In Pacific State, the war between New America and Night City had shattered the tourist destination and global financial and trade district that had been under development.
Investors pulled out, unfinished buildings stood everywhere, and locals who had already lost their homes to land consolidation now lost their jobs too, earning themselves the status of homeless people. As the area grew more chaotic, homeless outsiders and outlaws began pouring in, making things even worse.
Later, Arasaka returned to Night City. Although Northern California was the only territory New America had yet to reclaim, it still had to take its greatest rival into account. Considering that the war had already dragged on for years, it signed the Alvin Accords with Night City and declared a ceasefire.
After that, some corporations tried to restore order and resume investing, only to meet resistance. The Voodoo Boys and the locals beat them bloody, until the NCPD tried to spearhead efforts to restore order, only to trigger riots on an even larger scale-
After that, Night City stopped considering restoring order altogether. It simply removed Pacific State from its jurisdiction, turning it into a truly lawless zone.
Honestly, outsiders interpreted this move as irresponsible. In reality, if the NCPD had joined forces with the corporations and moved in, taking the area was not impossible. It would just have killed a great many people and risked expanding the war.
Considering the chaos there and Night City's circumstances at the time, abandoning it had actually been a decent choice.
Now there were no police or corporations here. Anyone still hoping to make a living or conduct illegal business could hire their own mercenaries.
Most people barely scraped by amid the chaos, but the whole district had not devolved into an all-out free-for-all, for one reason alone:
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