Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 251 Starting a New Life [5.8K]

"Phew... You can do it!"

Gloria kept encouraging herself.

Night City isn't actually very safe at night. Gloria, who always drives home on the ring road during her night shift, hid alone for the first time behind a container at a seaside pier in Watson District.

The advertisement for "Big Steel Cannon" is in Spanish, and the most powerful group in the area is the Valentino gang.

Night City is like a small continent pieced together from different small countries.

For example, in Watson's Chinatown, advertisements are usually broadcast in Japanese and Chinese; in the company plaza, those Korean salaried workers who are desperately trying to take on a hundred-year mortgage, who consider themselves superior, will have advertisements in Korean used to entice them to make purchases...

Although the seaside pier was pitch black, it was more lively than it appeared on the surface.

There were ambiguous laughs from men and women, and in the background, the alluring lights of sex clubs in the shantytowns.

Gloria disregarded the danger; she had to get here.

Because she needs money.

The combat skills assessment for the trauma team is fast approaching, and let alone a satisfactory smart weapon for her to participate in the assessment, even the hand prosthetic device [Smart Connection], which is specifically designed for this type of weapon, is still nowhere to be found; there are only two outcomes for working seriously in Night City: starve to death or prepare to do something unserious.

It's hard for ordinary people to make money, and Gloria knows this all too well.

The most risky thing she ever did was remove a prosthetic body from an incinerator. As for shooting, she was very skilled at target practice, but whether she would dare to shoot at people... that was really an unknown.

[David]: Mom, where are you?
[Gloria]: I'm at work, I'll contact you later.

[Gloria]: Typing...

But after typing on my phone for a long time, I still didn't know what I wanted to say.

It's mostly about remembering to put away newly bought tortillas, defrosting them in advance, keeping an eye on them when using the microwave, or quickly putting dirty clothes into the laundry room – these are all small things.

David, seeing that Gloria had been typing for a long time without any response, asked what was wrong.

Gloria puffed out her cheeks, let out a long sigh, and put her phone on silent mode.

It must be said that Gloria is almost a carbon copy of David in some ways; she is a clever person in this city who has not yet mastered the knack of life, with overly delicate emotions and a strong sense of pride in life.

Ever since that time she contacted Mr. Rin, smart women have already figured out some things.

He should draw a clear line.

The company's affairs were not something this mother and son, living in a cramped apartment in a Santo Domingo skyscraper, should be concerned with.

It's reasonable, but it evokes a sense of sadness and embarrassment.

After all, she herself made those grand promises to help Mr. Rin, so Mr. Rin must have been troubled by it.

David and she had received many benefits from that kind person, including job opportunities and substantial compensation; without that money, she wouldn't have been able to escape from her greedy former company, nor would she have been able to continue pursuing her dreams…

But that was my dream.

Gloria had no doubt that if she asked, Mr. Rin might be willing to give her money—but she knew deep down that she couldn't do it.

Everything has value. David's intelligence is a potential asset, and perhaps it's a visionary investment by Mr. Rin. If Mr. Rin were still in the company, Gloria would not hesitate to support David in helping Mr. Rin; it would be an equal exchange.

She couldn't equate those pastries and the family feast with the money Mr. Rin had given her—

unless…

She shook her head; compared to being a bloodsucker demanding money and goods, Gloria found such thoughts far more shameful.

She began to gradually push her chaotic thoughts to the back of her mind and tried to focus on handling this commission.

The person who gave him this job was an unknown middleman in Night City. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Night City who come up with jobs and ask for favors, but most of them are inexperienced and unreliable.

Gloria knew perfectly well that it might be safer to hire those big shots in Night City for commissions—but she wasn't a big shot mercenary either.

She was just a woman who wanted to get a job and was only a few thousand euros short of buying a gun and a prosthetic body.

The familiar Night City operator's ringtone sounded, and Gloria tried her best to make her tone sound professional and reliable.

Middleman: "Have you arrived?"

Gloria nodded. "I'm waiting for someone."

The middleman on the other end clicked his tongue—

"It's unbelievable, but my client has limited funds, and I can only hire someone like you who's completely unknown... Three thousand euros, right? You need it urgently?"

Three thousand?

Gloria immediately clenched her teeth...

I knew that there were plenty of unreliable guys in Night City who dared to call themselves "fixers," but I didn't expect them to haggle over the price right before starting work.

