"In 2077, the Japanese family corporation Arasaka completely lost its power in North America after being attacked by a legendary figure. Following that, Militech and Kang Tao jointly announced they would take over the resources and power Arasaka left behind in North America, providing better services to the people. We all know what happened next. The unscrupulous Kang Tao Corporation wantonly oppressed the citizens, and Night City became a living hell. Thus, the great leader of Militech, Donald Lundeen, resolutely chose to wage war against the evil Kang Tao. Although the final outcome was not ideal, Mr. Lundeen's brilliance shone throughout Night City through this battle. So, gentlemen, ladies, for the prosperity of North America, please purchase Militech's new product—the Iron Fist V. This excellent melee cyberware can instantly unleash 400% of your attack power. More importantly, it can effectively prevent you from being helpless when facing Kang Tao mercenaries. What are you waiting for? Order today, and you can enjoy it tomorrow—Militech reporting."
In the small bar, the holographic projection from Parrot Island Channel 22 flickered in the center of the hall.
"So, it means the Southerners (Donald Lundeen) couldn't stand Kang Tao stealing business, so they started a war, lost, and then began to put on a facade, right? Haha, do these idiotic reports often appear on Parrot Island?" a young man asked.
"Ah, it's either Militech slandering Kang Tao, or Kang Tao slandering Militech. People here are used to it. In the end, it's all just product advertisements," the boss said while debugging the music device. "Those products they release aren't something ordinary people like us can afford. But it's much better now than in 2077. I heard that people back then ate 'mixed products' (food made from various industrial wastes)."
The young man didn't answer but instead took out a 200 Euro note and placed it on the table.
The boss stopped what he was doing and began to scrutinize the young man. He noticed that the man was tall, muscular, and very handsome, with a resilient strength in his brows. He was an East Asian. What was strange was that he seemed to have no cyberware, which was definitely unusual. It was 2099, and there were still people without cyberware?
"You are…?" The boss's meaning was clear: My liquor only costs a few dollars, why are you pulling out such a large bill?
"This is my first time on Parrot Island. I want to ask you something," the young man said. "Do you know where the ruins of the Arasaka Corporation are?"
"You…" The boss's pupils constricted. He suddenly felt that the 200 Euros were burning a hole in his hand.
Ever since that legendary figure heavily damaged Arasaka in 2077, Arasaka withdrew from the North American stage. In Parrot Island, people eagerly rushed into the Arasaka Tower, wantonly destroying it to vent decades of suppressed anger and bullying. But more than 20 years had passed, and for some reason, no one was willing to approach that place. Now, only corporate researchers or gang legends would want to go there.
As of today, maps have completely erased any trace of the Arasaka Corporation. One can only learn from older individuals that a behemoth once existed somewhere on Parrot Island.
The young man unhurriedly took out a 500 Euro note from his trench coat and placed it on top of the 200 Euro note.
"I'm listening," the young man said.
The boss scrutinized the young man again. First, he shouldn't be from a corporation. Because if he were, he could easily get the address instead of coming to a secluded bar to ask a grizzled old man.
"Are you from a gang?"
The young man smiled: "It doesn't matter."
With that, he again took out a 500 Euro note and placed it on the table.
This was a huge sum on Parrot Island, a full 1200 Euros, enough to cover his and his family's expenses for at least a year.
Seeing that the boss was still hesitant, the young man smiled and revealed his arm from his trench coat. When the boss saw the cyberware on his arm, his eyes filled with fear.
"Mono… Monowire…"
The boss was terrified. Without a doubt, this was a very terrifying piece of cyberware.
Ten centimeters behind the young man's wrist, a cylindrical transparent container was embedded, with coils of fine lines emitting a golden glow spiraling inside. The monowire cyberware could cut any object at will, and only a handful of people possessed this cyberware, the most famous being the legendary hacker of Night City, Lucy.
"I'm waiting for your answer." The young man's smile faded, as if he was ready to whip out the nanowire and slice off his head at any moment.
"Underneath 16 Lilac Lake Street in the south of the city…"
The boss quickly blurted out the address.
The young man showed a knowing smile. He pulled down his cuff to cover the monowire container, then threw another 500 Euros on the table.
"Thank you."
