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Chapter 016 Aftermath
🕑 Added 2025-09-27 22:14:01 +0000 UTC"Destination: Arasaka Academy."
'Excalibur' luxury corporate aircar AI: [Received. Route planned. En route to Arasaka Academy, Night City.]
Hum...
Landing struts retracted, cabin door closed, blue exhaust flames ignited beneath the four vector engines as the aircar slowly lifted off. The onboard intelligent system, following Vera's preset preferences, began playing the morning news at just the right time.
"This is Night City Inquiry with an important breaking report. Last night, a major armed firefight occurred in the old industrial district of northern Watson..."
Glancing at the news anchor's deadpan delivery on the holographic display, Vera shifted into a more comfortable position, lazily sinking into the soft sofa back while adjusting her mental state and contacting subordinates through her built-in neural interface.
"Have the bodyguards stand by at Arasaka Academy. Right."
"Information Department, this is Vera Adelheid. Yes, I've already pre-registered. Double-checking: this morning I'm attending the new student orientation ceremony at Arasaka Academy."
Vera's lifestyle habits meant that unless something was high priority, high urgency, critical business, or messages from essential contacts that could wake her anytime, all other routine administrative documents and daily inquiries would be intercepted by her OS's intelligent filtering system.
She was an executive, not a grunt.
No need to live and breathe the company, always on call.
This wasn't field ops or corporate war time. When it was time to clock out, you clocked out and handled business during work hours. Working year-round, eight to midnight, that tiny bit of personal downtime really wasn't asking too much.
"Huh, what's this?"
Scrolling through her daily routine reports, Vera's search signals passed over the files until she spotted a message description that made her pause.
[Message: Death Lottery]
[Congratulations! You've hit today's Death Lottery jackpot! Your lucky prize is 77,777 euros and a Chevrolet Emperor 620 RAGNAR! Drive it with care!]
——Image——
Vera's eyes flickered as she switched channels to Night City's 'big mouth' Stanley's show: "...The Maelstrom gang, word is one of their big shots got whacked. I bet Maelstrom took some serious losses, but they'll have to swallow their pride whether they like it or not. That's what happens when you mess with Arasaka."
"Well, well, not pawning off some junker this time... Reading the room really is a survival skill you've got to master in Night City."
Stanley kept on chattering away. Though Vera was still watching the screen, her thoughts had drifted elsewhere.
The Death Lottery, just like Stanley's show, basically trashed every corporation, including NCPD and Night City's gangs. So why was he still bouncing around doing his 'Good Morning, Night City' routine?
Because Stanley's show was corporate-owned property, backed by capital. Just entertainment. Stanley was an employee, and all the ad revenue from his corporate bashing ultimately flowed back to the corporations anyway.
Bad publicity was still publicity.
As far as Vera knew, Arasaka held shares and was one of the show's sponsors, collecting dividends every year.
After all, it was about making money. The company didn't lose anything from being insulted, and by 2074, did corporate reputation really need protecting?
Stanley was just saying stuff everyone already knew, giving the public a place to vent. He couldn't possibly know the really dangerous, classified stuff, and wouldn't dare to know it. So the public information was fair game.
Money-making, free publicity, venting outlet, public distraction... killing multiple birds with one stone. When the public was busy being keyboard warriors on entertainment shows, crime rates actually went down. Brilliant.
As for why Vera won, nobody really knew exactly how many people died in Night City yesterday, but Vera was the one pulling the trigger, accounting for the lion's share, so naturally she got the prize.
Since Vera was an Arasaka security executive, they obviously couldn't pass her off as some random street lucky winner. Death Lottery's tagline was: Everyone who drove these cars died happy and stayed dead! The regular prizes were naturally those refurbished cars from deceased owners.
Corporate employees got different treatment.
First, a brand new car, tailored to preferences, an SUV that any corporate dog would love. To avoid embarrassment, add some cash, not too much, not too little, make the numbers lucky, and you're set.
Vera marked it as read and sent a formulaic thank you, then closed the Death Lottery message window.
She'd take their stuff without a second thought.
Night City had its own way of operating.
Last night's lesson to Maelstrom, after cleaning the battlefield and retrieving the intel department's goods, Arasaka certainly wasn't interested in the other 'trash,' but Death Lottery definitely was.
Whether it was another sweep of the battlefield for scraps, car salvaging and repair, parts stripping and reassembly for future lottery prizes, or the lottery sales and show ratings boosted by the incident's buzz, there was money to be made.
Oh, and behind them should be individual scavengers, organ thieves, and other groups doing round after round of scraping and juicing.
Only after all this would the aftermath of Vera's tactical suppression of Maelstrom finally dissipate, viewed as yet another powerful demonstration of Arasaka's authority.
"Even got a commendation out of it. Not bad at all."
Vera closed her neural interface, reclined her seat, pulled a fresh orange juice from the onboard refrigerator, and drained it in one gulp.
Not the artificial coloring and syrup concoctions from the street, but the real deal, fresh squeezed. Every day going to and from Arasaka Tower, someone cleaned and restocked everything. Vera just had to swipe her card, place an order, and select her service tier.
Ding dong.
Car AI: [Approaching Arasaka Academy.]
Through the privacy-tinted glass, Vera's indigo eyes took in the red and cyan flying fish projections of the corporate plaza. Arasaka Tower, Militech Building, Kang Tao Building stood distinct yet shoulder to shoulder, like towering steel walls coldly overlooking everything that passed below.
......
Arasaka Academy.
Hum... hum...
The aircar glided through the gaps between buildings, not heading directly to the internal landing pad of Arasaka Tower, but toward the auxiliary building closer to the Civic Center. After passing through a ring of low buildings with green spaces, the aircar hovered over a rather crowded clearing.
Under guidance from control tower personnel, the aircar's bottom laser system activated, tracing safety perimeter lines on the ground while support struts extended and it slowly descended.
Hiss.
When the cabin door opened and Vera stepped sideways down the gangway, a short, stocky middle-aged man wearing large square brown-tinted glasses and academy uniform immediately approached.
"Supervisor Russell, welcome back to Arasaka Academy."
