#1020 - Devil (II)
For the natives of Night City, an intercontinental ballistic missile was a magical thing—
That thing looked like a rocket!
On the roadside, a group of Night City residents lining up to board a vehicle looked up and exclaimed, "Damn... Did Pacifica just launch something?"
Launching rockets was a monopolized power in this world, with only a handful of organizations possessing orbital projection capabilities. In Night City, only Orbital Air had this business.
But Orbital Air had already withdrawn from Night City half a year ago, and this business had been shut down a year and a half before that!
Orbital Air determined that Night City, without the guarantee of "free trade," no longer had development potential. They successively closed down several businesses, including space-air transportation and air transportation, until half a year ago when they emptied the entire Orbital Air Spaceport and dismantled it. Where would Night City get a rocket now?
There was only one answer.
Lucy, standing nearby, placed her hand on David's shoulder, covering her mouth with the other, her eyes filled with disbelief—
"A rocket?!"
The latter had also noticed the rocket. Although he didn't regret working with his brothers, it was also because of this business that Orbital Air withdrew, and they became hot commodities in the world of corporate agents. Forget about riding rockets; if they left Night City and appeared in any city, they would be immediately sought out.
The dream of going to the moon gradually evolved into living a good life, a pragmatic idea of staying in Night City and living like a human being:
Even Lucy had begun to adapt to this kind of life. The ideal paradise far from the mundane world was more like something she had sealed in her heart, as reality became fulfilling and gradually shifted her focus.
But what if Night City had its own rocket?!
As Night City's most confidential project, David and Lucy didn't have access to the Crystal Palace Project. They exchanged a look, keeping their shock to themselves, and tacitly chose to continue their work at hand—
If Night City really had the ability to go to the moon, then they would definitely have a chance to go up there in the future!
"Stop looking!" David shouted, "Speed it up! The evacuation order concerns your lives!"
Just now, City Hall had issued an emergency evacuation order. This order, based on the social structure of the city, directly named people from all walks of life, according to a certain priority, to enter the underground city to live and work.
David was now considered a special outsourced member of the NCPD, and his task was to ensure the rapid and smooth execution of the emergency evacuation mission in his area.
This task was actually not that easy.
After David shouted, the people in the entire skyscraper who had been notified to board the vehicle came downstairs and boarded the vehicle obediently—
Honestly, even David could see that the people prioritized for evacuation were basically skilled workers, and basically honest people. Although he didn't know what they were trying to escape from, this quota seemed very valuable, and the people were carefully selected.
Thinking this in his head, David had already noticed through his auditory cyberware that people were rustling around on both sides of the street, holding cardboard in their hands.
A slight sweep of his eyes revealed that these people looked shabby, their clothes were tattered, and large and small pinholes could be clearly seen where the rags couldn't cover. Their skin was ulcerated, and they drooled after taking two steps.
This was the dross left behind in the development of Night City, and also the people that David had been mainly drawing his gun on recently.
If these people interfered with the evacuation, he would directly draw his gun and shoot. However, apparently, he, David, still had some reputation on the streets. Seeing him guarding nearby, these people scurried away.
So he took his hand out of his pocket, got into his Mackinaw, and turned on the siren.
The NCPD-outsourced Mackinaw was a symbol of order in this city, not to say that they were so noble.
But when they were still a gang, they were feared. Now they had given up some things, but they had also become official. This feeling was very subtle. In short, when you saw such a car on the road, especially a car with a siren on, you should give way.
Only an idiot would talk to them about morality and law.
As the three "rockets" left Night City, the entire emergency evacuation procedure was launched accordingly. The streets were full of NCPD-outsourced personnel from various districts, sirens blaring to maintain road order, and buses, subways, and pickup trucks escorted equipment and personnel to Pacifica.
Such a large formation could no longer be concealed from the eyes of corporate agents—of course, no one knew that there were no corporate agents in this city anymore, or if there were, they were disconnected agents who couldn't send information out.
