The Creators: From Night City

Page 291

Lark: [What's wrong, Matilda? Your heart rate has spiked again, you're almost having palpitations.]

Matilda: [I saw that Asian man again!]

Lark: [I suspect your prosthetic eye needs maintenance.]

Matilda: [He's standing right in front of me now, and he's heading towards the box!!]

Lark: [?!]

An unnatural flush rose to the young waitress's face, reaching its most pronounced intensity when Jiang Bing looked at her.

"Will he recognize me? Will he have me arrested? Am I doomed?" Matilda thought about all these things, and she could hardly breathe.

But to her surprise, the other party only glanced at her and followed the casino waiter into the private room without any further comment.

When Jiang Bing entered, he immediately spotted the Lark. Her signature long purple hair and highly advanced cybernetic body made her hard to miss.

"Sir, please take a seat here." The waiter led Jiang Bing to the main table.

New US President Myers stopped his whispered conversation with Thomas Culler, president of the space region for Worldwide Satellite Communications Networks, and turned his gaze to the uninvited guest.

Others followed suit, after all, being the first person to dare sit at this table since the gambling began was enough to arouse everyone's curiosity.

"Let me introduce a guest to you all." Louis Dupont, Crystal Palace's Chief Strategy Officer, sat in the center, looking at Jiang Bing with an enigmatic smile.

"This friend is Sabur Lehrer, who in less than two hours won 6720 million euros from a starting capital of 100 euros. Isn't that amazing?"

Jiang Bing placed the chip tray on the table, turned on the virtual projector, and several high stacks of bright yellow one million euro chips filled the projection.

€6720 million, the total revenue up to when Jiang Bing was "invited" up.

With a cost of 100 euros and a time of less than 2 hours, the return on investment is 67.2 times, showcasing the allure of gambling.

Most importantly, when Jiang Bing was halfway through his gambling, the casino began to repeatedly verify each of his gambling sessions, but found no trace of code modification or cheating, as if he could win entirely because of his good luck.

A slight commotion suddenly broke out inside the private room.

The team members behind each leader of the faction at the main table began to conduct various detailed scans of Jiang Bing, but the conclusion was the same as that of Louis DuPont, who already knew the answer: the other party was just a perfectly 'normal' native.

"Just lucky"

Facing these prominent figures, who could be considered among the world's most powerful and wealthy, Jiang Bing appeared extremely relaxed, treating this 'upper-class world' that many people dream of as his own bedroom.

As the strategic executive of Crystal Palace, Louis Dupont would never do something as undignified as executing someone without warning. In fact, after his subordinates reported to Jiang Bing, this eccentric figure who was wreaking havoc on the ground, he simply had someone politely "invite" him into the private room, sit him at the table in front of him, and personally examine his character.

If the other party is truly lucky, Crystal Palace doesn't care about this small amount of money; on the contrary, they can use him as a success story for publicity.

But soon, as his prosthetic eye began to glow, the technical staff who had been thoroughly verifying the other party's information sent back a message that made him frown.

The technical staff could not find any entry or exit records for the Asian man named Sabur Lerek, nor could they find any prior video footage, spending records, accommodation, dining, entertainment, or even communication records related to him.

The other party appeared in the casino suddenly, like a ghost.

“Interesting,” Louis Dupont suddenly chuckled coldly.

Several burly security personnel dressed in full armor quietly poured in through the door of the private room.

As the lark frowned deeply, her meticulously planned scheme seemed to suddenly veer off onto an unpredictable path.

"What business does Mr. Sabre do?" Despite his doubts, Louis Dupont maintained the elegance of an old French aristocrat.

He wasn't in a hurry at all, since everything was under his control.

It was already known that the other party had no combat cybernetics or weapons, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to even get into this private room.

Jiang Bing, who was "doing some odds and ends," followed the crowd and threw out a 10 euro bet. Facing the questioning from the second-in-command of Crystal Palace, he showed no sign of panic.

"Oh?" Louis tapped the table, signaling the dealer to deal the cards.

They were playing blackjack, a card game that originated in France and was very popular among the upper class of Crystal Palace, since a large portion of the European Space Agency's senior executives were of French descent.

"May I ask where you're going to make your fortune?" After two rounds of cards were dealt, DuPont continued to speak while everyone was looking at their cards.

"A small place, Night City, a remote and impoverished area, just trying to make a living." Jiang Bingdong didn't touch the cards on the table. Instead, he leaned on his cane and looked around at the silent gamblers at the table with a meaningful gaze.

