Chapter 58: Chapter 56 I Think Lille Is a Great Guy

"Actually, I still don’t believe you’re without ulterior motives, Lille. Those people are so miserable; don’t cheat them anymore,"

On the way back, V was still questioning Lille.

Lille, frustrated, asked, "What kind of image do I even have in your eyes?"

"Let me think," V said, recalling the Lille he had met along the way and organizing his thoughts, "It’s like, even if you were giving me money, I’d still think you could swindle my underwear right off of me."

Jack, somewhat puzzled, said, "Really? I think Lille’s pretty decent, though we did earn quite a bit less on the cinnabar deal. I feel good about it, better than any job we’ve done before."

"Are you dumb, Jack? If this guy really wanted to help, why wouldn’t he just give it to them for free?"

Lille’s irritation grew, "Yes, yes, yes, I just want to exploit Wanderer’s smuggling routes to make them work for me, happy now?"

"That’s more like it... but I’m sure you have other plans too."

"That’s enough, V. I think you’re misunderstanding Lille..."

Lille fell silent for a moment, but in fact, V wasn’t wrong about him.

"Actually... I do want to use this to influence their future choices—I want them to end their cooperation with Biotechnology."

Jack immediately shut up, and V had an "I knew it" look, listening to Lille’s explanation.

Money was necessary—if Lille wasn’t mistaken, the source of the funds was the subsidy from Biotechnology.

The Wanderers were poor because their chosen lifestyle made it impossible to earn much money.

Don’t be fooled; for the hundred-some people of cinnabar, $200,000 was a huge sum of cash—especially since they had been sick for a while.

If he gave them supplies for free, the money from Biotechnology would last a long time, and they wouldn’t need to have a conflict with Biotechnology.

The result would be that the experiments would continue, and maybe Hector was even thinking of saving money to buy a piece of land to settle down later.

To put it bluntly, Hector was a compromiser; without some trouble, he would certainly not fall out with Biotechnology.

But now, without money, they would have to demand more from Biotechnology, who were not running a charity.

Giving guns seemed like a good deed, but actually, it was because Lille had determined that the Degangite group would inevitably clash with Biotechnology. If they couldn’t withstand the first wave of attacks, the investment would be wasted."

"...to put it bluntly, if they continued like this, the hundred-some members of the Degangite group were doomed.

They first needed to survive, survive impoverished.

Without money, they would have to demand a raise from Biotechnology, their only source of income, and Biotechnology would certainly think: ’Who do you think you are?’

Then giving them a couple of guns to let the healthier ones protect themselves and be able to work, they might remember—they used to live by robbing companies.

Once both sides became strong and demanding, the conflict would erupt.

By the time they tore up the contract with Biotechnology, they would naturally move closer to my side.

I trust Hector and Navi, but I don’t know all the Degangite people, and an external threat can unite them first.

However, helping them and wanting them on my side are not conflicting goals; I simply want them to see reality—the corporation is killing them.

Making others think their interests align with yours is a basic political skill—you guys should learn that as well."

To achieve this goal, the means include but are not limited to deception, persuasion, threats, and force.

Of course, there are many more reasons and benefits, but discussing them would take up too much space and be too complex. V and Jack don’t need to understand every little detail.

But this conversation reminded V of the first time she met Lille.

"Politics? It’s a dirty game..." As she spoke, V suddenly remembered meeting him in Atlanta, "Wait a second, so when we were in Atlanta, were you also using these tactics on me?"

"Of course not," Lille said expressionlessly, "I could tell at a glance that you’re the kind of fool who would stab someone over a few hundred euros, so I just fed you some lines."

The channel fell into silence.

...

"Not bad, 28 Saratoga rifles, 19 Ajax handguns, 40 boxes of ammunition, 20 sets of bulletproof vests... quite a haul, Lille."

This deal was indeed fat, very fat.

Everyone says the arms business is profitable, so what kind of weapons are the most profitable?

Of course... the most profitable weapons are the ones you steal... pick up for free, no cost involved, just needing to eliminate the competition.

Friends’ prices: Saratoga for 1200 each, Ajax for 2300, a box of bullets for 1200 euros, Third Level bulletproof vests for 1200 each.

