NovelSearch Chapter 526 - 344: Alcohol and Song
Chapter 526 - 344: Alcohol and Song
The risk of working in a place like this is very high.The waitstaff came from persecuted ordinary people, desperate stowaways, and even family members who offended gangs, as well as low-level sex dolls who couldn’t survive otherwise.
"A bomb could destroy this place."
Gino continued from where John left off. "But it won’t solve the problem."
The back door of the Eel Club wasn’t even locked, leading straight to the staff lounge. In fact, hardly anyone would leave voluntarily, especially when they’re injured like earlier.
Because gangs would consider taking people to black clinics to get their wounds treated for the shop’s profit.
If you leave here, no one will pay for your treatment anymore.
By the same token, the cost of living would equally crush every ordinary person. Those who can manage to work as a waiter in the Eel Club, what’s a better choice out there for them?
"John, do you think it’s meaningful to tell these people down there that Saw died? Died out of absolute loyalty to the Black Gold Gang Godfather, died in street and corporate conflicts... Do they care if a ruthless, murderous madman swallowed a gun?"
Gino remained expressionless, finishing his cigarette in a few puffs.
"Feeling any better?"
She looked at John and smiled.
Before John could answer, she seemed to remember something and immediately moved away from the railing, urging John to fast walk away from the corridor.
"Come with me, it’s about to begin!"
John followed behind, head down.
He noticed that temporary barriers were erected in the booths below, and bulletproof features were added to the walls and fragile equipment, seemingly guarding the center of the dance floor.
The rock music suddenly amplified, almost bursting one’s eardrums.
Thick smoke rolled out from around the walls, the laser lights became rhythmic, and all the sex dolls on the dance floor paused their performance and left the scene.
Gino took John to the monitoring room.
There were also two hackers inside, who greeted them briefly and then started watching the CCTV cameras.
"Weren’t we talking about alcohol? Let me show you the Eel Club’s reserved program."
[Device: EEL: B1788-1; 22]
John took the data cable, synced into the channel, and gained a view of the hall’s equipment.
A tower made of metal cups rose in the center of the stage, containing dozens of cups of different colored drinks.
John noticed:
Ordinary people around the hall had gathered.
They wanted to keep their distance from the violent ones, yet mustered the courage to pass through the crowds deformed by prosthetic bodies and reach the front of the drink tower.
"These are industrial spirits with lots of stimulants, the kind that can make your blood vessels explode, high enough to hollow yourself out!"
"WTF?"
The thought alone twisted John’s expression on his face.
A lot of staff appeared in the center of the dance floor. People who wanted to drink needed to get professional device connection slots to record bodily sensations.
Then they could freely choose the drinks.
Each glass would reward them two hundred Euros, which is why they’d often be snatched clean, and then dozens of lunatics would start dancing wildly in the middle of the stage.
Fully equipped gang members would retrieve corpses and equipment by the side.
"Wait, corpses?"
John noted a word.
"Heh, what do you think happens when you lock a bunch of lunatics together?" Gino’s icy face showed a hint of distortion, practically writing disgust on his face.
"Moreover, the Black Gold Gang often mixes a deadly dose of a new drug in one of the drinks."
Every person who drinks becomes valuable data for the Black Gold Gang.
And the materials recording real experiences would be made into illegal Super Sensing Chips, sold on the black market to thrill-seeking perverts, yielding another large profit.
"This series of films is quite famous too."
The hacker on duty next to them added.
He was already used to it.
The noise outside the control room had begun shaking the building, the movements of the lunatics causing each steel structure to tremble slightly.
All the cups shown in the footage had been split among them.
They knew what they drank, but the thrill-seeking Ghouls didn’t care, the dire extremists didn’t want to bother, and addicts with heavy modifications craved the madness...
The scene started becoming chaotic, and sex and violence ensued.
John unplugged the data cable after just a few seconds, only to find that Gino had already disconnected and was lighting a new cigarette, waiting for him.
She smiled and asked in the noisy room:
"How about now? Feeling better?"
"..."
John waved his hand, didn’t speak, and left the club from the back with her.
The nights in Eden City West District had never been peaceful, but having just experienced a visual and auditory shock, John felt the siren-filled streets were tranquil and peaceful.
"Try it out, it’s not a Golden Apple, but an illegal cigarette originally from North Africa, just started circulating into the city to open a new market. My last employer gifted it, the taste isn’t bad."
Gino pulled up her hood and handed John a packet of thin cigarettes.
"Nothing deadly added."
She stretched her arms and walked while rubbing the blood vessels near her Network Access Vault.
The two chatted casually as they walked down the street.
"I’m not Angelica, John, listening to stories and giving feedback are too gentle a task. I can’t handle that kind of delicate stuff, nor am I a psychiatrist."
John felt distressed over a fucked-up thing, so Gino showed him something even more fucked-up, making a comparison that could dilute the distortion and strangeness in his heart.
That’s how Eden City educates and treats everyone.
"Feeling better?"
"Phew~ I don’t want to admit it, but indeed... sigh..."
"Hahaha, buddy, exactly, that’s how it is." Gino quickly pounced on John’s shoulder, laughing loudly: "You’re the same as four months ago."
By the time they spoke, they had returned to the Dream Talk Bar.
Opening the door, the bustling customers surprised John, he didn’t expect so many people to have shown up during their short absence.
"Luckily, we made it back."
Gino and John were not noticeable in the crowd at the back.
She climbed up a box of empty bottles, grabbed plastic sequins to stand up, and waved to Rossi near the bar.
The lighting in the Dream Talk Bar was very soft.
It’s unclear if it was to save costs or intentionally make the ambiance cozier.
Rossi had already left the bar, leaving the bartending work to another girl on the night shift, and she walked to the wooden stool beside a storage shelf, sat down, and started fiddling with a jukebox.
This equipment was so old it was outlandish, gone through several repairs.
When John first arrived, he thought it was some kind of nostalgic ornament but didn’t expect it to actually produce sound.
Rossi didn’t plug in any slots or transmit data, just used some discs that ordinary people hadn’t even seen before as accompaniment, clearing her throat to prepare for singing.
She subconsciously tapped wooden blocks, swaying her body, humming with emotion.
To be honest.
Rossi’s voice was very dry and her natural voice volume was low. Coincidently, there was a cargo drone passing by the building outside, the hovercar’s vector engines constantly roaring, making it so that people at the back didn’t hear what the first few lines sang.
Until the crowd voluntarily quieted down.
Gino kicked the bar door closed again, isolating most of the noise.
That unprotected, unpolished sound wave vibration was then received by John’s ears, a sound belonging to the biological, "imperfect" and "non-mechanical" voice, began to hit his eardrums.
The fragment was very short, maybe just two minutes long.
The bar regulars clapped their hands, continued drinking, with no elaborate praise or jeering phase.
Gino was going to say goodbye to John.
"Don’t be disheartened, buddy. The things that can fill the emptiness inside are not just alcohol, drugs, or sex, but also love. If you can’t find the real thing, then go buy a little fake, have a good dream, tomorrow’s a brand new day."