Hawks from the Land of Light are calling me a dove and an undercover agent in the chat group.

"Hehehe, don't even mention you, I'm feeling like I'm in a dream right now." Pila from Mann's squad laughed loudly, wriggling like a leopard.

Of course, the Mann Squad no longer exists. Although there was nothing wrong with the Mann Squad, taking on various positions within the Nature Gang would have allowed for a wider range of opportunities!

Jack grumbled, "You were all reluctant at first, weren't you?"

"Who said that? I don't know." Mann pretended to be blind. "Ah, no, I've had a cyberbullying episode. I've lost a piece of my memory. Ah, I remember now, an unforgettable memory. I joined the Nature Gang voluntarily! That's it!"

"But to be honest."

Dorio, Mann's wife, said coldly, "Do you really think we can survive? So far, it's only because the corporations haven't used the military to suppress us. Now that they've started negotiating, that day won't be far off, and we'll all die."

"So be it!"

Lucy was the first to declare resolutely, "I'd rather die charging into the Arasaka Group!"

Her past has already been revealed. She was once a member of the Arasaka Group who was completely used and manipulated as a tool. No matter who bows down to the company dogs, there will never be a place for her.

Although her original goal was to go to the moon, now she feels that it would be nice to die with everyone.

Old Wei, who was usually quiet, sighed and said, "Forget about dying or anything, I just hope everyone can be safe and sound."

V, Jack, Mann's team, David, Old V—that's all the high-ranking members of the Nature Gang.

It wasn't that we lived together, but our rooms were right next to each other on the same floor.

And now every single room in this entire high-rise building is occupied by members of the Nature Gang, and even several nearby high-rise buildings are also entirely inhabited by members of the Nature Gang.

After all, living close by means that Lao Qi can prevent the company dogs from assassinating other members. If they were far away, given the current strength of the puppet Ultraman's telekinesis, it would be a different story.

“Well, they have to survive.” Qiwei, Rebecca, and Falco all shook their heads. “However, I have no objection. Let them die if they want.”

Although Qiwei was originally very afraid of death and somewhat opportunistic, people can change after all. After being trained by Lao Qi, V's more charismatic temperament made Qiwei no longer want to betray him.

"Who told you anything about living or dying?"

V was speechless. That wasn't what he wanted to say. And so what if the company dogs teamed up? He had expected this day to come anyway.

If you can endure it, then endure it; if you can't, then die. There's really nothing to say about that. What he wanted to say was something else.

"Yorinobu Arasaka also sent another piece of information, saying that Saburo Arasaka was secretly working on something related to human consciousness, and had now produced a finished product, a Relic chip containing Johnny Silverhand's soul consciousness."

"Johnny Silverhand?!"

While everyone else was still confused, wondering who this person was, Lucy, who had once worked at Arasaka, exclaimed, "That legendary figure who stormed into Arasaka Tower with a nuclear bomb and detonated it on August 20, 2022?"

"So fierce?" Mann and David immediately turned their heads; this was indeed impressive.

V nodded: "Yorinobu Arasaka said he hopes we can steal that Relic chip. He doesn't want his idol to be used by Saburo Arasaka, and he also thinks Johnny Silverhand might be able to help us."

"If he were sincere, why wouldn't he just send the chips over directly? I think he's setting a trap to capture us!"

Jack still couldn't let go of his skepticism.

V, however, believed in Yoriyuki Arasaka. After all, almost two months ago, when Arasaka Yoriyuki first secretly sent someone to make contact with them, he sent over a lot of accurate information.

Some people might ask, why would Arasaka Yorinobu, the eldest son and first heir of the Arasaka Group, do this?

The answer is simple: although he is the successor to Arasaka, he has an extreme aversion to large corporations.

As for the reason, Arasaka Yorinobu only told V about it to gain trust, so it's definitely not a problem.

