2077: V really knows how awesome he is

Ms. Claptrap immediately disagreed: "When a worker ant is promoted to become the leader of a foraging team, it receives a larger food ration, but one thing never changes."

Maiko Maeda immediately asked, "What?"

“Class,” Claptrap replied. “The worker ants may seem to have been promoted, but it’s really just a way for the queen to incentivize them. The class structure in the ant colony is already solidified: queen, king, soldier, worker—it will never change, it can never change. The queen uses pheromones to firmly control every single ant, just as human society uses morality, law, culture, and habits to control everyone. You think you’re successful, but the concept of success is also a tool used by oligarchs to control people’s minds. You think you’re excellent, but you’re just one of the most successfully brainwashed.”

Maeda Maiko's face turned deathly pale. She plopped down in her office chair, lit a cigarette with trembling hands, and asked, "So, according to you, those who always strive to improve themselves and make progress become a joke, since they can never turn their lives around anyway?"

"Of course not. Effort is an excellent quality, but improving oneself should not be for the purpose of catering to the needs of the powerful and wealthy, but for the purpose of broadening one's horizons and better understanding the world. However, in the eyes of AI, effort is correct, and not making an effort is not wrong. As long as one does not harm others or disrupt order, one is a good individual, even if one is homeless and begging, even if one is obsessed with virtual nappa every day, no one and no law can criticize or judge him."

"Enjoy every breath and ray of sunshine, live a joyful, self-assured, and fearless life. The productivity of 2077 has long been able to achieve such a life. Providing upward mobility for those who want to work hard and material security for those who don't want to work hard is the ultimate goal that humanity should achieve. But you are still running around for three meals a day and going bankrupt for a life-saving medicine."

"why?"

"Why does someone keep eating and drinking, yet remain emaciated?"

"Of course, it's because that person's stomach was full of parasites."

"Since the parasites cannot be expelled, the only treatment is to stop eating and drinking, forcing the parasites to feed the host with the nutrients they have extracted in order to keep the host alive. So our approach is not meaningless; it is the only way to attack the parasites besides force. Even if this method results in mutual destruction, it is still better than being crawled on and having your blood sucked and your marrow extracted. Do you understand?"

Maeda Maiko closed her eyes, then opened them again a few seconds later, and said seriously, "I don't believe what you say. I want to see for myself!"

Gustavo smirked; they had gained a new comrade.

Vera was completely bewildered and asked her best friend's best friend, "What does she want to see?"

Gustavo was speechless for a moment: "Let's go back, otherwise our car parked on the side of the road will get a ticket."

Maeda Maiko's arrival brought Westbrook under the control of the future people, solving the problem of shortages of daily necessities. Night City's light industry and service industry also joined the "Great Strike".

But Tiger Claw Gang is different from Valentino, Sixth Street Gang, and Whirlpool Gang. They have neither split up, nor are they 50, nor do they want to do anything about mechanical ascension. They were originally supported by Arasaka Company. So as soon as Maeda Maiko started to take action, the Tiger Claw Gang leader did not need to ask Arasaka's opinion and immediately launched a suppression operation, determined to make Maeda Maiko commit seppuku!

“I know the Tiger Claw Gang.” Maeda Maiko held a cigarette between her fingers, seemingly calm as a rock, but actually panicking. “To them, power represents strength and cruelty, and any action that infringes on their interests will always be met with fierce retaliation. Vera, what are you planning to do in this situation? Are you expecting your bunch of lazy neighbors to fight against these vicious gangsters?”

“Is that not allowed?” Vera asked.

"Of course not!" Maeda Maiko said angrily. "They compromise with life and are so cowardly that they can't even protect themselves. How can you expect them to protect Cloud Peak?"

“You’re right, they are cowards, but there are warriors among them.” Vera took the cigarette from Maeda Maiko’s hand, took a deep drag, and grinned excitedly. “Those who don’t want to fight can stay in the rear, and those who love to fight can go to the battlefield. Those who fight for themselves will never fail, and today will be no exception!”

As soon as he finished speaking, shouts of battle erupted from below the cloud top. The Valodino Gang, the Sixth Street Gang, and the Vortex Gang suddenly surged out and launched an attack on the Tiger Claw Gang from three directions. The Strike Alliance, which had a numerical advantage, quickly gained the upper hand. The Tiger Claw Gang suffered heavy casualties. The two leaders, the boss and the deputy boss, tried to turn the tide, but were precisely ganked by Gustavo and Nolan and killed on the spot.

