Chapter 21 Taiping District
Li Pan took Orange’s grocery shopping cart GALENA G240 to Taiping District, looking out the window at the flashing lights in the underground high-speed tunnel.
"You know Taiping District? Why is it called Taiping District?"
Cheng Zi glanced at him from the rearview mirror,
"...because it is planned to be on the edge of the Pacific Ocean?"
"Haha, I heard that Magellan traveled around the earth and crossed the ocean for three whole months. When they arrived at Lusong without encountering a storm, the crew members cheered that this was really a piece of the Pacific Ocean.
...But now it seems that they may just be lucky. But most people don't have this kind of luck." "
Military Academy Are you still teaching you these ancient histories?"
Li Pan shook his head and forwarded the message from the pastor to Chengzi,
"Name, home address and social security number, please help me find it."
Chengzi nodded, "Your girlfriend? "
Li Pan, "Friends and family members."
Cheng Zi, "I'll ask my colleagues to pay attention. Don't take it too seriously. This kind of thing will never stop." "Do you want to
fight with dogs?"
"Well, the old industrial area has been completely destroyed. , Gao Tianyuan has been in business for so many years, there are too many remnants under his banner, and the quotation is too high, so it will definitely not be possible to negotiate.
Since Ye Shi is unwilling to compromise and agree to the other party's conditions, then he simply starts from scratch and rebuilds a new production base. This is not just on the negotiation table. Threat. When the Taiping District was planned, a lot of benefits were given to attract skilled workers and immigrants to settle. Even I was moved.
But such a withdrawal from the bottom of the cauldron is equivalent to putting a noose around the neck. The plutocrats in the old capital area are not I will just sit back and ignore it. The riot of Akainu coming out of the cage tonight is probably just the prelude to the war."
Li Pan listened to Chengzi's explanation and looked at the sea on the other side of the cross-sea bridge in silence.
Due to severe pollution, the Pacific Ocean has long been divided by huge garbage continents and patches of red algae. Only the waters near the city center and the private resort islands are fenced off by the plutocrats with polymer membranes and using the Far Star Colonies. technology has shaped the artificial ecosystem. Let the rich at the top still enjoy the sun, beach, blue sky and sea on this decaying planet.
But for other citizens, all they can enjoy is Li Pan's eyes. As Orange's G240 drives out of the high-speed tunnel, what is revealed in front of them is the deep darkness, bloody and rotten smell. sea of garbage.
From a distance, it looks like a slum that covers the horizon. Yes, it is the Pacific Ocean. At the bottom is a sticky swamp of waste water and fuel from industrial areas. On top is all kinds of plastic garbage. It covers the entire coastal port area and cannot be seen at a glance. A huge continent of garbage.
It's not that the tax bureau doesn't levy pollution fines on factories, but companies have calculated and found that paying fines is more cost-effective than environmental rectification. Some companies directly hire gangs to 'steal' toxic waste and waste, as long as they don't get caught, that's fine. Where the garbage ends up is none of their business.
What's more, what 0791 needs now is economic recovery and job opportunities, so the police will not investigate particularly strictly. And to be honest, in a world where the gap between rich and poor is polarized, not many people care about environmental pollution. Topic.
So from a distance, Li Pan saw the endless torches at the end of the garbage island. Well, that was not a torch, but a burning oil refinery. A line of fire spread across the horizon, and thick smoke covered the sky.
In the war zone, the war in Taiping District has been ignited.
At this time, Cheng Zi's pupils flashed, he frowned, and passed the feedback information from NCHC to Li Pan,
"The situation is not good. My colleague told me that there are still sporadic exchanges of fire in Taiping District. The address where your friend lives They are also divided into war zones, and we can't go in and clean them up for the time being."
Li Pan nodded, "It doesn't matter, just have a map. I'll go in and take out their remains myself."
Chengzi advised, "You really don't have to wait until During the day? Once it is classified as a war zone, all nearby security systems and the Internet of Things will be offline. It is not recorded that the three-headed dog used heavy weapons to kill people! You don't know, there are seventh-level soldiers in that army Yes!"
