In Night City, I was picked up by a female V

Coincidentally, big companies all have high-tech weapons, robots, and electronic components. Therefore, when manipulating Arnold, Bai Rui would be very active in accepting each commission from a related company and would work very hard in the process, just to see if he could get some good stuff.

She is like the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout, desperately seeking unknown technological achievements.

Relying on such accumulation, Bai Ruike has added a lot of new technologies to the two new prosthetic bodies. Once they are officially put into use, Bai Ruifang's combat power will definitely undergo an earth-shaking change.

How does the saying go? A small skyscraper maintenance room can shock the entire Night City.

Chapter 19 The Kabuki Theft

V wanted to get to the bottom of the matter, but Jack sent her a message at this time, urging her to meet the middleman mentioned earlier, DeShawn. V had no choice but to say goodbye to the two of them and go on a trip.

Fortunately, they were not far away, and she would be able to come back to pick up Bai Rui soon. It would not be too late to ask then, she thought.

Bai Rui and Victor were the only ones left in the clinic.

"Who won?" Bai Rui asked curiously as he looked at Victor leaning on his hand and watching the boxing match.

"Hernandez! Do you know? If it were in the past, that cripple Malone would have been lying down long ago!" Victor, who was staring at the screen, sounded a little excited when talking about the boxing match that he was most interested in. Boxing match was one of the few things that could stimulate his dopamine secretion. Even if he made a lot of money by cooperating with Bai Rui, it couldn't compare to this.

"Well... but nowadays." Victor's tone suddenly became depressed again. "Nowadays, even boxers in regional competitions use extra head padding... which can absorb 75% of the force."

Obviously, Victor is very dissatisfied with the current situation in the boxing world where prosthetics are abused and the spirit of boxing is abandoned. In this respect, he and Bai Rui are both conservatives who are against prosthetics.

It sounds like a hell of a joke that two guys who are against the installation of prosthetics are making money by counterfeiting prosthetics, but it is indeed true.

"You miss it a lot, don't you?" Bai Rui watched the boxing video curiously, but she didn't understand anything. She just felt that both players were very good fighters.

"Ah..." Lao Wei was so engrossed in watching that he forgot to reply to Bai Rui.

"By the way, how is our business?"

Bai Rui suddenly mentioned the counterfeit prosthetics business that the two of them were involved in. Logically, Bai Rui was only responsible for the production part, and Victor was responsible for the bulk sales. But recently, relying on Arnold's reputation in the underworld, Bai Rui also reached an agreement with several middlemen - those guys were preparing to get some easy-to-use and cheap combat prosthetics for their men.

Therefore, their business is getting bigger and bigger, but fame brings troubles, and the market is so small. If they make money, it means someone loses money. Recently, many jealous people have come to make trouble for them, so Bai Rui also started to pay more attention to the business.

"Speaking of business..." Seeing that the matter was being discussed, Victor pressed the pause button even though he was reluctant. He turned around, found a chip in the drawer, and handed it to Bai Rui.

"Business has been getting better and better recently. Some mercenaries from Taiping Island are ordering our goods..."

As the saying goes, either first suppress and then praise, or first praise and then suppress. Bai Rui was not excited when she heard Victor talking about the good news of business expansion, because she knew that Victor would tell bad news next.

"But..." Yes, that's the but.

"One of our shipments to the Kabuki district was hijacked. The information is all inside. Take a look."

Upon hearing that the goods had been robbed, Bai Rui's mood instantly tensed up, but he didn't say anything for the time being. He just took out his holographic glasses, inserted the information chip, and started watching.

"This was recorded by a nearby surveillance camera."

"Just two days ago, there was an order in the Kabuki district, and I asked a friend to deliver it, but he was robbed at the Kabuki intersection."

"The driver managed to escape, but the rest of the people were not saved. The car and the goods were all stolen."

"As for who did it, the surveillance video shows it very clearly."

"Scavenger..." Looking at the guys hijacking vehicles with guns in the surveillance video, Bai Rui pronounced this annoying name hatefully.

"That's right." Victor paused and continued, "It seems that we have taken away the jobs of these kidney-cutting guys."

"That makes sense. How could these guys who sell second-hand prosthetics tolerate us bringing these cheap and durable things into their territory?"

