Chapter 551 - 362: Chen_2
John parked his car and passed through the low-rent district, where the alleyways grew broader.
Here, there’s a boulevard that leads directly to the city ring road, spacious and convenient for transport. Discarded debris piles up into mountains on the wastelands, forming the boundary of the market.
The people brushing past him hailed from all sorts of professions, no longer just muscle-bound and uniquely styled Edge Walkers. There were regular workers in overalls and jackets, ordinary girls dressed normally, not Sex Dolls nor hackers or any life-threatening type of person — just ordinary girls, even children. Their territory spanned from the slums to the open-air market.
John passed through them and finally saw the sign.
[Shop - Chen’s]
A large traditional Chinese character [Chen] was spray-painted manually on the warehouse wall, with the lower part obscured by messy oil stains, making the original small characters hard to decipher.
Gerry waved outside the rolling shutter door, squatting with the owner and squeezing inside.
As John bent down, he caught the scent of engine oil. When he straightened up, he found himself in a spacious factory.
Two large pieces of equipment roared on the far side.
A few people who seemed like employees were wearing rubber aprons, transporting boxes filled with semi-finished goods. It didn’t resemble a black market but more like a small processing workshop.
John even thought he might have taken a wrong turn.
Gerry raised a hand to outline an area.
The warehouse was divided into two sections, with no clear boundaries. On the side near the rolling shutter door, a large number of items were piled up.
Gerry had already bundled some of them with yellow tape.
There was a stainless steel serving counter, a four-burner steel furnace, and a heap of kitchenware including flat pans — some rusty, some with intact coatings, all somewhat grimy.
John activated his cybereyes and casually scanned several items.
The mercenaries only needed a microwave that wouldn’t explode; most of the kitchen remnants required for a restaurant rear kitchen were unfamiliar to him.
Maya and Gaf were present, but Wenna was not.
Two employees stuck close to a large pile of items.
Labeled second-hand refrigerators, dishwashing and disinfection machines, and even a seven-meter-long section of an oil and smoke exhaust system were all present.
Through cohabitation over time, John gradually discovered the employees’ "abilities."
Gerry had worked with sounds, surviving on the streets for long periods. He knew everything from serving customers to equipment management, resembling a restaurant encyclopedia.
He could tell the marks of welding scars, hear the half-second delay of compressors, and eloquently negotiate prices with market owners.
No ordinary chef at a small stall would need to know so much.
Since getting acquainted with John, Gerry never stopped working with Chen Zhigang, handling every task personally. It took four months for him to slowly evolve into the persona of a professional manager.
Employees like Gerry were "cultivated" himself.
Wenna, on the other hand, was ready-made.
She possessed professional bartending skills, strong affinity, and a sufficiently solid work résumé, allowing her to start work directly upon recruitment.
John eavesdropped the entire time, unable to assist in any way.
He profoundly realized that not only gunslinging, hand-to-hand combat, or brain-burning abilities defined skills; the talents essential for city survival were incredibly diverse.
Suffering from boredom, John focused on the equipment.
The items placed in the factory were extremely plentiful, mostly second-hand goods, and with each scan, he found the sources to be quite complex.
For instance, the refrigerator that Maya fancied came from a cafeteria at Plato, and it even had an untorn material placard.
Another compressor hailed from Gaia Cells’ laboratory.
Next to it stood an alloy tea-table from Jingke Heavy Industry, double-row lockers from a changing room, and even unopened ergonomic chairs for conference rooms.
John scanned more and grew increasingly surprised.
His pupils sparked, circled around the warehouse, and found assets of the city’s top-twenty tax-paying companies.
Some seemed like scrap disposal but actually had operational room; any one of them taken casually could lead to charges of selling corporate property.
"The owner here is quite capable, huh?"
John murmured softly.
At John’s words, Gerry immediately lifted his head, glancing at the Asian male who was arguing with a customer. Seeing the man wasn’t paying attention, Gerry replied to John.
"Chen’s no ordinary fellow. I’ve seen him beat down unruly thugs with swift moves!"
Common citizens often held a sense of respect towards Edge Walkers.
Had Gerry not known John, he might be just an honest businessman, thus he wouldn’t actively explore Old Chen’s secrets, let alone provoke.
John had no such qualms.
While Gerry spoke, John’s cybereyes began gathering focus, initiating a scan.
[Name: Chen Ji (Vise)]
[Faction: Neutral]
John’s vision flickered, unexpectedly altering the information.
[Faction: Longsheng Pharmaceutical Group]
The file had undergone modifications.
John’s cybereyes database originated from Black Light; the current situation indicated that Old Chen’s records had been manually altered.
It wasn’t surprising for those in various trades to need anonymity.
Even John’s own identity was newly forged.
He was rather curious about [Longsheng Pharmaceutical Group].
It’s a significant biomedical company from Asia, although it didn’t hold much market share in Eden City and lacked even a headquarters building.
John took note of it because of [Kuang Xin].
This guy was ostensibly the PR department manager for Tiebang Logistics, secretly a corporate spy for the Messiah Company. Moreover, Black Light’s information revealed — Kuang Xin’s true identity was the second son of the controlling family of the Longsheng Pharmaceutical Group.
Unexpectedly, he’s encountered someone from the same faction.