If you’re detained, just call Night City and they’ll provide a full pickup and escort service?
For real?
After the message went out, many researchers were skeptical about its authenticity.
After all, while the companies they worked for might not be as large as Yunxiao Group, they weren’t exactly pushovers. Yunxiao Group was the top dog in Night City, but outside the city, not as many people would show them deference. Could they really protect them?
So, even the top talent at major corporations who were interested in going to Night City didn’t dare make a move just yet.
After all, their freedom of movement was only partially restricted at the moment.
If they just gritted their teeth and endured it, they could get by.
But if they fully sided with Night City, the companies they worked for would absolutely never let them off the hook.
...
Therefore, it was only talent from smaller companies who were tempted when they saw the message.
After all, their companies were relatively small and powerless to resist a behemoth like Yunxiao Group.
If Yunxiao Group was actually willing to send people to pick them up, there was a good chance they could leave without a hitch.
Deciding to give it a shot, dozens of researchers from a small company called Aomei Network Technology in Mountaineering City, right next to Night City, secretly dialed the encrypted number Yunxiao Group had published.
The voice on the other end of the line was very sweet.
After confirming their location and the number of people who wanted to join Yunxiao Group, the person on the other end quickly hung up.
"You think Yunxiao Group will really send someone?"
"They have to, right? Otherwise, what would be the point of releasing that message? Just to make themselves a laughingstock?"
"I hear the pay and benefits in Night City are incredible. We do the hardest, most grueling work at this piece-of-shit company, and the boss still lords over us. This is no way to live!"
"With our skills, even if we can’t compare to the top hackers at the big corporations, we’re definitely not pushovers that any regular technician can challenge. That dumbass boss exploits us like we’re disposable assets. I just wanna know if his head is filled with garbage."
The group grumbled and cursed.
Before Yunxiao Group began its external recruitment drive, they hadn’t felt so resentful.
But ever since Yunxiao Group issued its recruitment order, they were stunned to discover that even the lowest-tier hacker at the company earned a third more than they did.
This completely shattered their composure.
They had originally planned to resign that very night and flee to the neighboring Night City for better prospects, but their boss got wind of it and had them forcibly dragged back before they could board their transport.
The official reason given was that they were absconding with company secrets.
In reality, this was tantamount to false imprisonment.
But in this day and age, so-called human rights and laws were a joke. The police, the government, and the law were all just protective umbrellas for capital and corporations. Before these massive conglomerates, an individual was as insignificant as an ant.
With families to support, they were utterly powerless to fight back.
Just as they were speculating on how long it would take for Yunxiao Group to send someone, or if they would send anyone at all, or who might show up...
An attack helicopter bearing the Yunxiao Company insignia flew straight toward the Aomei Network Technology Company building.
RUMBLE...
Dozens of elite, fully-armed soldiers stood aboard the attack helicopter, their presence as deep and imposing as the ocean. When it reached the rooftop of the Aomei Network Technology Company, several of them leaped down.
As dust swirled, a member of the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team, an RPG slung over his shoulder and a cigarette dangling from his lips, stood at the entrance and announced, "Night City’s Yunxiao Group is hiring. Anyone who wants to sign up, now’s the time!"
Staring at the soldier who looked ready to level the Aomei Network Technology Company building at a moment’s notice, and at the RPG on his shoulder, everyone was utterly dumbfounded.
’Since when did Night City operate like this?’
’Do the interviewers show up at your door carrying RPGs now?’
...
Scenes like this played out all over the world, with members of the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team acting as recruiters, personally escorting detained talent in full combat gear.
Of course, plenty of companies refused to take this lying down.
It’s just that things rarely ended well for them.
The members of Night City’s Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team were just too damn strong, and what’s more, they were outfitted with top-of-the-line weapons and cybernetics personally developed by Li Chang’an.
Ordinary Tier Three, and even Tier Four, Transcendents were like paper tigers in front of them, unable to last more than a few rounds before being killed on the spot.
In just one short month, Night City extracted several thousand top experts from various industries all over the world.
This caused a massive uproar.
Aside from Yunxiao Group itself and Advanced Technology Company, the other six of the Ten Great Companies all expressed extreme anger and alarm.
They had originally assumed that Night City wouldn’t dare poach talent right from under their noses.
But Night City and its Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team were a bunch of lunatics who didn’t care about saving face. If someone called, they really went!
Take Kangtao Technology Group, one of the Ten Great Companies.
The Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team dispatched over three hundred members who landed a hypersonic combat aircraft on their headquarters’ rooftop and brazenly extracted more than a hundred top experts in weapons and genetic engineering.
Then there was the Military Technology Group, another of the Ten Great Companies.
The Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team deployed nearly its full force, sending over five hundred members to extract more than two hundred people while the chairman of the Military Technology Group could only roar in impotent fury...