"This is not what we agreed on."

Gloria kept glancing at the dock where the target could appear at any moment, while patiently questioning him, though she didn't dare reveal her desire for the commission...

Then this unreliable guy started complaining, "If the customer's business isn't handled well, I'll have to spend more money to reassure the customer. This is your first time doing business with me, so if there's a problem, I need to charge some insurance premiums, right? Besides, I haven't even checked your background. If you're swindling people, it's a small matter if you die, but it's a big deal if you don't get the goods!"

"A woman like you—"

Gloria's voice came through, completely different from her usual gentle tone, "Then I'll withdraw. You'll have to find someone else yourself."

The person on the other end was clearly taken aback by Gloria's tough stance; the call was abruptly ended before they could even speak.

Intelligent women are born with the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, but their ambitions are simply buried by the dust of life.

Sure enough, the phone rang again.

Gloria got into the car as planned, moved it into an alleyway in a blind spot of the container yard, and turned off the headlights. Then she checked the kinetic pistol she had bought for over a thousand euros. The cool, dry gun and the fully loaded bullets gave her a sense of security.

When the phone call went unanswered, the other party clearly became impatient, resorting to curses, threats, and other offensive language.

However, Gloria simply tapped the steering wheel and watched quietly.

Some people, once they truly get into the zone, find their emotions calming down. She was certain that the middleman wouldn't find anyone else to take on this mess, especially since time was running out…

then.

Gloria only answered the phone when the other person learned to speak properly.

He immediately said, "One thousand euros, prepayment—pickup location is the supermarket vending machine in Japan Street, cash."

"My..."

The person on the other end looked as uncomfortable as if they had taken poison, but there was nothing they could do. The middleman, who thought the woman was a greenhorn, never expected that his impromptu plan would backfire and he would be outmaneuvered.

[Received +1000?]

"You'd better really be a big shot!"

Gloria let out a long sigh as she listened to the threatening tone of the caller, her hands on the steering wheel drenched in cold sweat.

A good start.

"Maybe things will go smoothly! Keep it up, Gloria!"

The woman gave herself one last pep talk.

Just then, the target appeared, its bright orange headlights blaring as it turned down a side road... The car had a retro interior and was playing Spanish pop songs with constant trills; it was clearly a business run by Valentino's gang.

Gloria gently placed her foot on the accelerator, and the car came to a smooth stop in the yard, right before her eyes. Two burly men with cigarettes in their mouths got out, chuckling to each other as they walked to the outside of a container at the dock.

Because her eyes are naked and she cannot zoom in, Gloria could only rely on the most primitive night vision device to see the combination lock that the big man pressed.

“4…2…”

After noting down the sequence in which the burly man entered the password, she waited patiently and nervously for the guys to retrieve the goods. More than ten minutes later, two men carrying what looked like a dark package containing golf clubs walked into the car. One of them looked around several times before opening the car door with peace of mind. The car reversed, turned around, and drove out of the dock...

Gloria is as patient as a hunter.

More than half an hour passed before she finally got out of the car and quietly made her way to the container.

With trembling hands, she nervously watched the fluorescent green keyboard flash as she typed the password, until a pleasant clicking sound rang out, at which point she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The container door opened with a slight noise, and Gloria smelled a pungent chemical odor—

With her extensive medical experience, she knew that this place was very likely a drug den.

She pulled out a small flashlight from behind her back, held a pistol in one hand, and looked like she was conducting a search in a professional manner. The items inside were neatly piled up, all black bags, each one bulging.

"OK..."

"Just the data here, and a shipping invoice."

Gloria found the PC host in the container that wasn't connected to the internet, awkwardly removed its hard drive, and then stuffed the shipping manifest on the table into her pocket.

At this time-

She suddenly kicked a bag.

A sound of powder being splashed rang out.

Already on edge, Gloria nearly fired a shot at the floor, but thankfully she managed to regain her composure. After a shudder, she frantically scanned the ground...

The orange square packaging had spilled its contents.

Gloria stared coldly at the cargo, which likely weighed over 5 kilograms…

"Gudong".

For the first time, Gloria forgot her fear. If she remembered correctly, the package beneath her feet could probably fetch tens of thousands of euros in Night City…

She knew perfectly well that her commission was for 3000 euros. Perhaps a bag she could easily carry could give her the best-fitting smart connected prosthetic body, and even replace her eyes with the Qilusi!
Time passed by second by second.

