First, turn on the lights upon entering; although it was broad daylight, the illumination was obviously insufficient.
Ryu casually placed the bag on the shoe cabinet that served as a utility table, revealing the silver-packaged synthetic jelly inside—he himself didn't eat this kind of thing.
In fact, giving this stuff as a gift seemed quite rude to him. Aside from the taste being passable, the ingredient list definitely contained no natural components. Anything with a bit of hydroponic gene-modified fruit or vegetable was considered quite high-end goods!
In Night City, the supply of protein, starch, and produce is actually sufficient; residents don't lack nutrition, it's just that every food item needs a "prefix" added to it.
For example, the so-called "synthetic protein," Night City's main meat source, originates from protein factories—raising crickets and earthworms~
Although the manufacturers insist there are no cockroaches, honestly, Ryu didn't think they'd pass up such a high-quality protein source... Well, those aren't cockroaches, they are short-legged black crickets!
So in this world, Ryu generally only ate semi-finished food he brought from his home world. He would only occasionally try things that didn't look too terrible to verify the effects of [Gourmet of Solitude].
(Facts proved that synthetic food was less effective than natural food and wouldn't improve physical constitution at all.)
As a decent person, the first time Ryu visited, the gift he brought was emergency food from his personal space—canned fruit he wouldn't touch unless he had no choice, thinking it was cheap enough.
Then, seeing the expression on the other party's face—a mix of confusion, curiosity, and fear—Ryu realized that even this kind of thing was too conspicuous in Night City.
He later learned that selling any natural food in Night City is illegal!
It's not that it doesn't exist, but it's exclusive to the rich, and by law, it simply isn't circulated in the market!
Natural meat might still be bought in the black market, but the prices are exorbitant. On the other hand, the rarity of fruit is no less significant, because quality water and soil are scarce resources here, long since enclosed and claimed by the mega-corporations!
With a steel forest overhead, concrete floors beneath their feet, drinking filtered water, and eating synthetic food, one can't even see a flying bird while walking on the road. For their entire lives, aside from infants, they haven't seen anything "original and ecological."
Including small animals, because Night City doesn't even have birds or rats!
It is no exaggeration to say that the can Ryu brought was the first time in Gloria's life that she had eaten natural fruit.
—Since then, realizing the problem, Ryu never revealed similar things outside again.
Because the supply channels for natural food are limited and definite—even the black market sources come from there—someone suddenly popping up who can supply large quantities without any background is simply telling others he has a different connection.
When that happens, to snatch Ryu's channel, the gangs of Night City would beat each other's brains out!
"Gloria~"
Ryu called out softly, taking off his coat and hanging it behind the door, and then he heard the sound of flip-flops: patta patta.
Looking back, the disheveled red-haired woman was stepping in her slippers toward the refrigerator. She filled a glass of water from the filter, scratching under her T-shirt with one hand while sleepily rubbing her face with the other.
"David, go to school quickly, today..."
The air went quiet as their gazes met... Condensed water droplets slid down the glass.
"Kuse? Eh?!" Gloria put her hand down and glared at Ryu. "How did you get in?"
"It's about David, um, he already went to school."
Ryu raised his hands to show he had no ill intentions. Gloria came to her senses and breathed a sigh of relief. Although the boy might have seen something just now, neither of them felt awkward.
David might think Ryu visited too often, that "one who is unaccountably solicitous is hiding evil intentions," and definitely had some fantasies about his mother who still retained her charm. But actually, he was really overthinking it. Leaving aside the age gap, Gloria wasn't Ryu's type either.
—His strike zone was wide, but "widow with a kid" is Boss Cao's hobby.
The two were purely business partners. Gloria, at most, treated him as a friend; almost all her thoughts were focused on her son, David.
The reason David felt there was something between them was that they avoided him when discussing business, appearing somewhat guilty.
"Wait a moment, I remember today isn't... Ah!"
Gloria scratched her head, only then remembering the message she received yesterday. It turned out Ryu had already notified her in advance; she was just too tired and forgot.
"This sucks... Sorry, ran into a gang war yesterday, had to process several bodies in a row."
"Business as usual?"
"That's right, business as usual."
