18 Chapter 18

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Nightfall.

The neon night gradually envelops the entire city. The buildings and skyscrapers all light up with mottled night lights, and Westbrook's Cherry Blossom Street is bustling with people coming and going, while neon signs and holographic projections from the shops flicker along the street. This charming street by the inner city bay is flushed with the pink of Japanese cherry blossoms.

A long modified off-roader and a Delamain taxi parked one after the other in front of an apartment building. Maine and others alighted from the off-roader, and from the Delamain taxi emerged Tang Yu.

Tang Yu looked up at the waterfront bay apartment, only seven or eight stories high, then turned to Lucy and asked, "This is where you live?"

Lucy, walking in front without looking back, replied directly, "Naturally, it's nothing compared to the villas where high-level employees from your company live. But if you need confidentiality, isolation from electronic surveillance, no disturbances from others, and a place that's off the radar of corporations or gangs, this is the only choice. If you think there's a better place, it's not too late to change our mind now."

Pilar added from the side, "Lucy is our team's tech hacker. Her security measures have always been strict and reliable. Discussing our collaboration at her place is the best option."

Tang Yu suddenly felt that their prejudices against him were indeed deep, but he could understand; wearing the skin of a corporate dog was bound to be despised. But he could see the lighter side - at least this was more friendly than when he and Johnny used to curse the Arasaka family daily. He didn't say much else and followed Lucy's steps into the apartment building, beginning to climb the stairs.

The stairwell was filled with a dark aqua hue, and the ceiling's incandescent lights were old and flickered slightly when lit.

It wasn't until the group ascended to the top floor and saw an electronic gate on the left side of the corridor that Lucy went over to swipe it open. Tang Yu followed her inside and saw that the apartment was not very large, a common suite design, similar to the apartments Gloria rented.

The living room divided into a bathroom and toilet, with a connected bedroom. The hall housed a simple leather sofa set and a glass coffee table - basic living furnishings. The shower curtain in the bathroom was half-covered, revealing a bathtub full of not fully melted ice. The glass coffee table in the living room stood empty, with just a lonely ashtray on it. Other valuable items in the house were the hacker chair and computer desk that network hackers must have.

The most prominent feature was the living room's large panoramic glass window, through which one could take in the sea view of Night City.

Lucy, with her left hand lightly pressed against her temple and yellow circles flickering in her pupils, spoke after a few seconds, "Alright, I've disabled all electronic probes and recording devices. The entire apartment is now isolated from the network and physically soundproofed. You can start your negotiation now."

After speaking, she walked over to the only large floor-to-ceiling window in the room, leaned against it, lit a cigarette, and took puffs in silence. She seemed to be admiring the steel bridge spanning across the bay in the center of the city, with a rocket launch site further out at sea.

Maine, not wanting to beat around the bush with Tang Yu, sat down and got straight to the point. "What exactly do you want to collaborate with us on?"

Tang Yu took a seat on the other side of the sofa by the window, facing Maine and the others over the coffee table, and calmly began, "I want to work with you to take someone down at Arasaka, or more precisely, my sworn enemy at Arasaka."

Hearing Tang Yu's words, everyone was clearly taken aback, even Lucy's cigarette paused mid-air, quietly self-igniting. Maine could not have imagined that collaborating with someone from Arasaka meant targeting someone within Arasaka, and if Tang Yu of his standing needed to act, the target surely wouldn't be an easy one.Maine spoke with a hint of sarcasm, "Looks like there's a real fondness for dog-eat-dog inside the company."

Tang Yu replied quite frankly, "If anything dares to bite me, even if it's a dog, I'll bite back, right?"

"I had just gotten back and was set up by people inside the company, and Gloria's car accident can't be separated from them. Now things have come to this point, it's either I stamp them out in the company, or they stamp me out."

Lucy, sitting by the bay window, couldn't help but glance at Tang Yu on the couch with her peripheral vision. His young and fair appearance showed no signs of the wear and tear from the brutal corporate world, yet his words always conveyed a strange sentiment. Sometimes he seemed like a lone wolf, sometimes like a lamb, hard to definitively pin down.

Pilar looked deeper than Maine, adding a question, "If getting involved in the internal strife of Arasaka encompasses secrets of Arasaka's upper echelons, aren't you afraid that we'll sell off that info after we get hold of it? You should know that many are eyeing Arasaka's every move."

Tang Yu responded with a nonchalant face, "It appears that you still don't quite understand the function of the Counter-Intelligence division."

"If any information related to this matter leaks, anyone who knows anything will be labeled an enemy for stealing company intel by Arasaka."

"And I am here on behalf of the Counter-Intelligence department, tasked only with taking care of enemies."

Upon hearing this, Maine lost his temper, stood up, and challenged Tang Yu angrily, "So what you're saying is, if there's any problem, you'll pin all the responsibility on us?"

Tang Yu replied decisively and clearly, "Do you expect the company's people to protect you as a holy mother would, taking on all the blame for you, so you can feel lucky during cooperation? In working with the company, it's not only sincerity that's being scrutinized."

After these harsh words, Pilar quickly held back an about-to-explode Maine and addressed Tang Yu directly, "I think what you're saying is the truth, at least better than those middlemen full of lies."

Tang Yu couldn't help but smile, complimenting Pilar, "Perhaps you are more suited to lead this team than Maine, and since we've reached a preliminary consensus, let's talk about the specifics of cooperation."

Maine, under Pilar's pressure, reluctantly sat back down to listen to Tang Yu's proposals and arrangements.

Tang Yu turned to Lucy, "You can share the contents of the chip with them now, since we're cooperating, they should know some real information."

Lucy resisted being commanded by an outsider and a company employee, but after hesitating for a moment, she still took out the chip and threw it to Maine.

Once Maine and the others slotted the chip into their neural sockets and read the part of the conversation between Tang Yu and Jenkins, as well as the origin of the Militech-grade Stanwices, they immediately understood why Tang Yu said installing the Stanwices would guarantee death.

The powerful Militech-grade cyberlimbs were experimental military tech products, specifically provided to cyberpunks with military-grade physical training, then used to observe how they functioned, generating specific human trials data.

Even though Maine had long known that the cyberlimbs he bought were from the body of a cyberpsycho, he hadn't thought it through to this extent.

If installed, one might become an unwitting guinea pig for military tech, and even in death, one's body would be sent to a lab for dissection and research, as if suddenly turning to see a blood-red viper lurking in the dark, baring its sharp fangs, ready to pounce.

Maine shuddered at the thought.