69 Chapter 69
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Chapter 69
Tang Yu returned to his office.
Sitting in his office chair, he toyed with a chip in his left hand, turning it in circles.
"Not bad as far as demonstrations of goodwill go."
A luxurious limited-edition Rayfield sports car is not something that can be simply acquired with money, even a second-hand one.
Jenkins must have gone through some trouble to obtain this car.
For an Arasaka Intelligence Department Director, this luxury vehicle was merely a relatively expensive toy.
The sports car was not enough to interest him, nor to blindly assume that Arthur Jenkins valued his abilities.
In the world of Arasaka, what did favors count for?
Less than nothing.
Today they might smile and congratulate you, but tomorrow they would stab you in the back; such occurrences were all too common.
Moreover, the gift of such an exorbitant present from Jenkins implied a double meaning.
On the surface, it seemed like an act of goodwill, an attempt to curry favor, but on a deeper level, it indicated persisting doubts.
Arthur Jenkins sensed that Tang Yu, whom he had promoted personally, was showing signs of slipping beyond his control.
Fearing the subordinate might overshadow the master was an easily understandable concept for Tang Yu.
However, since they were still in the same boat with intertwined interests, they might choose to turn a blind eye to any rifts between them for now.
Tang Yu activated the Dragon Fist scanner to check and read the authentication information for the Rayfield vehicle.
[Rayfield "Aerondight S9" The Lady of the Lake's Sword]
[8-litre W16 engine, 1000 horsepower, 0 to 100 km/h in just 2 seconds, with a top speed of 407 km/h]
[Both interior and exterior made using high-tech light materials such as aluminum, titanium, fiberglass, carbon fiber...]
From its appearance, the car featured a deep blue pearl base with blue flowing light and shadow on the front hood.
After scanning and capturing the vehicle authentication chip, he could simply log in through smart glasses to authenticate and access the vehicle next time.
Tang Yu opened the office drawer, tossed the authentication chip inside, and decided to leave fetching the car for when he had the time.
He refocused, starting to prepare for the next steps in his work plan.
Missions given by Michiko Arasaka required some early preparation; possessing high-level board intelligence clearance naturally allowed for a deeper understanding of Militech.
He turned on his office computer, logged into the Arasaka corporate intelligence system, and entered the high-level intelligence dossier center.
He selected the board-level intelligence dossier.
Clicked confirm.
The system began verifying his identity.
"Login successful."
It was Tang Yu's first time accessing the Arasaka board-level intelligence system, but he found his browsing was restricted to Militech.
This restriction must have been set by Hanako Arasaka, strictly for work-related use.
The confidential intelligence on Militech contained herein could have a vast impact if disclosed, possibly even provoking a new arms conflict between the corporations.
"Soulkiller?"
Tang Yu casually browsed and noticed information on Johnny's ex-girlfriend recorded in the files.
He clicked to view.
The genius hacker Alt Cunningham had developed a groundbreaking consciousness digitalization technology.
This technology could digitize human consciousness and extract it from the shell to transfer into the network of cyberspace.
It was originally intended to create a digital virtual identity for humans nearing death.
However, it attracted the attention of major corporations such as Arasaka, Militech, and Night Corp.
Arasaka "recruited" Alt Cunningham in a unique way and used it as a foundation to develop the Soulkiller program.
Once activated, the Soulkiller would replicate and extract all information from the human brain, forming a cloned data consciousness known as an "engram."
Simultaneously, the program would upload the "engram" into the subnet or cyberspace, killing the original consciousness.
During the Fourth Corporate War, Arasaka and Militech waged a prolonged netrunner cyberwarfare.
Arasaka finally ended this electronic war by employing the Soulkiller technique, incinerating thousands of Militech's netrunner mercenaries.
Since then, Militech has been dedicated to stealing this technology, albeit with little success.
Reports indicate that Militech once supported Johnny Silverhand's terrorist activities, aiming to completely destroy the foundation of this technology - the Arasaka subnet.After reviewing the information, Tang Yu found it largely consistent with what he knew, indicating high credibility. In August 2023, a nuclear blast almost burned down half of Night City. That tactical nuke was the one funded by Militech for Johnny. Even after so many years, Arasaka is still using the Soulkiller program, frying people's brains. Even at the near-earth orbit space station, if infiltrated by Arasaka's powerful hacking system, one might get their brain fried by Soulkiller at any moment, extracting their consciousness.
Tang Yu couldn't help but think about the many digital souls still trapped in the building's lower basement level within the Arasaka Tower. They, like tortured souls stuck in hell, cannot enter the cycle of life and death but are instead doomed to wander endlessly within the Arasaka subnet. A substantial number of human consciousnesses were used by Arasaka to develop the Relic, providing a considerable number of experimental samples, Tang Yu speculated.
Saburo Arasaka probably kept his rebel son because of the experimentation with overlaying engrams. Subjects that are genetically and emotionally similar to the 'engram' tend to have a higher success rate. The intel only included information on the Soulkiller program and did not mention the more in-depth Oracles or the engram overlay experiments. These secrets were likely only known to the Arasaka family and Saburo's direct research staff.
Johnny Silverhand's digital soul wasn't in the Arasaka Tower in Night City but at the Arasaka headquarters in Tokyo. Even if Tang Yu wanted to rescue his old friend, it was beyond his abilities until Yorinobu had a fallout with his father and came to Night City with the Relic chip, allowing Tang Yu to devise a proper plan to acquire it.
Tang Yu continued to review other intel, looking for information that fit the mission requirements. He needed something that could expose Militech's flaws, cause them trouble, and be discussed at the board meeting while also clearing Arasaka of suspicion, avoiding a direct conflict between the two companies that could affect the "harmonious" relationship between Hanako Arasaka and New America.
"These corporate dogs really don't have it easy," Tang Yu sighed.
Suddenly, he remembered the middle-aged man with a limp he had encountered last night while out for a run to buy water, who mentioned he did not want to become a cyberpsycho. The man, who had been in the Metal Wars and was discharged after losing a leg, had a story somewhat similar to that of the cyberpsycho James Norris. Both were veterans with a history of Militech.
Evidently, the middle-aged man had chosen to adopt more advanced prosthetics provided by Militech, which likely meant he would end up like James, turning into a cyberpsycho. Yet, to refuse such an offer was equally bleak; living off a meager pension in Night City was nothing short of a struggle.
Tang Yu frowned slightly, following this line of thought further. "If this case could be used as an entry point, and if solid evidence exposing some of the Militech scandals to their treatment of discharged soldiers could be found, it might provoke a backlash against the Militech trend. But raising awareness and chanting slogans is not enough; the dirty dealings of the companies are already well-known in Night City. We have to affect the personal interests of Militech, to literally cut a piece of flesh from them. Otherwise, it won't make it to the boardroom table nor convince Michiko."
Tang Yu learned quite a bit about the recent movements of Militech, including transporting weapons into Night City and escorting important individuals out of the city, but these didn't fit his mission requirements. After a while, with not much useful information found, Tang Yu exited the intelligence system, shut down the computer, and rested with his eyes closed.
"Some things can't be rushed; perhaps with time, new opportunities will arise."
