You can fool your buddy, just don't fool yourself

Hotels with ocean-view rooms and private swimming pools, amusement parks where entire families could spend their vacations, beaches with piers and parasols... all right, and garbage.

But what could you expect with Night City right next door?

Besides, this was prime real estate. Surely the investment would pay off handsomely.

That was what most of the first investors who opened their wallets so generously had thought.

They hadn't held out for long, though.

Construction was only halfway finished when even rarer opportunities began to emerge. They discovered that investing in Night City's other districts was far more profitable than investing in Pacifica.

So the money pulled out, leaving the unfinished buildings abandoned.

The Voodoo Boys and the Animal Gang moved in and took over.

Pacifica, originally envisioned as a seaside paradise, became a war zone.

City Hall neither put any effort into repairs nor bothered to tear it down.

They simply built a high wall around the whole place and called it a day.

Pacifica should have been the first stop for tourists visiting Night City.

Instead, danger now lurked at every turn.

It had become a lawless place that only lunatics would visit.

Many people would rather take the long way through Santo Domingo than use a shortcut through Pacifica.

Since Pacifica was a place even the NCPD ignored, its gang members and street punks were exceptionally brazen.

Gunfights often erupted without warning on its roads and streets.

Sometimes it was a vendetta, sometimes a robbery;

but sometimes two people simply didn't like the look of each other, drew their guns, and enthusiastically traded bullets.

On Su Xiao and his companions' very first day in Pacifica, several groups of punks set their sights on the three of them.

So Su Xiao kindly sent them to meet the good Lord.

Some might argue that these punks weren't necessarily all evil by nature, and that giving them a chance to turn over a new leaf might be better than killing them outright.

To that, Su Xiao had only one thing to say-

"Whether to forgive them is God's business. Mine is sending them to meet him."

Su Xiao and his companions carried out their killings... their ballistic last rites, in full view of everyone.

Nearby passersby personally witnessed every one of those groups die at Su Xiao's hands.

But nobody called the police.

The passersby merely pretended nothing had happened and hurried away.

The other punks watching from a distance nearly wet themselves in fear.

Even the gang members classified the three of them as dangerous targets.

Chapter 29: You can fool your buddy, just don't fool yourself

Although the black market was located in an underground parking garage,

cars weren't allowed to drive straight inside.

They could either park by the roadside;

or drive upstairs.

Of course, parking upstairs also required paying a parking protection fee.

Su Xiao simply sent the car back to the Wolf Bar.

They could call it over again whenever they needed it.

After getting out, the three of them began surveying the terrain.

They discovered that this black market had surveillance cameras too.

There was one camera at each of the two entrances.

Another stood on the street outside.

Several more inside the black market monitored it from different angles.

However, the people watching those cameras weren't the NCPD.

They were Scavengers hired with money pooled by the black market's vendors.

Although the Scavengers made their living harvesting kidneys, they weren't completely brainless.

Nor did they carve up everyone they saw.

Black markets, underground clinics, and similar places were important outlets for their trade in human organs and secondhand cyberware. Even an idiot wouldn't destroy his own distribution channels.

Not only did they leave those places alone, some smarter groups of Scavengers even made deals with the black market vendors to provide protection.

Using the scanning mode on his Tactical Goggles,

Su Xiao located the surveillance room.

V and Sasha worked together.

They switched all the cameras inside and outside the black market to friendly mode.

That way, the Scavengers watching the feeds in the surveillance room wouldn't be able to spot them through the cameras.

Then Su Xiao slipped into the surveillance room.

He killed the Scavengers, who weren't watching the feeds at all, but playing games on their computers instead.

He dumped their bodies straight into a garbage bin.

Then they began their stakeout alongside Mann's team.

They watched the black market's entrances for two straight days without spotting their target.

It wasn't until the third day that Sasha's soft, slightly sweet voice finally came over the comms.

"Attention, the target has

appeared. Repeat, the target has appeared."

Su Xiao, V, and Jack all perked up.

Finally.

