Glancing at the towering steel forest, Sun Jack walked in with furrowed brows. Making his way down the noisy street, he stepped into a slum, where crowded tin shacks filled every available space like puzzle pieces.
Varanasi is an industrial city, and this area serves as a hub for laid-off workers. Some of them, replaced with prosthetic limbs due to work injuries, clustered together and eyed Sun Jack, the outsider, with ill intent.
However, upon seeing Sun Jack's deliberately exposed combat prosthesis, none dared to provoke him.
Sun Jack gradually made his way further in. The surroundings grew noisier, and entertainment venues began to surface. Holographic ads clogged the streets, almost blocking traffic.
As Sun Jack passed through the hologram of a prostitute, he stopped and looked up at his destination, a Western restaurant.
The Western restaurant wasn't a place to eat but a territory for consuming people. Most of the "food" were Europeans, hence the name.
Sun Jack walked straight into the restaurant, passing those dining with elegant manners, heading towards the kitchen.
"Sir, I'm sorry, the kitchen is not open to customers."
"The deaf one recommended me, said your boss is well-informed."
Upon hearing the familiar name, the restaurant's maitre d' ignored Sun Jack, saying nothing.
The kitchen wasn't the end. Sun Jack followed the human transport pipes further in, eventually reaching an underground arena, where blood and flesh clashed, and losers were sent to the restaurant.
With a quick scan, Sun Jack located a private box in the upper left corner of the room and walked directly over.
Sun Jack hadn't even reached it yet, but he had already gathered information on the Golden Mask Man with money, Name: 4chan Feng, third in command of the 1% gang. Renowned for his expertise in AI integration, he served as a strategist within the gang.
This was his territory; due to human trafficking and maintaining the arena, in Varanasi, this guy had the most well-informed news.
"I want you to find someone for me," Sun Jack said directly as he came face to face with him.
"Oh?" The golden-masked man sneered cynically, eyeing Sun Jack from the side, "What if I don't want to help?"
With a "swish," a pile of chips was tossed on the low table cluttered with drugs.
"Kid, don't you know not to flaunt wealth? I could kill you and not need to look for anyone, these things would still be mine." As he spoke, two men with metallic dog heads blocked the door.
The tension in the private box became palpable. When laser positioning was detected behind, Sun Jack's body started secreting adrenaline, gearing up for the ensuing fight.
But just as the atmosphere was about to peak, Sun Jack spoke.
"I think you won't, whether it's the Western Restaurant or the Beast Fighting Arena, in essence, you're still in business. You've expanded so big; it's impossible to ruin your reputation over this little money."
Hearing this, 4chan Feng burst into laughter, stood up from the sofa, raised his gleaming right prosthetic slowly, then slammed it down hard.
"Slap!" A crisp slap sounded as he smacked the gun-lifting bodyguard beside him harshly.
"Are you fucking stupid? Didn't you hear he's here to do business with me? Put the fucking guns down!!"
With these words, the crowd and mechanical dogs that had gathered quickly retreated, and as the door to the private box opened, the roars from the arena immediately dispelled the previously oppressive atmosphere.
"Hahaha~! Don't mind; it's how our gang tests people. We don't do business with cowards." 4chan Jin's face suddenly filled with smiles, speaking much more warmly.
"Right, right, who did you want us to find again? Man or woman? Or CJPDREQWM? What do they look like?"
Seeing the other party switch to business mode, Sun Jack also sat down and began providing information. "A woman, not tall, short hair, bangs with purple highlights. Here's a deposit, let me know when you find her, and I'll handle the remaining payment."
"Okay, no problem. Let's add each other as friends. I'll notify you as soon as I have news." 4chan Feng showed exceptional enthusiasm, not asking further questions.
He didn't ask who Sun Jack was, nor inquired about the identity of the woman.
"I heard you find people very fast, that as long as they're still in Davanasi, you never take more than half an hour?" Sun Jack asked.
Hearing this, 4 Feng sat back on the sofa again, inserted the chip with a red-skinned devil drawing on the table into his neural slot, and while enjoying the pleasure of electronic drugs, said, "That's right, we have connections, and there's never someone we can't find."
"Great, then I'll wait here. Mr. Feng wouldn't mind, right?" Sun Jack sat on the sofa without waiting for a response.
Hearing this, 4 Feng showed a hint of surprise but offered no objection. "Sure, sure~! Of course."
The private box quieted down, and Sun Jack waited there for news from AA. But evidently, 4 Feng wasn't a quiet type.
"Dear customer, do you like watching the arena? Absolutely real humans, absolute violence, with internal betting enjoying a 20% discount currently."
Sun Jack lit a cigarette, took a drag, and looked at the other's smiling face through the smoke. "Not interested."
"Don't be so hasty to refuse, how can you say you're not interested without even looking? We're quite different from other arenas, with plenty of new novelties."
With a gentle snap of his fingers, the floor and walls of the entire private box became transparent, revealing the arena below at a glance.
But it wasn't just these. Under 4 Feng's control, the entire box even started moving on the ceiling, giving a clear view of the bloody combats below in the arena, and the twisted expressions of gamblers surrounding the cages.
He then gestured towards the various differently themed arena cages, some for aquatic battles, others for cold weapons PK, and even team 3V3 matchups.
"Sir, look~we're unlike any other arena! In this rapidly changing commercial tide, our 1% upholds core values of 'heritage without being old-fashioned, innovation without forgetting roots,' setting course with strategic stability and breaking boundaries with transformative courage. We deeply understand that only by profoundly integrating the foundation of 'upholding right' with the vigor of 'innovation' can we continue to lead in the industry!"
Sun Jack glanced at him sideways, thinking, this rhetoric, surely this guy was once a corporate minion.
He wasn't interested initially, prepared to wait idly for news. However, one particular arena caught his attention.
It was two women who looked exactly alike, almost naked, staring at each other with complex expressions.
4chan Feng's system had vision visualization software installed. When he saw Sun Jack's gaze linger on one arena for more than a second, he eagerly began introducing it.
As 4chan Feng's enthusiastic presentation continued, the two people in the cage roared and charged at each other, giving their all to kill the other.
Both were equally matched in intellect and physical strength. Their bloody struggle was fierce, yet they seemed evenly matched for a time.
"So what do you think? Bet you've never seen an identity-based arena? They haven't swapped masks; they're identical people, even their memories in their minds are the same."
"Which one's the clone?"
"Which one? The one who dies, whether they are or not, the one who dies is the clone."
"Haha, actually I'm telling you, most of the clones win, do you know why? Because their thoughts, their memories, even their bodies come from the original, with nothing truly their own. Their only purpose in existence is to kill the original!"
"Because if they don't, they can't manifest their self-value, do you know what a clone facing a loss of value and meaning will do? They'd go mad all on their own! Hahahaha~!"
"So they have only one path, kill the original, inherit the original's identity! Inherit the original's meaning! Become the original! This inner struggle and self-combat presented like this, it's simply a work of art, damn, I'm such a genius!!"