Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Serena Prince POV – October 7, 2075.
Mission completed: Smash Adam Smasher in Cyberpunk 2077.
Kill Adam Smasher.
Reward [Credits]: 50
Additional objectives:
Objective 1: Do it before Rebecca dies at his hands.
Reward [Other]: Free capture of Rebecca or 20 credits.
Objective 2: Ensure the survival of the Maine crew.
Reward [Other]: Free capture of Sasha Yakovleva or 20 credits.
Objective 3: Prevent David Martinez from losing his mother and becoming an Edgerunner.
Reward [Other]: Free capture of Lucyna Kushinada or 20 credits.
Objective 4: Kill Saburo Arasaka.
Reward [Other]: Free capture of Hanako Arasaka or 20 credits.
Objective 5: Cause serious damage to Arasaka along the way. Reward [Other]: Free capture of Johnny Silverhand and Rogue Amendiares or 50 credits. More credits depending on the damage caused to Arasaka. From 50 credits for a minor setback to 1 IMG ticket for completely annihilating Arasaka.
-----------
Finally, I finished the mission and accepted the reward a couple of days ago. It had taken longer than I expected, but I had to make sure I destroyed all traces of Arasaka. Luckily, the reward meter showed how many credits I would earn, and I only finished the mission when it reached the maximum reward.
Now I had a total of 565 credits and 1 IMG ticket, an imaginary ticket that could be exchanged for 1000 credits, which would be equivalent to buying someone from a Tier 10, practically someone who could affect a planetary level or even higher. It was simply ridiculous.
If I could get another IMG ticket, I might use it to buy someone who scales universally. Although there were stronger entities, at the moment, that level of power was almost ridiculous and inconceivable to me.
The Traveler, the template I had, cost 5 IMG tickets. My level of growth over time was completely ridiculous, but that seemed very far away. At this moment, that amount of power was ridiculous.
Just take a deep breath before putting it aside. While it was amazing to think about, an IMG ticket could do even more. There were options and benefits from The Company that didn't involve a Companion, which were really good, especially one of the upgrades to our Pocket Space. The Pocket Star upgrade cost an IMG, but it increased the Pocket Space's size to ridiculous levels.
Although I hadn't yet met the requirements to buy it, just thinking about it made me shudder with anticipation. Pocket Star increased the extent of Pocket Space by 104 AU, which means 104 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and added a yellow star that we would orbit.
If my calculations were correct, that would be a distance that would encompass all the planets up to Neptune, the Kuiper Belt, and several trans-Neptunian objects in the solar system. So yes, it was a very long distance. And I could fit planets within it, so yes… it was a good option, if we had the credits for the conditions. We needed 1250 credits for the Pocket Star conditions, which we definitely didn't have.
For now, let's save it. We have more than enough regular credit to get us through for a while, especially since we won't be using it in the short term. Still, it was good to have it as insurance in case of an emergency.
I took a deep breath and put my phone away. It had been several days since we'd completely eradicated Arasaka, and the last week had been nothing short of frantic. There was a lot to do if we wanted to keep things stable enough to prevent a complete collapse of the global economy, at the very least.
And unfortunately for me, I was the one who had to take care of everything, at least until I received help from someone I really didn't expect: Yorinobu.
Yorinobu adapted to his role with extreme ease. He didn't care in the slightest that GLaDOS had poked around in his head and placed restrictions on his brain, or that his face and body had changed almost completely; no, in fact, he was in a genuinely cheerful mood because of Arasaka's destruction.
And indeed, he had been a blessing. Yorinobu was around 80 years old. He had been trained and educated to be the heir to Arasaka, the most powerful corporation in the world. So he took to the role of deputy director of Aperture Science with ease.
The world was practically in a panic. Corporations and countries alike needed calm, reassurance, and, above all, help. Arasaka left a huge void in every sector.
And while Aperture could fill them, we couldn't do it indiscriminately, not without ignoring certain powers, people, and laws, which would lead to more resentment than was worth it. We had already eliminated Arasaka practically out of nowhere; imposing ourselves by force wouldn't earn us any sympathy or gratitude.
