Infinite Progress, Starting with Arasaka
Author: Qingyi Laobaigan
Synopsis:
[Also known as: Starting as a Corporate Drone at Arasaka, From Arasaka to the Interstellar Peace Company, I Am the Company!]
This is primarily the story of a corporate drone from a cyberpunk world who seeks advancement by joining various mega-corporations across different realms, using the tactics of a multi-world middleman, moving things from his left hand to his right.
Years later.
"[Exclusion of Prosthetics, Inclusion of Flesh and Blood]"
Arasaka Corporation, Night City Arasaka Security Department, Director Vera's optimized solution for addressing prosthetic implant erosion, exclusivity, and safety threshold limitations — the discovery of the T-Virus and the possibility of human enhancement projects.
"[Flesh is Weak, Machine Ascension]"
Umbrella Corporation, Manufacturing Department, Dr. Vera's rejection of the White Umbrella Company's (Umbrella's internal biological research department) project proposal — the economic prospects and promotion of the cybernetic prosthesis industry.
"[Kueenka is Weak, Cyborgs are the Future]"
Ghoul Countermeasures Bureau, R&D Department, Special Agent Vera's analysis report on mechanized organic technology.
… …
"[Artificial Star God]"
Vera Adelheid, Supreme Councilor, is now announcing our company's restructuring plan:
Interstellar Peace Company!
(PS: The synopsis is weak. Feel free to check out my old book for entertainment: "I Am Honkai")
Chapter 001: Being a Corporate Drone at Arasaka (Please Collect)
Noisy, tumultuous.
This is a city full of charm and vitality. At least, it used to be…
Buzzing… buzzing…
Under the bright sun, in broad daylight, bursts of fire and smoke, accompanied by the wailing of sirens, rose from the bizarre corners of the metropolis.
The air was very hot. It was filled with an indescribable stench of protein meat, smoked and roasted without being bled or gutted, mixed with the acrid smell of burning electronic components.
The once dense overpasses and rail lines had long since ceased operation, replaced by a concentrated display of humanity's and its creations' violent side.
Police sirens wailed, crowds surged.
The surging crowds, like a tide, poured towards the police barricades on various streets. Beside the sparking electrified Warning line generator, with armored police cars as cover, a line of police officers and humanoid security robots stood armed.
"[Warning, warning. Citizens, your actions have violated the city's public order regulations.]"
The police security robots used their loudspeakers to continue their formulaic, pre-recorded warning to the dense, out-of-control crowd that had escalated from a demonstration to an organized riot.
"[Last warning. Please immediately cease your illegal activities. According to safety protocols, this unit has been authorized by public order regulations…]"
"F*** your mother, you stupid robot! Get out of our city!"
Amidst the curses, a Molotov cocktail was thrown from the crowd. Bang. A fireball exploded in front of a police car, flames erupted, and the city's law enforcement officers instinctively ducked and took cover. "Enemy attack!"
Unlike the human patrol officers who might hesitate, the security robot's formulaic warning ceased. According to its programming, it pulled the trigger almost as soon as the crowd crossed the cordon, Dada! knocking down the rioters who had breached the blockade.
At the same time, several security robots wielding automatic machine guns turned their heads, their scanners' red lights sweeping over the crowd. The hooded man who had clearly thrown something and then tried to hide, along with the men and women about to pull out guns or explosives, appeared on their sensors. Muzzles rose, locked on, and large-caliber heavy rounds fired. Instantly, gunfire erupted.
Da da da da da—
Just a few seconds later, a crisscrossing net of fire covered the crowd ahead from multiple directions.
Whether innocent people were harmed or if the punishment was excessive no longer mattered at this moment.
Direct bullets pierced through the crowd, hitting abandoned vehicles on the roadside, penetrating prosthetics, and tearing through flesh. Instantly, blood and flesh flew, sparks splattered, and white liquid—whether oil, coolant, or nutrient solution—mixed with damaged prosthetic debris and minced meat sprayed everywhere.
The area echoed with the screams of demonstrators, the curses of rioters, and the Howl of those lucky enough to be alive.
If one were to look down from the sky, they would see that at the city's main transportation arteries, explosions, fires, and electrical equipment short-circuiting sparks erupted simultaneously, as if by agreement.
The city was crying… No, perhaps more accurately, the city, which had long since run out of tears, had naturally caught fire once again.
....
Municipal Center.
Arasaka Tower.
Quiet to the point of coldness, in a world of dark metallic tones, cold and towering, elegant Japanese classical music echoed.
It was like entering another world.
Everything here remained orderly. Corporate employees either diligently worked on their tasks or took breaks in the bar and tea rooms between office sections, softly chatting and laughing about the fun happening in the city.
As if the district riot a block away had never happened.
Mid-level Tactical Command Center.
