Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 516 Cooperation
"stop looking!"

Mendelsohn rudely drove away all the fans who tried to get autographs from Kerry and other new generation rock stars.

If it were any other rock star, these fans could shamelessly keep crowding around...

Unfortunately, Lin Yue's punches and kicks just now were nothing like those of an ordinary rock kid. What if this guy hit a fan?
Rock bands hitting fans is nothing new. Decades ago, Silver Hands would carry a revolver at their concerts! If they felt the concert wasn't going well, they would raise the gun and shoot it at the ceiling, which was quite frightening.

Kerry was perhaps used to being surrounded by people—

Although he was currently in a sorry state, even having been rescued from the clutches of a company dog ​​like a chick, the people in front of him seemed to be looking at him with a strange hostility...

How could this happen?
The person who just saved me was the lead singer of this new generation rock band.

"Kerry, I've long admired your name."

Lin Yue deliberately used complex vocabulary, which is not commonly used on the street and instead sounds more like a sarcastic remark.

In fact, Lin Yue didn't want to either, but having little information about Kerry from his memory, he discovered that Kerry had already taken a different musical path and had also gone to the Crystal Palace to participate in an unprecedented tour for the wealthy.

"Dude, those bastards almost twisted my neck... What's with that look on your faces? Okay, I know saving someone isn't free—but you guys don't have to look so long-faced, do you?"

Kerry is the one who's been wronged.

The excitement of grasping at a straw vanished instantly.

Lin Yue didn't speak, but reached out and picked up a brightly colored poster from a nearby table, which was stained with some alcohol, and placed it in front of Kerry.

"We strictly refuse entry to company agents or record company personnel to our performance venues, but you are a senior figure, especially in the music industry... Look at what the poster says about you: 'Prince of Money, an electronic magical sound of the rich and powerful'—"

Mendelsohn simply took over the task.

Lee had been grinning, expecting Kerry to sign his clothes, but he immediately hid his exposed teeth.

Kerry slammed his hand on the table. Luckily, the area had already been cleared of fans, and most of the people who came here were there to spend money... Some people frowned upon hearing the sudden sound.

Kerry blushed deeply, covered his hands, and felt extremely frustrated. He curled up on the sofa like a shrimp.

Lin Yue frowned, thinking that this guy had some bad habit of taking drugs—after all, those rock kids liked that. However, to his surprise, when the drummer went up to check, this guy was covering his head and crying.

Without him.

Kerry felt like he'd seen a ghost for a moment, as if Johnny, that bastard, was standing in front of him. But upon closer inspection, he realized it was K, the lead singer of the band KIA.

The pressure from the space shuttle's journey here has finally collapsed.

With so many people around, it was past 3 a.m. when Lin Yue and Kerry, who had caught their breath, finally sat down in the most secluded private room at the back entrance of the Liz Bar.

Lin Yue yawned. He wasn't interested in drinking; he just watched the guy chug drinks down his throat.

"I heard your name in space... I thought to myself... hiccup! Who's this awesome? Holy crap? I was thinking of coming down the plane to see if you guys were really like the legends, but I found out—"

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

"Rock and roll isn't dead! It was me, this idiot, who killed it!"

Who knows what these artists are thinking... This left Lin Yue, who didn't want to get involved in Kerry's matter, completely at a loss.

Kerry had clearly slipped into the musician path without Lin Yue noticing. Even Lin Yue barely recognized the medals on those two European company employees. Right now, securing the band's performance was the most important thing; other acts of kindness...

Lin Yue has learned to keep a low profile.

He wanted to use music to inspire more voices of rebellion, and helping a rich former rock star right now would definitely not do him any good.

KIA and the others have really encountered a living god. Now all the decision-making power is in Lin Yue's hands. The band members naturally respect Kerry, but they are all somewhat dissatisfied with what he has done.

After all, it's punk!

He had to have a punk look, and Kerry certainly made a lot of money, but everyone was a little dumbfounded when they heard him cry like that.

"Nice meeting, Kerry?"

Lin Yue tried to get this guy, who had a completely unconventional personality, to care about saving face.

At this moment, Lee tentatively asked, "Why don't we ask Kerry about the tour?"

