"Jimmy, are there any backlogged Night City field assignments that need handling? As for support requests from the company's other departments, use your judgment. Take them if they aren't excessive."
"Uh... Chief, you really didn't need to come in person."
The moment he got into the armored hovercar and saw his Direct Superior fully armed, Jimmy's head began to ache.
That tailored combat uniform made of specially reinforced polycarbonate, the nanofiber shell jacket, the external electronic muscle-enhancing arm bands, and the structurally reinforced long monofilament finger guards...
"Is there a problem?"
Vera, who was carefully maintaining her Nekomata Electromagnetic Sniper Rifle, looked up at him.
"No problem."
Sitting directly across from Vera, Jimmy straightened his back as he answered.
As Vera's trusted subordinate, he had been personally discovered and promoted by Vera from the front lines.
He was the sort of core subordinate who rose when she rose, and would be sidelined and purged if she fell from power.
Jimmy knew exactly where Vera stood in terms of strength.
Just what kind of destructive power lay within the exquisite body of his cold and stunning superior—a body that required at least several million eurodollars in maintenance every year—was something he knew well. Vera spent most of her time sitting in the combat center giving orders, but that was because of the burdens of her position and because there was no need. Once she truly entered the field...
Calling her a cyberpsycho would be putting it mildly.
And when paired with the laboratory-grade personal equipment that the "life-loving" Vera had spent a fortune buying and custom-building, even MaxTac looked less terrifying by comparison. In the words of Arasaka's number one enforcer, Adam Smasher, Vera was also a "meat grinder."
Jimmy believed that if Chief Vera's physical abilities, intelligence, reflexes, and composure could be quantified, they would definitely be legendary-tier.
Having served as Vera's sparring dummy for several months, he and the other Team 6 soldiers firmly believed that.
"Chief, the intelligence department is asking our Security Department to provide support. Several batches of goods intended for their informants were hijacked by Vortex Gang fanatic modders entrenched in the northern industrial district," a Team 6 security specialist reported while operating the information processing terminal.
"Take it."
Picking up her Precision Thermal Katana and the well-maintained Nekomata Electromagnetic Sniper Rifle, Vera rose to her feet.
"Jimmy, take charge of Team 6 Unit One and continue handling the handover with the Counter-Intelligence Department here. Order Unit Two to proceed to the northern industrial district immediately."
Perhaps it was an illusion, but Jimmy seemed to see Vera smile at that moment.
It was a bloodthirsty curve, a smile like she was about to unleash something.
With that, Vera jumped from this armored hovercar and boarded another one instead.
Buzz... buzz...
The armored hovercar sped toward the northern part of Night City.
"..."
"Tch, Boss, has Chief Vera gotten that lately? She seems really pissed... Ow." Bang!
After knocking the foul-mouthed veteran machine gunner flat with a fist the size of a casserole dish, Jimmy swept his gaze over the others. "Don't ask what you shouldn't."
"Just pretend you're deaf and mute. Chief Vera is simply demonstrating responsibility and hands-on leadership after taking up her new position. Understand?"
"Yes!" ×N
Unaware of what her subordinates were thinking, and with no desire to know, Vera only knew that she was in a very bad mood right now.
A terrible one.
The kind that needed an outlet.
You vermin—how can you fix the economy with people like you around and make America "great" again?!
Vera Needed to Vent for "Vera"
Irritable.
Her vision and senses seemed able to transcend the boundaries of time and space. Vera could clearly feel the emotions of another "her," or rather, these were her own emotions at this moment.
A violent fury, with rage rising from her heart and evil springing from her gut.
It came from the Heaven's Gift that belonged to her.
An influence that wasn't quite an influence.
And amid that agitation—
Crack, crack!
Inside the armored hovercar, Vera spread her fingers, then clenched them. Beneath her sealed tactical gloves, her bones and joints gave soft cracks. Vera could clearly sense the minute changes in every bone, muscle, and even cybernetic implant throughout her body.
That sensation of fullness, of enhancement.
"Heaven's Gift."
The higher Vera's degree of connection with her other selves, the more pronounced the enhancement it brought.
"Does this make me some bootleg Multiversal Lifeform?"
The multilayered resonance between soul and mind made her recall that moment of "awakening."
At the time, the parents of this body had not been dead for long. Having just entered Arasaka Tower Academy, she had yet to fully understand what had happened to her.
Come to think of it, ever since she had been born into this world, she had never heard any chiming system in her head over the years, nor had she possessed some materialized accompanying item.
From childhood to adolescence, as her body developed and her brain gradually matured, Vera had initially only noticed that her memory was far beyond that of her previous life.
Her brain processed information incredibly quickly, her neural reflexes were sharp, and she had an almost photographic memory and perfectly clear recollections. Before anything happened to her biological parents, she had grown up healthy, without illness, disaster, or physiological defects.
It had left her adoptive parents sighing in amazement whenever they had free time. Raising a child was far too easy and worry-free.
Back then, Vera had jokingly guessed that perhaps two souls had overlapped and merged, and the process of her soul developing and filling out once more had strengthened her.
That was her transmigration benefit. Her so-called golden finger.
Vera had been quite satisfied.
Being precocious and having that awareness gave her unparalleled learning ability. Vera learned almost anything quickly.
