Chapter 332: Like a Fish in Water
That evening, as Guo Li Cheng completed her registration, Ye Xing arrived at the foot of the Tower of Original Sin.
Without a doubt, it was the most magnificent building he had ever seen, both in reality and in games.
The building's width exceeded 300 meters, considerably larger than a stadium, and this scale of construction extended from the ground all the way up to 2,000 meters in height.
This height made Night City's Arasaka Tower pale in comparison.
In front of the main entrance of the skyscraper was an entire army responsible for security.
Among them were not only "Fierce Poison" power armor, but also another model not seen on the military sales market.
Its design style was similar to "Fierce Poison," full of a sense of sharpness and power, but beneath the armor, the volume of the chest, backpack, calves, outer thighs, and outer arms was significantly larger, meaning that the joint output was likely higher.
Top-tier forces truly have their secret, unsellable good stuff!
In addition to power armor, the number of bipedal mechs and traditional wheeled combat vehicles was also sufficient.
In the air, dozens to hundreds of large drones continuously circled and patrolled at different altitudes.
There were also two individuals wearing long black robes in front of the main entrance.
Ye Xing knew they were likely psionic cyborgs, and he wondered how much they were paid to stand guard all night, to attract such true powerhouses.
He fawned over them, waving and offering a cheerful smile, as this was Ding Chui's habit.
In his mind, he kept repeating: You two big idiots!
The psionic guards nodded slightly, detecting no abnormalities.
Good.
Now it was confirmed that even the psionics responsible for providing security to the Seven Deadly Sins crime lords could not detect human brainwaves.
The world of thought remained safe.
【Visitors, please proceed to the security area.】
Ye Xing entered, came under a high-definition camera, and pressed his ten-finger fingerprints on the adjacent touchscreen.
During this time, the Gatling cannon on the ceiling above kept him targeted.
【Welcome to the Tower of Original Sin, Mr. Ding Chui!】
The four-in-one identity verification of facial recognition, iris scan, fingerprint, and gait was successfully passed.
Three days ago, the branch players had Ding Chui call the gang, reporting the disastrous failure of their operation, the complete loss of his subordinates, and his own lucky escape, now hiding from pursuit.
The boss was shocked and immediately demanded that this news be suppressed.
Even for a large gang like the Tiger Tooth Gang, losing over 100 elite combatants at once was a major blow.
To avoid rivals noticing their current weakness, the boss ordered Ding Chui to punch in on time at the Tower of Original Sin.
At the same time, he was to secretly lower the "recruitment" standards, quickly replenish a large amount of fresh blood from lower-tier gangs, and brutally retaliate against the small gang that had sold their intelligence!
And this was exactly the effect Cang Yuan hoped to achieve.
At least for this week, no one would suspect that Ding Chui's identity had been secretly replaced.
Ye Xing walked into the lobby.
This was a hall 150 meters wide and nearly a hundred meters high, surrounded by an artificial forest, with a dry landscape in the center.
He found it somewhat amusing.
From Earth to space, these underworld figures seemed to particularly enjoy displaying things that symbolized peace, tranquility, and Zen—truly, it was as the saying goes, the more a person lacks something, the more they like to show it off.
The receptionists were all as beautiful as celestial beings.
According to Ding Chui, these were all cyborgs who had financed their head replacements; smartphone functions were integrated into their brains, saving the time needed to swipe a phone screen, increasing work efficiency, and making them available at a moment's notice.
For them, without a head replacement, they couldn't find safe, decent work; with a head replacement, they had to work diligently their whole lives to repay the loan. Ye Xing pretended to be unaffected by it all, walked into the elevator, pressed for the 330th floor, and arrived at the Hall of Pleasure, 1980 meters above the ground.
The literal pinnacle of Paradise Island!
The moment the door opened, the intoxicating perfume, mixed with the scent of various psychoactive drug fumes, and an indescribable air of debauchery, rushed over him.
Even though Ding Chui had described it in detail before, Ye Xing was still wide-eyed.
It was truly, utterly depraved!
The gladiatorial pit was half the size of a football field; currently, staff were using high-pressure water guns to clean up minced meat and bloodstains, then staging the area according to the theme of the next match.
The android dancers, at their boss's request, were trying new tricks, wrapped in bandage-like white gauze, suspended in mid-air performing aerial ballet.
With each turn, their height would decrease slightly, bringing them closer to the outstretched hands of the audience below.
The thickness of their fabric would also thin, until the tightly bound red ropes beneath, and other body details, were revealed.
The naked muscular male dancers were as energetic as ever, twisting their waists and performing dances that made Ye Xing wish he could stab out his own eyes.
Unfortunately, due to the security measures at the skyscraper's entrance, communication and scanning devices couldn't be brought in, and Ye Xing couldn't openly film during his shift. Otherwise, he would have definitely recorded these scenes and sent them back to the branch for everyone to appreciate and ridicule.
At least to give the audience in the live stream a taste of something scandalous!
However, with this level of content, even if "Star Sea" had strong backing, the live stream would probably be instantly shut down.
Speaking of which, for the developers of "Star Sea" as a state-owned or central enterprise, how could they develop such a scene? Hmm...
For Ye Xing, this matter was even more unbelievable than the fact that real-world technology came from the game, forcing him to once again doubt the true nature of this "game."
While thinking, Ye Xing followed Ding Chui's map to find and enter the staff changing room, changing into the security weapons, bulletproof vest, sunglasses, and black uniform provided by the building.
The Seven Deadly Sins would not allow any security personnel to hold this position for more than two months, to prevent them from overhearing too many secrets from the distinguished guests, thereby becoming a security risk for intelligence.