The total price, rounded down, came to 150,000 euros.

After Father finished counting, he paid up. The price was about 30% below market rates, which was quite a bargain to arm the Valentino Gang.

But Father looked at Lille strangely, noticing a huge lump on his forehead.

Quite miraculous to get such an injury from a gunfight.

"So have you offloaded your guns yet?"

"Not yet. I have to wait for Roshan as well. There’s an epidemic in Saint Domingo, her contacts are sick, and other Wanderers are reluctant to come into the city.

"I’m planning to go take another round at the factory."

"You’ve got guts, Six Street Gang is fuming over this, Saint Domingo is teeming with their guys right now."

"I will — Oh, and Father, here’s a free piece of info, though you might already know:

The Six Street Gang has brought in a lot of goods lately, possibly even other military high-tech gadgets, you need to be careful."

"I will be, if there’s nothing else I’ll get going. Good luck, kid."

With the previous 200,000, that makes a total of 350,000, splitting over 110,000 Euros each.

Lille: "Time to divide the money — 110,000 per person."

Jack: "Damn, bro, that’s sick! We’re rolling in it! I need to share some with Misty..."

V: Prosthetics inspection in progress.

After dealing with those things, Lille turned and walked into Misty’s tarot parlor — V was planning to get himself a Mantis Blade, while Jack was in there showing off his new gun to Misty.

Never understood what’s so great about showing off guns.

Lille found a place to sit down —

He needed to transfer the data from the frilled lizard to Dr. Conners and also monitor Skye’s project progress.

Lille inserted the Separation Chip into his personal slot.

[New implant monitoring: Separation Chip: Lesser Antilles frilled lizard biometric modeling]

[Weight: 10g]

[Technology Points -10]

[Item has been bound across dimensions.]

In another world, the Separation Chip appeared in the slot on Lille’s neck.

Fortunately, just copying data from the chip is not considered a complex action, so it doesn’t require usage of Technology Points.

[You spent some time transferring the biometric modeling to the database, and sent it to Dr. Conners]

[You enter the workshop to find Skye has already fallen asleep, dark circles under his eyes, it seems he worked overtime.]

[You sit at the office computer and start checking the work progress.]

[NYPD public safety project progress: 33%]

[Reached the first project payment milestone, NYPD’s first project payment: 300,000 US Dollars has been deposited.]

[ctOS development progress: Skye is researching the big data algorithm you left behind, and trying to build an AI with data from the internet and the traffic network.]

[Anthony has submitted the design according to your instructions to the chip foundry for assessment, and they are still evaluating it.]

Lille thought for a moment and copied a piece of information from his mind —

This was the traffic data from Bradbury Street and Bran Street — in the year 2077, to enjoy municipal traffic facilitation, you need to connect to the traffic network.

That’s also why Lille could call a car on the street to run over the Six Street Gang, just need to hack the network, and you can hack the car.

But with ctOS, what you can do is not as simple as controlling a car onsite, you can call a heavy truck.

Controlling the network could offer a lot of advantages when speeding and having gunfights on the roads of Night City.

Not just Bradbury Street but also Woodhaven Street, while dealing with Lama Armory, Lille conveniently hacked the local traffic subnet.

Controlling a larger area’s traffic flow with complex algorithms might come in handy soon.

[Technology Points -10]

[Current Technology Points: 300]

Seems like the other world is pretty mundane — Lille thought, and decided to check on what his mother was doing.

[Your mother is cooking at home, she has quit her nursing job to take care of you.]

[Outstanding matters to be addressed: Your family debt still has a remaining 320,000 US Dollars owed.]

This is American healthcare, huh? Two years in and a sold house later, still in debt for 320,000.

Gotta hand it to you, America.

But on second thought, the ICU where I stayed in my past life was even more absurd, after all, it was wartime standard care, just subsidized.

Let’s pay off 100,000 US Dollars for now — otherwise, mom’s probably feeling a lot of pressure.

That’s 320,000 US Dollars, I’m pretty fortunate to have so many people willing to help my family.

Thinking this, Jack suddenly called out:

"Hey, Lille, you wanna take a shot at Misty’s mysterious tarot card reading?"