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

It's her first time here, why is she still the same as before?

Both the security guard and the female bartender mistook her for someone else, someone whose code name was V?

"What's wrong? Not in the mood today? I heard things aren't going too well over there... Hey, you changed your hairstyle? This black wolf tail looks cool, and it suits you too!"

I don't see many guests today, so I'll play some of my favorite songs. What do you think? The Ganglie Band is incredibly popular right now!

Valerie walked silently to the bar, leaned forward slightly, one hand on the counter, and asked, "Do I look a lot like that V?"

"……what?"

Claire was stunned.

What kind of strange question is this? Could this be Vera?

No, their temperaments are completely different, they're not alike at all...

"who are you?"

Valerie slowly stood up. "Just a nobody. I originally wanted to have a chat with you, but now it seems I should just go directly to the person in charge."

With that, she left the bewildered Claire behind and walked straight through the hall.

As she passed the mercenaries, she deliberately looked at them, and the mercenaries who met her gaze raised their glasses to her with ingratiating smiles on their faces.

These people also know "her," or rather, they recognize this "face"!

Something's not right, absolutely not right...

Chapter 316 Valerie: "That's wonderful, I'm starting to understand everything!"

Passing through the hall, at the end are several open-plan private rooms.

That's the best spot in the Rebirth Bar; those sitting inside can survey the entire place like royalty.

Naturally, these positions belong to the most powerful middlemen.

Right in the center, in the best location, is the throne that belongs exclusively to the "Queen of the Next Life".

As Valerie approached the door, her gaze swept over the "VVVIP" area. She noticed that some of the private rooms were completely empty, while the ones that were occupied only contained middlemen and bodyguards; there wasn't a single client in sight.

Come to think of it, with such a big thing happening in Night City, people from all walks of life should keep a low profile to avoid incurring the wrath of big companies.

As she reached the door, she noticed the burly, black bodyguard, and her expression turned slightly serious.

This guy seems to have some skill.

scanning--

[Name: Crispin Wayland]

[Affiliated organization: Rebirth Bar, son of legendary mercenary "Old Snake" Andrew Weyland.]

Threat Level: Extremely High. (For you, the threat level is Medium.)

[Combat Cybernetic Bodies: Krenzi Group, Liao Lin'er, Sibaba Okov, Sianweistein...]

interesting.

Valerie walked to within two meters of him and looked at him without saying a word.

Crispin's eyes were completely covered by military-grade prosthetics, but a look of confusion still showed on his face: "V? What did L send you here for?"

"L?"

Like lightning flashing across the night sky, Valerie suddenly saw a glimpse of the mystery.

I see,

From the conversation with Jenkins to arriving at the Rebirth Bar, everything that seemed amiss stemmed from a lack of information.

The hint of guilt he felt when he lowered his head was evident here—he wanted to sell himself, but hadn't fully sold himself; what the hell was this bastard doing…

Valerie frowned and remained silent, which aroused Crispin's suspicion.

His prosthetic eye lit up, but it failed to scan for any useful information. However, it was enough for him to sense that something was wrong.

"You're not V, you're not Vera, who are you!?"

“I am the client, and I need to speak with Roger.”

"...Do you have an appointment?"

"No, I'm in a hurry."

"Then I'm afraid—"

"Let her in."

The words coming from the private room interrupted Crispin's refusal.

Valerie strode forward and passed by him.

Crispin frowned, not out of disgust, but as an instinctive reaction to a subconscious sense of a deadly threat.

This woman who looks a lot like V is just as dangerous as V.

Is the gossip about mercenaries true?

L found a genetic prototype he liked to use for human cloning.

This topic is really exciting! After get off work, I need to go out for a couple of drinks and have a good chat with some acquaintances!

Valerie frowned again, sensing that the big guy behind her was up to no good.

But we can't worry about him now; the real culprit is right in front of us.

