Cyberpunk, but urban

But at least there was one good thing. The driver who was in a hurry to drive out dropped him off. At least he didn't need to continue listening to the taxi driver's dream.

After bidding farewell to the driver who dreamed of becoming a speedster, Ye Lan walked into Alley 10 and headed towards the notary district. The morning mist surrounded him, and there was no large garbage on the road that had been swept by the street sweeper.

As they walked, Ye Lan began to speculate about the taxi driver's future. However, in this city, he could not think of any good possibilities.

Resign from the company and even buy the car? The company is not a charity, and the most likely thing that will happen is that you will be fired.

"Hey, you can't twist it again, right?"

Ye Lan shook his head and completely put the matter of the taxi driver behind him. Whether he could become a fast racer beyond his expectations or even become famous, it had nothing to do with Ye Lan. Even if he eventually became twisted under the destruction of the company, he would only become the target of other finishers.

In short, Ye Lan, wrapped in the morning mist, appeared in front of the bank clerk who had just come to work, carrying a large backpack full of wealth.

These employees who could barely be considered clerks of the Eleventh Association were shocked. Although the Back Alley Late Night Party had ended at this time, usually few people would choose to go out immediately after the Back Alley Late Night Party ended.

After all, the back alleys late at night are also the time when gang members, cleaners and armed staff of the company deal with certain matters. If you happen to run into them on their way back, it can sometimes be more terrifying than running into a scavenger.

Judging from the dampness of Ye Lan's clothes, he probably didn't return to the house the entire night. He was definitely the type of person that ordinary people in the city least wanted to meet.

"Guest, what business do you need?"

An employee who had just opened the bank door put the key in his pocket, put on a decent smile, and asked Ye Lan what he wanted to do.

"Don't be nervous, I won't hurt you. Now, help me change the things in this bag into eyes and deposit them into the account."

As Ye Lanyi spoke, he threw his backpack and his account card to the employee who asked him. The employee didn't say anything and immediately ran to the office area behind the counter carrying the heavy backpack.

Ye Lan found a comfortable-looking spot on the sofa in the public lounge and sat down. In less than two minutes, a smart employee brought him a warm drink.

Ye Lan took a sip. It was probably a hot wine made by mixing vodka, orange wine and fresh oranges. He didn't know where the habit of choosing drinks in this bank came from. In any case, he was not used to drinking it.

After taking a sip of the hot orange wine, he placed it on the small table nearby. Soon the employee came back with an empty backpack and account card.

"Mr. Ye, the items in your bag have been counted and all have been recorded on your card. Is there anything else you need?"

"Okay." Ye Lan nodded at him, picked up his empty backpack and walked out. The employee heaved a sigh of relief only when his figure could no longer be seen in the bank hall.

After all, anyone who saw the revenge account book belonging to the middle finger brother piled in the backpack like worthless garbage would not regard the man who carried this backpack all the way as an ordinary harmless guest.

However, our feared hero Ye Lan was in a very good mood at this time. After transferring all the wealth stored by Zhongzhi in the southern branch of the city to his own account, he made a fortune.

With this money, it would not be difficult to move forward to the location of Nest L. The Alley 10 where he and Luna were now was within the scope of Nest J, and Nest L was the 14th district in the city. As long as they passed through Nest K, he and Luna would be close to Alley 12, which was within the jurisdiction of Nest L.

After walking towards the hotel for a while, we found that the surrounding casinos, bars and other entertainment venues had reopened their doors. Customers who were too lazy to go out to hide in the back alleys late at night and chose to stay in these entertainment venues all night also left with a smell of alcohol and walked towards the surrounding restaurants.

The street where Ye Lan was located was instantly crowded with people. The restaurants that had not opened their doors a second ago now opened their doors almost at the same time, welcoming the guests who had been gambling or drinking all night in. The bosses wearing aprons filled their appetites with food from their own shops, thereby earning all the money from the gamblers.

Unfortunately, Ye Lan could tell from the smell coming from inside the door that the ingredients used in these restaurants were not good at all. In order to avoid eating certain people-oriented dishes, Ye Lan decided to return to the hotel to check out the restaurant of the most luxurious hotel in Alley 10.

Chapter 45. Back Alley Hotel

At about eight o'clock in the morning, Ye Lan finally returned from the huge crowd in Alley 10 to the hotel he had chosen for Luna yesterday - the Back Alley Hotel.

