Progress from Arasaka Begins in Infinity

As a high-ranking Arasaka executive, she naturally couldn't cooperate with subsidiaries of Military Science or Kang Tao.

Sure enough, relying on Michiko Arasaka's authority and position, Dangerous Girl got a green light on virtually every order from Arasaka, trying out almost every type of business that could be opened. Whether it was thriving or not was another matter, but it was indeed small but complete.

All the needs of Corporate Dogs were fully catered to.

Dangerous Girl's rehabilitation and recovery business was like this—not exactly booming, but barely surviving.

Tasteless to eat, a pity to throw away.

Until Vera graduated from Arasaka Tower Academy and made the connection.

A wild, non-academic genius who, while bravely shouldering the expectations of her predecessors, never abandoned her own hobbies, actually tinkering things together in her spare time!

Clap clap.

Vera worked efficiently. After figuring out Dangerous Girl's business needs, she linked it to her ongoing repair work on the Old Net, spent twenty minutes calculating and annotating the ideas behind Umbrella Corporation's normal medical product technology—which she knew by 'Innate Knowing'—and then used Arasaka's equipment to build the model framework.

[Regenerate]

Registered under Umbrella Corporation, this skin product was a byproduct of T-Virus research, using a certain technology to revitalize dead cells, making users look younger.

A high-end skincare and recovery product with follow-up services.

It genuinely had significant effects: healthier skin, muscle relaxation, recovery from strain, and a refreshed spirit.

Umbrella Corporation's medical level was truly high—aside from being expensive, it was fifty years ahead of the world, and that wasn't an empty claim.

In the world of Cyberpunk, although the lower class people were all about cyberware, the middle class and the powerful, while installing necessary cyberware, preferred to keep as many of their original body parts as possible. Thus, the demand for maintenance arose.

This was a symbol of wealth—they needed that kind of vibe.

And cyberware, the higher the grade, the more it fit the human body, with less rejection, and when combined with other fine-tuning methods, it also had certain maintenance benefits.

In short, make money from the rich.

Also, [Adravil]:

An Umbrella Corporation product, based on ibuprofen, continuously improved into a more potent analgesic.

[Aqua Cure]:

Umbrella Corporation's best-selling product, suitable for open wounds, truly life-saving, with extremely high craftsmanship, available in both civilian and military grades.

The former was Vera's legitimate side hustle with Dangerous Girl, reasonable and compliant;

The latter was Vera's 'personal research result' submitted to Arasaka.

After the raw material orders were placed, the lab program automatically issued orders, delivered by special aircraft. Estimating everything she had, Vera stood up, entered the inner area of the personal lab, changed into a specialized clean suit, passed through UV sterilization, and then used the workbench's robotic arms behind glass to improve the product.

Drip drip—

Vera watched the 'improved result' gradually taking shape on the workbench after countless precise procedures—raw material inspection, pretreatment, adjustment, refinement, drying... A slight sense of guilt as a thief crept into her heart.

But, backed by the achievements of countless researchers from an entire world, it felt really good.

Umbrella researches and improves products, equals Vera Adelheid Russell of Arasaka researches and improves products.

And she always held back, never improving to the latest model.

I don't produce 'results'; I'm just a 'results' porter.

Subtly, must.

Chapter 008: Vera the All-Rounder?

Only when dusk fully enveloped the city, and colorful neon lights replaced the warm sunlight, did the exhausted Vera in the personal lab codenamed 'Umbrella' lift her head, rub her temples, and stop writing the workbench allocation program.

In the world of Cyberpunk, by 2074, almost every electronic device had a hacker interface.

Programmable, connectable, controllable...

Brain-computer synchronization. Even in technical research, modern scientists mostly worked on segmented cyber networks for computational simulations, generating on built-in virtual screen grids, connecting to real terminals, assisted by weak AI for calculations, then transmitting, generating, adjusting, experimenting, constantly adjusting...

