Chapter 110

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At the Afterlife bar.

Gloria tilted her head back and downed the spicy tequila in one go, directly finishing a Johnny Silverhand.

After drinking, she put down the glass and quickly covered her mouth with her hand, coughing lightly a few times, seemingly choked by the chili flavor in the cup.

It took Gloria a while to recover, and then she said with some embarrassment, "Mr. Tang, I made a spectacle of myself."

Tang Yu also downed the 'Johnny Silverhand' in one gulp. The taste was indeed spicy to the extreme, soaking chili peppers in tequila was something only Johnny could have thought of.

He figured anyone trying this drink for the first time would cough, and when Gloria raised her head, her cheeks were already flushed with a hint of red.

"It gets better with time. Sometimes life is like this cup, the sour sweetness of beer, the bitter heat of tequila, all mixed together. You can't quite define the taste, but it certainly gets you buzzing."

Gloria pondered for a moment, then earnestly asked, "Mr. Tang, do you come here often?"

Tang Yu put down his glass, somewhat nostalgically, "Hmm, I used to come here a lot, now not so much. This place welcomes middlemen like you to discuss business, not so much company folks like me to drink."

He thought, since they were at Afterlife, it was a good opportunity to brief Gloria on the rules of engagement for middlemen, as a way to further help her.

"You're going to be dealing with Afterlife more often, especially with Rogue, some street-level rules are good to know."

Indeed.

Anyone living in Night City has heard rumors about Afterlife bar, especially about the queen of Afterlife, Rogue.

Almost all mercenaries dream of getting jobs from Rogue, as they are all high-profile, potentially making one's name and fortune overnight.

Afterlife is a haven for deals, contracts, sales, and intelligence. The commission this time came from the Nomads, specifically chosen at Afterlife bar, indicating how well-known Afterlife's reputation is, far and wide.

Gloria was somewhat surprised, understanding that Tang Yu was preparing to guide her, and her expression became more serious.

Tang Yu continued to elaborate, "A middleman, simply put, is an intermediary making connections between the financier and the mercenaries."

"There are plenty of middlemen in Night City, ranked in various levels. Only a few of them are truly capable of making a name for themselves."

"Free agents like Rogue, with that kind of strength, you won't find a second one in the whole of Night City. But even she has to deal with corporate interference at times."

"The days of freedom are gone. Without corporate backing, it's hard to make a stand in the middlemen business, to carve out a niche."

Gloria's eyes widened slightly in surprise. Even the formidable queen of Afterlife, Rogue, was under corporate influence. It showed how pervasive corporate power was.

She knew, without Tang Yu's support, she could never have entered the business of middlemen, and listened even more intently.

To clarify further, Tang Yu used Faraday, whom she had previously encountered, as an example.

"Take Faraday, whom you've dealt with before, backed by Militech, he's more like a corporate agent. His commissions are mostly corporate-related, not quite a true middleman of Night City."

"A true middleman is not rootless; each has their own territory, controlling resources and intelligence within. Just finding work for corporations is somewhat lacking."

"Even in these degenerating times, to establish oneself in this business, one must adhere to the rules of 'honest cooperation'. In Night City, where law is trampled upon, your reputation is your brand."

Gloria got the message, understanding the subtext Tang Yu was conveying – to become a real middleman, she couldn't just rely on Tang Yu's power; she also needed her own connections and strength.

Tang Yu casually mentioned a few examples to enlighten Gloria about various middleman forces.

"Take this commission for instance. In the badlands inhabited by the Nomads, Dakota is one of the middlemen; she never betrays mercenaries, but she won't allow betrayal against her either. One can't avoid dealing with her in the badlands."

"And there are even more notable middlemen within Night City proper."

"In Westbrook, the middleman Wakako Okada, a genteel old lady with close ties to the Tyger Claws gang, takes both good and evil sides."

"In Heywood, the middleman Padre Sebastian, once a priest in the Valentino gang, anyone who dared utter a bad word in front of him was sent to meet God."

"Active in the City Center, the middleman Dino Dinovic, widely connected with corporations, media, mercenaries, and street kids, smuggling all sorts of contraband, is quite wealthy."

"Besides, there are several potent middlemen wandering the streets and alleys of Night City."

"In Santo Domingo where you live, there's a middleman, 'Old Captain' Muamar, usually handling smaller tasks."

The middlemen Tang Yu spoke of were all those he had interacted with multiple times. Anyone making a noticeable name in Night City had their own domain and faction.

After hearing all this, Gloria's expression became solemn. She hadn't realized the middleman business had so many intricacies.

Compared to these experienced middlemen, she still had a long way to go.

All her backing came solely from Tang Yu. To truly step onto Night City's stage, she needed much more effort.

Tang Yu didn't intend to pressure her but wanted Gloria to understand that if she genuinely wanted to be of assistance, she needed to be fully prepared to face challenges.

He wasn't planning on letting Gloria carve out a niche in Night City on her own.

