Chapter 55: Chapter 53 Loading Goods (Friday Early Morning Slot)

The squad leader kicked the new recruit out, but the shrapnel and shockwave still shook him to his core.

"Form defensive positions!"

He executed a tactical rise and took cover behind the overturned vehicle, but when he looked back at his men, he discovered all the vehicles had flipped!

From inside that broken car, someone indeed extended a Dian Type Submachine Gun and blew out their tires, then stuffed a hand grenade into the new recruit’s mouth!

Luckily, most of those responsible for transportation were veterans, or at least new recruits who had undergone military training, not some riff-raff—

They quickly jumped out of the vehicles and found cover.

However, that busted Serpent had no intention of stopping; it circled around the convoy, then started tossing hand grenades as if they cost nothing!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

At this point, the squad leader was also stunned; those hand grenades were being thrown with reckless abandon!

Boom!

The explosion made his head spin, as if he had been bombed!

Only when the roaring in his ears subsided did he dare to poke his head out.

Bang!

However, a large-caliber bullet pierced right through his head.

Before he completely lost consciousness, he saw three people disembarking from the broken car, who, under the firelight, looked like demons...

These three demons casually strolled through the crash site, occasionally firing shots to finish off the wounded.

Finally, after 30 minutes, the battle ended, no Six Street Gang member was left able to shoot.

The fight had hardly been suspenseful; Lille had only fired a burst of bullets to blow out the tires at the beginning and hadn’t shot since.

He didn’t even get the chance to test another special effect of the prototype weapon Yinglong; that would have to wait for another time.

The three walked leisurely over to the last new recruit, who was lying on the ground, with a piece of metal stuck in his stomach and a bullet wound in each shoulder.

Blood covered his eyes; he couldn’t see the three people clearly.

He could only vaguely make out a slender figure squatting before him through the blood, while the other two went off to find other tasks.

"Who... who are you... let me go, I’m just the driver..."

Lille tore off the guy’s Six Street Gang shoulder patch, "Enough, by choosing this line of work, this is what you get. Do you know what you were transporting?"

"I don’t know... we just handle the delivery, they said it was something that could defeat the Valentinos...

I really don’t know, please let me go, I have a family, I need to earn money to buy them the vaccine..."

"Well, you’re in luck, I indeed don’t plan to kill you—when your boss shows up, tell him this transport route is closed."

After saying that, Jack and V each carried a box over and dropped it onto the ground with a thud.

The new recruit asked with a trembling voice, "But... who are you?"

Lille glanced at the two others, "Come up with a name."

"Uh... King Squad?" V tentatively suggested a name.

Jack said, "I prefer ’Big Shot Deals’."

"That’s dumb, it sounds like some idiotic rich men’s club where they get fleeced of their money—Lille, you suggest something."

"Me? Even my own nickname is ’Burger King’, and you want me to come up with a name?"

"Indeed... eh? Did this kid pass out?"

The three of them bantered back and forth without reaching a conclusion, but the messenger boy had already fainted.

They looked at each other—uncertain of how much he had heard.

"Forget it... let’s check out the goods first, what’s in there?"

Jack spoke excitedly, "We’ve struck it big this time; there’s weapons, bullets, hand grenades, bulletproof vests, and this...

It’s obviously quality stuff, shall we take a look now?"

Lille nodded in agreement.

A gleaming Rosstovich DB-2 Sadara, a technologically advanced shotgun made by the Serbians, one of the few reliable weapons they produced.

This electromagnetic shotgun could fire pellets that even walls couldn’t stop, but conversely, its downsides included the large size and weight and the recoil that was hard to control without extensive prosthetics.

"Wow... a Sadara!"

The massive Sadara fit perfectly in Jack’s hands.

Upon its first activation, the electromagnetic accelerator on the shotgun barrel charged slightly, the gun barrel snapped open, already loaded with two rounds.

"Indeed not bad... but I recommend you don’t use it for now," Lille said, scanning with his Prosthetic Eye and immediately spotting the difference from the standard Sadara model.

"What do you think? You don’t actually believe my body is fake, do you?"

V chimed in, "If Jack can’t handle it, is this gun even made for humans?"

