After walking around all morning, buying a cyberdeck, and seeing a doctor, it was getting close to noon.
Gloria kept her left hand on the steering wheel while her right reached into a paper bag beside her.
She pulled out a beef sandwich packed that morning and handed it to her employer first.
“It’s almost noon.
Have something to eat.”
Looking at the insect-patty sandwich Gloria was offering him, Lin Ke couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
“Even if I starve to death and jump out of this car, I’m not eating that.”
“Hmph.
Suit yourself.
Starve, then!” Gloria brought the sandwich in her right hand to her mouth and took a big bite.
How on earth has he survived to this age?
Is he really some runaway heir to a massive corporation?
Gloria swayed her head, driving as she eagerly scarfed down her beef-flavored sandwich.
“There’s actual meat in this sandwich, you know.
It’s way better than those flavorless, chewy energy bars!”
Seeing Gloria eat with such relish, Lin Ke felt a bit helpless.
He was actually hungry, too, but the thought of the meat being made from earthworms or crickets turned his stomach.
He just couldn’t bring himself to eat it.
He made a mental note to cook dozens or even a hundred meals once he had the ingredients and store them in his inventory.
That way, whenever he was hungry, he could just pull one out and eat.
After all, time inside the inventory space seemed to be completely frozen.
The fact that those gutted Pink Aberrant Fish, which had been caught nearly a day ago, were still firm and fresh was proof enough.
The drive to the mall wasn’t long.
By the time Gloria finished her sandwich, they had arrived at their destination.
Located on the border between Little China and Kabuki, right in front of them stood a megabuilding over 400 meters tall.
The skyscraper’s design was unusual, resembling a giant banana standing half-upright on the ground.
Dozens of massive electronic screens lined its curved exterior walls, flashing a barrage of suggestive, bizarre, or violently bloody advertisements.
In the sky above, aerodynes could be seen constantly taking off and landing on the building’s high-level platforms.
Gloria drove the car into the underground parking lot.
Aside from the driving lanes, the parking spots were almost entirely packed with vehicles of all makes and models, including no shortage of luxury sports cars.
After a long search, she finally found an empty spot on the third basement level and parked.
Leading Lin Ke out of the car and toward a nearby elevator, Gloria shared some information about the megabuilding, giving him a brief overview of the colossal structure.
The building belonged to Night Corp.
Night Corp had developed it into a multi-functional complex integrating commercial, residential, and entertainment spaces.
Aside from basement levels 1 to 5 which served as parking, the 1st through 8th floors above ground were commercial zones.
They housed hundreds of shops and supermarkets selling all kinds of goods: gun shops, pharmacies, cyberware clinics, and massive supermarkets selling clothing, daily necessities, and various food ingredients.
Floors 9 to 20 were the entertainment zone, featuring braindance theaters, braindance arcades, shooting ranges, large casinos, and dollhouses.
From floor 21 to the very top was the residential zone, consisting of small clinics, ripperdoc practices, gyms, and a large number of high-end apartments for rent.
It was fair to say that if you had enough money, you could live your entire life here without ever stepping foot outside the building.
The spacious elevator came to a smooth halt on the 3rd floor.
As the elevator doors slid open, Lin Ke and Gloria stepped out onto a commercial floor with five-meter-high ceilings spanning tens of thousands of square meters.
The entire third floor was occupied by a massive supermarket selling daily goods.
Lin Ke grabbed a shopping cart at the entrance just like Gloria did, and they pushed them into the supermarket to start shopping.
Starting with the food section, row after row of shelves were stocked with various goods.
From carbonated drinks to high-proof spirits, canned instant meals to synthetic meats and produce—countless data streams flashed across Lin Ke’s eyes as his Eye of Truth swept over them.
Most were of poor quality.
Anything that supposedly required natural ingredients was actually a synthetic product concocted with various chemical additives.
There was no soy in the soy sauce, and no peanuts in the peanut butter.
After browsing the entire food section, Lin Ke ended up buying only salt and sugar.
Priced at 10 eddies for a 250-gram pack, he bought five kilograms of each.
Of course, there were also real food items in the food section.
[Real Water]
Quality: Common
Description: An inorganic substance composed of hydrogen and oxygen.
Non-toxic, potable.
PS: Drinking water that has undergone dozens of distillations and molecular filtration.
All harmful components have been thoroughly removed.
The product name was literally “Real Water.”
A 500-milliliter bottle sold for a whopping 100 eddies, whereas the same amount of regular drinking water nearby cost only 1 eddy—though, of course, that cheaper water contained trace amounts of radioactive materials.
He hadn’t expected water to be split into “real” and “fake,” let alone with a hundred-fold price difference.
It left him speechless.
But water was useless to him; the other world had plenty of it.
Clean water was the one thing he didn’t lack.
Then there were the genuine, organic, natural foods kept in sterile displays—fruits.
“Come on, they’re just apples, bananas, and pears!
Is it really necessary to have guards standing watch over them?!”
Seeing the heavily armed, muscular brutes standing guard by the display cases, Lin Ke rolled his eyes.
After muttering his complaint, he pushed his cart out of the food section and headed to the daily necessities section with Gloria.
He bought multiple sets of toiletries and hygiene products, along with a few synthetic fiber blankets.
Next came some Chinese and Western-style dinnerware: bowls, plates, forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks, and various cooking utensils.
Lin Ke also spotted some outdoor camping gear in a corner.
He picked up a windproof and rainproof compact tent, a steel portable stove, and several flashlights.
The stove didn’t require firewood; it ran on CHOOH2 to generate heat, and the top could be used for simple cooking.
Altogether, these items cost him over 5,000 eddies.
Finally, the two of them arrived at the clothing section, which was Lin Ke’s main objective.
He needed to buy warm clothes.
However, after walking the entire section, he didn’t see a single down jacket or any other heavily insulated clothing.
When he asked Gloria, Lin Ke learned that Night City was located in Northern California.
The climate was mild, with temperatures hovering between 10 and 26 degrees Celsius year-round.
So, nobody here ever had to worry about the cold.
*Damn, a Night City that doesn’t snow.
One star!*
Just as Lin Ke was mentally downvoting Night City, a familiar flash of pinkish-white caught the corner of his eye.
No, as the lighting shifted, the pinkish-white hair shimmered with an icy-blue iridescence.
Lucy?
Lin Ke turned his gaze.
A shoulder-length bob that shifted color in the light, delicate features, a cool demeanor, and striking red makeup tracing her eyelids and lips.
Talk about a coincidence!
It really was her.
Bumping into her in this sea of people just a day later—talk about fate!
Lin Ke couldn’t resist nudging Gloria’s soft, slender waist with his elbow.
“Gloria, what do you think of that short-haired girl over there?”
“She’s very pretty, delicate features, and a great figure.
Got your eye on her?
Just be careful.
Her cyberware integration rate isn’t low.
And that tall blonde woman next to her, judging by her outfit, she’s a cyberpunk.
Don’t go looking for trouble.”
Having scraped by in Night City for so many years and salvaged so much cyberware, Gloria had incredibly sharp eyes.
A tall blonde woman?
Hearing Gloria’s words, Lin Ke finally noticed there was another person beside Lucy.
She was tall and slender, wrapped in a deep-red leather coat, wearing a matching metal mask.
[Kiwi]
Age: 51
Identity: Netrunner
Cyberware Coverage: 51%
Description: In Night City, never trust anyone.
If you get betrayed, it’s your own fault.
PS: She just wants to survive.
What did she do wrong?
Oh!
The woman with the blue tits.
Damn, my brain automatically thought of tits.
Bah!
Shameless.