Infinity, progress from Arasaka

"Hmm?" Again?!

Yes, that was the line last time. Damn thief, I'm not the same anymore, look at me -

David turned around suddenly.

"Thump, thump, thump!" There was a sudden and hurried sound of heavy footsteps.

There were two figures that were faster.

"Drink——!"

David turned around and saw clearly that a sloppy man dressed like a street kid was running through the aisle. Zila! From behind the suddenly opened partition door of the carriage, two heavily armored figures rushed out.

The dark figure almost turned into an afterimage.

moment.

David swore that he didn't blink, but just like playing a game with a very low frame rate, the dark figure passed through the carriage.

At the moment when the sloppy man was about to escape into another car, he grabbed his waist, pulled him up, and threw him hard towards the empty seat next to the aisle.

boom!

The hard plastic seat back of the train shattered into pieces, and the sloppy man seemed to have broken his bones. The moment he wanted to stand up and resist with a look of pain on his face, the second figure in black armor rushed over.

He lifted the sloppy man's clothes by the shoulder and gave him a fierce knee strike, snap!

David seemed to be able to hear the sound of bones breaking.

Taking advantage of the situation, the dark armored figure did not stop his actions. He put one hand on the shoulder and used the other hand to hold the sloppy man's jawbone and smashed it towards the second seat.

The back of his head cracked the back of the chair.

At this time, the armored soldier who had completed the bomb-throwing action had already raised his round fist and hit the sloppy man's face. Puff, the body-shaping mimicry mask was damaged, the skin was torn, the eyeballs burst, and blood splattered all over the ground. After raising the bloody fist, he punched twice again.

Click.

The sound of a gun being loaded, when his companion finished firing and took a step back, another one took out a pistol and pointed it at the sloppy man who had fallen down with a bloody face, and pulled the trigger. Pah pah pah! Blood bloomed on the sloppy man's chest.

Everything happened in a flash, and only at this moment did many passengers in the carriage realize what had happened and scream.

"JKE-X2 Kenshin?"

David recognized the model of the pistol. He also had one.

It is revealed that the two are Arasaka soldiers.

"We are the Arasaka City Sheriffs, hunting down criminals. Citizens, don't be nervous, the crisis has been resolved. The damaged facilities in the carriage will be cleaned and repaired when it arrives at the terminal."

After comforting the frightened passengers, two Arasaka sheriffs dragged the unconscious sloppy man back to the passageway of the carriage. "This is patrol team 6-2309, we found..." They reported to their superiors. When passing by David, the artificial eye with flashing red light paused for a moment. "From Arasaka Academy?" they said, and then walked away.

David looked at the bloodstains on the aisle in a daze.

On the one hand, it is the yearning for the capable movements of these Arasaka soldiers.

On the other hand, "Is it necessary to be so exaggerated to catch a thief?" He blinked and muttered.

Ding.

The sound of the train arriving at the station brought David back to reality.

Well, I don’t want to think about it anymore.

Go to school first.

...

The Martinez home in the Megabuilding H4 apartment building in Santo Domingo.

Gloria Martinez was rarely at work, but sat on the sofa by the window, looking tired.

There were flashes of data in her eyes.

[Gloria: Mann, this is it... This is what's happening in Santo Domingo now. There are endless fights and murders. The situation is too chaotic. No one can predict the future. I'm going to move out. David is right. For safety reasons, the sooner we move out, the better.]

[Mann: No problem, I'll lend you the money. After all, I owe you a favor. And the top-notch stuff you gave me is really top-notch, and it has helped me and my team overcome difficulties many times. Although it is slowly killing me.]

[Gloria: I'm sorry about this. I didn't expect...]

[Mann: You don't need to apologize, it's what I need. I also have something to ask of you. Your son should be graduating from Arasaka Academy soon. Once he enters Arasaka Tower, he will be a corporate dog with his nose in the sky... ahem, I mean a superior person. Ask him to help me buy a batch of Arasaka's latest immunosuppressants at their internal discount price. This is my only request...]

