Infinite Progress, Starting from Arasaka Chapter 14

Ignoring the cybernetic doctor's teasing, the Mohawk boy called David flopped onto the sofa, his eyes drifting aimlessly across the ceiling of their small home.

"But I really don't like the way they look at me. When I signed up, they clearly looked down on me, so why should I still go and throw myself in?"

The cybernetic doctor: "Ha, this is the path to becoming a corporate dog..."

The lights came on.

"David!"

"Whoa!" He quickly ended the call with the cybernetic doctor, his eyes darting evasively toward the doorway. The yellow-clad, red-haired woman pushing open the door was glaring at him. "Mom." David lowered his head and called out.

"I didn't buy you that braindance headband for entertainment."

David Martinez's mother, Gloria Martinez, stepped inside with weary but excited steps. Seeing her son not wearing the Harazaka Tower Academy uniform, she sighed and couldn't help but lecture him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Sorry, Mom..."

"Don't promise me—show me. Today is the freshman orientation at Harazaka Tower Academy. After a night shift, the medical center actually gave me a day off... at least do it for the sake of me attending Harazaka's ceremony. So you have to become that kind of person—someone above others."

Setting her handbag on the coffee table, Gloria chattered as she stepped forward to carefully tidy David's appearance. She unsealed the Harazaka Tower Academy uniform and gestured expectantly for him to put it on.

"I... Mom..."

David took the uniform his mother handed him, his emotions tangled.

"Go put it on. Dress up nice and sharp. We can't be late for the freshman orientation."

Gloria said gently. Only after David took the clothes did she turn on the home projection TV, planning to watch the news coverage of the Harazaka Tower Academy orientation.

"Good morning, Night City!"

The iconic, passionate voice of Night City radio host Stanley rang out.

An old friend, familiar as ever.

Just as Gloria was about to change the channel—

"Hey-hey-hey! Yesterday's Death Lottery—guess how many? A solid thirty? Fifty? A hundred? None of those!

Thanks to the Vortex Gang's modified lunatics overreaching. Who did they have to rob? They had to rob Harazaka. Last night alone, in the Watson Old Industrial Zone, several hundred people got wiped out! And that's just the ones you could piece together into a whole corpse.

Everyone knows the old saying—right, a new broom sweeps clean. Hasn't the Harazaka Security Department had a newly appointed executive on the job lately? And the Vortex Gang just had to touch Harazaka's goods at this very moment. Isn't that a slap in the face?

At a time like this, who cares if the cost of action doesn't match the reward? The Vortex Gang became the chicken slaughtered to scare the monkeys by that newly appointed Arasaka big shot. Slaughtered. Tragic, huh!"

Gloria didn't catch every word from Stanley's loudmouth broadcast, but one line—"in the Watson Old Industrial Zone alone, several hundred people got wiped out"—sank in.

David's schooling cost a fortune. It was barely sustainable with her working eighteen-hour days. If... she could scavenge from the Vortex Gang's turf in Watson after Harazaka's sweep—a chaotic mess with over a thousand dead—even if she was just digging through trash, she should be able to make some money.

"Mom."

"Mom?"

"Mom!"

"Ah! David..."

Snapped out of her thoughts by her son's calls, Gloria looked at David, now dressed in his student uniform. She had to admit—clothes make the man. No matter what you thought of Harazaka, their taste was on point. David in that uniform really looked the part.

"Mom, what were you thinking about? So seriously..."

"Nothing. I was just thinking about how to reward my son after the ceremony." Gloria didn't want to linger on that topic. She patted David on the shoulder. "Come on, I'll take you to the academy."

2074/6/1, 7:50

Westbrook, Corporate Community, 414 Russell Apartment.

"Haah~"

Having vented her frustrations thoroughly last night and gotten a good sleep, Vera walked out of her home, stretched, yawned lazily, twisted her neck, and then strolled slowly toward her personal hovercar's landing pad.

"Destination: Harazaka Tower Academy."

Chapter 016: Aftermath

"Destination: Harazaka Tower Academy."

