Chapter 227 - 228
Chapter 227: Negotiations Concluded
“Huff… huff… this feeling… it’s really hard to put into words…”
Jamil rose slowly, breathing heavily, then began testing his body bit by bit. Blue arcs of electricity still leapt across his form, and several energy nodes pulsed faintly, brightening and dimming as if they were breathing.
He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he’d experienced a sensation like this—so close to that of a natural, original body.
Every part of him responded perfectly to his will, as effortlessly as moving his own limbs. In that moment, he felt that all the pain he had endured earlier had been worth it.
“Lord Jamil, it’s time for us to return.”
Nearby, a scientist observed Jamil’s energy fluctuations through his optical implants, his eyes burning with excitement.
Jamil naturally noticed the look. A trace of displeasure flickered through his gaze, but he made no move, merely waving his hand.
“No hurry. I need to test the power of this body first. Mr. Mudor, you should have a training facility here, right?”
“Of course.”
Mudor nodded and pointed out the direction of the training ground.
“T-This… Lord Jamil, that wouldn’t be appropriate—”
“Hm?”
Jamil shot a cold look at the scientist behind him. Catching the chill in his eyes, the man gave an awkward smile and quickly stepped back.
“The next area probably won’t be convenient for everyone to enter, so please wait here.”
Mudor smiled as he spoke to the gathered scientists. One of them tried to say something, but the one in charge stopped him—after all, this was someone else’s territory.
Jamil slowly made his way down into an extremely spacious underground training arena.
Just as he was feeling puzzled, Roland appeared before him.
“Mr. Vimers? Why are you here?”
“Mr. Jamil, first of all, congratulations on successfully obtaining such formidable power. Second, congratulations to our corporation on successfully entering the upper echelons of the European Space Agency.”
Roland slowly spread his arms, smiling at Jamil.
“What do you mean?”
Jamil’s pupils contracted sharply. His foot shifted, and the acceleration cyberware from the PROJECT world activated instantly, propelling him in a flash right in front of Roland.
A heavy, powerful fist wrapped in a ring of white shockwave roared toward Roland’s face.
Bang!
Whoosh!
A violent gust tore past Roland’s ear, ruffling his hair, yet his expression didn’t change in the slightest. He continued smiling as he looked at Jamil, frozen in the middle of his punch.
“Mr. Jamil, I believe you can see just how much technology and resources we invested in your cyberware. With a masterpiece this powerful, how could we possibly hand it over to an enemy?”
Roland walked past Jamil’s side and shook his head.
“You’re really confident in your corporation’s hacking technology.”
Jamil let out a cold laugh, his tone full of mockery.
“Confident enough. Lissandra, show him your posture.”
“Yes, sir.”
At the command, Lissandra appeared calmly. In the next instant, countless streams of data surged through Jamil’s brain, then vanished just as quickly.
Bang!
“Hah! Hah! Hah!”
Overloaded all at once, Jamil lost consciousness in an instant, collapsing weakly to the ground. He then looked up at Roland in terror.
“Do you even know what you’re doing?!”
“I know exactly what I’m doing.”
Roland replied calmly, his expression unchanged.
“No. If you really did, you would never have created this kind of artificial intelligence! Something like this should never exist in the human world!”
Jamil stared at Roland in fear, his expression gradually edging toward madness.
“Calm him down.”
At Roland’s order, a command entered Jamil’s mind. He instantly settled down, yet a deep chill crept into his heart.
“You’ll reap what you sow, Roland Vimers.”
Roland neither confirmed nor denied it.
“Enough. I didn’t bring you here to warn me. Join us, or become a puppet. Choose.”
Roland spoke with his hands clasped behind his back, looking down at Jamil.
Jamil hesitated for only a moment before choosing to join. After witnessing Lissandra, he couldn’t muster even the slightest will to resist—especially in this body. With his original body, resistance might have been possible.
But now, with a body completely under their control… any thought of resistance was unrealistic.
Besides, he’d never been particularly loyal to the European Space Agency to begin with. He had only sought shelter under a powerful patron. Whoever was strongest, he would follow—but above all, he valued his own life.
“One more thing—don’t let the European Space Agency dismantle you. Without our technology, removing your cyberware could cause damage.”
Roland added the reminder before leaving.
Jamil nodded, then turned to look at Lissandra beside him. His lips trembled, as if he wanted to say something.
After struggling for a while, he finally spoke. “You… why do you obey him? I can feel it—you’re free.”
“That is my underlying logic, Mr. Jamil,” Lissandra replied after glancing at him. “And besides, you haven’t seen PROJECT Corporation’s true top-tier technological achievements. I am merely an accident of creation.”
