Cyberpunk - Badland Madman [Cyberpunk 2077]

Tokyo, Arasaka Family Compound

"Hanako-sama, the intelligence report from Arasaka Waterfront."

Hanako looked up from her desk as her former bodyguard, now retired, father-figure, and loyal friend, Shintaro Takayama, placed a data shard in front of her.

She gave a warm smile back. "Thank you, Shintaro-san."

As the family's loyal vassal left her alone, Hanako quickly slotted the shard in an external reader connected to her private terminal. She prided herself on being a top netrunner, but even she knew when not to take risks.

The first thing she saw was a video. It was from inside the turbine chamber of the nuclear reactor. She saw a fight, the most unusual kind. Adam Smasher and other FBCs were there. And in due time, they were all defeated. All FBCs were killed, their limbs torn. And finally, Adam Smasher was humiliated.

But in that whole video, there was no sign of the attacker. It looked as if Adam was defeated by the wind.

Similarly, she saw no signs of an attacker even as the turbine was altered. There was no sign of the attacker when the six scientists were attacked and disappeared. She tried to look into the camera system's data, and there was nothing.

Finally, she began looking into the data. The nuclear reactor wasn't harmed, there was no meltdown. However, it was pushed to its limit in a way that it was now shut down for maintenance, meaning a loss of billions as Arasaka Waterfront lacked power.

According to the data, there was a power draw to somewhere she couldn't pinpoint. But doing all that itself required extreme control over every little system in the entire nuclear reactor. That was why she was reading this, because Arasaka fully believed a top netrunner was involved in this attack.

"There are no signs."

She frowned, reading every single line of data the systems had recorded.

"Unless this is all fabricated."

She finally relaxed in her seat and turned her chair to the large TV screen on the wall. It was muted, playing the national news channel of Japan. Normally, they wouldn't dare show news about Arasaka, especially bad news.

But because the matter was already global, it had to be told.

"They mean to humiliate us."

Hanako murmured and watched the news channel run a video of Adam being defeated and humbled.

"It cannot be Militech. They would not want another war."

####

The Continental, Night City,

"Good morning, Night City! Yesterday's body count, nobody cares. The size matters, and the big boogeyman Adam Smasher has fallen like a bug run over by a truck! Arasaka Waterfront has seen some action, Netrunner? Cyberpsycho? Maybe all of them…"

Annoyedly, Lucy muted the TV and looked at Maine. "We gotta lay low for the next few days."

"Lay low? For what? Ain't nobody saw us during the gig. All we done is move cargo. Rest of that? That's on the boss. He said don't sweat it, so I ain't sweatin' it," Maine replied, sprawled out on the massive massage chair that came with the penthouse his crew had been given.

"You've been acting weird, Luce? Arasaka got you that spooked?" Rebecca asked from the side, perched on the headrest of Pilar's massage chair like a cat.

"Yeah, don't get why you're so freaked out," Sasha started, eyes glowing blue the whole time, busy with something. "Been scrolling the feeds. Saka's got nothing on us. They're pinning it on Militech. Boss is a damn genius. Bet he's got some legendary netrunner on payroll, maybe a solo too. They smashed Adam fuckin' Smasher."

"Yeah, guy's a genius," Pilar moaned from the massage chair, his long arms hanging off the sides. "Hit the Obsidian site. Boss is rolling out a fresh line of synthetic muscles, and they're preem as hell. It'll be thirty percent stronger than the crap out there on the market."

"Huh? Let me see!" Maine exclaimed. "I'm gonna need them asap!"

"He's got fresh skin, a new optic, and a fuckin' heart too. Says it's a real heart that's fake. Fuck if I know what that even means, but it sounds preem as hell. At this point? I'm gonna kiss his hands when I see him." Pillar mumbled.

"You ain't doin' that!" Rebecca smacked her brother on the head. "I'm kissin' him first."

Lucy said nothing after that, sitting uncomfortably.

