The Creators: From Night City

Page 377

"Who would complain about having too many euros? More importantly, it's a great excuse—an excuse to do things properly under the scrutiny of Arasaka and military technology."

"So, give me some face and wait until after the red carpet event before you make your move."

"Just consider it doing a good deed." The blue-eyed man had never spoken so softly in his life.

Mr. Jiang is always reasonable, and Mr. Blue Eyes' reasoning is quite valid, so he is willing to lend a hand.

Thus, Mia Jinguji was able to walk the entire red carpet without knowing it.

To be honest, this NZ from Jinguji is quite good-looking. Although she is a bit older, she still looks very youthful.

Needless to say, she has a curvaceous figure, and having been in the fashion industry for many years, she exudes a sense of "sophistication." Paired with square-framed glasses that are more decorative than practical, the contrast between her and Tojo Shun is immediately apparent, which explains why she was able to captivate him.

After the female capitalist, whose ominous sign was flashing, left her 'last words' on the holographic signature wall, Jiang Bing dusted himself off and prepared to enter the room, but soon an unexpected situation appeared before him.

Surprisingly, an acquaintance of his was sitting in the car behind him!

An acquaintance who should absolutely not be here!

She wore a white linen blouse with a bright red overcoat, and tight leather trousers. A leather pouch with a jewel-encrusted buckle was tied around her waist. The antique-style clothing, combined with her agile figure, exuded an aura of heroic spirit.

What's most striking is her long, pure white hair, which is naturally smooth and flowing. Her delicate face is adorned with bold smoky makeup, and the long scar at the corner of her eye gives her a unique wildness.

Ciri!

'How could she be here?!' Jiang Bing felt a long-lost sense of shock.

A lady in a matching retro red dress held her hand affectionately; their behavior suggested they were more than just close friends.

They'll be more like best buddies then.

However, the media and audience present were not surprised at all. The fashion industry has always been at the forefront of the world, and given that this is Night City in 2077, such a relationship is as common as Anna Nicole Smith's (currently the most popular adult actress in Dream) sex toy.

The other person only wore light makeup, and even her hairstyle was just a very simple antique-style updo, showing that she was trying her best to get closer to Ciri beside her.

Jiang Bing grabbed the man with a sigh of relief, turned to leave Mr. Blue Eyes, and pointed at the two people on the red carpet, asking, "Who is she?"

"What, you're interested in them? That's not like you."

The blue-eyed man was making a joke, but his prosthetic eye had already started flashing, clearly indicating that he was mobilizing data.

"The woman in the red dress is named Camille Laurent, a Frenchwoman and the chairman of Laurent Culture, which specializes in fashion magazines and has recently started to get involved in the gaming industry."

"By the way, she's a widow. Her husband, Leo Laurent, has been dead for over a decade. You can proceed with confidence."

"As for the lady next to her..."

"Ok?"

Mr. Blue Eyes let out a soft, puzzled murmur.

"I couldn't find any information about her in Night City, that doesn't make sense."

It should be noted that Mr. Blue Eyes' control over information about Night City is even greater than Jiang Bing's. The fact that even he couldn't find any trace of a certain person can only mean that that person is either from another place or from outer space.

"There's no entry record at all. I suspect they might have come in illegally. The border wall really needs to be rectified; it's outrageous."

Jiang Bing patted the other person on the shoulder and comforted him, "Come on, even if you block all the holes under the border wall, they still won't be able to find out."

"Don't think about it, he's just a friend of mine."

Jiang Bing's gaze followed the two women as they entered the inner area, while the blue-eyed man stroked his chin, a mysterious smile spreading across his face as if he were thinking of something.

Since this event is called a charity gala, it must include a banquet segment.

However, as is customary, guests will need to wait a short while in the banquet hall before all the guests have arrived.

Although the formal charity gala has not yet begun, the clashes among the guests and the battle for fame and fortune have already officially started.

Luxury and dazzling colors dominate the hotel's banquet hall, which serves as the main venue.

The jewelry worn by celebrities, the platinum ties of political elites and business leaders, high-end watches, cool prosthetic seams, or avant-garde metallic skin all receive the champagne-colored light cascading from the crystal chandeliers on the ceiling and scatter it in all directions.

A professional band played a string trio in the corner.

A large number of media outlets huddled against the walls of the banquet hall, their cameras pointed at the meticulously dressed, glamorous urban women, frantically consuming their camera storage space.

