Chapter 112 Bad Land (Thanks to ‘Tok’)

Afterlife bar.

Gloria raised her head and drank the spicy tequila in one gulp, killing Johnny Silverhand directly.

After finishing the drink, she put down the glass, quickly covered her mouth with her hands, and coughed a few times, as if she was choking on the chili flavor in the glass.

Gloria finally regained her composure, then let go of her hand, and said with some embarrassment: "Mr. Tang, I'm kidding."

Tang Yu also suffocated the 'Johnny Silver Hand' in one gulp. The taste was really spicy. Only Johnny's crooked head could think of soaking chili peppers in agave.

He felt that anyone who drank this wine for the first time would have to cough. When Gloria raised her head, he found that her cheeks were already a little red.

"Just get used to it. Sometimes life is like this glass of wine. The sweet and sour taste of the beer and the bitter and spicy taste of the agave are all mixed in. You can't tell what the taste is, but it's all over the top."

Gloria thought thoughtfully, and then asked seriously: "Mr. Tang, do you come here often?"

Tang Yu put down the wine glass in his hand and said with some emotion: "Well, there used to be a lot of people coming, but now there are less. Intermediaries like you are welcome to come to discuss business, but people from companies like me are not welcome to drink."

He thought that since he was already in the next life, it would be a good time to give Gloria a guide on the rules of the middleman's path, as a way to give her another helping hand.

"You will have to deal with the afterlife a lot in the future, especially Rogge. You need to know some of the rules on the road."

actually.

Anyone who lives in Night City has heard about the rumors of the Afterlife Bar, especially the Queen of the Afterlife, Rogge.

Almost all the mercenaries want to take over the job from Rogge, because it is a big job, and they may become famous and rich overnight.

The Afterlife is a paradise for transactions, commissions, sales, and information. This time the client is from the Wandering Tribe, and they specifically chose the Afterlife Bar, which shows that the sign of the Afterlife is known far and near.

Gloria felt a little surprised. She understood that Tang Yu was planning to teach her, and her expression immediately became serious.

Tang Yu continued to explain: "The middleman, to put it simply, is the intermediary who bridges the gap between the funder and the mercenary."

"There are a lot of middlemen in Night City. They are divided into three, six or nine levels. There are only a few who can really play on the stage."

"There is no other free middleman with Rogge's strength in the entire Night City, but even she has to be constrained by the company at some point."

"The era of freedom has passed. Nowadays, without a corporate background, it is difficult to enter the middleman industry and carve out a niche."

Gloria's pupils shrank slightly. She didn't expect that Queen Rogge would also be affected by the company. She is the most powerful middleman in Night City, which shows how deeply the company's power has penetrated.

She knew that without Tang Yu's support, she would never be able to enter the middleman business in her life, so she couldn't help but listen more seriously.

In order to explain more clearly, Tang Yu used the middleman Faraday as an explanation, who she had interacted with before.

"For example, Faraday, whom you have dealt with before, is backed by military technology. To a certain extent, he is more like an agent of the company. The commissions he issues are basically related to the company. He is not a real middleman in Night City.

"

"Because the real middlemen are not rootless. Each middleman has his own territory and controls the resources and intelligence in the area. He only finds people to work for the company, which is somewhat less interesting."

"Even in an era when the world is declining, if middlemen want to gain a foothold in this industry, they must abide by the rules of 'integrity and cooperation'. In Night City, where the law is trampled underfoot, your reputation is your brand.

"

Gloria understood clearly and understood Tang Yu's subtext that if she wanted to become a real middleman, she could not only rely on Tang Yu's power, but also had to have her own connections and strength.

Tang Yu gave a few examples casually to let Gloria know how many middlemen there are.

"Take this commission as an example. In the bad land where the wanderers live, Dakota is one of the middlemen. She never betrays the mercenaries, but she also never allows others to betray her. Going to the bad land is indispensable without her.

Deal.”

"And in the city of Night City, there are even more middlemen with names."

"Westbrook's middleman, Wakako Okada, is a gentle old lady who has a close relationship with the Tiger Claw Gang and does both good and evil."

"Heywood's middleman, Father Sebastian, used to be a priest in the Valentino Gang. Anyone who dared to wave a bad word in front of him was sent to see God."

"Danodinovich, a middleman who is active in the municipal center, has a wide network of contacts. He has close relationships with companies, media, mercenaries, and street boys. He smuggles all kinds of prohibited items and is worth a lot of money."

"In addition, there are many middlemen with reasonable strength who roam the streets and alleys of Night City."

"There is a middleman in Santo Domingo where you live, 'Old Captain' Muammar, who usually does small tasks."

The middlemen Tang Yu mentioned were all those he had dealt with many times. Anyone who could make a name for himself in Night City basically had his own sphere of influence and faction.

After listening to this, Gloria's expression gradually became solemn. She had never thought that there were so many skills in the intermediary industry.

Now, compared with these experienced middlemen, the gap between her and these experienced middlemen is really huge.

All her support comes from Tang Yu alone. If she wants to truly step onto the stage in Night City, she needs more efforts.

