Progressing from Arasaka: The Infinite

"Ah..."

With a sigh, David checked the time.

5/30

It was getting late. Time to head home. Hopefully, he could start work soon.

Arasaka issued Combat Suits and weapons to new employees in combat roles, while elite combat personnel even received Combat Cybernetics installations for free. In Night City, advertisements for such things were everywhere. It was no secret.

AI: Enjoy your reading. We look forward to David Martinez's next visit.

Listening to the library entrance AI's farewell, David shoved his hands into his pockets and ambled down the steps. He pulled out the bloodstained tissue he had stuffed in his nose for half the day and tossed it into a roadside trash can. As he walked, he could not help looking up at the sky.

The sky, sealed off so completely by corporate skyscrapers.

Arasaka Academy stood in City Center, where towering buildings congregated. Everywhere he looked, above, ahead, behind, left, and right, was almost entirely a forest of steel. Only through faint gaps could he glimpse slivers of orange-red sky as the sun set.

Without realizing it, David's gaze shifted toward Corporate Plaza, toward that pitch-black tower.

His mother had always told him that she hoped he would climb it. Climb up there, and he would become someone above others. Now, a thought had also taken root in his heart: climb up there and see for himself...

Thud thud thud—

"Please move aside!"

"Whoa! Katsuo, what are you doing? Wait for us..."

David looked toward the sound and saw Katsuo Tanaka—the one who had saved him that morning—running out of the library with panic and tension written all over his face, his cheeks flushed red with excitement.

"...Dad, really? Officer Vera Adelheid is coming to the academy..."

Katsuo Tanaka ran past David and sprinted toward the academy's helipad. Orange-red light flickered in his eyes, clearly indicating that he was speaking with someone. David caught fragments of his uncontrollable muttering.

"Officer Adelheid?"

Suddenly, David remembered the woman with pale blonde hair who had given a speech at the opening ceremony. When she introduced herself... Was it her? Looking at Katsuo Tanaka's receding back, David considered it for a moment. He felt tempted. He wanted to see.

Stomping his foot, he decided to go take a look!

Thud thud.

As David jogged toward the helipad from a distance behind Katsuo Tanaka, buzz... buzz...

The roar of a Vector Engine sounded, drawing nearer. A hovercar and a Zeta Technologies heavy Drone Mech called "Octant" streaked over David's head one after the other, eventually hovering down onto the academy helipad.

"That sure is a big show." I want that too.

David's feelings were a little complicated. A real man should be like that? He did not dare say so—he was a little cowardly—but there was no denying his yearning and fantasies.

He followed over, hanging around the outskirts to watch just like many other Arasaka Academy students.

The hovercar's landing struts touched down, and from its external armored compartment came two fully armed combat robots.

The hatch opened. Two tall, burly bodyguards—obviously heavily augmented, with arms that looked capable of punching him to death in one blow—emerged first alongside a solidly built middle-aged man in a red-and-black Arasaka uniform. Then that beautiful, tall figure stepped down from the hovercar.

It was definitely her.

David was certain. She was the one he had seen on the viewing platform that time.

Katsuo Tanaka was patted on the shoulder by that stocky middle-aged man. Was that Katsuo's father? He was led before Officer Adelheid, and they seemed to be saying something. The distance was too great for David to hear clearly, but he could see Katsuo Tanaka's straight, rigid back. He was extremely excited.

Then the stocky middle-aged man stepped aside. Officer Adelheid turned slightly, nodded to Katsuo Tanaka, said a few words, and began walking this way. The black-and-white pair of bodyguards followed her.

Katsuo Tanaka and his father remained where they were, bowing nearly ninety degrees in gratitude.

So this was what having connections meant?

David lowered his head, feeling a little envious. If only...

Unable to describe what he was feeling, David prepared to leave the academy and head home. Just as he raised his head—"Huh?!" His eyes flew open. He instinctively took a step back and froze in place.

The Black bodyguard stood directly in front of him.