The name of this hotel is quite strange, and its owner is an unsolved mystery in the city. However, even though no one knows who the owner is, the Alley Hotel has successfully opened in every back alley under the watchful eyes of countless gangs including Finger, making its name a statement in front of everyone.

As the top hotel in the back alley, the Back Alley Hotel has luxuriously purchased J Company's Singularity Technology for each guest room. The power of the "lock" ensures that each guest room can only be opened by themselves. Even the cleaning staff can only clean the room under the supervision of the hotel's armed security team when the customer opens the door in person.

Entering the hotel lobby, there was a black receptionist wearing a black suit that was darker than his skin color. He was standing politely behind the counter, quietly waiting for every guest who came to book a room.

He had a wired headset hanging on his right ear, and the wire went around his neck and into his pocket from his waist. It should be the receiver of some kind of intercom.

Seeing Ye Lan coming towards him, the receptionist straightened his suit, put on his gold-rimmed glasses again, then put his hands in front of him and said respectfully to Ye Lan: "Good morning, dear guest, is there anything I can help you with?"

After saying this cliché that he would say to every guest, the well-mannered black receptionist told Ye Lan what he wanted to know in his deep and charming voice. Before Ye Lan asked him a question:

"Mr. Ye, because you have to leave for something, our hotel has specially added a group of armed guards outside your room. With their combined efforts and J Company's Singularity Technology, I believe your daughter must have had a good rest."

Ye Lan looked the receptionist up and down, then asked a new question: "Can you read minds?"

"Mr. Ye, the ability to read minds, which only appears in stories, may appear in the hands of some powerful finishers or armed employees of the company, but an ordinary hotel employee like me does not have such power."

The black receptionist smiled politely and started to operate several computers on the counter. Before Ye Lan could speak, he handed Ye Lan a card printed out from a machine beside him.

"Here is the key to the 'lock' of your daughter's room. A waiter will take you upstairs in a minute. After you wake up your daughter, she will take you two to the hotel's buffet restaurant for dinner."

Ye Lan raised his eyebrows and said half-jokingly: "You still say you can't read minds?"

"Haha, these are just some experiences and skills I have summarized after many years of work." The black receptionist flipped through the breast pocket of his suit and handed over a business card.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Lance Lettick, the housekeeper and lobby manager of the Alley 10 branch of the Back Alley Hotel. I hope you can choose our hotel again next time."

Now Ye Lan really began to suspect that Mr. Lance, the lobby manager and butler, had some kind of mind-reading ability. Every word he said accurately answered the questions Ye Lan wanted to ask, and even added more information that Ye Lan wanted to know on top of what he asked.

Having such people serving you will indeed make you feel at home, but knowing so accurately what the guests are thinking can also be stressful for them.

Fortunately, just as Manager Lance said, after only a minute of waiting, a waitress came to lead him upstairs.

The waitress was wearing a scissor-tailed dress with a smaller vest on top. She wore slim-fitting suit trousers and lace-up women's leather shoes. She looked enthusiastic but not fawning.

The white-gloved hand waved frivolously in front of Ye Lan, directing all his attention from her body to her face.

"Mr. Ye, we should go upstairs. Your daughter is still waiting for you. If you have anything to say to me, we can talk when we go to the cafeteria."

"Oh, sorry. I've been observing you for a while now."

Ye Lan found an excuse to apologize, and then followed the energetic waiter into the elevator. The elevator was extremely fast, and the number on the display quickly changed from 1 to 38 in just three or two seconds, but such a fast rising speed did not make Ye Lan feel the proper change in gravity.

The waiter led Ye Lan around the corridor twice, then turned to Ye Lan, pointed to a corridor behind her left and said, "We are here. Your daughter's room is in Room 3807. I suggest you knock on the door before opening it to avoid any embarrassment."

It seemed that the waitress was going to stand at the entrance of the corridor and wait for him to wake up Luna. Ye Lan nodded to her, walked into the corridor alone, and knocked on the door of Room 3807.

The waitress's suggestion was indeed useful. A vague voice came from the other side of the door: "Wait a moment, I'll open the door -"

Of course, anyone who has opened a door at home knows that it is usually not very convenient for a person to say this. Although the person says "wait a moment", in fact the person standing outside the door still has to wait until the person inside resolves his or her embarrassing situation.

So, after waiting at the door for about three or five minutes, little Luna finally opened the door for Ye Lan.

