Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 813, Section 23: Biotechnology – A Shocking Force
Is Taiping Prefecture still the same Taiping Prefecture?
Even the harshest critics would find it difficult to utter those words that have almost become a daily broadcast routine regarding Taiping Prefecture today.

Because Taiping Prefecture is no longer the Taiping Prefecture it once was.

After the Voodoo Gang was destroyed, the NCPD moved in, and a large influx of outsiders into Pacific State, this neighborhood, once a place of ruins and gang warfare, now has a basic sense of order and human presence.

Although there are still some chaotic areas near Dogtown due to the town's influence, Pacifico now generally has the order of the Watson District's northern industrial area.

Even though the northern industrial area of ​​Watson District is the territory of the Vortex Gang, comparing it to order might not be a very appropriate term, but that's the reality.

Compared to the anarchy of the past, Taiping Prefecture has at least established basic urban order, which may be far from perfect, but is far better than the lawless land of the past.

Rumors suggest that several companies have sensed the development potential of Taiping State and are gradually establishing branches there, attempting to tap into this newly discovered value hotspot. When it comes to sniffing out wealth, no one is more astute than businesses.

Rumors have also surfaced that the mysterious Ye Corporation has begun secret talks with the city council regarding the reconstruction plan for Taiping.

For the Night Clan, who created Night City itself, the revival of this city has always been ingrained in their genes. Whenever a possibility—even a faint hope—emerges to recreate the glorious metropolis of founder Richard Knight's dream, the Night Clan is always the first to roll up their sleeves.

I heard that in their boardroom, a holographic projection of Knight's manuscript still floats, those yellowed drawings flowing silently in the darkness, like the founder's undying obsession, outlining his ideal promised land again and again.

That city belongs to the company.

The current transformation plan for Taiping State may be the opportunity that Ye Corporation has been waiting for for many years. Obviously, Ye Corporation has put a lot of effort into the relocation of NCPD and the entry of new citizens. Otherwise, Taiping State would not have changed so much in such a short period of time.

Despite the undercurrents of corporate interests, Taiping Prefecture is now giving its residents a taste of city life for the first time.

The rusted neon lights began to flicker again, and data flowed like a faint pulse through the old streets and alleys. People stood in front of the cracked apartment windows, looking at the huge holographic advertisements projected by the newly built company tower in the distance, and more or less felt what this was like in the city of night, this was the city of 'light'.

For Carl, the changes in the Pacific were also quite significant.

When it was wise for Carl to travel, he mostly stayed in the car the whole way, even when he went to Dogtown. He didn't pay much attention to the scenery outside the car when passing through Pacific State, and he hadn't been to Pacific State for a while before.

It must be said that although the phrase "a scholar should be looked at with new eyes after three days of separation" is more appropriate to describe people than to describe a neighborhood, Carl genuinely felt a sense of surprise and admiration.

Where did this come from? Is this still Taiping Prefecture?
The Pacific State, once a desolate place filled with collapsed buildings and abandoned goods, is now teeming with people in just a few blocks that Carl walked through.

Among these people were dreamers who came to Night City from all over the world, as well as pioneers who moved here after hearing about the situation in Pacific State from various neighborhoods of Night City. You could also see a few NCPD officers in the crowd. If you didn't know who they were, Carl would have thought he was still in Santo Domingo.

This is certainly not meant to insult Santo Domingo, but compared to other neighborhoods in the city, Santo Domingo is indeed one of the poorer areas.

However, this doesn't seem too surprising, since this place already has the potential to become a top-tier resort destination, but it was abandoned in the past due to various factors.

With major companies reinvesting and the city council restarting public services, Taiping is changing every day.

For Carl, this rapid change brought unexpected trouble—he could no longer track down the transport vehicle carrying the biotechnology company's confidential goods.

For days, biotechnology has been secretly transporting experimental samples from Santo Domingo to the Pacific State. Although the final destination is Dogtown, the checkpoints leading to that closed area are not easily bypassed. Therefore, even though it's only a block away, biotechnology has established a hidden transit point in the Pacific State.

