Chapter 136: Chapter 127: Thrillingly Awesome

"Damn..."

The car was parked just outside the camp, and anyone who saw it couldn’t help but exclaim.

It was a Gudela Model 66 Avenger—or at least its base was a Gudela Model 66 Avenger.

In terms of appearance alone, this car was voted the sexiest by viewers of the show "Guns and Horseback," and in terms of performance, it was equally impressive.

"Dad, look at this car—I spent a lot of effort finding top-notch components that are worthy of it.

To ensure you ride comfortably on Evil Land, I’ve raised the body and replaced the original suspension system with military-grade dynamic shock absorbers;

I switched out the glass and bodywork for lightweight armored plates, boosted the engine power to 1000 horsepower, and overhauled it with a brand new all-wheel drive system!

Plus, check out this bumper and automated machine gun placement, panoramic Crystal Ball technology..."

"Alright, I get it, it’s frickin’ awesome."

Lille interrupted the Old Captain’s introduction.

This middleman was wearing a purple suit made of reflective material, which was garish and dazzling in the sunlight.

While he spoke, he kept casting coquettish glances at Lille, giving him the creeps.

But the car really was impressive; a standard Gudela Model 66 Avenger would cost a small fortune of seven hundred thousand euros through regular channels.

Lille was not too clear on how much all these modifications and adjustments cost, but they were definitely not cheap.

Because a standard Gudela Model 66 has a horsepower of 550, and the upgraded Avenger has 777 horsepower, this car slammed right up to 1000 horsepower!

Add to that the military-grade components and top-line software...

If sold normally, marking it up to a million euros wouldn’t be impossible.

Lille looked over at V who seemed to have stars in her eyes...

The Old Captain also glanced at her, whispering, "This car was stolen from the factory, but I’ve taken care of that for you, so feel free to drive it."

Lille gave a thumbs up, then said to V, "The car is yours—hey, hey, don’t drive it now; your body can’t handle it!"

Hard to say, V couldn’t be held back; she just sat down in the car.

Jack rubbed his hands together and squeezed into the passenger seat, "Let me experience it too!"

Lille reluctantly started the remote control circuitry, watching them zoom off—

It wasn’t an exaggeration, they really flew out.

That acceleration directly triggered their old injuries, making them wince and grimace in pain as Lille brought the car to a stop under his control.

The Old Captain didn’t feel embarrassed at all, even playing along, "The expert knows his stuff! You truly are the baddest big brother in Night City!"

"Enough. What’s the situation in Saint Domingo?"

"I have to thank you for the heads-up. Faraday was gone that same night! You’re truly clairvoyant!"

The Old Captain smiled like an old chrysanthemum, "The day you called me, I went to threaten Faraday’s guys. Before anything happened, I told them to think hard, and then Faraday was gone!

Hah, they were all scared shitless, oh look, another call coming in."

The Old Captain’s Prosthetic Eye flashed, signaling he didn’t bother answering the call, hanging up directly.

Answer a call? Dad is right here; hesitating for even a second would be disrespectful to Dad.

After hanging up, he continued, "But there are indeed some unsettling things happening in Saint Domingo: corporate dogs and NCPD are swarming in.

No telling how many people died last night, trauma teams were swamped, and so were the corpse collectors, who though, smiled like it was New Year’s."

"Looks like we won’t be able to head back for a while... How long will it take you to handle the matters Faraday left behind?"

"Well... recently everyone’s been really taciturn."

The Old Captain’s words were euphemistic—they dared not make any big moves during this period, and consolidating resources amongst middlemen had to be more discreet.

That was expected.

Lille thought for a moment and said, "That’s a good thing too. How was the Black Antelope Automobile Company handled?"

When it came to this, the Old Captain smiled like a satisfied chrysanthemum.

"Thanks to you, Black Antelope’s funding was cut off, and their people are dead, leaving behind a mere figurehead Commander—this Commander is just a namesake.

When I met with him, he tried to play tough, but then your guys called from the factory, scaring him almost to the point of wetting himself.

I cleared out their equipment, tsk tsk, once I set everything up, I could even make you a tank!"