Should they defect to New Hope and join the Apocalypse Queen, it would be extremely troublesome, and such things had happened before.
Thus, the internal security position was treated as an honor, given to large gangs that wanted to evolve into top-tier gangs.
These gang leaders needed to regularly send their trusted confidants to the Tower of Original Sin and be responsible for their behavior and quality of service.
Normally, this was a reasonable and clever system, but today, it created convenience for Ye Xing's infiltration.
No choice, our Cang Yuan is simply more skilled.
"Hey! Ding Chui!"
A colleague from another gang, who had a good relationship with Ding Chui, found Ye Xing.
"I heard you guys lost to those newcomers, completely wiped out?"
"Nonsense! Who the hell told you that?"
"It's all over the streets! Is it true or false?"
"Of course it's false! After we went, they peed their pants in fear and immediately paid a large sum of money. I think their backers must be pretty strong, and they might even send more money in the future, so we just withdrew for now."
"Really!?"
The other person's eyes darted around.
"Damn it, I'm standing here in front of you perfectly fine, so you tell me if it's true or false? They're a bunch of pure trash, really easy to deal with. Your Red Serpent Gang should try it too."
The other person thought, 'He's right, your face doesn't even have a scratch, you don't look like someone who almost lost his life.'
"Hey! I knew your boss was putting out a smokescreen! You're a loyal guy!"
"You bet I am!"
Next, Ye Xing went to the Hall of Pleasure, took his designated position, and began earning extra money as a security guard.
Currently, he was level 34, with a perception attribute as high as 81, the highest in the entire game.
Although the surrounding music was extremely noisy, Ye Xing could still hear all the conversations, screams, and moans simultaneously, and firmly commit them to memory.
His eyes were not idle either, quickly scanning and recording the appearance, physique, and movement characteristics of the owners of these voices.
Given enough time, Ye Xing was absolutely confident in replacing everyone here.
Even including the Seven Deadly Sins!
If they dared to show up.
His gaze slowly swept over the most luxurious private booths, successively noting the host of Paradise Island's "Demon Horn" TV station, executives from pharmaceutical and power armor factories, and a pirate captain boasting about his last raid.
Even minor characters were useful.
His colleagues with longer tenures were currently wearing sunglasses, making their faces unclear; he would observe them closely during shift change.
By continuously replacing new security personnel, Ye Xing could theoretically stay here indefinitely.
For now, he needed to quickly note down the leaders of the dancers and male dancers! Hmm, hopefully, he wouldn't need to use the identities of these two—
Finally—there it was!
About 30 meters away, two middle-aged men, each holding an android, were arguing about excavation.
On Paradise Island, 99% of excavation was related to zero element mining, and Ye Xing immediately focused all his attention.
Indeed, listening to their conversation, both were subordinates of 【Pride】, vying for the same mining face of a vein, ultimately deciding to settle it with a drinking contest.
You two are tonight's main course.
Ye Xing paused collecting other information and, under the cover of his sunglasses, carefully observed the expressions and movements of the two men.
As for where they lived and worked, he believed Anya would help investigate that later.
At the same time, by the arena in the Inverted Cross Plaza, the defeated Dong Xin finally woke up.
"You all—"
He saw his loyal fans, and his coach, gathered around him.
And the rich girl who had knocked him down! She was also sitting in a chair opposite, watching him with a victor's smile!
"Hello, I'm Guo Li Cheng."
Guo Li Cheng extended her hand proactively.
The fans were clearly very afraid of this woman, not daring to look directly at her.
"...Hello, Dong Xin, gladiator."
Dong Xin shook Guo Li Cheng's hand.
Although unwilling, the opponent had, after all, openly defeated him on stage, and moreover, despite having the opportunity to kill him with one blow and gain a lot of cheers and popularity, she had ultimately held back.
This was very respectable.
Furthermore, his opponent should not just be a rich girl; she possessed astonishing combat talent and likely had extensive combat experience, just unfamiliar with unarmed combat.
"Thank you, thank you for showing mercy."
"You're welcome!" Guo Li Cheng waved her hand, "I used to be a mercenary, now I've earned enough money and want to pursue a career in gladiatorial combat, but I have no connections in this industry. So, I thought, instead of killing one more, it's better to make a friend."
"I see."
"I see your coach is very professional," Guo Li Cheng nodded to the white-haired old coach, "Can you tell me where I can find such a good coach?"
Dong Xin looked at his coach, and after receiving his nod of permission, he spoke:
"The best training hall in the Blade District, 'Soul Suppressing Stele'! It's a place where legends were born. The owner is both a top coach and a legendary agent."
"If you want to go, I'll introduce you! With tonight's record as proof, Mr. Drew can't possibly refuse you!"
"To be honest, I've only trained there for a few months, and I'm still the weakest newcomer, but look! I've already won first place in the tryouts! It's a good start! Of course, if I hadn't met you tonight, it would have been even more perfect—"
"Ha! You flatter me!"
Guo Li Cheng rarely showed a truly kind smile that wasn't intimidating.
"May I ask, what is the highest level of competition the fighters there can reach now?"
"Level Five Champion! Qualifiers for Level Six Unlimited Power Armor matches! One-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three, five-on-five, all available!"
Dong Xin answered proudly.
"Oh—that's certainly good."
Paradise Island's competitions had seven levels in total.
For a fighter to reach Level Six competition indicated that the training hall and agent were indeed very strong, likely belonging to the top tier.
Because, as Guo Li Cheng knew, the super gladiator masters of the Level Seven competitions all had teams of at least a hundred people and their own training organizations, and would never train in outside training halls.