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

"So beautiful! But she looks a bit fierce..." That was Sasha's comment.

“A girl from a nomadic background who has received a good family education can be judged by her demeanor.” This was Vera’s opinion.

V stared at the woman in the photo, trying to deduce something from her appearance: "Hmm... I feel like she has a fiery temper and is very straightforward. That's pretty much my first impression of her."

Leo inwardly knelt before her; he really wanted that intuition...

"So, do you think this person is good or bad?"

That was a poorly worded question, and it earned V an eye-roll: "Judging whether someone is good or bad just by looking at a photo? Do you think that's witchcraft?"

"No, I've always thought it was magic."

Leo corrected her point of view.

V snorted and stopped arguing.

Leo asked Pure White to find Panan's information, and after a quick look, he prepared to talk to her.

"Since she seems alright, let's call her over for a face-to-face talk."

Seeing that none of the team members had any objections, Leo dialed her number.

"Whoosh...whoosh...click."

Parnam seemed busy; I couldn't get through on the first try.

Leo was unwilling to give up and continued dialing.

"Wuhum..."

"Hello? Who is it?"

This time, Panan finally answered the phone. Judging from the engine and wind sounds in the background, she was driving.

Leo cleared his throat, put his mask back on, and opened his profile picture: "Hello, Miss Parnan Palmer, I am L, an intermediary."

Unlike him, Panan turned on live video from the start, but she was focused on driving and only showed her profile.

Hearing Leo's words, she seemed to slam on the brakes. Only after the car slowed down did she glance at his profile picture.

"L? I've heard of you. You're quite famous at the Rebirth Bar. What do you want?"

"Two requests. First, we need to take care of some business in the eastern suburbs and would like to hire you as our guide. Second, I'd like to do a big deal with the Bright family and hope you can help introduce us."

“Introduction? Ha, that’s a new word.” A hint of annoyance flashed across Panan’s face. “I’m just a country mercenary who’s new here. If you want to do business with the Bright family, you should go to the family head, not me. Besides, I should tell you that Adcardo doesn’t like cities and city people.”

“I know, but the Bright family is different. Your new leader, ‘Sol,’ wants to build a relationship with the company, doesn’t he?”

Leo's voice carried a hint of mockery, which successfully caused Panan's expression to change slightly.

Rising to Fame: Chapter 260 Panan's Visit

"Saul just made the suggestion recently, and there's still no consensus within the family. How did you know?"

Leo remained silent, employing a tried-and-true strategy—letting the intelligent people guess for themselves.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Panan's handsome eyebrows furrowed: "Is there a traitor in the family, or did Thor leak the information himself? You are... someone from biotechnology?"

“Hehe, I’m not one of those guys who like to use homeless people for human experiments.” Leo took off his mask and smiled amicably. “I represent Blue Dream Company. Of course, it will take some time for that name to rise like a comet. But our partner is quite famous—Kantau.”

The tactic of using someone else's name to intimidate others was a great success, leaving Panan with a look of surprise and uncertainty.

She had never heard of Lanmeng Company, but Kangtao was a different story. Anyone who was still on Earth must have heard of them.

Saul clearly stated at the family meeting that he was going to collaborate with biotechnology, so how did he bring up Comto?

If you can't figure it out, why not try this—

"Hmph! You guys have pretty good noses."

She said sarcastically,

"Saul also advised everyone to be patient, saying that as long as we signed cooperation agreements with large companies, we could save the crumbling Bright family. He made it sound like we were a pack of starving wild dogs, about to starve to death if we didn't wag our tails to our master..."

It seems he was completely wrong. The Bright family is a prime target, yet they've managed to attract the attention of two companies.

Leo listened quietly to her finish speaking, not at all angered by her barbed tone.

“No, no, no, you must be mistaken, Miss Parnan. I think that apart from me, other companies at most treat the Bright family as a tool to be used and discarded.”

"Oh? You're all talk, but what do you really want us to do? We're just working for you!"

“That’s true, I do want you to work for me.” Leo admitted her point of view. “Anyway, you’re almost unable to survive on your own, so why not join the employer who offers the most generous price?”

"What price are you offering? What do you want us to do?" Panan was visibly getting agitated.

"Discussing business over the phone is too beneath you. After you finish what you're doing, come back to Night City. I'd like to invite you to lunch. Would you be so kind as to accept?"

"Your words are really giving me a headache... But whatever, I'll see what tricks you're up to. Send me the time and location via text message, bye."

"Click."

She said she'd hang up, and she did, without any hesitation.

Leo didn't care and turned to look at V, who was openly eavesdropping: "This girl has a really fiery temper, but I found out that she has a high status in the Bright family, so let's try starting with her."

The people listening nodded, none of them having any objections.

"Let's go then. We've finished our business this morning. Let's go home and make lunch first, and we can talk about the afternoon's business after lunch."

Everyone set off together and left the private room.

Leo greeted Claire and led the members of the Immortal Squad outside.

On his way out, he noticed that the mercenaries around him were much more "respectful" to him, and they all showed friendly, even ingratiating smiles when they made eye contact with him.

It seems that the "Kangtao" label does indeed carry significant weight.

But... choosing friends also means choosing enemies.

Aside from neutral parties, forces with only average relations with Kang Tao are likely to change their attitude towards him.

After leaving the Rebirth Bar, I went straight home.

