Infinity, progress from Arasaka

The orange-red light from the camera connected to the pavilion disappeared from her eyes. Vera coughed dryly a few times and said, "Thank you." She took the straight-mouthed teacup handed to her by Goro Takemura, took a big sip to moisten her throat, and then she felt better.

Vera swore that she had never been so talkative as she was today, and her throat was almost smoking.

But the good thing is——

"Look, Shintaro." Saburo's voice trembled a little due to excessive excitement.

The holographic screen in front of him was playing the scene of the man who was attacked by the military science agent, suffered dozens of wounds but came back to life and bit the other technician.

"Yes, this kind of super vitality! It's exactly what I need."

Vera said at the right moment: "It was completely dismembered and destroyed by the military science agents, but fortunately, one of their agents was infected. I have captured him and transferred him to Tokyo."

"Very good. Vera, I want you to start your research work immediately. The "Sun Stair Project" has been deleted from the study program of Tokyo University and the highest authority has been blocked. Vera, don't let me down."

"Your will, Master Saburo."

Vera touched her chest and lowered her eyes, her eyes full of consideration and deliberation.

Neither going all out nor dragging the ball is the optimal solution. We should start with the part on the cake.

------

PS: Woohoo, I am guilty. I will never make big promises again.

I’ll save some drafts and surprise you all one day.

Chapter 062: Rise of Power: Vera in Arasaka

It was already a day later when Vera walked out of the Arasaka family compound.

2075/6/10, morning.

clack.

The ancient trees were dense, and with the crisp sound of bolts and bearings, two solid wood copper nailed black lacquer vertical palace doors opened wide. Under the green tiles and white walls, Takemura Goro, who was responsible for seeing Vera off, bowed to Vera again and said, "Director Russell, please allow me to apologize again for my offensive words yesterday."

"I understand. After all, this is Takemura-kun's duty. How can it be considered a mistake?"

Walking out of the elegant and simple single-eaved hipped-roof main gate of Arasaka Manor, Vera turned around and nodded to Goro Takemura. After waving her hand, she followed the waiter across the stone bridge at the main gate and headed towards the helipad not far away.

The surrounding area is filled with highly artificial cybernetic ninjas and agents. Their stiff, cold and indifferent faces are like walls that have been polished to a shine and clean.

"Huh..." The high heels made a clattering sound as they stepped on the quaint stone arch bridge. Vera suddenly sighed and rubbed her forehead. She didn't mean anything else, she was just hungry.

Yesterday afternoon, she met with Shintaro Takayama and Saburo Arasaka. She argued with both of them one after another. They used both power and kindness and made promises all the time, and Vera also made promises to them. All in all, both parties got what they wanted and both were happy.

It happened to be night, and to show his friendly attitude, Saburo invited Vera to stay for a meal and stay overnight in the guest house in the family compound in Arasaka.

Well, Vera couldn’t refuse the boss’ invitation to train you.

Then she accompanied the old bastard Saburo Arasaka to have a meal of authentic Japanese food.

Tea and Kaiseki cuisine, the orthodox kind of Zen meditation.

It's very exquisite. To say it's unpalatable is just a slap in the face. The ingredients are of high quality. Unless the chef's skills are too bad, it won't be that unpalatable. But the quantity is really small.

Vera flew all the way from Johannesburg to Cape Town and then transferred to Tokyo, and then went to see Saburo without stopping. She hadn't had a proper meal in the past two days.

During the meal, Saburo seemed to see her embarrassment, but after giving Vera some buckwheat noodles and tea rice in a Japanese bowl, he told her about the Zen and Zen of Japanese Buddhism, about self-restraint, self-cultivation, and moderation. The desire for food is also a desire and needs to be controlled...

It seemed like he was admonishing the younger generation and imparting life experience, but Vera could hear that Saburo was warning her from the side, saying that it was good to have ambition and desire, but it should be done in moderation, as too much is as bad as too little.

Kill!

But Vera could only nod in agreement.

Now you are right, very right!

bang.

Following the waiter, Vera boarded the hovercraft assigned to her. The hatch closed, and as the vehicle climbed higher, she looked through the adjustable polarized glass at the Arasaka Manor, where moats were winding, streams were flowing, and the air was filled with birdsong and flowers.

