"According to Huang Ban's satellite monitoring, the radiation index on the Taiping Continent has shown signs of declining."

"Ye Corporation dispatched dozens of underwater drones to forcibly break through the nuclear pollution area. Only one approached the pollution center and sent back images, while the rest were all destroyed by high-energy radiation. Now, here's the firsthand video."

Although it's called nearshore, the pipeline burial site is more than a hundred meters deep. And because of the long-term discharge of waste, the water quality is severely polluted, with extremely poor light penetration. This makes this hundred-meter-deep area practically a deep sea, with zero visibility to the naked eye, relying solely on the drones' built-in lights.

Beneath the deep, dark sea, the water mixed with seabed dust, making the footage extremely murky. Coupled with the radiation impact, numerous noise points on the screen made it hard to discern anything.

As for the radar data, it's naturally not accessible to ordinary citizens, and even if they saw it, they wouldn't understand it.

Those who understand it wouldn't release it.

And if it gets released, it would only be fake.

At this point, even if it's real, it can only be fake.

And in Night City, the public generally doesn't have the right to know about such matters.

"According to Ye Corporation's analysis, it's very likely that an AI mine got swept into the nearshore area by tidal forces and accidentally triggered with the seabed pipeline, creating a breach in the nuclear wastewater discharge device, leading to the leakage of a large amount of radioactive wastewater. Fortunately, the rescue was timely, and the discharge pipeline gates have been forcibly closed. The nuclear radiation incident has been controlled, and it's expected that the radiation in the nearshore area will be effectively alleviated within a week. The threat posed by roaming AI to human society is becoming increasingly severe..."

No mention of whose company's pipeline it was, nor which company carried out the rescue, as long as the blame falls on the roaming AI.

It must be foreign forces causing trouble.JPG

Which foreign force doesn't matter, as long as it's not the moon.

"It's reported that during the economic turmoil caused by the radiation incident in Taiping Continent, an intermediary named Handz seized the opportunity to purchase over 70% of the real estate projects in Dog Town at a low price. Lin Miao, a director of Horizon Corporation, sternly condemned the intermediary for economic crimes, and was visibly agitated."

In the news, Lin Miao's face was red and his neck bulged, clearly infuriated: "Handz, damn you, you dog! How are you as lousy as a dog? Do you believe I can make you fly? Haven't you encountered the mafia? Amynos!"

According to the traditional folk culture of Night City, if someone like Lin Miao from Horizon Corporation, a real puppet master, could be provoked to such an extent, you might see Handz's body at the seaside or under some overpass on that very day.

But here's the problem, Lin Miao is the loudest of them all because he also had to sell his land to Handz at the lowest price due to the nuclear radiation issue. Among everyone's losses, his was the greatest. His loud outcry was understandable, and being so agitated, the other companies found it inappropriate to deal with Handz, just waiting for him to exact personal revenge.

As a result, Lin Miao did lead a big, dark crowd to the Heavy Heart Bar to find Handz, but instead of killing him, he managed to get back 95% of the land shares from Handz, and then took out 25 points from those shares, inviting the original landowners to co-sign development agreements in Dog Town and Taiping Continent.

He called it adhering to business rules and accepting losses gracefully.

Now, even an idiot could figure out what was going on. Lin Miao's lost projects accounted for less than half in Dog Town; the others lost everything.

The fish have entered someone else's mouth, and unless they now take out Lin Miao, those 25 points are the maximum they can strive for. Even if they get rid of Lin, the others would still have a fight on their hands.

If they can't eliminate him, then Lin Miao will be the next Hansen, and the land would remain wasted, or even be completely blown up by hidden mines in Dog Town, sending the entire Night City sky-high.

What to do?

Tough luck.

Continuing to do business with Lin Miao to hype up land prices might still offer a chance to break even or profit; acting rashly would leave them with nothing.

Now, everyone scammed can only swallow this rotten cake and even need to cooperate with Lin Miao in further investing in Taiping Continent to drive up land prices, providing construction materials and equipment.

Lin Miao used the loaned money from the bank to buy their land, and now they still have to gratefully use their money on Lin's tourism industry, even buying construction teams, equipment, and materials from him.

Watching Lin Miao boasting about the future prospects of Taiping Continent on the podium, everyone below was cursing inside.

Shameless, damn, what a thick-skinned bastard.

But cursing aside, money still has to be made.

Making money is inherently a deal where one has to bow, nothing disgraceful about it.

————

The relocation work at Long Beach Waste Yard did not go smoothly. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Many grassroots issues cannot be solved simply with high awareness or money; actually getting things done reveals the bizarre and diverse nature of people below.

The neighborhood committee encountered people with shotguns loudly demanding the company to leave and defend their homes, light prostitutes and covert prostitutes, people with makeshift stores demanding commercial demolition compensation from Horizon Corporation, and even someone shooting glue at them from a second-story window, not to mention the large group of fentanyl addicts coming around to cause trouble every day.

The myriad of bizarre demands and people almost sickened the members of the Chaotic Blade Association, or rather the now-called Teaching Team, who had just come from Dragon Field.

They had just entered Night City from Evil Land and for the first time felt how disgusting land ruffians, just like themselves, could be.