"Holy shit! What the hell is Saburo Arasaka thinking? Lucy, did you steal something from him?"
High above Night City, V, piloting her AV, also heard Saburo Arasaka's bounty announcement. One hundred million eurodollars! One hundred million!
It would take several lifetimes to spend all that! With so much money, she could instantly become part of Night City's elite, one of the wealthiest people around.
David and Lucy were also completely stunned. After hearing such news, their first reaction was that they must be dreaming.
It was only after Saburo Arasaka finished speaking and disappeared from the screen, replaced by a photo of Lucy—it was definitely Lucy!—that it sank in.
'Huh? Me?' Lucy looked at the photo, subconsciously pointing at herself.
She had no idea what she'd done, but in just a few short minutes, she had become the most famous person in Night City—a walking hundred-million-euro bounty!
"I have no idea. I've never even met Saburo Arasaka in my life..."
Seeing the nine-figure bounty, Lucy herself began to lose confidence. She racked her brain, trying to recall her past with Arasaka, but she had no clue what Saburo Arasaka wanted.
"Regardless, we have to hide you first. You can't be seen by anyone."
Although V also wanted that hundred million, after a long internal struggle, she chose her teammates. They were all Schwarzer's disciples.
That meant they would be a family. The eternal life that came with becoming a True Ninja was far more important than a 'small' fortune—it took her several minutes to convince herself of this.
"Biometric masks, facial concealment... good thing I have some prepared in the car. Put this on, quickly."
V pulled out some disguise cyberware from a storage compartment in the car. As a mercenary, you sometimes had to use this kind of thing...
Corpo V had prepared many such cybernetics, but Merc V's personality would certainly have disliked them. However, no one noticed this little bug.
On the run. All they could do was keep buying time and try to figure out what Saburo Arasaka truly wanted.
In a dim basement, the headquarters of Zaibatsu Cinema, the Lord, wearing a veil over his eyes, contentedly stroked a small cat in his lap.
On closer inspection, the so-called basement looked like a palace. Adorned with numerous Ancient Egyptian-style decorations, it appeared exceptionally noble.
"MUFOOFOOFOO~"
"With this, Arasaka and Schwarzer-san are now set completely against each other. The fall of Arasaka Corporation is just a matter of time. Once they've worn each other down, we'll make our move and take all of Night City."
The Lord projected the perfect air of a final boss, along with an aristocratic haughtiness. The ordinary people who died in Night City tonight were completely beneath his notice.
Herein lay the power of the Virtual-to-Real Conversion Jutsu. Saburo Arasaka was completely unaware that there was anything wrong with his actions. He could have simply hired Lucy with that hundred million eddies, but instead, it devolved into a city-wide battle royale.
Everyone was fantasizing about finding Lucy and bringing her to Arasaka Tower. A bounty of one hundred million was enough to make anyone lose their mind. All the 'edgerunners'—the mercenaries—were mobilizing every resource they had to find information on Lucy.
"Lord-sama, with but a simple trick, you have nearly brought all of Night City into your grasp. This is truly a golden opportunity," the Paragon Ninja complimented.
The Zaibatsu ninjas below also felt honored. What a privilege it was to witness their great lord's conquest of Night City.
Even Shomo-san bowed his noble head, expressing his respect.
The Lord was very pleased, not only because Arasaka's potential for further advancement was gone, but also because Schwarzer had requested intelligence on Yoroshi-san. It was highly likely she was preparing to move against them.
For her, who was mistaken for the 'Ninja Slayer', to proactively seek information on Yoroshi-san, there could only be one answer. It had to be the only answer! A new slaughter was about to begin!
"MUFOOFOOFOO~"
"And now, finally, for the Zaibatsu ninjas who fought and died heroically against the Soukaiya, and in prayer for the ever-greater prosperity of our organization—"
The Lord let out his characteristic laugh, then delivered his summary of the day's battle.
Sitting on his throne, he stretched one hand forward, as if he had rehearsed it countless times—
"Work Harder!!!"
"Work Harder!!!"
"Work Harder!!!"
[Banzai Chant] One of Zaibatsu Cinema's elaborate formalities, a ritual that embodied their 'corporate culture'.
During the ritual, everyone raised both hands and shouted "Work Harder!!!" Anyone who failed to raise their hands and shout would be deemed a traitor and executed.
A deafening roar echoed through the basement, yet none of it escaped outside. No one noticed this place.
The Lord looked down at his subordinates with satisfaction, but his thoughts were on a certain Yoroshi-san Pharmaceuticals. His loathing for them was severe.
Meanwhile, just as he had thought, Schwarzer, relying on the intelligence provided by Zaibatsu Cinema, found the true secret base.
It was a basement undetectable by any surveillance or satellite; even she, with her mastery over AIs, had been unable to find it.
"Why does everyone seem to love hiding secrets in places like this?" Having successfully infiltrated Yoroshi-san's secret base, the System couldn't help but complain.
It wasn't just in the world of Cyberpunk; it was common in previous worlds too. Secret rooms that were completely untraceable seemed a bit too common.
"[Answer] Because it works. True secrets should be hidden this way."
Schwarzer didn't give it much thought. It was a simple but effective tactic: physically isolating it from all networks meant even the strongest netrunner couldn't hack in.
But clearly, they hadn't considered that the way to counter this was an equally simple method—bribing the security guards.
Zaibatsu Cinema's ninjas had expended enormous effort to probe all of Yoroshi-san's secrets. On one occasion, a security guard they had unexpectedly bought off revealed the information about this place.
As the saying goes, it's impossible to guard against a thief from within. A secret base compromised from the inside was no longer a secret at all.
Schwarzer performed a physical intrusion and found the intel within the base. This was the ultimate secret of Yoroshi-san Pharmaceuticals and Arasaka Corporation, a joint experiment into which both parties had invested heavily.
Saburo Arasaka was no gambler. He had made multiple preparations for his immortality. The Relic chip, for example, was one of them, though it had a lower priority.
This laboratory was his second fallback plan, one designed to be used in conjunction with the Relic chip.
An artificial ninja. Using biotechnology to cultivate a ninja's body, and then injecting his soul into it. Just like a Ninsoul possession, he would possess an artificial ninja himself.
Saburo Arasaka's soul was stronger than that of an ordinary person. If the artificial body had no soul of its own, he could theoretically succeed in this 'body snatching' and thereby become a True Ninja.
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