Progress from Arasaka

"Supervisor Russell, we've searched the buildings on the east side of the ruins. No red flowers were found."

"None on the south side either."

"Traces of nomad habitation were found on the west side, with remnants of campfires and discarded trash. Some buildings contained remnants of old grain that had oxidized into black spots, but it's presumed they were rummaged through. They were exposed to high temperatures and sandstorms for too long."

"Report, we detonated charges to excavate the mountainside. While we did find caves that seemed to be used for grain storage, these newly discovered caves are too small... Should we move to another site and expand the search area..."

"You decide."

Vera pressed her forehead, gesturing for them to leave with a wave of her hand, as if in regret. Then she lightly tapped the hood of her vehicle.

"That's right. Such precious medicinal herbs would surely be monopolized and treasured by tribal chiefs. How could they possibly be leaked or shared? Hoarding it for oneself, such backward, superstitious culture... I was too greedy." She muttered, not hiding her words, and many soldiers heard her.

"Never mind... it's enough. Fortunately, amidst the misfortune, I managed to find a few of these..."

Listening to Supervisor Russell's grumbling, the quick-response soldiers standing around remained silent.

Unnoticed, a few people subtly moved towards the Behemoth armored transport vehicle behind Vera, where the Sun Stairflowers were stored. But before they could get close, a sound faintly echoed from the horizon.

It was the roar of a hovercar engine.

The blue tail flame of the vector thrusters flickered in the night sky. A heavy Octant drone and two hover armored vehicles bearing the Arasaka Clover logo broke through the air.

On the ground, the Arasaka quick-response soldiers, who were excavating and blasting, were initially stunned. Then, announcements from their team leaders came through their comms: "Internal identification confirmed. It's our people, an emergency task force dispatched from Lubumbashi."

Upon learning they were allies, some maintained their guard while others continued their work.

"They're here?" Vera looked up.

She had called for the armored hovercars.

Although Central Africa, including Congo, was a buffer zone between Arasaka and the European Union, with no large branch offices, how could major economic and political entities like Arasaka and the EU possibly let go of this piece of cake?

Basic offices and factories still existed, as this region was rich in mineral deposits of colored and rare metals. It would be a waste to give it all to the local struggling black warlords.

Tragically, this was one of the rare points of consensus among the corporations.

As the hovercars descended, the airflow generated by the vector engines began to create distinct whirlwinds on the ground, gently lifting dust and gravel.

Thump! Thump!

Several fully armed figures jumped directly from the ventral platforms of the hovercars, landing on the ground.

"Supervisor Russell!"

"It's me."

Without pleasantries, Vera nodded, displaying the authoritative and capable demeanor expected of a high-ranking Arasaka Night City security official. "Maintain your positions here and wait for me for a moment. My travel portion seems to be over. I need to collect the biggest prize from my African study trip."

Before re-boarding the Behemoth armored transport vehicle, Vera also summoned three commanders of the Arasaka quick-response team.

"Your escort mission ends now. Thank you for your escort on this trip. Believe me, you will receive a generous bonus sponsored by 'Dangerous Girl' upon your return to the Cape Town base. After cleaning up all traces here, you may return to South Africa."

"Yes!" ×3

With that, Vera returned to the vehicle. Not long after, he jumped out, carrying and holding several boxes containing flower culture dishes.

By this time, the hovercars had landed. Several heavily armed soldiers who arrived with the hovercars quickly stepped forward to help Vera transfer the boxes onto the hovercars. Another armored hovercar hovered in the air, its machine gun patrolling.

Sitting on a simple folding stool on the ventral platform, Vera slowly ascended, watched by the quick-response soldiers. Finally, a subtle smile appeared on her lips as she gazed at the distant, rugged mountains. In the desolate night, the atmosphere was filled with a faint, hazy color, and the wind and sand had finally quieted down.

Tsk, why are they hiding so far away...

Vera lit a cigarette.

An informant, yet not acting secretly when I 'discovered' it. Are they not planning to act? Or are they preparing a big surprise for me?

"Damn it!"

Emerging from a concealed pit, covered in dust, several Arasaka agents cursed.

Overhead, a whistling Octant flew low, its blue and white vector thruster tail flames spewing. Behind it followed two armored hovercars ascending.

