Infinity, progressing from Arasaka

Beside the burning wreckage of the overturned Bratsk U4020 in the sand, a Latino man with his head bowed, blood seeping from his mouth and nose, foamy blood gushing onto the yellow sand from a deep cut in his neck that had almost severed his jawbone, cervical vertebrae, and brainstem.

The two limp, drooping prosthetic arms still extended electrified mantis blades; one blade's folding mechanism snapped, emitting a strange, leaking electrical screech.

Several small arcs of electricity burst out.

The mangled corpses of seventeen or eighteen other cybernetic attackers lay nearby; some had their chests torn open from the inside by thorns, some were sawed in half from head to toe, and some were simply beheaded…

The air smelled of burnt metal and charred, greasy meat.

The horrific and cruel scene caused the Arasaka Foreign Ministry administrative staff who were accompanying the Austin Multifaceted Dialogue Conference to frown and instinctively look away.

"Director... are you alright?"

Inside the Explorer Commercial Armored Aerial Vehicle that made an emergency landing.

As the deputy representative of the Arasaka delegation at this meeting, Vera's deputy, the impeccably dressed political affairs officer Mizuno Masao, picked up the black and gold box that his superior had recently abandoned, and looked at the blood-stained figure captured by the surveillance camera with a look of horror.

"It's alright, they're just a bunch of desperate fools."

Bathed in blood and gore, Vera, dressed in a blood-stained dark Arasaka office uniform, released the disemboweled attacker, carrying a blood-dripping black and red longsword.

The shock from the recent EMP (electromagnetic pulse) missile explosion made her feel extremely uncomfortable.

Although high-end prosthetic bodies and military vehicles are designed to resist EMP, and Vera has a special anti-EMP plugin and high resistance, military technology is not something to be taken lightly.

Being hit at such close range several times, aside from the malfunction and short circuit of the hovercar's central control system, the motion sickness-like feeling and the pricking sensation in her brain made her actions become much more violent.

As she spoke, Vera continued moving, and after scanning her vision, she spotted a figure with an unusual luster and a seductive aura, and then she appeared in a frame-by-frame flash.

The gun blade sliced ​​through, and resistance was felt along its edge. A scream rang out, and a wound appeared in mid-air, spraying blood onto the shimmering 'image' and Vera's clothes.

Optical camouflage.

Vera expressionlessly pulled the trigger of the TKI-20 Shingen smart submachine gun, firing six shots in quick succession. The precise operation tracked and locked onto the bullets, striking two eyes, two hearts, and two necks, causing blood to splatter everywhere.

"Activate Cyber ​​Tyrant. Has it been rebooted?"

Wiping away the bloodstains on her face, her reddened eyes flashed with data as she gave the order.

[AI: Restarted. Activating 60% →]

"Construct defensive fortifications, activate and engage all security robots, deploy drones, and soldiers."

Vera said this to the Arasaka Heavy Armored Security Force that accompanied her.

She casually pulled up the soldier she had just rescued from the heavily cybernetically modified attacker and dragged him behind her onto the Gobi Desert rock.

"Yes...yes! Director!" the soldier stammered excitedly.

"Ah."

Vera nodded slightly and surveyed the situation on the scene.

The scene was filled with a hail of bullets, covering an area of ​​several hundred meters around the temporary landing site where the convoy of hovercraft had set up a defensive position.

Scattered weapon parts and burning light armored vehicles filled the field of vision, interspersed with a dozen or so damaged armed robots.

In the distance, the Arasaka Octagonal heavy drone that had been shot down while shielding Vera's car was shattered, exploded, and was burning, with flames shooting into the sky and illuminating half of the scene.

From the moment the vehicle-mounted radar detected the attack, several EMP missiles, mixed in with anti-aircraft missiles deflected by infrared decoy flares, briefly paralyzed the entire operation of the Arasaka airship formation.

It can fly, but flying slowly with its weapon systems partially disabled, it is undoubtedly a target.

Therefore, Vera decisively ordered the entire formation to make an emergency landing. The attack signal had already been sent, and a defensive perimeter was to be established on the spot, with the accompanying cyber hackers restarting the system...

This is a lie.

This is a script that is only half-written.

Vera is putting on a brave face.

Looking at her blood-stained clothes and the bullet graze marks on them, she narrowed her eyes slightly. To make it more realistic and jarring, she deliberately didn't wear the 'judge' outfit she wore when she was on field missions in the past.

This level should be enough, right?

She specifically chose Juarez, a city that has historically been known as one of the most violent cities in the world.

Even though Night City is currently the city with the highest crime rate and the most violent crime in the world, it does not affect its status in the underworld at all. Its status as the most 'toxic' has hardly changed. Here, the use of marijuana has become completely integrated into daily life, and it is famous for producing psychopathic cyber mercenaries.

The Joint Intelligence Bureau has a long-standing tradition of selecting cannon fodder from places with simple, honest people who get excited easily and are full of troublemakers to join in the grand event.

If there are too many moderate people who use their brains, it will be difficult for her to manage.