Judging from her messy hair and disheveled clothes, she was probably still lying in bed when Ye Lan knocked on the door.

"You." Ye Lan smiled, "Let me in first, I'll comb your hair."

"Ah."

Luna responded and jumped back onto the bed, hugging her knees while waiting for Ye Lan to comb her hair. Only then did Ye Lan notice that she had not been wearing shoes and was walking barefoot on the carpet in the room.

But since they had already walked, and the carpet looked very comfortable, Ye Lan could only let Luna do what she wanted. Shaking his head helplessly, he followed her and sat beside her, and began to comb her hair.

After Luna was fully washed and dressed, Ye Lan took her hand and left the room with her, walking towards the hotel's buffet restaurant with the waitress.

His and Luna's plan today was to have a good rest in this back alley hotel and then set off for K's Nest early the next morning.

Chapter 46. Cafeteria

Ye Lan held Luna's hand and followed behind the waitress. The scale of the back alley hotel was surprisingly large, which also caused the internal terrain structure to be extremely loaded.

Only these specially trained guides can easily find the nearest route to the facilities that guests want to go to.

The three of them walked through several corridors on the 38th floor, then crossed a rooftop and walked into the other side of the building. After that, they walked down two floors along the stairs and finally stopped in front of an elevator.

The waitress pressed the elevator button and apologized to Ye Lan and Xiao Luna, "I'm really sorry that you two have been walking for so long, but if you want to go to the buffet restaurant of this hotel, taking this direct elevator on the 36th floor is the most convenient and quickest route."

"It's okay, that's fine."

Ye Lan was not the type to complain about the wait staff, and Xiao Luna was even less so. Besides, the waitress had tried her best to find the shortest route for them, so what else could she blame?

Ding!

The elevator arrived and the three of them walked into the large elevator, which had a door that was more than three meters wide. The control panel of the elevator had only two buttons besides the alarm button - 36th floor and basement floor.

Just as the waitress introduced to them, this elevator was indeed a direct elevator.

The elevator was running at an astonishingly fast speed and the gravity change was completely imperceptible. After two or three seconds, the three of them were taken to the cafeteria on the underground floor.

After leaving the elevator, the three of them came to a buffet restaurant with simple but not monotonous decoration, where breakfast was still being served.

From Chinese breakfasts such as fried dough sticks and soy milk to Japanese breakfasts such as miso soup and grilled saury, to Western breakfasts represented by jam and bread, almost all the breakfast cuisines that Ye Lan could name in his previous life can be found in this buffet restaurant.

"Wow--"

Even though she had seen many luxurious restaurants after being adopted by Ye Lan, little Luna was still shocked by this buffet restaurant in the alley hotel.

“Do you usually have so many customers eating here?”

Ye Lan was not shocked by the variety of meals. He looked around and saw that they were the only three people dining in this buffet restaurant.

"Well... we bought a food decomposition machine. We just throw the leftover food in and it will be decomposed into basic nutrients and then printed out again. In fact, the loss is not that much."

After hearing this, Ye Lan could only say that the city's technology was truly astonishing. Just to ensure that the buffet restaurant's dishes were luxurious enough, they purchased such technological equipment that was considered a miracle in Ye Lan's previous life.

After randomly choosing a table to sit down, Luna went to find her favorite food. Ye Lan looked at the waitress, then smiled and followed behind to pick up her own plate and began to choose food.

The little girl was a sweet tooth, and she quickly got herself a bunch of desserts and cakes. Ye Lan took a quick look and found that most of them were French and American desserts.

If the chef here had not improved the recipe, the little girl would soon be severely beaten by the tooth-sweet snacks and cakes.

He picked two baskets of crab roe dumplings, made a cup of soy milk, and prepared a cup of milk for Luna. The key to eating at a buffet is to take less and more often. If you take too much at once, you will feel full just by looking at the pile of food.

"Come to think of it, it's all thanks to you that I can have a meal here." The waitress brought a bowl of beef noodles and nothing else.

Seeing that she didn't plan to get anything else, Ye Lan returned to her seat with the waitress. Little Luna, who had run to get the food first, was really sick of the super sweet snacks and cakes, and was sticking out her tongue to look for the drink.

"It's too sweet, isn't it." Ye Lan handed the milk to little Luna and watched her gulp down half the cup in one breath.

The little fellow put the milk down and pouted, "They look and smell delicious, but they taste too sweet... Ye Lan, Ye Lan, why do you think these snacks are made like this?"

