Players Invade Cyberpunk

Jing Luo, enraged: "This is a good thing, why should we be figuring things out? We should be figuring out how to delay the construction period instead."

Jing Luo, ecstatic, nodded along

"9494, but why?"

"..."

"If they have nothing to do, we will have things to do." Jing Luo, enraged, explained slowly

"Without those workers, no one will compete with us for work. We get all the project points to ourselves. So what if it's a bit late, what's the big deal?"

Red Barrel nodded at first, then asked

"You're right, but if we delay the construction period and can't get the project funds, what then?"

"Um...huh? Project funds?"

Jing Luo, enraged, looked completely baffled

"Yeah, you don't think these game resources just appear out of thin air, do you?"

"This event's construction project, as per setting, is funded by Horizon Corporation, Militech, and Huang Ban. They put up the money, Horizon's construction subsidiary signed labor contracts with workers, recruited construction crews to start work."

"But all this money is in specific bank accounts. If you don't finish the work on schedule, they have a reason not to give you any more money. If those material suppliers don't get paid, how are we supposed to complete the event?"

"You think it's like some construction companies in reality, where you can make connections, have a meal, bribe a bit, and let officials talk to bank managers, create fake procedures to siphon off funds from dedicated accounts, and continue investing in the next building, collectively boosting the city's GDP?"

The Night City corporate groups that have the strength to buy skyscrapers won't play these games. If you can't complete the work, the client will want your life, leaving you with nothing.

"Ugh…"

Jing Luo, enraged, scratched his head, clueless about these matters.

Knowing these people were unreliable and couldn't come up with a legitimate idea, Red Barrel rested a while, then got up, dusted off, and prepared to check on the hostage tally.

Naturally, this task wasn't only noticed by them; everyone had their own methods.

The prisoners were surrounded by door frames and heavily armed players on a clear land, both panicked and bewildered.

Wanderers were never particular about what they wore, and now they looked even more ragged, no different from street vagabonds.

Before them was a long queue, where several players sat on chairs, recording each prisoner's information

"Name."

"Luca Miler"

"Place of Origin"

"Huh?"

"Where your parents are from."

"Mexico, that's all I know. I was born on a bus."

"Gender."

"Huh?"

"What do you mean, huh!"

Faced with a gun pointed at his head, the wanderer reluctantly replied

"Male, can't you tell?"

"Well, not necessarily, I've seen men who look like women."

In this game, it's crucial to ask this, since it's difficult to distinguish genders of cyborgs with the naked eye.

Don't ask how players became aware of this issue.

Bishōnen should only exist in anime worlds.

Every prisoner must have their complete information recorded. Even if they lie, it doesn't matter. Hacker players have already retrieved everyone's details from the server mainly to see who is straightforward and who is cunning.

This was suggested by the Red Murderer

He stood on the sidelines of the prisoner crowd, watching the large commotion. Lost in thought.

"So many people, what do we do with them, hand all of them over to NCPD?"

"They don't even have bounties on them, handing them over to those cops would be a pure loss."

Many players were also quite troubled, after all, there were hundreds of prisoners, managing their daily needs was a significant cost.

They didn't want to waste their valuable gaming time on these prisoners.

Seeing Lucy's mission, someone got a sudden idea

"The workers have ditched, can't we make these prisoners work? Turning prisoners into population is the standard operation in management games, right?"

But most players didn't think well of this

"Dude, look at this bunch, do they look like they can work truthfully? No telling what sabotage they might do, don't let the house remain incomplete while they vanish."

A Land of Light street loafer pointed at those Chaotic Blade Association members dressed in a mess, looking fierce and said

"Look at their appearance, even worse than me."

"Then what do we do? Bury them alive?"

Many in the Chaotic Blade Association felt a chill in their heart hearing this, contemplating a desperate fight for survival.

Yet being captives, they were uploaded with Demonic Puppet body restrictions, not much stronger than ordinary humans, leaving them unable to escape.

Red Murderer smiled and said

"Not necessarily, there could always be someone who listens. The key is to prepare them with some political indoctrination."

Political indoctrination?

The players shrugged, showing powerlessness

Many of them had political education, but mostly forgot the content from high school politics classes, struggling to pass college Marxist philosophy exams by flipping through books.

If you ask them to govern, chant verses, or exchange bean hats, that perhaps they can do, but real indoctrination—that's beyond them.

Perhaps while talking, they might get into arguments and then shoot those who resist.

At this moment, Red Barrel came over and asked

"How's the prisoner registration going?"

The player acting as a clerk said: "Almost finished, probably a few dozen more people to go."

"But what do we do after registration? Can't keep them here forever, can we?"

Red Barrel looked at the hundreds of prisoners and frowned, "No clue, I think Lucy's task is for these people to work, but they don't look like workers, they're like bandits, even lazier than the laziest worker on my site."