Start in Night City

Detective River Ward, who had driven him here, was not in the car.

So where did he go?

Lidya Su turned her head and looked to the side.

Then the question was answered.

River, wearing a windbreaker, was blocked in the alley next to the adult toy store. This was not his first time here, so he knew that the back door of the store was connected to this alley.

River was worried that his informant would take the opportunity to slip out of the back door, so after Su Xiao entered, he got out of the car and blocked the alley.

But after waiting for a long time, he didn't see the informant appear from the alley. Just when he was wondering, he suddenly heard someone calling his name.

He looked in the direction of the sound and saw Lidya Su waving to him.

River did not go over immediately, but stood there and looked into the alley a few more times to make sure no one was coming out of the alley, and then trotted over.

"Why have you been there for so long? What's going on inside? Has he explained it?"

"Having said it all, he is quite cooperative."

Su Xiao and River returned to the car, and then Su Xiao told River everything she heard from River's informant.

Finally, Lidya Su asked again: "What do you think?"

River thought for a while and said.

"It is impossible to close a club with such a booming business casually. The losses caused by closing the store for one day are unimaginable, let alone for so many days in a row. I have never seen any business owner who would follow Money can’t get by.”

River had the same idea as Lidya Su, they both felt that something was fishy.

"Unless something happens that forces them to close."

Su Xiao took out a tablet computer from her clothes, called up the news about Lucius Lane's death written by WNS on it, and showed it to River.

"The news said that Ryan died at home. What if... I mean what if, what if he didn't actually die at home?"

River's eyes suddenly widened.

"What? Su, do you suspect that Ryan died in this club?"

Anyone who has been in society knows what goes into a club.

Sometimes, people with money and power may not have high spiritual pursuits, such as opera, travel, golf and other entertainment activities that are considered elegant. Sometimes the upper class prefer to be more primitive, brutal, rough and inappropriate. way to release stress.

If Ryan died in the club, then River could understand why the Red Queen's race was closed.

But emotionally he couldn't accept that a mayor died in such a disgraceful way.

"But his family personally told the media..."

"If a member of my family had died in a nightclub, of course I would have lied and said he died peacefully at home for the sake of his reputation."

It is the instinct of living things to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.

Should he tell the truth, and the mayor's family will be criticized and killed in society from now on; or should he just use a simple lie that will never be exposed to protect his family...

I believe most people will choose the latter.

Although River didn't want to believe it emotionally, the facts before him forced him to believe it.

"Then it seems that we have to go to the Red Queen's Race. There will always be evidence we want to find there. However, I suggest that we should go to the shop to take a look."

"shop?"

"It's Horvath's boss, the one I mentioned before. I don't want to let this clue go in vain."

Lidya Su thought for a while.

The club has been closed for several days.

It makes no difference whether they go an hour or two earlier or an hour or two later.

Since River insists...

"OK, then go see the shop you mentioned."

That `s a deal.

So River started the car.

The pickup truck headed towards Japan Street.

The rain was pouring heavily, and the sound of rain splashing on the car windows was getting louder and louder. River did not dare to drive faster. In such weather, the visibility was much worse than on a sunny day. Even if he could see clearly, he had to consider other cars. vision.

The vehicles on the road gradually become sparse and there are fewer pedestrians. The water on the ground reflects the colorful light falling from the neon lights.

"You didn't do very well

Wrong, I must say that you are very talented as a police detective. How about it? Have you ever considered joining the NCPD? "

"Forget it, I'm not the type to take the public exam."

"Take the public exam? Do you mean the exam? The NCPD exam is not as difficult as you think. Even a rough guy like me can pass it. A guy like you who knows how to read at first glance can't beat you. "

Lidya Su smiled and declined politely: "No need, I think my life is pretty good now."

There was no way he would join the NCPD, not in this life.

Even Director Jerry Ford is just a dog raised by the company, so what's the use of joining the NCPD? What can be changed?

Su Xiao admires people like River and Li Nali who have emerged from the mire without staining, but he feels that the NCPD has become rotten and there is no possibility of change.

River was a little disappointed. Maybe some people in the city had some prejudice against mercenaries, but he didn't.

Especially after the two of them cooperated, he felt that the other person was a good prospect. It would be great if he could join the NCPD and become colleagues.

But the other party was unwilling, and he couldn't force it. He could only say helplessly: "Okay, everyone has their own ambitions."

Su Xiao seemed unwilling to dwell too much on this topic: "Where is the shop you mentioned? Is it far from here?"

"Not far away, I heard that she set up a stall in the Sakura Market in Japan Street, selling a little bit of everything."

"I heard? Have you never been there?"

"No, I planned to go there before, but the superiors didn't allow me to investigate this case, nor did they allow me to contact people related to this case. During that time, people were watching me every day, and it was inconvenient for me to move, so I stayed honest for a few days. , let them relax their vigilance, even if you don’t come to me, I will investigate it myself.”

The two chatted like this, and Su Xiao learned from the conversation that River was not alone.