Ye Lan stuffed a steamed bun into his mouth, chewed it for a few times and swallowed it before saying to Luna, "Because these snacks were originally meant to be eaten with black tea or other bitter drinks, in order to neutralize the bitterness of the drink."

"Oh~"

Luna doesn't care where Ye Lan gets his knowledge from. To her, this older brother who is like a father to her always has new knowledge to share.

However, for the waitress, Ye Lan, who could speak such knowledge, was very extraordinary.

After all, a large part of these recipes were discovered in the ruins underground in the city, and can be considered as the heritage inherited by urban residents from previous civilizations.

"Come to think of it, I haven't introduced myself yet," the waitress placed her chopsticks on the edge of the large bowl of beef noodles and said to Ye Lan and Luna, "My name is He Lin, and I used to live in the back alley area under the jurisdiction of the Sixth Association for a while."

"I'm quite surprised to see that you also like to eat this kind of food."

She gave Ye Lan a bright smile, but in Ye Lan's opinion, it was just a small gesture to curry favor with him as a guest.

Of course, being able to see it is one thing, but enjoying it is another. Anyone would enjoy the advances of a beautiful young waitress, and Ye Lan was no exception.

After taking a few more meals, the three of them, who were completely full, left the buffet restaurant chatting.

Ye Lan planned to take a nap, while Luna learned about the game room set up in the hotel from He Lin.

Although Ye Lan had no hope that there would be any games in the hotel in the back alley controlled by J Nest, He Lin said that there were no gambling games in their hotel.

Therefore, Ye Lan agreed to Luna's going to the game room with He Lin to kill time, and he went back to his room to sleep alone.

While the two of them were enjoying their luxurious life, Roland, who had just bandaged his wound, was finally able to have a good rest in his bed at home.

He forgot his cognitive blocking mask at home before the battle with Middle Finger last night, which completely exposed his information to Middle Finger.

If he can’t recover quickly from his injuries, he might not be able to deal with the revenge from the middle finger.

Chapter 47. Towards K-Nest

When Ye Lan got up from bed after getting enough sleep, the sun was no longer visible outside. However, the lights of the shops on the street were also turned on.

Lingge looked down at the alley from his guest room on the 38th floor. Various but dazzling lights and plaques illuminated the entire Alley 10.

Countless people, like ants attracted by honey, moved towards the casinos and bars in the back alleys. Carrying with them the crazy fantasy of getting rich overnight and all their belongings, they moved forward towards the abyss of no return like moths to a flame.

Most of them would lose everything by the next morning and would then have to trade their "luck" for more money from the gangs.

And these guys whose luck has been sucked away by the willpower machine will naturally lose more in the next gamble, and then sell out more.

Finally, they follow the rolling stone of their desire and roll down the hillside, rolling faster and faster until they hit something and are smashed to pieces.

So when Ye Lan heard the waitress Miss He Lin introducing the hotel's gaming area to him and Luna, he specifically asked if there were any gambling-related games.

Fortunately, as a high-end hotel that can set up branches in all the back alleys, the Back Alley Hotel has always been operating with the goal of providing every type of guest with the most comfortable living experience. Therefore, after hearing that Ye Lan did not want his children to be exposed to the characteristic industries of Alley 10 and J Nest, Miss He Lin also told him that she could take Luna to the game area without relevant facilities to pass the time.

Now, Ye Lan, who was fully awake, had to go downstairs to pick up his little Luna and pack his luggage. Although he planned to leave early tomorrow morning, packing his luggage in advance could avoid mistakes in case of emergencies.

Ye Lan didn't want to open his eyes to find Roland chasing him with his Durandal, while his and Luna's luggage were still scattered all over the room.

Following the route left by Miss He Lin, he walked through the entire 38th floor and went up one floor along the stairs at the other end of the building, and he found the game room. If nothing unexpected happened, Luna should be here to experience these arcade games accompanied by He Lin.

Ye Lan walked into the game room, where there were less than ten children accompanied by waiters, playing those arcade games that seemed very old-fashioned to him.

However, this is not surprising. After the development of personal computers, the demand for players to go to arcades to play has decreased a lot. After most of the customers were snatched away by the computer game industry, arcade games naturally became a backward industry. Only those music games retained a group of audiences because of their unique performance in arcades.

This leads to the same situation in cities that developed on the basis of pre-civilization.