The Creators: From Night City

Page 387

Mitch, a restless soul, leaned against the window and chatted with Panan.

"Yes, the renovation project is supposedly going to start by renovating the entire northeastern part of Coronado Farm, building affordable apartments for rent, and supposedly a total of 40 buildings," Panan said, sharing the inside scoop he'd gotten from Vincent.

“Night City hasn’t seen such large-scale construction in over a decade,” Mitch remarked.

“It’s just that the slums don’t have them,” Scorpion suddenly said.

The car fell silent.

Once the car had crossed the sea bridge and entered Watson District, Mitch couldn't help but continue, "Hey, did you know that Night City's middleman queen, Rogge, was once married to our former leader of Adcardo, Santiago?"

"The Meta family was able to entrust the Santiago family to ask her to act as an intermediary this time because of this friendship."

“That sounds like the Santiago family has received a lot of benefits from the Meta clan,” Parnan reasonably speculated.

“Absolutely,” Mitch nodded in agreement.

“Even close brothers keep clear accounts. Besides, Adcardo and the Meta clan aren’t family.”

Chapter 794 Sandra Dorset

"Besides, that's all old news from back then." Panan lightly pressed the accelerator, easily overtaking a convertible supercar next to him, and using his massive size and menacing appearance to intimidate the other party.

Mitch, still intrigued, continued gossiping, "They even had a son, did you know that? He's currently in the Santiago family."

“Mitch, tell us something we don’t know. It’s not that surprising. Thor has told us about it many times when he was bragging to us.”

Mitch glanced mysteriously at the convoy behind them, and said with absolute certainty, "Their son is here too, he's in the convoy behind us. I saw him when I got in the car just now."

"Wow~" Panan couldn't help but exclaim.

This is really big gossip.

“But how did you figure that out, Mitch?” Panan quickly discovered the blind spot.

“You’ll understand in a moment,” Mitch explained.

Once everyone got out of the car, Panan instantly understood the reasoning behind Mitch's words.

"Like, very similar."

Panan had met Rogge more than once. This middleman queen was very kind to the wanderers, especially those from the Adcado clan. Many wanderers who came to the city to make a living had received her care.

While Roger's son doesn't look exactly like his mother, they are very similar.

The next life will still be just as noisy.

Especially after Arasaka withdrew from Night City, a huge power vacuum emerged, and major corporations, gangs, marginalized individuals, and big money makers were all eager to make a fortune from it.

As the 'underground heart' of the entire Night City and also the largest hub for information, it is naturally overcrowded every day.

Emeric Brunson, the gatekeeper, remained unchanged, his cold face intimidating any potential troublemakers.

But what's unusual today is that his location has moved from the entrance to the afterlife to the main entrance of the building (the afterlife is underground).

This was mainly because his boss, Roger, unusually came out to greet him at the door.

Of course, the Meta clan didn't have that much influence, and Rogge did this purely out of longing for his son.

The group surged into the building in a grand procession. For the first time, Panan felt that it was good that Saul was the head of the Bright family. At least all the long and tedious social engagements were piled on him, and had nothing to do with him.

"Mitch, Scorpion, let's go to the bar for a drink."

The two, who couldn't leave but didn't want to be sidelined, readily agreed.

There weren't many people at the bar. After all, most people who came to Lai Lai Sheng were there to take jobs, pick up casual work, meet up, or make transactions. Not many of them actually came to drink.

"Have you really met the big boss of [Anti-Entropy]?"

Before the three of them even got close to the bar, Panan could faintly hear the bartender chatting with a customer.

The woman speaking was a young-looking girl with short, white hair combed back. She wore a white functional jacket and black leather pants, giving her a very capable appearance.

Behind her followed a silent marginalized figure, clearly her hired bodyguard.

“Yes, I’ve seen it before, more than once,” bartender Claire replied, wiping a glass.

"What kind of person do you think he is?" the patron asked the bartender.

"What, are you interested in [Reverse Entropy]?"

“Of course, who in Night City isn’t interested in [Anti-Entropy] right now?” the drinker replied.

"If you want to get on this 'hot' line, I advise you to give up on that idea. [Anti-Entropy] is different from other companies."

