Chapter 612: I Play Brain Tricks with My Brothers
"Is this really Taiping Island? Damn! This has changed so much."
Jack drove into the newly rebuilt Taiping Island with a look of astonishment on his face, and so did V and Xia Yu in the back seat.
Especially Xia Yu, no one knows better than him how much Taiping Island has changed. After all, when he came here to clean up last time, he had thoroughly explored this place from top to bottom, left to right.
But now, he almost thought he had come to the wrong place!
Those damn unfinished buildings are being renovated, and they are completely different from their former shabby appearance.
The number of homeless people who once filled the streets has also decreased significantly, and those who had lost hope in life seem to have regained hope of moving forward.
The crumbling infrastructure is being stabilized again, the rampant gang violence has disappeared, and although residents walking on the streets still rarely smile, at least there is some light in their once lifeless eyes.
"Fuck, is this really Taiping Island?"
Jack drove slowly, looking around the newly renovated Taiping Island. He even saw many people repainting the walls, covering all the graffiti on the buildings with white paint.
If he was not mistaken, the graffiti were the symbols of the Voodoo Gang and the Scavengers, a means for the gangs to assert their dominance.
But now everything seems different. Order seems to have returned here, and the gangs that once ruled here have been completely erased by new white paint, just like their own graffiti signs.
"Hey, Jack, focus on driving. You almost hit someone just now."
V's reaction was not that big. After all, she had just returned to Night City and did not have too many feelings about the changes in Pacifica.
And even when she worked in Night City, she was always shuttling between companies and never cared about this poor place.
"Oh, really, people here don't look at the road!"
Jack hastily turned the steering wheel and steered the car back from the sidewalk to the driveway, unable to help but curse a little.
After driving for a while, Jack asked, "So, let's just sneak into that Metal Gear company and find out what's going on?"
"That's what would happen if we followed the plan, but plans aren't everything. We have to be more flexible and adaptable." V shrugged. She had always let others do the intelligence gathering task, and this was her first time doing it herself.
In terms of experience, she is definitely not as good as Jack and the others, but she followed because she understood the company's operating model and knew which intelligence was the key and which was concealed.
If she didn't do it herself, Jack and the others might just bring her a bunch of garbage, and all her work would be in vain.
"Adapt to circumstances?"
Jack muttered, and at this moment, Xia Yu suddenly said, "Then I will set up an encrypted direct route that can avoid all inspections and allow us to go directly to the Metal Gear headquarters building."
"Does it take some time?" Jack turned his head and asked casually.
"Of course, but it only takes a few bottles of wine, it won't take long."
"Then I'll go gather some intelligence on the street. After all, this is what I'm most familiar with. Sometimes street intelligence can bring some unexpected results. Just call me when you leave."
Jack said with a grin as he drove the car towards a nearby bar parking space.
After parking the car, Jack opened the door and got out, then went straight into the bar. V didn't follow him, as her corporate attire would look out of place next to Jack's street style outfit.
Xia Yu just sat in the car and sneaked into the network. He really intended to find an encrypted direct route through his hacking skills.
When doing a task, you must be serious about it.
Seeing that Jack and Xia Yu had started doing their own things, V could only lean back in his seat with his arms folded across his chest and close his eyes to rest.
This operation brought her a lot of pressure. It was almost like walking on a tightrope. If she failed, she would definitely fall off the wire and be smashed to pieces.
Hope everything goes well .
Not long after, the yellow stripes on Xia Yu's mask lit up and he returned from the online world.
"Okay, we should go."
Hearing this, V's eyes lit up with data streamers, and she was notifying Jack.
A few minutes later, Jack also returned safely.
"Drive, get out of here!"
Jack sat back in the driver's seat, gripped the steering wheel and drove forward. He also received the route sent by Xia Yu.
After watching for a while, Jack couldn't help talking again. He couldn't sit still and would chat even when driving.
"Hey, you know what I just found out at the bar?"
“…”
"What did you find out?"
Seeing that Xia Yu had no intention of responding, V had no choice but to reply to Jack.
"I actually heard them talking about how great this new company is. I don't know what kind of magic potion this new company has given these people to make them, the people under the company, defend the company so much."
As Jack drove, he said with interest, "But I think this is just a small benefit given to them by the company. When the company has used them, they will sweep these idiots out of Taiping Island like garbage."
As he spoke, Jack sighed again: "But these people are actually quite pitiful. I feel quite sympathetic towards these Haitians because I feel they are somewhat similar to the people of Heywood."
