Chapter 107
Suddenly, David woke up.
Hot war. The Metal War from six years ago?
If he remembered correctly, Director Vera Adelheid's parents died in that war.
Will another Corporate War break out?
Having completed the entire history course at the Arasaka Academy, David naturally knew about the Fourth Corporate War that Arasaka fought against Militech half a century ago. The Corporate Plaza was hit by a nuclear bomb, Arasaka Tower collapsed, CEO Kei Arasaka was assassinated, and hundreds of thousands of people died overnight.
And now, he and his mother have only just moved to Heywood and settled down, enjoying a few days of peaceful life. What if another Corporate War breaks out...?
Involuntarily, David's gaze drifted through the car window towards Night City, towards his home.
Beyond the dusty yellow mist, one could glimpse the city's neon-lit skyscrapers and holographic billboards.
David stared intently, seemingly lost in thought, his expression a mixture of sadness, resolve, and heaviness.
Until, ding-dong!
Beep beep beep—
[Notice!]
Inside the car, everyone's expressions changed drastically.
This is the notification sound for a high-level cross-departmental notification email within the company.
[Arasaka Night City Headquarters, Information Department]: "This is to notify all employees of Night City and the Arasaka Corporation under the North American Region, including those in Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, etc., to enter a state of first-level combat readiness."
"On March 30, 2076, at 7:56:29 PM Night City time, the car carrying Councilor Vera Adelheid Director Russell, who had just finished the Austin Foreign Affairs Dialogue, was attacked near Juarez City, on the US-Mexico border."
In an instant, the smiles on David and Katsuo's faces vanished.
A board member assassinated?!
A dozen minutes ago.
Juarez City, Mexico.
New American Federation Intelligence Bureau Secret Field Division.
"Yes, I will keep my subordinates in check."
Click. Beside the desk lamp, a bald, brown-skinned giant hung up the phone in a deep voice.
He lowered his head and remained silent for a while.
Bang! He stood up in an instant.
He revealed his muscular, thick body, overturned the tables and chairs, and the items on the tables jumped and scattered all over the floor.
"Shit! All she knows is the big picture, that bitch's big picture! Miles is a coward! Those office bastards in Washington!"
He clenched his fists, revealing the chitinous shells on his skin and the outer armor covering his raised artificial muscles. With a curse, he slammed his fists against the table on the other side, producing a dull, heavy cracking sound. Stacks of computers and monitors crashed to the ground, shattering glass and sending arcs of electricity flying.
"Wasn't the concession six years ago enough? Do you want to make concessions again now?!"
He cursed angrily, his eyes flashing wildly and abnormally for some time now, sometimes like a data stream, sometimes like normal mode, sometimes like a battle mode. He raised his hands and scratched his forehead. Before he knew it, the artificial skin was torn off, and blood flowed out.
"Boss?" Upon seeing this, the agents who had been shouting about going into battle just a moment ago all looked surprised and subconsciously took a step back.
"Not good!"
One of the agents realized that this was the beginning of an outbreak!
"Mendoza! Calm down."
The bearded man wearing a cowboy hat hurriedly grabbed a few pneumatic injections, which looked out of place with the environment and bore the Arasaka Clover logo, from a drawer and rushed over. He then stabbed the giant's prosthetic neck, which was already waving around and whose smile was becoming increasingly creepy!
"Hoo... Thanks, Micah." With heavy breathing, the giant named Mendoza opened his eyes and reached out to grab the remaining suppressors from Micah's hand without any room for argument.
"Wait, Mendoza, you're not going to...?"
Sizzle. Sizzle. Sizzle.
Three in a row, the brown-skinned giant, who had been injected with inhibitors into his arm, grinned menacingly, revealing a mouthful of steel teeth.
"It's alright, Micah. I'm going to die anyway. I should thank you for your connections. If it weren't for Arasaka's little gadget, I might have gone insane long ago. Since it kept me sane until now, is it fate? Should I take revenge on Arasaka, and on that little bitch Russell?"
