After the bartender finished speaking, Mercer and V simultaneously turned their heads and saw a middle-aged woman with silver hair, whose expression wasn't too pleasant, walking out from behind the bar.
Meanwhile, Jack was looking apologetic, following her closely while saying nice things, occasionally signaling Mrs. Wilson to look in their direction.
Clearly, he was using words like 'give me some face because my buddies are here' to win over his mom's sympathy.
Mrs. Wilson glanced at V and A, then forcefully patted Jack on the back before turning to leave, her anger not completely dissipated, temporarily letting him off.
Seeing her walk away, Jack finally breathed a sigh of relief, straightened his back, and swayed over: "Hey! V, A, you guys are here?"
He greeted them warmly, walking over to the seat next to Mercer, and said cheerfully while sitting: "Your names together are really interesting, I almost feel bad saying A before V."
"Go to hell, then just call him Mercer, since I don't care how you address him." V replied, laughing as he looked at Mercer: "You never told me, did you? How did you guys meet?"
"At Old Wei Clinic, I happened to catch him taking two young ones to install things, how to put it, Jack is a good guy, just his young followers lack something.
By the way, where are your two minions today?"
Mercer spoke candidly.
Jack's expression suddenly turned heavy, and after a while, he sighed: "Yeah, they lack something alright... actually not long after I met you, one of them got killed, and the other is still lying in the hospital."
Mercer quickly recalled the news from those days: "Done by the Sixth Street Gang? I heard Night City's death lottery mentioned that they raided your territory?"
"Yes, I remember that evening, a group of them barged into our gang's warehouse, set fire to it, and killed many people. We got the news and went to support, but got ambushed halfway.
I reacted quickly and hid, while those two fools leaned out the window to fight and got killed with a precise shot.
The other one took five bullets, kidneys got completely destroyed, he got to the hospital just in time for treatment."
Jack sighed: "And just recently, this group of idiots came again, we fought them hard on the street. Look at my arm, still has two holes not healed yet."
"Didn't the Valentino Gang retaliate?" Mercer questioned, "It's usually blood for blood between gangs, right?"
"Of course we had to hit back, we organized a retaliation just yesterday morning but... the fight didn't go well."
Jack said through gritted teeth: "The Sixth Street Gang got some powerful weapons from somewhere, when we went in, five or six heavy machine guns exploded the lead car in one blink.
There was also a fierce sniper somewhere unknown on the rooftop aiming at us, our gang leader rushed out with a gun but fell with one shot without killing much.
With the leader down, the rest couldn't organize a proper counterattack due to their heavy firepower crossing.
Ultimately, we had to drive away, and even then, lost over twenty brothers on the road.
And guess what? Our cars hadn't even left a block when the NCPD came and captured half of us left, under some bullshit excuse of gang fight.
They brought anti-terror robots, heavily armored NCPD, even armored cars... it was a damn premeditated ambush!"
Jack said through gritted teeth: "In the end, Father with his vast capabilities somehow found a traitor, only then did we realize someone in the gang connected with the Sixth Street Gang.
joder (damn)! That bastard was skinned alive by the brothers that day, caused his own mom to have to move out of the block—raising a son who betrays his own, the families of those dead brothers must hate them like hell.
But now it's too late, so many died, almost half our core fighters got wiped out, and the remainder got taken by NCPD to jails, won't be out for months; some might even be charged with major crimes."
Jack heavily sighed, took the beer bottle handed by the bartender, and drank two large gulps: "The ones left now can only honestly hold down their turf first."
"Damn, who is that bastard?" V cursed, full of shared hatred: "Which Haywood person could commit such a despicable act?"
"Say no more, Chica, he's dead anyway, leave it to the gods to punish him now." Jack's expression was heavy.
After understanding the situation, Mercer said: "So you sought out V for…"
"Actually, it's not me seeking, rather Father wants to chat with V, you should know him right? The impressive Haywood-born middleman every Haywood respects."
Jack said, turning his head: "Here he comes, this is Father."
Mercer and V both turned their heads.
A middle-aged man wearing a priest's robe, with a cross, and a Mediterranean hairstyle slowly walked in from outside.
His palm adorned with several bejeweled rings, tattoos visible on his wrist, even the cross necklace seemed gold, appearing like both a church priest and a gang leader.
Father scrutinized both briefly, his gaze ultimately fixed on Mercer, smiling: "You must be the famous A, right?"
Mercer heard this but suddenly felt some doubt.
This line came out...