Progressing from Arasaka Without Limits

It had at least the faintest hint of being a normal city.

Advanced technology, a prosperous city, and good public security—in Africa?

Ahem. It was a surreal experience.

Come to think of it, aside from another distant, otherworldly perspective, she had never actually been to Africa.

The area under Night City's North American Headquarters covered North America's West Coast and the eastern Pacific Rim. The furthest field assignment she had taken was that bodyguard job on the South Asian subcontinent. Otherwise, she had merely rotated between North and South America, Australia, and the Japanese Archipelago.

Vera felt strangely fascinated right now.

On one side was Africa in the 1998 timeline of Resident Evil, a place that could never be called prosperous. When that version of herself had arrived in West Africa to reorganize Umbrella's African Research Center, she had thoroughly experienced the locals' rustic ways, the outrageous mosquito infestations, and, yes, zebras and lions baring their teeth at her from the roadside.

Here, after getting off the plane, she looked left, right, and down, yet did not see a single mosquito.

From the sky, the streets appeared safe and orderly. The locals were remarkably law-abiding, acting like quails before Arasaka security personnel, who had signed a police service contract with the city government and taken over Cape Town's policing duties.

Before long, the hovercar drove into the top-floor landing pad of an upscale hotel building not far from Cape Town's City Center. Click! The door opened, and the in-car AI politely greeted Vera.

"Welcome to Cape Town, Ms. Vera Adelheid Russell."

The silver-masked receptionist waiting on the landing pad immediately bowed. "Your room is ready, on the thirty-sixth floor, the Lapis Lazuli Suite."

"Mm. Lead the way. I need to wash up and rest."

Walking across the silky, warm red carpet, Vera naturally handed her suitcase to the receptionist and gestured for them to lead on.

She went in and out of elevators, passed through splendid halls and doors decorated with botanical displays, then walked along dark-gold corridors maintained at constant temperature and lighting. Under the reception of well-trained staff with friendly smiles, Vera smoothly arrived at the suite.

"May you enjoy your study trip in Cape Town, Ms. Russell."

"Thank you."

Casting a sidelong glance at the "tourists" seemingly conversing at the end of the corridor, Vera ignored them. With a faintly amused curve to her lips, she took the suitcase and walked inside.

They really did take this seriously.

Vera thought silently.

The only thing she could not determine was whether this surveillance was the final inspection before promoting her to a higher position—testing whether she was loyal to Arasaka and whether she might collude with the enemy—or whether it was protection arranged by certain people after her Solaris Staircase Project proposal had caught their attention.

Or perhaps it was both.

Vera hoped it was both.

I hope you'll work just as hard tomorrow, accompanying me deep into the African interior.

With the intention of mooching off some extra bodyguards, Vera shifted her attention to the home she might be staying in for the next half month.

It was a standard large suite with a king-sized bed.

It had expansive, one-way adjustable polarized floor-to-ceiling windows, carefully selected solid black marble panels, silk wall hangings, and a cool, restrained color scheme. Several sets of unopened new clothes sat on the sitting area's sofa, ranging from formal Corporate Dog suits to casual travel wear.

Cape Town clearly had extensive experience receiving guests and had done its homework. The clothes perfectly matched Vera's figure and style, and she was evidently not the only one treated this way.

Ever since education had become increasingly extreme in the last century, the value of students from the very best universities had continued to rise. Aside from those relying on family connections, cases like Vera's—corporate executives pursuing further education for another promotion—were hardly uncommon.

She did not dwell on the matter. After inspecting the room once, Vera entered the washroom, took a quick shower, and changed into a clean bathrobe.

Beep—

"This is Vera Adelheid, Night City Security Department, Todai study trip student. Yes, one of my research subjects will most likely require going deep into Southern Africa, perhaps even the Central African interior. I need to deploy two rapid response squads..."

Vera contacted the Cape Town branch's Security Department and directly stated her purpose without hiding anything.

"Mm... Thank you, but I can't let you spend money on this either. Business and personal matters should be kept separate. Put it under my account as privately contracted security services... No, no, you're too polite. It's fine. The funding came from Todai and Dangerous Girl... Mm, thank you for the trouble."

Having easily arranged tomorrow's accompanying personnel, Vera hung up and flopped onto the bed.

Having powerful backing really did make things easier.

She had every reason to believe that even though she had emphasized separating public and private matters, her colleagues at the Cape Town branch would still try to offer her an internal discount as a gesture of goodwill.

So, power...

It truly was one of the most fascinating and wondrous things in the world.