So we had to work carefully to avoid everything going to shit. And I definitely couldn't do it alone.
Meeting after meeting, problem after problem, argument after argument. It was extremely annoying, and I felt like cursing everyone and going back to the underworld. I was seriously tempted to bring Lucius in to deal with all of this.
That's where Yorinobu was truly a blessing; he had no problem taking over as Aperture's deputy director and taking more than half of my responsibilities to run this whole circus.
In fact, he was genuinely motivated to help people, whether he genuinely cared about them, or it was his way of redeeming himself, or making amends for everything Arasaka had done to the world.
The truth is, I didn't really care. The only thing that mattered to me was that Yorinobu was a complete lifesaver. I just had to give him certain guidelines and conditions on how all the meetings should be conducted and under what conditions each contract should be signed, and he would simply do it.
I had to give Yorinobu a lot of papers and information, not made up, but created at the last minute, so that he could get up to speed, very carefully worded to avoid him noticing that there really was no one else besides us.
Even so, Yorinobu needed people, and I had no problem with him bringing a large part of his faction to Aperture, people who wouldn't mind working for the destroyers of Arasaka and helping people as a humanitarian organization.
So, he and his group would handle most of Aperture that was "out in the open," while I maintained the facade of working with the "hidden" part of Aperture. Honestly, I wouldn't mind at all if Yorinobu took over, as it would free me from the arduous, tedious task of running a corporation.
Especially once I decide to leave this world long enough for people to notice my absence, GLaDOS could fill the role of running Aperture while still occasionally experimenting in this world, but I was certain she would prefer to continue working with her science.
Putting all that aside, Michiko was the second easiest person to resolve the problem with. After a long talk and discussion, and after proving that Yorinobu and Hanako were still alive, but with their identities practically erased, she had agreed to completely and publicly renounce Arasaka.
And in fact, he did it without complaining; it really seemed that he had no love for Arasaka, at least not for the company.
Hanako… she was the most difficult to deal with, or rather, the one I really didn't want to get involved with. Saburo's death affected her quite a bit, not to the point of becoming catatonic—in fact, it almost seemed as if she expected Saburo's death, whether natural or murdered— but even so, Hanako loved her father enough to grieve.
She hadn't completely shut down, but she had thrown herself headlong into the first research project that caught her attention at Aperture, enough to bury herself in her lab and work for hours on end without rest.
Yes, I definitely wasn't going to get involved. The woman was over 70; she could manage on her own. GLaDOS oversaw all her work, and the little mental safeguards she had would also prevent her from doing anything stupid, so it wasn't my problem anymore.
Then there was Goro Takemura, that bodyguard who truly hated me with all his heart. He had decided to stay to serve Hanako, whom I couldn't care less about, but every time I approached him, Takemura glared at me with such hatred that it was truly unbelievable.
On the other hand, Sandayu Oda seemed to remain unchanged, also staying by Hanako's side, but much more imperturbable than Takemura.
So, all of the Arasaka family's problems were basically solved, and I had nothing to worry about.
All that remained was for us to finish up our unfinished business in Night City before finally leaving. I had finally gone to the Cynosure facility to retrieve everything inside: the Cerberus Militech, the Erebus blueprints, and the Cyberdeck Militech Canto Mk. 6 blueprints, along with all the other data stored there.
Along with that, GLaDOS already had more than enough technology to keep her entertained for quite some time. She hoped that even though we had leaked an extremely censored version of the Arasaka files, we had a raw copy of all of them.
That meant we had blueprints for all the technology Arasaka had access to, and even for technology they'd been secretly working on. And there was a lot of it. Not just technology under development, but technology that had been kept secret, never to see the light of day.
Nothing quite like Soulkiller and Relic was there, but there were some pretty interesting things, according to what GLaDOS mentioned. Speaking of Soulkiller, we delivered all of Mikoshi's engrams to the families of those people.