The young man turned and left. The boss stood rooted to the spot, staring blankly at the banknotes on the table. Suddenly, he noticed a small line of text in the bottom right corner of the banknotes: Kang Tao Executive Department.
The boss was completely stunned. He went limp and fell to the ground, as if even breathing was difficult. It wasn't his fault; he hadn't expected this young man to be from a corporation, and Kang Tao at that. If he had known from the start, he would never have dared to take the money.
As soon as the young man left the bar, a waiting aerodyne descended in front of him, with "KANGTAO" written on it.
"Identity confirmed. Respected Mr. John Carter, please board."
The aerodyne's AI spoke this sentence in standard English and then opened the door.
This handsome, tall young man was named John Carter.
After the aerodyne took off, a faint blue light flashed across the window, then it became transparent.
John Carter looked down at the city below, Parrot Island, the second-largest city in North America. Unlike Night City, it wasn't overly polluted by technology; on the contrary, this city did very well in harmonizing humans and nature. The key was that there was a very large artificial lake here, and surprisingly, people were even fishing.
The AI thoughtfully presented a glass of red wine in front of John Carter, but he didn't appreciate this gesture.
"I don't drink."
"I'm truly sorry," the AI said like a child who had made a mistake, "Mr. Carter, this is my great oversight, please forgive me."
John Carter did not respond.
The aerodyne quickly landed smoothly at the location John Carter requested.
"Mr. Carter, we have arrived."
John Carter remained silent and did not get out of the car. After a while, he gave a new command to the AI.
"Connect me to Ms. Johnson on the board of directors."
"I apologize, there is currently no user registered with the ID 'Ms. Johnson' on the board of directors," the AI said.
John Carter was a little surprised. So Ms. Johnson wasn't on the board of directors. "Connect me to Ms. Johnson."
"As you wish."
The holographic projection screen showed a "connecting" prompt, and soon Ms. Johnson's avatar changed from gray to color. Next to the avatar, subtitles with real-time translation in both Chinese and English were displayed.
"I'm in a meeting, and I specifically came out to take your call. I hope you're worth it."
It was clear that Ms. Johnson valued her privacy, as her voice was electronically synthesized and her avatar was animated.
John Carter did not answer Ms. Johnson, but instead issued another command to the AI.
"Kang Tao AI, I order you to shut down now."
"As you wish."
The brightly lit interior of the aerodyne instantly became pitch black, with only the holographic projection of the call emitting a blue light.
"Ma'am, I found it. As per your request, no other Kang Tao executive knows about this except me." John Carter paused and added, "But the Parrot Island branch should be able to locate me very soon."
"You are a senior executive of the main company; the branch personnel won't do anything to you," Ms. Johnson's cold, electronically synthesized voice said. "What's the situation around you?"
John Carter stepped out of the aerodyne and surveyed the surroundings. It was under an overpass, with only a patch of grass nearby. If John Carter's system hadn't detected residual radiation, he wouldn't have believed that this was once the location of the Arasaka branch office.
"Grass, nothing else."
"There must be an entrance. Arasaka Yorinobu said that a complete Mikoshi is still stored underground at the Arasaka Parrot Island branch, and it also contains 1 Relic chip. Please be sure to find it." Ms. Johnson paused and added, "Don't let anyone else know."
"Understood."
After the call ended, John Carter activated a holographic scan to re-examine the land. Still nothing. But this was also unexpected; if it were that easy to find, Kang Tao and Militech would have already plundered it.
John Carter realized he needed the assistance of a reliable netrunner. He then made a call.
"Come to Parrot Island to see me now."
"Okay, Senior! I'm on my way!" A sweet and gentle female voice came through the call, and the holographic projection showed a cute little lamb avatar. Clearly, this person and the Ms. Johnson from before were two completely different individuals. "By the way, Senior, you suddenly called me, are you planning to accept my confession?!"
"No."
"So decisive, really." The girl was clearly a bit upset.
"I hope you're already on an aerodyne now."
"Coming, coming, my dear Senior brother, I'll be there soon!" The girl on the other end of the phone seemed to have a high tolerance for John Carter. Even if John Carter was harsh and cold towards her, she treated him with an optimistic and considerate attitude.
"I've sent you my coordinates."
After ending the call, John Carter recalled Ms. Johnson's instruction: "Don't let anyone else know."
