It was a rather pleasant dinner. For Tang Ji, who had just completed the achievement of breaking the army, the little exercise before the meal was equivalent to walking a hundred steps before the meal.
The rumors of Texas' tough folk customs have long been overshadowed by the rise of free states such as Night City. The street gangsters here don't even have the courage to shoot with law enforcement in the street, let alone resist the federal army.
It took the waitress and proprietress Debbie and her chef husband two hours to cook all the food, but fortunately their cooking skills were passable. At least the ribs were grilled well and could satisfy the appetites of three superhuman beings.
"So you picked me up from the demonstration city just to use me as a communication tool?" A classic Mikkelsen gentleman sat opposite Tang Ji. He hesitated for a moment and took out the Tree of Life cigarettes from his arms.
Tang Ji started to puff out his words halfway through: "I do have many individual avatars, but my work is very busy, especially recently. I have also taken over your responsibilities. You should be very clear about this."
Mikkelse's words made Wang Zhengdao lower his head, but he would never admit that he owed Mikkelsen a favor. With Mikkelsen's mind, he would often fill in a favor for himself.
"But you are lucky. Because of your relationship, I have kept several clones in Night City." Mikkelsen finally sighed and chose to compromise. This is indeed the most efficient and safe way for them to contact each other now.
So in Night City, a seemingly ordinary delivery boy rode his small electric motorcycle and knocked on Edward's door with a fried chicken burger set meal.
"Don't get excited, I'm Mikkelsen, Tanguy's collaborator. Although this look looks strange, it's really me." The delivery man Mikkelsen didn't want to waste time. He walked straight into Edward's house.
The house protection system was turned off conveniently in a secret space behind the door.
Then he took out a laptop-sized device from the takeout bag and placed it on the table. He pressed the button in the middle. After a second, the whole room darkened, and smoke came out of the TV playing news in the living room.
.
"The portable EMP generator is powerful enough to prevent our conversations from being eavesdropped." Mikkelsen then took out an old-fashioned cassette radio from a takeout box that was actually a Faraday cage, and pressed the button.
A classic old song starts to play.
From the moment he entered the door to the time the music started playing, the entire process lasted fifteen seconds. Edward kept a dumbfounded expression throughout the entire process, and it was only now that he finally spoke: "emp? Is this the emp I understand?"
After saying that, the old man rushed into the bedroom furiously and wailed: "You bastard! You killed my virtual girlfriend! My Ava! I haven't had time to back you up yet!"
It wasn't just him, half of the building was affected due to emp's spherical range of action, shouts and curses arose one after another, and Edward's own direct economic losses alone exceeded 100,000 federal dollars.
"This is a necessary safety measure to get in touch with Tangji." Mikkelsen opened the fried chicken and burgers he brought: "You have two minutes of safety time, it is best to start the conversation now."
"How to talk?" Edward turned his mobile phone into a brick but still on the table, with a dissatisfied look on his face.
"There is my personal avatar next to Tang Ji, and there is no information delay between us." Mikkelsen stretched out comfortably on the sofa: "Now tell me the reason why you are Tang Ji, and I will be responsible for telling you.
he."
...
"This is John Fleming's phone number, but I don't recommend you contact him directly." Mikkelsen, who was far away in Texas, relayed Edward's words, and then said: "I know this person, he has been very active recently.
I am investigating his background and judging his position, but I am sure that he and the players are not on the same side."
"Last time in Paris, I owed him a favor." Tang Ji stuffed the last piece of ribs into his stomach and wiped his fingers carefully with a tissue: "And I remember you told me about that superhuman, the controller of nature?"
"Yes, Brandon Mann, another psychopath. I also have a pornographic video of him and his orangutan boyfriend. Do you want to watch it?" Mikkelsen said deliberately: "It was secretly filmed by satellite, the clarity is
It’s guaranteed and you can see all the details clearly.”
Wang Zhengdao reluctantly gave up his plan to eliminate all of them. He could see that Mikkelsen was deliberately disgusting him.
"Come on, Lao Mi, you actually want me to talk to that pervert." Tang Ji patted his belly with satisfaction and said to Mikkelsen: "A specimen of the leaves of the Tree of Life? Who else can get it except you?
That thing?"
"No, that was indeed obtained by John Fleming himself. He had his own supporters behind him. You are not from this circle. You don't understand. Although the Federation has collapsed, those who once supported it
Power has not disappeared out of thin air." Mikkelsen said playfully: "They just once believed that a weak federation was more in their own interests, but some people have regretted it now."
"But you are right about one thing. I really want you to talk to Brandon Mann. His ability is very important." Mikkelsen said with a smile: "If he can cooperate, my little
The progress of the agricultural plan will be more complete."
"If not, I have to ask you to ensure that his abilities will not appear against us one day." Mikkelsen said while opening a folder on his phone, which was full of documents and videos: "I understand you
I'm a bit of a moral freak, but Brandon is definitely worthy of your talk in every sense of the word."
Tang Ji took the phone and looked at the dense injury cases and missing case records recorded on it. Many of the case records were also evidenced by videos. In the video, the Central Park, which was once a public green space, looked like Satan's palace, everywhere.
They are all traps for humans.
"How's it going? Are you interested?" Mikkelsen asked: "If you're not interested, I still have a few places that are suspected of being touched by players. You can go and look around."
Speaking of this, Mikkelsen suddenly said: "The matter of you killing the federal commander is being fermented on the Internet. The platform Puppy Video has recently released a lot of videos about you, most of which are quite bloody, so you
Your public support has dropped significantly, and more and more people think you are a murderous superhuman lunatic."
Tang Ji looked at Mikkelsen with some confusion. What the hell is public support? Is he running for federal commander?
Bah, this is not a good thing to say...