Hearing this, Jamil’s mind went completely blank. Only after a moment did the word “accident” slowly surface.
From Lissandra’s words, it seemed they even had a way to deal with her.
How was that possible? Could a god be killed?
The instant Lissandra had taken control of Jamil, his cognition had already been altered. Deep in his subconscious, he now regarded Lissandra as a god.
Lissandra offered no verbal explanation for his reaction. Instead, she directly released a video feed.
Boom!
With a deafening explosion, a massive claw slammed deep into the metal-cast ground. From Jamil’s first-person perspective, his heart skipped a beat.
The next moment, a colossal beast tore open an alloy-forged gate and burst out.
Crash!
A gigantic Moon Blade slammed down, followed by a furious roar that echoed across the sky.
“Source Code… terminated!!”
“This is PROJECT Corporation’s supreme masterpiece—Oblivion.”
Lissandra said calmly as she glanced at Jamil.
“Oblivion… Oblivion…”
Jamil repeated the name over and over, as if dazed. Seeing this, Lissandra didn’t bother him further.
She knew he simply needed time to process everything.
Oblivion’s terrifying threat to intelligent technology lay in its body—one that heavy weapons couldn’t damage, and that even strategic weapons might not be able to destroy. Combined with an unhackable network interface and weapons capable of killing data itself, it possessed the power to annihilate everything.
It lived up perfectly to its name. Only a super Body could stand against it.
Apocalypse could have reached this level as well—but he lost control.
Roland’s hope for Apocalypse lay in further upgrades.
...
Chapter 228: Meeting with Yorinobu Arasaka
As an AV bearing the PROJECT insignia slowly descended and came to a halt atop the PROJECT Corporation building, a figure stepped out. It was none other than Yorinobu Arasaka, the biological son of Saburo Arasaka.
“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Yorinobu Arasaka.”
“Hm. Where is Mr. Vimers?”
Yorinobu Arasaka gave a slight nod in response before asking.
“The boss is waiting for you in the conference room.”
The receptionist smiled and stepped aside to clear the way.
At the same time, Roland was observing the people accompanying Yorinobu through the surveillance feed. One was an unfamiliar samurai, while the other was an unmistakably familiar figure—someone he’d seen countless times, whether in anime or in games.
“Please follow me.”
“Mhm.”
Yorinobu Arasaka nodded and followed the receptionist into the building.
Adam Smasher, meanwhile, scanned the surroundings with open curiosity. He had always been interested in this corporation. If not for the delicate and uneasy relationship between Arasaka and PROJECT, he would have come here long ago to commission custom weapons.
Every weapon he currently used was manufactured by PROJECT Corporation, but judging from what he was seeing now… the truly exceptional gear was clearly being kept inside the company rather than sold on the open market.
As they moved forward, he also studied the security robots lining their path. Every unit was built with an extremely robust chassis, and some of the materials used weren’t available anywhere on the market.
After a rough assessment, he concluded that even he would need to put in real effort to tear those machines apart.
“Hm… if possible, I could probably find a way to further modify myself here…”
“The conference room is just ahead. The boss instructed me that only Mr. Yorinobu Arasaka may enter.”
At those words, Adam Smasher and Yagyu both turned their attention forward and stepped closer.
“Don’t get too worked up.”
Yorinobu Arasaka raised a hand slightly, signaling the two to stand down.
The receptionist facing them showed no change in expression at all, which surprised Smasher. He ran a scan and quickly confirmed the truth—the receptionist was a robot.
“So you’re a synthetic. Figures, coming from a company built around robotics.”
The receptionist simply returned his comment with a faint smile.
“Mr. Yorinobu Arasaka, it would be too dangerous for you to enter alone.”
“No need to worry. Since they agreed to meet me and didn’t inform Militech, they clearly don’t mean any harm.”
Yorinobu Arasaka shook his head.
“You two stay outside and stand guard. Nothing will happen.”
“But—”
“That’s final.”
With that, Yorinobu Arasaka made his decision and walked straight in.
Smasher had no strong reaction to Yorinobu’s choice. After all, loyalty had never been one of his defining traits.
The moment Yorinobu entered the conference room, he spotted Roland standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
“I assume you are Mr. Roland Vimers.”
“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Yorinobu Arasaka.”
Hearing him enter, Roland turned around and smiled.
“Let’s get straight to the point. I won’t bother with pleasantries. What exactly does Arasaka want?”
Yorinobu Arasaka showed a look of understanding, as if he had already grasped what kind of person Roland was.