Gloria sat on the sofa, covering her face with her hand. She was silent for a moment before looking at Ryu with sharp eyes.
"It's all in the old place. A lot has accumulated this month... but I still suggest you don't hoard goods. Trading once a month is too slow no matter how you look at it."
"I have my own difficulties too." Ryu smiled helplessly and glanced at the bag on the shoe cabinet.
"A 'gift' for you."
"Thanks for your patronage~"
The expression on Gloria's face brightened visibly.
That bag contained not only souvenirs but also unencrypted credit chips. In this era, it was equivalent to Bitcoin—quite convenient for transactions, and gangs loved using this kind.
—That's right, in this world, gangs are like goblins and slimes; if you hit them, they even drop gold coins~
She was a staff member at the medical center. Although she couldn't be called a person of high status in Night City, she at least had a legitimate job. Theoretically, she could support herself without engaging in black market trading.
But she had a weakness, and that was David. To ensure David had a good future, she enrolled him in Arasaka Academy, which required high tuition fees, hoping her son could become one of the "employees" in the future.
But this was too heavy a burden for a technician—Arasaka Academy not only had a high threshold but also imposed extra conditions on students who were "non-employee children."
Even if Gloria often worked overtime late into the night, it wasn't enough. Her financial situation was so dire she couldn't even afford medical insurance. Thus, if she didn't want to sell her body, taking the path of crime was a matter of course—actually, even selling her body wouldn't pay as well as being a Joytoy, so entering the black industry was inevitable.
Fortunately, her position was very critical. Although the salary was average, she had many opportunities to contact corpses, and in Night City, anything could be bought and sold, including corpses... strictly speaking, the cyberware on the corpses.
Under normal procedures, cyberware that wasn't severely damaged would be confiscated by the medical center to offset the deceased's medical and funeral expenses (this portion of cyberware would turn around and appear on the operating tables for cyberware transplants).
Only when determined to have no repair value would it be processed as waste and handed over to scavengers to strip for usable parts.
At this point, as long as a few joints were greased, some cyberware that should have been confiscated could be processed as waste. Then, sending some trash to the scavengers as a substitute, the high-value cyberware could be kept and resold.
This sounded like a very profitable business, but Gloria was just a technician. She couldn't modify computer records, nor did she have the authority to command staff in other links of the chain.
So, although she bore the risk and performed the operations directly, she was just an insignificant link in the chain of sin, receiving only a small portion of the overall profit.
Those taking the lion's share were the people sitting in offices modifying records—
It is evident that people without power or influence will be exploited even in the black industries!
Even so, how many people couldn't even find such an opening!
Over the past year, those people had used "risk costs" as an excuse to constantly increase the cut they took. Frontline workers like Gloria were getting less and less; she had been pushed to the point of wanting to take private jobs... if she hadn't met Ryu.
Ryu was a newly debuted Ripperdoc. Although he had no medical license, few people in Night City cared about that. As long as the price was fair and he didn't randomly harvest your kidneys, he was considered a good doctor~
He was relatively famous among specific groups because he provided services exceeding the medical fees, even allowed tabs, and would even give discounts if the patient was a young child, giving off the feeling that he didn't care much about money—this was simply psychopathic behavior in Night City!
Some felt he was a believer in some special religion; otherwise, this deviant behavior couldn't be explained.
But more people suspected he was a rich person coming down to experience life, because every twenty or thirty days, this mysterious doctor would disappear for a month, and no one could find him.
And regarding the equipment he wore, true experts could tell it was covering something up; they were just add-on components, not his real cyberware.
The most critical thing was that he had a certain temperament... a temperament that rats hanging out in the sewers could never possess:
A feeling of following one's heart, ignorant of human suffering;
Clearly looking down on everything yet polite to everyone;
Liking vintage items, often seen with "antiques" from several eras ago among his personal effects;
His gaze was never attracted by credit chips or luxury goods. His focus was merely on completing the act of the transaction, indifferent to the amount of money gained, appearing unmoved by anything he encountered;
He didn't consume outside food or water;
Some people would pay with stolen goods, but no one had ever seen him sell those things;
His skin was fair and had no modification traces, the texture of pure natural skin, feeling as if it had never been eroded by the atmosphere or acid rain;
—If this wasn't a young master coming to play cosplay, there was a ghost!
