#1019 - Devil (I)

Hansen sat in his seat, his cybernetic body radiating heat, steam billowing around him—

For the Big Brother trio, this mission was as simple as a picnic, but for them, it wasn't so easy:

The Blackwall bomb was indeed powerful, instantly paralyzing the enemy's command system and incapacitating half of the soldiers on the spot. However, half remained, and whether they were at full strength or not, they were still people, holding military weapons, people who knew how to shoot.

Although this was still a great victory: no one on their side even died; the worst that happened was some unlucky guy losing half his body—

In a military tech company, that would be as good as dead, since companies don't support idlers. But in Night City, cybernetic technology could help him get back on track. Riel didn't have the habit of abandoning his own people.

Lai Xuan excitedly and volubly told Riel how they did it:

"As soon as the order to attack was given, we immediately activated the Blackwall bomb. The entire New American vanguard was paralyzed. Their people either burst into flames on the spot or were as sluggish as idiots. Cars went out of control, machines crashed, and we directly broke through their lines, straight to the city!"

"The city was full of their people, but our hovercraft were amazing! We suppressed them from the air, keeping their heads down!"

"Under the cover of gunfire, we began to land. This equipment, this equipment is too powerful. We breached and ambushed from the tops of buildings and the outside of walls. They didn't even react!"

"They thought the buildings could provide them with hiding places, but for us, it was simply undefended!"

"I took out every Southern California official hiding in the building!"

Seeing Riel enter, Hansen took a puff of an inhalable restorative agent, straightened up, and said seriously, "Actually, not all of them, but it's enough.

The troops I led breached the military base, and the individual weapons, vehicles, and exoskeletons inside were distributed to the locals. I brought back some brand-new ACPA armor and fuel from the warehouse. Just look at the list; there's a lot of stuff.

Those Southern California rioters are smashing, looting, and burning like they don't care about their lives. It looks like Los Angeles is finished.

How do you plan to control the order?"

Riel glanced at the list of spoils: Hansen had brought back 50 sets of ACPA armor, which could almost be considered the pinnacle of modern infantry equipment, with top-notch protection and firepower.

It's not that Night City doesn't have the technology to produce it; it's just that it can't spare the production capacity. This seemed to make Hansen feel like he could seize some.

In addition, Hansen had also managed to get the local garrison's Maelstrom tanks and armored vehicles, including a Chimera tank, with Songbird's help—

At this very moment, several Mackinaw hovercraft were hoisting these things to the underground base.

As for other things that Night City could produce, they were basically distributed to the locals: the companies in Los Angeles were going to suffer badly. Most people in this world are struggling just to make ends meet, and the recent turmoil has made it difficult for many to survive.

In this situation, smashing, looting, and burning are instinctive.

Of course, this will definitely be a brutal process. Almost half of America will be shrouded in chaos, and many people will die.

The good news is that the people who are smashing, looting, and burning know who they got the weapons from and who gave them this opportunity. In the early stages of the chaos, this almost idol-worship-like moral constraint can, to some extent, alleviate the looting of ordinary people.

However, this cannot last too long.

As soon as Hansen finished asking, Riel said, "Continue to produce intercontinental missiles. After this batch of goods comes in, it should be able to produce about four intercontinental missiles of the same scale. The test data is good. Next time, we'll directly strike Washington.

We'll use the remaining raw materials to add a nuclear reactor to the underground city and continue to expand the underground space."

The so-called "underground space" is now increasingly resembling a small underground city.

The underground city originally had a nuclear reactor and otherwise relied on CHOOH2 fuel reserves, solar energy, and wind power.

Solar and wind power are stored in batteries and transported to substations as backup energy sources. Once the war starts, this part of the energy source will be directly cut off.

Secondly, cross-dimensional production will reduce energy consumption and increase production efficiency, which means that two nuclear reactors can support more industries.

After Riel confirmed all the situation, the Illuminati began to classify and organize the information according to the social division of labor and then deliver it to the cybernetic systems of various groups of people.

As soon as the work task was issued, the excited emotions cooled down all at once. It wasn't that they were in a bad mood, but they knew they were going to a greater victory—

However, some people remained vigilant. After reading it, Hansen looked up and asked Riel a question:

"When do you think Europe will make a move?"

When will it be?

Foresight is based on the ability to obtain information. Night City doesn't have satellites, let alone colonies on the moon, and all the battlefields that Riel has opened up have a serious problem:

The vast ocean of the masses is powerful, but it is difficult to send out well-trained spies and agents, or rather, so far, the development of the situation has not given Riel the opportunity and event to do this.

As for those ESA bigwigs, Riel has never even met them.

So the answer is: Riel doesn't know either.

He can only speculate.

"After the missile is launched, I have prepared the priority of the evacuation notice and issued the first batch of migration orders—" Riel paused, "From the moment we launch the intercontinental missile, every moment, we must be prepared for a meteor strike in the next second."

A reasonable answer, not exaggerated and sincere. Although it didn't have the kind of inspiring effect, Hansen felt very relieved.

He didn't know what he was relieved about, so he laughed at himself: because that's how it should be.

He didn't notice Riel's pause for that moment.

[Illuminati: Murasame has detected a meteorite.]

[Illuminati: Preliminary calculations indicate impact in 3 minutes. Murasame is performing the final round of calculations.]

Riel suddenly changed his words: "Meteorite impact in three minutes."

"Huh?"

Hansen was stunned for a moment, and then the entire underground city, the entire Night City's alarm system went off!

The sudden change caused the brains of the people who had not completely emerged from the joy of victory to crash on the spot—

Meteorite strike in three minutes!