' Holy Sword ' Luxury Executive Hovercar In-car AI: [Received. Route planned. Proceeding to Night City Harazaka Tower Academy.]

The landing gear retracted, the hatch closed, blue exhaust lit up beneath the four vector engines, and the hovercar slowly ascended. The in-car smart system, following Vera's preset habits, played the morning news at the appropriate time.

"This is the Night City Inquirer, bringing you an important breaking report. Last night, a large-scale heated firefight broke out in the northern old industrial zone of Night City's Watson District..."

Glancing at the stiff, formal reporting on the holographic projection screen, Vera shifted into a more comfortable position, sinking lazily into the soft sofa backrest. As she adjusted her state, she contacted her subordinates and reviewed documents on her built-in AR grid.

"Have the bodyguards stand by at Harazaka Tower Academy. Yes."

"Information Department, this is Vera Adelheid. Yes, pre-registered. Confirming again. This morning, I will be attending the Harazaka Tower Academy freshman orientation."

Vera's lifestyle habits: unless it was high-priority, high-urgency, or a critical matter—or an email from a necessary contact that could wake her anytime, anywhere—other routine administrative documents and life inquiries would be intercepted by the smart program in Vera's operating system.

She was an executive, not a grunt.

No need to treat the company as home and be on standby 24/7.

It wasn't an external mission or during a corporate war. Clock out when off duty, handle work during work hours. Working year-round without breaks, from 8 AM to midnight—that tiny bit of personal rest time really wasn't too much to ask.

"Huh, what's this?"

Flipping through, Vera's retrieval thinking signal swept across the daily routine report files until it landed on the description of a certain message in her inbox. She paused.

[Message: Death Lottery]

[Congratulations, you guessed today's Death Lottery winning numbers! The lucky prize is €66,666 and a Chevillon Emperor 620 RAGNAR! Drive it with care!]

--Image--

Vera's gaze shifted. She changed the channel to Night City's "big mouth" Stanley's show: "...the Vortex Gang, I heard one of their big-shot leaders kicked the bucket. I figure the Vortex Gang took a heavy hit, but even if they can't swallow this, they've got to. After all, it's Arasaka."

"Oh, so they're not fobbing me off with those junk cars... Judging people by their status—that's a survival skill you've gotta master in Night City."

Big-mouth Stanley kept on "blah-blahing," and though Vera's eyes were still on the screen, her thoughts had already wandered elsewhere.

The Death Lottery, just like this guy's show, basically trashed every corporation, even the NCPD and Night City's gangs. So why was he still bouncing around here with his "Good morning, Night City"?

Because Stanley's show was also a Major Corporation asset—capital-backed entertainment. Stanley was just an employee. Cursing out the big companies, the traffic money he earned in the end still went back to them.

Bad publicity is still publicity.

As far as Vera knew, Arasaka also held shares. They were one of the show's backers, collecting dividends every year.

After all, making money—you curse the company, the company doesn't lose a scrap of flesh. Besides, by 2074, did corporate reputations even need cursing anymore?

Stanley was just spouting what everyone knew, acting as a public venting channel. The truly dangerous, classified stuff—he couldn't know it, and he wouldn't dare to. So the public stuff, they let him say whatever he wanted.

Making money, free publicity, providing a venting outlet, diverting public attention... killing multiple birds with one stone. When the public got lost in being pointless trolls on entertainment shows, social order even improved. Brilliant.

As for why Vera won the lottery—nobody knew exactly how many people died in Night City yesterday, but Vera was the one who did the deed, the one who took the lion's share. Naturally, Vera won.

At the same time, Vera was a high-ranking Arasaka Security Department executive. Passing her off as some lucky street punk wouldn't fly. The Death Lottery: the people driving these cars were the ones who got killed while having fun, and dead through and through! The usual prizes were naturally those repaired old cars whose owners had been offed.

For winning Corporate employees, it was a different approach.

First, a new car—cater to their tastes. Send an SUV that every Corporate Dog would love. Afraid it'd look shabby, throw in some cash, not too much, not too little, and make the number auspicious. Done.

