Infinity, Progress Begins with Arasaka

Infinity, Progress Begins with Arasaka

Author: Qingyi Laobaigan

Synopsis:

Also known as: Becoming a Wage Slave at Arasaka, From Arasaka to the Interstellar Peace Corporation, I Am the Company!

This was mainly the story of a corporate dog born in a cyberpunk world who sought advancement by joining giant corporations across worlds and acting as an interdimensional middleman, moving goods from one hand to the other.

Many years later.

"Cyberware is exclusive; flesh is inclusive."

Arasaka Group, Night City Arasaka Security Department. Director Vera's optimization proposal for resolving cyberware implant corrosion, exclusivity, and security-threshold limitations: the discovery of the T-Virus and the potential of a human enhancement program.

"Flesh is Weak; Machinery Ascends."

Umbrella Corporation, Manufacturing Sector. Dr. Vera's rejection of the White Umbrella Company's proposal—the economic prospects and promotion of the cybernetic prosthetics industry. The White Umbrella Company was Umbrella's internal Biological Research Department.

"Quinques are weak. Cyborgs are the future."

Ghoul Countermeasures Bureau, R&D Department. Vera and others' analysis report on Mechanized Organic Bodies technology.

"Artificial Star God."

Supreme Chairwoman Vera Adelheid hereby announced the company's restructuring plan:

Interstellar Peace Corporation!

(Feel free to check out my old novel, "I Am Honkai," for some light reading.)

Noisy. Chaotic.

This was a city brimming with charm and vitality. At least, it used to be...

Woooo... Woooo...

Under the blazing sun, in broad daylight, flames and smoke rose one after another from the bizarre corners of the metropolis, accompanied by martial-law sirens.

The air was scorching hot, thick with the indescribable stench of protein flesh roasted and smoked without being bled or gutted, mixed with the pungent odor of burnt electronic components.

The once-crowded overpasses and rail trains had long since come to a halt. In their place was a concentrated display of the violent side of humanity and its creations.

Sirens wailed as crowds surged.

Like a tidal wave, the masses rushed toward the police barricades blocking every street. Beside electrified warning-line generators crackling with Electric Sparks, a row of public security officers and humanoid Security Robots stood armed behind heavily armored police cars.

"Warning. Warning. City citizens, your actions have violated the City Public Security Management Regulations."

Through loudspeakers, police Security Robots continued issuing formulaic prerecorded warnings to the dark mass of people, who had already escalated from protesters into an organized, out-of-control riot.

"Final warning. Cease all illegal activity immediately. Under security protocols, this unit has been authorized by the Public Security Regulations..."

"Fuck your stupid robot! Get out of our city!"

With that curse, a Molotov cocktail flew out from the crowd. Bang. The fireball burst against the front of a police car, flames roaring upward as the city security officers instinctively ducked for cover. "Enemy attack!"

Unlike the human patrol officers, who might still hesitate, the Security Robots' formulaic warnings ended at once. Following their programming, they pulled the triggers almost the instant the crowd crossed the warning line. Rat-tat-tat! The rioters who crossed the blockade fell to the ground.

At the same time, several Security Robots carrying automatic machine guns turned their heads. The red light of their scanners swept over the crowd, catching the hooded man who had clearly thrown something and tried to hide, along with men and women reaching for guns and explosives. Their muzzles rose, locked on, and fired heavy-caliber rounds. Gunfire erupted.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—

Within mere seconds, an interwoven web of firepower covered the crowd ahead from several directions.

Whether innocents were hurt or the punishment was excessive no longer mattered.

Direct-fire rounds punched through the crowd, struck abandoned vehicles along the road, bored into cyberware, and tore apart flesh. Blood and meat flew everywhere, sparks scattering in all directions. White fluid—whether motor oil, coolant, or nutrient solution—splashed together with shattered cyberware fragments and chunks of flesh.

The square echoed with protesters' screams, rioters' curses, and the agonized wails of those lucky enough not to die.

From the sky, one would have seen explosions, fires, and Electric Sparks from damaged electrical equipment bursting across the city's traffic arteries as if by prior agreement.

The city was crying... No, perhaps it was more accurate to say that a city long since drained of tears had, as a matter of course, begun burning once again.

City Center.

Arasaka Tower.

In that quiet, frigid world of dark metal tones and towering desolation, elegant classical Japanese music echoed.

It was like entering another world.

Everything here remained orderly. Company employees either diligently worked on their assigned tasks or took breaks at bar counters and tea rooms between office sections, quietly chatting and laughing about the spectacle unfolding downtown.

As if the riots in the city center just one district away had never happened.

Mid-Level Tactical Command Center.

Beep, beep...

