Chapter 808 Shadow of the Past

After killing the electronic demon, the three were taken to the car and drove towards Night City.

To be honest, on this road, the three had already prepared themselves mentally, thinking that they might see a devastated and dilapidated city. However, the facts were completely beyond their imagination.

The houses around were scattered and looked clean and tidy. Although there were NCPD members patrolling the streets in full armor, the atmosphere was not tense at all. People came and went, talking and laughing. At first glance, it seemed as if this place was in two completely different worlds from the outside world.

"You are already the 1,235th batch of refugees to come to Night City. We will take you to the checkpoint for inspection first, and then handle the residence procedures for you..."

"We are originally from Night City."

Lucy interrupted the soldier's introduction uneasily.

"By the way, my home is still there, right? I should be able to go home!"

"Home? Sorry... I'm not sure about this, because after Doomsday, the angel re-determined the authority to allocate houses. Those uninhabited houses were allocated to other people... If your room is among them, it's hard to say..."

"What bad luck..."

Hearing the other party's answer, Lucy sighed helplessly, and Panam looked at the other party anxiously.

"Do you know the Adecado family? Are they in Night City?"

"Ah, are you a member of that wanderer family? You don't need to worry about this. The Adecado family joined Night City a few days after Doomsday. Currently, most of their members live near Santo Domingo. If you want to go and have a look, I can take you there after the inspection."

"Huh... That's great."

Hearing that his family was fine, Panam breathed a sigh of relief, while Regina frowned and looked at the streets around him.

"You just said that we are the 1,235th batch of refugees to Night City... Are there many people coming to Night City?"

"Of course, ma'am. After Doomsday, almost all the survivors in nearby cities flocked to Night City. Later, the number decreased year by year, but hundreds of people would come to Night City from all directions every day to join us."

"Does Night City have a place to accommodate so many people?"

"Generally speaking, the problem of accommodating refugees is indeed very troublesome, but fortunately we do have an empty urban area that can be used to accommodate refugees."

"Wait, you are not talking about... Taipingzhou?"

"Hahaha, that's right, since you know Taipingzhou, it means you are really from Night City, welcome back."

"How is this possible?"

Hearing the other party's answer, Regina was stunned. As one of the most outstanding middlemen in Night City, Regina certainly knew Taipingzhou. Originally, it was built by Night City to serve those high-ranking officials and dignitaries. The original purpose of building Taipingzhou was to build an upscale community in Night City. But later the company that built Taipingzhou went bankrupt, and Taipingzhou was left idle. Although it was not completely built, Taipingzhou could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people.

Wait...

"What about the Voodoo Gang? Didn't they object?"

Regina knew that Night City had always wanted to take back Taipingzhou, but the problem was that the South American immigrants led by the Voodoo Gang occupied it, making it impossible for Night City to take it back. Over time, it became the territory of the Voodoo Gang.

But...

"There is no Voodoo Gang anymore."

"No more?"

"Yes, they were unwilling to obey the orders of Lord Angel, so Lord Angel ordered them to besiege and suppress them. The Voodoo Gang has been completely destroyed and eliminated, leaving nothing behind. Not only the Voodoo Gang, but also the Whirlpool Gang, the Six Street Gang, the Tiger Claw Gang, the Beast Gang, the Valentino Gang, and those damn gangs have been destroyed. The members of the gangs either changed their careers or were purged. Of course, except for a few stubborn elements, the others are very sensible."

At this point, the soldier driving the car snorted.

"Of course, those guys in Taiping Province are really hard to deal with. The voodoo gang even claimed that the angel was an apostle of the evil god and called on local South American immigrants to resist her together..."

"Then what?"

Hearing this, Lucy couldn't help but ask, and the soldier laughed.

"Of course, they were all cleared out. The angel does not allow anyone to disobey her orders, let alone rebel against her. Now in Taiping Province, those guys are dead without a trace. It's really stupid. They dared to rebel against the angel. They really think they have a long life."

"… Then, are the bodies on the street lamps next to them also?"

Panan also asked suddenly at this time, and the soldier glanced at the corpses hanging on the street lamps on both sides of the street and floating in the wind.

"Oh, that's not the case. These people were publicly executed mainly because of their crimes. You know, after Doomsday, the whole world was in chaos. Many refugees, even if they came to Night City, did not want to find a legitimate job, but still planned to do those illegal activities. For this reason, the angel specially launched a crackdown. Those criminals suspected of robbery and murder were all arrested, and then a public trial was held. After the trial, they were directly sentenced to death, and their bodies were hung on street lights as a warning."

"…………………………"

After hearing the soldier's introduction, the three looked at each other with complicated expressions. If it was before, they would definitely think that this behavior was quite cruel. But after a year of wandering, the three knew that this was the best way to maintain human order after the destruction of the world. After all, the world has collapsed, and the original laws and morals have lost their meaning. In such a chaotic world, if you want to maintain order, you must take iron-fisted measures.

"How is the security situation in Night City?"

"As you can see, it is even better than before Doomsday."

At this point, the soldier was obviously quite proud and opened the chatterbox.

"All those gangs that extorted civilians were eradicated, and even those bastard company executives who were greedy were hanged. Everything is under the control of Lord Angel. And in Night City, as long as you work hard, you will not be afraid of not having a job. Lord Angel even continues to open schools for everyone to learn knowledge - he said he wanted to pass on human civilization as much as possible. Oh... He is worthy of being Lord Angel..."