David had no doubt that if he dared move, the man would dare blow the top of his skull off with one shot.

Then he saw those deep indigo eyes.

"You..."

Officer Adelheid stopped not far away. She was close enough to reach out and touch. Looking at him, she seemed to be considering something.

Katsuo Tanaka and his father, noticing the commotion, hurried over at almost a run.

"Supervisor Russell, what is this..."

The Mohawk punk hairstyle. It seemed the academy check-in records had been right. He had arrived at school today, and he had not left yet.

After encouraging Katsuo and painting him a bright future, Vera had been thinking about how to "run into" David. She nodded inwardly.

Very good.

"What happened to your face? And you... you're David Martinez, right..."

Orange-red light flashed in her eyes for an instant. Though she already knew the answer, Vera pointed at the scrapes and bruises on David's face. "Katsuo Tanaka, he was a student in the same cohort as you who took part in the Class of 2074 field exercise, correct? If I remember right, he was also on the evaluator's list of outstanding students."

"Yes, David Martinez is my classmate and teammate. We participated in the border field exercise together," Katsuo Tanaka quickly replied.

"What happened to his face?"

"He... was hurt by another student."

"Hm." Vera's expression did not change as she lightly shook her head.

Sure enough, this world was the one at fault. The environment bred scum. It was not something that could be changed just by changing one person. When Vera had come to give her speech, her casual guidance and Katsuo's father's serious intervention had forcibly pushed Katsuo toward doing proper things. Without Katsuo Tanaka as the class bully, someone else had naturally filled the vacant role.

"David Martinez, right?"

Vera turned and examined the teenage boy at close range. He had a Mohawk punk hairstyle, injuries on his face, and a gold cross necklace. He was still very immature, and that stance... ahem, definitely punk. Loose and slouching.

"Stand straight. Plant your feet firmly. Head up, chest out."

Her tone was calm and detached, but David somehow felt that she could not be defied. He swore he had never stood this straight in his life.

"Not bad. I reviewed your file again. You count as a talented person with potential, so do not let yourself fall apart. I hope to see your employment record at Arasaka Tower." Vera gave David a formal word of encouragement.

"I... I'll work hard."

David did not know why his face had turned red, but he answered instinctively.

As though she had merely done it in passing after encountering him, Vera smiled faintly and turned her head. "Tanaka."

"Supervisor Russell." Katsuo stepped forward with a bow.

"Regarding the bullying, your board should deal with it a little more seriously."

With that, Vera turned and walked deeper into the academy.

"Whew..."

Only after Vera had gone far away did Katsuo wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.

As an old Corporate Dog who kept his eyes and ears open, he was quite skilled at reading people.

He had seen it clearly just now. When Vera heard that this kid was on the outstanding student list yet had been bullied, her gaze had turned much colder.

This year, it was the Security Department's turn to coordinate with the academy. Perhaps those spoiled idiots at the academy did not know it, but from her perspective, was this not a slap in the Security Department's face?

"Who was it?" Someone messed with him?!

With a dark expression, Katsuo asked in a low voice that seemed to come from his throat.

This had to be dealt with!

Officer Russell could not directly issue an order to take that person down right now, but once she returned from further studies at Tokyo University, if this dragged on...

"Student, rest assured. The academy will not mistreat any outstanding student devoted to Arasaka. I will give you an explanation. Katsuo, take this student to have his injuries examined and bandaged first."

After speaking to David and then his son, Katsuo's father strode toward the academy office building in a fury.

A bunch of idiots!

Cold violence was one thing, but how could they let students start fighting on campus? And after fighting, they had neither concealed it nor suppressed it—only for it to be seen by a suddenly visiting superior!

"Student Martinez, come with me."

David was still at a loss. Katsuo Tanaka patted him on the shoulder, signaling for him to go to the academy clinic for a simple bandaging and some medicine for bruises and sprains.

"Oh... okay."

Following behind Katsuo Tanaka, David's mind was filled with Vera's encouragement just now. It had been ordinary and formulaic, but since entering this lousy school, aside from his mother, every other student and even the neighbors around him... heh, it was already good enough if they did not mock him or ignore him.