"The Queen of the Next Life Bar, the most powerful middleman in Night City, a living legend. It is said that nothing in this city can escape your eyes."

Valerie's gaze was fixed on her face, not missing a single subtle change in expression.

"Nice to meet you, Roger Amandiares."

Roger was still dressed in his usual yellow T-shirt and leather pants. When he saw her come in, he quickly lit a cigarette: "Could you please clean up the smell? You're dressed like a mercenary, but the stench of the company dogs is pungent enough to hit me from fifty meters away."

She crossed her legs and waved to the few mercenaries in the private room who were chatting with her, "You guys go out first. This is a very important person. Knowing too much is not a good thing."

The mercenaries obediently stood up, and before leaving, they all secretly glanced at Valerie.

What happened this time that L's men came looking for Roger?

After they left, Roger closed the soundproof door to the private room and frowned at Valerie:

"First it was V, then Vera, and now you're here. What, is an army of clones coming to conquer Night City? I'm telling you, you guys could at least use a different template. They all look the same, it's so fake."

Valerie frowned in response: "I need information on the Immortal Squad."

“Heh…” Roger exhaled a smoke ring, looking at her thoughtfully. “You didn’t even offer to invite me, you didn’t discuss the price, and you just reached out and asked for this and that. Do I owe you something? Listen carefully—I’m not giving you anything!”

Valerie acted as if she hadn't heard, and stretched out her hand: "Arasaka, Counterintelligence Department, Special Investigations, you'd better cooperate."

“I won’t do it~” Roger said leisurely, smoking a cigarette. “Whether you can bring people to arrest me or snitch on me, go ahead and try, and see if it works.”

"Well, having Ms. Michiko Arasaka backing you up gives you a lot of confidence. You say you hate the stench of the company, but if it weren't for the stinky company implant, you would have died from internal organ damage in that car accident before 2045, Aunt Roger."

Intrigue and backstabbing were useless, so Valerie changed tactics and went straight for real damage.

Rogge's deliberately frivolous demeanor finally crumbled.

She lowered her leg, facing Valerie directly: "You brat, you've got a sharp tongue. You're good at intelligence gathering too. Do you even know that you fell into someone's trap by stepping into the Afterlife Bar? Night City is a deep and murky place now. Once you step into the mud, it'll be hard to get out."

Valerie nodded and sat down on the sofa to the side: "I only have fifteen days left to live, a little mud won't make a difference. Give me the information."

“I don’t want to get involved in the current changes; it would cause a lot of trouble,” Roger refused.

"You're really lucky today, I'm just so annoyed!"

Before the words were even finished, a smooth little combo had already been launched.

As the owner of the Rebirth Bar, Roger naturally has top-notch security—in addition to bodyguards, her ICE device is directly connected to Rebirth's network system and is protected by professional hackers 24 hours a day.

If she is attacked, the hacker will immediately notify her bodyguards to intervene.

But today, Valerie's first offensive caught the professional hackers hiding in the hacker base station completely off guard.

In just over ten seconds, the data fortress was breached, and the people and devices connected to the network were exposed naked to the attackers, ready to be harvested at any moment.

however,

The attackers, however, chose to withdraw at this point and retreated without a care.

"Interesting. Your hackers seem to come from Arasaka. Their rigid defenses are so bad I could break them with my eyes closed."

Roger frowned at her, then suddenly texted, "Knicks, are you alright?"

A few seconds later, the hacker on duty responded: "He's not dead, but he was just a hair's breadth away. It must be someone from Arasaka, right? Their methods are too familiar."

"It's good that you're alright. There's no need to alarm anyone else."

After calming his own hacker down, Rogge turned to Valerie: "I'm not giving you information because I want to help you. Sometimes, the more you know, the more dangerous it is..."

I appreciate your kind offer, but I'm not afraid of danger.

"Alright. Your stubborn and headstrong personality is quite to my liking. If you ever have nowhere to go in the future, you might as well come and have a meal here."

