"Damn, it's alive!"
Jackie's words simultaneously surprised the other two; they were astonished both by Jackie's face, completely agape with surprise, and by the content of his words.
"It's alive?"
Berry and V repeated, walking up and peering over the edge of the freezer.
"It really is alive!"
Berry's eyes widened, expressing the same sentiment as Jackie.
This was due to the astonishing scene inside the freezer: a naked man was lying in a glowing, elongated freezer, with many thin tubes of unknown purpose penetrating his skin, and he wore something like an oxygen mask over his mouth, with transparent tubes extending directly into his throat.
The whole person was very calm, as if dead.
But after calming down slightly, one could still discern from the almost imperceptible, hard-to-detect rise and fall of his chest that this guy was still alive.
"Damn, what is this, a living person on ice?"
Jackie exclaimed in surprise. After the three calmed down slightly, they successively opened the remaining four or five freezers. One or two were empty, but the others all contained people, both men and women, all lying naked in the freezers like specimens.
What the hell is this.
Berry had the same question.
While she wasn't surprised not to see organs and cyberware sealed in fresh-keeping bags, having entire living people lying inside was also very strange.
For a moment, she thought she had come to the wrong set, and ended up in a neighboring horror film set instead.
Nevertheless, even so, Berry was still racking her brain, pondering the possibilities.
First, she ruled out the possibility of them being used for food.
Although eating meat requires freshness, the market for desperate meat in Night City shouldn't be that large.
Moreover, how precious the human body is—how much are a set of kidneys and cyberware worth? They wouldn't be cheap enough to be served on a dining table.
Therefore, Berry first guessed that either a rich artist had gone mad and wanted live human specimens, or that some gang was doing dirty work for certain people, collecting living human bodies.
Connecting this to the two boxes of mysterious solution she saw earlier, Berry guessed that there must be some connection between the two.
But exactly what that connection was, she still didn't know.
"Berry, come look at this."
Just as Berry was thinking to herself, V, who was nearby, called out to her.
V was also thinking and searching the surroundings. She rummaged through a pile of old papers on an office desk against the wall and found a "Shipping Manifest" written in crude handwriting.
Several names were roughly written on the grayish-white note, along with some information about the owner of the name: gender, blood type, and simple antigen parameters.
"Let me see..." Hearing that V had found a breakthrough, Berry walked over to check. After glancing at the contents of the "Shipping Manifest," a certain conjecture in her heart seemed to be confirmed.
"That's right. These guys are likely items for trade, collected by these bastards for another group."
Berry nodded, feeling her conjecture was highly plausible.
"Hmm, it should be like this, but..." V finished speaking and looked at the live people in the freezer, "We should let these poor souls out. Maybe we can ask them what exactly is going on."
Since things had come to this, the three of them couldn't just ignore it. So, after hearing V's words, the two of them nodded.
"Exactly, what the hell is going on? We'll know once we wake these guys up," Jackie also said.
He leaned on the edge of the freezer, looking doubtfully at the people inside who were in a deep sleep.
"But how do we wake them up?"
Jackie looked up at the two of them.
"After all, look, these guys are in a deep coma. If we rashly pull their tubes, they might all die."
"I'll figure it out."
V crossed her arms, looking at the people in the freezer, feeling that this wasn't the way.
Meanwhile, Berry spotted the computer terminal on the desk. Following the lines, she saw that the cables running from the computer were connected directly to the freezers.
"V, look here. Maybe we can hack this computer. The switch might be inside."
Berry pulled V's sleeve, pointing at the computer as she spoke.
Yes, that's the way.
Berry nodded. This was the perfect time for V to step up.
After she had spent a fortune on 'pay-to-win' upgrades, V's Hacker technology now had sufficient hardware support, leading to an earth-shattering breakthrough in her overall strength.
In Night City, money can create miracles; successfully paying-to-win means becoming stronger.
Sometimes, to judge how strong a person is, you can roughly estimate their power based on the cost of the cyberware installed on them.
It successfully achieved the same effect as in games: pay-to-win players and regular players live in two different worlds.
Haven't you seen that in the Edgerunners anime, the protagonist David's capital for turning his life around wasn't some cosmic burst or a lofty declaration of "thirty years East of the River, thirty years West of the River"? The most crucial capital was the Sandevistan cyberware his mother swiped while collecting a body.
Therefore, Berry felt very reassured by V, looking at her as if she were a customized orange-tier gear baby she had personally created.
After hearing Berry's words, V stepped forward, ready to begin the hack.
As for Berry's occasionally strange gaze, hehe, she had long gotten used to it.
It was normal for the disobedient little rascal, who could pin her down on the bed like a thief even when her own legs were weak, to occasionally have strange thoughts pop into her head.
Perhaps this was the law of the Great Universe: when abnormal things happen often enough, they become normal.
V squatted down, pulled her data cable from her wrist, and plugged it into the computer tower. The cracking work was simple, as those guys clearly hadn't bothered installing much hardcore firewall software on this terminal.
