"Berry, the Aldecaldos are prepared to support us."
Judy hung up the phone and turned to say to Berry.
"I knew they were reliable!"
Berry jumped excitedly in her chair.
"How many people are they preparing to send for the battle? Two hundred? Three hundred?"
Berry asked impatiently.
"When the time comes, we at Hive will attack from the north, and the Aldecaldos will attack from the south. We'll attack Japantown from both sides, and victory will definitely be ours!"
Er...
Looking at the excited Berry, Judy found it hard to say what was on the tip of her tongue.
"Er... well... Berry, the Aldecaldo Family said they don't have enough manpower to launch an attack. They can only send a fifteen-person strike team, led by the Nomad, Panam Palmer."
...
Berry didn't speak.
She only felt a faint sense of sadness and absurdity in her heart.
So much for the unbreakable alliance.
However, Berry's resentment didn't last long. After a while, she let out a long sigh and accepted this messed-up reality.
"It seems everyone still doesn't believe in us."
Indeed, they were a small organization that had only recently emerged. Going up against the famous Tyger Claws, who had been entrenched in Night City for decades, no matter how you looked at it, they couldn't win.
Comparing manpower, Hive, including non-combatants, had at most two hundred people, while the Tyger Claws, just by NCPD's public statistics, had thousands, not to mention the various small peripheral gangs making a living under the Tyger Claws' banner.
As for territory, Hive only had Hive Tower, which they snatched from the Motorcycle Gang, including the half-meter walkway outside Hive Tower, because that was within the building's trash collection range.
Meanwhile, the Tyger Claws had plenty of territory in Japantown, Westbrook, and the North Oak District, with countless casinos, braindances, pachinko parlors, and bars. Their daily revenue could stuff Hive Tower from inside to out.
As for Hive, to put it nicely, they were a brick-and-mortar business dealing in cyberware technology; to put it bluntly, they were bottom-feeders competing with Scavengers for the black-market cyberware trade.
If they were called Scavengers, Hive would have to be called little rats.
Anyway, both were just small creatures in the sewer eating trash and drinking dirty water; neither was better than the other.
In this situation, how could the people of Night City believe they could win this battle?
Even if there were many organizations in Night City that hated the Tyger Claws or were even enemies with them, they didn't dare to get on Hive's boat.
In their eyes, Hive, having offended the Tyger Claws, was already at the point where their survival time could be counted in hours.
They were just a living corpse.
Unless Hive showed something different during the war, they wouldn't be able to find any forces in Night City's intricate power structure that could support them.
...
In the last few days, one piece of news had occupied Night City's attention and hot topics.
A war.
A gang war.
At a time when all the corporations were keeping a low profile and tending to use independent Mercenaries to handle affairs, making things dull and boring, news of a gang war about to erupt naturally shot to the top, becoming the undisputed hot topic of Night City.
As if pushed by an invisible hand, TV stations, forums, websites, radio stations, and even talk shows—every channel that could pour into the residents' eyes and stuff their ears—fired wildly. Everyone was heatedly discussing the upcoming war between the Tyger Claws and Hive.
For a time, even the news of the Night City mayor's sudden death was pushed to second place on the trending list, while the news of a Petrochem executive director driving drunk and crashing into a school bus, causing the deaths of sixteen children, took third place.
In this heated atmosphere of gossip, people couldn't help but ask, who is Hive?
Finally, when people looked it up, they realized, oh, it's just a third-rate cyberware selling organization with less than two hundred people, a brother team to the Scavengers.
After that, the focus of the discussion became how many hours it would take for the Tyger Claws to crush Hive.
"Hive, what kind of low-IQ group is that? They couldn't just stay in the sewer; they had to go and provoke the Tyger Claws. Well, look at them now, about to be smashed to pieces."
"Hahaha, I don't think this so-called Hive will last more than half an hour if they really start fighting."
"I think half an hour is a bit much; at least an hour or so. After all, it takes over half an hour just to drive from Japantown to Chinatown."
"Are you guys brain-damaged? The Tyger Claws are harming citizens; is this something you can joke about? Hive is just a cyberware dealer; I've used their cyberware. The Tyger Claws started the war without cause; if this isn't persecution, what is?"
"Haha, the guy above looks really triggered; it's hilarious. Gangs fighting gangs, and you make it sound so noble."
"Exactly. Did the Tyger Claws not give Hive a chance? It was Hive that refused the acquisition and attacked innocent Tyger Claws workers. If that's not asking for death, what is? Isn't it sweet to trade compromise for peace?"
Similar discussions were everywhere on Night City's local network.
In the overwhelming bombardment of information from various sources, which was difficult to distinguish between true and false, the name Hive, just as it emerged, saw its reputation slide one-sidedly toward the extreme.
Various crimes were heaped onto Hive, and even some old stories about the Motorcycle Gang were misattributed to Hive. For a time, the name Hive was universally reviled on the local network, and even if a small number of people spontaneously spoke up for them, it was of no use.
The clamor on the local network was not without a source; it was the result of deliberate manipulation by someone with an agenda.
And the mastermind behind this was none other than the future undisputed leader of the Tyger Claws, Jotaro.
"Hehehe, it seems our media friends have started to exert themselves. Hehe, not bad, not bad..."
Laughing in a low voice, the hand holding the red wine glass shook gently, and the crimson wine rose and fell in waves in the glass.
Jotaro was in a good mood.
Everything was developing according to his plan.
War, some people always portray it as something grand, but Jotaro simply simplified it into two words: firearms and loudspeakers.
And now, while the firearms hadn't moved yet, it was the time for the loudspeakers to show their power.
Public opinion was as easy to manipulate as a pile of sand. Jotaro only needed a small investment of funds, and those media outlets that loved eurodollars more than the truth would wag their tongues for him, shaping an image of a sinful and despicable Hive in the minds of Night City's residents, just like the Tyger Claws themselves.
As for why he was doing this, it was very simple: just to divert the attention of Night City's residents.
Divert Night City's attention while heavily publicizing this war? This seemed contradictory.
But in fact, it wasn't.
When people gathered together, their brains were as simple as sheep, but if they accidentally saw the truth, they would erupt with incredible power.
Jotaro was not an idiot. Since he wasn't an idiot, he would naturally learn from past lessons.
The lesson from the riot ten years ago.
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/SolyuraMT
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"