[Regenerate (3rd adjustment, 1st improvement experiment)]

[Type: Rehabilitation and recovery health care product]

[Product improvement unit: Umbrella Personal Lab (Arasaka)]

[Notes: Based on data collection and feedback from Dangerous Girl's rehabilitation business, this is the latest model with timely adjustments and program improvements. After preliminary testing, compared to the currently circulating Regenerate-B4, the C1 experimental type shows a 6%~9% improvement in natural and synthetic skin maintenance effects.]

2074/5/27, 22:14.

After half a day of calculations, Vera finally controlled the iteration of the drug's efficacy to a relatively reasonable level.

Backed by Umbrella Corporation from another world, Vera had put considerable effort into biotechnology knowledge.

Perhaps not on par with Dr. Marcus or Dr. William Birkin, but not low either—at least enough to understand and, with complete data and without the necessity of T-Virus, to replicate.

Especially after obtaining personnel and technical data support from William Birkin's Raccoon City base, Vera, as a company executive, easily accessed the full set of data. She wasn't after B.O.W., T, G, or other top-secret projects—just Umbrella's normal medical products circulating on the market, to expand the Asia-Pacific civilian market, the ones that actually made money.

And backed by the mountain that was Arasaka, even though Arasaka wasn't a giant in biotechnology, its research department was flush with resources. Raw materials, as long as they weren't T-Virus-related, could be obtained, making Vera's path to replication much smoother.

"Let's leave it at this for now..."

The production data from the experimental workbench was fully displayed on Vera's cybernetic eye implant; she only needed to issue commands through her cerebral cortex to read it all.

6%~9%.

Vera's indigo eyes flickered with a faint red glow.

Enough.

She couldn't rush an update to the latest model all at once; she had to improve it slowly, signaling that she hadn't abandoned her 'hobby.'

After sending the accompanying [Regenerate-C1] data, improvement records, and elemental migration chemical model to Dangerous Girl's business division, Vera stretched comfortably.

The research lab was small but fully equipped.

Here, Vera could reproduce the 'Umbrella' series of biotechnology in a way that was reasonable and traceable in origin.

Maximizing her position, the first step had been taking biotechnology courses back at Arasaka Tower Academy; after joining the company, she showed interest in the Old Net and handled salvage and restoration with extreme caution...

Over time, the persona Vera had crafted was basically established, and the gaps needing to be filled grew fewer and fewer.

Reasonable, yet carrying a hint of a genius's unreasonable forcefulness.

Wrap it up.

After disinfecting and changing out of the bulky hazmat suit, Vera walked out of the inner room, pressed the safety switch, passed identity verification, and the lab slowly shut down in compliance with safety protocols.

Once the data was sent out, this matter was temporarily none of Vera's concern.

The subsequent fine-tuning tests and clinical trials were Dangerous Girl's business; she just wanted the money.

As for [Adravil] hemostatic agent and [Aqua Cure] trauma first-aid ointment—no rush. Improving one product in a day made you a genius, and you could explain it with prior preparation, but if you improved three in a day, then...

Vera didn't want to be transferred to the Biotechnology Research Department because her talent was too conspicuous, even if it came with a three-rank promotion!

In the time that followed, Vera visited the soldier barracks on the Security Department floor one by one.

After briefly meeting and chatting with her subordinates from the Special Rapid Response Unit, announcing Team 6's bonus matters and offering encouragement to the other teams, she was escorted to the shooting range for routine practice to keep her skills sharp.

Arasaka's JKE-X2 Kenshin, HJKE-11 Yukimura, Incense LX, Shigure, TKI-20 Shingen, HJSH-18 Masamune, Nowaki... Tsunami Defense's Nekomata, Militech's assault rifles, Kang Tao's smart weapons—basically the most widely circulated models on the market, Vera fired several magazines through them with speed and precision.

Sparks flew on the targets.