Rather, he hoped that when she indeed had the opportunity to wield power, she would be capable of holding it firmly.

The opportunity, of course, would be orchestrated by Tang Yu, personally bringing her to the stage of Night City's middlemen.

Gloria looked at Tang Yu with focused and sincere eyes, saying, "Thank you, Mr. Tang, you've truly taught me a lot. I'll seize the opportunity and work hard..."

Tang Yu, a man of action and results, found words of gratitude unnecessary and got up, saying, "It's about time. Let's head to the private room."

The three of them left the bar counter, entering the pre-booked private room.

The security and privacy of Afterlife bar's private rooms were top-notch, with signal blockers and physical soundproofing, ensuring that all conversation stayed within the room unless someone slipped up.

They took seats on one side of the booth, with some beverages and fruits laid out on the table.

Sasha sat to Tang Yu's right, curiously inspecting the booth, touching the leather cushions as if sensing something more.

Tang Yu noticed her action but remained silent.

Gloria sat to Tang Yu's left, checking the time; it was almost time for the appointment. The client should arrive soon, so she proactively shared some intelligence with Tang Yu.

"Mr. Tang, Regina Jones has resigned from Channel 54, sensing something off. Military tech is arranging agents to investigate the last big exposure. To avoid detection, she destroyed all traces of documents and left the channel. Now she's freelancing, mainly dealing with information trade and news."

"She wants to continue investigating the cyberpsycho incident, trying to uncover some substantial information."

Tang Yu nodded, finding it reasonable for Regina Jones to take this path due to the exposure incident.

Military tech having been outplayed by Arasaka would definitely investigate the leak. Regina Jones resigning was wise; otherwise, suspicion could turn her life into a nightmare.

Suddenly, footsteps approached the private room, and two figures walked straight in.

Tang Yu looked up and saw they were dressed simply, jeans paired with sleeveless jackets, typical badlands wanderer style, but wearing medical masks which seemed peculiar.

Once inside, the room's door automatically closed, conversation mode activated, and signal blockers were engaged.

A tall, burly man asked in a buzzing voice, "Who's Gloria?"

Gloria gestured for them to sit and discuss, then said openly, "That's me. Now you can talk about the details of this commission."

The burly man didn't sit but chose to stand aside, allowing an elder in front of him to take a seat.

The elder, wearing an old cowboy hat with its brim faded and frayed, looked around at the trio, then spoke in a hoarse voice.

"Since we've got the right person, I'll get straight to the point. This commission involves traveling to our tribe to conduct an investigation."Gloria noticed something strange about this commission and retorted, "You mean to go to the Badlands."

She knew that nomads mostly gathered in the Badlands to live, scavenging, looting, murder, and more were rampant, and tribal conflicts often occurred, posing extreme danger.

Taking on a commission in the Badlands would likely be troublesome.

The elder with a cowboy hat calmly replied, "Indeed, because the matter I want to investigate happened in our tribe. It is urgent. We tried to find some intermediaries, and finally, Regina Jones recommended you to us."

Gloria steadied herself, vaguely guessing that this matter had something to do with the other party wearing a medical mask, and asked seriously, "What happened to your tribe?"

The elder sighed heavily, his tone exceptionally grave.

"It's strange to say, but recently, members of our tribe have begun to die off one after another, mysteriously, without any discernable cause of death."

"At first, we thought it was a problem with the water source, but even after switching to a clean water source, people continued to die from infections."

"Later we suspected it was an airborne disease, so we started wearing medical masks, but that didn't have any effect either."

"We tried many methods in hopes of uncovering the truth behind our people's deaths, but to no avail."

"To prevent a new outbreak, we had no choice but to pile the bodies away from the tribe and away from the water sources."

"The bizarre part is, the piled-up bodies would disappear by the next day, leaving no trace of where they went."

Hearing this, Tang Yu also realized the seriousness of the problem.

Infectious diseases, disappearing bodies, all signs were indicating that this tribe was being targeted.

Unable to hide the depression in his heart, the elder clearly felt a great psychological burden due to the continuous deaths of tribe members.

"Thus, we arranged for someone to investigate and find out where the bodies had gone."

"But unexpectedly, something even more painful happened. The tribe members sent out were missing the next day and were found dead in the wilderness when people went looking for them, with only their skeletal remains left."

Gloria felt a chill, picturing the scene of the terrifying Badlands under the dark and windy night, recklessly harvesting the lives of tribal people.

Tang Yu frowned slightly, pondering why the bodies of those infected disappeared?

And the guardians also died, leaving only skeletal remains.

Could they really be cyber zombies?

The people who died from the disease slowly woke up at night, staggering up from the ground, attacking and consuming their unsuspecting comrades in the dark.

After feeding, this group of cyber zombies scattered and roamed the vast Badlands.

It was an intriguing thought.

Tang Yu quickly dismissed this playful thought. Being well-informed, he hadn't seen any company capable of developing a T-virus.

The bizarre deaths in this tribe must be due to some other mystery.