Victor gave up all his street reputation and stayed in this little Chinatown to work as a cyborg doctor because he was tired of the fighting and killing on the streets. But now, Bai Rui, whom he valued, was in trouble, and he rarely showed any anger.

In fact, it can be said that Victor's cooperation with Bai Rui was simply to help Bai Rui, because of the income earned by the two, Victor took 30% for himself and left 70% to Bai Rui.

As a middle-aged man, Victor has little desire for wealth, but seeing such an energetic younger generation, how can Victor not help him.

The two men's business scope is mainly in the Little Chinatown and Kabuki area of ​​Watson District. Here, Victor has a wide network of contacts and the scavengers cannot reach in, but outside of this area, it is hard to say.

But now, the goods were robbed on the main street, and it was done in the Kabuki district, which was undoubtedly a slap in the face of both of them.

"We can't just let this go." Bai Rui took off his holographic glasses and frowned unhappily. "This is a provocation, a naked provocation. Those kidney-cutting gangs are trying to find out our bottom line."

After all, having been on the streets for some time, Bai Rui easily saw through the scavenger's plan.

This time it was Kabuki, but if they backed down, it would mean that they would not be able to keep their business in the Kabuki district, and next time it might be Little Chinatown. How could Bai Rui tolerate this?

"Leave it to me." Bai Rui made up his mind to give the scavenger a head-on blow.

"Should we let Arnold do it?" Victor asked, leaning back in his chair.

In the past, whenever there were business problems, Bai Rui would manipulate Arnold to handle them.

"No, I'm going with Arnold this time." Bai Rui's eyes were full of fighting spirit. "My two new prosthetics are almost finished, and I can't have funding problems at this time."

This time, Bai Rui felt that it was time to teach those scavengers living in the gloomy sewers a lesson and tell them to stay away from his business.

"If you want to go, won't you call V, Jack and the others?" Victor frowned and sat up straight when he heard that Bai Rui was going in person. To be honest, it would be fine if Arnold went, because the machine would be destroyed if it was destroyed. But Bai Rui was going too, which made him a little worried.

"Don't worry, Lao Wei, I'm not a pushover." Bai Rui was very confident in himself. "Besides, we have Arnold here. With Arnold's strength, there aren't many mercenaries in the city who want to deal with him."

"Hmm." Victor frowned and did not comment.

Bai Rui doesn't want Jack and V to get involved for the time being. After all, the first pot of gold earned from cheap prostheses is just the beginning. She has many more plans. In order to avoid alerting the enemy, the fewer people who know about it, the better.

"Who is the customer?" Bai Rui made up his mind and prepared to deal with this mess. "The goods are lost. What does he think?"

"The lost batch of goods was ordered by a guy named Charles at the junction of Kabuki and Chengbei District. That guy is also a prosthetic doctor like me." Victor turned his chair slightly and told all the information he knew.

"As for his attitude, he was furious. He said, either you have to compensate him with another batch of goods or you have to compensate him for his deposit. What? Do you think this robbery has anything to do with our customers?"

"I didn't think so just now, but you mentioned that he is a cyborg doctor, which is a bit suspicious." Bai Rui held his chin and leaned on the table, looking thoughtful. "Not everyone is as conscientious as you, Old Wei. The other cyborg doctors in the city are more or less connected to the scavengers."

"Haha, thank you for the compliment. I just want to make some clean money, so that I can sleep more peacefully." Victor did not refute Bai Rui's words. After all, he is a prosthetics doctor and he knows how complicated this industry is.

Prosthetic doctors are more like prosthetic dealers than doctors. They just provide installation services. If you expect them to have medical ethics, you are overthinking.

Prosthetics are not cheap, especially those produced by large companies. The purchase price is quite high. The scavenger provides these prosthetic dealers with another source of goods - cheap second-hand prosthetics of unknown origin.

Although the second-hand prostheses packed in barrels in the hands of the scavengers may still be stained with blood, how could prosthesis doctors miss the opportunity to make money? Therefore, most of them started doing business with the scavengers. Even some of them who had a conscience would be forced to deal with them under the threat of violence from the scavengers. Only a ruthless person like Victor who was well-known in the underworld could avoid interference with his business.

