Players Invade Cyberpunk

Chapter 1174 - 381: Standpoint

Taiping ContinentKowloon Ice Room

Ling Mei, wearing a bear apron, huffed and puffed as she ran up to Brother Ni, who had just entered. She held a small notebook in her hand.

"What would you like to drink, sir?"

Her expression was extremely serious, as if she was doing something important.

In Night City, child workers as young as six or seven aren’t uncommon. Most work by tugging at people’s heartstrings to draw customers to family businesses.

"A glass of iced lemonade."

Ling Mei immediately scribbled her note in the notebook, in Chinese. Her handwriting was wobbly, but she wrote with great effort.

In fact, the shop had electronic notebooks, so there was no need to write by hand. But the cop said it would help her learn to read.

In 2076, English was still the lingua franca, but with a mountain of new code words added every year, you’d need to learn over 10,000 words just for daily conversation. It wasn’t suitable anymore.

Plus, industries like medical and scientific research used many specialized terms in Latin, barriers set by the upper class to increase costs for the lower class to move up. Studying those would demand a massive English vocabulary.

But Lin Miao wouldn’t pamper them.

Brother Ni took off his hood, squatted down, and held Ling Mei’s chubby cheeks, squishing them.

"Ling Mei, aren’t you supposed to be in class today? You’re not skipping school, are you?"

"Today... is Saturday, school’s on break."

"And in class, do you sneak naps?"

"No... no, I’ve been working hard, Teacher Emmet said I’m learning fast."

Brother Ni reluctantly let go of her cheeks. Players loved obedient and cute kids like her.

Especially because of Ling Mei’s relationship with Masked Rider, she was the favorite in the Knight Order.

Brother Ni patted her head, signaling she could leave, and then walked up the stairs to the second floor, where ten people were already waiting for him.

The cop, Natural Curl, Masked Rider, Wig, Brother Dao, Exchange Coupon....

"Everyone’s here, huh? You all have time?"

The few high-level players remaining in Night City were almost all summoned by Exchange Coupon to the cop’s little shop. Being all modified bodies, they were big and tall, making the not-so-spacious upstairs of the ice room feel even more cramped.

Brother Ni found an empty seat and sat down. The crowd looked at Exchange Coupon; he called them here but didn’t mention why.

"Have you noticed anything strange in the city lately?"

Exchange Coupon took out some pre-recorded videos and photos and displayed them.

"I ran a map all night last night, and I didn’t encounter a single conflict event. It was as if everyone had an agreement; this isn’t normal.

And the Vortex Gang members seem to have lost their minds. I kicked down a window and burst in, and they didn’t even curse at me. As far as I know, the Vortex Gang has never been this polite."

Natural Curl glanced at the video indifferently, all his attention on the strawberry sundae in front of him. He muttered,

"Isn’t it normal? All the radical gangsters have been wiped out by us; even if they were lunatics, they should be low-key for a while now."

Exchange Coupon rebutted,

"Low-key to the point where these cyber psychos are shouting about becoming a new person?"

"No...."

Natural Curl was left speechless.

"In terms of cyber psychos, don’t we lack the standing to criticize them?"

Night City’s most peculiar title had long been claimed by the Horizon Mercenaries. When it came to being more insane, the Vortex Gang were mere novices compared to them.

"Ahem..."

Brother Ni cleared his throat, then spoke.

"According to your voice message, you suspect these changes in people might be linked to the electromagnetic brainwashing and idols I’ve been monitoring?"

"Yes."

Exchange Coupon nodded, his expression serious, but he didn’t use a throat cancer voice that sounded stuck. He spoke normally.

"From last night’s observations, I found that crime rates in Night City have been dropping at an unusual speed over the past month. By last night, even the bars notorious for brawls had no disturbances.

Even the bosses of those clubs acted abnormal, releasing many sex dolls indebted to them, letting them come to our company to learn...."

The other players hadn’t observed as meticulously. To many, the crime rate drop seemed normal after the big Dog Town event in the main city. After all, aren’t many games programmed this way?

Once factions take over completely, order rapidly settles. Plus, with such a rigorous game setting, Night City couldn’t randomly spawn hostile NPCs to cause trouble.

"If what you say is true, isn’t this great?"

The cop lit a cigarette, contributed to the conversation.

"If no one’s committing crimes or fighting, and everyone is working and studying hard for a better future, I’d save a ton of effort if the Kowloon people were half as sensible as you said.

Or do you prefer the authentic Night City, with daily shootouts and casualties?"

As a defender of social order, the cop relished peace; if he could relax each day like this, he’d be thrilled, avoiding even visiting Cuba.

Moreover, since the day Heavy Hammer crushed several women’s heads in front of him, the somewhat defeated cop didn’t want to get involved in these matters anymore.

"...."

Brother Dao, understanding the cop’s perspective, nodded and said,

"The cop does make a point, but I think there’s a need for further investigation.

Improvement is improvement, but if, as Brother Ni suggests, it’s about altering everyone’s memory or personality via electromagnetic brainwashing, that’s not so good."