Gloria sat in the back row, and after organizing her things, she leaned her head behind David: "Where are we going? What is the underground city?"
"It's said to be a huge civil defense project," David said, starting the car and following the main force. "It's like a Night City built underground. They said we might have to live there until the war is over."
"War?"
David's heart skipped a beat, he had accidentally let something slip.
Lucy in the passenger seat rolled her eyes: "The war exercise is over. But it's basically confirmed that we may indeed be in a state of war."
Before she could finish speaking, the radio rang—
The content was simple: that notorious terrorist organization team had been confirmed here as "Legendary Mercenaries" and had attacked a New American city!
Not only that, but New America had been hit by a nuclear strike, and the one who launched the nuclear missile... was Night City!
It wasn't an exercise at all!
Thanks to the massive infrastructure projects of the past two years, the entire public network of Night City was convenient and easy to use. Everyone immediately connected to the network and saw the latest news.
A picture pieced together the current state of the attacked city, and the content in the video was even more explosive. That "Legendary Mercenary" Burger King directly defeated the New American bomber that was about to drop a nuclear bomb on Night City!
It was war!
But now she understood: in such a big trend, what little people like them wanted was not important at all, and her son was not some... chosen one.
How could one blame another for not developing according to one's own ideas? Especially when she was a mother.
What's more, David was now a decent person, although only decent in Night City.
In such a warm atmosphere of understanding between family members, before David could say anything, an ear-piercing sound came from the surroundings!
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[Ding—]
[Night City's highest-level war alert. Please all citizens proceed to the nearest shelter—]
[Repeat, please all citizens immediately proceed to the nearest shelter]
Although there was no attack, the bright red warning lights throughout the city instantly filled people with adrenaline!
Some quick-witted people immediately guessed that these vehicles must be transporting important people to shelters and rushed to the streets, but the cars produced by the Mackinaw General Vehicle Company always followed the image of legendary models:
Fierce and strong!
"David, there are people!"
David stepped on the accelerator, and Gloria exclaimed: Right in front of them, several people rushed into the street!
But David didn't slow down—
Bang!
The violent vehicle directly ran over the crowd, and the sky unknowingly became scorching hot. Lucy looked up and saw an extremely terrifying scene:
A meteor was rapidly approaching from afar. Night City's interceptor missiles and autocannons all opened fire, and the roaring missile engine sounds and autocannon sounds almost drowned out the city's alarm, dyeing the sky red!
It was the ESA's orbital mass projection weapon!
"David—faster!"
"It's already the fastest!!!"
The car ran over the people blocking the road all the way, heading straight for the Pacifica military base. Mann and his group had already arrived here, standing behind the slowly closing blast door and waving anxiously at David—
Faster!
David gritted his teeth and gave Lucy a wink. The latter immediately grabbed the steering wheel, and the former directly activated the Sandevistan, grabbing the window and getting out of the car, his fingers piercing into the car's outer shell like steel nails, and coming directly to the vicinity of the exhaust system.
He took out his pistol and aimed it at the gas propulsion system.
Boom!
The tail of the car pulled out a fiery red trail.
Around the trail were crazy people, who saw death coming and crazily rushed towards the entrance of the underground city, that is, the blast door of the military base, losing their minds like zombies.
The Mackinaw pickup truck rushed into the blast door at the last moment as if it had teleported. David's hands had already lost consciousness, leaving only the system's drive gripping the bumper, his vision gradually blurred, his hearing paralyzed by the loud noise, and he could only feel his heartbeat.
He saw a violent fire erupt in the center of the city, and the shock wave spread like a tide, houses collapsed, and lights went out.
Whoosh—
Bang!
The shock wave hit the blast steel door, and a strand of power coming through a door gap that was not completely closed instantly stunned David!
Bang.
The road to enter was downhill, and the Mackinaw's super-high speed made the car crash into the top wall like it was flying, and then smashed to the ground.
Still in shock.
The war had begun.