"Micah, you'll support me, right?"
Mendoza's grin widened as he turned to look at Micah.
"Wait. Agent Mendoza, you are not in the right condition to launch an attack, and orders from Washington should continue—"
The talkative agent's forehead exploded with blood at the sound of the gunshot, and he fell to the ground, his jawbone still moving.
"War. This is war, my friend. The officials in Washington know nothing; opportunities are fleeting..."
Mendoza put down his smoking pistol. "Wouldn't it be better to kill an Arasaka to liven things up? Are you all afraid of her?" he asked, tilting his head.
Looking at the Arasaka air convoy about to pass through Juarez on the radar screen, he smiled, a smile that was incredibly radiant.
At that moment, he seemed to see his mentor, the ace agent Solomon Reed who recruited him into the Federal Intelligence Agency and mentored him for a period of time, beckoning to him.
He died because of Arasaka's pursuit, and because of Miles's weakness.
The next moment, he seemed to see again the younger generation he had taught, who were mentored by Li De and passed on his mantle.
They died too.
Because he went north to participate in a covert operation against Arasaka, he encountered Vera Adelheid, who had not yet come to power at that time.
"Hahaha... I'm here."
Mendoza smiled, arms outstretched.
He's gone mad; even inhibitors can't suppress him.
Micah thought to himself, then pulled down his cowboy hat, revealing a pair of deep, unfathomable eyes beneath the brim.
"What a strange job. Well, it's none of my business."
At the same time, a convoy of Arasaka airships, traveling via Mexico, returned to Night City, Northern California, from Austin, Texas.
Inside the private car.
A high-frequency data stream flashed in her indigo eyes. Vera crossed her legs, propped her chin on her hand, and lightly tapped the armrest of her seat with her right hand.
She focused her gaze on the red-tinged alarm screen in the car:
Sizzle—
A missile suddenly rose into the air from the vast wilderness, leaving a trail of curved paths as it approached the convoy of hovercraft.
"Have they arrived?"
Vera grinned, her irises contracted, and her smile was full of danger and cunning.
Chapter 110 The Bitter Flesh Scheme
As night falls, the border between the Mexican states of Chihuahua and New Mexico takes on a desolate, dark hue.
Apart from the occasional sandstorm, there was no sign of life.
Suddenly, in various directions in the distance, clusters of bright flames emerged from the dark horizon, the flames raging and crackling.
Roar, vibration...
The aftershocks of the explosions lit up the barren Gobi Desert. Small EMP (electromagnetic pulse), shrapnel, secondary explosions, and truck-sized heavy armored drones crashed, along with drones falling like birds of prey. Amidst the continuous muffled thuds, a gust of wind seemed to make the air unbearably hot.
The chaotic, elongated orange-red lines resemble the brushstrokes of a postmodern abstract painter.
It was a trail created by a mix of light attack drones, heavy octagons, rockets, missiles, infrared decoys, and airborne vehicles.
Pfft
Beside the burning wreckage of the overturned Bratsk U4020 in the sand, a Latino man with his head bowed, blood seeping from his mouth and nose, foamy blood gushing onto the yellow sand from a deep cut in his neck that had almost severed his jawbone, cervical vertebrae, and brainstem.
The two limp, drooping prosthetic arms still extended electrified Mantis Blades; one blade's folding mechanism snapped, emitting a strange, leaking electrical screech.
Several small arcs of electricity burst out.
The mangled corpses of seventeen or eighteen other cybernetic attackers lay nearby; some had their chests torn open from the inside by thorns, some were sawed in half from head to toe, and some were simply beheaded...
The air smelled of burnt metal and charred, greasy meat.
The Khorne and cruel scene caused the Arasaka Foreign Ministry administrative staff who were accompanying the Austin Multifaceted Dialogue Conference to frown and instinctively look away.