In this way, scavengers search corpses, attack passers-by, remove prostheses and sell them to prosthesis doctors. Prosthesis doctors then sell these prostheses to mercenaries and gang members who cannot afford the genuine products. Then they are attacked by scavengers again, and their bodies are taken away and their prostheses are removed. It is such a cycle and such a capital chain.

Now, the cheap and high-quality counterfeit goods flowing out from Victor naturally impacted the scavengers' market and aroused their hostility.

However, facing the provocation of the scavengers, Bai Rui does not intend to back down. She wants to fight them.

"I will investigate our client and look for clues from him." Bai Rui made up his mind and prepared to leave.

"Wait..." Victor stopped her. "Since you mentioned business."

"Perhaps you can come up with a name for our small copycat prosthetics production 'group'. After all, the gangsters always call it 'Victor's prosthetics', which doesn't sound good. Our business has grown big, so we should have a formal name."

"Is that so..." Bai Rui thought.

Bai Rui scanned the decorations in the house, hoping to find some inspiration, and suddenly she saw something hanging on Victor's desk, it was a dream catcher.

"Look at this? This is a gift from a friend of mine." Victor looked at the feathered dream catcher with a nostalgic look on his face. "That was a real Indian man, a powerful tribal warrior."

"Let's call it 'Beehive'." Looking at the fine net of the dream catcher, Bai Rui got an inspiration. "'Beehive', one day, I will build our own 'Beehive' in this Night City!"

Bai Rui looked at the dreamcatcher with a thoughtful expression, as if he could see the picture of the beautiful future that the dreamcatcher had outlined through the fine web.

Chapter 20 Prosthetic Clinic

Arnold stopped the car at the intersection and Bai Rui opened the door and got in.

As the saying goes, you have to do the whole thing when you act. Bai Rui asked Arnold to act as much as possible like a real person. He not only rented a single room for him outside, but also bought him his own car. Of course, unlike poor V, Bai Rui paid for it in full.

Arnold's car is the Thunder Mackinaw MTL1, a multi-purpose heavy-duty pickup truck.

It is strong but not bulky; affordable but of high quality; it is perfectly suited to the busy city roads where business and travel are frequented, and it can also be used in the desert surrounding the city.

If Bai Rui wanted, he could also weld a heavy machine gun on the roof of the car and use it as an armed pickup truck.

Such a car full of coolness and power is very suitable for Arnold in black. Bai Rui sat in the passenger seat, feeling the rumbling vibration of the motor coming from the soles of his feet, and thought so.

Bai Rui controlled it in his mind, and Arnold, wearing sunglasses and with a cold face, stepped on the accelerator and hit the road.

To be honest, this feeling is quite strange.

Bai Rui now seemed to have the vision of two people at the same time. He could feel Arnold, and Arnold could feel himself through the body.

To be honest, if it weren't for the support of the system, she might have schizophrenia now, unable to tell whether she was manipulating Arnold or Arnold was manipulating her.

But at least there is a difference.

Arnold's senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell are all collected and analyzed by sensors. Bai Rui cannot feel Arnold's true feelings as a living organism.

It was like playing a game, Bai Rui was just controlling the protagonist on the screen.

Bai Rui finally found an appropriate description.

While thinking, he stepped on the brakes.

They arrived at Skyscraper No. 10, which contained Bai Rui and V’s nest, as well as Bai Rui’s secret processing room.

Bai Ruike was not stupid enough to go looking for trouble with the scavengers with bare hands. Before looking for trouble with the enemy, he should at least gather all his weapons first.

The gun "Vitamin B" is carried with him. The weapon he is talking about is naturally not this, but the new thing Bai Rui made.

Arriving at the parking lot and unlocking the door of the repair shop, Bai Rui walked through her crowded workshop and found the things she had placed there.

A kinetic arm guard with a high-tech feel, with wires and metal frames on the surface. It looks very rough because it is a prototype.

While building the machine, Bai Rui was also thinking about ways to increase his own combat effectiveness, as well as ways to help V improve his combat effectiveness.

After much thought, she decided that without damaging her body, she could only adopt an exoskeleton armor design that was the opposite of prosthetic transformation.

In this cyber world, perhaps because prosthetic modification technology is very advanced, the development of exoskeleton armor is very slow. Even if there are some finished products, they are large-scale mechas used in industry, and there are no very mature miniaturized products.

And Bai Rui is ready to fill this gap.

