Hyperdimensional Player

Chapter 176 The Godfather
At this time.

Tasia took off her coat and lifted her tank top, revealing her lower back. Near her tailbone, she could see the implanted ports, somewhat like the metal connectors on the bodies of the characters in The Matrix. There were three ports in total, distributed along the spine. Duncan only saw two, because if he took off any more, he would be completely exposed.

"Mechanical nerve bundle".

Tasia shrugged and said, "One of the fundamental modifications to the Insight Sect. Everything has to be changed afterward. The whole person has to be hollowed out and stuffed with all sorts of strange mechanical bodies."

At this point, she crossed her arms over her chest, supporting her heavy breasts, and said regretfully, "These things also need to be cut off."

"Because it's a burden."

This is totally unnecessary.

It's such a shame to cut it off now that it's grown so big and has such a plump and firm shape.

Some of the ideas of the Mechanic school are not acceptable to ordinary people.

Especially for women, many female members of the Mechanicus cult have their uteruses removed to erase their gender characteristics, and because of their body shape and chest structure, they also have their ribs removed in advance.

If you like, they can even make you a soup.

Duncan looked at her with suspicion and said, "So you came to the parish of the Steel Angels?"

Tasia nodded and said, "Yes."

"If I can make a lot of money, or find something of value in ancient ruins, I can transfer to the cult of the Steel Angels."

Her words were half true and half false.

After all, their label is 'Rebel Group,' but nowadays the Mechanicus Cult is all-powerful, and everyone is mixed in with them. Not only rebels, but even cultists disguise themselves as Mechanicus members. Strictly speaking, all humans in this world are nominal followers of the Mechanicus Cult, since there are no other publicly acknowledged faiths.

If you don't like believing in God and don't have the talent or ability, then just lie down and be honest.

Everyone's playing a double agent game in there.

Tasia was really trying to win Duncan over like a young boy. When she left, she left Duncan a small bottle of engine oil, raised an eyebrow and said, "Here you go."

"Your gun hasn't been serviced in a long time, don't let it jam at a crucial moment."

"correct."

At this point, she smiled ambiguously and said, "Don't use it for strange things, okay?"

This woman talks nonsense.

But as everyone knows, motor enthusiasts don't have many desires, and they even have very few emotions. Joking is extremely rare for them.

If a guy with a lot of motor oil is driving you, you'd better watch out.

One of the permanent states of the Cult of Machines is the ability called Mechanized Mind.

As the name suggests, it means that one's mind becomes like that of a robot.

Duncan reached out and took the engine oil, which was in a small bottle, about the size of a bottle of Tiger Balm. They didn't even bother to give a little more when they were giving it away. Who do they think they are, giving me such a small amount of engine oil? Give me a whole can! People would think I can't afford it.

—Mechanical Holy Oil (Rare Item): One of the most common holy oils in the Cult of Mechanics. When applied to firearms for maintenance, it can accelerate cooling, reduce jamming, improve accuracy, and reduce wear.

(Some motorists also use it as a daily beverage to soothe their throats.)
Can you drink this stuff?

Duncan opened it and smelled it. It smelled similar to Tasia's body odor, a faint smell of engine oil masked by perfume. It wasn't too pungent, but rather slippery and sticky.

He tried it out, and after the maintenance, loading the magazine felt much smoother.

It's just a bit too little.

When the new living area was first established, everyone was short of supplies, and they had to be transported over little by little. Ordinary immigrants couldn't bring too many belongings, and no one knew where Tasia got them from.

People from all walks of life immigrate here to start from scratch and look for opportunities. Those with family wealth become Brahmins in the old town.

Although the lower levels of the city are somewhat chaotic, one cannot kill people indiscriminately.

At least in the settlements, there is a strict legal order; only outside the residential areas is it a lawless territory.

Everything is just beginning.

As more and more immigrants arrive, a no-man's-land will gradually form around District F46. They will dig out small outposts on their own, but those places will basically be left unmanaged by the Cult of Machines.

The Mechanicus is a theocratic ruling system. They only mark large gathering points and basically ignore the gaps and areas, which will be occupied by various local forces in the future.

But in the end, all the supplies these people collected had to be exchanged for food and resources from the Cult of Machines.

"It's similar to opening a new server in a game."

“All sorts of monsters and demons have flocked here.”

Duncan stared at Tasia's departing figure, feeling that if he wanted to quickly gain a foothold, he also had to seize this opportunity of opening a new server.

As usual, he went to the square to collect a relief food.

However, today is a little different from yesterday, because on the edge of the residential area, there are about a dozen more people with the 'cult follower' mark, and many civilians have also become gang members. This is spreading even faster, and there are already several hundred people.

They were eager to make a big splash and seize territory as soon as possible.

“The cultists still need to be dealt with.”

Duncan received the relief food and ate it all in a few bites. Everyone was well-behaved yesterday, but today was different.

Duncan saw that gang members had stolen someone's relief food, and some were even extorting protection money, taking one of the three compressed biscuits. They usually wouldn't take all of it, because it's a psychological game; taking it all would be ruthless.