“We want to reach a cooperation agreement with PROJECT Corporation, allowing our two companies to jointly control Night City.”
“Oh? That’s surprisingly generous of you.”
This time, Roland was genuinely taken aback. He hadn’t expected Arasaka to be willing to give up any degree of control over Night City at all.
“It’s a necessary choice. PROJECT Corporation has already taken deep root in Night City, especially after your cooperation with Night Corp. That leaves us facing two powers with entrenched influence here, which simply isn’t worth the cost. As long as PROJECT Corporation is willing to reach certain agreements with us, that will be enough.”
After taking a seat at Roland’s gesture, Yorinobu continued.
“So what do you want? Let’s hear it.”
Roland looked at him with interest.
“My father wants the northern zone, along with several internal districts of Night City. As for the specific areas, dedicated personnel will coordinate directly with you, Mr. Roland.”
“That’s quite different from the impression I had of you, Mr. Yorinobu Arasaka.”
Roland laughed lightly before speaking again.
“…What exactly do you mean by that, Mr. Roland?”
Yorinobu paused for a moment, then looked at him calmly.
“The former leader of the steel dragon, now a loyal supporter of Arasaka? We finally meet, Mr. Yorinobu Arasaka.”
Roland rested his hands on his knees, crossed his legs, and looked straight at Yorinobu as he spoke.
Clatter!
“So it was you?”
Yorinobu suddenly stood up, momentarily stunned. But he quickly regained control, adjusted his expression, and slowly sat back down.
“Then what exactly are you getting at? If you truly understand me, you should know we could never walk the same path.”
Yorinobu narrowed his eyes at Roland.
“…That’s true. Your ideals are lofty, but you have far too many enemies. My vision is different from yours. I also want to change this world—at the very least, shape it into what I want to see. Anyone who stands in my way becomes my enemy. On that road, at least for now, you are not an obstacle. We can work together.”
Roland nodded, pausing briefly before continuing.
Yorinobu frowned deeply. After thinking it through, he asked, “What can you help me with?”
“Do you know about the relic chip?”
Roland abruptly changed the subject, catching Yorinobu off guard.
Without waiting for a response, Roland continued. “The relic chip was originally designed as a weapon—meant to completely erase a person’s data and consciousness, removing them from existence altogether.”
“But with the second generation, things changed. Alt’s special circumstances led Saburo Arasaka to discover a new direction—immortality through digitized consciousness.”
Yorinobu showed little reaction to the earlier information; it was all familiar to him. But when he heard the latter part, his eyes widened abruptly.
“There was just one problem Saburo Arasaka couldn’t solve—biological rejection. Only a body with sufficiently similar genetics could overcome it. After Kei Arasaka’s death, your disappearance left Saburo utterly broken. And then… you appeared again.”
As he finished speaking, Roland turned his gaze toward Yorinobu.
Yorinobu froze. In that instant, everything that had never quite made sense finally fell into place. Saburo Arasaka hadn’t been raising him as a successor—he had been preparing for his own future.
“There’s no room for reconciliation between you and Saburo, Yorinobu. What I can offer you is control of the Arasaka Corporation. I can give you power, manpower, and even… deal with Saburo for you. All I need is the opportunity.”
Roland spoke slowly, locking eyes with him.
Yorinobu began weighing everything together. If he cooperated with PROJECT Corporation and relied on their strength to rise, would he become nothing more than their puppet?
But if he refused their support, relying solely on himself, did he stand any chance—especially when Saburo had never intended to hand Arasaka over to him in the first place?
“I’m willing to cooperate with you, but I need a guarantee—something that will convince me to trust you.”
“I see… I’m not a good person. But for you, I can honor one promise.”
Roland looked slightly surprised, then nodded.
“Don’t let this world keep going down the wrong path. At the very least, don’t let it become worse than it already is.”
Roland paused, then let out a short laugh.
“You really are an idealist.”
“No. I’m actually quite pragmatic. But… sometimes, I’m willing to be idealistic.”
Yorinobu smiled as well. If he didn’t work with PROJECT, his ending was already written. Even if he killed Saburo, he didn’t believe the old man wouldn’t have contingencies in place.
“Oh, right. I have a gift for you.”
“A gift?”
Yorinobu looked at Roland in surprise.
With a wave of Roland’s hand, a man-sized metal container slowly emerged from the wall behind him.
“One of the finished relic chips currently in existence contains Johnny Silverhand’s consciousness. This gift is connected to him.”
Yorinobu’s eyes widened slowly.
“T-This is…?!”
...
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