Infinity, progressing from Arasaka

As he spoke, he ordered his subordinates to drag the madman out. They were all heavily armed soldiers. Perhaps their quality, equipment change efficiency, and combat skills were not as good as those of the major districts like Tokyo and Night City, but they were all fully armed, with full protective suits, gas masks, and air-filtered enhanced lungs.

Just as they were binding and restraining him, beep beep beep—

【notice!】

This is the notification sound for a high-level company announcement email.

[Arasaka Tokyo Global Headquarters, Information Department]: "This is to notify the security personnel of the companies under the jurisdiction of the South Africa and Cape Town branches in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, etc. that, after review by the Tokyo Operations Inspection Committee, the emergency military authorization application of Vera Adelheid Russell, head of [Night City], has been approved."

"Vera Adelheid Russell is hereby formally appointed as Commissioner Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in charge of the June 6.7 Johannesburg terrorist attacks in South Africa."

“2075年6月7日，南非时间凌晨2点56分55秒。即刻生效。”

"The authorization period is from June 7th to June 9th. Once the Tokyo Arasaka Tower Special Assault Team arrives in Johannesburg, the temporary authorization will be terminated."

……

"Fuck."

The soldiers looked up almost simultaneously, exchanging bewildered glances.

The efficiency of the Tokyo headquarters is unbelievable. It's practically instantaneous approval.

"This thing is perhaps more important than we imagine..."

The squad leader looked at the 'madman' beneath him, who was still struggling after being forced to kneel on the ground with a gag in his mouth. "Wrap it a few more times, get the sealed bag, and wrap it up!" At the same time, he also moved the damaged but still intact metal box from the van and signaled for the airship to land. They needed to transfer the goods back first; safety was paramount.

"Keep searching. Search every vehicle, inside the vehicle, on the people, in boxes, suitcases, and any other containers. Take them all!"

......

The once bright and tidy corridors of the industrial park's experimental building are now in disarray.

Floor-to-ceiling windows, with strength comparable to steel, shattered in large numbers. The concrete walls and pillars were riddled with spiderweb-like cracks. Warm bullet casings, twisted tables and chairs, and broken defensive mechanisms were scattered all over the ground. Oh, and there were corpses too.

Amidst the commotion, besides the Arasaka soldiers searching the battlefield and the medics tending to their own wounded, a group of medical personnel dressed in white and green, armed to the teeth, were also dragging stretchers and searching for customers. They were the cyber-era guardian angels of the trauma team.

There may not be any platinum members present, but there are some security guards and department heads in the industrial park who are silver and gold members.

While the trauma team doesn't deploy the same high-tech emergency rescue equipment as platinum members—such as the 7-minute guaranteed arrival of rescue vehicles—it does send ground forces for search and rescue and offers some medical care and medication discounts.

Ta-da…

"Commander Russell!"

Upon seeing the person who had arrived, the guard standing at the door, Arakasa, trembled, stood at attention, and saluted, not daring to make any unnecessary movements.

"Ah."

Vera nodded slightly, and to the astonishment of the trauma team, she threw the so-called 'terrorist' with half his head crushed in her hand in front of them.

"Try to salvage the biological recorder, at least enough to get a clearer image of Mewtwo."

"...Yes, yes!"

From the breach in the wall to the building, on the way to the laboratory, based on the target location of the intrusion, Vera also chopped down a few stragglers in a corner of the industrial park, and incidentally burned the brains of two hackers who couldn't retreat in time. Then, carrying the bloodstained briefcase she had retrieved, Vera walked towards the laboratory with the blasted-open security door, stepping on two rows of bloody footprints.

"Damn, they really searched thoroughly."

Upon arriving at the lab, all Vera could say was, "Military technology, you guys did a good job bombing it."

The overhead fire suppression system pipes were blown out and exposed, and the stored disinfectant water had long been sprayed away; only the fading warning sound continued.

The laboratory was riddled with bullet holes and shrapnel, clearly indicating that it had been planted with explosives, possibly through an internal explosion. However, due to the hasty evacuation, the bombs hadn't been properly placed and instead exploded indiscriminately.

The extent of damage inside the building was very uneven; some areas were completely blown through, while others only had a layer of PVC antibacterial flooring blown off.

Of course, even so, all the poor guinea pigs Vera applied for have turned to ashes. They were sent away completely.

The culture tanks used to cultivate the ancestral virus from the terrapin were overturned and shattered, and the gene synthesizer used to synthesize leech DNA and the ancestral virus was dismantled into pieces.