The world of fame and fortune is brought to life at this moment.

Chapter 776 The Witcher's Operating Principles

On the long table area, gleaming art glassware was displayed on cream-colored satin cloth, with large bowls of crushed ice on top. Artificial caviar shimmered with the luster of black pearls within, and colorful macarons were carefully plated by the waiters, resembling a multicolored pyramid.

Of course, most of the drinks were glasses of different kinds of wine.

Champagne, white wine, red wine, single malt whiskey, and pre-mixed drinks that look good but don't taste good all gleam with the glow of power and desire under the lights. Then, they are picked up by fingers that are either fair or rough, metallic or fleshy, strong or nimble, and slid into stomachs full of fame, fortune, power, money, lust, and vanity.

Of course, people who come here rarely drink these drinks specifically; serving them seems to be just a social icebreaker.

Of course, there was one exception.

With calloused fingers, he simply picked up a glass of red wine and poured it into his mouth, which was full of macarons, relieving the dry and sticky feeling of the dessert.

However, the bitter taste, full of the harshness of industrial processing, made the other person involuntarily scrunch up.

"It's really awful. I don't understand why the drinks here are so bad when you're so developed," Ciri complained.

Camille Laurent affectionately wiped the dessert crumbs from the other person's mouth with his finger and said, "Although this banquet is already very high-class, the organizers would not serve wine of the caliber of 'East of the East' to their guests."

"Kami, have you found the 'East of the East' distribution network?"

"Didn't I tell you, Ciri? It's a Night City gang called 'Anti-Entropy.' They're extremely dangerous. Please stop investigating, okay?"

"Kami, you know I can't do it, it concerns my hometown."

“Ciri, let’s not talk about such unpleasant topics. How about trying the oysters and caviar here? They look like high-end goods ordered from a private ecological matrix, and the quality is decent.” Camille Laurent did not argue with her and changed the subject at the right time.

She is an extremely intelligent woman; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to successfully preserve the company and even expand it after her husband's death, amidst a competitive environment.

"No thanks. Your desserts are very good, but the other food is really not good."

Compared to the language barrier she faced more than half a month ago, Ciri's powerful learning ability, granted by the Ancient Blood, now allows her to communicate fluently in English with the beautiful widow beside her.

Of course, this also owes much to the other party's tireless teaching.

“Ha, look who this is, the ‘fashion tyrant’ Camille Laurent and her new mistress.” A pot-bellied Frenchman shamelessly sidled up to them.

He held up his long mustache, spoke frivolously, and looked disdainful.

Rivals are common in the same industry, and in this hub of the fashion world, rivals are everywhere.

"Thomas Dubois, if you have no manners, then shut your stinking mouth." The pretty widow glanced at the media in the corner, trying her best to maintain her elegance.

But the other person was clearly even less rude than she had imagined.

"I hope you still have the leisure to do this when your company goes bankrupt, or you can move your lousy company to Taipingzhou, which is a fashion desert with great potential, because Night City will soon have no place for you."

Thomas Dubois runs a fashion media company that originally focused on high-end fashion magazines and online portals, but recently he has boarded the ship of Parisian luxury giant 'Dallas Imprint' and is now squeezing Laurent Culture's market and living space.

Of course, this is Night City, and their business tactics aren't this formal.

Sending people to threaten the other party's printing plant suppliers, attacking the other party's location shooting team, using both soft and hard tactics to poach the other party's contracted high-end models, and hiring hackers to attack the other party's portal website are all measures he has recently taken.

As for the results, they can only be described as remarkable, forcing Camille Laurent to accelerate his expansion into the gaming industry.

“You’d better shut your mouth.” Ciri wasn’t going to put up with him.

Thomas blushed at the barbed words: "You have no right to speak here, you bitch. Who do you think you are? You're just a slave and a plaything. And you're acting like a hero? Let me tell you, all I want is..."

Before he could finish speaking, Ciri narrowed his eyes slightly, his lion-like emerald pupils radiating an invisible pressure that made the other man's foul language freeze instantly.

Ciri is a real killer who has taken quite a few lives. While she might not be ruthless, she certainly cuts people down like slicing vegetables.

Similarly, she also possesses 'ancient blood' and is proficient in spacetime magic, naturally placing her in a 'superior' position.