"You've got some skills, kid." Nolan was gradually beginning to accept his son-in-law.

"Old man, you're not bad either." Gustavo also looked at his father-in-law with new respect.

Just as the two were getting to know each other, a beam of red light suddenly descended from the sky and enveloped them.

A piercing alarm sounded, and the armed airship began to slowly descend. Doom Doom exclaimed, "Damn, the Terrorist Mobile Squad is here!"

"That's right, it's us! You scum of Night City, even a god couldn't save you today!"

Four gangs engaged in a massive brawl involving thousands of people. Such a serious incident naturally alarmed the Night City authorities, and the Terrorist Response Team was immediately dispatched to the scene to begin law enforcement.

As the hatch of the armed airship was opened, four fully armed Terrorist Mobile Squad members appeared before everyone. Gustavo and the others felt their legs go weak. As the airship descended, the four members jumped off the airship together, but time suddenly stood still.

The four Terrorist Mobile Squad members remained suspended in mid-air, their downward leaps frozen in place. The gang members' expressions of shock also froze, as if the entire world had been put on pause. Vera, with a cigarette in her mouth and holding the White Tiger, became the only active figure in this frozen world.

"Terrorist SWAT team? Bullshit SWAT team!" Vera scoffed, waving her wrist.

Horizontal slash, vertical cleave, robe slash, reverse robe slash, left thrust, right thrust, left upper cut, right upper cut, against the wind, thrusting sword!

Vera slashed nine thousand times in 0.01 seconds. When the Terrorist Mobile Team jumped, they were still four intact people, but when they landed, they had turned into a plate of thin sauce.

In the end, Vera threw more than two hundred grenades into the armed airship. What everyone saw was the armed airship exploding into pieces with a loud bang. The members of the Night City's top-level terrorist mobile team were instantly torn to pieces. Vera, the instigator of all this, lit another cigarette in the flames caused by the wreckage of the airship.

Even gods can't save people from the clutches of the terrorist squad, but the King of Hell can.

"That cigarette must be the most satisfying cigarette in the world!"

"Holy crap, that's so damn cool!"

"Vera is awesome!"

"Screw you, call me boss!"

"Wow, boss is awesome! Boss is awesome!"

Vera gave the middle finger to his underlings behind him: "I'm not your fucking boss!"

Whether Vera liked it or not, her name began to resound throughout Night City.

Maiko Maeda took over the remaining forces of the Tiger Claw Gang, and the other families of the Valentino Gang also completely joined them, making the strikers' alliance even stronger.

History Bro must be craving something again, because he posted again, claiming that "the workers are going to start a revolution," and that if he makes a mistake this time, he'll eat the computer tower!

The result is that the strikers' alliance should be called the "retreat alliance." They staged a mass brawl involving thousands of people, even taking down the terrorist mobile unit, but afterwards they went back to their laid-back ways, eating and drinking as usual, and returned to their retreat state.

The powerful figures in real life were both surprised and frightened, completely bewildered, while netizens online were overjoyed and excited.

The only one looking worried was History Bro, because consoles are really hard to eat.

However, everything has two sides. For example, an artificial stomach manufacturer and a computer hardware manufacturer contacted him. The former claimed that their artificial stomach was of superior quality and could withstand all electronic components without damage, while the latter claimed that their electronic components were durable and could not be digested by any artificial stomach.

History Guy asked curiously, "What would happen if you used your artificial stomach to eat their electronic components?"

As it turns out, neither of them lied. The history guy ate a computer mainframe, and his stomach wasn't damaged, but the electronic components weren't digested either. He was stuck in a rut, unable to go up or down, and in the end, he had to have surgery to manually remove the food residue, suffering a lot of pain.

Netizens sympathized with his plight and left comforting comments like "hahahahaha" on his personal page, which made History Bro both angry and resentful, and gave him a stomachache.

Another group of people also suffered from stomach aches: Kangtao's publicity department.

