CHAPTER 294: CHAPTER 95: ESTABLISHING A CUSTOM TEAM TO SERVE PLAYERS

In fact, the bounty system involves some quite sensitive issues.

Such as law enforcement authority

Do you have the right to shoot or investigate a subject, who decides if the subject’s crimes warrant a bounty, verifies if the crimes are accurate, sets the appropriate bounty amount, determines who pays, and whether there’s a need for elimination.

This is a very complex matter; you can’t just pay and casually place a bounty on someone’s head.

And there are socio-economic concerns.

But here in Night City, whether you have law enforcement authority doesn’t prevent you from shooting someone on the street, and economically, as long as it doesn’t involve major corporations, it’s called freedom, telecom fraud is rampant, and as long as it doesn’t trick big shots, no one will bother you.

Thus, outsourcing the bounty system from the NCPD is not difficult at all; after a few meals with Director Kest and using some generous political cash, the function that turned from a sheep into a hot potato was easily outsourced to Horizon Office for 550,000 annually. The NCPD wants to go public, so a stellar financial statement is essential.

On one hand is the immediate 550K; on the other, scattered black money, any sensible person would know which to choose.

"Starting today, Santo Domingo’s bounty notices are in our company’s hands."

The screen in the lobby was filled with rows of tasks, compared to before there were a lot of new things, like a map of underground pipelines, which only showed a small part lit, waiting for players to explore the vast areas still covered by the fog of war, so Lin Miao’s mood was very good.

"Hmm..." Lucy leaned on the couch, looking unenthusiastic.

"Only you would be interested in these things; I can’t see what else they’re good for besides giving tasks to people."

"This means the NCPD has granted me access, allowing direct connection to municipal system backdoors, taking over surveillance, population distribution, import-export taxes, crime records...."

"How’s that possible?" Lucy jumped up, "The municipal data center’s firewall fortress is on par with those of big companies like Huang Ban, and is not just designed by their own people, hackers monitor it 24/7, won’t you be discovered by doing this?"

"That’s why borrowing the NCPD’s IP shell won’t get me discovered."

The system isn’t just an NPC sending tasks; it’s more like a strong AI, something the companies could only dream about acquiring, using the NCPD shell allows access to many non-critical things.

As Lin Miao encountered more and more things, he increasingly felt it differed from other so-called AI; it almost perfectly executed every function Lin Miao imagined as if it could read minds.

Resource statistics, function allocation, task writing, count statistics, automated production, program design, 3D modeling.... It could even independently become a top creator and keep growing; if Lin Miao didn’t purposely limit its productivity, he couldn’t imagine what extent it could reach.

Lin Miao even suspected that one day it could control the flow of every basic unit in society and accurately calculate regional output and demand to arrange resource mobilization, maximizing productivity release and minimizing resource waste.

So what’s wrong with borrowing the NCPD’s IP address to steal a little?

Buzz buzz buzz——

The communicator suddenly rang, it was Gloria, sounding very urgent

"Mr. Lin, there’s trouble at the hospital."

"Hmm?"

"Here’s what’s happening: previously the Trauma Team’s response was too strong; the company board has forcibly ordered us to avoid conflict with the Trauma Team’s field units, I can’t continue assigning tasks now."

An interesting point is that the ERO rescue mechanism not only saves its insured users but also others, as long as an emergency call is made; they even randomly pick spectators passing by gunfight sites, which means before interfacing with the opposing neural link, they can’t determine whether the person they’re saving is a Trauma Team member.

Thus it’s hard to pinpoint Gloria, and as for the players, they are seen as one faction in the gang fight, so since there’s conflict, the players are also injured and need rescue, getting on the ambulance or accompanying them to the hospital is quite logical and reasonable.

And by the time rescue personnel confirm the identities, Trauma Team field personnel almost arrive.

Previously, for every Trauma Team member snatched, ERO would even give bonuses to the staff below, but now the conflict expands, so backing down is also understandable.

"I know this; tasks can still be assigned, even if they’re not Trauma Team members it doesn’t matter."

Lin Miao is now financially strong, able to withstand activity costs, and cannot let this player event end on a weak note, finding a reason to uncover the Scavengers’ base and eliminate them is also good.

"There’s another thing." Gloria’s nervousness hadn’t eased a bit, "This is news I got from Kotaisky, the board wants to seek shareholder help to suppress this incident and reconcile with the Trauma Team, but progress seems sluggish, just now our director, Tangkx, was shot dead by a group of mercenaries on his way to work."

"Right now nobody in the company is willing to do fieldwork, many department chief physicians are preparing to resign...."

What?

Shareholders are shareholders, responsible for funding, directors are directors, responsible for overall management, they intersect but aren’t the same group.