Chapter 40 Information and Crispy Sausages

Rebecca sat on the steps, hugging her knees in boredom.

She had no idea where the information broker Lin Yue had mentioned had vanished to; four hours had passed without even a glimpse of him.

During this time, many Dogtown residents entering and leaving the Dogtown Stadium assumed she was some lost beauty from a club, but before they could even strike up a conversation, Rebecca would have her pistol pressed directly against their chins.

Had the Barghest troops not been standing nearby, Rebecca wouldn't have minded firing a few warning shots at those shady characters giving her sideways glances.

Oh, and something amusing had just happened.

Some guy had been caught stealing inside the stadium by the patrolling Barghest.

He was dragged all the way outside the stadium, punched senseless by a Barghest soldier—leaving it unclear whether he was dead or alive—and ultimately dumped like a dead dog by the wire fence along the roadside.

A "corpse-looting gang" that had been keeping watch in the distance for ages swarmed forward, all trying to scavenge something off the guy.

"Get the fuck out of here, don't block the way!"

A Barghest soldier in the distance fired a warning shot into the air, cursing as he drove away the people blocking the passage below the stadium steps.

Someone muttered under their breath, "What's the big act? As soon as we leave, aren't you guys going to frisk him yourselves?"

Lin Yue walked out of the stadium. Although the skin at the back of his head had undergone seamless treatment, he could faintly feel an itching, throbbing sensation. His brain felt as if it had been soaking in ice water, leaving him in a somewhat hyperactive state.

"Where's the chip?"

Lin Yue looked at Rebecca in confusion. Rebecca shrugged and let out a yawn.

"Not a single hair in sight. Is this guy even reliable? I'm getting sleepy waiting, man."

Just as Lin Yue was looking around for the broker, the broker's voice came from behind him: "The chip is right here."

Before Lin Yue could even reach out, Rebecca snatched the chip away.

"Hey!"

Lin Yue's eyelid twitched. Why was this girl just like V, daring to plug whatever random junk she found straight into her neuralware interface and slots?

"Don't just plug random stuff in, you know you can easily fry your brain that way," Lin Yue muttered.

Rebecca's legs were completely numb; she wasn't about to stand around listening to Lin Yue dawdle. Right now, all she wanted was to get inside and pick a few decent braindances to experience.

Rebecca gave a careless wave of her hand. "You can't fry it, alright."

[Connection Transfer]—the message Rebecca sent flashed across Lin Yue's eyes.

He looked it over. It was a series of photos of Ayes in a club up on the back hills. In the frame, a Latino man wearing Animal Gang workout shades turned his head, flanked by a few Animal Gang security guards built like small mountains.

The location information had also been marked for him.

As far as he knew, apart from the bar at the Longshore Stacks [Alex's] bar and the Heavy Hearts Club, Dogtown didn't have many other bars.

Yet he had never heard of this one up on the back hills.

In 2075, Dogtown seemed to have slightly more shops than it did in 2077.

It seemed this Colonel wasn't particularly skilled at governing a city.

Lin Yue felt the intel he had dug up was decent enough. He transferred the remaining payment to the broker and saved his contact number, finally getting a slight grasp on how information was sourced in Dogtown.

It didn't necessarily require a netrunner; word of mouth was also a fine way to pass things along.

"Sorry to keep you waiting so long. Let me treat you to something to eat?"

Rebecca nodded, shouting, "You certainly owe me one."

And so the two of them walked one after the other. Rebecca trailed behind with her hands behind her head, strolling leisurely, while Lin Yue walked ahead looking for a food cart that seemed half-decent.

With that, Lin Yue pulled out a stool.

He found that this owner from Eastern Europe didn't understand the service industry at all.

The stool was nearly a meter high; it was thoroughly unergonomic.

So he simply grabbed Rebecca by her clothes and hoisted her up. "See what you want to eat."

"I'll take one of everything!"

Lin Yue clamped a hand over Rebecca's mouth. "Give us one serving of [Steamed Pork Rice Flour], [Tuna Sushi], an order of fried rice... and two small Coco Colas."