After discovering this.

Duncan's first instinct was to observe the nearby soldiers and guards. Those who had been extorted for protection money hadn't approached them, seemingly out of fear of the thugs' verbal threats and afraid that contacting the guards would result in even more severe retaliation. Missing a meal wasn't enough to make them fight to the death. "So, they can play like this, huh?"

Duncan finished the relief food in a few bites and started stretching.

The power of binge eating is important.

In the current situation of scarcity, without the ability to overeat, one cannot increase their health bar, nor can one accelerate the conversion speed of the engraved bloodline.

They all dared to rob and collect protection money, so Duncan naturally dared to loosen his grip a little more as well.

Whoever has the most grain, we'll rob them!
The wolf gang thugs not far away had already extorted money from dozens of people. They were carrying a large bag of relief food and were actually planning to go to a corner of the residential building to find a merchant to trade for something else.

There were noticeably fewer guards today than yesterday.

Duncan noticed that the Mechanicus was slowly lifting military control over the area, and as a new batch of immigrants arrived, some heavily armed soldiers boarded trains and left. Ultimately, only a small garrison should remain in Sector F46, with the security department maintaining order.

No wonder those gang members started causing trouble.

Duncan followed them all the way, and when they passed a garbage dump, he picked up a piece of scrap iron. It felt pretty good and quite handy.

There were probably a dozen or so people following behind that wolf gang thug.

Someone noticed Duncan behind them and glared at him fiercely, asking, "What are you doing following us?"

These gang members were somewhat wary of the mechanical mark on Duncan's chest.

This is the mark of a formal believer.

Unlike ordinary people who are of little value, members of the Cult of the Machine God pay extra attention to believers who offer devout faith. It is because of these individuals that most ordinary people strive to become official members of the church.

The fastest way for an ordinary person to turn their life around is to obtain the mark of a 'devout believer'.

This means that someone above is in charge of whether you live or die.

Upon hearing this, Duncan raised an eyebrow, blocked their path at the alley entrance, and said in a deep voice, "Collecting protection money!"

"Hand over everything."

what?
You actually want to collect protection money from so many of us?
The gang members looked surprised. One of them, seeing the thin Duncan, cursed and swung a stick at him. The Wolf Gang thug instinctively took a half step back, shielding the others in front of him.

For one person to cause trouble for so many of them is either overconfidence or courting death.

boom!
Before anyone else could react, the gang member who had attacked him collapsed to the ground, clutching his broken leg and howling in pain. Duncan had gone a bit too far; the simple killing techniques he had honed on the battlefield could kill even a stick.

He clearly held back his strength afterward, and didn't attack vital points. He pounced on the sheep like a hungry tiger, knocking more than ten people in front of him off their feet.

Within a minute or two, the entire alley was filled with either unconscious people lying on the ground or gang members groaning and rolling around in pain.

"With skills like that, he dares to venture out into the underworld?"

Duncan, ever the helpful one, gave a beating that somehow managed to reclassify many of the gang members from the dozen or so as 'civilians'.

It seems their gang's path to power ended before it even began.

He behaved himself after being beaten.

There were about sixteen people, seven of whom were slapped so hard by Duncan that they rolled on the ground. The mark of the 'Wolf Pack Member' shattered on the spot, and the mark of the civilian reappeared.

The saying goes, "Spare the rod and spoil the child."

The hearts that longed to join the underworld and make their mark were shattered.

puff.

Just as Duncan walked up to the Wolf Gang thug, the man immediately knelt down and offered up the protection money he had just collected.

Duncan snatched it without hesitation, glanced at them, and slowly said, "Where's your share?"

The thugs from the wolf gang quickly took out their welfare benefits as well.

Duncan counted the heads, took sixteen dollars of welfare, and threw the rest of the relief food back.

Pay attention!

Duncan tapped the Wolf Gang thug on the shoulder with his stick and said casually, "Sixteen dollars a day. Remember to bring it over on time tomorrow."

Although the relief food didn't taste very good, it at least satisfied the basic needs of the gluttonous energy.

The wolf gang thugs nodded in fear and trepidation, throwing away the daggers they had drawn from their waists.

Duncan looked at a Wolf Pack member who had just gotten up, raised his hand and struck him with his stick, tearing his skin open and making him scream in agony. Another of the gang members' insignia was broken, and a law-abiding civilian was born.

From now on, please call me the Godfather of the underworld. I'll teach you all how to be decent human beings.

Duncan discovered that these gang members came and went quickly, and after he beat them up, quite a few people in the vicinity actually backed down and obediently went back to their bricklaying jobs.

The food problem has been temporarily resolved.

Next, it's time to consider future plans. Duncan personally prefers joining the Cult of the Machines to establish a public identity, which will make things much easier in the future, whether he's playing a double agent or something else.

So be it, I'm a motor enthusiast.

There aren't many options in this world; in a theocratic country, you can't avoid becoming a motor enthusiast.

………………

(End of this chapter)