"Director... are you alright?"
Inside the Explorer Commercial Armored Aerial Vehicle that made an emergency landing.
As the deputy representative of the Arasaka delegation at this meeting, Vera's deputy, the impeccably dressed political affairs officer Masao Mizuno, picked up the black and gold box that his superior had recently abandoned, and looked at the blood-stained figure captured by the surveillance camera with a look of horror.
"It's alright, they're just a bunch of desperate fools."
Bathed in blood and gore, Vera, dressed in a blood-stained dark Arasaka office uniform, released the disemboweled attacker, carrying a blood-dripping black and red longsword.
The shock from the recent EMP (electromagnetic pulse) missile explosion made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
Although high-end prosthetic bodies and military vehicles are designed to resist EMP, and Vera has a special anti-EMP plugin and high resistance, Militech is not something to be taken lightly.
Being hit at such close range several times, aside from the malfunction and short circuit of the hovercar's central control system, the motion sickness-like feeling and the pricking sensation in her brain made her actions become much more violent.
As she spoke, Vera continued moving, and after scanning her vision, she spotted a figure with an unusual luster and a seductive aura, and then she appeared in a frame-by-frame flash.
The Gunblade sliced through, and resistance was felt along its Gunblade. A scream rang out, and a wound appeared in mid-air, spraying blood onto the shimmering 'image' and Vera's clothes.
Optical camouflage.
Vera expressionlessly pulled the trigger of the TKI-20 Shingen smart submachine gun, firing six shots in quick succession. The precise operation tracked and locked onto the bullets, striking two eyes, two hearts, and two necks, causing blood to splatter everywhere.
"Activate Cybernetic Tyrant. Has it been rebooted?"
Wiping away the bloodstains on her face, her reddened eyes flashed with data as she gave the order.
[AI: Restarted. Activating 60% →]
"Construct defensive fortifications, activate and engage all Security Robots, deploy drones, and soldiers."
Vera said this to the Arasaka Heavy Armored Security Force that accompanied her.
She casually pulled up the soldier she had just rescued from the heavily cybernetically modified attacker and dragged him behind her onto the Gobi Desert rock.
"Yes... yes! Director!" the soldier stammered excitedly.
"Um."
Vera nodded slightly and surveyed the situation on the scene.
The scene was filled with a hail of bullets, covering an area of several hundred meters around the temporary landing site where the convoy of hovercraft had set up a defensive position.
Scattered weapon parts and burning light armored vehicles filled the field of vision, interspersed with a dozen or so damaged armed robots.
In the distance, the Arasaka Octagonal heavy drone, which had been shot down while shielding Vera's car, was shattered, exploded, and burned, with flames shooting into the sky and illuminating half of the scene.
From the moment the vehicle-mounted radar detected the attack, several EMP missiles, mixed in with Anti-air Missile deflected by infrared decoy flares, briefly paralyzed the entire operation of the Arasaka airship formation.
It can fly, but flying slowly with its weapon systems partially disabled, it is undoubtedly a target.
Therefore, Vera decisively ordered the entire formation to make an emergency landing. The attack signal had already been sent, and a defensive perimeter was to be established on the spot, with the accompanying cyber hackers restarting the system...
This is a lie.
This is a script that is only half-written.
Vera is putting on a brave face.
Looking at her blood-stained clothes and the bullet graze marks on them, she narrowed her eyes slightly. To make it more realistic and jarring, she deliberately didn't wear the 'judge' outfit she wore when she was on field missions in the past.
This level should be enough, right?
She specifically chose Juarez, a city that has historically been known as one of the most violent cities in the world.
Even though Night City is currently the city with the highest crime rate and the most violent crime in the world, it does not affect its status in the underworld at all. Its status as the most 'toxic' has hardly changed. Here, the use of marijuana has become completely integrated into daily life, and it is famous for producing psychopathic cyber mercenaries.