The Creators: From Night City

Page 287

The scene was switching rapidly, the program was changing channels at a rapid pace, and it would rewind and pause from time to time, finally settling on a news brief.

"It is understood that the new US president has visited Crystal Palace aboard the Space Shuttle SpaceX-1. She and her team will represent NSAS to discuss future cooperation with Crystal Palace’s Chief Operating Officer and seek mutually beneficial solutions for the establishment of the Russian-Cybernetic Space Station 2."

"Currently, the talks between the new US President Myers and Chief Operating Officer Chloe Dubois are still underway, but according to our sources, the negotiations have been suspended due to some unforeseen circumstances, and President Myers will stay at the Crystal Palace for several days."

The blond-haired news anchor was delivering the news with a serious expression, but the screen suddenly froze, showing a team photo of Miles and his team on the spacecraft in the center of the frame.

As Jiang Bing tapped his fingers, the image in the holographic projection was rapidly magnified and automatically improved in clarity, quickly projecting a yellow-skinned woman with long purple hair and wearing a light-colored entropy-increasing leather outfit onto the screen.

"Is she the bird?" Kragg asked coldly.

“That’s right,” Jiang Bing continued tapping his fingers, displaying a large amount of public information about the new American team’s visit on the screen.

As the data flowed like a waterfall, one message was quickly highlighted in red.

"The new US President Miles, High Knight representative Cardora, and Crystal Palace Strategic Executive Officer Louis DuPont will jointly attend this charity gambling gala held at the 'Golden Crystal,' and raise funds for the victims of the riots at the Moon Cloud Sea Colony."

"It is reported that a large number of social celebrities will also be attending the dinner, such as Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Faisal, globally renowned talk show host Kitty Fernandez, and Ron Zamperini, CEO of The Fourth Wall and a globally renowned Mewtwo producer. In addition, superstar Lizzy Weisz will also be present at Crystal Palace! She will perform her final song at Crystal Palace before her 2078 Crystal Palace Universe Tour."

"Are we going to go inside?" Klara asked.

"It's still early, the party is tomorrow night." Jiang Bing walked to the door, and without making any movement, the door opened automatically.

"You can take this time to play a little longer. I'll also take this opportunity to visit the famous Crystal Palace and see if it's really as good as advertised."

…………

Is Crystal Palace nice?

The answer is beyond doubt.

It is paradise, the Garden of Eden, a promised land flowing with endless milk and honey. Here you will find 72 beautiful virgins, gourmet food that you can't find anywhere else on Earth, upscale bars where you can indulge your desires, high-quality sex partners from all over the world, an artificial oxygen bar, an indoor green rainforest, and an artificial ocean.

However, all of this comes with one prerequisite: you must have money, a lot of money.

Otherwise, you can only become a cog in the machine that holds up heaven, a brick in the Garden of Eden, a waiter responsible for pouring milk and honey, a bartender, or one of the 72 beautiful virgins.

This is the sordid truth hidden beneath the dazzling brilliance of crystal, the stench concealed behind luxurious streets, gleaming shops, spacious restaurants, stadiums, swimming pools, and casinos, the reality that countless workers toil 16 hours a day yet never receive a single name in the news.

Matilda Portman knew this from a young age; she knew that the Crystal Palace was a paradise for the rich and a hell for the poor.

Chapter 567 The 144th Day That Never Arrived

She was born into space and never went to Earth until adulthood. Her parents were space immigrants who gave birth to her on the lunar colony. Legally, she was a lunar person. Earth had no identity to belong to, and naturally, no place for her to settle down.

She stepped out of her cramped dwelling. The entire Crystal City had a permanent population of about 15000, mainly service workers, technicians, or 'skilled people'.

Matilda Portman is quite pretty. Her long years in space meant she received very limited sunlight, which made her skin exceptionally fair. Combined with her unmodified yet deep features, her mixed-race heritage, and her youthful vivacity, she is definitely considered beautiful.

However, her profession is not related to her beauty, or at least not strongly related to it.

To work as a service staff member at Crystal Palace, one must be well-proportioned and have a pretty face. To meet this requirement, many people choose to undergo varying degrees of body sculpting so that they can obtain this comfortable and high-paying job, instead of spending their days playing hide-and-seek with meteorites and space debris in space, or welding on the surface of the space station all day, risking their lives to earn a meager living.

However, Matilda Portman's income was still not enough for her to travel to Earth by ship.

Return to Earth and stand on the ground.