And he had to be the kind of truly wealthy person who had been well-protected since birth!
So the attitude of people in the black market toward Ryu was very subtle. Commoners were more willing to come to him, while the "well-informed" ones tried to avoid this place and restrained their subordinates from getting any ideas about him.
Who knew if the second after you made a move, an airborne pod wouldn't drop from the sky, releasing a few hulking brutes to blow you to smithereens with high-explosive rounds? Except for true cyberpsychos, most people still wanted to live a good life.
In games, these gangs serve as mobs for the "protagonist" to grind, giving the impression that their minions are endless and their roots run deep.
But in reality, the only ones who can call the shots in Night City are the capitalists. Even gang bosses are supported by someone behind the scenes. The ones on the streets are just scattered "chapters"; nominally they belong to the boss, but in reality, the boss doesn't know how many people there are either.
"But no matter what, you've helped me a lot... thank you." Gloria looked at Ryu gratefully.
The boy didn't mind: "It's nothing, just a normal transaction. I got what I wanted too."
He said it lightly, but Gloria believed that "the debt to Ryu could never be repaid."
Ryu had contacted the medical center's underground organization to collect rare cyberware. After unintentionally meeting Gloria and confirming her identity, he designated her as his trading channel.
Since then, Gloria had a stable extra income. Ryu would add twenty percent extra profit for her every time, significantly exceeding the market price of cyberware... so others in the organization felt Gloria must have "given" something to hook this big client.
Even Gloria initially wondered if Ryu had designs on her. Honestly, she wasn't that resistant in her heart; after all, Ryu's appearance and demeanor were exactly her type (deep down, she had a special yearning for the "elite").
However, after associating for this long, she understood that Ryu had no such intentions at all, but she never clarified it to the outside world... because she found that people in the organization respected her a lot more because of this client.
Morally speaking, Gloria quite hated this, but she actually lived much better because of it... She felt quite guilty when facing Ryu.
If Ryu knew her thoughts, he would definitely advise her to relax:
He had already obtained the Destiny Coins, a reward more valuable than anything else!
Although Gloria only had one episode of screen time in the anime, she was the "first domino" that set everything in motion. Her death started David's legendary path, so her destiny weight was not low, and Ryu made a small profit.
But interestingly, while Gloria's destiny was certainly changed, Ryu didn't get David's Destiny Coin... seeming to say that some things would still happen, and this alone was not enough.
—
After getting the decryption key for the "relay point," Ryu left the Martinez home, declining the invitation to stay for a meal.
Although it was impolite, he wouldn't touch that stuff again after eating it once; he always only ate what he brought from his home world, and did so avoiding people.
And this uncomfortable air... the atmosphere in this damn place actually tasted sweet. If not for his good physical constitution and [Scene Transition Effects] to clear the poison, he would have been poisoned to death long ago!
If possible, he even wanted to learn from the Celestial Dragons and wear an oxygen bubble!
Every time he returned from Cyberpunk, he would undergo a full-body checkup. If not for acquiring advanced technology...
Just as he was nearing home, Ryu turned a street corner and suddenly heard a thump. Turning his head, he saw a nimble streak of light flashing past his eyes.
Thump!
A calf kicked unhappily against the metal casing of an automatic vending machine, the projected light screen flickering slightly.
"Hey, I already swiped it!"
Thump!
"Scrap metal, dare to swallow my money!"
"..."
Ryu watched this scene, the corners of his mouth curling up in amusement.
"That machine is a fake disguised as a 'broken vending machine,' placed there to scam money. It actually has no stock inside. If you destroy it violently, 'management personnel' will come looking for compensation."
"..."
The girl stopped her movements. Her bright silver hair reflected the neon lights as it swung, as if dyed with a layer of brilliance. She turned her head to reveal a beautiful face that was sharp and aggressive.
But upon seeing Ryu, that hostility and sharpness directed at the whole world dissipated considerably.
"Doctor... you're back. Cough, perfect, I was looking for you."
"Long time no see, Lucy."
Ryu looked at this bad girl, smiling with a hint of tolerance.
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