My Cyber Psychosis is Task Prompt-Chapter 303 - 172: Bedfellow

He honestly put Angelica on the bed, adjusted the air conditioning temperature, and pulled up the quilt, covering the champagne tattoo and fair skin. Thinking about the process, he couldn't help but smile bitterly and murmured softly.

"Do you want to drag me down with you?"

Angelica murmured and turned over, exposing her neck, slightly furrowing her brows and pursing her lips as if enduring a hangover headache.

John quickly shut his mouth.

He confirmed she was still asleep, picked up his clothes, and left the room.

The elevator roared in the quiet night, without the daytime bustle covering up the machinery's lingering struggles.

At this moment, the night shift employees were busy, the late-returning office workers resting.

They cross their life tracks with shift changes, jointly maintaining the city's prosperity and decay.

John took the elevator to the basement of the Dan Street Apartment, passed through the barrier verifying membership identity, took a shortcut to the outer shopping district, and passed by the Tipsy Bikini bar along the escalator.

He turned and headed straight across the street.

[Store - Bandage Boxing Gym]

The gym was bustling with people training at dawn.

The nighttime equipment had a higher idle rate, and the prices were favorable, suitable for those impoverished individuals eager to change their fate.

Bone Shards enriched the boxing events, varied the formats and content, allowing more people to see a way out in the ring and decide to use their fists and bodies to exchange for a better future.

John greeted Macao with a fist bump.

He belonged to the Black Gold Gang, initially surviving on the streets with his fists, until Vito promoted him to a boxing coach and he started covering his body with shirts and vests to disguise the large tattoos.

Macao spoke slowly and only cared about his sister Gino and the young people training at the gym.

The shift changes at Bone Shards didn't affect him much.

But he often complained to regulars and old friends, praising Mr. Vito as a respected gang Godfather, who had great means in managing district business and gang operations.

Now, the boxing matches have become more prosperous.

More people from the West District sought him for private lessons and pre-match training. To cope with the increased rent, he always accepted them all, exhausting himself completely.

John passed by the gym's shower room, saw someone sitting under the showerhead washing off bloodstains, silent, with used reagents placed nearby.

He detoured to the back door and climbed the stairs through the mall's internal passage to the loft above the gym.

Gino's secret base was here.

With the gym's business on track, the living conditions improved, Macao no longer forced his sister to do chores and let her resume her hobbies of hacking and equipment modification.

The room was cramped and dim, with hidden LED strips and glowing ornaments providing all the light.

Gino's bed was right next to a hacker diving chair.

She sat cross-legged beside the main computer, surrounded by six extended screens and various small keyboards, with a holographic projection creating the operations panel right in front on the desk.

"Shoop~"

John heard the sound of a slurping instant paste. The air was filled with the rich fragrance of industrial flavoring, putting pressure on the cooling system embedded in the wall corners.

"Eating too much of this gives you dizziness."

"Shoop~ Haha, F*ck squid, John! Angelica gets into bed with you, and you're asking me to get up at midnight to separate chips, and then you still ask why I'm eating protein paste!"

Gino didn't even turn around, flipping the middle finger, swiftly tapping on the keyboard to confirm. Her hands regularly wrapped in bandages; gym customers and unfamiliar gang thugs all believed it was protection to prevent strains.

John had seen the skin beneath the bandages:

Burns caused by industrial waste; compared to the expensive cosmetic surgery, enduring the natural color difference of synthetic leather made bandages a more cost-effective choice for her.

John took the opportunity to look around.

The room appeared cramped due to space constraints, yet was arranged according to personal habits, with crumpled posters in the trash can, faintly visible with beauty boxing event lettering.

John picked up a modified smart magazine, pressed the hand-carved skull switch in front, and immediately an Ion Short Blade popped out.

"Holy Shit!"

"If you lose a finger, it's your fault."

Gino remained focused on the computer screen.

"I thought you were staying over tonight; Angelica's been in a bad mood lately."

"Do you know what's going on?"

"Nope, buddy, you couldn't 'dig' anything out, so don't expect me to provide any useful intel."