Her knees slowly bent downwards—

The hand holding the flashlight stretched forward...

But in the end, it remained suspended in mid-air.

With a soft footstep, Gloria, having squeezed out of the container, fled back into the car, her face pale in the rearview mirror.

"Damn, what are you doing!"

Because of her children's tuition fees and poverty, Gloria has only ever done one risky thing: removing prosthetic bodies from dead people—she could never convince herself to do it with the mentality of treating the living as the dead.

At this moment, I can only feel fortunate. After all, with my mindset, if a real problem were to arise, I probably wouldn't dare to point a gun at the enemy and fire.

"Depend on…"

She muttered a curse to herself and hurriedly started her beat-up car. The car's dim light gave her a little comfort, so she glanced at the hard drive on the passenger seat, but her heart didn't feel so heavy.

"It would be great if the trauma team didn't have to fire their guns."

hum…

The car slowly drove from the rugged path at the dock onto the main road. Gloria carefully watched the road, a look of joy on her face as she prepared to complete her mission.

She reached out and turned on the car radio—

"Good evening, Night City viewers. This is Julian Jordan. At 15:08 PM today, a suspected cyberbullying incident occurred at a club in Westbrook. The NCPD has imposed a curfew on the surrounding area within a one-kilometer radius. It is reported that the attack resulted in at least 15 deaths, including four NCPD officers who entered the building to search and three senior members of the Tiger Claw gang."

“Some commentators have suggested that this could be a consequence of gangs abusing cybernetic implants.”

"Furthermore, according to sources, the Terrorist Response Team did not find the cyber madman's target upon arriving at the scene. A quick news flash: the NCPD is reminding residents in the area to stay away from anyone experiencing suspected seizures or to refrain from seeking treatment at unlicensed prosthetic clinics—"

Gloria murmured, "How horrible."

The car had just merged from the seaside path onto the main road—

Two blinding headlights suddenly illuminated the side path Gloria was walking down.

He instinctively glanced at the woman next to him and his eyes widened immediately!
suddenly!

hum!
The powerful car roared, and Gloria quickly swerved the steering wheel!

"Oh!"

The instant the other car's front end made contact with her car door, Gloria saw the debris flying around inside the cabin, and... two menacing-looking men in the driver's and passenger's seats, wearing special jewelry from the Valentino gang and sporting Mexican beards!

Luckily, Gloria floored the gas pedal in her nervousness!
The car crashed into the middle, slightly behind the center—luck prevented it from overturning immediately. Gloria only felt as if someone had kicked her in the waist from the side. The front of the car started spinning, and the vehicle stalled because she had pressed the clutch too hard.

Gloria was in a panic after being hit on the forehead by a decoration!
She dared not stop or pull over to the side of the road, but quickly started the car, steadied the steering wheel, and repeatedly told herself to get it moving quickly.

"Damn it! Kill this bitch! She's trying to steal from me?!"

The burly man stretched out of the passenger seat with a gun in hand.

Gloria's heart tightened, she turned the steering wheel and quickly bent her head!
The sound of shattering glass and the crunch of cotton scraps inside the car mingled together... She instinctively straightened the car and hurriedly stepped on the gas to drive onto the highway ring road!
"Hey! Veteran! Who do you think you are, driving this beat-up car?!"

The other car floored the accelerator, its front end swaying as it relentlessly pursued it.

Gloria kept her head down and slammed on the gas pedal, but the blinding lights in the rearview mirror didn't fall behind as she expected; instead, they quickly caught up!
Bang!
After the other party bumped into Gloria's car, it almost caused this family sedan, whose performance was not good and could only be described as terrible, to lose control again.

Perhaps the first thing that people with extensive medical knowledge learn is to stay calm.

Seeing that her car was just a toy for the other party and could be pushed off the road at any moment, Gloria gritted her teeth and swerved sharply to the opposite lane. After a moment of weightlessness and jolts that almost caused her to tip over, Gloria straddled the flow of cars that were all going in the wrong direction!
Beep beep! Buzz—

The relentless honking of horns echoed in Gloria's ears!

"It's all over, it ......"

Gloria muttered to herself, her lips trembling, but she was extremely focused on the oncoming car and frantically dodged it.