The bartender's words only piqued the female customer's interest further.

"How so? Where is it different?"

A glass of tequila was placed in front of the female customer by the female bartender.

"Everywhere is different."

"Hey, don't go! You still haven't told me what kind of person the boss of [Anti-Entropy] is!"

The female bartender, however, went straight over to greet Panan and his two companions.

"What would you like to drink?"

"Two 'Johnny Silverhands' and one 'Weyland Old Serpent'," Mitch ordered the three of them with practiced ease.

"Recently, there seem to be quite a few people inquiring about [Anti-Entropy]."

The female bartender kept busy while agreeing with her.

"Of course, after all, such a big incident happened recently. Did you guys watch the live stream that day? Tanks and planes were brought out by [Anti-Entropy]. The scene was as big as if we were going to fight the Fifth Corporate War."

"And those soldiers in power armor, it's said that only a small number were deployed on the day of the attack on Arasaka Tower, and there are still several thousand stationed in 'Dogtown'."

At this point, Claire seemed to notice something, leaned forward slightly to examine the three's clothing, and immediately said, "It looks like you're wanderers from Adcardo. Why are you asking me if you haven't joined the [Anti-Entropy] transport team?"

“We’ve joined, but we’d like to hear more from the city folks,” Panan said.

“What else can we say? It can’t get any worse,” bartender Claire shrugged.

The three were more curious about how the other party had recognized them than about that question.

So Mitch asked the question.

"Simple. The residents of Night City don't dress so conservatively. Only those who frequently travel in the Badlands are covered up more tightly, since sandstorms can scrape off a layer of flesh from your exposed skin in no time."

Claire's reputation as a bartender in the afterlife is well-deserved; her keen eye is just one of her many excellent skills.

After mixing the drinks and answering the three people's questions, the female bartender rushed off to serve the others, but the female customer shamelessly came over.

Good afternoon, everyone. May I ask your names?

"What is it?" Panan asked with a stern face, keeping everyone at arm's length.

In Night City, it's best not to strike up a conversation with strangers easily, or you might get ripped off in no time—that's no exaggeration.

"I'm Sandra Dorset, a self-media personality. This drink is on me, all three of you. Could you tell me about your [Anti-Entropy] project?"

“We’re just running errands for [Anti-Entropy], we’re hardly internal staff,” Panan politely declined.

"Of course, of course, I'll just tell you what you already know. How about this, I'll pay for your meals today?"

Sandra Dorset activated her money power, but unfortunately, she failed.

"What, you're planning to start a column?"

"Of course, [Anti-Entropy] is currently very popular in Night City. Not only Night City, but the entire North America and even the world are focused on it. As long as my writing is substantial, my articles will definitely become a hit."

Panan glanced at Sandra Dorset's attire, then at the bodyguards behind her, and said, "You don't look like you're short of money, so why are you putting on such a desperate act?"

"The truth is right for the people to know. As a newly formed organization that is about to rule the entire Night City, everyone has the right to know what kind of organization [Anti-Entropy] is."

Chapter 795 I have already deciphered the runes

"Aren't you afraid that your little investigation will anger [Anti-Entropy] and you'll suddenly disappear?" Panan threatened mischievously, looking at the rich young lady in front of him with a face full of righteousness.

"Stop joking. I've done my preliminary investigation in cyberspace. [Anti-Entropy] isn't an organization capable of doing something like this."

Mentioning "Anti-Entropy," the wealthy young lady and self-media personality clearly became interested: "I've collected all the information I could find about 'Anti-Entropy' from its emergence in Night City until now, and I've discovered that your organization is just as strange as it gets."

"There is no large-scale business chain that is out in the open, no arms factories, no raw material production areas, and not even a complete development path that can be deduced."

"The entire force seems to have suddenly sprung up from the ground, and the organic businesses they're doing seem to have appeared out of thin air as well. It's very strange."

The major powers, analytics firms, and business intelligence organizations in the cyberpunk world are not stupid. The fact that Anti-Entropy has been shipping large quantities of organic food for such a long time cannot be kept secret from those who are interested.