Everyone present was shrewd; they all sensed the uneasy atmosphere between the two sides and remained silent, watching the conflict unfold.

“Night City is no small place, you agree, President Miles,” Louis chuckled, leaning over to chat with Rosalind Miles beside him.

The powerful woman glanced sideways at Jiang Bing, a fake social smile on her face, and nodded slightly.

When the third round of cards was dealt, Jiang Bing still didn't look at the hidden card. He confidently followed the others and continued to draw cards, seemingly unafraid of losing points.

After several rounds of drawing cards, Jiang Bing won the bet as expected, further increasing his chip count.

"Mr. Sabur's luck certainly seems to be quite good."

"I love to laugh," Jiang Bing glanced in the direction of Miles, and the lark was visibly hesitant.

At this moment, she was ready to act, but because of Jiang Bing's interference, her carefully planned scheme became complicated and she was put on the defensive.

But none of this concerned Jiang Bing. He forced a smile and teased the bewildered gamblers at the table, "People who smile often usually have good luck."

Using the same old jokes, Jiang Bing recklessly enjoyed the pleasure of torturing others.

"Can the ever-smiling Mr. Sabur give me a reasonable explanation as to why your entry and exit records cannot be found in the system?" Louis almost laughed out of anger at Jiang Bing.

"That's not important."

Amidst the resounding cocking of pistols behind him, Jiang Bing leisurely stood up.

Chapter 577 Cyber ​​Father's Garden

Jiang Bing didn't stand up because he was tired of sitting; the main reason was that the Nightingale had finally decided to begin her escape plan.

The effects of the "ingredients" in the cocktail that the "Swordholder" drank had begun to take hold, causing him to become dizzy and collapse to the ground. The moment he lost consciousness, the Lark could no longer suppress its desire for freedom and simultaneously detonated a large amount of malicious code that had been buried in the environmental protection system of the "Golden Crystal," overloading the aerodynamic balance, oxygen circulation, and the power system used for lighting.

Louis Dupont didn't want to waste any more words with Jiang Bing, and waved his hand to signal the guards to arrest him, but unexpectedly, Jiang Bing suddenly uttered a sentence that left most of the people present baffled.

"I hope you don't eat too much for dinner."

Jiang Bing spoke these words with deep pity.

The next moment, the Lark's malicious code took effect, and all the lighting equipment in the entire "Golden Crystal" simultaneously burst into flames and went out, plunging the entire venue into darkness. The shutdown of the pneumatic balance and oxygen circulation caused the entire interior space of the casino to resound with a piercing second-level alarm wailing.

But that wasn't the end of it. Inside the cyberspace of the Crystal Palace, the malicious code manifested by the Lark, a black and red mist, burned another inconspicuous subroutine to ashes.

This subroutine is called the air purification system.

The plan devised by the Nightingale was meticulously crafted, with each step linked to the next. Although it had extremely low resistance to unexpected risks, it was still considered highly precise under the opponent's extensive computing power and simulations. This air purification system was the core element of the plan, selected by the opponent after a large amount of data calculation and simulation.

As a large space station, the Crystal Palace must be an enclosed space.

Although its internal volume is enormous, the fact that hundreds of thousands of people live in this enclosed environment year after year inevitably leads to a significant problem: extremely poor air quality.

The powerful and wealthy are also human beings. Although they are rich and powerful, they still need to eat three meals a day, sleep and drink water. Naturally, they also snore, have bad breath, fart, and smelly feet. In addition, Westerners generally have strong body odor, and some individuals even have body odor and athlete's foot. These gases accumulate in the closed space of the space station and cannot be discharged. Without a complete air purification system, the space station would have been uninhabitable long ago.

Therefore, major semi-permanent space stations, including Crystal Palace, regularly purchase substantial quantities of various scented air purifiers to provide these upscale living areas with fragrant air year-round.

These air purifiers have indeed purified the air and made the space station more civilized and advanced, but this is all based on the premise that these air purifiers, which exist in a high-concentration liquid form, are released slowly at a normal rate.

As the air purification system overloaded, hundreds or even thousands of kilograms of concentrated air purifiers with various fragrances were dumped into the ventilation ducts. With the aerodynamic balance and oxygen circulation system disrupted, these substances directly accumulated in the gas pipes of the entire 'Golden Crystal' casino.

To maximize the effect of the 'toxic gas', Lark also turned on all the input and exhaust fans to expel as much air purifier as possible into the room.

It has to be said, this move was extremely underhanded.