"Don't act so stupid. Dr. Wu is right. You can't understand the meaning behind this matter. Forget it, let us handle it." Mikkelsen sighed: "You just need to cooperate.
Let's do it, if you don't believe me, take some time to ask Wu Qianying, she has a lot of heavyweight friends in the field of psychology."
"Also, in order to prevent accidents like today from happening again, from now on, I will go with you. Except for going to the toilet and sleeping, we will be together." Mikkelsen looked at the time and nodded.
He said to Tang Ji nonchalantly: "Although I am very opposed to this arrangement, this is the collective will and this is the only way."
"So, where do we go next?" Mikkelsen asked: "Go to New York State to deal with Brandon, or try to find a few players? Or you can choose from my to-do list
If you are interested in a few, I would not object to taking you to work together."
Mikkelsen kept the cigarette butt with only the filter tip aside, feeling full of accomplishment. You see, he didn't need complicated psychological knowledge to influence Tang Ji. He knew what choice Tang Ji would make even with his eyes closed.
.
...
...
New York, Fifth Avenue, Metropolitan Museum.
This was once one of the most famous museums in the world, covering an area of 130,000 square meters and with a collection of more than 3 million pieces. It is not a museum in the traditional sense, but more like a preservation of civilization and time.
land.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has collected an entire temple and a monastery, and has restored many famous historical scenes in the museum, such as an entire bedroom in the Sagredo Palace in Venice, a room in the Varangeville House in Paris, and so on.
Like a conscientious tour guide, Mikkelsen introduced the history of the Metropolitan Museum and said with emotion: "When I was young, this museum was one of the Fortune 500 companies."
Tang Ji did not need to think about why Mikkelsen was filled with emotion this time. As a member of human beings, when he stood here and looked up at the entire museum on the classical and majestic front entrance steps, he naturally could
Feeling a certain sense of desolation.
The off-white building is covered with a large number of vines and green plants. The thick vines squeeze the crystallization of human wisdom, showing the power of nature. The cracks are like open mouths laughing at the insignificance of human beings.
One of the Roman columns on both sides of the gate has collapsed. Dense and unnatural green plants cover half of Fifth Avenue. Some vehicles that were too late to drive away were filled with plants. Stubborn life burst out from every gap.
Drill out.
Looking in the direction, it is full of greenery, as if it is a real drama of natural evolution recorded after human beings have left for a hundred years.
And when Tang Ji and the others turned around, it was as if there was an invisible boundary that cut Fifth Avenue in two from the central axis. On the other side of the road, the scene of busy traffic was still there.
The luxury jewelry store is still open. People living in high-end apartments look at this wild green land that can be called postmodernism with some inexplicable eyes. Most of the pedestrians hurriedly passing by on the roadside also maintain similar expressions. They
I was angry, scared, and at the same time confused about what was happening across the street.
This is Fifth Avenue in New York, a core area in a core city on the East Coast. However, everything just happened. Without any notice or warning, the jungle just expanded and swallowed up the part it wanted.
.
That boundary is not so much the restraint of the forest as it is showing humans their control over power, proving that everything is not disordered.
From this aspect, Brandon Mann is stronger than most superhumans who still show off their abilities in puppy videos. He uses a more intuitive way to let humans clearly see his power.
Not far to the right of Tangji, a group of law enforcement officers were blocking the road. Several staff members wearing closed-type jumpsuits and carrying high-pressure sprayers were spraying defoliant against the wall, but this was meaningless. The forest
Indifferent.
"He is very smart and never shows his cruelty in public." Mikkelsen glanced at Tang Ji and said with some connotation: "Exactly the opposite of you."
"He is expanding his influence. Many environmentalists voluntarily go here just to witness the green miracle here." Mikkelsen pointed to the person sitting on the other side of the boundary, wearing only simple clothes to cover his body, leaning on the vines.
Man resting on the vine.
These people were silent, but they were not alone. Several young people wearing jackets and taking selfies with drones gathered at the entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They also held portable cutting machines in their hands and started live broadcasting excitedly. They wanted to
Go in and hunt for treasure.
The Metropolitan Museum is currently offering a reward for all cultural relics left in the museum, and a more profitable way is to steal the cultural relics from inside and sell them on the black market.
Although the entire antique cultural relics market has not been vigilant since the end of the corporate war, the value of fine cultural relics is still guaranteed, such as the "Sunflower" painting.
According to the invitation relayed by Edward, John Fleming hoped that Tanguy would bring the painting out safely and then transfer it to the Metropolitan Museum.
As an act of repaying a favor, this kind of thing is no challenge to Tang Ji, but the game hidden in the dark is more invisible.
John Fleming is obviously using Tanguy to create pressure on Brandon. This will be a collision of top superhumans.
"What do you think?" Tang Ji asked Wang Zhengdao: "Can you just jump in, pick up the painting and come out again?"
Wang Zhengdao glanced at the map distributed for free by the Metropolitan Museum, closed his eyes and vaguely perceived the interior space of the museum, and shook his head: "It's almost filled up, and there is no space where you can safely land."
"One of my clones is contacting John Fleming." Mikkelsen pointed to the museum: "He said that Brandon is becoming more and more extreme and that he is considering continuing to expand his territory."
"In addition, Fleming also noticed traces of Brandon's recent contact with other people. He found some footprints deep in the forest." Mikkelsen frowned: "Fleming was hinting to me, Bu
Langdon is in contact with the pioneers."
"The news is very reliable, and Fleming is willing to use his credibility to guarantee it." Mikkelsen finally said to Tanguy: "It seems that we came at the right time. I have never liked extremists."
"In that case, let's say hello to Jungle Tarzan." Tang Ji walked to the entrance of the museum, pushed away a few network anchors, and snatched the cutting machine from their hands. Gray-black flames instantly covered it: "