"I'd rather not have this bag of junk, John, there's a girl in our community, Gino, she was abducted by those Eastern people on Sakura Cross Street."
Vito raised his glass and pointed at the table.
"There's only one way to keep Gino alive now, and that's to return this bag of raw materials to its rightful owner."
"Return to the rightful owner... so this stuff was stolen from the Owl Town gang?"
"You could say that."
"Can you elaborate?"
Vito sighed, "Gino is a lively kid, she used a homemade EMP two days ago to knock down a drone with an unknown number."
He furrowed his brow. "It was carrying this stuff, and before she had a chance to react, she was tracked down and abducted."
Gino's brother, Macao Imwe, also the Boxer currently standing in the room.
He brought the stolen goods to Mr. Vito, hoping to use the gang's power to ransom his sister.
Gino is the youngest daughter of the Imwe family.
Mr. Vito and her mother are fellow church members, and in the traditions and family values of the Black Gold Gang, a bag of illegal raw materials is definitely not more important than Gino's life.
"You guys are quite chivalrous."
John nodded in appreciation, though puzzled. "Why me?"
Mr. Vito explained:
"The relationship between the Black Gold Gang and the Eastern people is very sensitive."
In recent years, the territories of the two forces have somewhat overlapped in their expansion, and business friction has become increasingly frequent, with some conflicts of various sizes, but neither side is ready for full-scale war.
"Exchanging a hostage is something that could be done by anyone."
"But things have become a bit complicated."
Vito Russell stared out the window with his hands in his pockets. "Originally, we had arranged a face-to-face trade with the Owl Town, but the guy we were in contact with suddenly went missing, not sure what those idiots are planning."
He fears that the Owl Town is seizing the opportunity to start a war.
John's background is clean, with no conflicting standpoints, and he's smart enough to adapt on the fly while ensuring safety.
[Mission: Rescue from the Frying Pan]
[Reward: Cash compensation, equipment hacking against Electrogen, Transportation Agreement 308 (program)]
John frowned.
The mission title was ominous, making him feel that this job was bound to go awry again.
But the unknown agreement in the rewards was quite intriguing, and the last emergency agreement given to Black Spider was a literal lifesaver.
John accepted the mission.
He drove his Eisenberg, carrying a bag of illegal raw materials, to the transaction location.
The sports car roared through the main city district at breakneck speed.
He was also carrying a bounty for violent conflict, which logically would bring drones and police to cause trouble.
But anyone who's survived in Eden City has a bit of a criminal record, right?
If every crime were prosecuted, we'd find the city's entire root system is rotten, so the police department modified the scanning program; as long as someone like John implants an external camera disruptor, public scanners won't trigger a warning.
Only if you commit a street crime will it break through the basic scanning restriction, bringing a live warrant on you.
Then the cops would have to come find you.
Sakura Cross Street is a historical name, but its area is astonishingly large, spanning several streets and corporate hubs.
The terrain here has high elevation differences, making it Eden City's largest Asian enclave, famous for its entertainment industry, and home to one of the largest gangs in Eden City.
The Owl Town gang.
John didn't know much about the Eastern people.
Rumors say they have ambiguous relations with some major companies in Eden City, taking all sorts of dirty work.
The Owl Town gang runs the entertainment business, knows how to exploit residents' desires for profit; the more indulgent people are, the more cash they rake in.
Yet within the Owl Town, the gang management is incredibly restrained, with extremism and violence hidden beneath a facade of strict hierarchy and gang honor.
The leadership is ruthless, values long-term interests, making business decisions with cold rationality.
The lower-tier members of the Owl Town are vast in number, yet lack proper organization and discipline.
They stir up trouble everywhere, engage in low-level, despicable violent activities, stuck on the lowest rung of the contempt chain, while constantly yearning to climb up the pyramid.
[Eden City - Sakura Cross Street No. 42]
The speed of Silver Rider 577 slowed down.
Outside the window was a steel forest formed by skyscrapers, every time entering this area condemned one with a sense of being robbed of the sky.
Red lights flickered atop the buildings.
The glass curtain walls appeared gloomy and dark in the night, conveying the indifference of the elite class.
From the building's middle downwards was a different scene.
The competition among shops was particularly intense, with giant neon signs crammed at varying heights into every inch of space, the saturation of advertisements reaching a point of numbness.
The streets were forever wet and moist.
The bustling crowds shattered the omnipresent light and shadow.
Anyone stepping into such an oppressive environment, once catching a whiff of the pervasive air of decay, probably thinks only about indulging and letting go.
There were sex workers at every intersection, bar bouncers and gang members mingling, creating a strong sense of a hedonistic absurdity, even prompting the normally most hypocritical citizens of Eden City to dare to experience illegal Super Sensing Chips on the streets...
[Mission target updated]
[Go to the closed-down casino, negotiate with the Owl Town gang. (Not completed)]
John flicked back the hood of his coat.
Condensate trickled down the hydrophobic coating, pooling on the surface of his cybernetics, dripping steadily onto his luggage bag.
The roll-up door had been violently pried open.
The intel showed the Owl Town gang traders had gone missing, the site looked more like an uncontrollable accident had occurred.
Bang, bang bang.
John tried knocking on the door.
The half-raised roll-up door was fully opened, and two sharp-eyed, street-level members of the Owl Town gang stood with guns, scrutinizing him.
"I'm here to make a delivery for Vito Russell."
John answered nonchalantly, glancing sideways as he spoke, seeing the alleyway completely blocked by a van.
The thugs said nothing, only blinking their cybernetic eyes incessantly.
They received notice from inside before leading John through a dimly lit hallway, along a steel ladder to the basement.
There were quite a few people inside.
All were Owl Town gang members, dressed in white tank tops and vests, with exposed parts of their bodies covered in Ukiyo-e style tattoos.
The room reeked of e-cigarettes and blood.
A poor guy, bloodied all over, was tied to a chair.
The interrogator slowly stood up, using a wet towel to clean his hands while glancing at John entering from the main door.
John felt like there was a wall standing in front of him.
[Name: Long Chuan Ze]
[Power: Owl Town gang]
[Scan: Heavy subcutaneous armor, blood pump, giant alloy prosthetic limbs, etc.]
[Bounty: Multiple murders, assaulting the police, human trafficking, etc.]
[File: High-ranking cadre of the Owl Town gang, wanted criminal, second-in-command of the Cheye Group, manages over twenty entertainment industries in Eden City, internal executioner...]
A long string of criminal information flashed in front of John.
This guy, named Long Chuan Ze, was outrageously built, the half of his face he revealed adorned with evil ghost tattoos, holding a short alloy knife in his hand.
"Who are you?" he asked.
John placed the luggage on the table. "Delivery."
The person on the chair became agitated, repeatedly begging, "I didn't lie to you, Lord Long Chuan Ze, I said the Black Gold Gang would definitely return the stuff!"
This was the transaction target Vito mentioned.
Long Chuan Ze ignored him, pointed at the door, "You may leave now."
John didn't move, instead he replied, "This is a trade, sir, the goods are delivered, where is the girl that was abducted?"
Long Chuan Ze looked puzzled, again staring at the person on the chair.
"Kidnap?"
"The goods fell into the Black Gold Gang's territory, I caught the thief, forced them to return the items."
"Where's the person?"
"I... I sold them to the Ghoul."