I really hoped that would entertain her enough. She had tried to convince me to patent and introduce portal technology to this world, not for personal use, but for something more commercial and on a large scale. To use them as fixed portals to different cities, to the moon, and then to future planets within this universe.
While I wasn't entirely opposed, especially since it would make it easier to send the technology needed to terraform other planets if necessary, GLaDOS wanted to use her portals specifically to acquire a planet for herself.
Apparently, she never really gave up on her dream of acquiring a Vex machine planet, and she wanted to take over Mercury for herself. Actually… I wouldn't have minded if GLaDOS knew what she was doing, obviously.
Transforming a planet into a machine world wasn't within her capabilities at the moment, and she didn't believe a Vex template would immediately provide that information. She really didn't want her to accidentally break or collapse Mercury, so for the time being, much to GLaDOS's annoyance, I had to stop her from taking over Mercury.
With that partially resolved, it was more than enough for the time being. I just had to focus on the only thing I had to do: keep solving annoying problems and prevent corporations from starting a war over something really stupid.
Lucy and Becca still had business in Night City; they still wanted to resolve any issues with Maine and the crew.
Rebecca had taken it upon herself to keep Sasha entertained, something Rebecca wanted to do; it was clear she'd missed Sasha during the time she'd been practically dead. I really didn't want to get bogged down in the mental work of figuring out whether or not she was the Sasha of this world. Rebecca didn't seem to care in the slightest, so neither did I.
And in fact, that's where they both were right now, introducing Sasha back to the world of the living and the crew of the Maine.
I now had one last urgent matter to attend to. Lucy was handling several things as the lead Netrunner, especially managing a large group to keep the global network secure, so I need to find a replacement.
And there was someone perfect for that place.
"Song So Mi, it's a pleasure to meet you." I said as I watched the hologram of Song So Mi looking at me.
"It's not like you left me a choice, Emperor Killer, is it? " So Mi mocked, eyeing me warily. I almost wanted to laugh; that title the world had bestowed upon Aperture was utterly ridiculous. "You practically dragged me here. I don't know how you managed to penetrate the FIA's defenses and my ICE, but I won't go down without a fight," So Mi hissed.
"I don't intend to do any harm," I said honestly. "In fact, I want to offer you a deal," I said directly. So Mi frowned.
"Speak." So Mi demanded.
"I can free you from NUSA, from FIA, from Myers, and restore your body and mind infected by the incursions into the Black Wall." I said directly, and So Mi's eyes opened wide.
"How do you know?" she hissed sharply. I just hummed.
"I just know, that's all you need to know." I said, shrugging. "I can help you, set you free. In return, I want you to work for Aperture Science." I said directly, and So Mi laughed bitterly.
"Change one set of chains for another? You must be crazy." So Mi said mockingly, I just raised an eyebrow.
"Who mentioned chains? I just want you to work for Aperture, a normal 8-hour job, and all that. You'll have free will in everything concerning your work and the group you're in," I told her honestly. So Mi looked terribly confused.
"I... don't understand," So Mi said simply.
"I've seen you poking around in the New Global Network," I said directly. So Mi's eyes widened. "So I don't need to tell you much about it. The network is designed to be free and free of corporate control. I want you to take care of it," I said directly.
"Take care?" So MI asked incredulously. "Is that another word for control? Govern? Spy?" So Mi mocked, I shook my head.
"No, we need to be careful. The internet is a gift, for people to do with as they please; it will grow the way they want it to. But I'm not so stupid as to think there aren't bad people. The internet won't have any censorship of any kind, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful."
"I don't want corporations and other organizations playing their game on the new network. I don't want anyone to destroy the new network, that's all," I said honestly. So Mi stared at me.
"This has to be a joke, a trap," So Mi said immediately, turning around and pacing. "Something I'm not seeing, something you're not telling me. Am I locked up somewhere or something?" "Will the contracts force me to do things I don't want to do? " she asked paranoidly.
