From Gotham to Night City, my infamy is known to all.

"Take this—Solar Fist!"

"What!?...Aaaaaah!!"

The blinding white light spread from his consciousness into his body, giving Leo the terrible feeling of being hit by a flashbang right in the face.

He covered his head and shook it frantically a few times before finally shaking the strange feeling out of his mind.

【Pure White, what are you doing?!】

[This has nothing to do with me. Expanding the space requires mobilizing a massive amount of primordial energy to propel the light wall outwards. Since you're going to get dazzled anyway, I might as well add some fun for you~]

Why didn't you say so beforehand?!

[If I'd told you beforehand, you would have been prepared, right? Ahh~~ Don't worry about such a small thing, come and see, the wall of light is moving, and the space is getting bigger!]

Leo suspected foul play, but he couldn't suppress his curiosity.

Returning to the space, he "saw" the changes in the singularity space—

Except for the light wall that serves as the foundation, which remains stationary, the other five light walls are being propelled by an invisible force, slowly but steadily expanding outwards.

All the equipment in the server room was running at high speed, and the buzzing of the graphics cards and fans combined to sound like countless noisy bees.

He looked at the mastermind behind it all—Pure White.

She was suspended at the geometric center of the singularity, surrounded by a torrent of data composed of numbers and letters. The data, which should have been a virtual projection, was now solidifying into tangible quantum patterns around her.

"The computing power has reached the critical value. The space upgrade is expected to be completed within three minutes and reach a stable state within the following seven minutes."

When Pure White opened her eyes, her pupils had already transformed into two rotating galactic vortexes. The data streams surrounding her began to flow in reverse, injecting into the expanding wall of light and accelerating the spatial expansion.

Leo dared not disturb her at this moment and quietly observed the changes in the singularity space.

Three minutes, which felt like centuries, passed before the space stabilized, and the internal server room and clutter remained unaffected.

Pure White floated back to the ground, standing proudly with her hands on her hips.

"It's done. I've used the primordial energy extracted from the two worlds as efficiently as possible to carry out the first comprehensive upgrade of the singularity space, as you requested."

"This upgrade is divided into two aspects, with a focus on expanding the internal storage space, which has now been expanded from 240 cubic meters to 750 cubic meters."

Adjusting the time rules requires too much energy, and my energy investment is limited; currently, I can only make minor adjustments to a degree of 20%.

Leo asked her a few questions and figured out what this 20% level meant.

With a 14-day cycle, he can freely allocate nearly 3 days, thus achieving a schedule of 10 days in Night City and 4 days in Gotham.

This led him to a question: "At this rate, if I have 50% control over the laws of time, wouldn't I be able to stay in Night City forever instead of Gotham?"

Pure White shook his head: "You still need to maintain the energy channel. The singularity space needs to continuously draw energy to maintain its internal space and traversal capabilities."

"Drawing out the world's primordial energy...that sounds so evil. Won't it drain the world dry?"

"That's uncertain and requires further research."

Leo stayed there for a while longer, confirming that the upgrade was complete and everything went very smoothly, before excitedly running off to report the good news to V.

Pure White craned her neck and waited for a long time, only to see him turn and run away. So, imitating V, she narrowed her eyes dangerously...

Emerging Talent: Chapter 181 The Smuggling Business Gets a Major Upgrade

"V, I did it! Did you see anything unusual?"

Leo took all the credit for Pure White, as proud as a peacock spreading its tail feathers.

V stood a few meters away. Seeing that he seemed to have figured it out, she quickly walked over, gently put her hand on his head, and carefully examined him: "I didn't see any strange phenomena, but I saw you holding your head and shaking it randomly a few times. Is your head hurting?"

Leo's smile froze, his good mood instantly halved.

It's all because of Chunbai; his radiant side wasn't shown, but instead, his moment of losing his composure was witnessed...

Just as he was about to argue, his face suddenly touched something incredibly soft, enveloped in a warm and comforting sensation.

Looking to the side, I realized that V had pulled me into his arms.

The heavy weight on his forehead made him immediately change his mind: "It hurts a little, rub it for me."

V could tell he was lying, but how to put it... when his hands weren't wandering around, this boyfriend was actually quite cute, and this condescending hug made her feel good.

Just like orcas, the matriarch should be a woman!

