“Holy crap, how come I got so many points this time?”
Jiang Heng was a bit confused. Previously, the missions he completed only gave him two or three points each. But this time, he got ten points! It was like getting three or four missions’ worth of points in one go.
“Could it be related to the difficulty of the mission?”
Jiang Heng pondered to himself. Thinking carefully, this mission was indeed more challenging than the previous ones.
But thanks to Lucy, he didn’t encounter any significant difficulties while completing the mission. Otherwise, even if he killed everyone, he would only be staring blankly at the computer terminal.
“Well, I guess I should try taking on more high-difficulty missions in the future.”
Without giving it much more thought, Jiang Heng went to bed.
…
“Jiang Heng, wake up, something big happened!”
The next day, Jiang Heng was still dreaming when Lucy woke him up.
“What, what? What happened? Did someone use missiles to attack Night City?” Jiang Heng was still groggy after being woken up.
“No, no, the information we got yesterday was released online, and many TV stations were hacked by hackers. Now, those TV stations are broadcasting the food factory fraud news on a loop!” Lucy said.
After hearing this, Jiang Heng immediately sobered up. However, he didn’t react much. It was obvious that the information being released was related to the client of the mission. But what surprised Jiang Heng was that this client actually dared to directly hack the TV stations and use them to expose this shocking news to the public.
“This hacker is in big trouble. BioTech won’t let this go.” Jiang Heng said.
“What, what if they find us?” Lucy asked nervously.
“Relax, they won’t. We were very careful last night. I perfectly infiltrated the factory, everyone who saw me is dead, and all the surveillance footage was destroyed. So it's very difficult for them to trace it back to us.” Jiang Heng said nonchalantly.
“Even if they do find us, I'll make sure they won't leave alive.” Jiang Heng looked at Lucy with confidence.
He wasn't being arrogant, he had the confidence to say that. After all, the company’s biggest possibility of dealing with them would be to secretly dispatch company agents, and Jiang Heng wasn’t afraid of any company agents.
Moreover, the final impact of this matter might not be as big as they imagined. While the factory was owned by All Foods, which was owned by BioTech, the factory itself was run by the Vortex Gang. So BioTech could easily shift the blame to the Vortex Gang.
Actually, this wasn’t really shifting the blame, as the Vortex Gang was indeed the one responsible for it.
However, after the incident was suppressed, BioTech would definitely secretly investigate. BioTech wasn’t as magnanimous as they seemed. They were best at secretly eliminating hidden threats. The hacker who hacked into the TV station would likely suffer the consequences.
But none of this had anything to do with Jiang Heng and Lucy.
As for whether BioTech would find them, they would deal with it when the time came.
Jiang Heng’s confidence gave Lucy some reassurance. But deep down, she was still a bit uneasy. The psychological shadow left by the company was too deep to be erased in a short time.
Just as Jiang Heng expected, the company soon regained control of the TV stations from the hacker.
As the public outcry began to intensify, the head of BioTech personally addressed the public, stating that all food products produced by BioTech were legal and compliant. The factory in question had been seized by the Vortex Gang long ago. Therefore, the incident was entirely the work of the Vortex Gang and had nothing to do with BioTech.
As expected, BioTech easily shifted all the blame to the Vortex Gang. People’s anger was directed towards the Vortex Gang, but those crazy people didn’t care at all.
They were notorious anyway, and they didn’t need a good reputation.
The storm that threatened to engulf them quickly died down. Even that night, the TV stations started broadcasting a documentary about how BioTech overcame scientific challenges, developed genetically modified high-sugar wheat to solve the global energy crisis, and researched cost-effective synthetic food to ensure everyone had enough to eat.
…
“The company’s influence is too vast.”
That night, Jiang Heng and Lucy were sitting on the sofa in the living room watching TV. When they saw the documentary praising BioTech, Jiang Heng couldn’t help but sigh.
“Who’s to say otherwise? Such a small matter doesn’t have any impact on them at all.” Lucy said with a helpless tone.
“Forget it, why bother thinking about it? Let's just focus on our own lives.” Jiang Heng wasn’t the kind of person who liked to invite trouble. So, he quickly switched the channel.
Nowadays, there were many TV dramas and movies, but people rarely watched them on TV because they had Dream Devices.
Dream Devices were very widespread in Night City. Even in some slums, people had them. There were also Dream Device shops everywhere on the street. They were like the internet cafes Jiang Heng was familiar with before he time-traveled.
The reason Dream Devices were so popular wasn't because they were cheap. It was due to the marketing model.
Dream Devices in this era were like broadband internet in the world before Jiang Heng time-traveled. Many companies provided free devices to users to expand their user base.
The key was, the devices were indeed free, but to watch the good stuff, you had to pay for a monthly VIP subscription!
Does this sound familiar?
It seems that while technology has advanced, some things remain unchanged.
While playing games, Jiang Heng couldn’t experience the amazing Dream Devices. Now that he was in Night City, he wouldn’t miss this opportunity.
PS: If you have any game recommendations, please feel free to leave them in the comments section. The author wants to familiarize himself with them in advance. He’s been a bit bored with gaming lately… ahem…