No one dared to come over and help, either.
At most, making a call to the NCPD already made you a law-abiding citizen of Night City.
As for surveillance cameras...
You could forget about that even more.
This was Night City, not Ceres.
All the surveillance cameras in America might not even add up to as many as those in a single major city in Ceres.
The vendors who understood this principle just as well didn't dare resist.
Trembling, one of them pulled a small pouch from his coat pocket and handed it over.
"This is a good start." Su Xiao took the pouch but didn't open it. Instead, he held it in his hand.
He tossed the pouch into the air, then caught it as it fell.
Then he tossed it up again and caught it.
After repeating this several times, Su Xiao finally said slowly,
"Second, answer me honestly. Where did you get the Black Market Dream chip? Who did you buy it from?"
The vendor's eyes shifted. An idea struck him, and he said, "The Tiger Claws Gang gave it to me. I work for the Tiger Claws Gang."
"The Tiger Claws Gang, is it?" Su Xiao nodded at the white-haired girl standing behind him. "Lucy!"
"What are you going to do?"
The vendor was horrified.
He tried to resist.
Su Xiao pressed his head straight into the ground.
Lucy pulled a personal link cable from her wrist and, without a word, plugged it into the neural interface at the back of the vendor's head.
Chapter 50: No Buying, No Killing
Not long after connecting to the neural slots at the back of the Black Market Dream vendor's head, Lucy found the information Su Xiao wanted.
"His name is Lenny Nero. He often works with a man named Gottfried Persson. Gottfried is a Black Market Dream editor who specializes in producing Black Market Dreams."
"They aren't merely business partners. They're friends as well."
"But some time ago, the two of them had a falling-out."
Su Xiao glanced at the vendor, who was pinned to the ground and unable to get up. "What kind of falling-out?"
"Gottfried dragged his own son into it and made him his assistant. But our Black Market Dream merchant couldn't get past his conscience, so he had a huge argument with Gottfried."
"He edited Black Market Dreams with his own son? Damn! What kind of sicko is that?! Was the Black Market Dream about the pastor's son being killed also made by that father-and-son pair?"
"Yes."
"Does his brain contain Gottfried's hideout?"
"Wait, let me look... I found it. They're hiding in an abandoned factory complex in the Northside Industrial District. They're also working with the Vortex Gang, having the Vortex Gang provide them with protection."
Su Xiao nodded. "We know everything we wanted to know. Pull out."
Lucy removed her personal link cable from the neural slots at the back of the vendor's head and retracted it into her wrist.
Jack pointed at the vendor pinned beneath Su Xiao and asked, "What are we going to do with him?"
"P-please let me go. I have an eighty-year-old mother above me, an eight-year-old child below me, and a disabled wife waiting for me to care for her."
As soon as the vendor finished speaking, Lucy, who had just been roaming through his brain, ruthlessly exposed his lie.
"False. He lives alone. He has no wife or children, and no parents to support."
Su Xiao stared coldly at the Black Market Dream vendor, whose mouth was full of lies.
"No buying, no killing. If Black Market Dreams can't be sold, no one will make them anymore."
"From a certain perspective, although he's only a middleman and hasn't killed anyone or shed any blood himself, he still bears part of the responsibility for the spread of Black Market Dreams."
The vendor's face stiffened.
Su Xiao's words amounted to a death sentence.
In the early years, the Northside Industrial District had been filled with factories, providing tens of thousands of jobs.
A steady stream of products drove the city's economy forward.
It had been known as Night City's Little Manchester.
Now, outdated factories and workers had all been abandoned by the times, leaving only rows of chimneys to bear witness to their former glory.
Some abandoned factory complex in the Northside Industrial District.
A Vortex Gang thug standing guard outside to keep random people from wandering in complained to his companion.
"The boss hugs the girls and hides in his castle giving orders, like I'm some dog they keep!"
His companion seemed to think the complaint was completely unreasonable. "Give it a rest. At least they're paying you well."
"Oh, so this is how things are in Night City now?" the thug said indignantly at his companion's reaction.
His companion flared up as well. "'I don't like this'? Go say that to Royce! I'll lend you ten times your courage—would you dare?"
