Chapter 405
2-in-1-chapter
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Inside one of the submarine's compartments, Leo finally took out 3,000 points of potential value and exchanged them for the schematics of the Warbringer exosuit.
The moment the full design data was injected into his neural link, Leo understood precisely where the improvements had been made.
The Warbringer was a refined version based on the experimental body used with Smasher as the prototype. Structurally, it was similar in most core areas.
But its cockpit had been redesigned for practicality.
Like Militech's standard combat mechs, it allowed a pilot to sit and operate the suit from within—rather than being directly embedded into the frame like some grotesque extension of the machine.
The propulsion units had also been significantly upgraded. Now housed within the armor itself, they were fully shielded, unlike before when they were exposed and easily damaged.
The mechanical legs were no longer just cosmetic. They were capable of bearing full weight and had full mobility.
Leo still couldn't fathom what Arasaka's design team had been thinking with that original prototype—how had they come up with the idea of turning the legs into mere decoration?
Legs that couldn't even support their own body weight, requiring propulsion just to maintain balance—correcting that flaw was actually quite straightforward. Even without the schematic upgrade from the system, Leo already knew how it should have been fixed.
The core issue had always been the imbalance between the top and bottom weight—too heavy above, too light below.
The solution was obvious: reinforce the lower limbs, redistribute the total mass more evenly across the structure, and ensure the suit's balance by calibrating weight across all critical points of the body. That would completely eliminate the issue of instability.
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The death of Hanako Arasaka sent shockwaves across the globe like a tidal wave, causing widespread upheaval.
The very next day, surveillance footage from her private residence was leaked and disseminated across the Net at an alarming pace.
From the footage, it was blatantly obvious who the killer was—someone from Militech.
How could one tell? That didn't even need explaining.
The killer's exoskeleton armor bore a clearly visible Militech logo, and after exiting Hanako's quarters, when engaging her personal security detail outside, he used Militech-manufactured weapons exclusively.
Some argued that merely using Militech weapons didn't necessarily mean the attacker was affiliated with Militech. It could've been another party using their gear to frame them.
But anyone pushing that theory was just being willfully dense.
In truth, both inside and outside Arasaka, there were those who speculated that the killer had disguised themselves as Militech personnel to carry out the assassination.
Following the logic of "who benefits most," many suspected that the true culprit was someone under Yorinobu Arasaka's command.
That Yorinobu had orchestrated his sister's assassination in order to consolidate leadership within Arasaka.
As speculation and conflicting narratives flooded the global network, Yorinobu stepped forward.
He appeared on a public platform and declared to the world that the assassin had absolutely not been sent by him.
He swore an oath: if the killer was acting under his orders, then may his father, Saburo Arasaka, find no peace in the afterlife.
He expressed deep sorrow over the death of his sister.
With tears in his eyes and his voice breaking, he recounted how, driven by rebellion, he had left the Arasaka family years ago.
He had been away for a long time, and his relationship with both his father and the family had deteriorated severely.
It had been only through Hanako's intervention that he was allowed to return—and eventually re-accepted by Saburo.
Had it not been for her, he didn't know what would have become of him.
For that reason, he had always felt immense gratitude toward his sister.
Now that she had been murdered by Militech, there was no way he could let that go.
First his father, Saburo Arasaka.
Now his sister, Hanako Arasaka.
That made two members of the Arasaka family lost to Militech's hands.
If Yorinobu could not avenge them, then what kind of man would he be?
And so, speaking directly to the camera, Yorinobu made a solemn declaration:
Even if it cost Arasaka its final drop of blood, he would see justice done for his father and sister.
Arasaka settles all debts.
If Hanako's death had been a global shockwave, then Yorinobu's speech was nothing less than a comet colliding with the Earth.
It was a declaration of war—undeniable and unambiguous.
This was no longer just a conflict between Arasaka and Militech. Without exaggeration, the entire geopolitical structure of the world now hung in the balance.
Kang Tao, Tsunami Defense Systems, Petrochem, Biotechnica, Biodyne, and a host of other megacorporations immediately took front-row seats, eager to witness how two of the world's oldest corporate giants—each with over a century of legacy—would tear each other apart.
Surprisingly, public sentiment among ordinary citizens leaned more toward support than opposition regarding the prospect of war.
Why was that?
Human beings, by nature, have always been drawn to spectacle—not necessarily out of cruelty, but because most people enjoy watching chaos unfold, especially when it doesn't directly threaten them.
For the lower classes, life was already stagnant—a pool of fetid, decaying water.
It wasn't about whether they could see the end in sight; there simply was no future to see.
Things couldn't possibly get any worse than they already were.
Now, the elites—those who lived high above—were about to start killing each other.
Not oppressing the poor, not putting down so-called mobs, but turning on one another.
How could the people at the bottom possibly be against that?
On the public stage, Yorinobu Arasaka's tone was righteous and impassioned.
He painted the image of a man standing tall for justice and vengeance.
But behind the scenes, Arasaka's logistics convoys had already begun delivering critical supplies to Bolivia.
Bolivia itself wasn't exactly short on money.
Back when Leo and his team had launched their operation, Saul and the others who had stayed behind in-country had acted on intel extracted from the neural link of Flores, the elite-class representative. That intel had led them to the long-hidden personal vault of Captain Cuatro.
In those hidden vaults, they had indeed uncovered a staggering cache of gold secretly stashed away by Captain Cuatro.
If Leo had merely wanted to be a wealthy man, then this gold would have been more than enough for him—and those around him—to live in comfort and luxury for several lifetimes.
But if his ambition went beyond that, then this alone would still fall far short of what was needed.
To rebuild Bolivia, to turn it into the true beacon of democracy in Latin America, and even further—to forge it into the lighthouse that would shatter corporate dominance and illuminate the world—far more was required.
Aid from Arasaka was always welcome. The more, the better.
And from Yorinobu's perspective, granting aid to Bolivia wasn't a loss.
Everything he handed over to Bolivia had originally belonged to Hanako.
Without Leo's assistance, he would have had no way to consolidate power within Arasaka. By giving away Hanako's share, Yorinobu ended up gaining far more in return.
Now, under the pretext of avenging his sister, no one inside Arasaka dared to oppose him. Even Michiko Arasaka's pro-American Hato faction no longer dared to speak on behalf of Militech or the New United States.
They feared being branded as traitors and stripped of everything.