The faint tapping of fingers against silent keyboards sounded from time to time. Split-screen monitors cast their glow over cold faces marked by cybernetic implants.

A group of tall figures stood silently in the room.

They wore heavy black-and-white heat-resistant combat uniforms, layered heavy armor resembling that of samurai, and fully equipped tactical helmets adorned with crests. Reflected in the monitor light, the Clover Logo—white patterns on a black background—on their shoulder and neck armor gave off a faint glow.

Arasaka Security Department combat soldiers.

Surrounded by Arasaka soldiers, seated beside the tactical command center's central console, was a young blonde woman leaning back in her chair.

She looked to be in her early twenties, tall and well-proportioned, with no obvious signs of extensive cybernetic modification.

Her shoulder-length pale gold hair, somewhere between gold and silver, was tied into a ponytail behind her head. Her features were exquisite, and her face was lovely even without makeup. She would have been more than suitable as a cosmetics company spokesperson or the public face of a corporate PR department. She wore a sleek, dark fitted uniform brimming with technological flair.

Rustle... rustle...

The blonde woman lightly rubbed the tabletop with her fingers as she watched surveillance feeds transmitted from monitoring hubs throughout the city districts. City police units were engaged in fierce firefights with frenzied gang members, mercenaries looking to make a quick score, crowds out for free looting, ambitious figures trying to take advantage of a chaotic situation, and a very small number of idealists driven by justice.

Heavy armored transports, funded by the company and packed with armed officers and Security Robots from the city police department, arrived one after another at the front lines of the riot.

For now, the police only needed to seal off the roads leading to the city center. They did not yet require support from company forces.

"Is this all?"

With a sigh, the blonde woman flexed her slender, nimble fingers slightly, then turned her chair around with her back to her subordinates. She walked to the cabinet by the wall and gently adjusted the antique horn gramophone atop it, shifting the classical music from its stirring passage to a mournful section near the end.

Super-monopoly capitalism...

The waxed countertop reflected the blonde woman's briefly complicated gaze before it vanished in an instant.

"Director Vera, we've hooked the fish. We have the necessary evidence, the personnel list has been confirmed, and our people are in position. Shall we begin the operation?"

As the blonde woman silently lit a premium cigarette and let its curling smoke slowly spread before her eyes, one of the Arasaka soldiers stepped forward.

"Whew... After all those days of petty posturing, our fanning the flames wasn't wasted. It finally erupted. Mm, time to pull in the net."

Exhaling a cloud of smoke, Vera held the expensive cigarette between her fingers and strode back to the giant screen. The display had already switched in response, showing an overhead view.

Under the real-time surveillance and data lock of Arasaka Hackers equipped with high-end access pods in the tactical command center, gang leaders large and small, cyberpunk mercenaries, agitators, and corporate opponents were identified and marked one after another, whether in the crowd, their homes, or safehouses.

Vera knew very well that once her orders were issued, at least a thousand people would be dealt with within the hour.

There would certainly be collateral damage. Even Arasaka Hackers equipped with all sorts of top-tier gear were not omnipotent. There would inevitably be errors among the marked targets.

But the company never cared about such minor margins of error.

Every company was the sort to kill the wrong ones rather than let a single target slip away.

The company demanded efficiency from Vera, so she had to be efficient. For the sake of progress...

She had grown used to it. She had become numb.

Ever since arriving in this world and deciding to climb upward, she had alienated what little conscience she once had.

Her sole remaining conscience was to kill these people swiftly and cleanly.

Before a company—especially a global giant like the Arasaka Group—the failure of the people on the screen had already been decided the moment the company stepped in. Letting them taste a little sweetness first was merely for the sake of maximizing profit.

"First, they lit up public discourse in the streets, built momentum, and intensified social tensions. Then they secretly guided the protest marches and suddenly struck once the crowds approached the wealthy districts and City Center, using ordinary citizens as shields to launch a riot against the city's upper and middle classes. Tch, not a bad method, but what are they after...?"

Thanks to the combined efforts of Arasaka field agents and intelligence analysts, the entire chain of events behind those who had suddenly launched their attacks was easily laid bare.

The cause of the incident was complicated, yet simple.

The Brazilian authorities had squeezed their people too hard. Those below could no longer survive, contradictions intensified, and someone wanted to profit from the chaos, so they fanned the flames. Then the fire caught. Whether anyone had profited, and how much, was hard to say, but under the influence of various external factors, the "fire" spiraled out of control and became this mess.

If no one from other Major Corporations had been stirring trouble in the shadows and muddying the waters, the report compiled for Vera would have been broadly accurate.

Let these rabble die if they want to die. They dared resist? They even dared kill my men? They're no ordinary rabble anymore. We need to crack down hard. That was probably the Brazilian authorities' current mindset.

