Chapter 54: Chapter 52 OMG! (Friday Early Morning)

Roshan had a good reason to be scared—

Dividing his attention was one aspect, but on the other hand, hacking a military technology software system in a fraction of a second was simply impossible!

Lille managed to do it solely based on his powerful brain, an exaggerated amount of RAM, and his experience with higher versions of ICE, even military-grade ones.

Though he had never directly tried to hack military-grade ICE, he had at least seen it.

To build network barricades, he had been studying the basic principles and common architectures of ICE and then he remembered the Bimong.

True, he hadn’t understood those things at the time, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t remember them.

Although the versions were hundreds of generations apart, the changes in thought were minimal; it was mostly just stacking material.

So, the cracking was both quick and effective—however, to the uninformed Roshan, it looked completely different.

Lille was not only a cyber maniac but a cyber maniac with network tech skills!

Well, actually, he wasn’t entirely a cyber maniac, but that made it even more terrifying:

Imagine one day, you suddenly get tangled up with a mentally ill person you were trying to appease.

Suddenly, he starts talking about advanced mathematics, speaking eloquently and even discussing mathematical analysis you’ve never studied—

Then he pulls out an ID photo, claiming he’s not at all a lunatic but actually a professor from the university next door!

He was there to correct your lagging math scores...

"Damn! Lille, that’s freaking awesome!"

Jack’s eyes were practically sparkling.

As V drove the car, he said irritably, "Awesome? I think it’s idiotic. One second later and you two would have been gone!"

Lille continued to shake his head nonchalantly, "It looks like the limit, but it’s just manipulation, you don’t understand."

V glanced at Lille in the passenger seat and then heavily patted his back—

pia.

V’s face showed disgust as he shook off his hand, "I’m sweating bullets, bro."

"You know nothing, this is heat from high-speed computation!"

Lille wasn’t lying, in that brief moment, the tension from the machine guns pointed at him was also reduced by the "Evolution Heart" hack!

Nervous? No way, everything was just normal performance.

However, to V and Jack, it looked like, if not a 9, at least a full 10 on the risk scale.

"Come on, dammit! Why do you love showing off so much?"

"Putting on a show is good, putting on a good show!" Jack was actually excited, "Did you manage to capture it with the camera? I’ve got to see what we looked like then!"

"There actually is one." Lille shook the separation chip in his hand, "We’ll watch it when we get back, let’s see where the shipment Roshan pulled for Six Street Gang is now."

As Lille shook the chip in his hand, V glanced enviously at the gadget.

It’s hard to say if she was just upset because she didn’t get to play the role.

The car headed towards Evil Land.

Yes, their target was in Evil Land.

There was nothing special in Roshan’s ledger; frankly, in the arms dealer business, she was relatively honorable.

Her main customers were the dirt-poor farmers of Colorado Farm, rookies from the Six Street Gang, and those penniless workers.

Although what she sold wasn’t new, it was well-priced and generally without major issues.

As for herself, she also held a B-grade technical expert license, could repair guns, modify them, set up armed defense systems, and also dealt with Wanderers in nearly scrapped cars.

With skills and understanding of the rules, Six Street Gang maintained a delicate balance with her.

As for Kantao’s weapons, she really had a hard time dealing with them; she had no ties to the company, and both her clients and suppliers were paupers who treasured garbage.

To handle it, she would have to go through Wanderer’s smuggling channels, but now it seemed that Wanderers were no longer doing it.

However, what was more important was leaving directional information online to prepare for building data barricades.

"I’ll send a software to your systems to cover our network tracks."

"OK."

Both replied in unison, receiving the file designed by Lille.

"Also, here are some suspicious conversation records from Roshan’s database if you’re interested, but I’ve already marked the target on your map."

Inside Roshan’s database was a recent communication record with Six Street Gang.

January 1:

"Roshan Kaplan: People at Red Ochre are sick, most of my lines are down, you need to send your own people."

"Jie’erfu Shalabi: Why not find other Wanderers?"

"Roshan Kaplan: Other Wanderers don’t want to come into the city, remember the epidemic?"

"Jie’erfu Shalabi: I’ll handle it myself."

January 3:

"Jie’erfu Shalabi: There’s more cargo crossing the border in three days, is everything set up right?"

"Roshan Kaplan: What are you transporting this time? And why all the fuss?"

