V was no saint. She never planned to overthrow the system.
She just wanted to fix herself.
Down in the treatment chamber, Sasha was learning to operate her new leg exoskeleton under the staff's guidance. Sweat drenched her forehead, but she was beaming. She waved upward toward V; V smiled and waved back.
"About our factory," V said to Meredith Stout and Joanne Koch. "We have our cover operation—the aboveground floors will look like a normal facility. The real work happens underground."
Koch nodded. "Secrecy is priority."
"Don't worry." V was steady and confident. "Workers will operate in a traditional assembly-line format. Each person only handles one isolated step. They won't know what they're building. Final assembly is machine-handled. I'll write the software myself."
"Not enough," Meredith muttered around a cigarette. "We centralize workers and their families—say we're building a factory campus. My people monitor the site 24/7. Anyone leaks anything, we clean it up immediately."
Koch frowned. "Won't that cause resistance?"
"No. Make the district full-service—schools, clinics, markets—its own little ecosystem. Boost salaries. People will fight to get in. It's small money; no need to pinch pennies. Losing secrecy over something trivial would be idiotic."
V glanced at Meredith. "Didn't expect you to help brainstorm."
Meredith didn't speak, but her eyes flashed blue.
A technical package dropped straight into V's inbox.
"What's this?"
"Sagittarius Exoskeleton—Militech's next ten-year flagship project." Meredith took a deep drag and exhaled like a war goddess. "I'm done letting that asshole step on me. I'm going to become second-in-command at Militech. But remember—this is…"
"Only this once," V and Koch said simultaneously.
"Fuck you two—"
Before she finished, V sent her a file.
The blonde femme-fatale froze—then her eyes lit up.
"Goliath Mk.II?! And the new immunosuppressant—TremorinEX?! Fuck, I love you two so much!"
"Only cooperating once?" V teased.
Meredith's face reddened. She bolted. "I—I'm delivering these to R&D!"
Koch shrugged. "Shame. Still didn't agree."
V smirked. "She didn't refuse either."
A week later, the factory was complete.
The generous pay drew endless applicants.
To V's surprise—Jackie was one of them.
She thought a moment… then approved him.
Big players had big destinies; small players had the right to peaceful happiness. At least now, Jackie wasn't going to die inside a Delamain cab.
V never forgot her choom.
But since this Jackie didn't know her, she didn't want to drag him into her hell.
She'd protect him silently.
Watch him grow.
Let him build a life, a family.
That was enough.
Jackie hadn't given up his dream of becoming a big shot, but with his nephew's birthday two months away, he wanted to buy a proper gift—so he took a short-term job. Two months, save money, then leave. That was his plan.
He applied to the aboveground section—free to come and go.
But once he saw the beautiful campus, complete facilities, and housing… he thought Misty would love it.
To live there required signing a three-year contract with limited freedom.
Even so, the crowd was overwhelming.
Jackie laughed at himself.
These slots would go to people with degrees.
He was just a big lug—he'd stick to simple work, save cash, and return to chasing his big dreams.
"Hey! Big guy—Jackie, right?" a shift supervisor yelled.
"Yeah, choom, that's me. Need me?"
"Check this machine. I gotta attend a meeting."
"Uh? I don't know shit about that."
"No one's born knowing. I'll teach you. It's simple. Learn it, and I'll make you my assistant. Higher pay."
Jackie listened seriously while a nearby camera watched for a moment—then resumed patrol.
One week later. Night. Underground facility.
V lay on a medical bed, shirtless, pale back exposed—smooth, fair… and covered in faint scratch marks.
Meredith whistled. "Damn, you play rough. Sasha's still young, y'know. Go easy."
V flushed. "Shut up."
Joanne Koch approached with a syringe.
Different from standard injectors—the fluid inside shimmered metallic silver.
"Nano-Gene Repair Serum. 700 billion nanoscale medical bots. Continuous micro-repair of damaged neural tissue. One injection every month. Price: €80,000."
Meredith blinked. "That cheap?"
"Production cost only," Koch said. "If you include R&D, each dose is around €30 million. But Biotechnica covers the R&D; we only handle manufacturing. So yeah—€80,000."
Meredith trembled with excitement.
"Using someone else's chicken to lay our eggs… holy shit, that's better than crypto trading."
Koch moved beside V. "Don't tense."
"I'm not tense. Do it."
"Relax."
The needle pierced V's spine.
As the silver serum emptied, Koch flicked her hand.
A holographic medical scan bloomed above them.
Silver spread along V's neural network—branching, expanding, flooding every pathway. When the progress bar hit 100%, Koch smirked proudly.
"It's done."
She slapped V's ass.
"Neural and cyberware connections restored. Your cyberware lockout is gone. Try something."
V wasted no time.
Her right forearm cracked open with a mechanical snap—
Electro-Plasma Micro-Missile Launcher activated—
A micro-plasma bolt streaked across the room—
BOOM.
A massive hole blew through the alloy wall.
Alarms blared. Footsteps thundered overhead.
"Shit!" Meredith shouted into comms. "Cancel alarm! Code 59KE3T5! Accidental discharge! Return to stations!"
Only after the confirmation did she exhale.
She stared at the wall, astonished.
"That's 30 centimeters of Faram Alloy. And you punched a hole in it…? Where the hell did your insane cyberware come from?"