Seeing Gloria silent, the elder thought she might not believe what he said.

He took out a microchip, placed it on the table, and handed it to Gloria, saying, "We've taken some photos and videos. You can take a look and then decide."

Gloria took the microchip, inserted it into her biometric neural socket, and her cybernetic eye began reading the content.

After a while.

Gloria finished reading, her expression growing heavy, and then nodded at Tang Yu, signifying that what the elder said was true.

Whether to accept this commission or not was still up to Tang Yu.

Tang Yu analyzed that this matter likely involved corporations, infectious diseases, and corpse theft, all pointing to some sort of pharmaceutical research.

As for what kind of drug research that was, they needed to visit their tribe to find out.

The elder, knowing the difficulty of this commission, as nobody would willingly take on such a task, earnestly said, "We are willing to pay in full or even double the payment, as long as you can investigate the cause of death. Everything is negotiable."

"If you are willing to send someone to our tribe, even if you can't find out anything, thirty thousand Eurodollars as a deposit will be your compensation."

"Additionally, this is the current address of our tribe, not too far from the suburbs, so please consider it."

The elder transferred the tribe's address to Gloria.

Thirty thousand Eurodollars was not a small sum, even if they didn't find anything, it was a risk-free gain.

But with higher rewards often came greater risks.

Tang Yu deduced that this contagion was not spread through air, water, or contact. If the transmission medium were that potent, all members of the tribe would have died out.

He suspected food poisoning, or more precisely, deliberate poisoning.

The tribe's food sources were diverse, mostly gathered in small groups looking for supplies, both looted and scavenged.

If it was deliberate poisoning, then killing a portion of the people would fit the pattern perfectly.

Tang Yu asked, "Is there any inevitable connection between the deceased and each other?"

The elder looked at Tang Yu, noticing Gloria's frequent glances at him, understanding that he was the key figure, then said earnestly, "The deceased were mostly entire families, occasionally individuals, but there wasn't much connection between families. The tribe is large, not everyone can maintain harmony."

Hearing this, Tang Yu was almost certain of his judgment.

The tribe had been in the dark from the start, likely used as test subjects by some force, precisely poisoned to death, and then the bodies were taken away for further research.

Cycle after cycle.

Only success in the experiment could avoid death.

If the experiment failed, continuing this way, the tribe, even if not wiped out, would disperse and flee due to lost cohesion within a short period.

Nomads without a tribe would find it extremely difficult to survive in the Badlands, easily encountering gangs, being killed, and strung up on vehicles as trophies.

Tang Yu casually asked, "How large is your tribe?"

The elder replied, "Originally there were one thousand three hundred and forty-nine people. Now, due to the infection, forty have died, and some tribe members, worried about their safety, fled in the night, over a hundred of them."

He finished speaking, unable to hold back his tears, covering his mouth and nose, his eyes brimming with tears, full of self-reproach.

Seeing the elder's distress, the muscular man beside him seemed to want to comfort him but didn't know what to say, instead looking helplessly towards Tang Yu.

The commission had been clearly explained, to investigate the cause of death from the infection.

Tang Yu was already seventy to eighty percent sure, even if they didn't find anything, it wasn't particularly dangerous.

But he really wanted to test Gloria, to see if she had the courage to take on this terrifying Badlands commission.

Gloria, seeing the elder weeping, felt incredibly complex, aware that this commission was not easy. Infectious diseases, disappearing bodies, tribe disbandment, if this issue wasn't investigated thoroughly, a tribe of over a thousand people might disappear.

From the bottom of her heart, she couldn't stand by and wanted to help them escape this vortex.

But currently, being an intermediary, she couldn't make decisions based on emotions without fully considering the situation, which would be irresponsible to both the client and the hired mercenary.

Lacking detailed intelligence could severely handicap the mercenaries' work.

Gloria fell into deep contemplation, trying to pinpoint the key aspects of the commission.

She tried to set aside all emotions, focusing solely on the commission itself, her brain working rapidly, her thoughts gradually boiling.

Infectious diseases, disappearing bodies, transmission methods, and other elements combined in her mind, seeking a perfect solution.

Suddenly.

A spark of realization flashed through Gloria's eyes, as if she had figured something out!

She immediately turned to look at Tang Yu beside her, her gaze filled with confidence, yet still seeking his affirmation.

In that moment.

Gloria's gaze met Tang Yu's, earnest and passionate.

Tang Yu remained silent, simply looking back at her calmly.

Gloria was momentarily stunned, not receiving the explicit approval from Tang Yu as before.

But she quickly understood, this was a test for her, a challenge to her confidence.

Tang Yu had supported her initially, but now, she had to navigate the rest on her own.

Gloria understood the meaning in Tang Yu's gaze. She couldn't back down now, as she was confident and prepared for this choice.

Feeling supported more than ever, she hesitated no longer, looking at the elder with the cowboy hat, and declared boldly.

"This commission."

"I'll take it!"