Vera marked it as read and sent a formulaic thank-you, then closed the Death Lottery message panel.

The stuff was given to her, and she took it with a clear conscience.

Night City had its own set of operating rules.

Last night, after the lesson taught to the Vortex Gang, after cleaning up the battlefield and retrieving Intelligence Division's goods, the rest of the "trash"—Arasaka definitely had no interest in it. But the Death Lottery definitely did.

Whether it was sweeping the battlefield again to pick up scraps, salvaging and repairing cars, dismantling parts to piece together and send out as the next lottery prizes, or the event's popularity driving lottery sales and show ratings—there was money to be made.

Oh, and behind them, there should be individual scavengers, organ harvesters, and other groups, scraping and squeezing again and again.

After that, the ripples from Vera's tactical suppression of the Vortex Gang would finally fade, seen as yet another powerful display of Arasaka's authority.

"And I even snagged a commendation. Not bad."

Vera closed the Built-in AR Grid, flattened her recliner, and took a glass of orange juice from the in-car cooler, downing it in one gulp.

Not that swill of coloring and syrup on the market—the real stuff, fresh. Every day, commuting to and from Arasaka Tower, dedicated staff cleaned and replaced it. Vera just swiped her card, placed the order, and confirmed the service tier she needed.

Ding-dong.

In-car AI: [Arriving at Arasaka Tower Academy shortly.]

Through the dark, privacy-tinted glass, Vera's indigo eyes caught sight of the red and blue flying fish projections in Corporate Plaza. Arasaka Tower, Military Science Building, Kang Tao Tower—distinct yet standing shoulder to shoulder, like towering steel walls, coldly overlooking everything that passed.

Arasaka Tower Academy.

Hum... hum...

The Hovercar glided through the gaps between buildings, not heading straight for Arasaka Tower's internal landing pad, but toward the subsidiary building near City Center. After passing a ring of low structures with green open spaces, the Hovercar hovered above a densely populated open area.

Under the guidance of the control tower's directing personnel, the Hovercar's bottom laser activated, outlining a safe perimeter on the ground with a halo of light. The landing struts extended, and it descended slowly.

When the hatch opened and Vera stepped sideways down the ramp, a middle-aged man—short, stout, wearing tea-colored, large-framed square glasses and an academy uniform—immediately came forward to greet her.

"Supervisor Russell, welcome back to Arasaka Tower Academy."

Chapter 017: Arasaka Tower Academy

"Hello, Supervisor Russell, I'm Marcus."

"Supervisor Russell, I'm Sugihara."

"I'm Hoyle."

Ordinary self-introductions, just like with any other guest—formulaic pleasantries, courtesies, and greetings. After a few casual exchanges, Vera was ushered inside by Arasaka Academy's senior staff.

"Supervisor."

Having received Vera's orders, the bodyguard team that had arrived early to wait at the academy now converged with her.

"Brian, Laurie."

Vera's trusted black-and-white bodyguards—'Black Phantom' Brian and 'White Phantom' Laurie—led the additional guards assigned after Vera's promotion, automatically taking over perimeter security.

Though Vera really didn't need their protection—combat capability aside—and this was an Arasaka-run academy, not some community college any Tom, Dick, or Harry could enter, they were always useful. Sometimes, the show of force had its own extra benefits.

And so, surrounded by her bodyguards, even vaguely occupying the central position, Vera stepped back into this so-called "alma mater" for the first time in over a year.

Full name: Night City Harazaka Tower Academy.

Just as Harazaka Tower is not unique to Night City, Harazaka Tower Academy is not unique to Night City either.

Arasaka Corporation's branch headquarters around the world are mostly similar, but only the North American Headquarters in Night City, the Paris European Headquarters, and the Tokyo Headquarters can be called Harazaka Towers.

Other regional branches are mostly referred to as buildings.

Some branches have affiliated Arasaka Academies for the children of company employees, while others do not. Those with 'Tower' in their name are one rank higher than other branches.