"Sir, the experiment you instructed me to run has made some progress."
"Oh? Interesting. And what about the item I told you to track down?"
Hearing Mudor's report, Roland set down the documents in his hand and asked with interest.
"We've got a lead, but it'll still take time. Johnny Silverhand has been dead for so many years—finding his body is proving extremely difficult."
"Alright, I understand. If you can find it, your research can move on to the next stage."
Roland nodded. Mudor was PROJECT Corporation's scientist in charge of biotech research, though he also had notable accomplishments in AI—specifically in the field of consciousness digitization.
That was exactly why Roland had immediately redeemed him upon discovery. The other chief scientists from PROJECT, for reasons unknown, simply couldn't be redeemed.
Otherwise… Roland would've brought them all out already and had some fun self-developing upgraded versions of PROJECT's tech.
Well, that might have been asking for trouble—considering how most creations under PROJECT tended to rebel…
Mudor's research achievements mainly revolved around those serums and laying the groundwork for PROJECT's prototype units.
His studies touched on the concepts tied to the so-called "soul."
"So the consciousness of those cyberpsycho has already been extracted?"
"Yes. And after a complete cleansing, they've been turned into unconscious data-AI souls. They can be controlled freely, and memories can be added as needed."
Mudor adjusted his glasses and nodded.
"This is… one hell of a pleasant surprise."
Roland instantly thought back to Pilar. Pilar's Heavenly Eye template required three perceptive souls. But Roland had no intention of installing two souls without consciousness.
One would be occupied by the Heavenly Eye's original consciousness. Pilar wasn't exactly reliable in combat—someone needed to watch over him. As long as Roland was around, he didn't have to worry about Pilar's mind getting erased.
As for how these two tough guys would get along… that wasn't his problem. He handled the killing—not the cleanup afterward.
Pilar was pretty sleazy, but the Heavenly Eye should tolerate him… right?
Yes, Roland didn't even consider whether Pilar could tolerate him. In Roland's eyes, Pilar's sense of shame was already extremely limited. Accepting this would probably be easy.
But expecting the hardened, ex-recon-squad-captain Heavenly Eye to accept the guy… yeah, that part might be difficult.
"Mudor, have Lissandra assist you. Then finish designing the data-AI for those cyberpsycho. Track down that netrunner named Kelly we discovered earlier. And… try sending two of them toward the Blackwall to check the situation."
"Understood."
Mudor nodded and left the office, heading back to the lab to continue his work.
When Lissandra learned what was happening, she actually felt relieved. Why? Because this meant she wouldn't need to deploy so many of her sub-intelligences to handle miscellaneous tasks.
Sub-intelligences didn't count as her directly acting or fighting, so they didn't violate protocol, but they did consume her processing power. Roland had dumped a mountain of responsibilities on her, so while she wasn't exactly strained, she was definitely tired.
"Dore, how's the information I told you to collect on Jackie Welles?"
Roland glanced at the towering man beside him—almost his entire body replaced with cybernetics.
"It's all complete. I've sent the report to your inbox, sir."
"Good."
Roland nodded, satisfied, and began reviewing it. Dore was the first creation Mudor produced after arriving in this world.
A first-generation modified soldier using cyberware reconstructed with PROJECT's tech—and originally a cyberpsycho himself.
Thanks to Mudor, Roland didn't need to redeem certain blueprints anymore. He could just have Mudor rebuild them. Very cost-effective… though quite demanding on Mudor.
Roland's next goal was the cyberware market, though he would need to make some adjustments first.
Because cyberware from PROJECT and cyberpunk cyberware were completely different.
In Cyberpunk, the human body has a threshold—exceed it, and you risk turning into a cyberpsycho. PROJECT had no such limitation; their advanced modification techniques achieved extremely high mechanical-biological integration.
Which created another problem: attaching someone else's cyberware to yourself easily risked memory absorption and madness.
So Mudor would need to downgrade some of PROJECT's higher-end cyberware. Yes, more work for Mudor.
"He's left the Valentinos and become a street merc… huh."
Roland stroked his chin. He really wanted Jackie—but it would be difficult. He knew Jackie's personality too well. In simple terms: stubborn.
Once Jackie decided on something, he would chase it to the end. And now, Jackie had clearly set his mind on becoming a Legend. Using corporate status to win him over? Probably impossible.
"Hmm… find a way to have Jhin tie Jackie and Lucy together. Jhin plus Lucy plus Jackie… yeah, that's a solid idea."
"System, does Jackie have any compatible PROJECT templates?"
"A counterpart from a parallel timeline of PROJECT: PROJECT · Hardware."
"Huh?! What the hell is that supposed to be?!"
Roland froze.
"To put it in terms you would understand—it's the PROJECT modification of Sett . In another timeline, it served as a corporate executive officer and was one of PROJECT's top combat assets."
"Got it. Something I can't afford."
"…The host may interpret it that way."
Once he understood, Roland dropped the subject. Anything he couldn't afford wasn't worth looking at—too frustrating.
He then opened today's memory logs from Ando, along with Mudor's report.
The contents clearly depicted the tragic ordeal Ando and his girlfriend had suffered. After being captured, they endured brutal torture. His girlfriend was violated right in front of him.
Their captors later gave them a false chance at escape, only to recapture them—and force her to choose: her own life, or Ando's.
And in the end, she chose herself.
Ando broke. Driven mad, he was fitted with the Berserk Module cyberware and dumped into Japantown as live data collection material.
After finishing the files, Roland noted several things.
First was a girl he glimpsed in the crowd—the one Jackie saved. She looked extremely familiar. He planned to investigate her later. The second was a location from the perpetrator's memories—apparently in Santo Domingo.
And it happened to be near his Base 3. He might be able to follow the trail and uncover whoever was behind all this.
"Lissandra, have Tina and the others trace the data from that Berserk cyberware to see where it leads."
"Understood."