Afterlife legend? Cyber mercenary? Whoever wanted to be one could go right ahead!

With a light curve on her lips, Vera closed her eyes. She had already made her move, and she was curious how many agents would be planted in those two rapid response squads.

Tomorrow morning, she would explore the ancient tribal ruins of the Bantu branch.

Lights out.

The hotel's middle and lower floors.

A basic shared room where another group that had also arrived in Cape Town today had checked in.

A pile of strange documents and equipment covered the small long table. Agents dressed in casual clothes and disguised as travelers operated laptops. On the screens, footage replayed Vera's entire journey from getting off the plane to checking into the hotel. Several devices monitoring communication signals and instruments checking network frequencies had already begun operating.

"Reporting in. This is Hotel One. It is early morning in South Africa. The target has safely arrived in Cape Town, checked into the hotel, and is currently asleep. Everything is normal. No abnormalities in the frequencies. The network security team has not detected any unusual communication beams."

"Huh? Reporting in, new intelligence. The target contacted the Cape Town branch's Security Department and deployed two rapid response squads..."

"Plant people in them? Yes! Understood."

On the other side of the ocean, in the Arasaka estate in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, Sano Arasaka finished fitting his voice changer. With a grim expression, he picked up a network terminal with its IP address concealed in his private room.

"Has the information been leaked? She has already arrived in Africa. After seeing her profile and past achievements, do they still think this is impossible?"

"Ask them this: once the new drug is successfully developed, a rejuvenation drug that need not worry about drug resistance for the time being, Saburo will successfully extend his lifespan once again! Is that what they want to see? I don't have any time left. Every possibility must be strangled!"

10:00 a.m. the next day.

Taking a bite of a hot dog and chewing as she savored the simple breakfast's blend of fragrant wheat bread, animal fat, and spicy heat, Vera wore travel gear, carried a suitcase in one hand, and, with sunglasses and a sandproof scarf, strolled like an innocent young lady from a powerful family as she boarded a hovercar. She left the hotel, crossed Table Mountain, and flew toward Cape Town's northernmost reaches.

Bzz... Bzz...

AI: Supervisor Russell, we have arrived at the border checkpoint in Cape Town's northern outskirts.

The car door opened. Scorching heat and dryness were Vera's strongest impressions as she stepped out.

The blast of air blowing toward her was the wind of Africa's wilderness and desert, carrying the roughness of sand grains and a dry scent across her cheeks.

"The environment really is harsh."

Beyond the border checkpoint, aside from the occasional cactus and a few tenacious shrubs, there were almost no signs of life in Vera's sight. There was not a single snarling African animal. The forests and wetlands of old had vanished, leaving behind dead silence, endless emptiness, and desolation.

It was all man-made.

Here, without prosperous urban buildings and Table Mountain cutting across the city to block her view, she could see the massive industrial park near the Atlantic at the end of the horizon beyond the suburban districts.

Rampant resource extraction, shocking pollution, sprawling factory workshops, and black smoke continuously billowing from chimneys like black tornadoes—twisting, struggling, and staining the sky over there into chaos.

"Supervisor Russell."

The commander of the Arasaka rapid response squad, which consisted of Chevrolet Emperor 620s and Militech Behemoth armored transport vehicles, had been waiting for some time. He stepped forward and bowed.

Vera nodded without any unnecessary sentimentality, merely giving the scene a brief look.

"Move out!" She waved her hand.

Implementing her Arasaka version of the Solaris Staircase Project was still more important.

Vera and Her Sun Stairflowers

Africa's desolate wilderness...

"Pah!"

The hot wind howled mournfully past the bare, sparsely vegetated hillside. Several furtive figures, dressed in one-piece heat-blocking liners beneath desert camouflage combat suits, brushed sand and gravel from their ear covers and windproof scarves before poking their heads out from concealment.

"Which ruin is this?"

One of them lowered a multifunction tactical telescope linked to his visual implants, capable of analyzing target information and magnifying scenery. Orange-red light flickered in his eyes.

"The sixth. She headed north from Cape Town, crossed the Northern Cape Province, and only stopped in Johannesburg and Pretoria—cities within South Africa—to rest. What is she after? Is this really a study trip? Does she have to study this seriously?"

Another man spat, along with a mouthful of sand.

"Nguni, Sotho, Tsonga, and Venda—ancient sub-tribes of South Africa's Bantu branch... Who would've thought that one day we'd be on a surveillance assignment and learning this useless crap... Pah!"

