Chapter 59: Fuming with Rage

Bang!

“Who’s behind all this? Find out—now! If you can’t give me an answer, then every last one of you can get out!!”

Brown drew in a deep breath, his expression dark as he glared at the intelligence department staff. None of them dared raise their heads.

Their business had taken a devastating hit lately. The firearms sector they once dominated had been crushed by PROJECT Corporation’s new line of weapons.

They knew very well that even Arasaka and Kang Tao struggled to match the performance of PROJECT’s firearms. But those megacorps had massive markets and customer bases, so they weren’t too worried. Besides, PROJECT already collaborated with them—if needed, they could simply purchase the technologies.

So Kang Tao and Arasaka shifted directions, abandoning huge chunks of the firearms market to focus on armed mercenaries and security services instead.

But then—out of nowhere—a company named Night Owl appeared, aggressively targeting their security contracts while fielding extremely powerful firepower.

And on top of that, headhunters had recently been poaching key personnel from Luvena Technologies. Brown felt the pressure mounting. He just wanted to find whoever was pulling the strings so he could…

The thought twisted his face into something feral.

If they weren’t going to leave him a way out, then he’d flip the whole damn table.

He had a guess—the most likely culprit was PROJECT Corporation. But he didn’t dare act without confirmation.

If he was wrong and picked the wrong fight, he’d be finished.

He still held onto a tiny sliver of hope…

...

After settling the raw materials issue, Roland began “building relationships” with several Night City council members. Everyone knew how things worked with politicians in this city.

But the officials clearly wanted to squeeze him—dodging him for days under excuses of business trips or urgent matters. In short, they refused to meet.

Roland only snorted coldly and assigned a small task to his newly formed squad.

Kiwi blinked as a notification appeared in the corner of her HUD, then looked back at Vilet and Tina.

“Our boss just sent us a mission. We’re to dig up dirt on a councilman named Williamster and deliver him a little gift.”

“Sounds like it’s not going to be easy,” Tina muttered, immediately pulling up his information.

“Yeah. The difficult part is finding his dirt—and then slipping into his house without anyone noticing to deliver the package.”

Kiwi nodded.

“You two handle the first part. The second part’s easy for me. Get to work—the Night Owl robot will support you with hacking.”

“Understood.”

Tina nodded. Since joining the team, she’d been in charge of netrunning. Night Owl bots specialized in basic intrusions and providing computational support.

After experiencing their processing boost, Tina had become completely hooked—the sudden jump in hacking speed felt intoxicating.

“What about me?”
Vilet pointed at herself, looking confused.

“Uh… the boss wants you to keep resting and training. He says it’s for your next round of upgrades and missions.”

Kiwi scratched her cheek and smiled awkwardly.

Vilet let out a helpless sigh.

Roland did have a reason—he planned to exchange for the Judgment template next. It was the cheapest one.

He regretted not noticing earlier, but he still wasn’t planning to use it on himself—equipping a female hero’s template felt weird, even if it didn’t change his gender. It just felt… wrong.

Judgment was cheap for a reason. Roland suspected it relied less on Cyberware and more on genetics and raw physical strength.

“His plan was to save up and install Judgment on Vilet—having only one Purification in the PROJECT squad felt too sparse.”

...

After wrapping up Kiwi’s assignment, Roland headed to a ward deep inside the secret factory. Medical robots busied themselves inside.

Only one person lay there—the man Roland had rescued from the All Foods factory.

His limbs had healed, though his face looked unsettling due to the regenerative agent’s side effects. Several damaged organs had been replaced with cybernetic ones. His vitals had stabilized.

But…

Roland sighed at the empty, lifeless eyes staring back at him.

The man’s consciousness had been destroyed by torture.

This left Roland with a headache. He coveted the power of PROJECT: Destruction, and since he didn’t know if he’d ever find another compatible host, he wanted to keep this one alive.

But if he installed the template and the key now, the host would be left without consciousness—nothing more than a life-sized figurine with destructive power he couldn’t use.

If he installed the template without the key, the man would almost certainly become a real Pyke—a vengeful madman targeting PROJECT Corporation.

Roland sighed again, patted the man’s shoulder, and left. Another task awaited him.

A task he had assigned long ago.

Soon, Roland boarded an AV headed toward the outskirts—specifically, the junkyard on the border between the Wasteland and Night City.

“He had stationed people and robots there for a long-term recovery operation—searching for the Bartmoss that had been left frozen inside one of the refrigerated units.”

It was time to see the results.

Oh—worth mentioning: through intermediaries, Roland had purchased five AVs. Two were relatively new—third-hand models—which hurt his wallet more than he liked.

The other three were cheaper, older vehicles that had been repaired multiple times—practically junkers—but shockingly affordable.

All five were sent to the factory for modifications. The better two were assigned—one for Roland himself, the other for the PROJECT squad.

The remaining three were given to key personnel, used to transport security robots and important equipment, and deployed for expensive security contracts.