Green tiles, white walls and brown copper pillars, it is elegant and simple. The main entrance, gatehouse and castle all have huge stone foundations ranging from one meter to more than ten meters above the ground. The stones are special standard cubes. From the outside, the blocks fit together perfectly, as if telling of the unbreakable rule of the Arasaka family.

But it should be noted that a strong fortress is often destroyed from within.

"Lai Xuan." The name emerged in Vera's mind.

...

"Takemura-kun." At the doorway, when Vera's hovercraft had completely gone away and Takemura Goro turned around and was about to return to Saburo, a deep male voice sounded.

A man in a suit and tie with black hair and a stylish non-mainstream long side bangs came over. He bowed slightly to Takemura and said, "Vera Adelheid, is it her? She actually entered the family compound? Shouldn't she be handling the terrorist attack in South Africa?"

It was none other than Oda Santao, Arasaka Hanako's bodyguard.

"Oda." Takemura nodded, but without using honorifics, just like a senior addressing a junior. His rank was higher than Oda, and Oda was the cyber ninja he trained and brought up.

"It seems that Miss Hanako has finished her inspection of Kyoto."

"I just came back and am at Lord Saburo's place."

As they talked, Takemura and Oda walked one after the other towards the Gosho area of ​​the main residence where Saburo Arasaka was.

"Takemura-kun, you still haven't told me why she appeared in the family compound?"

"To make a long story short, Lord Takayama admires Ms. Vera Adelheid very much. She will be an important senior military commander of our Arasaka headquarters in Night City in North America in the future. Lord Saburo wants to include her in the list of candidates for the North American Management General Council."

"No wonder."

...

Main residential area.

"Lord Saburo, Vera Adelheid has left the manor and flown to Tokyo." Shintaro Takayama turned off the projection of the surveillance screen and reported to Saburo Arasaka.

"You have discovered a talented young man, Shintaro."

On the futon, Sanlang said without turning his head, "Greed, ambition, and the arrogance hidden under the seemingly gentle face. This is what I saw in her eyes."

Then, he said with certainty: "Michiko and Hanako can't suppress her."

Shintaro Takayama was stunned.

Talking about this topic again?

"If she joins forces with Lord Yorinori... maybe we should strengthen our precautions." He absolutely believed in all of Saburo's judgments.

"Lai Xuan? Him? Haha..."

Saburo laughed.

Perhaps they looked down on each other over the past few decades, and Saburo could not figure out what his unfilial son was thinking all the time, but he still had a certain degree of recognition of his son's abilities. When he was in his early twenties, he was able to build a large gang to resist Arasaka with his personal charm. His talent was really not bad.

"He has good abilities, but he is going in the wrong direction. My naive son is not the same as Vera Adelheid."

"So what do you mean?" Takayama Shintaro paused.

"A smart mind, strong personal strength, subordinates and foundation, ambitious, and good at field work, isn't this the best? We should be happy. Only people like Vera Adelheid can deal with those Anglo-Jewish bastards who are more shameless than us. Besides, which successful person doesn't have a greedy and ambitious soul behind him?"

Saburo's wrinkled old face showed a serious expression of deep thought. He did not hide his emotions from his loyal old servant, who was also his last old friend.

"She wants to surpass her father and stand at the top of the world, so I will give her a chance. But her area of ​​activity is limited to Night City in America and the Eastern Pacific. If she can suppress military technology on the West Coast and split the USA again, and bring Arasaka back to the top, then Michiko's position and a seat on the highest board of directors will be fine for her."

"If the descendants of Arasaka are really useless..."

At this point, Sanlang sighed with emotion, his eyes drooped, and his tone was extremely cold, "My family is in misfortune. Perhaps this is the punishment from Amaterasu. I don't have much time to train a qualified successor..."

"Anders Hermann's Relic project has not made any major breakthroughs. I originally planned to download my personality data to AI when I died, but that was the last option... Fortunately, Vera's sudden discovery gave me a second option."

"Master Saburo..." Shintaro said at the right time: "Do you mean to reveal part of her Stairway to the Sun project to Anders Hermann?"

"Do your best, Shintaro, and be careful. In official duties, treat her as seriously as you would when selecting a new generation of candidates for Arasaka. In terms of studies, fully support her research, meet her more often, release information to the outside world, bind her to the Arasaka chariot, and completely mark her with our own mark. She is a smart person, and I think she will soon bring us new surprises."

"I understand, Master Saburo."

As the servant and the master were talking, there was a knocking sound from the door.

Da da.

"Father, Uncle Shintaro."