The three ladies once again divided the work and worked together to fill every corner of the house with the aroma of the food.

Leo wasn't idle either. He first sent a text message to the old captain, asking him to deliver a large truck to Vera's garage that afternoon, and to add a batch of motorcycles to the purchase list as a supplement to the cars.

He then discussed with Jack the idea of ​​recruiting a group of good young men from the Heywood area.

Time flew by, and soon it was 11:30 a.m.

The table was laden with delicious, eclectic dishes, and the invited guests rang the doorbell.

When the doorbell rang, Leo and V went to greet the guest.

Ding--

The elevator door slowly opened.

Dressed in a vagrant-style outfit and looking slightly travel-worn, Parnan Palmer appeared in the elevator.

"Welcome to my temporary residence, Miss Parnan."

Leo's gaze fell on her dashing face, then traveled downwards.

hmm~~~

It's no exaggeration to say that Panan is exactly the type of mother-in-law that Chinese mothers-in-law love most—she looks like she's easy to bear children!

Her upper body was already very shapely, and her full hips were even more dazzling.

but,

Leo didn't look at it much.

It's not that I don't want to, it's just that seeing too much of this makes my ribs hurt.

V's jealous and possessive habits about food need to be addressed...

While Leo was lost in thought, Panan completed his initial observation: the man who called himself L was clearly a rich young master. The red-haired woman beside him exuded the aura of a street mercenary, and no matter how strong her presence was, it couldn't be concealed.

What a strange combination.

Upon entering, she saw the other three members of the Immortal Squad, her gaze lingering on Vera for a long time: "You're also a wanderer? Which family are you from?"

Vera, wearing oven mitts, placed a bowl of golden roast chicken in the center of the table, turned to her and smiled gently: "My family has disbanded, and there's no need to mention its name anymore. If you're asking about now, then I'm a member of this family."

V gave a disapproving look.

Panan seemed to be thinking of something, a hint of sadness flashed in his eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.

Her gaze shifted from Vera to the plate of roast chicken on the table—golden, crispy, sizzling with oil, and with a hint of…honey?

"That's real meat...uh..."

Her question stuck in her throat because she saw the steak, pork knuckle, freshwater fish, and plates of vegetables and fruits on the table that looked incredibly real.

You can tell just by looking at them that they are definitely not synthetic ingredients from the supermarket.

If it's all true, then this table of food would cost tens of thousands of euros? Or even hundreds of thousands of euros?

Even the company's middlemen can afford this kind of food?

If that's the case, does that mean Thor's decision was the right one...?

Leo's culinary tactics were once again a great success, putting things in the direction he wanted.

"Don't be shy, let's eat first, the food will get cold soon."

When the last dish, Mexican tripe soup, was served, everyone started eating at Leo's invitation.

Panan had the best and most expensive lunch of her life. The roast chicken smeared with synthetic honey was so delicious that she almost swallowed her tongue.

During the meal, Leo's gaze lingered on Panan's face several times, quite pleased with her generous and magnanimous demeanor, as well as her well-mannered upbringing.

Just as the meal was about to end, a small incident occurred.

Leo received a phone call from the deputy general manager of Kangtao's sales department.

He answered the call as if no one else was there—

Rising to Fame: Chapter 261 One Million Bullets, Shocking Panan for a Century!

"Long time no see, General Manager Shao."

"You too, Mr. Leonardo."

A real-time image of Shao Xuan's upper body appeared on my retina; he still had that impeccably tailored, leader-like demeanor.

"The Night City branch received your order and sent me to meet with you. This order is quite large, so we need to sign the contract in person. When would be a convenient time for you?"

Leo glanced at Panan, whose ears were perked up, and a barely perceptible smile appeared on his lips. "Now is fine. Please come directly to my apartment."

"No trouble at all. Let's set off now. We expect to arrive in 3 minutes."

After hanging up the phone, Leo casually looked at everyone and said, "Kang Tao's people are here to discuss business. They'll be here in a few minutes."

Upon hearing this, everyone forgot about dessert and hurriedly wiped their mouths, took off their napkins, and tidied their appearance.

V wanted to quickly grab the table, but just as he was about to get up, Leo reached out and pressed him down: "Everyone hasn't finished eating yet, don't rush to grab the table. I'll just chat with Kang Tao's people on the balcony for a bit, it's nothing."

Seeing that he had spoken, his friends didn't say anything more.

Only Panan kept staring at him with a curious and undisguised gaze.

Two minutes later, the distinctive hiss of a vector engine came from outside the window. Strong gusts of air pushed sand and dust against the glass, making a rustling sound.

"Kantau's guests have arrived, I'll go and chat with them."

Along with Leo's words, the hovercraft's warning sound rang out: "[Docking now, please give way. Dear customer, please wait until the hovercraft has reached a stable levitating state before approaching.]"

Leo walked to the balcony and waited for about ten seconds until the airflow outside subsided before unlocking the electric glass door.

V followed behind him as his bodyguard, and the two of them greeted the Kangtao employees who were getting off the hovercar.

Whether intentionally or accidentally, Leo didn't close the balcony door, allowing people inside to clearly hear what was happening on the balcony.

"General Manager Shao, welcome!" Leo extended his hand to the middle-aged man who had once tricked him with a 'salute'. "You should have called me earlier, then we could have chatted while we ate."

There will be other opportunities in the future~