Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 60 38. Cooperation
"Want a can, Carl?"

Sitting in a private room of the Afterlife Bar, Blanca drank her drink slowly, looked at Carl coming over, and pointed at the unopened Benny's on the table.

"Forget about the stupid monkey. I just feel that the high fructose corn syrup drink is too sweet for me."

Carl sat down casually on the sofa, looked at the drinks placed on the table in front of Blanca, and picked one for himself.

"I'll just have sweet tea."

This drink tastes quite similar to iced black tea, which is one of the few times Carl has tasted it in Night City. It gives him the familiar taste of his hometown.

Watching Carl open the sweet tea and drink it, Blanca continued to drink the drink in her hand. Only after she finished the drink did she seem to relax, leaning back on the sofa, showing a lazy posture.

"You have become famous in the city recently."

"I know. My friend told me when I just woke up."

Carl didn't quite understand why his employer said all these nonsense. He was here to take on a task, not to chat. Wouldn't it be better to just do it the same as before, telling him how much he would be paid, where to go, and what to solve, and then he would do it, and the employer would pay him. It was easy, clear and simple.

"Then do you know who the ACPA driver is?"

Driver?
Carl had to admit that he was very interested in Blanca's topic.

"Do you know anything about this?"

"How could I not know? Why do you think I have the time to leisurely drink and wait for you today? I got a promotion to fill the management position involved in this incident."

"Is this really done by your military technology?"

"Sure enough, you seem to have guessed it."

Blanca was not surprised. After all, there were only a few companies that could quietly integrate ACPA into Night City.

But Blanca still has one thing to correct about Carl's words:

"But don't blame me for this. I didn't know about this before. I didn't have the guts to touch the eldest daughter of the Arasaka family. This incident was done by a group of people from our military technology who were dissatisfied with Arasaka Michiko and the young people in the Arasaka family."

"Young Turks?"

Carl frowned slightly. He remembered that Arasaka Haruko said this was a trial. Could it be that this young man was the accident?
After all, judging from Haruko Arasaka's attitude, the emergence of ACPA was obviously beyond her expectations, and the only ones who could hide it from her, the eldest lady of Arasaka, were her own people in Arasaka.

"Do you know Arasakase Nobuyuki?"

"Arasakaze Nobuyuki."

Carl thought about it for a moment, and the information about him appeared in his mind.

[Arasaka Nobuobu]: The heir of the Arasaka Group, the youngest and only living son of Arasaka Saburo, the head of the Arasaka Group.

"I know the famous heir of the Arasaka Group."

"The young group in the Arasaka Group he leads is called the Hawks by the people in the group. Their style of doing things is extremely aggressive. The philosophy they pursue is to gain more benefits by provoking disputes, and they are particularly keen on provoking conflicts between Arasaka and military technology. Do you understand what I mean?"

Listening to Blanca's words, Carl nodded slightly: "I understand."

Things are pretty clear and simple.

"Are they trying to use the death of Arasaka Haruko to provoke a conflict between Arasaka and military technology?"

"To be precise, the person they are targeting is not the eldest daughter of the Arasaka family, but her mother, Arasaka Michiko."

Michiko Arasaka is the daughter of Arasaka Kei, the elder brother of Arasaka Nobuyuki, and a Japanese-American. Born and raised in America, she identifies herself more as an American. Although she later returned to the Arasaka family, she is also a pro-military technology person in the Arasaka Group, which obviously offended the young and strong faction, as well as a group of people in the military technology who also wanted to provoke disputes. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If you think along this line of thought, this puzzling thing can be solved.

The leader of Arasaka, Saburo Arasaka, had doubts about Haruko Arasaka's bloodline because she was the child of his mother Michiko and a pure American. Then, for some unknown reason, Haruko Arasaka underwent some kind of 'Bushido' style pure bloodline test conducted by Saburo Arasaka. During this process, some people in Arasaka and military technology who were targeting Michiko Arasaka made some moves and brought in the powerful weapon ACPA.

Then, he was beaten.

Damn, what is this?

Blanca saw that Carl understood the situation and said, "The reason why I told you all this in detail is because this matter still needs some finishing touches for you to deal with. Let's go back to the question at the beginning, which was a bit off topic. You asked too much. Do you know who the driver is?"

"Now, I know that it is someone from your military technology."

"Then we need to know more now. His code name is One-Zero. His real name was erased when he joined Militech. He is the best pilot our company has trained in recent years."

"So?"

"What it means is that there are a group of pilots who are not as good as him, but are equally outstanding. And these people are deeply humiliated by Zero's death. They can't go to Adam Heavy Hammer for trouble, because Adam Heavy Hammer is now employed by Arasaka. So in order to wash away this shame, they are targeting you."

"Target me?"

Why do I have a feeling of 'If I can't beat Adam's Hammer, how can I beat you, a street mercenary?'

"If they're targeting me, then let them target me. I'll kill them all anyway. They can't possibly bring in an ACPA."

"That's probably unlikely. This one incident alone has caused Arasaka and our company to blame each other, but the exoskeleton is still within the permitted range."

Exoskeleton.
"These guys have nothing to do. Do they have to come and die? Don't military technology have any missions?"

"The technical staff in the military technology department are very interested in their actual combat data. The supervisor over there is willing to use you as a test subject and wants to compare ACPA with the exoskeleton."

Blanca said with a smile: "This is why I came to you, Carl. I plan to cooperate with you to get rid of these ACPA elites."

"What's the reason?"

Carl stared at Blanca's smile and said, "I remember you just said that you are now a manager in this area?"

"These people are all subordinates of the previous management staff who have gone to sea. I don't trust them to work for me."

In other words, if you want to be at ease, the people who will deal with Carl this time will be Blanca's men.

"Sure enough, you are a qualified company dog."

"So, cooperation?"

"You can cooperate, but I need to be paid. You are taking advantage of me. You just need to provide me with information and wait for me to do the work, but I have to risk my life."

"You're also saving yourself, aren't you? But I knew you would say that."

Blanca already knew Carl's character, and she held up two fingers.

"I can use my authority to help you get two military-grade prosthetics without backdoors. How about that?"

"Pleasant to work with."

Carl shook Blanca's hand without hesitation.

　PS. Japan really takes bloodline and honor very seriously, and Saburo happens to be this type of person. For a detailed description of Bushido, you can read Hideki Miyashita's "Sengoku" series of comics, in which every aspect of the samurai is well portrayed. When I saw the eighth volume, when the heads were displayed after the fall of Nanao Castle, combined with the previous comparison, I was really shocked by the scene.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)