Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 79 57. Efforts to disguise

"Have you finished reading it, Carl?"

"I guess so. There's one last short section."

Carl answered Oliver's words.

At this time, the three of them had already come out of Lao Wei's clinic and found a roadside restaurant to sit down. After making sure that there were no one at the tables nearby, Carl began to read the identity information to Jack and Oliver.

"Gaius, seventeen years old, born in Heywood, was an abandoned baby on the street and was picked up and raised by an unknown scavenger. When he was four years old, the scavenger who raised him died in a street gang gunfight. After that, he began to survive by rummaging through trash cans on the street. It was not until he was twelve that he was spotted by a priest and began to help the priest. He is now seventeen years old."

"Sounds like a kid who grew up in the Highwood area."

Jack made his assessment as a Haywood man.

"Is this a common situation?"

Carl asked, and Jack gave an answer: "It's not common, but it's definitely not uncommon. I remember that the old truck head had this kind of background. It seems that he went to the NCPD to register as a formal personnel when he was 21 years old, and then he started driving a truck. Before the age of 21, his life experience was not much different from this Gaius."

"So, there's nothing wrong?"

"That's it."

Listening to Jack's words, Carl flipped through the registration information of Arasaka Academy. After filling in Gaius's relevant information on the official website, a payment interface popped up.

"Come to think of it, if a street slicker suddenly had 10,000 euros and used it to go to school, would it be strange?"

Before transferring the money, Karl asked.

"What's so strange about that? A normal person can afford a deposit of 10,000 euros."

This was Oliver's answer, and Carl looked at him strangely when he heard what he said.

"I remember someone told me that he had less than 2,000 Euros on him before completing his first mission. Is that appropriate for you to say?"

"It's just a joke. It's obviously less than 1,500 Euros."

Oliver shook his hand to indicate not to care so much, and then looked at Karl’s face that had changed back to its original state before leaving the clinic and said, “How was the change in appearance? Was it easy?”

"It's OK, but every time it changes, I can feel the nerves on my face being pulled. To be honest, it hurts a bit if it's too fast. I think this thing can't change too many times, otherwise the facial nerves might be left with phantom pain. I have to ask Lao Wei to help remove it as soon as possible after the mission is over."

"Otherwise, the people who use military technology wouldn't let it be taken away by the people below. Researchers are always like this. No matter what the mess and sequelae are, they will develop it first."

"This can be considered a form of scientific research, but generally speaking, humans shouldn't be used for experiments."

Carl said, and immediately stopped the mission-related conversation when he saw the restaurant waiter approaching.

"What would you like to order, my three guests?"

Oliver: "A large portion of pork chop rice bowl, with a cup of Zen tea."

Jake: "Extra spicy Italian sausage pizza, large, and a bottle of I Am The One."

Carl heard their orders and translated them for himself in his mind.

Worm composite steak rice bowl, Japanese tea foam drink, locust pizza, and super sour lemon juice mixed with water.

"What about you, guest?"

When the waiter looked at Carl, Carl had also thought about what he wanted to eat.

"A glass of real water, creamy macaroni and cheese, and then," Carl hesitated, and to the surprised eyes of Jack and Oliver, added a serving of fried meatballs.

"Understood, please wait a moment, sir. It will be served soon."

After the waiter wrote down what the three wanted and left, Oliver was the first to be unable to hold back his surprise and asked Carl, "Is this what you ordered for us, Carl?"

"If it's ordered for us, we can do it ourselves."

Jack also said this with a look of surprise on his face, but Carl's answer was quite firm: "I'm going to try again."

"Mano (brother), are you sure?"

Jack confirmed it again and said with some concern: "You don't have to force yourself to accept the food you have now. Isn't pork going to be shipped soon? Eat real meat then."

"I don't want to adapt to synthetic food, but I have to try to adapt to the mission."

Carl nodded his face and said, "I can refuse to eat synthetic food, but a person who grew up on the streets and rummaged through trash cans when he was young cannot refuse to eat synthetic food. If I eat synthetic food with that face and get sick in front of the people from Arasaka Academy, I will be exposed."

"There's no need to embarrass yourself like this, Karl. At worst, we'll be exposed. We can find another way to do this mission. There's really no need for you to be wronged in this regard."

Oliver was also trying to persuade them. To both of them, Carl trying synthetic food was much more unbelievable than accepting any kind of prosthetic transformation. The latter was just a daily routine for every street person, but from what they saw of Carl's performance in the past, the former could really be fatal. The blue face after eating was so horrifying that they were now trying to persuade Carl instead.

There is no such overbearing approach among friends where they force you to eat something just because you don’t like it.

"No need to say more, trust me."

Now that Carl has made his decision, he has no intention of changing it.

Four minutes later, everyone's food was served.

Oliver and Jack had no intention of eating. They stared at Carl with special concern and saw Carl hesitate but kept picking up the soft meatballs with his fork and putting them into his mouth.

The solemn and serious look, almost out of breath, was like watching Carl defusing a bomb that could explode at any time.

The meatball entered his mouth, and the teeth on his upper and lower jaws moved, taking it off the fork and then chewing it a few times.

"Well"

Carl felt his stomach churning and his throat rolling a few times. His body resisted instinctively, but he still forced himself to chew.

The meatballs were very soft and sticky. The feeling of chewing them was like a worm moving around in the mouth. After controlling his face and forcing it not to show any discomfort, Carl chewed a few more times.

The feeling left on my gums was like the last flapping of a dried-up cockroach corpse's wings.

Gulu.

Finally, Carl felt like he had swallowed a slug that was stuck in his throat and refused to leave, only willing to slide down slowly.

After eating a meatball, Carl felt himself sweating all over.

“I might not be able to do that.”

Carl chose to give up.

　P.S. Don’t think it’s too exaggerated. The author himself doesn’t know why he has this reaction to raw tomatoes. There is no ketchup or cooked tomatoes. I don’t know why I have this reaction when I bite into a raw tomato. Then I vomit instinctively. It has been like this since I was a child.

　　By the way, it is not an exaggeration to say that friends should remember to avoid certain foods. For example, the author remembers them very well. I have a special mobile phone notebook that records the dietary taboos of all my good friends. This ensures that when I cook or entertain guests, I will not let them eat food they don’t like. For example, one of my good friends is very similar to David. He cannot drink any carbonated drinks, and he cannot digest cheese and feels nauseous when drinking brown sugar water. Everyone is different. When you entertain friends, it is better to be careful. Some of them may really end up in the hospital if you are not careful.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)