.

Of course, these names, which are full of Balala the Fairies style, are not real names, but stage names given to each member to match their personality.

They are trendsetters in laser pop, explorers of anime rock, creators of catchy tunes, and the ultimate borderline girl group. Since their debut, they have been known for their gorgeous performances, their stage presence that can be described as optical pollution, and their alluring yet kawaii interactions (flirting) with fans.

This group became a global sensation in a very short time after their debut, with concerts taking them from Tokyo to New York, Sydney, and finally to Night City, where they held their first offline fan meeting at the Dark Matter Club.

Of course, as the group's debut in Night City, the tickets weren't cheap.

Four people spent nearly 30,000 yuan.

Entering the building requires extremely strict security checks, and all weapons (mainly firearms carried by Night City residents for self-defense) are not allowed inside.

"Thank you for your understanding. The reason for prohibiting weapons is to ensure the safety of all fans and idols. After all, there was a cyberbully shooting incident at a fan meeting in Sydney a few months ago. As a loyal fan of the 'Gang Lie' group, I believe you must have been aware of it." The receptionist patiently reassured a customer who was unwilling to hand over his weapon.

"These are my little treasures, second only to my mom and Misty in importance. You better keep a close eye on them, or I'll make you regret it." Jack placed the two 'golden bastards' that had undergone multiple modifications into a special weapon storage cabinet, and then gave the staff instructions with concern.

Vincent and Valerie handed over their weapons quite casually.

One of them relied on the Mantis Blade and Sianwistan's 'Time-Stop Sword Saint', while the other was a brain-eating hacker whose pistols were not his main fighting force, so the two of them fought very quickly.

Besides, the boss is right next to us. If there's any conflict, dark matter could pull out a few 'Adam Hammers' for the boss to beat up.

At Jiang Bing's instruction, the three of them cooperated by handing over their handguns and weapons and entering the elevator.

The audience of the Ganglie group is as bizarre as their persona and their musical style. It includes hardcore anime fans, wandering vagrants, ruthless gang thugs who might hum a few lines of "Bo Bo Chicken," and well-dressed financial elites who might have a few of Ganglie's premium Mewtwo discs under their beds. The radio in the car of an NCPD patrolling the streets might be tuned to "Body Temperature Radio," and a priest giving alms might be holding a premium photo album of Ganglie members.

This is no exaggeration. A priest (or at least someone who looked like one) who was riding in the elevator with the four of them was holding a deluxe photo book. The cover featured Zi Li making a cute peace sign with her right hand. The school swimsuit and orange spiked collar she wore were made with exquisite relief craftsmanship. The fine raised texture made the priest tremble all over when he touched it. He was so stimulated that he could only keep muttering "It's fake, it's all fake" to suppress his desire to have sex on the spot.

The four of them instinctively moved aside, afraid of getting something dirty on them.

It must be said that the "fierce" duo understands "art".

Harley Pokel, a high-ranking NCPD executive, is not a fan of these three "Michiko alternatives," but her boyfriend likes them nonetheless.

As the saying goes, "To win the favor of the imperial concubine, a rider will bring lychees." To make herself comfortable, Harley Pokel had to make her younger boyfriend comfortable first. So, despite her busy schedule, she took time to bring her boyfriend to the "Fierce" group meet-and-greet.

"This place is really nice." Jack stepped out of the elevator, looked at the luxuriously decorated corridor, and gazed at most of the Japanese street through the large floor-to-ceiling windows, and exclaimed.

"Focus on business, Jack. What's so interesting about this lousy place?" Valerie wasn't surprised by the scenery at all and urged her friend to hurry up and catch up.

The venue used for the fan meeting was a small hall, which was packed with people who all had one thing in common: they were all rich and powerful.

Of course, such expensive tickets are not something ordinary people can afford.

Jiang Bing waved for the three of them to go into the crowd in the hall to search for the person, while he prepared to find a place with a wide view to search carefully. However, before he could move his feet, the lights in the hall suddenly went out.

A clear, crisp sound of a clip echoed throughout the venue.

Yes No Yes No Pillow No

PONPON every day

Private PONPONちゃんなの】