"So you’ve decided not to go legit? Hard to tell."

Going legit meant registering a legal company and conducting legitimate business.

Of course, the Old Captain also had his own company now, but it was essentially a shell company—the books and actual business dealings didn’t completely match up—not entirely.

His "Good Car Broker" business mostly dealt with vehicles that had shady origins.

For instance, the Gudela Model 66 today, the car was either stolen or, to put it bluntly, hijacked.

Old Captain flashed a sheepish smile, "These days, it’s either you’re screwing over a company, or they’re screwing you over. I much prefer the latter, you know what I mean?"

Lille chuckled too, watching the restarted Gudela Model 66 dash off into the distance—

Those two really could run.

"Speaking of screwing over companies, I have some stuff here that I need you to pass on, two data chips."

Lille pulled two chips out of a slot in his neck.

The full story of the Nightingale Plan, side effects of the Pain Reliever drug, the origins of the Saint Domingo plague, and even the communications between Koch and the Military Technology Commander were all in there.

Sadly, they hadn’t caught the senator red-handed this time—but once this information leaks, corporate agents aren’t just there for show.

One for Manuel Mendoza, the other for Zora Barnes, WNS Television would want to see this.

After passing on the information, Lille added, "Send the commission to Man’s account—I used to roll with Faraday, but from now on, I’m with you."

Old Captain took the chips and nodded, "I’ve heard of him. Understood. Anything else I should watch out for?"

"You can copy the info on the chips and sell it to other companies, you know what I mean."

"Got it, throw a bone out there, let the dogs fight each other—pretty clever move!"

Lille was ready to end the conversation when Old Captain rubbed his hands together as if brewing something up.

"Out with it."

"...Well, the thing is, pops, there’s been buzz about the recent events, the big shots who’ve been involved from the start to the end drove just one Mackinaw."

Thunder Power Company was thrilled when they heard it, and their stock went up a bit that same evening. If you managed to get footage, could I take a look? It would be even better if you could get the car..."

Meanwhile, he kept glancing towards the camp—

That legendary Mackinaw was already covered with cloth, about to undergo a major makeover soon.

But legends always have their own aura; Old Captain spotted it immediately.

"The car’s gone—there are no living legends in Night City, but if you want to pay your respects to its last appearance, I did happen to catch some footage.

But it’s not with me; you’ll have to find it yourself."

Lille indeed had prepared similar footage.

The footage was captured in real-time using traffic cameras, and some were actually of other wanderers entering the city in a Mackinaw Pika to join the action.

However, after processing, their exteriors looked exactly the same as Lille’s.

But the data wasn’t here; it was in the traffic network’s database, and any hacker with a bit of skill could pull up the footage.

Old Captain grasped the concept immediately and was all smiles after getting the network data coordinates, promptly transferring ten thousand bucks to Lille.

[Transfer: +10000 Euro]

[Account Balance: 23210 Euro]

"Thanks, pops!"

"Alright, let’s call it a day; we had a good run this time. And stop calling me pops all the time."

"Hey! What are you talking about, I’m making good money thanks to you; you’re my bread and butter! I’ll be off then—contact me if there’s anything else, pops!"

As Old Captain walked away, calling him pops, Jack and V returned with the car, pulling up right in front of Lille, just in time to catch the nickname.

V glanced curiously at Old Captain and then at Lille.

"He calls you pops? He looks a lot older than you!"

Lille turned towards V—whose hair was all tousled up, looking like a complete buffoon.

"...It’s his way of showing respect, get out."

"Why? Holy cow, this car’s amazing, you should try it—"

Lille massaged his forehead, "Get out, the car’s too fast; a few more rounds might mess with your circulatory system, don’t forget you’re still broken machines that haven’t been fixed—

Huh? Jack? Jack?!"

Lille peered out, only to discover that Jack, the big guy, had already fainted and collapsed backward!

V hurriedly turned to look, and with that turn, down she went too!

Lille rushed over in a panic to check—after completing a prosthetics diagnosis, it turned out that these two fainted because their bodies were weak from the sudden spike in blood pressure.

Simply put, they were literally overwhelmed with excitement.