Infinite: Progressing from Arasaka

Tap tap—

As she stepped inside, the vast landscaped grounds filled with ornamental natural plants undoubtedly displayed Arasaka's power. Many people in Night City had probably never seen so much natural greenery in their lives.

If one were to ask how Vera felt at that moment—

Nostalgic? Reminiscent?

Vera had no interest in that.

Back at Arasaka Tower Academy, right after losing her parents, she had pushed herself to the brink in the rat race just to get ahead and enter Arasaka as soon as possible, so she could cash in on the "inheritance" left by her bargain-bin parents. How could she have had time to brood over sentiment or soak in the campus atmosphere?

Besides, the school culture and teaching environment in 2074...

Heh heh heh...

Classes relied on AI, teaching relied on braindances, and many courses simply involved loading chips or transferring data through cables.

What teacher-student bonds or classmate friendships could there possibly be... Well, she could not put it so absolutely. Maybe they existed. Vera just had never seen them.

That ancient face-to-face teaching model was far too rare in the Cyberpunk world of 2074. Only a handful of world-class universities, such as Tokyo University, Humboldt University of Berlin, Sorbonne University, Moscow University, and the University of California, Berkeley in New America, had the resources to promote it.

And the tuition... Poor bastards simply could not get in.

Even at a second-tier school like Arasaka Tower Academy, ordinary citizens could not afford it without parents employed by a corporation and earning steady, high salaries.

You thought graduating meant you could enter a Major Corporation and work in Arasaka Tower? Dream on!

Social classes were sharply divided, and the divisions inside the academy were even clearer!

In today's world, kindergarten, elementary school, and even middle school—preschool and age-appropriate education—had nothing to do with the lower class. Chaotic community colleges were perhaps the only places where most people could access even a little knowledge, and there was not much valuable knowledge left there either.

Trying to teach yourself online was an even bigger dead end.

The internet had been blown up by that idiot called the God of Hackers or whatever. Now there were only corporate intranets, and if you lacked the qualifications, you could not get in. Want to try your luck on the Old Net? Setting aside whether you could get past the Black Wall, even if you got in, a Rogue AI would most likely fry your brain and drive you insane.

Even if you were lucky enough to enter a proper academy thanks to your parents' open-mindedness and desperate support, many people would feel the gap in the world during their first year. Those with foundations had long since tested out and skipped grades, while those without foundations kept making up the basics. After assessments, they were sorted into different tracks. Those who could not afford it transferred to comprehensive academies.

What did comprehensive mean?

In high-EQ terms, it meant teaching and nurturing students for all-around development. The academy had powerful teaching resources and taught everything.

In low-EQ terms, it meant no one was exceptional. Called comprehensive, but really just ordinary.

As Night City's top-ranked institution, Arasaka Tower Academy naturally offered cutting-edge knowledge and even in-person lectures on frontier subjects, but those were reserved for academies with clear development paths, such as the School of Military Administration and Law, the School of Information, Communication and Intelligence, and the School of Bioengineering.

Compared to comprehensive academies, both tuition and assessment requirements were several tiers higher.

Graduating from a comprehensive academy and entering Arasaka Tower? That probably was not where they were headed. Arasaka's manufacturing workshops, automated factories, seaport docks, Badlands farms... Weren't those jobs too?

"Damn... What a world."

Vera sighed inwardly.

Soon, under the guidance of the reception staff, the group entered the enclosed venue where the freshman entrance ceremony would be held and made their way into the waiting area for the VIP seats.

Watching more and more enthusiastic freshmen enter the venue with their parents and gather below the stage, Vera could practically see their futures already.

She unconsciously pulled an exquisite metal cigarette case from her pocket.

Ding—

The black bodyguard Brian perceptively took out the lighter he carried with him. With a crisp snap, the flame rose. Vera held the cigarette between two slender fingers and brought it to her red lips, lightly glossed with lipstick. After lighting it, she took a drag.

This should end quickly.

She would go through the motions, offer some poisonous chicken soup as an outstanding graduate from a previous class, fire them up a little, and incidentally display and maintain her image: "loyal second-generation Arasaka," "grateful," and "an outstanding senior executive dedicated to maximizing corporate interests."

Inside the ceremony hall.

"..."

Freshman David did not like this place.

He did not like its atmosphere.

Because it was completely out of place with his world.

His tiny home was in H4 Apartment, a megatower in Santo Domingo. There were rusted elevators, corridors with more than half their paint peeling away, outdated decor everywhere, stairwells littered with needles and piles of stains no one wanted to examine too closely. Home was always dim as well.

But here, close to Corporate Plaza, all he had to do was raise his head to see that suffocating black tower.

The skyscrapers here were like weapons made for war: aggressive, heavily guarded, arrogant, clean yet cold. Standing here, he felt as though he had arrived at the heart of the city, even the center of the universe, and that they could devour him alive at any moment.

His mother included...

"David."

The gentle call seemed to recognize the repression and panic in David's heart. Gloria lightly patted her son's shoulder. "You've already come here. Face it. In the future, I hope you can make something of yourself. Don't end up like your mother, or like your dead father." As she spoke, Gloria's eyes seemed to moisten.

"Mom..."

David had no answer.

Just as he was about to respond to his mother's hopes and reassure her, a bright flash of color at the edge of his vision caught his attention.

Following the tips of his mother's vivid red hair, David looked toward the rear side of the raised platform at the front of the venue. Behind the railing, a striking figure was surrounded by a large group of intimidating Arasaka bodyguards.