Jack took out the Sadala tech double-barreled shotgun Su Xiao had made for him and broke it open to check the shells inside.

"Su, stay behind me when things kick off."

Jack had never seen Su Xiao in action.

He only knew that Su Xiao could manufacture firearms, so he assumed Su Xiao was a technical specialist with somewhat weaker combat skills.

"I can protect myself."

Su Xiao stressed that again.

Oh, forget it.

Once the fighting started, Jack would see what he could do.

Actions spoke louder than words.

Mann's solemn, serious voice came over the comms.

"I'll repeat the plan one more time. Once they enter the black market, our two teams regroup before making our move. Remember, do not attack early. We can't risk exposing ourselves."

Two vans pulled up on the road outside the black market.

Prominent Animal Gang insignias were spray-painted on their sides.

A crowd of muscular men climbed out.

The last one out was even bigger and taller.

Calling him burly no longer did him justice. He was a giant.

He was the Animal Gang's leader.

However, anyone familiar with the Animal Gang might have found something strange about him.

The Animal Gang had always loved showing off the bodies they had trained to their absolute limits.

Yet this leader wore a thick, long-sleeved trench coat over his upper body.

It completely concealed his two thick arms.

Still, even with the sleeves covering them, the muscles stretching the fabric were plain to see.

Their group stood out, drawing plenty of punks over to watch.

But none of them dared provoke the Animal Gang.

The Animal Gang wasn't as tightly united as the Tiger Claws Gang, where killing even one low-ranking member would bring a whole swarm down on you.

But these Animal Gang members were hardly easy targets either.

Especially with all that muscle.

The sight alone made people back off.

Just then, two young men came out of the black market.

They wound up directly facing the leader and his group.

Neither young man was watching where he was going, though. They were absorbed in their conversation.

"Look what I scored at the black market-a Shigure Kinetic Submachine Gun, made by Arasaka. Its gunfire sounds as sweet as a kitten's purr."

His companion asked doubtfully, "Shigure? Isn't that a model from the early twenty-first century?"

"Okay, this submachine gun might be a little old, and its firepower isn't quite up to the newer models. But I'm not exaggerating when I say it fires more rounds in a minute than Arasaka dodges in taxes. Just think how many that is."

"Accuracy isn't that important. Imagine emptying the whole thing and seeing the wreckage in front of you once the smoke clears."

"You don't have to like Arasaka, but you should respect it. Without the Arasaka Corporation, people couldn't buy guns to defend themselves. Its weapons meet people's self-defense needs and keep society stable."

"And all those people saying Arasaka treats its employees badly should stop being jealous. The company even provides its employees with the latest cyberware technology. Those whiners couldn't get hired even if they tried."

"I've always used products from the Arasaka Corporation. Its weapons are worlds apart from what those other manufacturers make. Their specs just can't compare with Arasaka's in any category."

"When you use Arasaka gear, everyone around you can tell you've got the latest Arasaka weapon. Carrying it around really gives you some prestige!"

"Sure, the Arasaka Corporation has had a few scandals, but it handled them really well. That won me over. Big companies need that kind of responsible attitude!"

"Anyway, you don't have to use Arasaka products, but Arasaka is the greatest corporation in the world. Without it, you'd be stuck using more expensive, inferior weapons, like Militech's stuff."

"Glory to Arasaka!"

The more he spoke, the more worked up he became.

By the end, he had even raised both hands high.

He struck a praise-the-sun pose.

His companion remained unimpressed, however, and even patted his shoulder reassuringly.

"You can fool your buddy, just don't fool yourself. I really don't care if you fool me. I can laugh it off, and you get to feel better about yourself. But saying that stuff to pull one over on your friends is enough. Playing along won't cost me anything, just don't start believing it yourself."

As they talked, they suddenly felt as though they had walked into a wall.

Both looked up in confusion.

A giant over two meters tall stood before them.

He stared down at them from above.

Behind the giant stood another twenty or thirty Animal Gang members.

Their overwhelming presence bore down on the pair, as though even the air had frozen.