The stares from her teammates completely silenced Li. Right now, she was the only one who harbored feelings for Kerry… well, it was hard to say. He was indeed very handsome, even more so than Lin Yue remembered… but it was just his sexual orientation—

Forget it.

"That girl is absolutely right!"

Kerry finally found a way to aggressively promote his advantage: he had saved enough money over the years to privately cover the performances, so he now saw it as an equal exchange.

He spends his own money to keep the band fulfilling their musical vision of "killing the company," and he can also rely on Lin Yue, a powerful figure capable of overthrowing the company, to help him solve his problems.

Kerry had the same idea in mind...

After all, mercenaries need to make money.

But this guy in front of him clearly had a lot of minefields, and Kerry didn't want to miss this opportunity. What about Roger... Kerry knew with his ass that the old woman was the only one who survived after following Silver Hand. Kerry didn't want to believe anything about his brother's ex-girlfriend.

Li shrank back; clearly, she shouldn't have brought it up.

Kerry stood up and pulled Lee out, but Mendero, out of his natural wariness of men, grabbed Kerry's outstretched hand.

"Mr. Kerry... I respect you as a senior."

However, Lin Yue's expression turned strange.

Kerry blinked his drunken eyes. "I'm not interested in women."

These words were spoken with a hint of nonchalance and nonchalance, and Mendelsohn immediately flung his hand away as if he had been electrocuted…

“This girl is right, you guys are having a performance, and I can help you out… what’s wrong with that as a thank you?” Kerry said, playfully lifting Lee’s arm. “Rock and roll never dies! Yeah! Wow!”

The scene was completely silent.

Looking at this former rock star, whose most serious rebellious behavior in his memory was smashing guitars and burning yachts, Lin Yue understood that everyone has the right to choose their own life, but at this critical juncture, Lin Yue was unsure whether to let this rock star get involved.

“Alright, Kerry Orodien,” Lin Yue called him by his first name. “The Martial Guards don’t do drunken brawls. What’s gotten you into?”

After much deliberation, Lin Yue concluded that this matter should not involve any funds from Dreamers or Arasaka.

Although there are a thousand ways to cover up the traces, it is better not to get involved with them in the first place. Kerry is a good choice.

After all, Lin Yue was worried about how to organize the performance, but... even if it was a deal with Kerry, Lin Yue's biased view of the Martial Guard Band didn't mean he was completely at ease with this person.

When it came to getting straight to the point, Klee was much more frank.

His reckless demeanor had largely dissipated, and he reached out and shouted, "Sit down, sit down..." Seeing that the KIA band members were all sitting on the sofa, Kerry felt a sense of security, and then pondered, "Crystal Palace, Orbital Aviation."

Lin Yue's eyelid twitched.

Oh shit.

With his own situation in Warsaw still unresolved, and now Kerry is involved with this company... he really doesn't think it's a fair deal.

"Don't rush off. They know nothing... They're searching the whole world for that thing. Everyone on that flight was definitely interrogated indiscriminately, absolutely!"

thing?

Lin Yue keenly grasped this crucial information. Kerry, whether genuinely innocent or deliberately using honesty to garner the band's sympathy, produced a strangely shaped chip... The red data particles on this thing immediately reminded Lin Yue of the state and appearance outside the cybernetic black wall.

"them…"

Kerry was still a little worried.

Lin Yue glanced around at his band members expressionlessly. "We're teammates who've been through thick and thin together. You can speak your mind..."

Even so, Lin Yue still felt that Kerry was a really shrewd person.

Everyone has seen the items; this has become a one-off deal.

Kerry recounted the encounter with the guy on the Crystal Palace and the massive cleanup on the space shuttle. He also mentioned that the guy probably realized he couldn't keep this thing and slipped it into Kerry's hands, which was overlooked by the orbital aviation team behind him.

Now that everyone knew the whole story, no one dared to breathe.

The psychedelic dance music that used to make people want to sway their bodies on the dance floor after just a few sips was now being blocked out by the group.

Everyone's focused on Lin Yue right now, as if all the team's thinking and decisions revolve around him...

That look was just like the samurai band from decades ago.

