#1011 - Going to War
A week later.
Night City had become increasingly desolate in recent days, yet municipal statistics showed that social order was becoming more stable.
Uncontrollable violent crime and shootings had even reached the lowest values since the city's founding, and even the employment rate had been effectively controlled and was steadily declining.
Before witnessing this situation, if anyone had suggested to Peralez and Ryan, both high-achieving students, that economic recession would be accompanied by urban stability, they would have scoffed and dismissed them as lunatics.
However, the reality was that Night City was more orderly than at any time in its history.
Almost everyone, as long as they weren't born criminals, could find work.
Of course, criminals could also find a place here, but certainly not the kind they wanted.
This phenomenon baffled Ryan and Peralez.
To reach their current positions, both had essentially taken a gamble, investing all their resources in their degrees, so they took their experiences and knowledge from school and society very seriously, but all that experience was shattered.
However, upon closer inspection, the logic wasn't hard to unravel: the recession was because companies feared Night City's "hegemony."
The environment here was no longer suitable for large companies to do business, and the unfamiliar environment made people hesitant.
But the order was more complex.
Overall, on the one hand, everyone was afraid of Burger King, and on the other hand, listening to Burger King meant that although they couldn't be the boss, their needs could be met.
Civilians could at least eat their fill, and life was getting better.
Even gang leaders with higher aspirations had new industries to manage, which to some extent satisfied their psychological pursuits.
Moreover, no matter who it was, staying in Night City basically satisfied one status quo: here, the company's order had vanished.
There were no more instances of dumping expired vaccines containing biological viruses, no more organ trafficking, no more police officers engaging in drug deals that ordinary people couldn't, and no more corruption of any kind.
Peralez looked at the thriving Night City—in his eyes, it was a thriving Night City; only the large corporations were in decline.
Sometimes he had the illusion that this was the city that Night, the founder of Night City, wanted to build, but even Night didn't know how to maintain true freedom under free trade.
"If you ask me, it's the stable economic cycle that supports all of this... Thinking about it carefully, we can still eat even without Eurodollars, and there are those exaggerated AI helpers... This is a Night City specialty industry."
Ryan held a Mexican cigar in his mouth: things weren't like before now, he had to smoke something cheap and good.
After speaking, he paused and gently tapped the ash into the ashtray: "Then it's hard to say.
Night was a staunch supporter of free trade—a free city that supports free trade and hopes that the city will not be oppressed by any irresistible forces... If you ask me, you and he are quite similar, always thinking about some unreasonable idealism."
Peralez didn't argue.
He used to be a smooth-sailing prodigy who had fought his way up from the bottom, but after experiencing the Night Corporation incident, he could no longer be arrogant.
"So...we must unite and cooperate, following your method is also a dead end, isn't it?"
"That's right—unity and cooperation, sounds pretty idealistic too."
Clunk—
A huge roar came from outside the window, it was some kind of huge metal blast door opening:
The intercontinental thermonuclear missile silo was hidden deep underground, and the sound was coming from the opening blast structure!
Gears turned, hydraulic pistons rumbled deeply, and the alloy door panels painted with warning colors slowly slid along the tracks, opening layer by layer, revealing the bottomless missile silo.
The dustproof layer cracked with the vibration, and peeling metal debris slid down in the dim light, falling into the bottomless silo—
Red warning lights lit up in sequence, and high-pressure airflow was released from the closed system.
The rising cooling mist gushed out along the pressure relief port, and the afterglow of the setting sun traveled through the scorching breath of the steel behemoth, casting beams of light on the ground.
Drones, engineers, and soldiers walked quickly, and everyone's heart was pounding.
They might not know what this thing was for, but they knew they were going to war with the New United States.
Even Ryan and Peralez were like this: they had never thought that there would be such a day, going to war with the corporations, going to war with the New United States, going to war with the European Community, going to war with...
Going to war with the whole world.
The two watched this scene in fascination, the tea in their hands gradually cooled, and the cigarettes gradually burned to the end.
Clunk—
Another loud noise, followed by flashing warning lights and prompts:
[Launch command confirmed.]
[Cooling system released, ignition thrusters begin to preheat.]
Ashes fell to the ground—
Everything was about to be settled.
Three hours before the launch command was issued.
In cyberspace, the two major AIs, Muramasa and Illuminati, were monitoring everything in the launch silo.
The former delved into every inch of the circuit and control panel, receiving feedback data from every engineering robot and operating equipment for monitoring;
The latter fully accepted data feedback from all humans, and anyone with a high deviation from the predicted situation would be dealt with immediately.
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One monitored machines, the other monitored humans.
No corporations in Night City were willing to invest, but there were still a large number of spies, but under the strong monitoring of the two AIs, no top-secret information left Pacifica, or even the city defense military base.
At the same time, Night City's most elite troops were approaching Southern California.
This army had already begun to use Titanfall-style equipment, and every soldier had passed the Illuminati's "psychological quality assessment."
Their combat skills had been improved in the virtual reality training ground in recent days.
Judging solely on combat skills, it was hard to say that everyone in this batch of prospective Titans was qualified, but once they survived this battle, they would be true Titans.
Every vehicle in the unit was equipped with a stealth system that combined surface coating, jamming signal transmission, and other equipment.
Mackinaw General Vehicle Manufacturing's armored vehicles galloped across the Badlands, raising clouds of dust—
Eventually, Southern California's drones would still detect the anomaly, but that would have to wait until this unit had broken into the outskirts of the city near the Badlands.
A small number of Titans and regular troops would attack from the land, while the remaining Titans would use the flying cars behind the main force to airdrop directly to various target locations after the Blackwall bomb destroyed the city's command system, including the city hall, military bases, and power grids.
In the battle prediction, this battle would not be too easy, because most of the New United States' military strength had been transferred to Southern California.
Hansen sat in the car, looking at the countdown on the HUD, silently reciting what he had to do:
"Engage, then activate the Blackwall bomb, the Titans launch a raid, the flying cars airdrop combat mechs, take the New American military camp directly, and then bomb the city hall..."
Suddenly, a bright light rose from Night City, and Hansen felt like he was hallucinating:
That was the sound of an intercontinental missile piercing the sky and heading straight for its target.
But the next second, he heard the real sound of bullets whizzing through the air—
The patrolling drone in the air had spotted them!
Whoosh—Boom!
The micro-missile had just flown out of the drone in the sky when its battery was shot and exploded by a sniper rifle.
Metal fragments flew everywhere, and all of Southern California's automated units had detected the anomaly!
"Attack!"