Half of the control panel was blown apart, revealing the mechanical structure inside.

Vera was unsure whether there was any need to extract and recycle the dried, colored liquid on the ground, which was mixed with human blood, hot human flesh oil from being roasted at high temperatures, indoor disinfectant from the cyberpunk world, and thermite residue from the bomb explosion.

That saves trouble.

The high temperatures of the thermite incendiary bombs, the sterilization and inhibition solutions in the laboratory, and the high-pressure impact of the explosion make it impossible for exposed RNA viruses to survive in such harsh environments.

Vera was well aware of the limitations and limits of the original virus and the T-like virus.

Naturally, one wouldn't create their own problems and make themselves uncomfortable.

The progenitor virus and the first-generation T-virus she is now refining and formulating have an extremely low transmission rate. They are very difficult to transmit except through direct injection, eating the sun ladder flower containing viral material, eating the flesh and blood of people infected with the virus, and high-frequency bodily fluid exchange.

The T-virus developed by James Marcus and William Birkin was the result of years of cultivation, extraction, further cultivation, and extraction, with continuous targeted optimization, which gave the progenitor virus high stability and high transmissibility.

The trade-off is a reduction in the maximum enhancement effect.

Vera wouldn't be so arrogant as to think that her initial cultivation results in two days were comparable to their results over more than a decade.

Moreover, the amount she extracted was limited, and she hadn't done anything fancy to enhance it. She also hadn't synthesized or modulated a gaseous virus for transmission. Given the high level of modification those military science agents had undergone, it was impossible for them to be easily infected unless they injected themselves into their carotid arteries, allowing the virus to directly invade their brains before being filtered by the internal circulation cyber implant.

"Seal off the laboratory and strictly prohibit anyone from entering. Order the chemical defense troops to carry out comprehensive sterilization and disinfection."

With a responsible attitude, Vera issued a disinfection order. While the soldiers in Arasaka were setting up the isolation zone, she found a relatively intact front desk, cleared away the dust, gravel, bullet casings and other miscellaneous items on it, and then placed her suitcase on it.

Vera took the tactical terminal computer from the cautious Arasaka security agent waiting beside her, and asked for some disinfectant and a rag. She wiped away the bloodstains and bits of flesh from the suitcase, click! Intrusion, hacking, unlocking, she unhooked the latch.

Inside, there was only one small, transparent glass container placed on a cushioning foam pad, and it wasn't even full yet, clearly indicating they were in a hurry to fill it...

"Commander Russell, these are the items we found in the 'terrorist' vehicle that infiltrated the scene while cleaning up." At this moment, the squad leader who had finished cleaning up the scene walked over, followed by Arasaka soldiers carrying and holding metal boxes.

"Yes, stack them here."

Vera pointed to the open space to the side and said, "Wipe away the bloodstains and dirt, and disinfect them. All of you remember to disinfect yourselves completely."

"Huh? Yes!" Before taking his leave, he pointed to the human-sized cooling cabinet that two Arasaka soldiers were carrying in, thump thump! The sound of impact could be heard continuously. "That crazy guy, put him here too?"

"Put it here."

As she spoke, Vera looked away from the tactical terminal computer and glanced at the 'banging' cooling cabinet. "Put some filler inside and hold it in place."

After speaking, she continued to fiddle with the portable terminal computer in front of her, accessing internal permissions. Fortunately, the building's programs were not completely destroyed. Vera retrieved footage from hidden cameras in the laboratory during the time of the incident in the industrial park, as well as surveillance videos from the surrounding area of ​​the industrial park.

Yes, first came the tremors from the violent explosion, and the hidden camera in the lab shook very slightly.

Then, amidst the continuous roar of gunfire and explosions, Vera saw the stressed mice in the glass-enclosed laboratory cabin. Fast forward, explosions, flames, violent tremors, the laboratory's multi-layered protective doors were almost melted through in an instant, the ceiling collapsed, dust flew everywhere, and cracks appeared in the glass of the camera lens.

Vera's eyes twitched slightly.

A direct hit from such a tactical missile would be fatal for her. After all, she wasn't as tough as Adam Hammer.

Her own individual powered mech... is the direction in which she will invest resources in the next phase.

Fast forward again, and a severely wounded man with the Arasaka Clover symbol on his body struggles to crawl in. Half of his face is smashed. He comes into contact with the virus seeping from the damaged DNA synthesizer. Vera watches him lean against the machine, focusing on how he touches his face with the hand that has been in contact with the original virus solution, even though his skin and armor have been smashed through.