Brilliant and dazzling.

Her pale golden hair, neither quite gold nor silver, flowed like drifting ribbons in the wind, unforgettable at a glance.

Chapter 18: White Moonlight

For the first time, David Martinez understood the meaning of the word stunning.

In the filthy neighborhoods of Santo Domingo, he had never seen such a beautiful color before.

A lovely silhouette utterly different from everyone there, and even everyone here.

She leaned lazily yet elegantly against the railing of the waiting area behind the side of the ceremony platform. Her tailored, high-end Arasaka women's uniform vividly accentuated her tall, curvaceous figure.

A dark red ribbon tied her soft pale-golden hair into a fluffy high ponytail, its radiant strands cascading freely behind her.

The natural light, redirected through the indoor venue's design, illuminated her profile. Her fair skin seemed to glow with the delicate luster of pearls as two slender fingers held a cigarette, wisps of smoke curling around her.

Light and mist, dreamlike and illusory.

At that moment, she seemed to be glowing, radiating brilliant beauty and mesmerizing charm from head to toe.

"So beautiful..."

David's eyes froze, and his lips parted slightly without his notice.

Focusing purely on her looks felt too vulgar, but David did not have much literary talent in him. After racking his brains, that was all he could mutter.

"David... David?"

"It's nothing." He quickly withdrew his gaze, avoiding her eyes as he lowered his head.

Even if poor children did not have to grow up early, they still understood some things early. David could vaguely yet accurately sense how out of place he was here. He was far too distant from the place on the ceremony platform.

"..."

Gloria naturally noticed where her son had been looking. She turned and followed David's gaze.

Without a doubt, she was beautiful, but she was equally deadly and dangerous.

In Night City, remaining so glamorous without being targeted by the vile trash that filled this place often proved one thing: the more beautiful something was, the deadlier it was. Stare—!

"Ah...!!" Gloria instinctively stepped back.

Right in front of her stood an Arasaka Agent whose eye sockets and nasal bridge were entirely encased in Combat Cybernetics. His electronic eyes, flickering with dark red light, stared coldly at her.

"..."

Soon, seemingly having confirmed that there was no threat, the Arasaka Agent moved away. Gloria and David's identities as an Arasaka Academy freshman and guardian had been verified, and their danger level was simply too low.

"Whew... Whew..."

As though she had survived a disaster, Gloria placed a hand over her chest, made the sign of the cross that almost no one believed in anymore, and let out a long breath.

Unlike David, a young hothead who understood some things but still had more of that clear-eyed stupidity in his gaze, Gloria, an emergency medical responder at Night City Medical Center, knew quite a bit about the hierarchy and rules of Night City's Major Corporations.

That woman was definitely a high-ranking Arasaka official.

David was at that age already...

A young man's first stirrings of love.

David was at the age when it was perfectly normal to yearn for and become fond of beautiful, elegant women.

Gloria thought silently.

But—

Gloria looked again toward the VIP rest area behind the side of the ceremony platform.

A bodyguard built like a black bear and heavily modified with Combat Cybernetics held a crystal ashtray taken from the rest area. The female Arasaka executive stubbed out her cigarette, then slowly returned to her seat in the waiting area, while Arasaka Academy reception staff stood beside her holding drinks and bowing respectfully...

They were not suited for each other.

David, you should give up on this crush completely before it goes any further.

"Mm, I understand." After receiving a report from the agents maintaining order and security at the venue, Vera's white bodyguard Laurie said, "Ma'am, he's a freshman. The security risk has been eliminated."

Unaware of the impression she had left on certain people, Vera nodded and glanced toward the hall.

She was not worried about being assassinated here, nor about a terrorist attack at Arasaka Academy in City Center.

After the Fourth Corporate War, after those arrogant "legends" had withered away, not a single "legend" had survived after recklessly causing trouble in Corporate Plaza or City Center for more than fifty years.

Still, that red-haired woman wearing a yellow Night City Medical Center jacket...

And that boy with the shaved-sides mohawk and eyes full of clear-eyed stupidity.

Was this the enrollment year of the future youngest legend in Night City?

Scanner activated

Scan results:

Gloria Martinez

Civilian, employed by Night City Medical Center, not a Trauma Team member. Cybernetic modification level: low. Can be breached.

Cybernetic enhancements: basic central processor, chip slots

No weapons

David Martinez...

The scan results appearing in her vision reminded Vera that she had gained quite a bit today.

"Give me a copy of this year's personnel list for external academy admissions, along with their entrance assessment results." Orange light flickered in her eyes. Out of her habitual tendency to prepare for the worst and lend reasonable justification to her future actions, Vera requested another document from the academy.

As for meeting this future little legend right now?

That would be harming him.

Besides, he was just a sixteen-year-old brat. He understood nothing, had learned nothing, lacked both foundation and experience, and had not even finished growing. What use was he?

They were neither family nor friends. Vera was not going to be his nanny. What she wanted were loyal direct subordinates who could take bullets for her and carry out her orders.

She would let him settle in for a year first. Once he understood the warmth and coldness of Night City society, as well as the hardship of being raised alone by his mother, Vera would appear by chance and offer help in his darkest hour under the guise of appreciation from a "kind" senior.

That way, she could get her hands on a future "legendary" enforcer acknowledged by Adam Smasher, a fiercely loyal junior subordinate.

Edgerunner, forget about being one. Come be a Corporate Dog instead.

Ah, I really am a bad person.