Sure enough, when we returned to the camp together, the burly bearded Sol came up and gave Lin Miao a big hug.
"Thank you very much for your help, the purification tablets you gave us will allow the family’s children to have clean drinking water for a long time. From now on, you’ll be a friend of Adcardo."
Clean water is worth more than oil, and wanderers who have survived in the wilderness for years understand this best. The key thing is that purification tablets are nowhere to be found in Night City because they affect the sales of water purifier companies.
"Just consider it as a neighborly gift, and maybe I’ll need your help in the future."
Lin Miao didn’t press the matter of robbing the Night Wanderers, Panam had already agreed, it was just a bit of medicine after all, not enough to persuade someone like Sol, so he treated it as a little favor, making a friend.
However, the seemingly familiar conversation between the two surprised Lucy and Qiwei, not expecting Lin Miao to actually have ties with Adcardo, appearing to be more than just a business transaction.
The three of them all got into Lin Miao’s car, and Lin Miao removed the drone chip and handed it to Lucy in the passenger seat.
"The drone is still at the site; you can connect to it to check the situation and try to hack into it to gather more intelligence."
"That depends on whether your drone has the relevant hacking capabilities."
Hackers aren’t superheroes who can kill with a glance; they can’t hack someone’s brain from tens of kilometers away. Without a physical connection, both parties must be very close for a hacker to matchup signal frequencies to upload a Demonic Puppet and hack into an opponent’s cybernetic body.
For more precise operations and to steal data from databases, a wired connection must be established to hack into the local network within the opponent’s brain.
Of course, if you’re a top-tier hacker genius like Bartmos or Ote, you can do anything in the world of networks. Even the databases of large companies like Huang Ban and Military Science would be your plaything.
That said, Lucy connected the chip to the socket in the back of her head. The iridescent pupils began to flow with a large amount of binary code, the characteristic sign of a hacker at work.
The connection’s smoothness exceeded her expectations; there was almost no lag, and Lucy directly connected to the optical drone in the distant ridge.
Interesting.... This drone is actually equipped with an arbitrary waveform signal generator, and although the power isn’t strong, it can barely work as a signal bridge for a hacker.
"I want to reduce its altitude to 50 meters, is that okay?"
Lin Miao glanced at the power, there’s still half left, "No problem, it has optical camouflage and low flying noise."
This thing flies up twenty meters, and even he himself can neither see nor hear it.
Qiwei, who was originally sitting in the back row with her legs crossed watching the drama, had no choice but to connect herself to Lucy with a data line upon hearing Lucy call her.
There was no hacker chair or ice bath here, and without a wired connection, the two could only share the computing pressures to cool down together.
Lin Miao didn’t understand the principles of a hacker’s work; he could only see the drone’s footage slowly descending, the microwave signals being transmitted continuously adjusting frequencies, spending several minutes of time, and suddenly several red data boxes popped up in front of him. A large data influx broke through a firewall, stealing a section of communication recording, followed by a stranger’s voice simultaneously echoing in the three’s minds.
"You want me to hack into Peizhuo Petrochemical’s oil pipeline? Handz, you’re pushing me back into the fire pit, the Night Wanderers definitely won’t take this job, and Taiping Continent has plenty of idiots for you to order around, why come to me? It can’t be Kurt Hansen lacking oil."
Then, a slow, slightly hoarse voice came on.
"Paul, a good mercenary doesn’t ask questions, just gets the job done and wraps up the business, it’s better for everyone that way."
"Someone wants to cause trouble for Angus, and as for the reason, you better not ask, just know the employer has already arranged everything on their side, the people at the relay station and protection station will cover for you, and there’s also professional technical support. Plus, all the recovered Chun Er will be yours."
"All mine.... Handz, are you kidding me?"
Even from a recording, Lin Miao could hear the shock in the other’s tone.
"I didn’t know my reputation in Taiping Continent had dropped so low that even the Night Wanderers would question it."
"Why don’t you go find Kurt Hansen, that bastard has been in the spotlight in Taiping Continent these past two years, snatching all our jobs."
One can hear Paul has quite a beef with Hansen.
And Handz’s response was direct.
"Having one single power could affect Dog Town’s political situation, not just me, many people feel Kurt Hansen and his Netherworld Dog gang have already taken too much."
This name brought a flash of astonishment to Lucy and Qiwei’s eyes.
"Do you know this Handz?"
"There’s only one Handz in Taiping Continent; he’s the most famous middleman there. And Angus, he relied on being the former company’s major shareholder Allen’s love doll at Crystal Palace for over a decade, enchanting them til they were spellbound, before inheriting stock rights."
"After that woman died, all the shares were given to Angus, turning the pretty boy into a major corporate board member and shareholder. This matter was a mess, Peizhuo Petrochemical even split over it, many people are displeased with him, possibly this is related."
Qiwei suddenly felt this venture might not just be about robbing the Night Wanderers, it mostly involved corporate faction battles.
Lin Miao found it interesting; this didn’t match what he had heard in the junkyard at all, apparently that Paul didn’t tell his underlings the truth, and the hacker’s divine power has surpassed his expectations, able to stealthily extract a section of communication audio from a computer.
Lucy removed the drone chip, placing her left hand palm-up in front of Lin Miao, her delicate and smooth palm invitingly tempting a bite.
"Lin, my task is complete, can I collect the closing fee now?"
Lin Miao smiled slightly.
"This is just the preliminary reconnaissance mission, not the real deal yet, but I can pay you a portion in advance."
Saying this, he retrieved the chip and then fished out a long black item from his pants, placing it in her hand.
The black foil packaging and firm feel almost made Lucy think it was a gold bar or something, but the weight was off, and results revealed upon opening.
Inside was still black and long, but emitting a sweet aroma.
"Cocoa butter substitute?"
"Pure natural cocoa. You two should smoke less."
He added, taking out another one and handing it to Qiwei, although natural cocoa doesn’t necessarily taste better than cocoa butter substitute chocolate, it was certainly pricier.