Normally pleasant-smelling air purifiers, in liquid form, were poured into the casino almost like rain from the ventilation ducts, producing an effect comparable to toxic gas. The strong, pungent odor instantly caused everyone in the casino to experience severe nausea and retching.

The high concentration of volatile organic solvents in air purifiers evaporates rapidly upon contact with air, generating a high concentration of liquid droplets suspended in the air within a short time, forming a dense aerosol cloud that reduces visibility throughout the casino to a minimum.

The high concentration of volatile organic compounds, isopropanol solvent, fragrances, and disinfectants in the purifier severely irritate everyone's eyes, nose, throat, and respiratory tract in this enclosed environment.

Severe coughing, sneezing, tearing, burning sensation, sore throat, chest tightness, shortness of breath, dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, vertigo, confusion, and uncoordinated movements—the debuffs piled up like a waterfall on everyone. To be honest, for an ordinary person to stay in this environment is no different from being in a Nazi gas chamber.

What's worse, the nightingale also simultaneously and forcibly closed all the entrances and exits of the entire casino, trapping all these powerful figures inside for thorough fumigation.

Taking advantage of the crowd's confusion, she used the familiar cybernetic signal to locate the 'Swordholder' and began searching his body.

In order to better enable her to unleash the power of the Black Wall, under Miles's instructions, New America carried out a horrific cybernetic modification on Song Zhaomei, replacing almost all of her organs with advanced hacker-style cybernetic bodies. However, this also gave her the guarantee of freedom of movement in this environment.

This is the fundamental reason why she dared to formulate such a plan.

The combined effects of the 'seasoning' and excessive air purifier, coupled with the fact that the 'Swordholder's' duty was to prevent Song Zhaomei from suddenly turning against him, and that he was just an ordinary person without any cybernetic modifications, had long since foamed at the mouth, had his limbs convulsing, and was lying on the ground in a daze, completely at the mercy of others.

Since the other party had no ability to resist, Song Zhaomei quickly found a small black metal box that looked like a signal transmitter on the other party's body.

Holding the device in her hand, she breathed a sigh of relief as if a time bomb had been defused. Without lingering, she used the pre-recorded location data from various electronic devices in the room to precisely rush out of the private room.

Outside the private room, everything was shrouded in white mist. Because there were even more people in the hall, the large amount of vomit produced by everyone created an undeniable sour stench that mixed with the pungent smell of the air purifier, making the already extremely poor air quality even more worrying.

The sour stench further intensified everyone's nausea and vomiting, causing the victims to continue vomiting frantically amidst stinging and tearing eyes, burning sensations in their nasal and throat cavities, and violent coughing.

In an instant, all sorts of foul-smelling filth filled the entire enclosed casino hall, turning the originally luxurious upscale venue into what seemed like a 'benevolent father's garden' for the time being.

Matilda Portman was basically dragged out of the 'Golden Crystal' through the back door by the Nightingale. In order to ensure the success of the plan, she had no idea about the Nightingale's plan. Like everyone else, she inhaled a lot of irritating gas and was treated the same as a Japanese person by Song Zhaomei.

Chapter 578 Chrysalis Village

Even after leaving the casino, she would still occasionally convulse and vomit bile.

Her gold sequined work clothes were already covered in vomit from her neighbors, making her look like a seasoned homeless person who lived in a garbage dump.

However, the two of them had no time to worry about personal hygiene and were only focused on running. They needed to reach their planned 'hiding place' before the entire Crystal Palace system started operating, otherwise, once the European Space Agency was in operation, they estimated that they would soon be unable to move an inch.

Where there is light, there is darkness, even in the Crystal Palace, which prides itself on being the 'light of civilization'.

"Chrysalis Village"

The grey area of ​​the Crystal Palace, located on the outermost first ring of the Crystal Palace, is the oldest and most chaotic part of the entire Crystal Palace complex.

This section was originally the location of the massive mass blocks and engineering structural supports used to stabilize the attitude during the early construction of the space station. As the main body of the space station was gradually completed and expanded, this maze-like area, consisting of huge beams, abandoned modules, redundant pipes and large storage tanks, was selectively semi-forgotten and abandoned by the authorities.

After all, it is related to the structural stability of the entire space station and cannot be disposed of as space debris. However, if it is to be used as a normal module, its unreasonable early spatial planning makes it difficult to fundamentally remodel it.

In addition, the high-pressure environment of the Crystal Palace always requires a garbage dump to divert 'sewage', so 'Pupal Village' was preserved in a semi-bright and semi-dark way.

