Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 806, Section 16: Detective Investigation
In the mercenary profession, investigative commissions are like the milder form of cyberpsychosis cases—they do exist, but are extremely rare. Most mercenaries are better at using bullets than their brains to investigate clues.

But Carl often received investigative assignments. He had always been curious about this kind of thing, and after thinking about it carefully, he realized that the reason he took on so many investigative assignments was probably due to his part-time job at the "Dangerous Girl" detective agency.

The impression given by those detectives dressed in cat-ear JK uniforms clearly gave him the wrong label—clients seemed to genuinely believe that this part-time bodyguard, essentially a mercenary, also possessed the investigative talent of an agency.

At first, Carl wasn't very good at it, since this kind of thing really does take time to learn. But after taking on more jobs, Carl got used to it. Just like a straight man who spends a lot of time at a large bird farm will eventually become familiar with the characteristics of certain sexual orientations. After doing it a lot, he actually figured it out.

Although Carl's infiltration skills are not yet at their peak, and he still cannot move freely in heavily guarded facilities like a professional and legendary spy, fortunately, infiltration only accounts for 30% of the investigation work. The remaining 70%—tracking, extracting information, and data analysis—are handled with ease by Carl's street smarts accumulated over the years.

Even so, investigating such a giant as a biotech company is by no means an easy task.

Logically, Carl could have easily used his extensive network of connections in Night City—information from several intermediaries, plus database access from his NCPD insider—to deliver results to Mr. Blue Eyes within 48 hours.

However, the client's special requirements completely blocked this path: absolute secrecy was required, no trace of investigation could be left, and even the biotechnology security robots could not be alerted.

This means that all conventional methods have been locked down.

Without informants, without conventional data hacking, and without even using those shady black market intelligence dealers, Carl had to work like a true ghost, uncovering the truth without alerting anyone.

To be honest, this was definitely not an easy task, but perhaps that's why Mr. Blue Eyes assigned it to KK, and KK took it on because he thought it was challenging.

The city's neon lights cast shifting patterns of light on Karl's face as he glanced at the progress bar on his phone, maintaining a perfectly measured pace of walking—neither too fast to attract attention nor too slow to seem suspicious.

The mess in Dogtown hasn't been cleaned up yet, President Miles is still stirring up trouble in Night City, and now a mysterious blue-eyed man has appeared. This murky water is getting more and more interesting.

A slight smile appeared on Carl's lips. As long as he wasn't sitting in an office staring blankly at a computer, this kind of task full of unknowns suited his taste perfectly—after all, his interest was indeed a major factor in the way he took on jobs these days.

'We need to think about how to conduct the investigation.'

Carl was no stranger to the biotechnology company, after all, the bismuth subsalicylate he loved was created by biotechnology. This Italian company owns the patent rights to bismuth subsalicylate fuel, and now every car on the streets of Night City has fuel in its tank that is refined from this patented technology of the biotechnology company.

How could I not remember a company that I'm in contact with every day and that's always around me?

And that is precisely why the investigation was more difficult than expected.

When Carl thought about companies that had already infiltrated every aspect of life, he suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu, as if he didn't know where to begin.

He couldn't just barge into the biotech company's headquarters in Night City and steal information from there.
It's not impossible. In Karl's memory, Sasha had done it before. She was almost dead, and Karl saved her with his inexperienced surgical skills. If it were Karl, he wouldn't have to go through the same difficult and dangerous situation as Sasha. It's just that the employer requires that there be no disturbance or traces left, which makes it a bit difficult.

"So, I guess I have to start from the outside?" Karl muttered to himself as he turned into a dilapidated apartment building in the Santo Domingo district. By the time he reached the top floor, he had already disguised his face.

Carl stood on the edge of the high-rise building, looking out over the city. The night wind whistled past, carrying the noise of advertisements from drones. In Carl's line of sight, he spotted several biotechnology facilities that he vaguely recognized.

The Santo Domingo Coronado Farm District can be described as a biotechnology industrial zone. This area is dotted with various farms labeled with the word "biotechnology," some of which are protein farms, some are wheat gluten farms, and some are rumored to be improvement farms with unknown effects.

Outside these farms, there are some biotechnology warehouses scattered on the periphery. These warehouses, classified as Level 3, have a low level of security and are easy to acquire.

Carl decided to start with these marginal farms.

These warehouses have low security levels, making them less likely to trigger alarms, and you might even find some unexpected finds—large companies understand the principle of hiding the darkest corners and always like to conceal their shady dealings in the most inconspicuous warehouses.

Carl's phone was hacked, and Mr. Blue Eyes' information appeared on the phone.

The information was limited, mainly the mission deadline and contact details, but nothing particularly informative. If one had to point out one thing, it would be that he recommended Karl focus on transportation.

That's a good suggestion.

Carl quickly hacked into the surrounding traffic monitoring system and began filtering the data. This level of public surveillance was nothing more than data obtained by ordinary prosthetic eye scans or by street hackers, and it wouldn't alarm the cybersecurity of biotechnology.

After cross-referencing, he quickly identified the target – several transport vehicles that frequently traveled between the biotechnology headquarters and the badlands.

The vehicles' driving patterns are strange; they always take extra routes and stop at certain coordinates at fixed intervals. Although this doesn't happen every time, every four days, one vehicle will follow this bizarre path.

What's even more intriguing is that one of the locations that was visited by a detour was one of the low-security warehouses that Carl had previously been eyeing.

It seems we've found a clue.

In Karl's view, the warehouse lights he was watching went out in the night, and amidst the lights that shone from the warehouse, a group of busy workers poured out, leaving only the night shift staff behind.

Time is.
Ten twenty.

I got off work quite early.

(End of this chapter)