The strike has now spread from Heywood to Watson and Westbrook, growing from one borough to three. More and more people are joining in, causing Contau's propaganda strategy to fail completely. Even though major television stations are still broadcasting the Black Future Man propaganda videos on a high-intensity loop, justice will prevail. These expensively produced videos have become a self-deceiving joke.

The Minister of Publicity of Kangtao is a middle-aged man with a protruding belly that looks like he is three years pregnant. He is currently overwhelmed with worries and hasn't even been to his favorite bird-themed circling activity for a long time. He is racking his brains to think of a way to turn things around.

Before he could come up with a solution, Jiang Ping called first.

The minister's heart skipped a beat, but he had no choice but to answer the phone: "President Jiang."

"Hmm." Jiang Ping's voice was full of arrogance. She wouldn't have condescended to call a mere department head if the matter weren't so important. "How's the publicity going? Everything's normal, right?"

The propaganda minister glanced at the precipitous red downward arrow on the computer screen, hesitated for a moment, and then replied in the most composed voice he had ever used: "Please rest assured, President Jiang, your propaganda strategy is absolutely correct, and the propaganda effect is exceptionally good. Now, almost everyone in Night City regards the people from the future as invaders. The people's hearts are with us!"

Jiang Ping was immediately very satisfied. She told the junior minister not to let his guard down and then hung up the phone.

Huh, you think you can just fool me like that?

After thinking for a long time, the propaganda minister finally discovered the truth: Jiang Ping is an idiot!

Well, that's just how it is. Deceiving superiors and concealing the truth is the ultimate secret of being an official. Now that they've got a stupid boss, they're bound to repeat the same mistakes.

As a result, Jiang Ping's side kept reporting good news, thinking that everything was in the bag. In reality, Night City had gradually fallen into the hands of the future man, and the "Retreat Alliance" was gaining more and more members every day, growing stronger and stronger.

One day, Gustavo approached Vera: "We're running out of medical supplies."

Vera was exasperated: "What can I do if we don't have enough medical supplies? Do you think there's some gang that controls the medical supplies?"

Doom Doom chimed in: "Yeah, the cleaners."

Nolan sided with Vera this time: "Don't make things too difficult for Vera. She couldn't possibly have connections to the Cleaners, could she?"

Vera: "This one..."

Nolan exclaimed in surprise, "You really have connections with the Cleaners?!"

Vera scratched her face: "I helped a girl named Nika in Dogtown before. She was causing trouble for a doctor named Anthony, and I helped her beat him up."

"I've heard of Anthony. I heard he provides free medical care in Dogtown and is nicknamed the Saint of Dogtown. Wouldn't most people help Anthony at a time like this? Why are you helping the Cleaner?"

It would have been better if she hadn't asked, because once she did, Vera's anger flared up: "Because that Anthony has such a foul mouth. He dismantles other people's prosthetic bodies just like the Cleaner, except the Cleaner sells them for money, while he gives them away for free to treat the poor. That wouldn't have been a problem, but he insisted on calling himself a great saint who has saved countless lives, acting all high and mighty. I went to help him, but he said that if I died in a conflict with the Cleaner, he would dismantle me to treat others too. I was so angry that I beat him up on the spot. I didn't chop him into mincemeat because I'm polite and well-mannered!"

Gustavo and his two companions: ...

Maeda Maiko: "So that's how you ended up hooking up with that cleaner named Nika."

“Yeah.” Vera shrugged. “Nika’s brother got Anthony torn it up, so I beat up Anthony. It was like I helped her get revenge. She owes me one.”

“Understood.” Maeda Maiko nodded. “Then what are you waiting for? Go and take down Nika and her gang of cleaners!”

Chapter 154 First recruit the Cleaner, then the Animal Gang

Vera went to Dogtown and then carried Nika back with a bruised and battered face.

"What's going on?" Gustavo asked curiously. "Doesn't she want to join?"

“She was a little shy,” Vera replied with a smile, “but I convinced her with my superb eloquence!”

"Bullshit! You clearly held a samurai sword to my throat!" Nicole was furious. But she was at Vera's mercy, and she owed Vera a favor, so she had no choice but to compromise.

“I will arrange medical supplies. The cleaners also have connections with the hospital and most of the prosthetic doctors. But I must remind you that the problems you face are not just about not having medicine.”

Maeda Maiko frowned: "What do you mean?"

