As the most renowned weapons expert in Night City, Xiao had cracked the armaments of countless companies.
Major corporations had offered him high-ranking positions with enormous salaries, but Xiao had rejected them all.
If it weren't for the fact that the weapons he encountered were sometimes low quality, he would have known precisely when to intervene and when to leave the core technology untouched. Coupled with limited production output, Xiao's skills were in high demand: the major companies needed him to break the weapons of rival firms and uncover their technological secrets.
Over the years, Xiao had survived multiple assassination attempts orchestrated by these companies.
The first reason for his survival was that the corporations needed his talent. The second was that he was sensible. The final reason was that his existence promoted research and development.
Among Night City's scientists, a rumor circulated: the technology that Xiao could crack was worthless.
The statement insulted two groups at once: one group believed Xiao could only copy low-end products, lacking research and development skills; the other believed that the technology's owners were incompetent, allowing their secrets to be stolen so easily.
Thus, researchers in every company were driven to push technological boundaries, constantly innovating.
Much like the catfish effect—placing a lively catfish among tunas keeps them alert and active—Xiao's existence motivated pampered, arrogant researchers. They had to work harder, or risk being surpassed. For a company's researchers, losing value meant being expendable.
This unintended consequence of Xiao's presence accelerated technological innovation across the corporate world.
But even as companies tolerated his existence, the surveillance on him never waned. Xiao's residence was wired with countless monitoring devices.
Last night, he had stayed in the Gambi Building—a fact noted by Arasaka Yorinobu and tracked in advance. But what caught Yorinobu off guard was far more shocking: the man who always knew the limits of technology now intended to blow up all corporations and capital itself.
He called himself a god. He aimed to ascend the throne of heaven, ruling over all life. This feudal dictator needed to be sent to the guillotine.
Yet, Xiao seemed to wield powerful technology, enough to embolden Rogue against the world, ignite the Fifth World War, and empower ordinary people to resist corporate oppression.
This revelation thrilled Arasaka Yorinobu. For years, he had tried to fight for the people, resisting the plunder of capital, even forming the Iron Dragon Gang for this purpose. But all his efforts were crushed under corporate might; no impact, no change.
The Arasaka family had always dismissed him with indifference: as long as he enjoyed his game, it didn't matter if he died or failed. The teams he defeated and the businesses he destroyed were merely dogs raised by the family.
Desperate, Yorinobu had returned to the Arasaka fold, attempting to dismantle its power from within for the sake of the people. After over fifty years, hope remained elusive. Now, someone hinted that the horn of resistance was about to sound—how could he not be thrilled?
Yet in Yorinobu's eyes, Xiao was no saint. He sought godhood, wielded powerful technology, and wanted to rule as a dictator.
"You are not yet awake. If I, , can make you succeed… I will take your surname!"
Yorinobu smashed the crystal glass in his hand, cursing viciously. He summoned Adam Hammer, his top general:
"Adam, there's a task for you."
"Okay. Do you want me to take down that old lunatic Rogue?"
"It doesn't matter. Just find out what Rogue obtained from Xiao."
"Roar! Understood. I'll make her explain everything clearly!"
Adam laughed wildly before hanging up.
Meanwhile…
"Yorinobu, what are you going to do?"
Xiao sipped his ten-thousand-eddie champagne, a playful smile spreading across his face. With his abilities, he could easily access indoor monitoring. He had even chosen the Gambi Building specifically because he knew Lai Xuan had stayed there the previous night.
Arasaka Yorinobu, the Che Guevara of Night City—a red revolutionary who had betrayed his own class.
Born the second son of the world's largest chaebol, Arasaka, he had been raised in ivory towers, with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father could unleash nuclear devastation with a snap of his fingers. Yet Lai Xuan stood firmly against him.
He had dedicated himself to resisting the rigid system, breaking the chains of capitalism, and establishing a people's republic.
The problem was simple: his personal power was limited. Just as people had grown accustomed to the world of pirates, everyone in the cyberpunk world cursed capital—but they hated being powerless far more. Whenever opportunity knocked, they joined the ranks of capital, exploiting the lower class themselves.
Yorinobu's so-called "people's society" and "freedom" were illusions in a world that ignored them. The upper class suppressed you, the middle class betrayed you, and the lower class abandoned you. How could a revolution succeed?
Yet Xiao did not dislike Yorinobu. He admired him, respected him, and even felt a trace of guilt.
When playing the simulation, Xiao had seen Yorinobu as a prodigal, a reckless and spoiled second-generation rich, even imagining he strangled his father to death with his own hands.
But after completing Yorinobu's story, Xiao was dumbfounded. The despair of capitalism's rule, his inability to save anything, and the "death" of a good person at his own hands left a lasting impression—so profound that he could not recover for days.
It was not just the sense of helplessness—it was also regret. Xiao had made the wrong choice, accidentally "killing" someone good, allowing evil corporations to triumph. That ending was far more painful than taking a life.
Thus, Xiao's emotions toward Yorinobu were complex.
And yet, Xiao was willing to give him a chance—a chance to fulfill his dreams. Through this, Xiao could listen to Yorinobu's conversations with Rogue and witness the seeds of resistance beginning to sprout.
(T/N: Just ignore this he's a recurring character in this arc so I can't just cut this part out but honestly this capitalism bad, well yes capitalism is bad but socialism doesn't really have ny good case studies either, I personally feel power, extreme power in almost any way and form in the hand of man corrupts. Seriously this is token propaganda so just turn off your brain and read through.)
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