2077: V really knows how awesome he is

Embezzlement, bribery, and buying and selling official positions are all minor issues that can't be discussed openly. Miles's real problems, any one of which is fundamentally inhumane, include:

Assassinate leaders of small countries;

Selling nuclear weapons to terrorist organizations;

Secretly instigating national conflicts and selling arms to both sides in the conflict;

In order to seize resources and massacre civilians, she ordered the razing of seven villages;

Sending spies to other countries to carry out terrorist attacks;

Damaging undersea oil pipelines caused the European energy crisis;

They developed and spread biological and chemical viruses, causing a large-scale global epidemic with a direct death toll of up to 300 million.

The most serious method involves using larks to break through the black wall, drill holes in it, and travel to the other side to contact the wandering AI and salvage lost technology.

The previous issues can only be considered internal human disputes, but drilling a hole in the Black Wall is a full-blown "human-machine war." If the Black Wall breaks down, all of humanity will suffer annihilation.

"Damn, was that incident at the Hangzhou chemical plant also orchestrated by Miles's men?!" Xu Ling was shocked when she saw this message.

Kurt Hansen still held a grudge about the girl using him as a shield for a grenade, and said sarcastically, "Miles caused the explosion, but the final decision on how to handle it was made by Contau."

“That’s true.” Xu Ling, a person who didn’t need emotions and naturally had no sense of organizational honor, immediately nodded and gave the standard answer: “They’re all fucking bastards!”

Joanne Koch also saw something that interested her: "So the pandemic three years ago was caused by Miles. I was wondering why the new American vaccine came out so quickly. I always thought it was made by our biotechnology."

Meredith Stock scoffed, "The more we try to wipe out the terrorists, the more they seem to be, and their equipment is getting better and better. It turns out that old hag Miles is behind all this. Those brothers who died were truly wronged!"

Everyone was discussing this document, and V finally understood why Solomon Reed wanted to keep a portion of it. If this document were released, Miles would be dead for sure, and the new America would probably disintegrate again, becoming a third-generation New New America.

However, what she didn't understand was why Li De was still so loyal after seeing how much of a bastard Miles was.

Can a simple phrase like "for the sake of the country" erase all crimes?

V didn't understand. She belonged to the independent city-state of Night City and was a person without a state, so she couldn't comprehend this kind of emotion.

In her view, good is good and bad is bad. She admits to doing bad things and would never package them as an honor.

For example, right now, she wants to mess with Miles, but she is acutely aware that this is kicking someone when they're down and doing something bad. She also knows that this will definitely provoke Miles's retaliation, so she has to hide herself as much as possible.

“Stock, the data chip is yours,” V said. “You’re in charge of this, right?

The blonde, slicked-back-hair woman didn't mince words: "Fine, go ahead and back down. This is an internal matter of military technology anyway, leave it to me."

Rosalind Miles came from the military technology field, so her removal naturally falls under the military technology sector.

However, Meredith Stock still asked, "What are your requirements? Like killing Miles or something?"

“I’d like to, but it’s unlikely.” V smiled. “Let’s just go with the military technology decision. I’m just here to offer some advice.”

V is very self-aware. She has some influence in various companies, but not enough to allow her to interfere in their internal affairs.

Whether Miles lives or dies can only be determined by military technology; V has overstepped his bounds.

With decisive evidence, the matter was quickly resolved.

Miles signed the Military Personnel Benefits Act, which improved the welfare benefits of the military and purchased $1.1 trillion worth of weapons and equipment from military technology. Her impeachment case was dismissed in court due to insufficient evidence.

At the same time, the White House also contacted Night City, promising to "return" the entire family of the Hound of the Underworld in three days. A special plane from the new United States would be dispatched at that time, and Night City was expected to be prepared to receive them.

In the jewel-green quartz, V and the others gathered together.

"cheers!"

Everyone drank their cups to the brim.

Kurt Hansen said sincerely, "V, I won't say anything more, brother, I'll follow you for life!"

Xu Ling mocked, "Oh my, someone's eyes are all red."

"Damn, I choked on the alcohol!"

"Are you a fucking virgin? You can't even hold your liquor and you're crying!"

"Me, a virgin? You brat, dare to challenge me to a drinking contest?"

"Come on, I've never been afraid of a drinking contest!"

The two drank two bottles in a row, and on the third bottle, Xu Ling slid under the table.

Everyone couldn't laugh or cry.

Indeed, Xu Ling has never been afraid of drinking contests, and she has never won.

Sasha cheerfully carried Xu Ling to her room, while the Dogtown boss, in high spirits, dragged Meredith Stock into a drinking contest.

David and Lucy were all lovey-dovey in the corner, while V and Joanne Koch sat at the bar, leisurely savoring the cocktails Johnny Silverhand had made.