"Target showed no anomalies throughout. No contact with suspicious individuals was detected, and no additional communication frequencies were found in the vicinity... So, this kind of loyalty assessment and surveillance mission is completely unrewarding. We're Arasaka too, why are we acting like thieves?"

Watching the armored hovercar carrying the target disappear into the horizon, a security agent grumbled to vent his emotions.

"We were the real bodyguards who escorted them the whole way, but those security guards ended up getting the bonus..."

They were from the lower ranks and were unaware of the other objective of monitoring Vera. They simply assumed, based on experience, that it was similar to the usual high-level promotion loyalty tests.

This Vera Adelheid had entered the higher promotion list. Coincidentally, she was heading to Central Africa, a region where their Arasaka influence was relatively weak, so it was natural for them to send them to monitor her.

"Target has begun her return journey."

On another surveillance point, the team leader, covered in dust and looking like a nomad, continued to gaze intently at the dark red flower displayed on the terminal screen.

"Everything is normal, the target's behavior is unremarkable. According to footage from undercover informants, she seems to have found the flower mentioned in her African trip plan..."

"Notify all teams, mission complete, withdraw."

As the security monitoring team, directly led by Arasaka Headquarters in Tokyo, began to gather its members and withdraw, sending their operational reports and live recordings back to headquarters, several messages were being exchanged on a hidden channel.

[Target has found the 'Sun Stairflower' mentioned in the plan.]

[Recording footage received, 9527. Our forces have deployed the Congo regional garrison. Can you continue to infiltrate and obtain the Sun Stairflower, or should we wait for an opportunity to disrupt the convoy, coordinate from the inside and out, and destroy or obtain the Sun Stairflower?]

[...There's no opportunity. The target mobilized Arasaka's Congo rapid response team immediately after discovering the Sun Stairflower. They've already departed.]

[...Maintain radio silence. Once you return to South Africa, track down Vera Adelheid Russell. Knowing her personality, she'll undoubtedly begin her research immediately. We need to obtain or destroy her research results. Anything Arasaka sets out to do, we must disrupt.]

Time passed.

On the other side of the ocean, in a locked, hidden room within the Arasaka estate in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, a room belonging to Sano Arasaka himself, filled with various cutting-edge communication equipment and sophisticated anti-jamming eavesdropping electronic devices.

"Idiot! Such a perfect opportunity, and your people didn't dare to act?!"

"Are you serious? He's an infiltrator, not a cybernetically enhanced lunatic. No one knows how strong Vera Adelheid is better than Militech! In Night City, how many elite agents and soldiers have died by her hand? Do you think the submachine guns held by your rapid response soldiers are faster than her reflexes? That would only alert her. Even if you managed to get one plant, with the remaining ones, she could still complete her research."

"Then what do you suggest? She's already taken those damned flowers, the damned flowers that should be extinct, back to South Africa, straight into an Arasaka lab in Johannesburg. Her project, a new 'rejuvenation drug' to revitalize human cells and organs, once it yields results, will Saburo Arasaka extend his life even further?"

"Oh, my friend, don't rush. Setting aside the success rate of her project, wouldn't it be better to let her gather everything and start researching? Pinpoint the location, gather your forces, and then wipe them all out... Whether to seize or destroy, with the help of a sensible friend like you, we'll definitely have the advantage."

"I hope so. You'd better prepare quickly."

Sano Arasaka hung up the phone, removed his voice modulator, and his expression immediately turned grim.

"Damn Westerners!"

How could he not detect the sarcasm, the hidden suspicion and distrust in the other party's words?

But there was nothing he could do. Saburo's control over Arasaka was too strong.

He was truly like an emperor. He could rally the 'hawks' only by invoking the slogan of revitalizing Arasaka. Once his subordinates knew he intended to go against Saburo completely and end Arasaka's monopoly, his wings would be clipped by more than half in an instant.

Therefore, this kind of cooperation with Militech, selling out Arasaka's interests, actually required him to do it personally.

Fortunately, the other party only suspected he was a Japanese person within Arasaka dissatisfied with Saburo's long-term rule. No one probably guessed that he, Saburo's son, the 'Crown Prince' Sano, would cooperate with Arasaka's old enemy, Militech, and so meticulously undermine Arasaka.

After a few low curses, he shifted his gaze back to the datapad screen in front of him, the dark red flower. "Sun Stairflower... You old fossil, you actually waited for it."