Using a pile of sand and rocks as a support, the sniper lay on the ground and used the scope of his Asura Sniper Rifle as binoculars to observe and protect the target. He had only opened his mouth once before it became gritty, and he could still feel sand scraping against his reinforced steel teeth with a creak.

Five days. Did they know what those five days had been like?!

The other side had not taken a hovercar straight from Cape Town to Gauteng Province. Instead, they had crossed the desolate Badlands between South African cities in a ground convoy, visiting one goddamn ruin after another to take photographs, compare things, and search for something.

The target's convoy could camp and rest at those shitty ruins, while they had to sleep rough and eat whatever they could find. They had to trail behind the convoy without getting too close, always maintaining concealment.

At the same time, the target was a company big shot in the making. Even if she truly was just sightseeing and that proposal of hers was deemed immature, small fry like them still had to ensure her safety.

"Boss, what value do the ruins of those uncivilized savages' ancient kingdoms have? Even as antiques and collectibles, I've only heard that items from the South Asian subcontinent and the Far East are sought after and worth money. In Africa, weren't the valuable ancient ruins, like Egypt and Carthage, all in North Africa and in the hands of those European bastards?"

The Arasaka Agent addressed as boss ignored his subordinate's grumbling. Broad and burly, data streams flickered in his eyes as he operated the tactical terminal in his hand, brought up surveillance charts for the communication bands, and raised a precision infrared rangefinder to calculate distances.

Suddenly, he said, "Four o'clock."

He narrowed his eyes. Through information consolidated from multiple directions, the small display on his tactical terminal showed a dark figure even more furtive than them, lying prone on the ground a thousand meters away from the ancient ruins atop the flat-topped hill.

Its communication signals were quite active, and it was retreating westward at the same time.

There was no need to fully decrypt it. Listening to the network security specialist intercepting the communication channel, amid the English littered with incomprehensible words and that rap-like cadence, he picked out words like "fat," "juicy," "big fish," and "rob."

"Fuck. Recon? A wandering native gang?"

Beep! He connected to internal communications. "West Group Three, did you see that Black guy? Follow him. If I'm right, a group of idiots is trying to bite a piece of meat off the company. Deal with them quietly and cleanly."

His gaze turned cruel in an instant.

As a minor leader of the security squad, he naturally knew how much importance the higher-ups placed on the target's project. They could not let trash from the African Badlands disrupt the target's research. Those flashes of inspiration from a genius were crucial.

After issuing the orders, he paid no further attention to that Black man. The Arasaka Agent continued calculating the distance.

"After this Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, she should leave South Africa and enter Zimbabwe..." After roughly comparing it with the proposal submitted by the target, which clearly stated that she would most likely travel to the Congo in Central Africa, the Arasaka Agent sighed softly.

"Inform all groups to prepare for another relocation."

"What a pity."

Vera also felt that she had been putting herself through quite a lot.

Calm and composed, completely unbothered by the surveillance, she squatted halfway down and picked up a pinch of viscous soil that faintly glowed with fluorescence using her gloved hand.

South Africa's pollution was too severe.

Watching the liquid laboriously pumped up from the underground water channel, floating with unknown chemicals and giving off an oily stench that made her want to retch, she could not help shaking her head.

When she first explored the first ruin and encountered the stagnant underground water beneath South African ruins, the smell and sourness had nearly knocked her flat.

Having senses that were too sharp was not entirely a good thing.

Brutal industrial extraction and pollution had allowed all kinds of chemical toxins to silently erode this land and the creatures living upon it.

She searched through the underground areas and found no small animals living in the darkness, no living flowers or vegetation. She did find some weathered, dried remains of dead animals, as well as decaying fallen leaves and fungal spores pressed beneath soil and stone slabs.

After collecting several samples, Vera used only a rough screening with a portable analyzer produced by Biotechnology and got a long list of elements from the periodic table at lethal concentrations, along with various synthetic chemicals.

Tap, tap.

Surrounded by Arasaka rapid response soldiers, Vera held a data pad in one hand while using the other to feel along the rock wall. She followed the stairs upward, returning from the violently breached underground chamber to the surface.

Seeing Vera return safely above ground, the captain of the rapid response squad from Cape Town's Security Department, deployed as an escort unit, signaled the outer soldiers to remain on guard before personally stepping forward.

"Supervisor Russell, did you find anything?"

"The groundwater has been severely depleted, and the pollution is too serious. No vegetation survives here. Based on the dead plant samples, they also do not match the characteristics of the special flower species I know. There is no point continuing to circle around South Africa. We leave for Zimbabwe." Vera turned around. "Thank you for your trouble."