Lille leaned in close to the firearm and began to scrutinize it, indeed discovering several pipes that didn’t seem right.

"...First off, as a technical double-barrel shotgun with electromagnetic rails, there should be a safety mechanism that allows for firing one round at a time.

But this gun doesn’t have one, meaning it requires a longer charging time and produces a bigger recoil...

Using a regular Sadara might not be a problem for you, but this one isn’t going to work—the modifier even added an extra set of acceleration magnetic fields.

And..."

Lille took the gun from Jack’s hands and then removed the ammunition inside.

"...Home-made, and judging by the weight, definitely heavier than the standard Sadara bullets—there’s no way a person could handle this kind of gun.

Remember Captain Notte from Atlanta? It would take a cyber-beast like him to manage this thing."

"Damn..." V slapped Jack on the shoulder, "That Six Street Gang really does have some twisted freaks, don’t they?"

Jack shook his head, "If they did, I would’ve heard about it by now—it’s a shame, but we might as well get rid of it."

"Who said that?" Lille shoved the gun back at Jack, "I said you need to start using heavy firepower, next time you make some money upgrade to gorilla arms, it’s a waste not to with those genes of yours.

All right, let’s get to work—take down the good wheels, and put together three vehicles. We’ll each drive one and get the merchandise out of here.

I still need to check who the owners of these goods are."

The volume of this batch was enormous, especially all sorts of ammunition and equipment, not very valuable individually, but the sheer quantity made up for it.

Besides the modified Sadara, there were other treasures, over a dozen Ajax assault rifles and Saratoga submachine guns that had seen who knows how many hands.

All military technology weapons, looks like the Six Street Gang has connections with Military Science—seems like they’re getting a steady supply.

Lille lifted a crate off the ground and sensed something wasn’t quite right.

An empty crate... shouldn’t be this heavy.

Lille activated his Prosthetic Eye and scanned, revealing a seam at the bottom of the crate.

A hidden compartment?

Lille picked a piece of metal off the ground and pried open the compartment.

It was some kind of liquid medication, stored in a rectangular thermal container.

"Drugs? Interesting... looks like the Six Street Gang is really cautious."

Lille walked over to the kid from before and sent a backdoor communication link to him through his personal connection.

...

"Transport route map: First stop, Kushui Town, Biotechnology representative waiting, load up, keep it under wraps, goods hidden within weapon crate compartments."

"When going through the checkpoint, show the Military Technology papers—they’ll let us through, no chit-chat."

"Second stop: The Red Ochre Tribe, they’ve been nagging for a while, make sure to go quick—they say their tribe is dying out, you can hike up the price, keep the extra as your bonus."

"Third stop: Aloroy headquarters."

Lille found a Separation Chip in the vehicle, titled: Transport Route.

V pointed at the liquid that had been extracted from the crate, "What about this? So, what is it?"

"My guess... it might be a vaccine, or some other similar medication, sold to them by Biotechnology.

Things are getting more interesting—they seem to have gotten a shipment of Military Technology goods and then smuggled Biotechnology items behind Military Technology’s back."

Jack was all too familiar with this kind of scenario—why did it feel so familiar?

As Lille stroked his chin, he felt the situation was getting more complicated.

He still remembered what that knocked-out soldier had mentioned about vaccines; it looks like Saint Domingo might be in the midst of a plague.

Such a significant event, and yet Night City hasn’t felt a ripple—but then again, that’s not unexpected.

Network information is controlled to some extent, unless you just happen to be in a forum circle that shares similar news.

Profitable news like this surely wouldn’t be known to the public first.

Of course, it might turn out to be not so complicated in the end.

Jack looked conflicted: "Drugs? Then we might be making more money than we thought, and... it’s hot, both in terms of heat and conscience."

"It’s still too early to say, tell Father that we’ve taken a bunch of weapons and ammunition from Six Street Gang, offloading it to him as a friendly favor."

"Ah?" V was taken aback, "Didn’t you say we shouldn’t go to him?"

"Business is business, and gang is gang—he’ll be more than happy to take this batch.

As for these drugs... we’ll go find their buyers."