42. Old Bastard!

Micro Nuclear Weapon.

All right, Akechi thought, she really should not have been surprised.

What was a Micro Nuclear Weapon?

In the classification of nuclear weapons, some liked to call any nuclear weapon with an explosive yield below 1,000 tons of TNT a Micro Nuclear Weapon. In a field where making them bigger was easy and making them smaller was difficult, this was a relatively rare yet practical weapon, one that ensured precise strikes against targets.

Akechi had grown accustomed to Arasaka Tower concealing weapons like this.

When Militech's nuclear bomb had detonated inside Arasaka Tower in 2023, public opinion, guided by Militech, had accused Arasaka Tower of hiding nuclear weapons. Arasaka had not denied it at the time. Naturally, that was partly because Arasaka had been overwhelmed then: Arakawa Kei, the man in charge of North America, had died, leaving them with no time to deal with Militech. But the greater reason was—

Arasaka Tower really had contained a nuclear bomb back then, and its yield had been greater than the one Militech detonated. Rather than dealing with Militech, Arasaka's analysts had actually been more curious about why the nuclear blast had been so weak. By their calculations, it should have been far more powerful.

It was a pretty hellish joke once the truth came out, but when another nuclear bomb hidden within Arasaka Tower was placed in Akechi's hands, she found that she could not laugh at all.

A few days ago, while using the identity of Carl, she had cleared out one of the Pheasant Faction's strongholds. While clearing that location, which had actually served as a warehouse, Carl had checked its storage logs. They recorded nuclear weapons being stored there during the Unification War to prevent Militech from attacking Night City, only to be removed after