Heh heh, John Carter didn't care about that. He had his own plans in this project. Half an hour later, an aerodyne descended from the sky and landed smoothly in front of him. Unlike John Carter's, this aerodyne had no corporate branding; it was painted a cute pink and had a cartoon cat design on it.
The aerodyne door slowly opened, and a girl with a high ponytail, wearing a white spaghetti-strap dress, skipped towards John Carter. From her black hair and yellow skin, it was not difficult to tell that she was also an East Asian.
"Senior, I'm here!" The girl ran to John Carter's side, linked her arm through his, and clung to him like a small bird.
If it were any other man being intimately approached by such a sweet and beautiful girl, he would surely be instantly disoriented by her. But John Carter merely raised his other hand and glanced at the time.
"Amy Anderson, you took an hour and a half. An aerodyne from Night City to Parrot Island only takes half an hour. What were you doing for the other hour?" John Carter said calmly.
"Hmph, you suddenly called me, and I wasn't prepared at all! I had to get dressed up!"
John Carter didn't know what she needed to get dressed up for, but he also understood that girls had some habits he couldn't comprehend.
"Alright, have you detected the radiation here?"
Amy Anderson activated her optical implant's scan.
"Yes, there is, it's coming from underground."
Amy Anderson's optical implant was custom-made for her by the professional optical implant company, Kiroshi Optics. In terms of functionality and practicality, no one's optical implant was better than hers.
"Can you detect what's underground?"
"I'll have to get my device out. Just wait a moment!"
Amy Anderson ran back to the aerodyne and started rummaging through it. John Carter knew that this aerodyne was a gift from Amy Anderson's father for her 18th birthday. At the time, Amy Anderson wanted to give it to John Carter as a gift, but he refused.
John Carter quietly waited for Amy Anderson. Actually, Amy Anderson called him "Senior" not because they attended the same university, but because they had played a dating simulation game, and Amy Anderson's character always liked to call John Carter's character "Senior." Thus, Amy Anderson brought this title into reality.
Soon, Amy Anderson came back to John Carter, carrying a large box. John Carter didn't take it, and Amy Anderson didn't blame him for his lack of chivalry; it seemed this was just how they interacted.
"It's so heavy! I should have gotten reinforced cyberware!"
Amy Anderson placed the large box on the ground and quickly converted it into a computer.
"I'm starting!" Amy Anderson cheered herself on. "Come on, mysterious land, let this young lady see what treasures are buried beneath you? To make my dear Senior brother personally invite me here!"
As time passed, a 3D map of the underground gradually formed on the computer, and Amy Anderson's face grew more and more surprised.
"Senior, this… this couldn't be…"
"Mikoshi."
"Oh my goodness." Amy Anderson lightly covered her mouth. She had only seen such a thing in documented materials.
The Mikoshi on the 3D map was a huge cylindrical space, with a thick cylindrical processing core in the middle. In front of the core was a bridge, and beneath the bridge was an abyss of coolant. Legend has it that the coolant in Mikoshi was equivalent to half of Lake Baikal. This might be hard to grasp, but if the coolant were replaced with fresh water, it could supply drinking water for 7 billion people on Earth for 15 years. Such a vast amount of coolant served only the central processing core.
According to data released by Arasaka, the Mikoshi stored 100,000 digital consciousnesses, meaning 100,000 people achieved immortality within Mikoshi.
(About Mikoshi: Mikoshi is a space for storing digital consciousness. Users need to purchase expensive Relic chips and Arasaka services. After completing a series of procedures, users can upload their consciousness to Mikoshi. At this point, by inserting a Relic chip containing one's consciousness into another person's body, the Relic chip carrying your consciousness will attack the host's consciousness and implant your consciousness into the host's body. After the host is completely killed, that body becomes yours.)
The data for Arasaka Mikoshi was globally connected, meaning 100,000 people, dead or not, lived within this processing core beneath them.
"Is there an entrance?"
Amy Anderson tidied her hair and continued to scan Mikoshi, clearly still recovering from the shock. After a while, she shook her head.
"I'm sorry, Senior, I couldn't find its entrance."
John Carter did not respond. He knew that Amy Anderson was an excellent netrunner. If even she couldn't find an entrance, then there might truly be none. Only one woman named Alt had successfully infiltrated Mikoshi in the past.