"No, nothing. We'll get you out of the FIA, fix you up, change your face, and give you a new identity. In return, you become the guardian of the new network. We'll give you implants and technology better than what you have now, and much more secure. You can work however you want, go wherever you want, do whatever you want, as long as the new network stays and the corporations stay away. You're free." I said easily. So Mi looked at me again as if she couldn't understand my words.
"I-" So Mi tried to say, her eyes clouded and confused. I just looked at her with pity.
"Besides... what awaits you at the FIA?" I asked simply. So Mi shuddered. "Your body is failing. If you keep entering the Black Wall, I'd say you have less than two years before it starts failing to the point where the FIA and NUSA can't help you. I'm sure you'll try to escape yourself at that point," I said matter-of-factly. So Mi paled and gritted her teeth, but remained silent.
"Stay and die under Myers' yoke, or risk it and possibly die under yours," So Mi said bitterly.
"Or take a chance and finally live for yourself for the first time in years," I said simply. So Mi shuddered. She closed her eyes for several minutes before looking at me with complete resolve.
"Fine, you have a deal," So Mi said, lifting her chin. "But I'll do it my way. I'll send you my position in a few days. Their defenses are weak. I mean, you destroyed Arasaka. A few Militech members shouldn't be a problem, so that you can attack at the right moment." So Mi said as she began to plan.
"It's not necessary, I'm already close to you," I said easily. So Mi stopped.
"Excuse me, what?" So Mi asked awkwardly.
"I'm close to you. In fact, I've already taken down all the FIA members around you and removed the cameras. You should be able to walk away," I said playfully. So Mi's eyes opened, she remained still for a few seconds as her body began to move, her hologram shuddered, and she stared at me in disbelief.
"How-when-" she tried to say. So MI was shocked, and I chuckled.
"Come on, So Mi, it's time to be free." I said playfully, cutting off the connection with So Mi. I walked down the middle of the hallway, ignoring the bodies, and approached a corridor. So Mi was there, staring at a body. " It's alive," I said as I approached.
So Mi shuddered and stared at me in disbelief, almost not believing I was there. Then she looked back at the person on the ground, Solomon Reed, completely unconscious and incapacitated, just like everyone else in this bunker.
"Let's go," I said to So Mi. "I'm sorry about this," I said to So Mi with an apologetic smile before knocking her unconscious. I gently lifted her before creating a portal.
Well, that should clear my workload. Maybe… Should I look for V just for the sake of it? V would become one of the most skilled solos in Night City; it would be good to have her.
"There's no need to look for her, " GLaDOS told me mentally before sending me a… job application? From… Valerie.
I blinked a couple of times as I read the information. Arasaka counterintelligence, apparently, she had been out of Night City when I attacked Arasaka Tower, so she wasn't present, and now she was looking for a job at Aperture? I almost wanted to snort.
"Hire her, put her under So Mi," I said playfully. Well, it'll be fun to see how that plays out.
And with that, all our business in Night City and this world in particular was almost over. Once that was finished, we could return to DxD, resolve a couple of things that caused our slightly temporary absence—which was only 3 or 4 days—and then we could return to the Wizarding World.
Just thinking about it made me grimace. Honestly, even though I was sure that neither Dumbledore nor Voldemort would cause me any trouble, I really didn't feel like dealing with them.
I was definitely going to leave Hogwarts. It had only been a few months since I'd left the wizarding world, but it felt much longer. I definitely didn't want to be a student again in any way.
But as for everything else… I'll see. Maybe I'll get a mission to earn more credits while I deal with Voldemort. Or I'll just go and kill him right away.
I just wanted to focus on Bellatrix and our wedding, everything else... was secondary.
Author's Notes: And with that, the Cyberpunk 2077 arc is over! Phew, that was almost 80 chapters, though half of them were Danmachi, so let's just say half were Cyberpunk, even though it feels just as long as the whole arc. Still, I think it was a pretty decent length, if I do say so myself. That said, Cyberpunk won't be appearing again, except in mentions or the occasional chapter where it's necessary.