"What do you think, buddy? Say something... I just want to drink myself to death right here. I'm not going to leave the door of this Lizhi."

Lin Yue rubbed his chin, stared at the chip, and reached out to take it. As he played with it in his hand, he inexplicably thought of Relic. Although this thing looked completely different from Relic, it was that familiar feeling in its bones that made Lin Yue want to find out more.

Chips are dangerous as long as they are inserted into a device, and Lin Yue had no intention of courting death by stuffing one behind his head.

"The most urgent thing is to find out if the guys who put the chip in your hands are all dead... If no one knows the thing is with you, we can solve the company's interrogation problem by making an external memory storage."

Absolute calmness, and thinking based on what Kerry is currently afraid of.

Kerry nodded hastily, "Can we do the memory banking tonight?"

Lin Yue looked up. "As soon as possible, the sooner the better... Also, I need to have this chip now. You live in Charter Hill, right? It's a detached villa less than a few hundred meters past the Paint Fountain."

Kerry almost jumped up.

"No... dude, you..."

Lin Yue didn't care about any of that. "Don't go out for the next few days. Once I find out what this thing is, I'll come and meet up with you, along with my teammates—then we'll discuss the performance."

He lifted his eyelids, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

This is often a sign that Lin Yue is preparing to scam someone.

"I have a few conditions, and I hope you can agree to them all."

Kerry has no choice but to accept whatever comes his way right now. After all, he's the strongest guy Night City can find. What better option is there than to cling to his coattails?
"First, we don't want your record company and other investors to inject funds into the performance, especially the Rolling Stone Records you mentioned on the plane... You wouldn't believe it has nothing to do with them, would you? We tested you and let you off the hook, but we'll keep causing you trouble once things are confirmed."

"Secondly, you understand the procedures throughout the process, and we need professionals... but we can't trust anyone else we find on short notice, so we're sorry to trouble you?"

Kerry's face looked extremely grim.

The money he's currently receiving comes from the very guys this band is criticizing, which means... Creed has completely broken ties.

However, if he lost his life, these things were nothing. Kerry accepted the condition without hesitation. At worst, he could just sign with another company later.

Oh no, I'm retiring after this!
Kerry thought so.

Seeing Kerry's changing expression for a long time, Lin Yue finally spoke slowly, knowing that Kerry had made his choice.

"Third, we want to contact the old members of the Samurai Band so that we can have a once-in-a-lifetime concert on the last day of the performance."

"I believe...you'd all be happy with that, right?"

Lin Yue didn't have much time, so he essentially finalized everything. The relationship with the Samurai Band would inevitably reinforce KIA's rebellious image. What Lin Yue wanted was to subtly stab KIA into the North American market.

The so-called corporate system must be awakened with a voice that resonates deeply with people.

This kind of trending strategy is clearly the work of a savvy person who knows how to generate buzz.

Not to mention the band members, even Kerry, a seasoned veteran, was dumbfounded.

"Are you... serious?"

Kerry couldn't understand what benefit such explosive traffic brought besides attracting the company's attention. Wasn't he just spending the money himself anyway? Why not stop now?

But he didn't explicitly refuse either.

"Sigh... We're all getting old, so we'll just do whatever makes money. I can't guarantee that people will be available."

However, Lin Yue suddenly reached out and pressed down on Ke Li.

"It must be in place."

Kerry felt the pressure on his hand was a bit too strong.

He saw the unwavering certainty in that guy's eyes, just like the headstrong young man who had once stared directly at him and charged headlong into the company.

Kerry sighed silently.

What kind of mess is this? I always feel like I've been dragged into Crystal Palace's mess for no reason, and now I have to go back to my old ways... Kerry doesn't know if he still has the courage to shout "rock and roll is dead" at the top of his lungs again.

The band members were also surprised as to why Lin Yue was so insistent on the existence of the Wu Shi Band.

However, Lin Yue had no intention of explaining; he needed to get the chip time bomb on the table far, far away…

Kerry, slumped in his chair, had undoubtedly secured a life-saving agreement, but... the price was a life derailed. To put it simply:
Hello there.

……

……

(End of this chapter)