Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 3. Food and Adaptation
The super skyscraper is located in the Watson district of Night City, and as soon as Carl recalled this Watson district, information about it emerged in his mind.

Watson District: Watson District used to be an industrial area with skyscrapers, nightclubs, corporate buildings, top medical centers and bustling food streets. It should have been the center of Night City until the financial crisis destroyed it all. Today, Watson District is the poorest neighborhood in the entire Night City. The two most vicious gangs, the Tiger Claw Gang and the Whirlpool Gang, are entrenched in the mean streets here.

NCPD danger level assessment: extremely dangerous.

The full name of NCPD is 'Night City Police Department', which means Night City Police Department. It is obvious that the place where Carl is now is an extremely dangerous place even for the police.

Generally speaking, it's good luck to travel to a place like this after traveling through time?

After all, for Carl, he was a little hungry now, and when he went out, there were several food stalls in front of him. Looking at the signs, it was the East Asian food he was familiar with.

It’s natural when you think about it. After all, Carl is now in Little Chinatown.

[Little Chinatown was once an extension of the city center. During the reconstruction of Night City, it was planned as the second city center. The company also developed this place. In the 40s, a large number of East Asian immigrants, mainly Chinese, poured into this place, hence the name "Little Chinatown". However, as the Watson District was abandoned, it also became a poor area in Night City.]

Walking up to the owner of the shop, Carl took a look at the damaged cushions with yellow-brown sponge exposed inside. His eyes swept over the greasy surface that even had some food residues on it. After searching for a while, he finally found a relatively clean seat and sat down.

There were other guests sitting on the other side of Carl's food stall. The boss was busy preparing food for them. In between, he said to Carl, "The menus are all on the screen. Just let me know when you've made your selection."

Following the direction pointed by the boss's greasy finger, Carl found that the place where the table should have been had been replaced by a glowing display screen. On that screen, a variety of foods were displayed along with their prices.

Judging from the appearance of the pictures, Carl had to say that the food looked appetizing.

Unfortunately, he happened to know a lot of knowledge, and the moment he saw things, he already understood some things.

In today's world, truly fresh organic food is rare and only available to the upper class. The food on the street stalls is supplied by protein farms and whole food factories. Artificial meat, hydroponic vegetables and synthetic spices are the mainstream food for the people of Night City. As for these things, their raw materials are often some wriggling white worms and algae.
Of course, some informal food processing factories may add some popular foods, but don't expect there to be rats among them. In this era, even if rat meat is contaminated, it is still a rare delicacy that you can brag about to others about its taste, not to mention that rats nowadays are rarer than the company dogs wandering around on the streets.

With images of insects such as worms and locusts flashing through his mind, Carl felt that there was no need to be so extreme in accepting food at the beginning, so he set his sights on a vegetarian diet.

Eating algae is also good.

He saw Chinese cold noodles. Judging from the picture, this food looked the most vegetarian, although real cold noodles are basically based on chicken or beef broth.

The raw material for making noodles is very trustworthy, it is wheat. Of course, the reason why it is wheat and not some other strange things is simply that wheat is more affordable than others.

In the United States, Petrochemical is the only company approved to commercially grow genetically modified wheat. The genetically modified wheat they cultivate is a high-sugar grain that can produce CHOOH2 through catalysis and fermentation. CHOOH2 is a synthetic alcohol. In today's world, this synthetic alcohol is the most standard combustible fuel. Petrochemical and its subsidiaries have millions of acres (1 acre is approximately equal to 6 acres) of farmland in the United States where genetically modified wheat is grown. This wheat often has a surplus during the harvest, and this part of the excess wheat will be sold to food factories, or donated to poor countries in the name of "humanitarianism" for public relations purposes. A small part of it will be donated to poor countries in the name of "humanitarianism".

Next to Night City, there is petrified land, so Night City can have a steady supply of normal wheat to make pasta as food. I heard that this genetically modified wheat tastes very delicious, but I don't know if it's true.

Carl looked at the price of this traditional Korean folk noodle dish, although it was called Zhonghua, and found that it cost three euros.

Considering that this stall is located in a poor area and the noodles are vegetarian, the price should be compared to the poor prices in other places. A meal costs three euros. It seems that the euro in this world is different from the euro in the previous life. It has been inflated for many years.
In the past, three euros were equivalent to about twenty-three yuan in the currency of Karl's country, but now it feels that the two are of similar value.

With new knowledge and information stored in his mind, Carl adapted to the city a little more.

"Boss, give me a Chinese cold dish."

But just when Carl took out the money and was about to ask the boss to give him a bowl of cold noodles to taste, an accident, or rather a daily routine in Night City, happened.

"boom."

With the bang of a kinetic pistol bullet leaving the chamber, the boss's head in front of Carl exploded.

This is not an exaggeration, but the truth. Even the skull could not contain the red and white inside and it exploded directly.

The splashed unknown liquid and the splattered skull fragments fell on Carl's face. When Carl blinked his eyes to restore his vision that was blocked by the flowing blood, the body in front of him that had lost its head and turned around halfway because of the shouting had collapsed to the ground.

"Fuck you, Sixth Street Gang! How dare you come to our Whirlpool Gang's territory? Let me open your crotch!"

Amid the crazy shouting in the distance, Carl saw that the people who had been sitting opposite him had hidden under the table of the stall. Their movements were so skillful and their reactions were so quick that it was breathtaking.

Listening to the shouting and gunshots coming from a hundred meters away, Carl took a second to understand what was going on.

Two gangs started exchanging fire, and the stall owner was accidentally hit by a stray bullet.

If that stray bullet had hit me, my head would have been blown off.

This is true.
“How can one adapt to this?”

After wiping the blood off his face, Carl already held the pistol.

You can't even eat a meal in peace, I'll fuck your whole family!
(End of this chapter)