Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 908, Section 118: The Greatest Secret

Dogtown has a new king.

This news, along with the withdrawal of New America personnel and the Night City gangs and mercenaries' operation to wipe out the Cleaners, spread throughout Night City, and then throughout North America and the world.

The new king was named KK.

In various parts of the world that have arms trade dealings with Dogtown, those responsible for this sales channel boarded vehicles bound for Night City.

They must meet with KK as soon as possible to reaffirm with the new ruler how the interests that once belonged to Dogtown in the arms trade will continue.

Dogtown is a great place; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it's the best arms trading hub on the entire west coast of North America. We can't let this opportunity disappear just because someone else has taken over.

Meanwhile, the top executives of major companies have also obtained intelligence. They are still taking a wait-and-see approach to the ever-changing Dogtown. Apart from a few companies that have already sent personnel, most companies are still calculating how much new value this land can bring them.

To ensure that Dogtown remained his domain, Kurt Hansen wasn't particularly enthusiastic about interacting with the company. Apart from a few essential business dealings, his methods of controlling Dogtown were quite conservative and cautious.

Although the person in charge has changed, it's still KK, whom all the companies are familiar with. But whether KK will continue Hansen's behavior is anyone's guess, so there's no need to rush.

Not only are companies taking a wait-and-see approach, but even the middlemen who used to be familiar with KK have quietly changed their attitudes.

Now that KK is the lord of Dogtown, he naturally can no longer personally take over the mercenary work. So when they deal with each other, they begin to shift their stance more towards cooperation based on mutual benefit—such as outsourcing missions, entrusting some tasks to KK, and then having his people carry them out.

Although KK already possessed bargaining power with them on an equal or even higher level before becoming the King of Dogtown, the title of 'King' is ultimately a formal declaration, and some rules must be followed in a different way.

For KK, things like companies and middlemen are minor matters.

Because he's currently busy sending people to hunt down the people selling medicine.

He came to Dogtown to do two things.

They need to crack down on the street cleaners and deal with the drug sellers.

Now that the cleaners have been eradicated, the issue of selling medicine also needs to be resolved.

For cleaners who can be killed without mercy, matters related to drugs are actually a bit more complicated.

Because, apart from some neurodependent drugs, some medications are indispensable for the residents of Dogtown, such as some addictive painkillers.

Can this kind of thing solve everything? Of course not. Otherwise, not to mention anything else, just the issue of prosthetics alone would expose a whole bunch of cyber-psychotic cases caused by the lack of neural inhibition.

But letting things drift is not an option either.

Besides its iconic arms trade, another striking feature of Dogtown, which contrasts sharply with Night City, is the ubiquitous presence of drug addicts on the streets.

Due to the lack of formal regulations, even after the 'Ghost Hounds' imposed taxes, two things remained exceptionally cheap in Dogtown: weapons and medicine. This resulted in medicine being almost as ubiquitous as air, with drug addicts frequently seen on the streets. Carl felt little sympathy for those addicted to drugs, but he also understood that some people genuinely needed medication to maintain basic bodily functions, while others truly needed it for pain relief. Therefore, careful identification and categorized management were essential—far more complicated than simply 'killing without mercy'.

Simply put, what Carl is doing now vaguely resembles some of the practices he had in the hospital in his previous life.

For those who have been verified to rely on specific drugs to maintain bodily functions, he has designated personnel to control and approve the supply of drugs, but the source and destination of every dose and every pill must be recorded in detail and kept in both written and electronic form for comparison.

Then, he also had to establish a continuous verification mechanism: regularly check whether users still have a real need for the medication, and strictly prevent people from taking advantage of their illness to transfer controlled drugs into the underground market.

This is truly difficult to put into practice. After all, drug addicts can be seen even on the streets of Night City from time to time. In fact, the first dead person Karl saw when he came to this world was a drug addict. But some things are not something you should give up just because they are difficult.

Even though the situation in Dogtown is far more serious than in Night City, where everything has to be started from scratch and there are still many obstacles, it's still the same.

Now that Carl has taken control of Dogtown, Dogtown must follow his rules.

The first dead person Carl saw in this world was a drug addict, but Carl never forgot that man named Allen, and he didn't want to see another Allen die in front of him for that reason.

That's not how a person should die.

While Carl was dealing with matters related to Dogtown, he was also getting familiar with the AI ​​that was now stored in the Cerberus Action Feature Component.

It must be said that AI is indeed the best helper for humans in a certain sense. Although Karl has not yet considered rebuilding the relevant 'shell' for this AI so that it can operate as if it were in the neural matrix, its functionality has already helped Karl in many ways.

Furthermore, Carl had a feeling that the more he interacted with the AI, the more the smoothness of his prosthetic left arm spread throughout his body, as if his body was gradually taking control of the AI's control methods.

To put it in a strange way, Carl felt himself becoming more and more comfortable every day.

I've definitely become stronger, but it's more about my physical condition.

Carl's physical condition is getting better and better, to the point that he feels radiant. The hard work these past few days has not made him feel tired at all, but rather he is becoming more and more adapted.

Carl is now like a battery that is gradually being recharged.

If it weren't for concerns about AI, Karl would have had the dangerous idea of ​​getting a few more AIs to monitor their operation.

As Carl gradually became familiar with the AI ​​and even considered naming it Number One, the AI, which had gradually followed Carl and collected all the information, began to understand the present time. When Johnny arrived, it made a suggestion to Carl.

"The algorithm used to encrypt the target's chipset was written before the data was corrupted. I have the algorithm information and can help you decipher it."

This "intelligent" AI, which understands "survival," naturally refers to Relic, developed by the once-genius hacker Otto Cunningham.

That is the biggest secret concerning Johnny's existence.

(End of this chapter)