Prepare for a rainy day; there would always be a time when they might come in handy.

"Seven seconds faster. Ma'am, if anyone out in the field tried to apply office-worker target handling to you, I think they'd regret it... You're a jack-of-all-trades—uh, are you still simulating CQB?"

Vera's trusted subordinate, Team 6's deputy leader Jimmy, a 1.95-meter-tall white guy in full gear but without a helmet, stared at the timer and let out a sigh. Having followed Vera for years, he'd witnessed her progress firsthand.

Though Vera rarely engaged enemies directly on the front lines, that didn't mean she was a weak commander who couldn't defend herself.

"If someone breaks through to my position, it means you're either dead or slacking off."

Without responding to her subordinate's flattery, Vera just glanced sideways at her adjutant.

At that moment, she was holding a Sadala Electromagnetic Shotgun with one hand.

Her slender, fair fingers—with cybernetic modifications hidden and faint muscle contours—stood in stark contrast to the bulky, heavy weapon, as if the immense recoil might snap them in the next second.

She pulled the trigger.

The smart connection co-processor, embedded and concealed under the skin of her palm, synced with the electromagnetic shotgun, feeding the target's coordinates and a magnified image directly into her internal visual implant. She aimed, auto-compensated for ballistic deviation, and fired.

With a crackle of electricity, the electromagnetically accelerated sharp steel spikes exploded on the target fifty meters away, throwing off massive sparks and even causing melting damage.

After confirming the rounds were fired, Vera tossed the Sadala Electromagnetic Shotgun to her adjutant Jimmy. "Forget today's simulated CQB. I spent extra time in the biotech department."

With a cool turn, she raised a finger and waved it lightly, then left the barracks.

2074/5/27, 22:44.

Internal network security class attached to the Security Department.

The automatic door opened. "Director Vera." The Arasaka hacker who spotted Vera bowed in greeting.

"Mm. Security relay." Vera nodded, then found a seat with practiced ease and beckoned.

The hacker, not wearing a black uniform and lying in a data pod but dressed as an administrative staffer, gave a wry smile. "Director, you... ah, take it easy." With that, he handed Vera a tablet-like relay device.

This thing acted as a layer of protection. Compared to plugging in a personal connection cable directly, even if a hacker traced your location and uploaded a daemon attack virus to counter you, it would only burn out the relay, not the user's brain.

Arasaka had shoes on, so naturally they had such things.

Vera wasn't about to connect her brain-computer interface directly to external devices like some greenhorn.

Faint grooves appeared on her fair skin as she pulled a personal connection cable from the end of her palm, plugged it into the security relay, leaned back on the sofa, and closed her eyes.

"Access the Old Net. Wake me up at midnight sharp."

"Understood."

From Vera's perspective, after spreading darkness, a faint light appeared. In the dim space, white dots floated, arranged in a neat matrix, vaguely forming a straight path ahead.

In the endless distance lay a chaotic, flickering gloom.

There—

Was cyberspace.

"Now then, time to 'train.'"

Once again, thank you all for your support and votes.

Chapter 009: Cyberspace and Vera's 'Training'

Cyberspace.

Simply put, it could be regarded as what was once the open-source internet space.

Why "once"? Because someone blew it up.

That's also why Cyberspace is also called the Old Net.

Countless data matrices of fluorescent green, blue-white, and deep red gradients of ones and zeros formed a place resembling visible space, serving as the foothold for datafied consciousness. Vera gazed at the luminous data world beyond the Arasaka security network program.

Chaotic and disordered, malformed and turbulent.

Here, Vera could even see the boundaries isolating the major network domains—the corporate LAN firewalls of Arasaka, Militech, and Kang Tao—and... the wall that sealed off the Old Net.

A wall of red and black, built from astronomical amounts of solidified information density, security defense programs, and intrusion countermeasure units.

The "Black Wall" established by Network Surveillance.