Therefore, V quickly bypassed the key input, booted the computer directly, and began searching for files within the system.
As everyone knows, people in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 are often bigmouths in a society lacking network security, fond of putting their unspeakable secrets into their email inboxes.
This time was no exception. V successfully browsed the email and found the entire story behind the chillingly frozen live people in the basement.
"The goods the customer requested must be delivered before Wednesday. Damn it, they asked for a rare blood type this time. Gamblers like that aren't easy to find."
"There are so many people who owe money and can't pay it back. Looks like we'll have to spend some effort searching. I wonder if we can even find one."
"Also, we're running low on those little gadgets that get the customers excited. Those idiots, all you have to do is spray a tiny bit into the room, and those guys will gamble until they forget their own names. It's a real money-maker. Remember to grab some extra from the buyer after the delivery."
This was a log entry, perhaps left by a gang member with a poor memory. But after reading this record, all three fell silent for a moment.
They seemed to know the reason now.
This casino was working for some unknown faction, which apparently needed live people, whole bodies, not just parts. The casino was responsible for providing them. As for the candidates? Naturally, they were the people who gambled too hard, owed money, and couldn't pay it back.
And those mysterious solutions must be the payment given by the faction to the casino: a type of spray that stimulates human emotions.
So, those gamblers weren't always so reckless. These guys filled the casino with this spray. The people who were already high on gambling, once they encountered this, it was no different from taking drugs. In that state of euphoria, they would definitely bet their entire fortune.
As for running out of money, that wasn't a problem. Under the heavy fists of the gang members, people could always unleash their greatest potential to find cash. And if they couldn't find it? Then they were invited to the basement freezer.
Yes, the division of labor was clear, and the flow was obvious. They had truly created a seamless dragon-service for harvesting human interests, perfected from the initial exploitation of the body to the final "exploitation" of the body.
Afterward, V found the release button for the freezer.
Following a series of operations, the cold air slowly began to dissipate. The bodies, previously in a low-temperature state, started to revive; the most obvious sign was the sound of their breathing.
Finally, the unfortunate souls who had gambled themselves into lying in small boxes woke up.
"W-where am I?"
"What is this place?"
They struggled to remove the transparent breathing masks from their mouths. Seeing their naked bodies and the dense network of tubes attached to them, the few people, still groggy from waking up, felt immense panic. They stared wildly at the three people in front of them as if they were butchers about to slaughter them.
"Hey, you're awake, cuties! We were just about to remove your kidneys. Now that you're awake, you'll have to suffer a bit, because taking out kidneys without anesthetic is quite painful!"
Even at a time like this, Berry hadn't forgotten her sense of humor, opening her mouth to immediately scare these newly awakened unfortunates.
Judging by the horrified expressions on their faces, which still held beads of defrosting water, they clearly took her seriously.
"Alright, Berry. They just woke up. Don't scare them back into a coma."
Looking at the mischievous Berry, V covered her forehead, unsure what to say.
In the end, nothing happened, of course. These unlucky people found some clothes and were released. She wondered if this near-death lesson would teach them anything.
If they wanted to stimulate dopamine, couldn't they just drink more soda? Why play games that would bankrupt them?
"...Berry, what do you think about this matter?"
After everything was over, V brought it up casually. After a brief pause, Berry understood what V was asking.
She was referring to the casino's mysterious transaction. The Motorcycle Gang had already been swept away by them, and the two or three stragglers who escaped wouldn't cause any trouble. But the mysterious trading partner mentioned in the email—the one who could manufacture or acquire that kind of product—was definitely not someone easy to deal with.
Berry guessed it was likely a Corporation.
Although Berry hadn't done it intentionally this time, she had essentially destroyed their dirty business. No one could predict what would happen next; maybe they would send people for revenge.
However, after thinking for a moment, Berry shrugged, indicating she didn't care.
"V, don't worry. Who doesn't have a few enemies when trying to survive in Night City? Since this territory is mine, no matter who it is, anyone who dares violate my Great Wu—Pah!—the Hive's territory, I, Berry, will definitely strike and destroy them!"
Berry clenched her fist and swore solemnly, but before she could finish, V poured cold water on her enthusiasm.
"Hey, who are you talking to..."
Under the setting sun, V sat on the steps nearby. Her beautiful blue hair shone brightly in the sunlight, and her blue eyes looked at Berry, filled with teasing amusement.
"I was asking how you plan to reward me tonight."
V leaned over and whispered into Berry's ear. Berry instantly realized V was teasing her, and her eyebrows shot up in disdain.
"Dream on..." Berry retorted, but she narrowed her eyes, looking at V's languid posture as she stretched her waist, propping herself up with her hands behind her.
Hmm, what a figure.
Phantom limb erection.
However, Berry smacked her lips and shook her head again.
Too bad, this girl's wings have hardened now. Thinking of her difficult days ever since V got better, Berry sighed that the good times were gone forever.
With this thought, Berry sighed.
Straight to the point: when mountains and rivers end, there seems no road ahead; a tiger fallen into the flatlands is bullied by dogs.
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