Beep beep…
The faint sound of fingers tapping on a silent keyboard occasionally rang out. Split screens emitted light, illuminating faces that were cold and marked with cybernetic implants.
Inside, a group of tall figures stood silently.
They wore heavy, black-and-white heat-resistant combat uniforms, draped in two-tiered heavy armor like samurai, fully armed, with tactical helmets adorned with protrusions. Reflected by the computer screens, the black-on-white clover logo on their shoulder and neck armor glowed faintly.
Arasaka Security Department combat soldiers.
And surrounded by Arasaka soldiers, seated beside the central console of the tactical command center, was a rather young-looking blonde woman leaning back in her chair.
From her appearance, the woman seemed to be in her early twenties, tall and well-proportioned, with no obvious signs of extensive cybernetic modification.
Her shoulder-length light blonde hair, between gold and silver, was tied back in a ponytail. Her features were delicate, and her face was beautiful even without makeup, certainly enough to be a spokesperson for a cosmetics company or the public relations department. She wore a dark, form-fitting uniform with a high-tech feel.
Shhh… Shhh…
The blonde woman's fingers gently stroked the tabletop, watching the surveillance footage transmitted from various district monitoring centers: city police units were engaged in fierce firefights with frenzied gang members, mercenaries looking to profit, zero-sum looters, ambitious opportunists, and a very small number of idealists with a sense of justice.
Heavy armored transport vehicles, funded by the company and filled with armed police and security robots from the city police department, arrived one after another at the riot front lines.
Currently, it seemed that merely blocking the road to the Municipal Center, the police did not yet require support from corporate armed forces.
"Is this all they've got?"
With a sigh, the blonde woman slightly moved her slender and flexible fingers, then turned her chair, facing away from her subordinates, and walked to a cabinet by the wall. She gently adjusted the antique horn-style phonograph on the cabinet, changing the classical music's tempo from uplifting to a nearly finished, slightly sorrowful phase.
'Super monopoly capitalism…' she murmured silently.
The waxed counter reflected the blonde woman's slightly complex gaze, which vanished in an instant.
"Officer Vera, the 'fish' have been caught. Necessary evidence is in hand, the personnel list is confirmed, and our people are in position. Shall we commence operation?"
Just as the blonde woman silently lit a high-end cigarette, letting the curling smoke slowly dissipate before her eyes, one of the Arasaka soldiers stepped forward.
"Phew… After so many days of twisting and turning, small skirmishes, it wasn't in vain that we pushed for it. It finally erupted. Hmm, it's time to reel them in."
Exhaling a puff of stale air, Vera, holding the high-grade cigarette between her fingers, walked back to the large screen, looking at the display which, in response, switched to an overhead view:
In the tactical command center, under the real-time monitoring and data lock of Arasaka hackers equipped with high-end access pods, one by one, gang leaders, cyberpunk mercenaries, agitators, and corporate opponents were identified and tagged from the crowd, and even from their hidden homes and safe houses.
Vera knew very well that within an hour of her command, at least a thousand people would be dealt with.
Collateral damage was inevitable; even Arasaka hackers using top-tier equipment were not omnipotent, and there would certainly be errors in identifying targets for strikes.
But the company never cared about such small discrepancies.
They were all types who would rather kill a hundred innocents than let one guilty person go. No matter which company.
The company demanded efficiency from Vera, so she had to be efficient, for progress…
She had grown accustomed, grown numb.
Ever since she came to this world and decided to climb the ladder, she had already alienated her former conscience.
Her only conscience was to kill these people quickly and cleanly.
In front of the company, especially a global giant like Arasaka Corporation, when the company decided to intervene, the failure of those on the screen was already predetermined. Letting them taste a little sweetness first was merely for the maximization of profit.
"First, they ignited topics on the streets to generate buzz and intensify social conflicts, then secretly guided the protest march, and when the crowd approached the rich district and the Municipal Center, they suddenly launched an attack, using ordinary citizens as human shields to instigate a riot against the city's upper and middle classes. Tsk, a good method, but what do they gain from it…?"
Under the consolidated efforts of Arasaka field personnel and intelligence analysts, the full context of the sudden actions of these individuals was easily uncovered.
The cause of the incident was both complex and simple.
It was nothing more than the Brazilian authorities exploiting the populace too harshly, making life unbearable for those at the bottom, leading to intensified conflicts. Some people wanted to profit from the chaos, so they fanned the flames. Then, the fire did indeed ignite, and whether they profited or how much is hard to say, but under the influence of other external factors, the 'fire' got out of control, resulting in this hellish scene.
If there hadn't been other large corporate personnel meddling and confusing the situation, the report consolidated to Vera would have been largely accurate.