Next, the military scientists entered the lab, and the burly white man who had lost an arm during the attack killed him. Then, Agent Arasaka mutated, and he ambushed and tore off the neck of the military scientist who was hacking the control panel. This was the 'zombie' that Vera had discovered.

It turned out to be the case.

Vera paused the game after they ransacked the lab, planted a bomb, discovered a hidden camera, and destroyed it.

After downloading the package, Vera then used her privileges to destroy the surveillance storage.

She exhaled a breath of stale air, squinted her eyes, leaned forward, and tapped her fingers incessantly on the front desk.

Meanwhile, on the terminal screen, security colleagues at the Johannesburg branch had sealed off major roads in the city, conducted a city-wide search, and were constantly reporting new findings: suspicious individuals intercepted here, firefights taking place there, and a hacker with his brains burned inside a building…

Although Vera was still directing the pursuit operation and appeared furious, vowing to kill all the terrorists who had stolen her research results, her thoughts had actually drifted elsewhere.

In reality, the affairs of Johannesburg and South Africa are no longer her concern.

Outward anger, personally taking to kill, and using venting-style killing methods are all performances for others to see.

Her request for authorization was actually a side effect of testing the waters; the response from the Tokyo headquarters had already given her the answer.

Wow, this is amazing!

Vera doesn't care about anything else, but this is an excellent promotion resume: Special Agent with Full Authority. Although it's only been less than two days, let's just say Vera's orders have jurisdiction over the entire security units of a region.

It seems that Saburo's attention has been highly focused on her.

Then.

Vera looked at the cooling cabinet in the corner.

"One friendly side and one enemy side, two excellent advertisements."

------

P.S.: Today is Mother's Day. I went shopping and had dinner with my mom, so this is only 4.5K words. I'll update again tomorrow.

I remember all the tips I owe. I'm not a full-time writer, so my writing is slow. I'll pay back slowly, but I promise I'll pay them all back (┗|｀O′|┛).

Chapter 059 Let the 'Butterfly' Fly for a While (5K)

Several hours later, the large-scale fighting in downtown Johannesburg had ceased.

The Arasaka military forces, having already reacted, sealed off all routes out of the city immediately. Meanwhile, as the results of Arasaka's pursuit continued to be updated, in a remote town in Gauteng Province, South Africa, a secret military technology outpost was sending out messages about 'Operation Spring' via a dedicated, covert channel.

[This is Gauteng Intelligence, South Africa. Operation Spring has failed. 'South African Bird' and his hacking team have been wiped out. The assault team initially gained the upper hand but was ultimately defeated by Vera Adelheid. The Central African Wilderness Interception Team has been completely wiped out. 'Assault Team 1' has been killed. The obtained Sun Ladder Flower and research samples have been recovered.]

[With the exception of a small number of support personnel and external reconnaissance personnel, most of the operational personnel trapped in Johannesburg are being held up in the city by the Arasaka Rapid Reaction Force and SAPS (South African Police Service). Our final survival rate is currently uncertain.]

[A major intelligence miscalculation occurred during this operation. Firstly, in addition to the regular defense forces, the Arasaka Industrial Park also harbored an elite Arasaka security team. Their presence severely hampered our operation's progress, turning infiltration into a full-scale assault and wasting a significant amount of time. This was the direct factor that led to 'Assault No. 1' being overtaken.]

Secondly, we urge North American headquarters to reassess the threat posed by Vera Adelheid. She doesn't just have the potential to become the next Adam Hammer; she already has. Her individual hacking capabilities require a thorough reassessment.

[Attachment: Field data and operative combat recorder data unit]; Upload target: Washington, D.C., FIA Agent 'Nightingale']

......

As the morning glow once again illuminated the horizon, the Johannesburg search was still ongoing.

Military and police forces roamed the streets, with SAPS cops and armed men from Arasaka conducting a massive manhunt along the city's main thoroughfares.

Undoubtedly, the chaos of the early morning and the shock of dawn will together form an unforgettable memory for the residents of Johannesburg.

On radio and television, orders from Vera Adelheid Russell, the Special Commissioner for Operations in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the June 6.7 terrorist attacks, were made public by Arasaka.

Accompanied by swaying streetlights and roaring engines...

After prioritizing the sealing of the city's borders, Arasaka's military vehicles, heavy armored aerial vehicles, and even rarer items in South Africa such as soldiers equipped with half-body exoskeletons, combat drone armor that walks upright like a giant crab, 'Octagon' heavy drones, and aerial armored vehicles all roared into the city streets.