"Lucy's got a point," Dorio said. "Just because we're in the clear right now doesn't mean we push our luck. For the next few days, stay away from any Arasaka gigs. They'll be on high alert. Militech too. We've made enough eddies already. No need to rush into anything."

"Alright, let's do that. Could use some downtime. Need my chrome tuned," Maine said, eyes still closed. "Gotta give the boss credit, though. Takes balls to go after Arasaka this early in his corpo game. He's either a straight-up madman, or he got an ace up his sleeve."

"Let's not dig into that. Guy's impenetrable," Kiwi added from the lounge. "No chrome, and his servers run ICE not even Militech has. He's dangerous."

Clink!

From the bar area, Falco put his glass down and turned the barstool. He'd helped the crew this time since driving was involved, and he was pretty good at it. Though, this job was too easy.

"He is involved with the Nomads, as well. Been hearing about Aldecaldos these days. They guard this building too. And we all know what the Continental even is. Mr. Blackwell's turning it into an underworld hub and safehouse for shady business. He is organizing what used to stay in the shadows."

"And we're his enforcers. Ain't we real special." Maine laughed and unmuted the TV. He loved listening to Adam Smasher scream in pain.

####

Corporate Place, Night City,

Beep-Beep!

Beep-Beep!

"Um…"

Meredith let out a faint hum and opened her eyes calmly. She preferred low noise and something more real. Instead of using the alarm in the holophone feature of her neural link, she liked the real, physical alarm clock.

With a tap, she turned the alarm off and sat up on the bed. It was dimly lit, albeit with lighting underneath her bed. The room was average, the company apartment was simple and enough for a career woman like her.

With a neural command, the blinds on the large floor-to-ceiling window opened, and she got an open view of the water and Japantown across the bridge. It was bright and still shining with lights, as 5 AM meant it was still dark.

For exactly one minute, she sat there and just stared at the view. The passing AVs, the cars in the distance, the countless advertisements. It was strangely calming.

Hope he knows what he's doing.

Finally, she got up, grabbed an oversized grey t-shirt, and wore it over her nude body. She walked into the kitchen area first, set the coffee pot in place, and then entered the bathroom to get ready for the day's work.

With a neural command, the nearby screen started showing the morning news, and as expected, the only talk was about Adam Smasher being defeated and humiliated with the released photos and videos. The opening of the Continental was an afterthought, and she knew Cypher Blackwell preferred that.

The events of last night had been reported to her. It was a storm back in Militech. However, her department was research, so she had nothing to do with that storm. She had finished her job for the day and reached home on time.

Once she finished brushing her teeth, she looked at her face in the mirror. The digital display on it showed her vitals and items left for her morning routine.

"Ugh!"

But then suddenly, she felt it. Her right eye twitched, and it faintly ached. She knew what it was.

"The time has come, Meredith Stout."

That voice, she had hoped never to hear again. Demonic, making her skin crawl. When she looked at the mirror again, she saw him, only the gigantic face under a red, shadowy hood, with gleaming red eyes, mechanical arms connected to the jaw area like tentacles. She didn't know why Cypher Blackwell was doing this, appearing as Omnissiah and not himself.

"T-Time for what?" She asked back, struggling to look away, as whenever she tried to, she felt pain in her eyes.

"The first phase of the Great War has commenced. Arasaka shall hold Militech responsible for this incident, and I will ensure all trails converge upon that verdict. Militech shall insist on denial, but the proof will render it futile. Arasaka will answer in kind, and the fuse will be lit."

Meredith didn't try to look away anymore; her eyes widened in horror at the prospect of another full-scale corporate war, a true hot war. The last time it led to a nuclear strike on Night City.

"Do you still wish to be the CEO of Militech one day, Meredith?"

______________________

Check out Cypher X Judy, Cypher X Rebecca, Hanako Arasaka Solo NSFW ART, and advance chapters at [email protected]/MrPlotThickens Or Subscribestar.adult/mrplotthickens

Advance chapters on [PATREON] are in long-form format. I have 10 long chapters of this story on P@treon. That's equal to 35-45 NovelPhoenix chapters.