"Change it to booze!" Rebecca protested.

With a grand wave of his hand, Lin Yue picked up a drink and popped open the pull-tab. "No way."

Rebecca took a deep breath, a vein throbbing on her forehead. Whatever, there were way too many Barghest around here; she wouldn't beat him up for now.

Just as the two of them were waiting for their food to arrive, Lin Yue's eyes lit up.

"Right now? Fine... I'm around this area anyway."

Lin Yue patted Rebecca on the shoulder. "I'm going to go check out some cyberware."

Rebecca had been eagerly awaiting her steamed pork rice flour, and her expression froze mid-face.

"Are you out of your damn mind? You're going to install more cyberware again—you need to pump the brakes. Mane said so himself, you gotta let your body adapt, you absolute moron!"

The guy usually had so many clever ideas, so why was he such an idiot about this?

Lin Yue was slightly stunned. He realized that Mane and the others still attached great importance to the matter of cyberware installation, so the words at the tip of his tongue died. If Rebecca found out he had already installed it long ago, she'd probably scream her head off cursing him.

"Nah, it's just a simple little tune-up, that's all."

With that, Lin Yue turned around and walked straight inside without looking back.

"Don't you dare actually install that crap!" Rebecca yelled after him.

Lin Yue raised a hand and waved it, indicating he understood.

Sammy wasn't around this morning, but since he had free time right now, he could give his newly installed cyberware a little upgrade and conveniently sync the latest version of the corporate system.

Considering the price, Sammy was actually quite skilled and reliable.

Rebecca let out a scoff, too lazy to bother with that idiot anymore. If he wanted to install it, let him. Once he installed himself into a psycho and got blasted into fine dust by MaxTac, that'd be the end of it.

Dogtown's food carts were no different from Night City's—all synthetic meat with bizarre seasonings tasting of chemical additives.

Rebecca took tiny bites of the steaming hot steamed pork rice flour, wondering why she suddenly thought of Sasha's words...

Anyway, her appetite vanished along with her thoughts.

The stuff this guy ordered tasted awful!

Rebecca silently complained to herself.

Bored, she could only pull out her phone, prop her chin in her hand, and mindlessly scroll through messages while spacing out.

Right! Let's see if I hit yesterday's Dead Man's Lotto.

Damn it!

Off by just one number?!

Rebecca stared with wide eyes, a nameless anger flaring up in the pit of her stomach.

She felt rather irritable right now, though she couldn't quite explain why.

Just as Rebecca was bracing herself to wait another few hours, Lin Yue brazenly sat back down beside her.

Acting as if nothing had happened at all.

"So fast?" Rebecca asked, finding it hard to believe.

Lin Yue frowned, wiping a rusty fork on his clothes. "I told you, it was just a system check."

Mhm, the food was still slightly warm.

That kid Sammy worked way too fast.

An inexplicable sense of relief washed over Rebecca.

Watching Lin Yue savagely attack the fried rice on his plate, she unconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

The familiar aroma of the steamed pork rice flour drifted back into her nostrils...

Was she getting hungry again?

Lin Yue noticed Rebecca staring at his bowl. "Want some of this? Hey boss! Add a bowl of fried rice for this young lady."

Of all the things in the world, eating came first.

Lin Yue buried his head back into his meal.

His greatest advantage was having no sense of taste, making him exceptionally adaptable to Night City's pre-packaged foods. Even Japantown's sushi hadn't defeated him, let alone this humble fried rice.

Rebecca lowered her head to eat her now-lukewarm steamed pork rice flour, then abruptly thrust her fork forward and fished a piece of crispy sausage right out of Lin Yue's bowl.

Lin Yue's enthusiastic eating made it look too good; she couldn't help wanting to see what it actually tasted like.

Having stolen food from someone else's bowl, Rebecca tried to cover it up by pretending she was starving.

With his mouth full of fried rice, Lin Yue stared in shock at the girl aggressively devouring food beside him, and casually pushed his plate of fried rice a bit closer to her:

"Sigh..."

"This Night City kid hasn't eaten anything good in her life either."