In 202, Lai Xuan was overjoyed when he learned that Johnny Silver Hand had blown up Arasaka Tower. Later, in order to fight against big companies like his idol, he chose to leave for Japan, but he didn't make a name for himself.

He only recently returned to Night City, intending to sabotage the company from within, as an Arasaka insider. As luck would have it, V was right in the middle of this, and the two hit it off and reached an agreement on the spot.

Arasaka Yorinobu's aversion to large corporations wasn't due to any particular love of peace, unequal wealth distribution, or belief that the lower classes suffered too much.

Rather, he simply disliked large companies, nothing more.

Not just his own Arasaka Group, he equally and extremely loathed all large companies. If all large companies were blown to bits one day, he would probably laugh himself to death.

Therefore, he will support the Nature Gang.

However, Arasaka Yorinobu also believed that the Nature Gang would eventually have no way out, so he could only do the thing of giving information to V to steal the Relic chip himself, and it was impossible for him to send someone to deliver the chip.

Because if he does that, once the Natural Gang goes bankrupt, even if he is the first successor of Arasaka, he will surely die. He will be immediately voted to death by all the other high-ranking members of Arasaka.

That won't do.

Arasaka Yorinobu was still planning to continue swindling the company after the Natural Gang went bankrupt; he wanted to keep his body useful.

David blinked. "So, are we going to rob it?"

“Of course,” V replied without hesitation.

Although he didn't think Johnny Silverhand, this old-fashioned remnant of the era, was of any use—if Johnny Silverhand could conjure a second nuclear bomb, that would be useful, but unfortunately, that was impossible.

But as long as it can cause trouble for the company's employees, it's a good thing. Besides, the thought of technology like the Relic chip, which concentrates the human soul and consciousness into a technological product, is chilling.

If this technology is successfully mass-produced and rolled out, people in the future will be unable to live or die for the rest of their lives. After they die, their souls and consciousness will be copied and uploaded to the network, and they will be working for big companies indefinitely.

Can this be tolerated?

If we're going to steal it, then we should not only steal the Relic chip, but also kill all the related departments, data, and scientists, once and for all!

V promptly sent a message to Lai Xuan, threatening that if Lai Xuan didn't tell him the rest of the top-secret information, he would help Arasaka torture Johnny Silverhand.

Arasaka Yorinobu: "..."

What else could he do? For his idol, he could only give out this information with tears in his eyes.

With the intelligence in hand, V immediately assembled a large army and launched the first attack on the company's dogs!

……

……

"Hmm? Tell me. -- What? Okay, I understand."

A secret place unknown to anyone, a basement deep underground where it would not be affected by a nuclear explosion, is where the major powers hold their peace talks.

Originally, all the major forces were bickering with each other, and even at this point, none of them were willing to give in. But now, a phone call has brought about a turning point.

Everyone else present focused their attention on Saburo Arasaka.

In this peace talks, there will inevitably be some who suffer losses and others whose interests are minimized.

Dogtown was the first choice. Although Dogtown is autonomous, it is not qualified to compare with other forces. Being able to participate in this peace talks is already an honor. As a concession to be honored, the infamy of this killing will definitely be attributed entirely to Dogtown.

Dogtown couldn't refuse either.

But the remaining question is the most important one: who gets priority to experiment on V and Jack?

Although everyone agreed to share data and keep copies of each other's research findings, this was just a nice way of saving face for each other; nobody believed it.

Whoever gets V and Jack first will definitely make a fortune. At most, they'll give you some basic detection data, but if there are any hidden achievements, they'll keep them all for themselves.

And there's another concern: they'll use it for a while before it's your turn. How can you guarantee that V and Jack will still be alive when they get to you?

They might not only be dead, but their bodies might have been subjected to a lot of technology, making it impossible for you to study them even if you wanted to.

Especially for the last faction to arrive, since everyone else already has something but you don't, it's almost inevitable that they'll team up to set a trap, destroy V and Jack's corpses so you won't have anything to eat.

