Who are you calling rare? Who are you calling rare?!

If he had been well informed, he would have packed up and fled by now.

As far as Kirk was concerned, his best days were still ahead of him.

Compared with the enormous headache that was the Vortex Gang, Peppy's debt was nothing.

As long as the Vortex Gang still existed, Kirk would never dare show his face in public again.

When that time came, even if he did dare return to the Wolf Bar, Peppy wouldn't be the one begging for a few more days. Kirk would be begging Peppy not to report him to the Vortex Gang.

On the way back, Su Xiao asked Jack to help him find an apartment.

He couldn't keep living in Jack's garage forever.

Jack's garage had no windows, and with the rolling door shut-given Night City's spectacularly awful security, leaving it open wasn't an option-it was hot and stuffy.

On top of that, so many of them were crammed into that tiny garage.

He had some money on hand now, anyway. It should have been enough for a few months' rent.

"I don't mind an older building, but I want a place on a higher floor, and it has to be clean. I don't want to live with garbage."

Night City was full of towering buildings. If he wanted a decent view, he needed to live on a high floor.

Otherwise, he would open his window only to find his entire view blocked by the buildings beside and opposite him. It would be like Kowloon Walled City. How oppressive would that be?

"Sure. Something that simple? Leave it to your buddy."

Jack readily agreed.

Then his face turned miserable again.

"Uh, about that bet I said I'd lost earlier..."

Su Xiao seemed completely unconcerned. "Jack, we were just joking around. You didn't take it seriously, did you?"

"Oh, it was a joke! Hahaha, yeah, Su, you really know how to crack a joke."

Jack hadn't thought Su Xiao would actually make him eat the computer.

But he had been the one to propose it. Wouldn't going back on his word be humiliating?

Now that Su Xiao had volunteered that it was a joke, a great weight lifted from Jack's chest, and he immediately felt much better.

"One more thing."

"Go ahead."

Jack was in a great mood now.

He even started humming a Mexican folk song.

Forget one favor-even if there were three or five, he would count it as his loss if he so much as frowned.

"Do you know where I can get materials and parts for making guns?"

"Fixers have them, but they won't sell you materials and parts unless they trust you. There are other channels if you don't want to go through a fixer, but the risks and prices are higher."

Jack asked curiously, "Why do you want to know, though?"

"Nothing much. I just want to make some extra money."

Chapter 24: Who are you calling rare? Who are you calling rare?!

"Fuck, how did this happen?"

After receiving a call from his driver, Kirk hurriedly packed his luggage and fled his home.

The driver he had hired was an honest man.

Even after getting arrested, he had secretly called Kirk to warn him while the border guards weren't paying attention.

Kirk immediately realized he was in trouble.

Not a single gang in the city was easy to deal with.

But if there was a list of gangs you absolutely shouldn't offend, the Vortex Gang would rank near the top.

Take the Tiger Claws Gang or the Sixth Street Gang.

Offend them, and you might get beheaded or catch a bullet.

You still wouldn't survive, but at least your death would be quick.

The Vortex Gang was different.

Those lunatics loved experimenting on other people.

They were cyberpunks among cyberpunks, modification fanatics through and through.

If you fell into their hands, they wouldn't let you off easily. They wouldn't even simply kill you.

They would install implants in your body.

And you could forget about those implants being genuine products bought from a corporation.

They were all knockoff or secondhand cyberware picked up on the black market, or even from the Scavengers.

Installing too much military-grade cyberware wasn't the only way to develop cyberpsychosis.

If you installed knockoffs or cracked versions, their shoddy quality and incompatibility with your body could also trigger cyberpsychosis.

Kirk didn't want to meet a bloody end, much less become a cyberpsycho.

He had no choice but to flee immediately.

Just as Su Xiao had predicted, Peppy's debt was the last thing on his mind. The Vortex Gang was the real headache now.

"You're not planning to be a merc anymore?"

"No, I just want to start a side business."

Back when he was still with the Buckle Family.

His Firearm Maintenance skill had already

reached LV5.

It had not only supplied him with extensive repair knowledge, but also knowledge of firearm assembly.

That included every kinetic weapon and a substantial number of tech weapons.

Tech weapons used electromagnetic energy to propel all-metal ammunition to extreme speeds, allowing it to penetrate cover or walls.

You couldn't buy weapons like these in supermarkets or convenience stores.