Tracking a transport vehicle in Taiping in the past was incredibly easy—the entire area was like an abandoned wasteland, and any moving vehicle would stand out conspicuously among the ruins, making it impossible to hide even if it was secretly transporting goods at night.

But now.
He stood in a blind spot of the surveillance cameras at the intersection, watching the endless stream of people on the street.

On the newly cleared road, all kinds of transport vehicles lined up in long queues: there were armored cargo vehicles with company logos, modified civilian transport pickup trucks, and even autonomous logistics drones shuttling at low altitudes. Every vehicle was in a hurry, and every second new vehicles joined this steel torrent.

Carl rubbed his eyes.

In this suddenly awakened neighborhood, his specific target was like a drop of water falling into the bay of Night City—he knew it was there, but could no longer distinguish it from the hustle and bustle.

'Working alone without any help is indeed difficult.'

Carl experienced the same difficulties he had only briefly felt since arriving in Night City. He had to admit that if it weren't for meeting Oliver and the others, Carl would probably only have qualified to enter the city on his own.

With friends around, Carl did improve very quickly, but because he always had someone to help him, he was indeed a bit clumsy when acting alone without any assistance. The various reconnaissance skills that should have been honed during his solo career had now become subjects he had to explore from scratch.

"Transport vehicle, transport vehicle."

Karl muttered to himself, his figure disappearing into the bustling crowd. After taking a few steps, he suddenly stopped—

Although I have control of the transportation route, which one is the target?
"Wait, cargo characteristics!"

Karl should have realized that his sluggish thinking might be due to eating too much barbecue earlier. Karl always felt that his thinking ability decreased a lot when he was acting alone, or rather, he didn't use his brain as much, even though he should be using his brain more at times like this.

He should start with the characteristics of the goods.

Nowadays, the trucks heading to Taiping State mostly carry machine parts and building materials, and at most some weapons. As for fresh food that requires low-temperature preservation? It's scarce, and for most residents of Taiping State, it's a luxury.

In other words, if the temperature of the transport vehicle is unusual, then that vehicle may be suspicious.

The temperature of vehicles transporting refrigerated biological experimental materials must be different from that of other goods in order to ensure the safety of the experimental materials. He only needs to identify vehicles with abnormal temperatures and then confirm them.

Based on the information I obtained from the warehouse, that warehouse was just one of the storage locations, responsible for daytime storage and transportation. Nighttime transportation was handled by another location, which wasn't recorded in the warehouse's records. However, one thing was certain: the biotechnology company would transport a batch of experimental samples to Taiping Prefecture every four hours, and I only needed to wait a maximum of four hours.

Four hours was enough for Karl to wait patiently. In fact, if he didn't care about the time, Karl had an even simpler approach: he could simply camp out at the warehouse he knew would be transporting goods and wait until the daytime when the transport vehicles arrived before tracking them down.

But that obviously requires too much time and patience, and Carl felt that he preferred four hours to that.

To confirm the temperature, Carl took out a scanner and went to an abandoned fire escape ladder. Using the terrain there, he observed the vehicles coming and going along the route. As he activated the instrument, the street scene in front of him was gradually replaced by blocks of different shades of color. Most of the transport vehicles showed a normal orange-red hue, while the few refrigerated trucks were only a mild blue.

Carl was prepared to wait for four hours, but luck seemed to be on his side the whole time. Carl only waited for four minutes before he found the suspicious target.

A striking indigo blue outline came into view.

It was an ordinary-looking white van with the words "Santo Domingo Synthetic Meat Delivery" painted on its exterior, but the scanner showed that the temperature inside its cargo compartment was abnormally low.

Even more suspiciously, the cab at the front of the vehicle was kept at a normal temperature, in stark contrast to the rear compartment—a typical biological camouflage technique.