If you can't exert your strength and successfully snatch one of V or Jack before it's your turn, you'll be left behind.

If you fall behind at one step, you'll fall behind at every step. In just twenty or thirty years, you'll be forgotten, falling out of the ranks of equals with others, and being completely devoured.

This is the cyberpunk society, the cyberpunk era.

The Sword of Damocles hangs high over everyone's head, whether they are poor, commoners, middle class, upper-middle class, or those in power, or even entire corporations; no one can escape it.

If you dare to relax your guard, the real death knell will come knocking.

Cyberpunk is essentially the extreme form of involution, a process where you work hard your whole life and have a high probability of getting no reward whatsoever.

Even until the moment of death, one cannot afford to relax; one is still thinking about the involution of competition.

Urged on by this real deadline, the negotiations were supposed to be a situation where no one would back down, and everyone would hold out for another seven or eight days, eventually coming together to lower their demands. But now, Saburo Arasaka's expression has clearly changed.

"Then let me be the sucker."

Under the watchful eyes of the other faction leaders, Saburo Arasaka's expression changed slightly, and he finally had no choice but to compromise: "V and Jack, our Arasaka Group can keep them until the end for collection and research, but there is one condition."

"They raided my lab and stole one of my Relic chips. Whoever finds my Relic chip during this campaign against the Nature Gang must return it to me immediately."

"If I don't see my intact Relic chip before the Nature Gang is defeated, then the agreed order will be void, and I must be the first to collect one of V or Jack for experimental research."

Upon hearing this, the other faction leaders pondered for a moment, then nodded and made a deal: "A reasonable request."

Although they all knew that the Relic chip with completely unknown contents was definitely some kind of technological achievement that Saburo Arasaka had been working on in private, and that it had been stolen or taken away by the Nature Gang during the current peace talks.

But that doesn't matter.

Compared to V and Jack, the two strongest materials, the original technological breakthrough of the Arasaka Group was definitely of lower value. It doesn't matter if the Relic chip is returned.

Finally, it was Arasaka Company's turn—Dogtown wasn't qualified to own V and Jack—and once this last bottom-ranking decision was made, the rest was easy to handle, and everything was quickly finalized within a day or two.

Then the leaders of all the major powers returned to their own territories to prepare their military affairs. They were to deploy all their troops, tanks, fighter jets, and firearms, all at once.

Otherwise, if your military strength is weak and the leader is there, other forces might take the opportunity to wipe out your force, and that would be the end of you.

After some preparations, NPCD was stripped of his powers and placed on temporary leave. The atmosphere in Night City remained extremely hot as a steady stream of troops marched in from the outside world. Local residents were all terrified and hid in their homes and sewers.

Everyone knows that the Natural Help is finished.

Volume 1: 476. Company dogs must be eradicated at any time; it's unavoidable.

476. Company dogs must be eradicated at any time; it's unacceptable to ignore them.

“I have witnessed companies taking away farmers’ wealth, food, water… and finally, their land.”

"I've also witnessed Night City turn into a machine, fueled by people's broken spirits, shattered dreams, and hard-earned money. For a long time, the company has controlled people's livelihoods, taking everything away... Now they're even taking away their souls."

"Damn it! If I'd known it would turn out like this, I would have preferred to die with that useless junk nuclear bomb rather than be dragged up and see this disgusting thing!"

"This damn 2076 is already 53 years after 202. Companies now are even more powerful back then. At least back then, people could barely get a bite of natural food and some decent water. But look at me now, oh God, my body can't even eat a piece of high-tech steak!"

A chattering old relic.

The Relic chip was rescued from the Arasaka Group's secret base and temporarily implanted into a robot by the world's greatest prosthetic master, Old Wei.

This robot, which looks incredibly simple on the outside, is actually the most irritable guy in history. He swears constantly and spews profanities.

The stark contrast left Rebecca and Lucy speechless, and they couldn't help but cover their mouths and giggle.

There's no way around it, it's just too funny, too hilarious.