Yes, Johnny is working as a bartender, and to be honest, his skills aren't that great.

"Be content, this is a drink made by the world's greatest rock star."

Joanne Koch laughed and said, "Come on, your second album flopped."

Johnny was so angry he jumped up and down and decided to end the conversation.

He said to V, "It's a pity we didn't kill that old woman Miles. Military technology is really useless!"

"It doesn't matter," V said casually. "As long as we achieved our goal, that's all that matters."

V's goal from the beginning was to get the Ghost Hound's family back, and now that he's succeeded, he's naturally satisfied.

"You expected this to happen?" Johnny couldn't help but ask, seeing V's calm demeanor.

“It’s not hard to guess.” V shrugged: “Miles is, after all, a military technology person. The falling out between the two sides was due to unequal interests. Once their interests are aligned again, they will naturally reconcile.”

"But what Miles did..."

“Military technology has done those things too. They killed Miles today because of this, but they might be killed by someone else tomorrow because of this. The bigwigs in military technology aren’t stupid; they know to leave themselves a way out.”

"Damn, if that's the case, then Miles definitely won't die?"

"As long as she cooperates honestly with military technology and protects its interests, she definitely won't die. Didn't she sign a 1.1 trillion yuan deal with military technology? That's her atonement."

"Sigh." Johnny sighed, "This world is truly a mess!"

V laughed and raised his glass: "Why think so much? All we need to do is hold onto Night City. Come on, let's drink!"

That night, everyone got completely drunk.

Three days passed quickly, and the relatives of the Ghost Hound will arrive today.

V, giving the Dogtown boss face, went with him to Night City's Lunar Airport to greet him. Kurt Hansen was wearing a new uniform today, and even his bald head was waxed, making it dazzlingly shiny.

“Don’t be nervous, you’ll be reunited with your family soon,” V comforted him, and Kurt Hansen grinned widely.

Even a battle-hardened man can become childish in front of his wife and children.

V doesn't dislike this naivety; in fact, she has been fighting to protect it.

The plane arrived, and an Airbus bearing the "NUSA" logo appeared over Lunar Airport. Seeing the Dogtown boss standing at attention in a tense manner, V couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth into a smile.

But at that moment, a sudden change occurred. A small missile suddenly rose from the sea, drew an arc, and struck the left wing of the passenger plane with a loud bang.

Everyone was stunned, and then watched in disbelief as a second small missile shot straight into the sky.

"Hold!"

V cursed loudly, his eyes flashing blue, and in just 97 milliseconds, he broke through the ICE of the small missile, took control of its guidance system, and made it plunge into the sea.

But the crisis was not over yet; one of the passenger plane's engines was destroyed, and it was plummeting toward the airport, billowing black smoke.

Kurt Hansen watched with eyes wide with rage, yet he was powerless to do anything about it.

He couldn't save the passenger plane, but V could!

The blue light in V's eyes never went out. After stopping the second missile, she immediately connected to the Watson factory area via the camera. A vehicle was hacked, and the heterogeneous object in the hangar soared into the sky. At a speed of Mach 5, it took only 3.7 seconds to reach the airspace above the lunar spaceport. Then it forcibly slowed down, hugging the left wing of the passenger plane, and used itself to replace the destroyed engine.

At the same time, V took over the passenger plane's control system while simultaneously controlling the heterogeneous aircraft. Using her powerful computing capabilities, she continuously calculated various parameters and finally managed to make the passenger plane make an emergency landing on the sea, albeit with great difficulty.

A loud boom was heard, and a huge wave was stirred up on the sea.

V exited the network, only managed to utter "Save people" before collapsing.

When she woke up, she was lying on a medical bed, with Joanne Koch beside her.

"Ugh." She groaned, clutching her forehead, and asked, "I feel like I have a knife in my head. Am I okay?"

"It's nothing serious from overworking your brain; you'll be fine after a few days of rest."

V breathed a sigh of relief when she heard that she was alright. She knew that she had acted recklessly before, but the situation at the time forced her to do so.

She was able to remotely control both the heterogeneous entity and a large passenger plane without her brain burning out; thinking about it now still fills her with lingering fear.

How are the people on the plane?

"The good news is that everyone is alive, but the bad news is that most of them are injured. The forced landing caused a strong impact, and coupled with the drowning caused by the seawater flooding, there are a total of 122 seriously injured patients, of whom 22 are still in critical condition, the youngest being only 3 years old."

The Ghost Hound arrived in Dogtown 8 years ago, so why is there a 3-year-old child there?

V had this question, but she didn't have time to think about such nonsense right now.

Where are the attackers?

"A cyberpsychotic hired a small boat, pretended to be a fisherman, launched an attack from the sea, and then committed suicide by shooting himself. Nothing has been found out yet. But something happened afterward that you'll definitely find interesting."