Although he is not married yet, he has a sister and children from his sister's side.

Of course, Lidya Su didn't ask for specific details.

It is an unwritten rule in the City of Night not to delve too much into other people's privacy.

After all, even in the world where Su Xiao lived in his previous life, no one would like others to ask questions and get to the bottom of things.

This world is even more dangerous than the world in Su Xiao's previous life, especially since River is still a police detective and has offended many people.

Even if he is not afraid, he still has to think about his family.

More than half an hour later, River drove them to an open space outside the Sakura Market.

This open space was left alone for a reason.

Su Xiao opened the car door, but before she even got out of the car, a stench rushed in.

Not far away, there was a mountain-like pile of garbage.

There were several figures in ragged clothes, rummaging through the garbage regardless of the filth and stench.

Even if a car approached, it didn't attract their attention at all.

River looked at them with eyes full of pity.

As an ordinary police detective, he was helpless except for pity.

Even though he was able to feed himself and the whole family, he didn't seem to have much to spend money on.

But his sister, and his sister's family, also need his help.

"We can't help them, let's go."

The two left the open space, and as they walked into the cherry blossom market where electronic cherry blossom petals were gradually falling, the stench gradually disappeared.

Sakura Market is not big, just a small market, but it is bustling with people.

"To be specific, what is the name of the boss of Horvath we are looking for."

"Kristin Markoff, forty-two years old, the file says she is Horvath's only boss, and in fact, she is also the only contact."

River took out two umbrellas from the car, handed one to Lidya Su, and opened the other himself.

The raindrops fell on the umbrella, and soon strings of water drops fell along the edge of the umbrella.

"However, I haven't seen her either, so we'll look for her separately. I'll start from the left, and you'll be responsible for the right."

"No, wait, I have a faster way to find someone."

Su Xiao grabbed River who was about to leave, and then activated the scanning mode on the tactical eyepiece.

Two seconds later, a large red humanoid outline appeared on the tactical eyepiece.

This Sakura Market is not a big place, but there are really a lot of people gathered there.

He didn't need to identify them one by one.

Su Xiao entered the name to search, and soon found the target at a stall deep in the market.

"I found her, come this way."

River's eyebrows raised, but there was no doubt that he followed Su Xiao obediently.

The two came to the stall of the female owner of Horvath, who was playing with a radio.

The world of 2077 is really a weird place. As early as the millennium of the world where Su Xiao lived, after the invention of MP3, radios were basically used by few people except for students to learn English.

After smartphones became popular, even MP3 and MP4 were swept into the memories of the times, and no one used radios anymore.

But in this world, it's already 2077, and even Supertwos are all kinds of and endless, but Radio

The machine still has not left the stage.

This is really a puzzling thing.

Su Xiao was okay, but River's look of not letting strangers in made the people nearby subconsciously stay away from the two of them. River didn't pay attention either, he just knocked lightly on a table with used household appliances. Knock.

"Are you Kristen Markoff? We'd like to ask you a few questions."

Kristine looked back at the two of them, then turned back and continued tinkering with her broken radio: "Are you NCPD?"

River nodded: "Yes, we came here mainly to ask about Peter Horvath. We heard that he worked for you for a while before."

Christine didn't mean to hide it: "Yeah, that's right, then he quit and started giving speeches here and there."

Hearing what the female boss said, Lidya Su and River couldn't help but look at each other, and then they saw the same confused expression on each other's faces as their own.

"Speech? What kind of speech is he giving?"

Speeches are usually made by capitalists trying to make things easier for their employees, or by politicians trying to win votes for themselves.

A Kuhaha who works at a stall and gives speeches?

Why, does he still want to be a backbencher?

Kristine continued: "He is always full of negative energy. He often says, 'Ryan's life has been taken away by the company, but he still wants to fuck me.'"

It's normal to have negative energy. Living in a city like Night City, no one at the bottom doesn't have some negative energy.

No matter how optimistic, positive, and progressive your mentality is, reality will always give you a big bag, sooner or later it will inspire the dark side of the Force...the dark side of human nature.

The neighbors in the building opposite the apartment in the valley area where Su Xiao lived would open their windows every morning and shout, "Arasaka Hanako, I'm going to buy you."

The company has taken away everything from people. Who doesn’t hate the company in Night City?

There are also people who hate the mayor, but they feel that the mayor wants to deal with them and harm themselves. Su Xiao has seen such people, but most of these people are crazy and think that everyone is a bad person and everyone wants to harm them.

Su Xiao asked strangely: "He has a problem with the mayor? What other conflicts can they have?"

One is the mayor, and the other is just helping people sell goods in the market. It is impossible to get together in this life.

The levels are different. The level is too high to have any grudges.

Moreover, it is unlikely that Horvath will have dirty information about Lane, which makes it even less likely that Lane will want to mess with Horvath.

River suddenly said: "It's not like Horvath realized this theory himself. I think it was probably someone who deliberately instilled it into him."

Christine shook her head.