It's Arasaka Hanako.

With a dignified and elegant posture, she greeted her father and Takayama Shintaro on the futon in a proper manner. Her textbook-standard manner undoubtedly lacked a lot of family affection and the taste of home compared to ordinary people.

But this is the norm in the imperial house called Arasaka, and no one thinks there is anything wrong.

The imperial family is the most ruthless. Even though Sanlang loves Huazi very much, that is also an imperial type of love.

"Hua Zi, come here."

Without asking Arasaka Hanako about anything regarding his inspection tour of Kansai, Saburo called his daughter affectionately and motioned for her to sit next to him.

Just as Huazi leaned forward slightly and sat next to Sanlang, fiddling with the tea set and making tea like she had done many times before, Sanlang spoke.

A very abrupt question.

"Hua Zi, what do you think of Vera Adelheid?"

......

Meanwhile, in the Arasaka corporate community in Tokyo.

After parting with Goro Takemura, Vera took a hovercraft back to her temporary apartment which she had been away from for nearly half a month.

During this time, an Arasaka agent who was responsible for protecting Vera and the security around her residence said that she could apply to move to a larger and more luxurious residence.

Vera refused.

It's true that she likes to enjoy material things, but she's not extravagant. This Japanese-style house is enough for her to live in until she finishes her studies at the University of Tokyo, and she really doesn't like to move frequently.

After unlocking the door and returning home, Vera took a quick look at the exhibits; everything was spotless.

Hmm, someone must have been here, but I don’t know if it was an agent or just a cleaning worker.

Anyway, she had no interest in going into it.

There was nothing worth noting at home except the notes and related materials of the law and virology courses of the University of Tokyo. They could take the leech DNA if they wanted. Including the duplex apartment in Night City, Vera was not so careless as to store the virus as usual after the long journey.

Then she walked through every room and scanned every corner. Arasaka's agents were their own people and understood the nature of Vera's work, so they might not be so despicable, but spies from "foreign friendly companies" who had infiltrated Arasaka were very likely to do so.

You can never go too far wrong.

After finishing everything, Vera changed out of the serious formal attire she wore when she met Saburo, put on casual loose clothes, and lay on the sofa under the dome window in the living room. She picked up the data tablet and drew out the applet of Arasaka Shokudo.

No matter how busy you are, eat first.

It's important to keep your spirits high.

After stuffing a bunch of high-carb, high-protein, and high-calorie side dishes into the shopping cart at Arasaka Shokudo, Vera placed the order and paid.

While waiting for her meal, Vera listened to the news from Night City and received information from Arasaka's bioengineering department.

Her Solar Staircase Project laboratory was being rapidly established and completed, including the Solar Staircase flowers, Progenitor virus samples, and the infected test subject brought back from Johannesburg.

The same goes for related defense forces. In order to prevent the recurrence of terrorist attacks similar to the one in Johannesburg, a special project laboratory security defense force has been established and organized.

Oh, and there is also the war of words on the Internet, which is really lively.

The incident in Johannesburg has become a hot topic all over the world. Vera announced a blockade and search of the entire city and then left for Tokyo. However, the people in the local branch will definitely not give up. They will investigate it thoroughly. No matter whether they find anything or not, you are the biggest suspect in terms of military technology!

So Arasaka's public opinion power began to take effect.

For example, rumors began to spread that military technology had ulterior motives, funded terrorist organizations, killed my employees and bombed my factories, was an evil enterprise, was plotting to start the fifth corporate war, and was a threat to world peace.

Of course I don't have military technology. I don't have it. Don't deny it.

What do you mean your evidence is false? What do you mean your assumption is not valid? What do you mean the personnel are neither active employees of our company nor direct staff members but non-staff members who retired long ago? What do you mean even if what you said is not wrong, you are not at all wrong?

Why do those third-party contract workers and external personnel pick on you, Arasaka, after their term of office ends? Isn't it because what you, Arasaka, do is so unpopular with the people? Otherwise, why would they bother with you now that they have retired?

Then, Su Shihua, who was watching the show and adding fuel to the fire, was also dragged into the water.

Anyway, they are old enemies, what are you looking at? Back then, the workers in Africa were also very good. The ground was full of your Soviet-style weapons. Look at the remains of the weapons at the scene. They are all from your important cooperative manufacturer, Gaoke Military Industry! You must have done it!

Su Petrochemical was furious and started to rant on the spot.