Haywood is the territory of Latino immigrants, mainly Mexicans.
The population of Taiping Island is mainly Haitian immigrants. Although they are also Latin American immigrants, the Haitian immigrants settled in Taiping Island after the island was destroyed and were not able to integrate into Heywood.
The two groups of people thus formed different cultures, and even their customs and beliefs were different.
The biggest difference is that they in Heywood can accept other immigrants, but this is not the case in Taiping Island. The local residents are extremely unwelcome to outsiders.
But now that Taiping Island has been demolished and rebuilt, those habits and strange customs and beliefs should also be changed.
"Don't be so pessimistic. Maybe this new company is a company with a conscience. Look, isn't Taipingzhou changing for the better?"
Xia Yu, sitting in the back seat, gave a different opinion. After all, Metal Gear was his company, so he had to say something good about it.
Besides, what he said is true, because he has a conscience, so his company must also have a conscience.
The residents of this world have to be grateful that the time travelers have a higher moral standard than the natives. After all, under normal circumstances, except for some special cases, most people who grow up in a civilized society have a conscience.
It just so happens that he has no special circumstances, so even after being in this world for so long, he still has a conscience, and he can even recite the 24-character core values.
"I said, do you think too highly of the company?"
Jack disagreed with Xia Yu's statement: "Todos los cuervos son negros (All crows are black), no matter where they are, no matter what kind of company they are, they have no conscience."
"Okay, we're almost there."
While chatting and driving, Jack had already arrived at the destination given by Xia Yu. It must be said that the road was indeed smooth and they did not encounter any checkpoints at all.
After driving the car to the parking space given by Xia Yu, Jack got out of the car, opened the trunk, and took out his two favorite kinetic pistols.
"I'm going to dye this thing gold sooner or later."
Jack tested the smoothness of the pistol while showing his love for it to V: "And I've even thought of a name for it. After it's dyed gold, I'm going to name it the Golden Bitch."
"Vague. It's a different era now, and we're still using golden weapons."
While Xia Yu was complaining about Jack's aesthetic sense, he took out his own Ghost Crane Feather from the trunk, waved it and said with some longing.
"If you ask me, neon colors look better. Sooner or later, I'm going to chop people with a neon-lit sword. That's so cool."
"You want to chop people with a light bulb?"
Jack was somewhat disgusted with Xia Yu's aesthetics. Who would chop people with colored light bulbs? This was simply too weird.
"Why? You want to test how sharp my knife is?"
"My gun is not slow either!"
Looking at Xia Yu and Jack who suddenly started quarreling like children, V couldn't help but sigh with his hands covering his forehead. It was already this late and they were still arguing over these trivial matters.
"Okay, you two, your weapons are just two small pistols and a cold weapon long sword? Don't you have more powerful weapons?"
V looked at Xia Yu holding a long knife and Jack holding a gun with both hands, and couldn't help but frowned and asked.
Without even a submachine gun, how would we break out if we were discovered?
"Don't worry, V. Even though the Ghost's weapon is just a long sword, it is much more powerful than a submachine gun."
Jack nudged V with his elbow and gave him a reassuring look, but V rolled his eyes at Jack's words, showing no sign of reassurance at all.
She had never seen Xia Yu's strength. Until now, she only thought that Xia Yu was a high-end hacker with some combat ability and who did not need a hacker chair.
"Take these. Luckily I'm well prepared."
V took out the box he had brought from the trunk, then placed it on the ground and opened it, revealing the weapons inside.
"TKI-20 Shingen, an intelligent submachine gun made by Arasaka, can fire tracking bullets at high speed. It is much more useful than the two little guys in your hands."
"Don't talk nonsense, they are obviously big steel cannons."
Jack put away his dual pistols somewhat disappointedly. Although he didn't want to admit it, the weapons brought by V were indeed better than his dual pistols.
"And you, put away your long sword and use this."
V took out a kinetic assault rifle and handed it to Xia Yu, but Xia Yu just shook his head and said, "To be honest, I'm more used to using a knife than a gun. It's a waste to give it to me."
Although Xia Yu was telling the truth, to V it sounded like this hacker didn't know how to use a gun, so she didn't insist and handed the gun directly to Jack.
"You still want me to hold it?"
Jack took the gun speechlessly and slung it over his body. Now he was like a human arsenal, carrying four guns on his body, two of which were submachine guns and rifles.