John didn't say anything, crossed his arms, standing behind Gino, his gaze becoming deep before he spoke again after a while.

"Do you know Angelica's economic sources?"

"Isn't Tipsy Bikini enough? Hehe, everyone has secrets; as a friend, it's best not to inquire..."

Gino turned around holding the protein paste.

"Hiss, brother, are you addicted to being a side piece?! She hasn't even modified implants in that area; she's getting away with just rhetoric? You're really naive~"

John raised his middle finger without saying a word.

Perhaps after interacting with Oulos for long, he unconsciously learned to think and observe details.

Just to run a shop, he's got to run around like mad, needing middlemen and local thugs to endlessly make connections, teach negotiation skills, relying on Damascus Camp to connect with farm owners...

Before leaving, Cabinet had warned John:

[In Eden City, the longer you live, the more dangerous it gets. If someone's assets and income sources don't match, they're likely hiding something. Don't trust easily, and avoid provocation.]

Angelica's cost of living is extremely high; she owns luxury vehicles and runs a bar in the core district of the West District shopping area.

All of these require power, wealth, and force.

But no one has ever seen or heard of her partners.

Gino followed John's topic and reminisced about the past.

Angelica and Macao were among the first shop owners to respond to Bolago's call for rental, around the time when the Black Gold Gang cleared obstacles and stabilized the situation in the West District.

Gino had just graduated from Network Engineering at that time.

She was burdened with student loans and living pressure, supporting the boxing gym with her brother, occasionally doing hacker business on the side to barely make ends meet.

Angelica is a bar owner.

Tipsy Bikini opened very discreetly, appearing quietly in the best spot in the market without ads, with a large number of bodyguards and hitmen, never encountering commercial competition...

Click.

[Chip: Cyber Era [XHYF077165]]

Gino converted all the materials related to the kitchen from Angelica's warehouse into a separation chip, including meat products and small desserts, with a lot of ready-to-eat package recipes.

John naturally took it, keeping his doubts and caution about Angelica in mind.

"I want to get a headband!"

"Addicted to games, mercenary? That's pretty good, better than finding a sex doll or doing drugs, I think."

Gino smiled as she switched webpages, looking for contact targets.

John smiled and shook his head.

He does missions almost every day and has little desire for the riches in virtual data, wanting a virtual headband just to have another platform for resource exchange.

The equipment can be bought on the public network, delivered by drones, guaranteed to arrive home within two hours.

Gino had to go through other channels.

She contacted a professional intermediary, paid to erase the product's serial number, registered with fake biological information, installed a plug-in to jump network addresses, avoiding detection by operators and Internet Surveillance.

These measures are very necessary.

Gino said many well-known street figures ended up getting wiped out by Lone Wolves sent by corporate dogs and opposing forces because they didn't pay enough attention to details.

She kept rambling, her hands moving quickly, as if the next second someone would deliver goods to the scene.

"Mid to high-end level, more stable, okay?"

Gino turned around and asked.

John wore a conflicted expression, shrugged, raised his eyebrows, and scratched his completely unitchy high nose.

Pop!

Gino snapped her fingers, revealing a look of realization.

"Tight on funds now, mercenary? You've finally started living a life of credit overdraft."

"Things will get better, I do my tasks quickly, now it's about the intermediary's efficiency."

Gino didn't doubt or mock.

She would have her friends prepare the equipment, immediately arranging courier delivery as soon as John responded.

"Are you getting help from the Wanderer Alliance?"

This is a hacker enthusiast organization established by Serum.

John currently knows of its members apart from Gino, including the baseball bat from the Whistle Community and Tinfoil from Harbor Company.

"Ahaha, yeah, you remember the name..."

Gino typed rapidly on something.

Her cyber eye flickered, the information from cyberspace synced directly into her visual system, invisible to bystanders, while the display screens adjust device parameters.

"Can you help me contact Serum?"

John asked directly.

Gino immediately paused her typing, unplugged the data cable, turned her chair around to face him with a frown.

"How do you know she's back?"