The two snuggled together for a while until Leo's hand couldn't resist starting to climb up her waist. V then released him with displeasure and went to pour him a cup of hot tea.

Leo took a sip and shared the good news with her: "My subspace has expanded by two times, and the amount of cargo I can carry is conservatively estimated to be five times the original. Next time I come back, a ten million deal will become a one hundred million deal!"

Just hearing this number made V dizzy; the unit "hundred million" is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Let alone a lifetime, even if you didn't eat or drink for ten lifetimes, you probably couldn't save up this much money.

"You're planning to keep selling wine? Five times... that's two hundred thousand bottles. Night City can't possibly handle that much wine, can it?"

Leo nodded in agreement: "I've talked to the priest about this, and he also said that Night City can't handle that much wine. So I plan to sell the wine in other cities, starting with the new American cities around Night City."

V thought of his extraordinary storage capacity—he was a super warehouse himself, able to carry large quantities of goods around without fear of customs inspection.

But she was still a little worried: "Tell me, are you planning to fly to another city?"

"That's right. Pure White can change my personal identity information at will. I just need to buy a few plane tickets from a legitimate platform and I can travel all over the surrounding cities in a day."

As long as the warehouse is prepared in advance, the goods can be placed there, and the priest's partner can pick them up, the entire process can be completed.

The only thing to consider is disguise. I got an idea from the receptionist at Arasaka Company: I plan to have Old Wei customize several sets of detachable facial skin to replace my prosthetic body. I'll change my appearance and identity in each city I visit to improve security.

V used his experience in the underworld to assess the situation and concluded that the plan should be feasible.

After all, no one could have imagined that such an outrageous technology as subspace existed in the world...

"I think it's okay, but you've got one thing wrong!"

Leo looked at her, puzzled.

V continued, "It's not one plane ticket, it's two. I can't be with you when you go to the other world, but at least here, I have to protect you closely... I'm your bodyguard!"

Leo was slightly taken aback, only then remembering that V had such an identity, which he had almost forgotten after spending so much time with him.

[Pure White, can V's personal information be changed at will?]

【Humph! 】

I'm talking to you about something serious, why are you always like this? What's wrong with you these past few days? Are you having mood swings due to your period?

Leo tried to use humor to ease the tension.

With little success.

【I'm fine! You'll see in a couple of days! Let's get down to business first. V's SID chip can also be modified; just ask her to give me the permission.】

Leo had no idea what was wrong with her, so he had to relay her words to V first.

In order to accompany Leo, V hesitated for a few seconds before granting Pure White permission to access personal data.

Alright, from now on, V will be our bodyguard when we go on long trips. That's pretty reliable here in 2077. Also, I'm going to start emptying my shopping cart. Total price: 375 million. Pay up!

Upon hearing the offer, Leo replied without hesitation: "Don't you have access to your personal account? Just buy it yourself. Remember to keep 100 million for emergencies, and the commission from this transaction. Spend the rest as you see fit; it won't generate any more offspring anyway."

[That makes more sense. I'll place the order now. The goods are a mixed bag, so you can look at them slowly once they arrive in your space.]

【Row. 】

Leo ended the call indifferently.

Chunbai is practically tied to him and wouldn't do anything to harm him, so it would be good to delegate some authority to lighten his burden.

Having settled things with Pure White and V, Leo had a brief moment of free time.

He had originally planned to use the training chip to quickly learn some more combat skills. Unexpectedly, the priest was so quick to call; he'd only been mentioned once, and he was already on the phone.

"Whoosh...whoosh..."

The priest's image appeared in the upper left corner of the retina, and in the background, he appeared to be sitting in a moving car.

"L, I've prepared the product list. You just need to purchase according to the proportions."

As he spoke, a wine purchase list was passed over.

This image file, only a few hundred kilobytes in size, was instantly transmitted after a pure white check and appeared in the center of Leo's retina.

He glanced at it briefly. The priest's list was very detailed, with several different purchase ratios based on the approximate quantity of goods. The common feature was that the proportion of high-end wines, especially communion wine, was increased, while the proportion of low-end wines was significantly reduced.

Purchasing according to this list will significantly increase his profits.

"Yes, I saw it. Is it because the lower-end wines aren't selling well? They've cut back so much."