Li Pan shrugged and took off the name tag on his collar,
"That's just right. Although I'm just going to collect a body, I don't mind killing two people."
Seeing that he couldn't be persuaded, Chengzi had to sigh. ,
"Be careful yourself."
When they arrived at the border, the useless NCPA group sealed the highway entrance and exit and huddled together at the checkpoint. The NCHC rescue convoy could only set up a temporary camp in the highway service area first and wait for clearance. Go out and save people.
Li Pan also got off the bus at the camp and was planning to say goodbye to Chengzi and follow the map to bring back the bodies of Daxiong's family. Cheng Zi stopped him.
"Someone can go in with you. Have you heard of cyberpunk?"
"That group of mercenaries?" The
famous cyberpunks are free mercenaries who resist the system, companies, and authority, and wander on the edge of the restricted area of society. .
Among these people are veterans who have survived corporate wars, elites who have failed to start businesses, technology gurus who live on the streets, and outlaws who wander in the wilderness. They are all legends who despise authority and refuse to succumb to the corporate system.
Okay, I exaggerated too much. This group is basically independent mercenaries with no affiliation, a small circle on the edge of the law. Sometimes they work alone, sometimes they form groups freely, taking on tasks as intermediaries for various forces, and working with various parties in the City of Night. All kinds of forces are involved.
Although the company does not like wild dogs, it throws some bones from time to time to feed the wild dogs in order to avoid direct conflicts between the company and the company, and between the company and the security bureau, intensify the contradictions, trigger a new war, and make all forces compromise with each other. A compromise measure adopted.
These mercenaries called cyberpunks are the forefront and buffer zone of corporate wars.
"I know some friends in the circle, 'ghouls', who go into battlefields to pick up corpses and collect weapons and equipment. I can take you for a while. At least it's safer if there are more people." "Okay, thank you."
So
in After being introduced by Chengzi, Li Pan met Wallenstein.
You can tell at a glance that this is a veteran who crawled through a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. He is equipped with artificial muscle fibers and ceramic bulletproof armor, gorilla arms, and high-explosive howitzers. He is a real fourth-level mercenary.
The other party glanced at Li Pan and had the same intuition, and nodded to Chengzi.
"...Have you ever killed anyone?" Chengzi asked curiously, "This is the first time I've seen him be so polite to a newcomer." "I'll
treat you to a drink another day."
Li Pan smiled at her and said goodbye to Chengzi for the time being. Join Wallenstein's team.
This ghoul is a team of 20 people who were temporarily assembled on site to pick up corpses.
The battlefield of vicious dog fights has always been a place where risks and opportunities coexist. Although there is a high probability of being wiped out by the three-headed dog's heavy mecha, if you can find level 4, 5, or even 7 equipment and weapons, Then switch from shot to gun and hit the jackpot all of a sudden.
Therefore, cyberpunks also have their own rules and regulations, and veterans are even more straightforward, without any nonsense, just send the battle map and get down to business.
"The rules are very simple. Whoever sees it first gets it. No grabbing is allowed. If you don't follow the rules, everyone will fight on the spot. No one owes anyone anything.
I will take you all the way for Chengzi. The coordinates are near battlefield No. 3. I will only wait for you for a quarter of an hour. , No waiting if it expires."
Because Li Pan arrived in a hurry, he rented the other party's spare equipment on site, a bulletproof vest with level 4 military alloy inserts, a level 4 military helmet, a gas mask, an emergency hemostasis kit, a first aid inhaler, and enhanced analgesia. agent, and a multifunctional engineer shovel. A set cost less than 2,000.
Well, if you rent it, you have to pay it back if you survive.
In addition, Wallenstein also sold him a magazine with seven bullets, priced at 150 per round, totaling 3,100, and the cash was reduced to 1,200. However, Li Pan also graduated from the military academy, so he naturally knew that these equipments were worthwhile.
Wallenstein also explained.