At the mention of Royce's name, he immediately fell silent and stopped arguing.
He merely muttered resentfully, "I really should just short-circuit myself and get it over with."
Just then, the two men saw a young man in a white trench coat with a long blade at his waist walking toward them.
The Vortex Gang thug had vented his emotions to his companion without receiving any sympathy. Now he immediately directed all his displeasure at the young man, who appeared to be lost.
"Hey, this is the Vortex Gang's territory. No private tours allowed. Get the hell out of here!"
But the young man acted as though he hadn't heard him.
He continued approaching at an unhurried pace.
"Fuck your mother, are you deaf? Didn't you hear me?"
The thug vaulted over the roadblock, took several steps forward, drew his gun, and pulled back the hammer with his thumb.
Then he saw the young man blur and appear right in front of him.
The sheath was pressed against his chin.
Before he could react or understand what had happened,
Su Xiao pulled the trigger on the sheath.
Bang!
Muramasa shot out, carrying the thug straight into the sky.
His companion stared at the thug sailing upward, dumbfounded.
He then turned toward Su Xiao and finally realized what was happening.
He instinctively tried to raise the "Copperhead" Kinetic Rifle in his hands.
But Su Xiao knocked the gun out of his hands with the sheath.
Then Su Xiao planted one foot on his knee.
Using his head as a stepping board,
he leaped high into the air and caught Muramasa as it fell.
First, he slashed the Vortex Gang thug who had fallen alongside it in two.
Then he drove off with his right foot, his entire body becoming a blurred phantom.
He swept past another Vortex Gang member who had run to retrieve his gun.
The crimson blade flashed across his neck.
Spurt—!!!
A tremendous amount of blood sprayed from the headless neck like a fountain.
The fountain sprayed water, but this one sprayed blood.
The conflict erupted without warning.
Hearing the commotion, Vortex Gang members rushed out from all over the compound.
They happened to catch sight of Su Xiao's back as he turned and fled.
"Damn it, he actually came to wreck our Vortex Gang's territory! If we don't kill him, how will our Vortex Gang establish itself in the Watson District?"
The Vortex Gang underlings shouted and cursed.
Most of them split off to chase Su Xiao.
Only a few stayed behind to guard the compound.
The Vortex Gang members who chased after him pursued Su Xiao relentlessly.
They even dared to open fire recklessly on the street outside.
The bullets streaking toward him struck the ground, fences, and walls, kicking up clouds of dust.
Fortunately, the Northside Industrial District was already run-down and deserted. Besides, this was Vortex Gang territory, so people instinctively stayed away from the area.
At this moment, the only people on the street were Su Xiao fleeing and the Vortex Gang chasing him.
Su Xiao zigzagged like a snake.
The Vortex Gang members right behind him kept firing, yet not a single bullet managed to hit him.
Before long, Su Xiao appeared to lose his way in panic and plunged into a quiet, narrow alley.
The Vortex Gang underlings chasing behind him instead felt relieved.
They guessed that Su Xiao definitely wasn't a resident of the Northside Industrial District.
Otherwise, he would never have entered this narrow alley.
Because this alley was a dead end with only one entrance and exit.
Laughing loudly, they walked in.
The alley was very narrow.
Only wide enough for one person.
They walked in for some distance but didn't find any trace of Su Xiao.
They guessed that he had hidden farther inside.
Just as they were about to continue searching deeper, they suddenly heard the whoosh of wind above their heads.
A figure dropped from the sky.
It was Su Xiao, who had entered the alley earlier and then hidden atop an air-conditioning unit on a building above the alley.
He stepped on the head of the Vortex Gang member at the front.
With a crisp crack, the sound of bones breaking rang out.
The Vortex Gang member's head tilted to one side.
The impact had already snapped his neck.
Chapter 51: Stop! You Guys, Stop Fighting!
After landing, Su Xiao rolled with the momentum.
A Large Caliber Revolver appeared in his hand.
Bang bang bang bang bang!
The Large Caliber Revolver's bullets struck five Vortex Gang members in the eyebrows, forehead, eye socket, throat, and heart.
Of the two remaining Vortex Gang members, one opened fire in retaliation.
Before you continue