The priest slowly shook his head: "No, low-end liquor is certainly the best-selling. But you should know that making money from the rich is much easier than making money from the poor. Since our products can be sold all over America, we should try to go the mainstream route."

That makes sense, Leo nodded in agreement.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to reveal some information to the priest: "This time I can probably smuggle five to six times the amount of goods, and I can also get better quality communion wine. Help me think of a way to maximize our profits."

"A better quality communion..."

A glint flashed in the priest's eyes, and an idea began to take shape in his mind.

"How about this, let's skip the lower-grade wines this time and use the extra portion for the better communion wine you mentioned. If this wine is of high quality, I might be able to secure a prestigious spokesperson for our wines."

"Of course, that's a story for later. We can discuss it in detail when the wine arrives. I'm on my way to the airport now. Considering the total volume of your goods, I plan to find four or five partners to be responsible for the market in their respective cities."

Leo was very satisfied with the priest's efficiency, which was the attitude a partner should have: "Then I won't disturb your schedule any longer. The next shipment should arrive in about ten days. I wish us all the best."

"Yes, wish us all the best. Amen—"

The priest made the sign of the cross on his chest.

First Glimpse of Talent: Chapter 182 The Client Who Came to Her Door—Susan Q

Leo thought the call was over and was about to hang up when the priest continued:

“L, I may be leaving Night City for a few days. If you need anything, you can contact my nephew Diego. He is the next generation of middlemen being trained by the Ibarra family. He is still quite inexperienced, but the enthusiasm and drive of a young man can make up for his shortcomings.”

"Also, if you really want to be a middleman instead of just playing around, I suggest you leave your phone number at the Rebirth Bar, even if it's your assistant's number. Now, those clients who can't find you are all coming to me through the Valentino gang."

"Can't find me... uh..."

Leo suddenly realized: No wonder he was so famous, yet no clients were coming to him. It turned out he'd forgotten to leave his phone number; no one could find him...

"Okay, it was my oversight. I'll leave a number when I have time."

"Hmm...it's a small matter, nothing much." The priest sent another picture. "You've had about seven or eight clients come to you in the last two days. To be honest, most of them are unreliable. They just want to take advantage of your unstable position and lack of understanding of the power structure in Night City to get you to take on some unreliable jobs. I turned them all down for you, but there is one you can consider meeting."

As he spoke, Leo's retina displayed a full-body image of a fierce woman, with her identity clearly marked below.

Susanna Quinn – leader of the Mox Gang and owner of Ritz Bar.

"The leader of the Mox Gang came to me? Why didn't she give this task to you?"

Leo was indeed puzzled. Why go to such lengths to find a newcomer like him instead of a seasoned middleman like a priest? Was there something wrong with the commission?

The priest nodded: "In fact, she contacted me, and probably other intermediaries, but it hasn't been resolved. I shouldn't reveal the specifics of the commission, but I can tell you that the Mox Gang has a blacklist of enemies who have grudges against them, and they will try to retaliate whenever they have the chance. This commission is related to that."

"Got it. She probably heard I'm really well-informed and wanted to try her luck. Alright, I'll talk to her later. After all, she's a gang leader; having more friends means having more options."

"Well, you can handle it yourself. It's okay if the commission fails; you'll inevitably have to pay your dues as a middleman."

After exchanging a few more words, the two ended the call.

V, who was standing nearby, overheard the gist of the conversation and asked with interest, "What do you mean? You have work to do again?"

Leo hadn't made up his mind yet, and said after some deliberation, "I'm not sure yet. It seems the female leader of the Mox Gang has a request. I'll call and ask first."

He dialed Susanna Quinn's number directly.

The buzzing waiting tone lasted for quite a while before the other party finally answered.

"Hello, L. I'm Susanna Quinn, you can just call me Susanna Q."

Susanna's image appeared in Yi's eyes, looking drowsy.

The next second, she took out an aerosol can, took two deep breaths, and her spirits visibly lifted.

"Hiss—ah!" With the help of the stimulant, she regained her energy. "Sorry, I was just about to go to sleep at this time, and I'm a little groggy."

Leo suddenly remembered that Ritz Bar was open from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. It was 9 a.m. now, and their gang members were probably just about to go to sleep.

He hesitated before asking, "I heard from the priest that you have a request for me. If it's convenient, could we arrange a time and place to discuss it?"