Carl quickly noted down the license plate number, nimbly jumped down the fire escape ladder, and followed after the car while maintaining a safe distance.

On the streets of Taiping State today, a large truck obviously can't go very fast. Otherwise, the NCPD, which maintains order, and the special operations teams that can be called in at any time would make anyone who tries to speed through crowds pay the price. In addition, the roads, which are half-reconstructed, are complicated and some sections are open and closed at times, so the truck's speed can't go very fast, making it extremely easy to track.

Carl had initially prepared himself for a chase that would take place in slow time, but he hadn't expected it to be so simple.

Therefore, he maintained a constant speed.

Karl's constant speed was only relative. For some people who occasionally noticed a figure flashing past in their peripheral vision, that figure, as swift as the wind, was so difficult to track that it often disappeared from their sight the moment they turned around, making them wonder if it was just an illusion.

Even if some exceptionally perceptive individuals wanted to access their prosthetic eye's visual records, they wouldn't find a trace of it in the data that Carl had casually erased as he passed by.

Erasing people's data while passing by is an easy task for ordinary hackers, let alone Karl.

Even compared to the casual erasure by an ordinary hacker, the number of people that Carl erased was slightly larger and more densely packed.

It's just a difference between one and one hundred, it's just one more Chinese character or two more Arabic numeral zeros.

If Carl hadn't had to maintain a certain speed to keep up with the truck, even if he were to walk slowly and openly in the crowd, he could have ensured that he remained 'invisible' to everyone.

During Carl's pursuit, the vehicle he had identified as suspicious suddenly turned a corner and then vanished.

A large truck can't just disappear into thin air, especially since it just so happens to have disappeared from a construction site marked with construction signs on the outside but with hardly anyone inside.

It's not easy to avoid such a big car.

Carl navigated through the construction site, among the biotechnological security personnel disguised as construction workers, following the tire tracks until he saw the fresh tire marks on the gravel ground abruptly stop.

Following the trail, we arrived at a sunken platform. The metal railings gleamed coldly in the moonlight. It was a giant elevator disguised as a road, and it was currently emitting a pungent smell of engine oil mixed with static electricity.

'I see.'

Rubber scraps from the truck tires remained on the edge of the lifting platform, and Carl immediately understood what kind of trick this was.

Those guys hid the entire underground passage behind the construction fence.

Carl stealthily followed the electronic tracks left by the truck and unexpectedly discovered a brief glitch in the security system due to the truck inspection process—the scanning intervals of the surveillance cameras lengthened, and the laser tripwires on the ground temporarily went dormant. He seized this window of opportunity and eventually infiltrated a suffocating underground space.

Forty meters underground, an ecological dome the size of a football field is prominently displayed.

Carl held his breath as he watched researchers from the biotechnology company direct robotic arms to unload refrigerated compartments from a truck.

Fine water droplets condensed on the surface of the silver-gray container, which constantly emitted a chilling aura. The robotic arm emitted a low hum as it precisely connected the pipes to the interface of the cryogenic chamber, clearly preparing for some kind of complex wake-up procedure.

Carl's gaze was fixed on the cryo-chamber being dismantled. As the outer shell was removed layer by layer, his pupils suddenly contracted. Inside, he saw a creature that looked extremely familiar, yet which he had no idea should be there.

"Although I'd heard that these were just experimental prototypes, not fundamentally different from biomimetic animals, and that the Soviets had created similar mechanical biomimetic forms many years ago, seeing this lifelike creature in person still gave me a surreal, almost unreal feeling."

What was the cargo in that big truck?
There was only one thing on that huge transport vehicle.

It is an experimental product whose biotechnology is not yet completed and which is essentially no different from a biomimetic organism. Its real name and biotechnology code name are unknown, but it has a name in terms of appearance alone.

A name that anyone who sees that face can immediately recognize.

Triceratops.

Biotechnology is amazing; does it mean they're going to provide the super-cool pets for the wealthy, including dinosaurs?

(End of this chapter)