"This should be the place. These guys really know how to hide..."
Because Lin Miao had to leave the city during the day to guide new players and prepare the goods for a deal with the Valentino gang, he left the city affairs and veteran players in the hands of Lucy and Gloria.
That’s why when the players’ entrapment operation was busted by the Scavs, it was naturally handled by her team.
Otherwise, Lin Miao would immediately know where Tutu and the others were taken the moment he opened his eyes, without needing to slog through the city’s surveillance network searching for relevant information, chasing down the suspected vehicle’s trail for hours.
"Mentor, what do we do now? The terrain here seems pretty complicated, a frontal assault might not work well."
The Wildman was carrying a machine gun in his hands.
Lucy, being asked that, felt at a loss. She was just a solo hacker and hadn’t really worked with people before, let alone planned such an offensive involving dozens to hundreds of people, which was impossible for her.
Lucy awkwardly fiddled with her cheek with her fingers, her mind in a tangled mess.
So she could only step aside, flipping through the emergency manual Lin Miao left her, back facing the players.
After a few minutes, Lucy returned, her gaze wavering.
"Um... so... next I’m going to hack into their surveillance system, share the situation inside their stronghold with you guys, and then make a plan to rescue our companions."
Lin Miao’s advice for Lucy was simple — hand everything over to the players, and then don’t bother with it, letting them figure out how to resolve issues themselves.
Although Lucy had some doubts about whether this would work, the players quickly received a mission prompt.
[Side Quest: Scavengers’ Den]
[Mission Introduction: Our companions have been captured by the Scavs, a ruthless crime organization. They traffic in people and harvest organs, and countless individuals have fallen into their hands, so they must be eradicated and the personnel inside rescued.]
[Mission Objective: Follow Mentor Lucy to defeat the Scavs at this stronghold, gather evidence of their crimes, and rescue the victims inside.]
[Mission Reward: Reputation increase in the Santo Domingo area of the agency, War Contribution Points settlement.]
[PS: Unlocking reputation in each area will increase more hidden features]
What are the hidden features unlocked by area reputation?
Lin Miao had no clue.
He had scribbled down the player mission system thoughtlessly.
With greater fame, there’ll be changes, right?
They can just imagine it themselves.
And indeed, once the players received the mission, they no longer pestered Lucy, and a dozen players, including Pandora, began to gather, planning tactics based on the 3D map of the Scavengers’ den Lucy provided.
Potato: "Too bad we can’t use rocket launchers here, otherwise, we’d just blast this heap of junk to pieces."
Red Barrel: "This is the industrial zone; it’d be strange if they let you use rocket launchers."
Poor Warrior, looking at the distant Scavs and combining it with Lucy’s description of the gang: "Would a frontal assault make them kill the hostages? I feel these robbers aren’t afraid of death."
Scavs are a bunch of true desperados, it’s hard to say they have any boundaries.
Brother Ni: "If we can’t use a frontal assault, then we’ll sneak in. Get a few with high stealth levels to come with me, find the cellar, and rescue the people?"
"It’s a bit difficult." The Wildman frowned at the complex terrain ahead, "If only we had a few exoskeletons, we could stage a frontal diversion to buy you time to sneak in."
"Not necessarily impossible," Lucy suddenly said while eavesdropping, "This side is near the riverbank, and there are sewers everywhere. Also, this building connects directly to the underground pipe network; if we find a suitable pipeline, we may be able to reach directly below the stronghold."
The Egyptian Beauty immediately dismissed Lucy’s proposal.
"The United States’ city sewer systems are notoriously chaotic; we don’t even have the city’s pipeline blueprints. They are renovated year after year, making sense of the routes is almost impossible."
Lucy wasn’t offended, "Even being this close doesn’t work?"
"Do you have the blueprints?"
"Not necessarily," Lucy slightly smirked, "Don’t underestimate your boss’s ambitions for Night City."
With that, she sent a data file to the Egyptian Beauty. Upon opening it, he was astonished.
It turned out to be the blueprints of Santo Domingo’s underground sewer system.
These were part of the information the old captain collected to investigate Huang Ban’s industrial wastewater discharges into the underground. Lin Miao had bought it from him.
The reason being, Lin Miao believed that as a crime-ridden city like Night City, comparable to San Andreas, its sewers must have countless smuggling routes, secret warehouses, and crime hideouts.
They might not be of immediate use, but they were necessary to have.
Unfortunately, the old captain only had the blueprints for Santo Domingo, because of varying construction times in different areas and several major overhauls, each pipeline was independently designed.
The Big Guy stepped forward and slapped the Egyptian Beauty’s shoulder.
"Hey, weren’t you studying water supply and drainage? Time for you to shine when the organization judges you, right?"
"Watch it, sis!" The Egyptian Beauty was a bit annoyed, "I’ll do my best."
Brother Ni quickly took Egyptian Beauty, Shui Yue, and a few others by car to find the drainage outlet by the riverside.
Meanwhile, the others stayed put, waiting for news from them.
The only thing they could pray for now was for the two inside the stronghold to hold on a bit longer.
The players considered logging out to find Jianxue, asking him to hold on a bit longer.
But what players didn’t expect was that the first sign of disturbance didn’t come from Brother Ni’s team but from the Scavengers’ den itself.
Something seemed to be happening inside, causing commotion among the Scavs guarding various sentry points and high grounds. Gunfire erupted inside the stronghold, and the once tight defense suddenly showed cracks.
Curious, Lucy asked, "Brother Ni? Was it you guys who made a move?"
"No," Brother Ni was a bit puzzled about why Lucy would ask, "We just found our way and are still heading there."
Then the only explanation was that something went wrong inside the Scavengers’ den.
Could it be Jianxue and Tutu?
No, Jianxue said he was still in the cell, so what was going on? Tutu was the only one they couldn’t reach.
Everyone looked at each other, temporarily clueless.
But the Wildman knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"Doesn’t matter what’s happening inside, surely something’s gone wrong. We can’t wait for Brother Ni and the others; we must launch an attack immediately."
Lucy didn’t understand command, but since Lin Miao told her to leave it to the players, she let them handle it.
"Alright, Pandora and I will hack into their system to create an opportunity for you."
Indeed, there was a major issue inside the Scavengers’ den.
A huge problem — the back-alley doctor performing surgery on Tutu went crazy.
He became a cyberpsycho.