"These are my homemade level 5 armor-piercing implosion bombs. The three-headed dogs are wearing level 5 SBS space combat uniforms. They also have shock-proof self-healing biogel coats. Only customized ammunition can cause effective damage. Remember to at least Give him another shot in the head."
Li Pan looked at him,
"No ammunition for Akainu?"
Wallenstein said expressionlessly,
"No need, Akainu's supplies are limited, and he usually won't engage in firefights with us.
But those people , most of them are veterans of the Border Pest Management Force, and they basically clear the area during operations. They will not hold back when they see us picking up corpses. If
you see too much scenes inside later, don’t let me Vomit it out of the gas mask."
Li Pan nodded slowly, knowing it well.
Border pest control troops? This may be the strongest infantry in the history of human civilization. After all, usually, 'pest treatment' deals with aliens.
Of course, it is not limited to alien creatures. There are also various extraterrestrial civilizations, non-human beings, biohazards that are out of control in research institutes, mutant civilizations that have gone astray, and in short, all races that have the ability and potential to threaten the survival of human civilization. They are 'pests' and must be destroyed.
But don't think that these pest control troops are really 'guardians of mankind' or 'partners of justice', because many parallel earths have perished in their hands.
After all, the definition of 'pest' is decided by the Public Safety Council composed of corporate giants. In the final analysis, it is profit, so those that can make the company make money are 'beneficial pests', and those that may cause economic losses are' pest'.
Therefore, for front-line soldiers like the three-headed dogs, all living creatures in the Taiping District are bugs. Bugs have no hierarchy and will be destroyed upon discovery. This is the best way to deal with them.
So Li Pan put on his equipment and followed Wallenstein's team over the highway viaduct, avoiding minefields, forts and drone warning nets, and entered the center of Taiping District.
According to Ye's Group's plan, this is a comprehensive new city to be built as an industrial area and residential area, with various factories, apartment buildings and comprehensive commercial centers. There are streets and viaducts everywhere. It is like a steel jungle with extremely complex terrain.
From time to time, gunshots and explosions can be heard in the distance, echoing in the burning city of steel. It is clear that the battle has not stopped yet.
In order to prevent the three-headed dog's unrestricted riot control operation from being dispatched by camera surveillance and causing a public relations disaster, after entering the Taiping District, Xingtian also showed that he was disconnected from the virtual network. Li Pan could only rely on the map stored offline, and Hualun The subnet communication provided by Stein's team's drone sentry was used to confirm the surrounding situation.
Such a complex urban battlefield environment without electronic support is what experienced veterans fear the most. If there is a turret at any window and a shuttle sweeps over, it may directly wipe out your squad. And you can't place the reconnaissance drone too far away, otherwise the signal will be too strong and attract the attention of the three-headed dog, and a mobile team may be sent down from the sky to punish it.
Therefore, although there were no troops from both warring parties nearby, everyone approached very cautiously and moved slowly between various bunkers. They first cleared mines and then carefully collected the debris and equipment. It took a full hour to arrive at battlefield three.
"Sentinels on alert, start collecting, rest in place for twenty minutes after the end."
Wallenstein ordered, nodding towards Li Pan.
So Li Pan left the team and went to the apartment rented by Daxiong's girlfriend according to his social security account number.
Using the molecular blade of the engineer shovel to cut open the explosion-proof door, Li Pan entered through the fire escape, climbed up to the sixth floor along the elevator, and found the target room.
The scene was very tragic. Armor-piercing submunitions used in street fighting were used. The warheads of the submunitions broke into the apartment and imploded. The bullet warheads bloomed like fireworks. The blooming plasma fire burst from the central area, exploding the entire building into riddled with holes. A honeycomb, and the residents in the building were smashed to pieces by the splashing plasma in an instant. Under the high pressure and heat, the human body exploded like an egg in a microwave oven, splashing on the ceiling of the apartment where the mortgage was not paid off. , the sebum and internal organs burned into a scorched slurry and became sticky, and the broken bones were exploded everywhere.