"Jie’erfu Shalabi: Quit your bitchin’, if you don’t want the Six Street Gang to give you a bullet, just do the job nicely, and if you leak anything, you’re gonna be in a world of hurt."

"Roshan Kaplan: Using a citizen’s name to ship stuff and not letting the citizen know what it is, which old American law is this?"

"Jie’erfu Shalabi: Fuck your mom, it’s the... wartime national defense production act!"

"Roshan Kaplan: Fine, got it, a secret shipment of high-value military products, sigh, hope military tech doesn’t come knocking."

"Jie’erfu Shalabi: They won’t come looking, this batch of goods... fuck, believe me, I’ll blow your head off!"

"Roshan Kaplan: Haha, blow my head off, and you won’t be able to deliver the goods, let’s see if your ’military court’ will blow your head off."

January 6th:

"Jie’erfu Shalabi: Smuggling isn’t that hard, next time we’re short on people, you could look us up, ditch the Wanderer, we’re old acquaintances, keep the good stuff within the family."

"Roshan Kaplan: No way, don’t act all entitled, who considers you one of their own?"

"Jie’erfu Shalabi: Whatever, smuggling will be frequent during this period, next time is in two days."

...

Obviously, there was an arrangement between the Six Street Gang and Roshan, they secretly transported items in her name.

This route seems busy these days, with the most recent one just tomorrow.

Lille took some time to upload a few backdoors into Roshan’s database and hacked the traffic system on Woodhaven Street, always watching if this woman would do anything foolish.

After all this, the trio headed towards Evil Land.

V turned down the radio volume: "So we’re robbing this convoy—but I don’t quite get it, why smuggle it in under Roshan’s name?"

"To prevent exactly this kind of situation—obviously for concealment, everyone knows Lama Armory isn’t run by the Six Street Gang, and this will sure throw their enemies off."

Actually, this old-fashioned method works pretty well and is quite common.

It looks like the Six Street Gang is really splashing the cash to steal Valentino Gang’s business, but Father isn’t dumb, he must have noticed something’s off."

Now the Six Street Gang is in trouble, with three ferocious folks on their way."

"The next batch of goods should be crossing the border soon, we’ll intercept them at Evil Land, check the map again, and ask if there are any issues."

"Received—is there anything else? Boss." V said sarcastically.

"Yeah, turn up the heater, it gets cold at night in Evil Land."

With that, Lille pulled out his Yinglong Submachine Gun.

This time he also had to test out the new prosthetics and this fine piece from Kantao."

...

hours later, the stars were high.

"Achoo!"

Five Villefort Columbus V340 trucks, maintaining formation as they cruised down the highway.

The most common sight on the streets of Night City, a favorite among medium-to-low tier logistics companies.

But though the vehicles were cargo carriers, the men inside didn’t look like typical logistics workers.

All dressed in similar work pants, bulletproof jackets, and cool-looking sunglasses, adorned with either the Star-Spangled Banner or the Bald Eagle on their epaulets.

Each cradling a handy long gun in their arms.

"It’s fucking cold, Evil Land is a crappy place, hot during the day, cold at night."

Lead vehicle, the co-driver was a man wearing a beret, one arm a shiny bionic prosthetic.

"Boss..." the driver, a rookie, spoke.

"How many times have I told you, don’t call me boss, I am goddamn sergeant! We are soldiers, you get it!"

"Err, sergeant, the rear-most vehicle says there’s a Rattlesnake following us."

"So let it follow, just a crappy car, probably some wanderer heading into the city for medicine, don’t be so sensitive.

You think a Dian Type Submachine Gun is suddenly going to pop out of that car and a few Kantao soldiers will shove hand grenades into our mouths?

Forget about it, just drive, or we’ll be out of our extra earnings by the time our unfortunate pals at Redstone have got killed off!"

"Right..."

Before the rookie could finish, he saw that Rattlesnake hit the gas, moving up beside their convoy—

Then, a Dian Type Submachine Gun appeared from the passenger side!

"Holy shit! Dian Type Submachine Gun!"

Bang!

Bullets from the Dian Type Submachine Gun precisely punctured several vehicle tires, the sound of bursting tires echoed through the night sky—

The convoy instantly bunched up!

"Attack!!!"

As the vehicles swerved chaotically, the rookie yelled at the top of his lungs, suddenly something was shoved into his mouth—

He saw the sergeant lifting his foot, staring at him in horror: "Holy shit! A hand grenade!"

Boom!