This was her lifelong dream, a dream that had firmly occupied her mind ever since her parents perished in a space disaster caused by space debris.

She dreamed of having her feet firmly planted on solid ground, of facing the sun without thick protective gear, of gazing at the horizon, and of climbing high mountains.

However, the 'High Knights', who were severely lacking in manpower, would not easily let their precious cattle and horses be lost so easily.

They used institutionalized oppression and the meticulously calculated "Thirty-Three Taels of Silver Policy" to firmly lock down the desires and actions of the vast majority of "new humans" (a new generation born in space) who wanted to return to Earth.

Matilda Portman's income is actually quite high. She works at the 'Gold Crystal' club as a casino server. Although she doesn't earn as much as her colleagues who sell their bodies, she still earns 9000 euros a month. With the occasional tips from happy customers when they win money, she averages out to 11000 euros a month.

This amount of money seems like a lot, but after deducting the rent for her cramped space capsule apartment, daily food expenses, energy usage fees, oxygen usage fees, medical insurance fees, communication fees, and the occasional significant cost of prosthetic body modifications and maintenance, plus other miscellaneous expenses, she can actually save less than 3000 euros per month.

For a new human like her to settle on Earth, she has to pay a considerable amount of 'redemption fees'—social public upbringing fees, plus relatively expensive airfares. As a result, even though she has been working at the Crystal Palace for two years in order to save more money, having come from the less stressful Tycho colony on the moon, she still hasn't saved enough to realize her dream.

Not even half.

This was despite her efforts to minimize entertainment spending and her daily diet consisting mainly of porridge-like basic rations.

Matilda Portman turned through the dimly lit passageway and went directly from the poor people's 'Hive District' to the public blocks of the Crystal Palace.

Under the bright overhead lights, she unconsciously straightened her back. After all, as a service worker, being caught by inspectors for improper posture would result in a warning and punishment.

“Or maybe I could switch to working part-time at a sex dollhouse. Those customers are always very generous to their female companions when they win money.” Matilda Portman thought about her colleagues who worked part-time, pondering the matter.

After all, they earn more, and there are obviously more job options available at Crystal Palace.

"At worst, I'll just only serve guests I find pleasing to the eye," she comforted herself, thinking she would have a choice.

“If all the guests I entertained were like him, this might be something I could consider.” Matilda Portman sized up a handsome Asian man on the street, leaning on a vintage cane and wearing a contrasting suit, and continued to daydream.

After all, she was only 17 years old, the age when she was most prone to daydreaming.

Lost in thought, she turned off the brightly lit street and entered another dimly lit alley.

This is a shortcut that will save her a few minutes on her journey to work and also reduce her physical exertion.

She carried her bag and used a small mirror to touch up her makeup, being very careful with every stroke.

The company has regulations requiring service staff to maintain certain quality standards for their daily cosmetics. For Matilda Portman, these daily essential cosmetics represent a significant expense. She doesn't want to waste time and incur additional cosmetic waste costs due to shaky hands ruining her makeup.

But the rope always breaks at its thinnest point, and misfortune always finds those who are unfortunate.

As soon as she turned into the dimly lit alley, a hurried figure ran towards her from the opposite direction. Before she could react, a gunshot rang out from the other end of the alley, startling Matilda.

It's important to understand that the space station is not like Night City. Here, kinetic weapons, electromagnetic weapons, and explosives are strictly controlled. Not only are they not allowed to be possessed, but even the channels for their import are tightly controlled.

After all, such weapons can easily create holes in the outer wall of a space station if one is not careful, and the consequences would be absolutely devastating.

The guards of the Crystal Palace and other dimensions are armed with firearms, apart from melee weapons like stun batons or swords, and compressed air pumps jokingly called "air hammers." They generally do not carry kinetic energy weapons or explosives.

Therefore, hearing gunshots here would undoubtedly shock Matilda Portman.

The shooter was extremely accurate; a burst of blood erupted from the back of the head of the person facing her, and the person instantly collapsed forward to the ground without even a struggle.

Matilda Portman screamed instantly. She had experienced life and death, but she had never seen a living person being subjected to such a mind-blowing act less than three meters away from her.

She could even feel the splattering brain matter splashing onto her.

The attacker fired another shot, his intention clear: to silence her. But the bullet missed Matilda Portman; it grazed past her ear, and she could even hear the piercing whistle of it passing by.

'Did it miss?' She felt no relief, only the panic of waiting for death to come.

After all, the other side had more than two bullets in their gun.