However, even after searching the entire Badlands thoroughly, including by industrial spies from Arasaka, military technology, international electronics companies, Comtó, and even the food giant Regenerative Technology, they still couldn't find a source for [Anti-Entropy].

The transportation route and country of origin are also completely inexplicable.

Logically speaking, there are only a handful of companies and lands in the world capable of producing such large-scale organic food that can afford the planting pressure. However, after investigation, it has been found that all eligible origins have been rejected by major companies.

This has become an unsolved mystery circulating among executives of major companies.

They even suspected that there were hidden passages leading to the Earth's core beneath the Badlands, and wondered if [Anti-Entropy] possessed certain spatial expansion technologies, and even suspected that [Anti-Entropy] was a force supported by extraterrestrials.

But suspicion is just suspicion, and there's no better solution than to send more corporate spies.

We can't just launch a war of words over this, can we? [Anti-Entropy] clearly has nuclear weapons, and they only have one food processing plant. They look like they're barefoot. It doesn't seem worthwhile for them, who are well-off and have all the assets, to fight them.

"Have any of you met the boss behind [Anti-Entropy]? What kind of person is he?"

Sandra Dorset's prosthetic eye kept flashing, as if she were reviewing data.

"I couldn't find much information about him online. Compared to Arasaka Yorinobu, he's incredibly low-key."

"I suggest you go back to where you came from and don't get involved in this." The three homeless people didn't know whether what the other party was doing was good or bad, so they simply kept quiet.

Sandra Dorset continued to pry for a while, until Saul called the three away, but she couldn't get anything useful out of them and had to leave disappointed.

However, she will not give up. Compared to other media professionals, she has a significant advantage: she is rich.

She plans to talk to the "Queen of Middlemen" to see if she can arrange an exclusive interview through her.

She's willing to spend more money!

………………

'Heiml', the central area, the highest level of security, the 'workshop'.

Amidst the frenzied dance of countless silver snakes and the rising bolts of lightning, it seemed as if everything was about to be melted down.

Jiang Bing is forging iron.

However, compared to his previous 'forging' skills, even his casual practice now makes him inaccessible to most people.

Inside a wooden bird's nest structure made of countless Heimer branches, Jiang Bing, shirtless, held a conceptual hammer forged from golden flames and was striking the hastily completed giant sword in front of him.

After the World Stone separates from the main body, it will quickly transform from a blood-red material to an orange-yellow color. The orange-yellow sword blade, after being repeatedly struck by Jiang Bing with the Hammer of Light Flame, will then become a dazzling gold, like gold itself.

The sword, which is over two meters long, is densely engraved with countless runes, representing Jiang Bing's research on runic language during this period.

Since acquiring knowledge of the runeword system, Jiang Bing has been exploring its hidden potential.

As a [forger], his understanding of runes is far beyond what the likes of Zoltun Kulle could ever achieve.

Moreover, this creation language unexpectedly resonated with him.

These runes, which point directly to the fundamental rules of the world, are indeed, in a sense, 'creation codes', just as he thought.

Since its inception, writing has been used to record information, making it the best natural carrier of information.

In terms of both applicability and its symbolism in the realm of mystery, it far surpasses other mediums.

Runewords can be seen as a manifestation of the rules of the world, or even a manifestation of the fundamental rules at the very bottom of all the heavens and myriad realms.

Of course, it is merely the most clumsy imitation of the rules of the world.

These runic texts, obtained from the darkness, are simplified versions of what the mages of Sanctuary summarized when they peered into the essence of the world.

Their relationship to the original 'creation code' is somewhat similar to the difference between simplified Chinese characters and oracle bone script. However, simplified Chinese characters mainly focus on the convenience and fluency of writing, while the creation of these convoluted runes was a last resort for the mages who discovered them.

Their vision is too narrow and their understanding too shallow; they are simply incapable of comprehending, remembering, or recording that original 'creation code'.

Therefore, the most talented among them could only simplify and break it down, allowing the information it contained to become increasingly diluted until it reached a level they could accept.

Therefore, the knowledge that Jiang Bing obtained could only be considered a defective product.

However, for him at this stage, this knowledge is just right and can be used to enlighten him on the 'genesis code'.