Li Pan collected the human tissue at the scene, compared and confirmed the room number, medical insurance and dental records, and after confirming the identity of the deceased, he shoveled the remains of the deceased with an engineering shovel and put them in the NCHC biological tissue storage tank given to him by Cheng Zi. Due to the conditions We are limited, so we can only put mother and son together, so please ask the priest to put them and the remaining prosthetic bodies of Big Bear in an urn.
NCHC has limited manpower. Usually, when washing the floor, the corpse tissues collected are burned together into ashes. If the family members need it, some of it is packaged and distributed to them for funeral use.
Although you can ask Chengzi for a favor and let her come for a run after the battle is over. But Li Pan felt he had an obligation and came to collect the body himself.
No one asked him to do this, he just wanted to take a look for himself.
Take a look at Big Bear’s family members to see if they are really dead.
Take a look at the final outcome of most ordinary residents of Night City.
Now that he has seen it with his own eyes, let's go back.
So Li Pan walked back with the tissue canister on his back. When he returned to the gathering place, he saw Wallenstein smoking a cigarette and chatting with a soldier in black armor who looked like a robot from a distance.
Supported by an outer metal skeleton, the soldier was covered in a thick military alloy deck, just like an ancient heavy-armored knight. He was two heads taller than Wallenstein. At this time, only his chin was exposed, holding Wallenstein in his mouth. Stein gave him a cigar and chatted with him.
Behind the soldier, there is a huge robot more than five meters tall, with four legs and four arms. From a distance, it looks like a fat spider with long hands and feet. It is the famous spider-type multi-functional pan-terrain robot that Li Pan is most familiar with. Battlefield drone.
This is the most widely used equipment in the military. It is a real murder weapon and a full-featured weapon platform. It can be changed according to the needs of various battlefield environments and use various military weapon systems to provide fire support for front-line infantry.
As a specialized engineer reserve trained by the military academy, once Li Pan is drafted into the army, his most important task will be to repair and maintain the spider fleet, which is the main force of the infantry army.
As for the soldiers and drones, the fluorescent three-headed dog spray paint on the black-gold metal armor could not be more clear and conspicuous under night vision imaging.
The moment Li Pan walked out of the ruins, the spider drone immediately aimed its laser at him and forced access to his chip system to read the data.
'Identification, citizen, current employee of the company, with social security. '
'Psychic evaluation, blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue blue, deviation value 0, safe. '
So the spider turned the machine gun and turned to aim at the other cyberpunk mercenaries on the scene. The prosthetic eye on the three-headed dog soldier's helmet also turned around, glanced at Li Pan, took another puff of his cigar, and continued talking to Wallenstein.
"It's seven or three, I'll give you seven, give me the cash, now."
Wallenstein shook his head,
"The price you ask is too high, there are so many of us, and those prosthetics need to be reorganized before they can be sold on the black market, at most I'll give you 40%."
The three-headed dog turned its prosthetic eyes and stared at him,
"Do you think I'm a company dog? Hmm! Do you think I'm bargaining with you? Hmm! I think there are too many people, do you want me to kill a few of them now? Hmm!"
Li Pan walked towards them, walked all the way to the Spider-type, looked at the missile launcher that the Spider-type had shot empty, suddenly picked up the engineer shovel, activated the molecular blade, and struck with all his strength, directly breaking through the Spider-type unmanned aerial vehicle. The armored chassis of the machine struck directly into the core processor, hitting the core chip, causing the spider to shut down instantly.
When the three-headed dog soldiers and cyberpunks turned to look at him, "Bang!" there was a gunshot, and Li Pan pulled out the 'Black Kite' and shot the soldier's head off.
Then he came over, split open the soldier's corpse with a shovel, dug out the heart, put it in his dress trouser pocket, and walked back with the containment tank on his back.
Wallenstein stood there blankly throughout the whole process, staring, with brain tissue and plasma sprayed all over his face. He couldn't help but open his jaw, and the cigar in his mouth fell to the ground.
(End of chapter)