"Haha… hahahaha… HAHAHAHAHA!"
V answered with manic laughter.
She finally—finally—had her body back.
Then—
Blood burst from her mouth.
She collapsed.
Her limbs convulsed violently.
The monitors shrieked.
Meredith and Koch panicked. Meredith rushed over, face draining.
"She's not breathing! Koch—save her!"
"That's impossible—the nanobots were working!" Koch stared at the scan.
"Who cares about that—save V! If she dies, we're both fucked!"
"A-ah! Okay! Full regen protocol! Dopamine 70mg! Norepinephrine 110! Fibrinogen 800—"
Moments later—
V gasped violently and regained consciousness.
"Fuck… you scared the shit out of me!" Meredith collapsed onto the floor.
V opened her eyes weakly. "I… I'm dizzy…"
"Better dizzy than dead." Meredith stood and faced Koch. "What happened?"
"I-I don't know." Koch stared at the scan, baffled.
"The serum is fine. Nanobots were functioning normally. But look—
At 47 seconds after full neural diffusion, they began dying en masse.
By 52 seconds—they were all destroyed. As if…"
"As if what?"
"As if V's nervous system developed its own will… and attacked the foreign invaders."
Meredith scowled. "I'm no doctor, but nervous systems don't get fucking wills, and they sure as hell don't counterattack."
"You're right. They shouldn't. But… they did." Koch turned to V. "What happened to your body?"
"I don't know!" V clenched her fists. "I was unconscious. When I woke up—it was already like this!"
"Who did this?" Meredith cut straight through.
"If they could do this to you, they can fix you."
V hesitated, then gave a shocking answer:
"The NUSA and Militech."
"Impossible!" Meredith snapped. "NUSA maybe—but Militech has no such records!"
"I can't explain everything. But I'm not lying." V met their eyes. "Trust me."
Silence.
Then Meredith sighed. "I'll go through Militech archives again. If my corp did this to you, there will be a solution."
"I'll improve the nano-serum too," Koch added. "Don't give up, V."
"I won't." V breathed deeply. "Thank you."
"If you really wanna thank us, hand over Arasaka's Relic chip data."
V raised her middle finger. "Fuck off."
Meredith grinned. "Good—if you can still cuss, you're fine."
It was now late October 2076.
The Relic wasn't released yet, but Arasaka's marketing blitz had already begun. "Protect Your Soul" ads covered the streets. Every corporation was hungry to study the tech.
"Seriously," Koch said, face solemn. "Arasaka invests heavily in 'immortality'. The Relic is flashy but shallow—but the underlying tech might be valuable. V, get me some samples. I'm not being selfish. I just—"
"No need to explain. I trust you." V put on her shirt. "I'll do it. Thanks for today. I'm exhausted."
She left.
Koch watched her back and sighed.
"This failure hit her hard."
"Relax." Meredith lit another cigarette. "She's the toughest woman I've met. She'll bounce back fast."
She was right.
The very next day, V appeared in public like nothing happened.
She had known pain far worse.
Koch's words lingered, pushing V to dive deeper into Arasaka's secret layers. Arasaka—the strongest megacorp in the world—was a treasure vault, locked by the dragon known as the Arasaka family.
V moved carefully.
Even so, Michiko Arasaka noticed.
Some knowledge was too dangerous—
Touching it, even from far away, made people tremble.
So Michiko sent Ken'ichi Saburo.
V's eyes snapped open.
A dagger plunged straight toward her heart.
Her optics flickered blue—Cyberware Malfunction Upload triggered—sparks crawled across the attacker's arms. The dagger slipped—
He smirked—
Kicked the hilt—
Turning it into a flying blade straight for V's forehead.
V jerked sideways—dodging.
The attacker paused. That throw was too fast.
She didn't react—she predicted him.
Before he understood, V's eyes glowed again—she tried to upload Demonware—
But agony split her skull.
She vomited blood.
The attacker seized the chance—grabbed her by the throat—lifted her into the air.
"Ghh… khh—!"
V's eyes reddened as oxygen drained.
The attacker was Ken'ichi Saburo.
"Body malfunctioning?" he asked lazily. "A shame. Such sharp instinct and battlefield intuition. You feel more like a solo than a netrunner."
V was turning blue.
Ken'ichi chuckled and released her.
She crashed to the floor, coughing violently, gulping air like a dying fish.
"Stop your little tricks. Next time won't be a warning. Serve Ms. Michiko properly. Once you recover, we'll fight again—and I'll make you yield, so no one can say I bullied you."
He tapped her cheek lightly—like patting a stray mutt.
V glared murder at him.
He laughed happily.
"Good eyes. You'd make a hell of a warrior. Shame you became a netrunner."
He stepped onto the window frame.
"Ms. Michiko wants you tomorrow morning. She has work for you."
Then the strongest solo in the world leapt into the Night City skyline and vanished.
V stared at her trembling hands.
Lost in thought.
The next day, V headed to the 100th floor.
Michiko Arasaka didn't mention the attack.
V didn't mention it either.
"V. I have a task for you."
"Yes, Ms. Michiko."
"My uncle, Arasaka Yorinobu, will arrive in Night City soon. You will handle his reception."
V froze.
Michiko asked, "Is there a problem?"
"No, none."
V bowed.
"I'll make sure Mr. Yorinobu experiences a Night City visit he will never forget."