Chapter 568 ESA Interrogation

However, unusually, the shooter did not intend to fire again. Instead, he seemed very surprised and froze, immediately putting away his weapon in the dim light and smoothly disappearing into the darkness.

It looked like they were fleeing in a panic.

The Crystal Palace relies heavily on solar energy for its energy supply, which means that except for 'important areas', the lighting in other corner areas is minimal, and some areas are even completely dark.

Only in this way can energy be saved to power casinos that are brightly lit day and night, beaches that require turbines to continuously generate artificial waves, and luxury shopping districts that simulate sunlight...

Matilda Portman stared at the corpse on the ground, her first thought was to run, to run as far away as possible. But as soon as she turned her head, she saw at the entrance at the end of the corridor that the handsome Eastern man had been standing there quietly, his eyes looking at her and the corpse on the ground without any emotion.

"The gunman shot him!" A thought suddenly popped into Matilda Portman's mind.

"But why wasn't the other person injured?" Another question arose in her mind.

However, this did not stop her from wanting to leave as soon as possible and stay out of it. After all, she still had to go to work and earn money, and getting involved in a murder case would inevitably bring other big troubles.

But as soon as she took a step, she saw the man at the end of the corridor look up and gesture for her to look at the corner above her head.

That's a camera.

The Crystal Palace has a very comprehensive surveillance system. Except for some high-end private areas, the public spaces are basically fully covered by surveillance.

Matilda Portman froze, then suddenly deflated and slumped against the wall.

She knew she was in deep trouble this time.

The guards arrived quickly, or rather, they were not far away to begin with.

After all, the Crystal Palace is not a very large space to begin with.

Matilda did not try to escape; after all, where could a person escape to in a completely sealed space station?

So she obediently allowed herself to be taken away by the police officers in black and blue uniforms.

The security officer in charge of this area was a burly Mexican man with a prosthetic leg. He was a prominent figure in the area, but at this moment he could only obediently remain silent and meek in front of his subordinates.

Because people from higher up have come.

Matilda sat listlessly in the interrogation room, idly observing the layout of the cramped space.

Four cameras were positioned at the four corners above her head, ensuring that every movement in the entire space was captured in detail. Apart from that, there were only two unusually simple metal tables.

Matilda could only stare blankly and boredly at the one-way glass in front of her. After counting every pattern on it, she could only focus her attention on the camera above her head.

The camera was nothing unusual; the red working light flashed rhythmically, both rapidly and silently, just like Matilda's heartbeat at that moment.

Just as she couldn't help but blink, she noticed that the camera in front of her seemed to suddenly rotate a few times, scanning the layout of the room before focusing on her.

Matilda took it as normal equipment calibration and didn't pay any attention to it.

The interrogation room door suddenly opened.

Two guards, each wielding a space-specific self-defense weapon called the "Territory" produced by Tsunami Defense, stood expressionless at the entrance to the interrogation room. Two people in civilian clothes entered under their protection.

This level of security clearly exceeds the level of protection afforded to a witness at a murder scene.

As the interrogation began, another camera overhead suddenly shifted slightly, focusing precisely on the interrogator opposite Matilda.

The interrogation begins.

"Name?"

Matilda Portman

"age?"

"17"

What were you on your way to when the murder occurred?

"On my way to work at 'Golden Crystal'."

Did you witness the victim being shot in front of you?

No, that's right.

How many shots did the killer fire?

"Two shots"

The fluent questioning suddenly faltered slightly.

Are you sure it was two shots?

“Of course,” Matilda answered with certainty.

Who were those two gunmen shot at?

"One shot hit the dead man, and the other shot hit a yellow man at the entrance of the alley on the other side."

The scene suddenly fell silent again.

"You mean there were other people present?"

“Of course, there was also an Asian man wearing an old-fashioned retro suit and leaning on a cane.” Matilda answered crisply. Although the man disappeared from the alleyway quickly after appearing, Matilda knew that he would not escape the clutches of the CPD (Crystal Palace Security Department).

Matilda answered the police officer's questions honestly.

"Are you sure?" another deep voice sounded from the darkness.

“Of course,” Matilda answered confidently.

The interrogation was abruptly interrupted at this point.

Outside the door, two ESA security agents in charge of investigating the case were exchanging heated opinions.

Although the two were huddled around the corner, a nearby camera could still capture them on camera.

At that moment, the camera gently turned its lens slightly.

“She’s lying, Matthew,” said an agent with a mustache and a prosthetic eye resembling a monocle.