The cars following Valentino's gang were clearly not expecting this woman driving a family sedan to be so ruthless. However, they were all tough guys on the street and were not intimidated. They only hesitated for a moment before following Gloria's car!
The car, being too long, was at a disadvantage. Valentino's two men slowed down several times because they almost crashed, which allowed Gloria to immediately create some distance!
Gloria's eyes darted rapidly between the rearview mirror and the road ahead, and the surge of adrenaline caused her body to begin trembling uncontrollably.

The heavy truck horn almost made Gloria lose her composure. A truck weighing tens of tons was rushing down the uphill ramp ahead. She looked at the distance on both sides and estimated that it seemed impossible to squeeze through!
At this moment, the truck driver's eyes widened in disbelief.

"do not care!"

Gloria chose the left side because that way she could get as far away from the truck as possible.

In the blink of an eye—

The two cars collided without warning!
With a series of cracking sounds, a powerful blast of air squeezed in through the passenger-side window, and the right side of the car collapsed at a visible speed.

Gloria quickly closed her eyes.

Wow!
The clanging sound of falling debris quickly subsided. Gloria, with her eyes closed, noticed the car was still moving. She quickly opened her eyes and found that her car had already crashed onto the ramp!

The sedan, its tires still smeared with cigarette smoke, wobbled onto the ring road. She glanced back; that large truck would completely block the road, and they probably wouldn't be able to catch up...

"Huffing and puffing..."

She felt like she was suffocating, her head was spinning, and the world was shaking.

However, my tense body feels much more relaxed.

The lingering fear suddenly overwhelmed me. It seems that in that life-or-death situation, one can't think too much; only instinctive reactions and the intense feeling of my heart pounding in my throat remain.

She squeezed the car back into the forward lane and quickly looked down to find the hard drive and her phone.

David on the other end said he had already done the laundry and was going to bed because he had class tomorrow. Gloria was overjoyed, the kind of joy that makes you want to cry.

Gloria is that kind of woman; she can't hold back her tears even when scolding a child, let alone what happened tonight!

Patting her chest confidently, she drove the deformed vehicle to a place where she could exit the highway, knowing that driving a car like that on the street would inevitably attract police questioning.

Just then, the middleman called.

"What the hell?"

"Are you okay?"

Gloria's face twitched; she was so frightened that she almost yelled at the rude guy.

"Hey! I heard Valentino's place is in an uproar! What did you do? I thought you were definitely going to die!"

Gloria said helplessly, "I got the stuff, but don't shortchange me a single penny."

The person on the other end paused for a moment, then said, "I mean, buddy, I just sell cars! I only pulled this stunt because the customer kept pestering me. I never expected anyone to tip off Valentino."

"The customer just wants revenge. You can just leave that thing at any pickup point."

Gloria nodded.

Still somewhat wary of strangers, she didn't intend to say anything.

The person on that end is clearly a bit of a chatterbox.

"Hey sis, let's get some fresh air. You're as steady as a rock. What do you need the money for? I'm really curious."

On one hand, Gloria was worried that this unreliable man would cause trouble over money again, and on the other hand, she felt that the night was chilly, so making a phone call was quite nice.

"Buy guns, buy prosthetics, smart weapons of course—don't ask, where's my money?"

The person on the other end chuckled and said, "Wow! Looks like I'm going to have to buy guns and cannons and do some big business... But speaking of smart weapons, I have a Comptos here, a classic model, 99% new—don't get me wrong, I know my limits, this job won't be done for less than ten thousand in commission."

"The package has been placed at the pickup point in Santo Domingo. I'll send you the location."

"I'll transfer the money to you right now!"

As the three thousand euros were deposited into her account, Gloria shook her head. "That's too much. And—I don't want your gun, I'll buy mine myself."

That person was clearly shameless.

"Please, Dad, take it. I'll come back to you if I need any more work!"

Gloria blushed deeply, thinking, "Who is this person?! So shameless..."

"Okay, okay, but don't come looking for me again. After this job... I'm moving to another place."

The middleman was deeply saddened, "Please don't—"

Gloria was terrified of being exposed.

He said, slowly and deliberately, "That's it, goodbye!"

Tick.

……

When Gloria retrieved the brand-new Classic Smart Submachine Gun from a pickup machine next to a vomiting drunkard sometime at night, she knew she had the money to buy a Corruption Eye and a better smart connection.

Aside from these, the sense of satisfaction is self-evident.

Those who live life earnestly will always be rewarded.

And... you have to rely on yourself!
……

……

(End of this chapter)