This power arm guard is the first generation product, which she modified based on the principle of prosthetic mechanical arm. Although it is still immature, it has considerable power. She would like to take this opportunity to experiment with it.

The system interface is displayed as follows:

"Kinetic Armguard Prototype: [Rare]

Review: A strange contraption of cheap industrial pipes and inferior batteries that makes shooting a gun as easy as doing craftsmanship.

Ignoring the system's funny comments, Bai Rui turned on the switch and reached his hand in. He was wrapped in layer upon layer of metal armor plates, extending all the way to his shoulders. As the thermal energy battery began to work, blue light began to emit from the gaps between the armor plates. After a vibration, Bai Rui felt infinite strength coming from his two hands.

She had tested it and found that with the help of the kinetic arm guard, her strength increased by at least three points, reaching 11 points, which was comparable to some mercenaries who had undergone prosthetic modifications.

Without hesitation, after the arm guard was equipped, Bai Rui returned to the car and drove to the junction of Kabuki District and the North City Industrial Zone. She wanted to meet the suspicious client, the prosthetic doctor Charles, first.

If the theft of the goods this time had anything to do with him, Bai Rui would make sure he would pay for it. She hated being schemed against, especially her money. This time, the scavenger had walked right into her trap.

The Kabuki district was once the pride of Japanese medical companies in the Watson District, and its proximity to a famous medical center made the entire area prosperous.

But now, other companies have either been destroyed by the Arasaka Group or forced to move to the other side of the bay, and Kabuki District may have become the poorest neighborhood in Night City (excluding Pacific Island, we mean the areas that are still in operation).

But what Night City lacks the least is people. The Kabuki District was soon filled with Chinese diaspora and later evolved into a dark underground market.

The narrow, maze-like alleys of the Kabuki district are filled with grocery stores, shoddy cosmetics shops and cheap thrift stores, all decorated with Chinese lanterns and flashing neon signs.

The entire area is densely populated, except for the warehouses and abandoned factories in the north that are occupied by various gangs, temporary workers and drug addicts.

The Tiger Claws are still active in the neighborhood, as are some Uzumaki gang members from the city's northern industrial district, but none of them have claimed control of the Kabuki district.

This power vacuum provided a foothold for another local gang, the Mox, under whose jurisdiction the Lizzie's Bar, one of the most popular dream clubs and brothels in the Kabuki district, fell.

After nightfall, the Kabuki District becomes the black market center of Night City.

Implants, organs, combat drugs, cybernetic components, steroids, synthetic viruses, records of super dream experiences, all can be bought as long as you have the right place and seller information.

Several black clinics are said to operate in hidden basements or back rooms, installing illegal military technology groups and prototype cyber components, and these people claim that their prosthetics come from laboratories in Chiba City or bio clinics in Scandinavia. My guide warned me to be careful when buying goods of unknown origin, and some black market merchants' goods are provided by scavengers.

Those creepy bastards are the meanest scum in the area, stalking ignorant tourists, dragging them down to their basements for dissections, then reselling the implants and organs to the unscrupulous Kabuki District prosthetic doctors.

“Well, that’s about it,” a veteran Kabuki tour guide said lightly. “The scavengers go about their business undisturbed. The police won’t search the area either. The only police you’ll find here are detectives lurking around, competing with middlemen and corporate-hired investigators looking for some stolen company technology or missing persons.”

At noon, in an alley in the Kabuki district, the car door opened and Bai Rui, wearing black hard-soled boots, stepped on the ground.

On the opposite corner is the address of their client provided by Lao Wei, the clinic of Charles, the prosthetics doctor.

Pushing the door open, Bai Rui walked in by himself.

Arnold's figure was too conspicuous, so he stayed in the car. Bai Rui planned to go and test Charles's strength on his own.

As soon as he entered the door, he smelled a mixture of disinfectant and the irreplaceable smell of blood. Bai Rui frowned. If nothing else, this prosthetic doctor was definitely an unhygienic guy. Although a prosthetic clinic requires cutting off arms and legs, the odor removal work in Lao Wei's clinic was done well, and there was not a trace of blood at all.

There was no one in the room, except for a few worn-out operating chairs. The surrounding windows contained some expensive prosthetics, which were specially lit, for fear that customers would not be able to see the exquisiteness of these high-end goods.