Chapter 115: Chapter 107: Commission: Shadow of the Colossus (Part 1)_2

Hector: Thank you for everything you’ve done for us, I’ll do my best to seize the opportunity for you.

Hector: And thank you for securing this opportunity for me, I’m a coward, I can’t bear to see them die miserably because of me.

Hector: Thank you.

Hector: The red ochre is waiting for your command.

Lille finished reading the message from Hector — it was clear that Hector was no longer in charge.

He was a contradictory person, Lille could feel it.

He longed for a worthwhile self-destruction.

Lille sighed and looked at those present.

"Man, your target is the Black Antelope Automobile Company, depart immediately."

Dolly looked worried, turning to Man, "After all this, we’re still continuing...?"

Man had already completely dismantled the forearm equipped with the bullet launcher, now he could be considered disabled.

Of course, his remaining arm was not just for show.

Lille looked at Man, who angrily slammed the table, "Of course we continue! We’ve come this far just to give Sasha closure—

This time it’s not just about money, if you want to back out, then back out, but I won’t!"

Man was the kind of person who got really intense, fitting Lille’s imagination of him.

Give him a thread to hold on to, and he won’t let go.

That’s obsession.

Rebecca, Pila, and Dolly, needless to say — they were Sasha’s teammates as well.

The only unstable factor was Qi Wei.

But she didn’t say anything, making her presence quite low.

But Lille still focused on her: "Your hacker may not have this in mind."

"I... ah, do I have a choice?"

"No."

Lille had long brought them close to his data barrier; it monitored the inside too.

She didn’t have the opportunity to contact the middleman, at least not for now.

Qi Wei still asked, "I have only one question, how much money can we make?"

Lille looked at Man, "The reward Faraday promised, I don’t want a cent of it, you guys split it among yourselves. Aside from that money, I can still pull out 100,000 euros for you guys here.

My only request is that you complete this mission under my name."

Lille didn’t know about Faraday’s reward — he had never asked.

If mercenaries wanted to know the reward first or get paid first, it could be discussed, but Lille really hadn’t asked.

As for the 90,000, it came from Mendoza and Barnes.

The two had pooled together 400,000 euros, not a lot but not a little, either.

A lot, if you just look at the 400,000 figure, sure it’s a lot, but the problem is, this 400,000 is somewhat insufficient to buy the ’Nightingale Plan’ kind of secrets.

But no matter, Lille didn’t care about the 400,000 either.

As a de facto middleman and coordinator, he had already cleared most obstacles, paving a good path for himself.

After deducting the money to be used to purchase Delamain’s services and various upcoming components, what Lille could give to Man’s team was 100,000 euros.

Lille had been quite generous to them — according to the rules of Night City, middlemen and mercenaries split the account seventy-thirty, they would only get thirty thousand.

So for Man and the other mercenaries, it was still a very attractive figure. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Huh?"

Man’s team was stunned.

What did that mean?

Was he disavowing the benefits but taking all the drawbacks on his head?

No data barrier is invulnerable, and nobody could guarantee it wouldn’t be breached; was Burger King mad?

"I’ll explain the details later, now let’s discuss your operational route."

Lille handed the carefully prepared separation chip to Man.

Black Antelope Automobile Company, located on the eastern edge of Night City, almost outside the city, a rather remote corner.

The company advertised the use of fully automated vehicle assembly technology, so there were almost no workers there.

It now seemed that it wasn’t because they used automation technology, but that the place was originally a Biotechnology server for storing the Nightingale Project data.

Thanks to Morton’s project manager and his cunning style, they now had account information for all employees.

All they needed to do was find a place to enter this stuff, and they could take control of the factory.

The difficulty lay in how to breach the Black Antelope Automobile Company’s defenses—

"There’s even an Arasaka Mecha there?!!"

The voices of Rebecca and Pila were so shrill that Lille felt a bit of numbness in his ears.

Arasaka Mecha—this was also the reason Arasaka would not leave any evidence that they were surreptitiously targeting Biotechnology.

Among the Super Corporations, although there is significant antagonism between some companies, such as Military Technology and Arasaka, there still exists cooperation.

For example, Arasaka would buy Military Technology’s Bimong Armored Vehicles, and Military Technology would consider Arasaka’s Mecha.

When there’s no excuse, everyone still has to adhere to international law.

This is even more the case with Biotechnology, as to ensure that the top private military companies do not deliberately target them, appropriate cross-purchases are necessary.

Although the security of Biotechnology is mainly composed of personnel and equipment from Military Technology, they still choose some Arasaka equipment.

However, if it were leaked that Arasaka was covertly investigating itself, this purchase order, of course, would have to fall on another company—

So Arasaka both wanted to figure out what Military Science wanted to obtain from Biotechnology and was afraid that any exposure would affect themselves.

Lille dug at his ears and said to the loud little girl:

"Don’t yell so loud—doesn’t your team also have a hacker? All the control commands and instructions for that Mecha are in the chip.

The account information for the workers in the park is still useful. Connect to the local network and you can hack it, you even don’t need to face its ICE."

The top method for hacking: unplugging the network cable.

And an even top-notch method, plug in the network cable, enter the username and password—your Mecha looks nice, now it’s mine.

Contrary to its terrifying appearance and combat capability, the fully automated Arasaka Mecha usually deeply integrates into the subnet, which makes it prone to hacking.

This is also this war machine’s only drawback.

"You make it sound so simple..." Qi Wei said, wearing a mask, her complete facial expression unseen.

But it was clear she was under a lot of stress.

Indeed, Lille had already prepared all the tools.

The internal structure of Black Antelope Automobile Company, the composition of the security personnel, even the employee accounts—not just one employee account, but all the worker accounts.

Logically, this hack should be straightforward, the key is in finding the local network interface.

But... just thinking about the Arasaka Mecha made it hard to think straight.

Lille continued: "Listen, you will also have a team of Wanderers for support, I made some connections outside, they all have good gear, at least the frontal combat will be no problem, get me in there, understand?"

Man nodded: "It’s a tough job, but since you’re willing to take on all subsequent issues, we will definitely succeed."

"Good—One last thing." Lille tapped the table, "And it’s the most important thing, do you still remember who issued this commission?"

Man was stunned.

Who issued the commission?

Theoretically, it was Faraday.

But since they boarded the subway, they had followed Lille’s instructions and had not communicated with Faraday again.

Could this still be considered working for Faraday?

He tentatively said: "...Faraday?"

Lille smiled and nodded: "Exactly, the entire commission was issued by Faraday, the objective is to investigate the Nightingale Project and the relationship between the Nightingale Project and Military Technology.

We accepted the commission at the Nightclub, then the communicator was damaged in battle.

Afterward, we could no longer contact Faraday, then we accepted commissions from the journalists Mendoza and Barnes.

In the end, we are dedicated mercenaries; no matter the situation, we decided to continue with the mission—understood?"

Man’s head was spinning, and not just his, everyone there felt somewhat dazed.

Only Qi Wei sensed a hint of a conspiracy: Burger King’s goal was definitely not just any commission.

"...Understood, but how are we going to get out?"

Lille pointed towards the door.

A Delamain Armored Taxi slowly appeared at the door.

"A 50,000 Euro premium service, the destination is near Black Antelope Automobile Company, once you get in, there’s no turning back."