【Gloria: ...Okay, I'll do my best. 】

[Mann: Thank you. Well, the money has been transferred to you. Gloria, Santo Domingo is definitely not a place for a woman like you who wants to live a good life. The rent in Lijing District only costs a few dollars. You might as well quit your job and don't ruin your health and let your son down. When he becomes rich, it will be time for you to enjoy a peaceful life...]

[Gloria: Oh, Mann, you actually said that. Didn't you always think that working in a company was too restrictive and boring, so you chose to be a cyberpunk? ]

[Mann: Oh, I have a new understanding... Big companies like Arasaka and Militech are the real bosses.]

...

Watson, the Arasaka Beach is now more heavily guarded after the reinforcement of troops.

Vera is inspecting the temporary garrison at the coastal port.

"I say, Ms. Michiko, why are you following me?"

A gust of sea breeze mixed with fishy smell and humidity blew by. Vera held the cigarette between her fingers and took out a fuel lighter with a platinum case and pure gold patterns inlaid on it. After lighting it, she exhaled a puff of smoke, turned sideways, and looked at Arasaka Michiko who followed her with some helplessness.

"Aren't we sisters?"

Michiko Arasaka asked back with a hint of lightness in her eyes.

The woman was standing on the dock in her thin, revealing golden dress. She didn't seem to care about the astonished looks of the surrounding middle-level agents of Night City Security Department, and was smoking contentedly.

Really, she was so bored, living alone in North America with no relatives.

Several boyfriends were just for fun and were useful, there were needs, and maybe there was true love, but that was in the past, and when the impulse and passion of youth faded, that was it.

She has become accustomed to living in an environment where she is coveted and plotted against.

When the rumor that Saburo was going to find a successor to Arasaka Kei's will spread to North America, Michiko had no good feelings towards Vera Adelheid. But after learning about Saburo's "recognition of relatives" and personally contacting her for a period of time, she admitted that she had become interested in Vera.

She wanted to test Vera's abilities.

"Yes, but not completely yet."

Vera glanced at her sister who could be her grandmother.

As expected, she is a representative figure of the two-dimensional world in the cyberpunk worldview. Her mentality is much younger and more active than that of Hanako Arasaka, whom she often meets in Tokyo. She is old but her heart is young. Oh, she is not old either. The age of the powerful people here should be half of that.

With a slight smile, without dwelling on this issue too much, Michiko immediately commented on the order signed by Vera last night.

"The land purchase agreement has been approved. The relocation of citizens from the suburbs further north of Arasaka Beach has begun, as well as a small part of the old industrial area in the north of the city... Driving the tiger to devour the wolf, very Saburo-style. The Uzumaki Gang is interesting. It seems that they are not all crazy. They understood your hint and worked very efficiently."

"It doesn't matter if a move is old, as long as it is useful."

"According to reliable sources, the first thing Kurt Hansen did after returning to Dog Town was to conduct a thorough internal investigation. I heard that the military technology department was very annoyed. What did you tell Hansen?"

"A friendship, a little dirt, some clues."

Under the watchful eyes of the reliable Arasaka Heavy Armored Forces, Vera and Michiko Arasaka traveled through the coastal port area composed of various automated cranes and automated logistics robots.

The nearby storage yard had stopped its original logistics and sorting work and was filled with densely packed heavy military equipment.

This is the northernmost end of the Arasaka Beach. It was a temporary garrison before the completion of the Arasaka Comprehensive Research Center. Naturally, Vera's temporary laboratory was also set up here.

A cultivation and storage room composed of multiple customized cubicles with the highest chemical defense level, and a comprehensive transport ship moored at the ship dock that has been transformed into a large scientific research ship.

Vera paced to the entrance of the yard's breeding storage cabin, which was protected by motion detectors, powered knife fans, automatic armored turrets and other protective equipment.

It is sufficient as a place to store low-risk finished products.

Beep, beep. After the scan was completed, the sensor probe turned from red to blue, and Vera looked at Michiko.

"Are you interested?"

------

PS: Well, I overslept in the afternoon.

Chapter 100 Arasaka, you must have image!

Although it is a temporary storage warehouse in the form of a square cabin, the interior space does not appear narrow or dark at all.