"By the way, what happened just now?"

Lucy didn't want to listen to the soldier flattering and praising him, so she quickly changed the subject. Or rather, this was what she cared about most.

Second only to her own home.

"Why can you summon electronic demons?"

"This was invented by Lord Angel half a year ago."

Speaking of this, the soldier became more and more excited.

"According to the angel, these electronic demons come from the old network. Although they look like scary demons, they can still be tamed and manipulated. So the angel created this program called 'PERSONA', which can search and capture those electronic demons, and then tame them and make them fight for us. You see, aren't human weapons ineffective against those electronic demons? But if it is replaced by the electronic demons themselves, then it will be effective, right?"

"There is such a program?"

Hearing this, Lucy's eyes suddenly lit up. As a hacker, she knows too much about this aspect.

"Indeed, if the electronic demon is a collection of information consultation, it is really possible to capture it using some special bugs or traps, and then modify its core code... Can we do it too?"

"It is not easy to tame the electronic demon. Of course, if you want to try, you can take the test. If you pass the test, you can join the NCPD and become one of us to fight to protect Night City."

"We will consider it."

Soon, the soldiers sent the three to a checkpoint, where the staff asked them to take a shower, change clothes, and then conduct a physical examination on the three. After confirming that they did not have any physical illness, they were allowed to enter Night City.

"To be honest, I never thought that Night City would become what it is now."

Walking into the gate and looking at the strange and familiar streets in front of her, Regina couldn't help but sigh. The Night City in her memory is a lively but violent place. Except for Heywood and the city center, all that can be seen in other places are dilapidated houses, homeless people sitting on the ground, garbage everywhere, and even gang fights.

But now, all of this is gone. There are no piles of garbage on both sides of the street, but it is clean and tidy. People walk around on the road, looking relaxed and comfortable, instead of always looking around anxiously as in my memory, fearing that they will be robbed or involved in some gang conflict. And most people are dressed very decently, tattoos, gangster dress, you can't see them here. Children are laughing and playing on the lawn on the side of the street, and the adults next to them are watching all this with a smile on their faces.

"It feels really different from before."

Looking at the streets around, Lucy couldn't help but sigh, after all, she has been in Night City for a long time, and she knows what Night City used to look like.

But soon, Lucy cheered up.

"Anyway, I'll go home first, I hope D doesn't seal my house for the sake of our old relationship!"

After saying this, Lucy waved to the two of them, and then hurried away.

"See you later!"

Watching Lucy leave, Panam also slapped his forehead.

"By the way, I have to go see everyone in Adecado. I'm leaving too...Regina, what about you?"

"Me?"

Faced with Panam's question, Regina thought for a moment.

"I plan to look around Night City...see how much the city has changed."

After all, the reason why Regina quit her job as a reporter and became a middleman was that she hoped to use her power to make Night City a little better.

But now...she found that her ideal seemed to have been achieved by someone else.

"See you later!"

Panam was also worried about his partner at this moment. After saying hello, he also left in a hurry. Regina thought for a moment and then walked forward.

As a former reporter, Regina did not give up her old profession. She also talked to some residents and found that the situation was indeed beyond her expectations.

From the performance of these residents, the angel is indeed respected and loved in this city. On the one hand, she protects the city, and on the other hand, she tries her best to let most people live a relatively peaceful life - this is rare in this era. You know, on the way to escape, Regina even saw a gathering place that has completely returned to the primitive tribe and treats other people as slaves.

In comparison, Night City, which can still maintain the living standard before Doomsday, is indeed a paradise.

Of course, compared with the benevolent side of the angel, Regina has also heard a lot about D's brutal deeds.

For example, in Taiping State, the Voodoo Gang was unwilling to accept D's leadership and incited local South American immigrants to resist together. Maybe they thought that the law does not punish the masses, but in the face of these people's resistance, D was ruthless and killed all the men, women and children in Taiping State overnight, leaving no one alive.

To be honest, Regina also knew about D's tyranny. After all, she had done a lot of things in those gang territories and killed all the people in them. However, attacking the entire Taiping State—to be honest, it was beyond Regina's expectations.

But it must be admitted that after D showed her unparalleled strength, there was no voice in the entire Night City against her—from this point of view, the death of the Voodoo Gang was worthwhile.

Of course, in addition to this, D also managed Night City very well. As a free city-state, Night City itself has a miniature circulation system. As the saying goes, a sparrow may be small, but it has all the organs. Although Night City itself is not large, it can be self-sufficient in terms of water and food. Even in terms of industry, Night City also has factories built by various companies here. It can be said that it has a complete one-stop service from raw material mining and processing to finished product sales.

It is precisely because of this that Night City is not as dilapidated as other human settlements, and can only rely on picking up garbage in the ruins to survive, but can normally mine minerals, process them into raw materials, and then manufacture finished products to maintain the existence of Night City itself.

But what exactly does D plan to do next?

At this time, Regina also came to the city center. Looking at the unrecognizable Arasaka Tower in front of her, she took a deep breath and walked towards the gate.

"Wait, who are you?"

As expected, Regina was stopped at the door. Looking at the guard who stopped her, she just smiled slightly.

"My name is Regina, I'm a reporter, I want to interview the angel, I wonder... ...Is she free?"