Because of these historical issues, this place has become a kind of underground black market and gray area for Crystal Palace. Various forces are deeply entrenched here, and because it involves a lot of interests, the European Space Agency has always adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards this "Cyber ​​Kowloon Walled City".

Its birth was less a matter of chance and more an inevitable product of the Crystal Palace's current political system, something that those in power were well aware of.

The space station authorities usually regard such issues as "non-existent" or "problems to be addressed." Unless the chaos generated inside is enough to threaten the safety of the entire Crystal Palace structure, it is usually resolved internally. Only when the situation becomes so dire that it cannot be contained will the CPD, under the protection of heavy armor, carry out the most necessary "cleanup" operation with swift and decisive measures.

As a garbage dump, the environment here is naturally extremely poor.

A large number of bankrupts, illegal immigrants, stowaways, and even wanted criminals, people on the verge of cyberpsychosis, workers abandoned by companies, information brokers, black market dealers, scavengers, and cheap sex workers fill this not-so-large first-ring middle section space, making the average living space per person here probably only a few cubic meters.

Every inch of space in the most crowded areas is occupied, with hammocks stacked one on top of another, making the destitute crammed in like silkworm cocoons. But the advantage is that these hammocks are free, and free things are quite rare in the Crystal Palace.

The constant flow of liquids and gases in the pipes scattered throughout the area, combined with the hissing of old ventilation fans, the hum of electricity from broken light fixtures, the occasional bursts of arguments and shouting, and the music playing from some low-quality stereos, create a background noise that can cause nervous breakdowns.

However, what's unusual is that, compared to the harsh living conditions, this place also boasts a well-established social system and a passable (that is, superficially acceptable) level of public security, which is mainly maintained by the "Pipeline Guild".

This is a private gang. Of course, anyone with a little knowledge knows they are the Crystal Palace's black gloves. But it is precisely because of their existence that those old but vital (and extremely dangerous) air and water circulation pipe nodes have been able to continue operating for a long time. The "breathing tax" and "water fee" they collect are also the basis for ensuring that this area can obtain a minimum level of oxygen supply and air filtration.

After all, Crystal Palace is not like Night City; air is not free, but a 'commodity' and resource that requires payment.

Outside the 'Yongzhai', there is a 'fly restaurant' that is located on the wall of a pipe.

"It is reported that the equipment aging accident that occurred at 'Gold Crystal Palace' resulted in 32 serious injuries and 97 minor injuries. Fortunately, all the injured are currently in stable condition. Crystal Palace..."

An old man with a simple, old-fashioned mechanical prosthetic in his left hand and an air-filtering mask covering his face, muttered a few words to an equally old LCD TV. He then placed a bowl of not-so-clear water on table number 2 and accepted a bag of sticky basic ration food from Matilda as payment for the water.

The lark is in a bit of a mess now. Instead of being hunted down by the new America, she is being criticized by the harsh reality.

Her new American uniform had long been replaced by a worn-out work uniform with an entropy-increasing space theme.

The most distinctive feature of this old-fashioned spacesuit is its numerous pockets, each equipped with a separate sealing strip to prevent the tools inside from falling out in a weightless or low-gravity environment.

“We have to go to the moon.” She was also wearing a mask-like air purifier over her face, which made her voice sound a little muffled.

“How are we supposed to get there? Right now we’re like rats in the street. Believe me, as soon as we leave ‘Chrysalis Village,’ countless CPDs will surround us.” Matilda picked up the water jug ​​with a slightly disgusted look and took a couple of sips with a bitter expression.

“What were you thinking? We’ve offended all the big shots in this space right now. Their reputation is worth far more than my life. I don’t think it’s just the CPD; maybe even orbital hunters (space mercenaries) are coming to get us.”

The lark twisted its neck, feeling very uncomfortable with the harsh environment, sticky air, and cluttered layout.

“I’ve checked your resident database information before, Matilda. You’re a Category 4 resident at the Crystal Palace level. I think you must have a way to take us to the moon.”

The so-called fourth category of residents are actually stowaways, or undocumented individuals who later paid a "life-saving fee." It should be noted that the High Knights strictly control the movement of people, making it difficult to move between the several colonies on the moon, let alone immigrate directly from the moon to Crystal Palace.

Some tourists who come to Crystal Palace stay there for various 'reasons' after their visas expire, and they also become Category 4 residents. At this time, as long as you pay a small but not insignificant identity verification fee, you can obtain formal residency status in Crystal Palace, which is called Category 4 resident permit.