Lin Miao’s mouth twitched. Did they think he didn’t want to?
After completing that task, the reward was only five biological modification pods. According to the equipment description, one player one pod, he still needed to leave one for himself, so there was no extra one.
But four is four, fewer people are easier to manage, and he can bring in new ones later.
Wildman said nothing more, after a punch or two, whether it’s a mule or a horse, they’ll know in a couple of days. But when he clicked confirm on the lottery page of the official website, he was dumbfounded because there was nothing—no need to fill in a shipping address, no contact phone number, not even the recipient’s name—he felt uneasy.
Calling it a scam didn’t seem right either. ’It’s all a lot of water’ couldn’t be doing social experiments, making a promo video to deceive people, or playing some kind of super prank with internet performance art, right?
Apart from posting a couple of announcements in the group, Lin Miao didn’t continue speaking in the group too much, as more words could lead to mistakes. According to the system, he’d won tonight, and things would be delivered early tomorrow morning.
While Lin Miao was tinkering with the system and website interface functions he’d prepared to show the players tomorrow, suddenly there was a knock at the door.
It was a woman’s voice.
The sudden sound made Lin Miao stop his actions, grabbing his pistol and hiding it behind his back, he quietly walked to the door to look through the peephole.
Standing outside was a woman with red hair wearing a yellow jacket, looking about thirty, with fair skin and determination in her eyes. Next to her was David, whom Lin Miao had rescued earlier in the day, with his face now bandaged, looking a bit disheveled.
How should he put it...
If this woman was indeed David’s mother, Lin Miao would be somewhat surprised. It was understandable for her to know his surname because Seth had called him that several times in the car.
But she looked too normal, especially her hairstyle, in this original world where monsters and demons roamed Night City, she seemed too ordinary—untainted by the chaos. However, there was a deep exhaustion in her eyes, indicating chronic sleep deprivation, but that wasn’t unusual for people in Night City.
Lin Miao tucked the gun into his waistband, opened the door, and after checking side to side to ensure no one else was there, he let the mother and son inside.
"Whatever you need, come in and let’s talk."
Gloria hesitated for a moment but then decided to pull her son into Lin Miao’s room, carrying a gift box in her hand.
But Gloria was somewhat surprised to see that Lin Miao’s room was clean and tidy, with no empty bottles lying around, no trash bags piled up, and a faint scent of incense lingering in the air. Even the clothing was neatly arranged, as though there’d been a recent thorough cleaning.
The cleanliness of someone’s room can reflect their mental state. Lin Miao wasn’t a clean freak but couldn’t tolerate a messy room.
The mother and son sat on the couch, and Lin Miao poured them a glass of water. After taking the glass, Gloria sincerely said,
"David told me what happened during the day, I truly don’t know how to thank you, Mr. Lin."
"Even if I wasn’t there, nothing would have happened." Lin Miao glanced at David, sitting next to him with his head down and nervously tapping his foot, "This guy chased someone down and hit them hard. It’s not his fault; those little punks were deliberately looking for trouble."
Upon hearing Lin Miao’s praise, David felt proud instead of ashamed, raising his head to give Lin Miao a grateful look.
"Hm..." Lin Miao couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction; young people are always .
He then pulled out 100 euros and placed it in front of David, "David, right? Do me a favor. I can’t stand the beer here. Help me buy a bottle of whiskey from the store, and keep the change."
David looked at his mother and, after receiving her approval, picked up the money and walked out the door.
Gloria placed the gift box on the table and sincerely said, "This is a token of gratitude. Please, you must accept it."
But Lin Miao didn’t even glance at the gift box. Instead, he leaned back on the couch, staring at the red-haired woman. If he could access the NCPD’s archive, he might find a list of crimes next to this woman’s name, possibly ’trafficking in prosthetic bodies.’
"Ms. Gloria, right? It must cost a lot to send your son to study at Huang Ban Academy, and you’re working at the REO emergency company as a basic medical staff member..."
Unlike those mercenaries who live a life of debauchery, Lin Miao, from the first day he arrived in this world, had been frantically collecting all publicly available information online and trying to utilize the information gap.
Some things are always there; they just go unnoticed by you.
"The REO company you’ve worked for has been suppressed by the Trauma Team in the emergency industry since 2020, forced to withdraw from the mid-to-high-end market due to poor management. It’s been over fifty years. You used to hire two lone wolves as rescue guards, but now it’s just you medical staff, with wages even below industry standards..."
Lin Miao left some words unsaid; he had asked several mercenaries, inquired with vendors, and even spoken to old sailors for confirmation.
The responses were consistently shocking: REO’s patient recovery rate was pitifully low, with life-and-death determined by whether the doctors onboard thought highly of the prosthetic body attached to you. If they liked what they saw, and you lacked self-protection capabilities and weren’t accompanied by teammates for protection, then sorry, you’d likely be deliberately left to die, and have your prosthetic body dismantled and sold.