Snap, splatter, splatter...

At this moment, the battle to cover and protect Vera's flanks also ended, and a crisp and continuous sound of flesh tearing rang out, which was the sound of the cyber ninjas from the Arasaka family compound who were responsible for protecting Vera.

The ejected thermal mantis blade was covered in evaporating blood mist. The leading ninja said, "Director, you really didn't need to..."

Have you forgotten my job?

With a slight smile, Vera countered with a question.

"Running away is not my style!"

Then, her gaze sharpened, and in front of her subordinates behind her, she leaned forward and stomped hard on the straps of her specially reinforced, durable mid-heeled loafers—bang!

The yellowish-brown sand suddenly cracked, and soil splattered in all directions.

The play should come to an end.

It delivered a devastating kick to a high-suspension SUV that was so heavily modified that its model was unrecognizable, and with a loud thud, the door twisted and deformed, and the SUV, which weighed at least ten tons, flipped over.

Bang bang dang!

The car body flipped violently onto the uneven sandy ground, only stopping when it hit a protruding rock. Vera then swung her long gun at the black guy with his arm deformed and the cannon barrel of the catapult launch system extending out from the driver's seat. *Smack!*

Like a hot knife cutting butter, the sharp blade of a gun scrapes against the metal shell of the cab and the windshield.

The bionic skin, artificial fiber muscles, blood vessels, and titanium skeleton inside were cut open.

Like molten iron, the gun blade suddenly bent and elongated, forming a sharp arc, and with a splatter, red and white blood splattered from the driver's cab.

Seeing this, the five cyber ninjas didn't say anything more.

Almost simultaneously with Vera's movement, [Seanwistan] moved at high speed, activated!

They clearly divided their tasks and rushed towards the flanks.

There was only one objective: to ensure Vera's safety.

boom!Boom!

In the midst of high-speed combat, as if she had a third eye, Vera dodged several electrified sniper shots with lightning speed. She looked up and, in a glance, her super-sensitive intuition instantly locked onto the coordinates of a spy in a distant location.

【Send Coordinates】

hum...bum...

The Arasaka Octave, which was hovering in the air and moving at high speed to provide fire support, and was not destroyed by the remaining guided rockets, received the first priority order on site. It immediately split into two, with the vector engine shining brightly with blue flames, and roared towards the end of the Gobi Desert illuminated by the night fire.

A burst of machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades slammed into the ground.

Vera could sense that the spying coming from those directions had disappeared.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Several more guided rockets shot up from the ground, and a sky full of firework-like decoys were launched from the bellies of the two Octaves. Amidst the heat waves and streaks of light, boom!

An octant was hit, lost its balance, and landed hard on the sand with its parts scattered and black smoke billowing out. There was an explosion and a flash, like a steel furnace that had exploded, blindingly hot.

Vera ignored this.

The adversary is an agent of the new U.S. Federal Intelligence Service.

Even with the constraints of the covert nature of their work and the impact of frontline personnel disobeying orders, they are unlikely to be able to access more heavy weaponry. However, the level of military technology deployed in weaponry is something Arasaka must take seriously.

Military-grade cybernetic bodies are the most basic and need no further explanation.

It's highly probable that equipment such as multi-functional individual firearms, light armored vehicles, and disguised missile vehicles—which repeatedly veer off the line in the "Excessive Fires Prohibition Treaty"—will also be issued to special agents.

Because Arasaka is like that too.

Or rather, this is the case for all large corporations worldwide.

Da da da--

With the defensive Arasaka police force launching a counterattack and the assembly of mobile sentry emplacements, the attacking 'terrorists' vehicle assault was effectively halted for the time being.

But in that short time, two more Octans crashed.

Because they had to destroy the 'terrorist' rocket launcher, they essentially traded blows with the enemy.

Drones and armed robots were countless; they were all consumables anyway. One Mantis was also hit by a missile; the vehicle started smoking, sank, and crashed headfirst into the ground. The engine looked like it wouldn't be repaired anytime soon.

Assessing the extent of the damage, Vera examined the virtual screen grid map built into her prosthetic eye.

According to the route analysis, the support troops responsible for providing backup will arrive in 10 minutes. Even the trauma team's rescue team is on its way.

Sizzle...

[Warning: Intrusion underway.]

"Huh?" Vera noticed that her custom-designed [Self-ICE (Intrusion Prevention Element)] plugin, which directly connects to the Arasaka Network Security Department, was triggering an alarm.

Countermeasures

Vera's eyes flashed with crimson data.

With its superhuman computing power, unprecedented neural load capacity, and an unreleased, laboratory-grade network access module operating at high frequency—almost equivalent to the pinnacle of anti-intrusion and anti-cracking technology developed by Arasaka and Network Surveillance—it can crack, reverse-engineer, and counter-trace the Puppet Virus.

[Intrusion protocol approved]

[Cracking rapidly → Uploading]

[Target localization], [Collateral transmission], [Prosthetic overheating], [Synaptic meltdown]...