Roger took a blank chip from the coffee table drawer, entered the data into it, and tossed it to Valerie.

"It's all here. Delete it after you're done reading."

After checking the data several times, Valerie transferred it to the prosthetic eye.

[Middleman L, real name Leonardo DiCaprio (authenticity questionable), has close ties to Contau and is very close to Father Middleman in the Haywood area...]

[The Immortal Squad members are L, V, Jack, Sasha, and Vera. They joined the team in order of ranking, and their combat strength has increased rapidly, currently reaching the level of top mercenaries. Coupled with L's massive financial support, they far exceed the specifications of a typical mercenary squad.]

[Detailed information...]

After quickly glancing over it, Valerie's doubts only increased.

"Rogge, you're supposed to be the best middleman in Night City, and this is all you've managed to find out about this guy? I can understand others, but this L, what's the difference between the information you provided and nothing at all?"

Roger took a deep drag of his cigarette and slowly exhaled:

"You think it's too little, and I think it's too little, but that's all there is. I bet your department head doesn't have as much information as I do."

"Since I like you, I'll chat with you a bit—"

L is a very mysterious person, just like the monkey in their local mythology, who sprang from a stone.

A mysterious person appeared in Night City out of nowhere, and inexplicably became rich. The more you investigated, the stranger it seemed. Apart from Night City's citizen information database, you couldn't find this person anywhere else, as if... his past never existed.

After discovering his connection with the priest, I sent someone to investigate…”

She stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray and took a sip of her drink.

"Then, the Father himself called me, hoping I would stop investigating. I didn't believe in superstitions, so I spoke a bit more forcefully. As a result, that old friend of mine, who is of the same generation, got upset. Judging from his tone, it was as if he was about to turn on me with a single word."

He had the Valentino gang and Latinos behind him, and I wasn't crazy enough to make enemies over a little curiosity, so the matter was dropped. Later it got worse; I heard they wouldn't even let us ask him anymore, and many colleagues got ripped off by him.

Valerie listened intently, then suddenly asked, "You have connections with Arasaka and the Military Science Institute, and you also know people in Kangtao, right? Didn't you think of trying through the company? His secretive behavior is definitely the company's doing."

"Aren't you annoying? Stop testing me. Isn't this kind of chatting tiring enough?" Roger retorted before continuing, "Of course I tried. L and Kang Tao are definitely up to something, so I asked Kang Tao's friend to find out..."

Seeing that she remained silent for a long time, Valerie urged, "And then?"

"That's it. The person I contacted at noon was executed in the afternoon. He was a minor leader, after all, and his death was so inexplicable. That's the end of L's story. Anyway, I'm not investigating anymore. If you want to investigate, go find someone else."

Valerie reviewed the information again, this time focusing on V and Vera.

Then she stood up and gestured with her chin toward Roger: "Thanks this time. I know what happened now and I won't involve you."

Roger grinned, and the more he looked at the girl, the more she resembled his younger self—rebellious, impulsive, and lawless, but she was smarter than him.

"What are you saying? You came to me willingly, didn't pay me, and even bullied my hacker account, and I'm supposed to thank you?

"No need for that, consider it payment from me!"

Valerie turned and left with a flourish, ignoring all the subtle glances, and went straight back to her car.

L, the Immortal Squad, Wings of Freedom, and the upheaval in the eastern suburbs—this is a timeline.

L, V, and Vera, and herself, this is another storyline.

In his desperation, Jenkins actually tried to shift the blame to L, or rather, to Kang Tao, who was behind him, by "betraying her".

But the intelligence he received was a "censored version," so much so that he overlooked one possibility—that Kang Tao had originally shifted the blame, and he thought he could throw it back in such a naive way?

To come up with such a terrible idea just because he looks exactly like those two immortal mercenaries is incredibly stupid and doesn't seem like something Jenkins would do.