Chapter 182: The Untamed Dragon
In 2016, on the night he graduated from the University of Tokyo, Saburo Arasaka held a chilling "coming-of-age ceremony" for Yorinobu in his study.
It was not merely a presentation of commercial empires and financial reports, but a systematic unveiling of the true face of Arasaka's power mechanics.
Yorinobu saw a dark core far beyond his imagination: files on meticulously planned political assassinations, financial sniping schemes capable of toppling the economies of small nations, comprehensive surveillance reports on rivals and even government officials, and tens of thousands of lives marked as "acceptable losses."
Power was no longer an abstract concept but transformed into cold data and blood-stained orders.
At that moment, the last shred of attachment and fantasy Yorinobu held for his family bloodline was utterly crushed, replaced by cold loathing and a near-physiological nausea.
He could not stay a second longer in this all-consuming system.
He chose the most direct, primitive form of rebellion—running away from home, vanishing into the neon-lit shadows of Tokyo, and forming a bosozoku gang named the "Steel Dragons."
They defaced Arasaka billboards with graffiti, attacked Arasaka transport convoys with steel pipes, and vandalized low-level corporate facilities to vent their powerless rage.
During that time, material goods were scarce and danger lurked everywhere, yet Yorinobu felt more "alive" than ever before.
He huddled in cramped safehouses with companions squeezed dry by corporations and filled with resentment, sharing crude food and discussing a vague but, in his eyes, incomparably noble goal—breaking the corporate cage.
This was a naive idealism, but it was also the first time he acted according to his own will, filled with tragic sincerity.
However, his half-brother, Kei Arasaka, viewed Yorinobu's actions as an unforgivable stain on the family's honor.
This "Crown Prince," fanatical about maintaining Arasaka's purity and absolute authority, swore to personally erase this "blemish" and "traitor" of the family.
Without explicit authorization from his father, but relying on his status and influence within the group, Kei Arasaka mobilized elite security forces directly under headquarters and issued an "Extermination Order" against the Steel Dragons.
This order was cold and efficient. Its purpose was not arrest, but complete physical elimination.
Corporate soldiers equipped with top-tier weapons and cyberware rolled over them with precision like a relentless tide of steel.
Resistance was futile.
Companions with whom he had once drunk and discussed ideals were torn apart like paper before professional killing machines, falling in dirty back alleys and beside the burning wreckage of vehicles.
Their sacrifice was not a glorious martyrdom, but the result of a ruthless family purge targeted personally at him.
This scene became a nightmare Yorinobu could not escape for the next fifty years. Every silent late night, those young, angry faces would flash before his eyes, with his brother Kei Arasaka's cold visage serving as the footnote to all this tragedy.
This one-sided slaughter sobered him completely.
He realized that relying on passion and street violence to fight a corporate empire that had highly systematized and refined violence was tantamount to throwing eggs at a rock.
Individual or small-group resistance was meaningless before the institutionalized cruelty represented by Kei Arasaka.
To truly shake this behemoth, he needed greater power, deeper strategies, and... longer endurance.
He left Japan, wandering the globe, seeking the power and methods to truly shake Arasaka's foundations.
He contacted various resistance organizations, observed the pros and cons of different systems, and finally, the outbreak of the Fourth Corporate War gave him a key revelation.
He saw the two giants, Arasaka and Militech, forced into "nationalization" for a time under the attrition of war and the intervention of state power. Although this was only a temporary appearance, it gave him hope—only by making corporations destroy each other could this deformed system be fundamentally destroyed.
Since it couldn't be destroyed from the outside, then detonate it from within.
He made the most difficult and resolute decision of his life—to return to the family, return to the father he loathed, and play the role of the "prodigal son returned."
He endured the torment in his heart, dormant for a full fifty years under Saburo Arasaka's all-knowing yet calculating gaze, and amidst his sister Hanako's complex and ambiguous "care."
He knew better than anyone his father's true purpose in accepting his return.
The Relic chip, the "download" end of the Soulkiller technology. That was not just the key to his father's pursuit of digital immortality, but a magnificent sarcophagus prepared for him—Yorinobu Arasaka, the "rebellious son" flowing with pure Arasaka blood.
His body would be the perfect vessel for the reincarnation of Saburo Arasaka's consciousness. And his beloved sister Hanako was the most faithful executor and operator of this terrifying plan.
This knowledge gnawed at his heart like a venomous snake, yet also firmed his resolve.
Originally, his plan had entered its final stage.
Relic technology had matured. He was preparing to steal the chip, using it as bait to meticulously orchestrate a conflict sufficient to ignite the Fifth Corporate War, dragging Arasaka, Militech, and all megacorps coveting this technology into an abyss of no return.
On the ruins of the corporations, he would rebuild a new world without corporate rule, a fairer world more respectful of life that Teacher Hanonaka had once described to him.
Now, the sudden fall of Arasaka Tower in Night City disrupted his pace but unexpectedly accelerated the process.
Militech and the NUSA actively preparing for war, his father's decision to dispatch the "White Whale" in a fit of rage, European banks secretly fanning the flames, Kang Tao's internal strife... all factors seemed manipulated by invisible hands, sliding rapidly toward the total conflict he anticipated.
"The situation is faster than expected..." Yorinobu stared at the surging waves outside the window, analyzing calmly in his mind. "Militech wants to use the opportunity to unify, Father wants bloody vengeance, European banks want to profit from the fire, Kang Tao is internally unstable...
"Good. Chaos is a ladder, the best catalyst to bury the old order."
His goal was never to help Arasaka win this war. Quite the opposite; he wanted to ensure this war was tragic enough, so tragic that all participating parties would be severely weakened, or even perish together.
At the critical moment, he would deliver a fatal blow to Arasaka from behind, while also finding ways to intensify conflicts between other corporations, letting the fires of war spread indefinitely.
"Hansen's Barghest... has re-defected to the NUSA?" He recalled the latest intelligence just received about the unit dispatched to the perimeter of the Badlands manufactorum. "And that 'Sage' who destroyed Mikoshi... an unknown variable, but perhaps also a sharp weapon to break the balance."
His mind raced, thinking about how to utilize these emerging forces.
The enemy of an enemy might not be a friend, but certainly an object to be used.
What he needed to do was not to unite with anyone, but to ensure everyone sank deep into the quagmire, unable to extricate themselves.
An officer walked into the observation room and saluted respectfully. "Yorinobu-sama, Advisor Takayama requests your presence in the tactical briefing room. The final landing operation plan is about to be finalized."
Yorinobu turned around. All emotions belonging to a "revolutionary" vanished instantly from his face, replaced by a cold indifference befitting his status, tinged with a hint of suppressed anger and resolve.
"Understood," he responded faintly, his voice steady, betraying no ripples.
He stepped out of the observation room, walking toward the conference room where more slaughter and destruction were being planned.
Every step felt like treading on the bones of his former companions, on his own fifty years of endurance.
The flame in his heart had never extinguished; instead, in the long suppression, it burned even fiercer and purer.
This giant ship of vengeance named "White Whale" carried not only Saburo Arasaka's wrath but also the ultimate ideal of a revolutionary determined to perish together with the entire old world.
Yorinobu Arasaka, the betrayer of this surname, would personally light the fuse, watching everything he loathed turn into the cornerstone of his ideal new world amidst the flames of the Fifth Corporate War.
He didn't care if he could survive in the ruins; he only cared that the era where corporations controlled everything and treated human life like grass must be ended.
(End of Chapter)