From childhood onward, it did not matter that both her parents were busy, sometimes so busy that she barely saw them for an entire year. She enjoyed the freedom.
And she hoped her father would become a dragon.
Even knowing that she had awakened in a Cyberpunk world of high technology and low living standards did not matter, because the parents of this body shielded her from the wind and rain.
After learning that the city she lived in was called Night City, that it was a garbage dump filled with gang violence, rampant illegal drugs, military-grade cyberware everywhere, and a gambling industry built around Death Lottery, the life-loving Vera smoothly admitted defeat and gave up on the idea of leaving her protection behind to explore the unknown world.
Her life came first!
She did not dare gamble on a cyberpsycho's sanity.
What if being a little girl made them even more excited?
Her life was her own. She probably only had one, and since she had been lucky enough to be reborn into such a good situation, she had to treasure it.
She had no system at her side that would execute its host for failing missions, nor did she have mission guidance or rewards for completing missions. She herself was merely a somewhat smarter girl, without any extraordinary power that concentrated all power within her body. So she would proceed step by step.
In short, she had no sense of urgency.
Whatever her parents asked Vera to learn, she learned. Whatever they asked her to do, she did. If she was curious about something, she first stated it clearly and sought permission. She always performed outstandingly, becoming "someone else's child."
At that time, the suffocating nature of the Cyberpunk world, Night City's cruelty, and the struggles of the lower classes had not truly been laid bare before Vera.
What she experienced more was the convenience and entertainment brought by the technological progress of the Cyberpunk world.
She had enough room to grow step by step under her parents' expectations, become the good child they spoke of, walk the easy road they had built for her, and eventually inherit everything. Vera had never gone through a rebellious phase.
She might not have been born in "Rome," but she had been on the grand avenue leading to "Rome."
Until Vera lost the people who had sheltered her from the wind and rain.
There was no longer any room for ease...
Forced into it, she had to become urgent and face the true side of the Cyberpunk world.
During that period, some people wanted to use "legitimate means" to swallow up the assets she had inherited. Some wanted to deceive and swindle her, stripping her clean. Some even wanted to marry her, seize the "political legacy" left by this body's parents, and pin her to a bed while they had their way with her.
Naturally, Vera would not submit. She chose to resist.
She might have been lazy and cherished her life, but that did not mean she was truly cowardly or weak.
After that, she abandoned the demeanor of a good girl. Once she had handled her parents' funeral and properly placed the "inheritance" in trust, she threw herself into Arasaka Tower Academy and drove herself into a frenzy of study.
Perhaps her body and brain had only truly matured then. Perhaps her soul and body had completely merged. Or perhaps it was simply a change in mentality.
Vera began having increasingly strange dreams.
As the dreams deepened, the "dreams" made her feel relaxed, peaceful, and incomparably tranquil. Gradually, she saw the world within the "dreams" clearly.
It was as if she were living another life in another world, one so real that all five senses were present. She could truly control herself there and act according to Vera's own thoughts and wishes.
As time passed, Vera discovered that she had not forgotten a single thing she had seen or learned in those "dreams." While she remained unchanged at Arasaka Tower Academy, the strength constantly filling her limbs and body, along with her increasingly clear thoughts, felt utterly real.
They were not dreams.
By now, Vera had grown accustomed to the existence of another field of vision and another "self."
Clearly, there were two consciousnesses, two viewpoints, and two sets of thoughts based on their respective realities, yet they blended together perfectly. It felt as if this had always been natural. Vera felt no discomfort at all, and it did not affect her in the slightest. Whatever she thought or wanted, the her working at Umbrella would do it.
To use an inappropriate example, Vera was like someone playing a game, controlling another version of herself in a role-playing game.
A role-playing game in which she could perfectly understand the joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness within the "game," learn its knowledge, techniques, and insights, and even assimilate everything there into herself.
The power of two Veras.
That was how Vera jokingly referred to her power.
Even if both Veras were only ordinary biological humans, their combined strength was enough for Vera to surpass the limits of human physical capability. Besides, there were plenty of ways to become stronger.
Where was the third Vera?
Vera looked forward to it.
But the most important thing right now was:
Vent!
"Supervisor Russell, we've arrived."
At 4:09 in the afternoon, the Arasaka armored hovercar carrying Vera entered the old neighborhood of Night City's northern industrial district.
Above the street corner, the armored hovercar of Special Rapid Response Unit Two, dispatched from the Arasaka forces' barracks in Night City upon Vera's orders, had already arrived.
Clang—
The turret rotated downward. The Arasaka armored hovercar hovering near the intersection activated its searchlights, and scarlet lasers marked out a large landing zone across the crossroads. Pterosaur Attack Drones and Octant Heavy Combat Drones droned as they patrolled the surrounding area.
The hatch opened with a whoosh.
Thud, thud, thud—
Inside, Arasaka Heavy Soldiers packed shoulder to shoulder leaped out, crashing to the ground and landing steadily.
"Fuck, something huge is about to go down!"
"Run, run!"
"They're Arasaka Heavy Soldiers!"
Like a storm about to break, pedestrians who sensed that something serious might happen immediately scattered and fled. Wait for the traffic lights? Screw that—staying alive came first!
Clang—
Before you continue