"Mouths are for talking, not for spewing filth, you fat pig. If you don't want your head, I can help you take it off." Compared to the demure widow who needed to worry about her image, Ciri's approach was much simpler and more brutal.

As a 'wild child' raised in Kaer Morhen, the den of witchers, Ciri's personality is far more vulgar and ruthless than her appearance suggests.

The other party's behavior over the past few days and his current performance have truly made her want to kill him.

It wasn't until Camille Laurent patted Ciri's arm that her anger was temporarily quelled.

In this environment, Thomas Dubois could not afford to fly into a rage, as that would undoubtedly be undignified.

He could only bitterly utter harsh words: "Just wait, I'll show you who's in charge of Night City."

But the 'Lion Cub of Sintra' doesn't have the habit of waiting until the next day to seek revenge.

Killing someone here is troublesome, but collecting some interest is not difficult at all.

While Thomas Dubois got up to go to the restroom, Ciri took the opportunity to leave Camille, who was exchanging superficial pleasantries with his colleagues, and went to the restroom as well.

As a high-end venue in Night City, the guest restrooms are naturally very luxurious and huge, and are also quite far from the banquet hall.

Ciri, holding a stone ornament she had casually picked up from the windowsill, used her agility and the keen senses honed by the training of several Wolf School witchers to hide in a corner where no one would notice her. Before Thomas went into the bathroom, when the corridor was deserted, she tiptoed up behind him and slammed her hand into his balding forehead, knocking him to the ground.

Just as she turned to run away, she suddenly froze.

Behind her, by a pillar in the corridor, Jiang Bingzheng leaned silently, watching her every move.

"You saw everything?" Ciri asked coldly.

“I can only say that you are truly worthy of the title, ‘Little Falcon’ (Nefgarian German).” Jiang Bing looked the other person up and down with a playful expression.

Chapter 777 Charity Auction Begins

The moment the Nilfgaardian word 'Little Falcon' was uttered, Ciri's expression changed drastically. She instinctively reached for her shoulder, only to find it empty, before belatedly placing her hand on her waist.

There is a small dagger there.

"Who are you?" hope looked at Jiang Bing with a slightly strange expression.

The 'Ancient Blood' was conveying a subtle feeling to her.

That's the instinctive reaction of a cat to bristle its fur when it encounters a lion.

“Vesemir and Geralt’s friend, and also your friend, of course, my past and your future friend.” Jiang Bing had no intention of being a riddle-maker and told him directly.

Surprisingly, the other person understood his words, which sounded completely incomprehensible to a normal person, with remarkable ease. For some reason, they actually lowered their guard in a short period of time.

"Have you been to my world? How did you get back? Are you also an owner of 'that'?" Ciri fired off a barrage of questions.

“You can just say ‘ancient blood’,” Jiang Bing pointed out the test that the other party had intentionally left behind.

"I can explain it to you slowly, but are you sure it's here?"

Jiang Bing pointed to the 'victim' lying on the ground, and then to the corridor behind him.

Ciri glanced at Jiang Bing a few more times, and finally decided to temporarily truce.

Having finally found a safe haven to recuperate and catch her breath amidst the Wild Hunt's relentless pursuit, she naturally didn't want to act rashly or expose her power prematurely.

So, after Camille Laurent had finally finished exchanging pleasantries with his colleagues, he discovered that the sky was about to fall.

She had no idea when her home had been 'stolen'.

Her bed partner, her soulmate, was sitting on the sofa in the corner, chatting animatedly with a man.

So she hurried there.

“Grandfather paradox, what a strange name, but what you said does make sense,” Ciri said with a smile.

“You don’t seem surprised at all,” Jiang Bing asked.

What's so surprising?

"A situation where the two sides are out of sync in time and space."

“Because I’ve encountered this before.” Ciri raised an eyebrow, about to elaborate, but stopped when Camille Laurent appeared beside her.

Some things can only be told to those who are "like them".

"Ciri, and who is this?"

"Kami, let me introduce you. This is a friend of mine..." Ciri suddenly stopped speaking, as she didn't know Jiang Bing's name yet.

Fortunately, Mr. Jiang spoke up in time to help her out of the predicament.

“Sabul Lyric, a native of Night City.”

“Hello, Mr. Sabur.” Camille Laurent extended his hand, his eyes scanning Jiang Bing’s face.

'Damn it, he's a pretty boy,' she thought, her sense of crisis growing stronger.