With another swipe, he got out of the armored hovercar, carrying a briefcase and pushing a sealed metal container into an Arasaka building. An image of a young woman with light golden hair, looking cheerful, appeared.

"Bad premonition... I must stop her."

Johannesburg.

Arasaka Industrial Park Biological Research Laboratory.

The brightly lit room was filled with the strong smell of disinfectant. In the center was a reinforced glass cage containing a white mouse. Vera, wearing a white lab coat and full protective gear, stared at it with interest.

"Squeak—"

Under her operation, a robotic arm secured the chirping white mouse. A thick, long syringe was forcibly inserted, injecting the freshly produced Progenitor Virus.

After a long while, the front limbs of the seemingly dead white mouse twitched again, but then, thump!

The white mouse violently slammed against the reinforced glass, seemingly unfazed by pain, hitting it hard, again and again, until its flesh and blood were bloody and torn, its fur rapidly shedding like that of a long-dead animal.

Vera let out a soft sigh and leaned down, lightly tapping the reinforced glass in front of the white mouse.

"Mmmhmm, Arasaka's first bio-mouse..."

Chapter 053: The Eve

"Squeak—!"

Thump! Thump-thump!

The more it hit, the more frantic it became. The white mouse had already smashed itself bloody, splattering the glass cage with gore. Through the shattered skull of the bio-mouse, Vera's excellent eyesight could even see its pulsating cerebellum, with gray-black nerve pathways encroaching upon it.

Crash.

She withdrew her gaze, moved her swivel chair to the console at the edge of the room, and picked up the datapad.

Updating the experimental log.

2075/6/6

[Analysis of Extracted Substance from Sun Stairflower (Sonnentreppe)]

Although most of the flowers found in the underground caves of the Central African tribal ruins had withered and degenerated due to environmental degradation, fortunately, I was able to extract an RNA-form viral substance from the few Sun Stairflowers that were best preserved and had grown the most.

The characteristics it exhibits are entirely new.

Like these white mice, all organisms injected with this viral substance exhibit similar traits: decaying flesh, loss of consciousness, extreme aggression, and... incredible vitality!

Perhaps this is why the mining and transportation company of old, upon inquiring and recording from the local population, learned that the ancient Congo Bantu people consumed it, calling it a potent medicine that could save lives, even bring the dead back to life – a 'sacred flower'.

Potent medicine naturally comes with side effects.

The systemic inflammation, necrosis of the skin and other outer tissues, massive fluid loss, acute septicemia, and shock phenomena observed in the white mice are highly correlated with the characteristics of an overreaction of the immune system.

However, if they can withstand the side effects, repairing aged human cells, beauty and health care, strengthening the immune system, alleviating cell aging, and bestowing vigorous vitality and physical strength, even longevity, are all foreseeable.

Therefore, from a biological perspective, a rough guess is that its RNA viral properties should be able to promote human DNA evolution.

Enhancement, perhaps, is merely a byproduct.

The primary challenge for the Sun Stairflower project going forward will be to reduce its side effects and improve its stability and beneficial properties through targeted cultivation.

Just as I had expected from this project, the Sun Staircase is humanity's ladder to a bright future, overcoming the limits of the human body. The first step of this staircase, Progenitor, I have named it the Progenitor Virus.

Today's experimental log is complete.

With complete research materials left by Umbrella's Dr. James Marcus and Dr. William Birkin, Vera quickly replicated the Progenitor Virus in the Cyberpunk world and completed the foundational research for its in-program localization.

After all, the equipment and auxiliary instruments in the Arasaka laboratory in 2075 were not comparable to the level of Umbrella's initial establishment in the 1970s.

"Your mission is complete, little rat."

Crash! Vera slid her swivel chair again, glancing at the white mouse in the cage whose skull had been shattered. She then lightly touched the destruction switch on the outside of the glass experimental chamber.

Zzzzt! High-voltage electric shock;

Whoosh! High-temperature incineration;

Sizzle! Special chemical liquid flushed and stirred;

Gurgle! The experimental chamber's special waste disposal inlet opened, flushing away the last traces of the white mouse from the world.

As long as it's not some sort of spiritual nonsense from those ghosts and monsters, no normal RNA virus can withstand this kind of sterilization process.

Vera, having learned from Umbrella's lesson of never properly disposing of experimental waste, nodded in satisfaction.

No virus can escape from my laboratory, Vera's laboratory.