"what?"

“Myers spoke, condemning the attack, wishing the victims a speedy recovery, and expressing concern about the safety situation in Night City. She also advised new American citizens against traveling to Night City for work or tourism in the near future.”

"Damn it!" V cursed, "This must have been done by that old hag!"

"But this won't do her any good."

"It's enough that she can disgust me. Putting everything else aside, with her making such a fuss, all the money we invested in tourism promotion has gone down the drain."

"Got it, now how do we get revenge?"

V paused for a moment, then dialed the phone number of the president of the military technology corporation.

"You know what happened. I'm going to kill Rosalind Miles. Name your price!"

Chapter 64 Business, It's All Business

Upon hearing V's words, Lucas Harford, the current CEO of Military Technology, was somewhat bewildered.

He succeeded Rosalind Myers as President of the United States in 2065, becoming the new leader of the giant corporation.

Lucas Harford's individual abilities are not outstanding, but they are quite average. He is competent in combat, politics, military affairs, economics, diplomacy, and technology, but he is only at an average level.

Such a hexagonal warrior is good at everything, yet bad at nothing. He wants to be a bucket, but he's actually just a cup.

But there's an advantage to having a water glass: you can't fool Lucas Harford in any way, because he truly understands. But not everyone understands, so to get things done, Lucas Harford needs to listen to advice and opinions, and rely on the strength of others in the company.

This prevented Lucas Harford from formulating his own policy proposals, as he had to coordinate the interests of various parties to maintain his position. From an outsider's perspective, military technology has become "weak" in recent years, even repeatedly yielding to Arasaka's provocations and offenses, which is a far cry from the demeanor of a North American hegemon. This Lucas Harford lacks talent; calling him a "master of maintaining the status quo" is an understatement.

But in fact, this is exactly the result that military technology wants, and the reason can be traced back to the previous CEOs.

First, Elizabeth Kress, transitioned from business to politics, nationalizing military technology and making it a core pillar of the new United States' military. She also significantly enhanced the legitimacy of her company's expansion through state power. This was undoubtedly a significant achievement, but her hardline policies also created a complete conflict between military technology and Arasaka, ultimately leading her to consolidate her hegemony by nuclearly destroying Arasaka Tower.

Second, Donald Lundy. He succeeded Elizabeth Cress, but also inherited her mess. After the Fourth Corporate War, the defeated Arasaka relentlessly sought to regain control of Night City, spending almost the entire latter half of his life in a covert military confrontation with Arasaka. To maintain his dominance in military technology within Night City, he employed numerous underhanded tactics, including illegal subversion, supporting coups, and terrorist attacks. Until his death, he carried 192 charges against him in an international court.

Third, Rosaderin Miles. She took over as CEO after Lundy's death and then worked to promote company reform and the recovery of the new American economy. However, these sweeping changes were opposed by the old interest groups within military technology. Miles simply stepped down as CEO in 2065 and ran for president. She then launched a "war of unification" in an attempt to annex the free states, but failed to fully succeed due to interference from Arasaka.

The fourth is Lucas Harford, a mediocre talent.

Why? Because his three predecessors were so outstanding that they messed up military technology too much. If another ambitious CEO were to come along, military technology would be doomed.

The threat comes not from outside, but from within.

Unlike family businesses like Arasaka's, Military Technology has a board of directors and a think tank, implementing a true corporate system. Simply put, Military Technology is a group of people united by shared interests.

No matter how much infighting there is within the Arasaka family, in the end, the Arasaka son and granddaughter are still the bosses, and the Arasaka Company remains the Arasaka Company. Even if a new V emerges and Tokyo Arasaka goes bankrupt, Arasaka 2077 in Night City is still nominally managed by Michiko Arasaka, even though everyone knows she's just a figurehead.

But military technology is different. Internal strife within the military technology sector can only lead to disintegration, like the US did in the past. Different interest groups have different leaders, so if they can't share the spoils, they'll share them separately. The group was originally united by shared interests, but the outstanding performances of the first three CEOs, with their strong personal styles, severely disrupted this balance. Adding another CEO will only cause the edifice to crumble.

But everyone knows that when everyone shares a meal, they can eat lobster and abalone, but when they cook separately, they can only eat some simple home-cooked food.

The saying goes, "It's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality." Once you're used to eating seafood, no one wants to eat cornbread. But because of the radical policies of the first three CEOs, the interest groups within the military technology sector are in constant disarray, with one group suffering losses today and another tomorrow. At this point, the mediocrity of Lucas Harford is revealed to be of exceptional quality.

He did not have his own policy proposals to allow military technology to recover and thrive.

He needs to unite various forces to maintain his rule, which protects the real interests of all parties within the company.