'Let these troublesome commoners die; how dare they resist, and even kill my horse? These are no longer ordinary commoners; a heavy hand must be used.' This was likely the psychological state of the Brazilian authorities at the time.
With the situation seemingly out of control, the 'arsonists' might have burned themselves or fled early, but the Brazilian authorities needed to extinguish the fire. After careful consideration, they chose to invest heavily in ordering security services from Arasaka Corporation.
And this was why Vera had come to Rio de Janeiro.
Her mission, upon being transferred to the Arasaka South America investigation team, was to fulfill the security services ordered by the Brazilian authorities from Arasaka Corporation — to suppress the local area, clear out the riots, and eliminate the terrorist organizations in Rio de Janeiro.
As for the definition of a terrorist organization, hehe… if it was for the employer, that was enough.
Vera silently flicked off the ash and extinguished the half-smoked cigarette in the ashtray. This question, she didn't need to understand too clearly, nor did she want to delve into it.
Anyway, the root of the problem would eventually lie with the company.
Everyone said so. The vanished 'legends' of the past said so too.
"Right, analyze the surveillance footage collected these days and find the most active individuals. Compare them to see who didn't show up when the show started today. As long as they're still in Rio, those who chickened out and retreated should also be dealt with."
Thinking of something, Vera, watching the Arasaka soldiers already in action on the screen, stopped pacing. Her indigo pupils flashed with the crimson grid of an internal virtual screen, and she issued an additional command to her Special Rapid Response Force subordinates who were leaving the tactical command center.
If we kill, we kill big. If we clear out, we clear out completely!
To satisfy the Brazilian employers, to let the reputation of Arasaka Security Department's services take root in this land, to let Rio de Janeiro have a few more years of stability…
The employers who suffered losses in this unrest would surely deeply resent it. Reducing losses for urban residents was not her concern. As an external security and stability service provider, the more ruthlessly she killed, the higher the employers' evaluation would be, the better her performance, and the more bonuses she would receive.
It was all for progress.
Anyway, people were going to die, so let them suffer a bit more, round it up, and benefit us all.
Having adjusted her mindset as an excellent corporate drone, Vera returned to her command position and sat down, signaling the tactical center's technical personnel to track the progress of each field team's mission in real-time, pulling up the monitoring system, and watching with relish.
These small fry weren't enough for her to run to the streets and fight. After all, she was a mid-level manager in the company, or rather, a lower-mid-level executive who had crossed the threshold of leadership, wasn't she?
From the surveillance, her Special Rapid Response Force teams, brought to Rio de Janeiro, had already begun operations, cooperating with the local Arasaka branch rangers in Brazil to capture and execute the 'terrorists' identified on the list one by one.
Among them was the execution of the leader of Rio's largest street gang.
The name…
Doesn't matter.
Anyway, one thing was clear: in the past, this guy had stolen a lot of goods from the Rio de Janeiro city government and was quite unruly.
Vera, of course, was there to vent the anger of her golden patron. It just so happened that this guy's information was well-circulated, and in this riot, he had swallowed up a lot of territory, so it wasn't an unfair accusation.
"Post-war reconstruction, huh? The city's infrastructure seems to be quite damaged… Hmm."
Watching the streets ablaze and the buildings looted, smashed, and burned on the large screen, Vera's lips curved into a slight arc. She murmured to herself, "…Someone in the company should be interested." Before her words even finished, her eyes immediately flashed with the red light of communication data.
"Night City Information Department, this is Adelheid, Night City Security Department, General Security Bureau, Special Rapid Response Force…"
"That's right, I'm currently on a security mission in Rio de Janeiro… Yes, I have good news. I have a freshly compiled detailed map of Rio de Janeiro's urban infrastructure damage and real-time recorded footage… I think this is enough, you understand."
"Hmm, go through official channels, yes, contact friends in the company's engineering and construction department, whether they want a piece of the Rio de Janeiro reconstruction pie… It's very fresh… Yes, no one should have more say than me, who is on-site suppressing the situation, right? Let them prepare relevant urban reconstruction plans in advance…"
....
The corporate drones at the Municipal Center had already begun discussing the city's post-chaos reconstruction, while in more parts of Rio de Janeiro, during this period of vanishing order, the riots had mercilessly destroyed all tranquility in the city.
Law-abiding citizens were in fear amidst the gang conflicts and zero-sum looting, and Arasaka Security Department personnel's urban warfare was in full swing.
Just as Vera had never worried that this mission would fail, in the absence of other factions' intervention or with limited intervention, the 'terrorist organizations' in Rio de Janeiro were just a disorganized mob.
They collapsed at the first touch.
In a corner of the city, an exceptionally fierce explosion shook the camp of Rio de Janeiro's largest gang, drowning out the howls of the small-time thugs who were still excitedly counting the spoils looted from the rich district and commercial streets.