Tang Yu said this not to put pressure on her, but to let Gloria understand that if she really wants to help her, she must be fully mentally prepared to meet the challenge.

He had no intention of really letting Gloria carve out a territory in Night City on her own.

Rather, we hope that when she really has the opportunity to take charge of a force, she will have the ability to firmly hold power.

As for this opportunity, it was Tang Yu who planned for her and personally sent her to the middleman stage in Night City.

Gloria looked at Tang Yu with a focused expression and said sincerely: "Thank you, Mr. Tang, you really taught me a lot. I will seize the opportunity and work hard."

Tang Yu was a person who looked at actions and results. It was useless to say nice things. He stood up and said, "It's almost time. Let's go to the private room and wait."

The three of them left the bar and walked into the private room reserved in advance.

The private rooms in the Afterlife Bar are top-notch in terms of security and concealment, with signal shielding and physical sound isolation. No conversation can leave this private room unless you spill the beans.

The three of them sat on one side of the box, and some drinks and fruit were placed on the table.

Sasha sat on Tang Yu's right hand side, looking at the box curiously, reaching out and touching the leather cushion, seeming to have other feelings about it.

Tang Yu noticed her behavior but said nothing.

Gloria sat on Tang Yu's left hand side and checked. It was almost the appointed time. The client should be coming soon, so she took the initiative to tell Tang Yu some information.

"Mr. Tang, Regina Jones has resigned from News 54. She sensed something was wrong, and Military Technology is arranging agents to investigate the last big exposure."

"In order to avoid being discovered, she destroyed all traces of information, left the news station, and now works alone, mainly to sell intelligence and various news."

"According to her own idea, she wants to continue investigating the Cybermaniac incident and want to research some useful information."

Tang Yu nodded and thought it was reasonable. Regina Jones took this path because of the big exposure.

Military Technology took advantage of Arasaka's trick and will definitely investigate the matter of the mole. It is wise for Regina Jones to resign, otherwise suspicion will be raised on her and she will be peeled off even if she is dead.

Suddenly, there were footsteps at the door of the box, and two people walked straight into the box.

Tang Yu followed the sound and found that the other party was wearing simple clothes, jeans and a sleeveless jacket. It was a typical bad-land wanderer style, but it was a little strange to wear a medical mask.

After the two people entered the house, the box door automatically closed, the conversation mode was turned on, and the signal shielding device was activated.

One of them, a tall and fierce man, asked in a buzzing voice: "Which one of you is Gloria?"

Gloria motioned for the two of them to sit down and talk, and then said openly: "I am, now you can talk about this commission in detail."

The fierce man did not sit down, but took the initiative to stand aside, waiting for an elder in front of him to take a seat.

The elder was wearing an old-fashioned cowboy hat. The brim of the hat had faded and fell off the thread, making it look a bit shabby. After looking at the three of them, he spoke in a hoarse voice.

"Since I'm not mistaken about the person, I'll tell the truth. This commission requires a visit to our tribe to complete the investigation."

Gloria noticed the strangeness of this commission and asked, "You mean to go to the bad land."

She knew that most wanderers lived together in the Bad Land, where scavenging, looting, theft and killing were rampant, and tribal conflicts often occurred, which was extremely dangerous.

If you want to go to a bad land to complete a commission, I'm afraid there will be a lot of trouble.

The elder in the cowboy hat replied calmly: "That's true, because the thing I want to investigate happened in our tribe. This matter is imminent. We tried to find several middlemen, and finally Regina Jones recommended you to us.

."

Gloria held her ground, vaguely guessing that the incident was related to the other party wearing a medical mask, and asked seriously: "What happened to your tribe?"

The old man in the cowboy hat sighed, his tone unusually heavy.

"We also find this strange. Recently, members of our tribe have begun to die inexplicably one after another. The cause of death cannot be found at all."

"At first, we thought there was a problem with the water source, but after changing to a clean water source, some people continued to be infected and died."

"Later, we suspected that the infection was spread through the air, and we wore medical protective masks, but still had no effect."

"We have tried many ways to find out the truth behind the death of our clan members, but we have not achieved anything."

"In order to prevent new infections, the corpses had to be piled up away from the tribe and away from water sources."

"The strange thing is that the piled up corpses will disappear the next day and can't be found at all."

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

Infectious diseases, missing corpses, all signs indicate that this tribe is being targeted.

The elder in the cowboy hat couldn't hide his depression. It was obvious that the constant deaths of tribe members had caused a great psychological burden on him.

"So, we arranged for people to check the situation and want to know where the body went."

"But I didn't expect something even more painful to happen. The tribe members who were sent were also missing the next day. When they were found, they had already died in the desert, leaving only a set of bones and bones."

Gloria's face turned a little cold, and she couldn't help but think of that scene, in the bad land where the moon was dark and the wind was high, terror was rampant, harvesting the lives of the tribesmen wantonly.

Tang Yu frowned slightly and thought. The key to the question is why the infected corpses disappeared?
To be continued...