Yet Officer Adelheid, an executive like her, had actually encouraged him. It was the first time anything like that had ever happened to him.

A scholar would die for one who recognized him... David did not know that saying, but it did not stop such thoughts from rising in him.

David made up his mind.

He would definitely join Arasaka and serve under Officer Vera Adelheid!

Leaving Night City, Taking Office in Tokyo

After parting with the Tanaka father and son and the still-green David, Vera followed the path she had once taken while studying at the School of Military Administration and Law and met her old mentor, an aged yet shrewd man.

He was a short, academic little old man.

After some simple pleasantries, she broached the subject and proactively invited him to dine at the Azure Grand Hotel someday, then relax and fish at North Oak Artificial Lake. Very smoothly, she obtained the assessment notes and annotations he had carefully organized.

There was nothing much to say. She still had to show the proper attitude of respecting her teacher.

Even if she wanted to pull the whole "A man born between heaven and earth, how could he remain dejected under another's thumb?" routine, this was neither the person nor the time to use it on.

This mentor was fairly dutiful. His surname was Yano, and he was from Sendai. At Arasaka Academy in Night City, he was one of the rare professors qualified to teach students in person. He was responsible for the law program, the subject with the fewest students at Arasaka Academy.

In this society, the more inconvenient, time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive a method was, the more it was favored by the wealthy.

After bidding her mentor farewell, Vera slowly strolled back to the helipad.

The Tanaka father and son, David, and the students who had previously gathered there had all dispersed.

The seed had already been planted.

The ripe fruit that took root and blossomed had to be hers.

Accustomed to getting multiple uses from one catch and accomplishing several tasks through one matter, Vera had no intention of adding extra complications to this "chance encounter." She had reinforced her ties with the Tanaka father and son while obtaining the annotations she had needed in the first place...

She looked up at the sky, snapped her fingers, and said, "Destination: home."

In-car AI: Understood. Planning a route to Westbrook...

"Gulp..."

After boarding and taking her seat, Vera opened the refrigerated cabinet beside her, picked up a crystal bottle, poured herself a large glass of champagne-style apple cider, and drained the pale golden liquid in one go.

After pouring a second glass, she raised the bottle toward Brian and Laurie, her black-and-white pair of bodyguards, as though offering them some. "I can see the thoughts you are holding back in your eyes... What, did those two boys interest you too?"

"Uh... Officer Russell, it seems you've taken a liking to the kid named David."

The white bodyguard, Laurie, accepted the bottle and spoke hesitantly but bluntly.

"Perhaps."

Vera did not deny it.

These two were bodyguards specifically assigned by the company to protect executives.

After obtaining the qualifications to be assigned bodyguards upon joining the company, Vera had selected them from several batches of candidates.

Some of those not selected were already dead. Others had failed to meet the potential requirements and been eliminated.

Beyond the company-standard Combat Cybernetics, Vera had personally paid to have additional modifications installed for them. They were trusted aides who had taken bullets for Vera during field missions and daily travel, and had investigated all sorts of hidden threats.

At least while Vera's upward momentum remained obvious, they could not betray her.

Arasaka had an especially strong culture of personal attachment. Subordinates attached themselves to superiors. Once they had served Vera for long enough, others would view them as Vera's people.

For example, in outsiders' eyes, Vera was one of James Thomas's people—the First Deputy Director of Night City Security Department.

If James Thomas fell from power and was fired by the company—not through normal retirement or an accidental death—Vera would never have an easy time of it.

Brian and Laurie exchanged a glance. Mindful of their duties, they did not ask further, much less dare gossip behind her back.

For Corporate Dogs whose instinct was to read people, it had been obvious that when Vera stopped, recognized David, and spoke with him, their Direct Superior had formed an impression of that lucky kid. Given his grades and his status as a talented commoner, as long as nothing went wrong midway, he should be able to get into the company.