With the situation on the verge of losing control, the people who had "started the fire" might have burned to death themselves or fled in advance. But the Brazilian authorities needed to extinguish it, and after careful consideration, they chose to spend heavily on public security services from the Arasaka Group.

That was why Vera had come to Rio de Janeiro.

Her assignment after being transferred to the Harazaka South America Investigation Team was to fulfill the Brazilian authorities' order for Arasaka Group public security services—suppressing the region, purging the riots, and eliminating Rio de Janeiro's terrorist organizations.

As for the definition of a terrorist organization, heh... As long as the client said it was one, that was enough.

Vera silently flicked away the ash and crushed the partly smoked cigarette into the ashtray. She did not need to understand that issue too clearly, nor did she want to investigate it.

In the end, the root of the problem would always lie with the company anyway.

That was what everyone said. That was also what the "legends" of the past, now gone, had said.

"Oh, right. Analyze the surveillance footage collected over the past few days. Find the ones who were jumping around the most, compare them, and see who didn't show up when today's show began. As long as they're still in Rio de Janeiro, deal with the cowards hiding away as well."

Remembering something, Vera watched the Arasaka soldiers already moving on the screen. She stopped pacing, crimson internal virtual-display grids flashing across her indigo pupils as she sent an additional order to her subordinates from the Special Rapid Response Unit, who were leaving the tactical command center.

If they were killing, then kill them all. If they were purging, then purge every last one!

Make the Brazilian lordly clients happy. Plant the reputation of Arasaka Security Department public security services firmly in this land. Give Rio de Janeiro a few more peaceful years...

The clients who had suffered losses in this riot would surely hate its perpetrators. Reducing the city residents' losses was not her responsibility. As an outside contractor hired to maintain public order, the harder she killed, the higher her clients' evaluations would be, the better her performance, and the more bonus money she would receive.

It was all for progress.

People were going to die anyway. Let them suffer a little more, round out the numbers, and benefit you, me, and everyone else.

Having adjusted herself to the mindset of an outstanding Corporate Dog, Vera returned to her command station and sat down. She signaled the technical personnel in the tactical center to track the tasks of each field team in real time, pulled up the surveillance system, and watched with great interest.

These little fish were not worth going out into the streets to fight personally. She was at least middle management in the company—or rather, a lower-middle-level cadre who had crossed the threshold into leadership. That still counted as an official, didn't it?

From the surveillance feeds, the Special Rapid Response Unit teams she had brought to Rio de Janeiro had already begun their operation. Coordinating with the local Arasaka Branch Rangers, they captured and executed the "terrorists" marked on the list one by one.

Among them was an operation targeting the leader of Rio's largest street gang.

His name...

Did not matter.

All that mattered was that the man had skimmed quite a lot of goods from the Rio city government in the past, making him a rather defiant character.

Naturally, Vera was venting the sponsors' anger for them. It just so happened that the man was well-informed. During this riot, he had swallowed up plenty of territory, so he was not exactly being wronged.

"Postwar reconstruction... The city's infrastructure seems to have suffered quite a bit of damage... Mm-hm."

Watching the streets ablaze and the buildings smashed, looted, and burned on the giant screen, Vera's lips curved faintly. She muttered softly, "...Someone in the company should be interested." Before her words had even faded, communication data flashed red in her eyes.

"Night City Information Department, this is Adelheid. General Security Bureau of the Night City Security Department, Special Rapid Response Unit..."

"That's right, I'm currently carrying out a public security operation in Rio de Janeiro... Yes, I have some good news. I have a freshly prepared set of detailed blueprints and real-time recordings of the damage to Rio de Janeiro's urban infrastructure... I think that should be enough. You understand."

"Yes, go through official channels. Right, contact our friends in the Company Engineering and Construction Department. Do they want a slice of Rio de Janeiro's reconstruction pie?... It's very fresh... Right, no one should have more say in this than me, the person carrying out the suppression on-site. Have them prepare relevant urban reconstruction plans in advance..."

The Corporate Dogs in City Center had already begun discussing post-riot urban reconstruction, while throughout the rest of Rio de Janeiro, the riots ruthlessly destroyed every trace of peace in the city during this period when order had vanished.

Law-abiding citizens trembled amid gang warfare and free-for-all looting, while Arasaka security personnel carried out their public security war in full swing.

Just as Vera had never worried that this mission would fail, without significant intervention from other forces, Rio de Janeiro's "terrorist organizations" were nothing more than a disorganized rabble.

They collapsed at the first blow.

In a corner of the city, an especially violent explosion shook the camp of Rio de Janeiro's largest gang, drowning out the howls of the underlings who were still excitedly counting the spoils looted from wealthy districts and commercial streets.