You had to visit a specialist weapons shop.

Their exorbitant prices went without saying.

But with materials, parts, and a gunsmith.

The costs could be slashed, leaving staggering profits.

Su Xiao told Jack what he had in mind.

"You can even make guns? All of them?"

"As long as I have the parts and materials, I can make any kinetic weapon. For tech weapons, I can make anything except ones with overly complicated designs, like the Achilles and the Cat Mat. I'm not familiar with smart weapons yet."

As soon as he finished speaking, Su Xiao saw V and Jack staring at him in shock.

It wasn't that V and Jack hadn't seen much of the world. It was just...

People who knew how to use guns were everywhere in Night City.

People who knew how to make them, however, were much rarer.

And someone like Su Xiao, who could even build tech weapons.

That was rare among the rare.

Seriously rare.

"So what are you planning to do? Open a gun shop?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking you, isn't it?"

Finding out that his buddy had hidden skills he knew nothing about left Jack deeply stunned.

After the initial shock, however, Jack calmed down.

He earnestly thought the matter through, treating his buddy's business as his own.

"You can get a fixer to help with the materials and parts."

"But I don't know any fixers in the city. Not a single one."

Jack thumped his chest. "Don't worry. You've got me, haven't you? Padre and I go way back."

"And me." V winked at Su Xiao. "I know Padre too. I can put in a word with him."

"Oh, right, I almost forgot. You're a 'child of Heywood' too." Jack rubbed his topknot. "Then we'll go together. Padre will have to do us twice the favor! Hahahaha-"

All three of them laughed.

"But opening a gun shop is a huge hassle. You need to register with the NCPD, handle the paperwork at City Hall, and finally apply to the weapons manufacturers for sales licenses."

"I shouldn't need the weapons manufacturers, right? I'm not planning to buy stock from them."

Jack's expression grew serious as he stressed the point again.

"You do, Su. Whatever manufacturer's guns you sell, you need their sales license first. Otherwise, you're running an illegal shop. Any random person could report you, and you'd be finished. Then either the manufacturer's security forces or the NCPD would come knocking..."

"The NCPD isn't so bad. At most, they'll fine you and order you to close until you get things sorted out. But if it's the manufacturer's security forces... let's just say you don't want to meet them."

Just listening to it gave Su Xiao a headache.

He rubbed his painfully throbbing temples.

"It's that much trouble?"

He hadn't been in Night City long, but he had seen weapons shops everywhere along the streets.

Even supermarkets and convenience stores sold guns, so he had assumed selling firearms would be easy.

"And that's not all... if you want to open a gun shop, you need a location, right? Rent is expensive in good neighborhoods. In places with cheap rent, the surroundings are bad, there aren't many customers, and you'll get robbed."

"Besides, whatever business you run in Night City, you have to pay taxes. On top of what you pay City Hall and the NCPD, you also have to pay protection money to the gang in your area."

Su Xiao frowned.

"Jack, the way you put it, isn't opening a shop in Night City incredibly difficult? Then what's with all the gun shops, stores, and stalls here?"

"Su, you've only been in Night City a few days. It's normal that you don't know."

Jack had known Su Xiao would ask that.

"Most of the business owners you see have spent half their lives scraping by before finally saving enough to open a shop."

"Some inherited the family business. Their parents ran a shop, and once the kids grew up, they carried on as shopkeepers."

"I don't know if you've noticed, but although shops are everywhere, their owners have a hard time too. Most can only rent places or set up stalls in poor neighborhoods with lower safety standards, because the rent is cheaper there."

"More importantly, has anyone in Night City reached the top by running an honest business? No, right?"

"The father runs a gun shop, and his son takes over when he grows up. The mother runs a little supermarket, and then her daughter takes over."

"At the end of the day, they close up and return to a rundown apartment, or just sleep in the shop."

"Have you seen any of them buy a mansion in North Oak by running an honest business? I sure haven't."

"You can't get into an acknowledged wealthy district like North Oak by running a shop or a stall."

"Why can't they get in? Is it because those ordinary people working from dawn till dusk aren't trying hard enough?"

"Of course not. It's because after the NCPD, City Hall, weapons manufacturers, and local gangs take turns collecting fees under every name imaginable, hardly any money actually makes it into their pockets."

"That's why, even though they work so hard and put in so much effort, they still

can't leave this place."

At the same time.