“Isn’t it obvious?” Nika rubbed the bruise on her lip. “Your fight with the Tiger Claw Gang a few days ago went too far and has already angered the company. You have the Future Man backing you up, but if the company can’t deal with the Future Man, can’t it deal with you? Those guys in suits have already given the order, and all the major gangs in the underworld are organizing an unprecedented massive crackdown on you. Your good days are coming to an end!”

Everyone's expressions turned serious. Nolan, being a veteran with the best overall perspective, immediately raised a question: "The company doesn't dare to provoke people from the future, but do gangs dare? They have no reason to take such a risk."

“There are plenty of reasons to take the risk!” Nika rolled her eyes. “Leaving aside the company’s bounty, just consider that you took half of the Sixth Street Gang’s men. Do you think your boss, Will Cannon, will tolerate that? He didn’t care before because you were too weak to threaten his position. Now that you’ve defeated the Tiger Claw Gang and wiped out the Terrorist Mobile Unit, everyone in Night City is flocking to you. Of course, those gang leaders won’t let you continue to grow. Besides, this is just a power struggle among street thugs. It has nothing to do with the future Lord. What are they afraid of?”

After Nika explained it, everyone understood.

Maeda Maiko asked, "Which gangs are there?"

"The Sixth Street Gang led by Will Cannon, the Vortex Gang led by Patricia, the Tiger Claw Gang, some stragglers from Valentino, the Cleaners have already agreed to join, the Animals Gang seems to be considering it, but they are very likely to join. Fortunately, the Voodoo Gang was wiped out by some idiot a while ago, and now only a few remnants remain, and they seem to be planning to protect themselves."

Vera retorted angrily, "You're just handing over information, why are you swearing at me!"

Nika was completely confused: "When did I swear?"

You called me an idiot!

"I said that wiping out the entire Voodoo Clan was stupid, but I didn't say anything about you!"

"I am the one who wiped out the entire Voodoo Clan!"

Everyone fell silent.

Nika rubbed her forehead in exasperation: "That's it. The remnants of the Voodoo Gang will definitely join the siege in their quest for revenge. Now you not only have to face real attacks, but also be prepared for a cyber intrusion."

Voodoo accomplices are notorious; being targeted by them is more disgusting than stepping in dog poop.

Gustavo complained to Vera, "Look at you, you didn't even wipe out the whole family properly. If it were me, I would have broken even the last egg in the Voodoo Gang!"

Vera retorted irritably, "I'm not a fucking psychopath!"

Everyone: "Hey, aren't you one?!"

Seeing that her silly companions were getting further and further off-topic, the only ambitious person, Maeda Maiko, quickly steered the conversation back on track.

She asked Nika, "Are you sure this information is true?"

"Of course, this information was leaked to me by someone in the company."

“I have people in the company too, how come I haven’t heard about this news?”

Nika scoffed, "Because your people are too low-class."

Maeda Maiko retorted, "What, are you so superior?"

“Of course, don’t you even think about what I do?” Nika said proudly. “Do you think the cleaners would go through all that trouble to remove the original internal organs and sell them to roadside fryers? These high-quality products are meant to be sold to those big shots in suits! Without the covert support of these big shots, how could the cleaners be everywhere? Tell me, are your people more superior or mine?”

Maeda Maiko was speechless.

However, after Nika's explanation, everyone believed her information and looked at Vera.

"How to do?"

Vera yawned: "Let's do it then, it's no big deal. If we can't beat the oligarchs, we can't beat the street gangs, right?"

Everyone thought about it... and it made sense!

Despite her rough and unruly behavior elsewhere, Vera has a natural talent for gangsters. After all, she's a street kid. She learned a lesson when she was snatching glow sticks from other kids while sucking on a pacifier: the core idea of ​​street fighting is to bully the weak with the many.

Even the most skilled PVP players will be defeated by PVPPPPPPPPP.

"Everyone get ready, I'm going to call for reinforcements." Vera took out a cigarette and put it in her mouth.

Who are you looking for?

“The Animal Gang, they haven’t decided whether to join Will Cannon and his group yet, I’ll go and persuade them to join.”

"You have connections with those muscle-bound brains in the Animal Gang?!" Everyone was shocked.

Vera scoffed: "The Animal Gang isn't all muscle-brains. Don't judge people by stereotypes."

"What do you mean?"