[AI: Identity verification has been completed. Director Russell, Executive Officer Arasaka Michiko, welcome to visit. ]

After a second careful check with two built-in turrets and at least four scanners, Vera and Michiko Arasaka passed through the security corridor and entered the quarantine warehouse as the guards in full cyber ninja combat uniforms bowed to them behind the partition door.

Intelligent digital display temperature controller module, chemical defense drone hidden in the pillar, stereoscopic observation windows with long intervals, and multiple operating platforms marked with serial number projection nameplates.

"T-King Kong...King Kong?"

Michiko uttered an "hmm" and stopped in front of the cabin marked with the letter "[T]", muttering to herself.

King Kong, the word reminded Michiko of the most famous and enduring monster image in North American film history. When she was a child, before the Internet crash, her father, who she thought was an ordinary middle-level manager in an ordinary company, watched the King Kong movie with her.

Vera obviously doesn't make movies or toys, so there is only one possibility.

"Is it 'Cyborg'? I saw it in the project brief submitted by Night City's R&D department. Isn't that thing made for Adam Smasher?"

Michiko turned suddenly and looked at Vera.

"Although the performance is very powerful, the destructive pressure on the user's nervous system and the erosion of consciousness are also extremely exaggerated, except for Adam Hammer... Well, I remember that your prosthesis has extremely high adaptability and tolerance. No way... You want to dismantle yourself and then insert that stupid big black thing into yourself? You are too..."

"What are you thinking?"

Vera's face was filled with black lines.

"I think the idea of ​​'Cyborg''s external modular cyber skeleton is correct. Maybe I will equip myself with one later, but I won't buy a rough one that has just been developed."

That’s right, rough stuff.

No matter how much cutting-edge military-grade technology Shinichi Tanaka and the Night City R&D department stuffed into the "Cyborg", such as the flight engine for the hovercraft, the gravity field operation device, and the magnetic generator, in Vera's opinion, as long as its carrying structure is not optimized, it is just a rough product.

If you want to use it, you need to cut off your own limbs first and cut yourself into pieces... What kind of cyber-age self-mutilation and suicide torture device is this?

drop.

Vera operated the computer to open the biological airtight door and walked inside.

This is a vast hall with 6 huge cylindrical glass containers. These cylindrical glass containers are about 4 meters in diameter and 10 meters high. The cylinders made of tempered glass are filled with light-colored liquid, which constantly exudes a cold atmosphere.

As Vera's indigo eyes flashed with data streams, the polarized glass was adjusted to be visible at her touch of the void.

hum.

Michiko Arasaka's heart skipped a beat.

Among all the cylinders filled with light-colored liquid, there stood a muscular, tall and strong human being with a strange blue-white skin color. No, it should be called a humanoid creature.

"I'm going to use 'Cyborg' on them."

Vera looked at Michiko and said.

"...Enhanced clones? The [Stairway to the Sun Project] is not really a purely medical research project..."

Looking up, Michiko curled the corners of her mouth in amazement.

“What a magnificent creation.”

These humanoid creatures were almost a meter taller than her, and their entire bodies were highly modified with prosthetics.

Beneath the granite-like muscle cortex, there are dents from prosthetic modifications and an iron-gray metal layer directly exposed.

Just the results of the preliminary scan: [elastic joints], [reconstructed skeleton], [kinetic skeleton], [universal reinforcement parts], [secondary heart], [blood pump], [synaptic accelerator], [subcutaneous armor], [nano-plating], [Sian Westin], [telephoto visual interface], [ejection launch system]...

It's just a prosthetic machine covered in human skin.

If a normal person were to wear prosthetics like this, it would be almost like having a cyberpsychosis attack.

Michiko immediately understood that these enhanced clones were the "Cyborg" loaders except Adam Hammer.

"Of course. Extending human lifespan and strengthening human physique is the original intention of the [Sun Staircase Project]."

Vera crossed her arms generously, with the corners of her mouth raised and a smile in her eyes.

"Using the body to control the machine, a better prosthesis needs a stronger body to support it."