After their discussion, Pabo left the PROJECT building in high spirits, leaving Roland behind in the office with a rather strange expression on his face. Lucy was there too.
"Why are you smiling like that?"
Seeing the odd smile on Roland's face, Lucy couldn't help but ask.
"It's nothing. I just didn't expect Northern California to make a choice like this."
Roland waved his hand dismissively.
"So what's your plan? Are you really going to cooperate with them like this?"
Lucy tilted her head, looking at Roland curiously.
"No. Of course not. Sure, they were sensible enough to come to us, but that doesn't mean I trust them. They're just afraid of dying. Later we'll handle Northern California the same way we did Nevada—slowly chip away at them bit by bit."
Roland shrugged.
What he didn't say was that Night City itself was located within Northern California. That gave him far more room to operate than he had in Nevada.
And now that they had a cooperative relationship with Northern California, planting spies within their internal system would practically be effortless.
Just as Roland was thinking about how to deal with the Northern California factions, a communication request came in.
He glanced at it and saw that it was Chris, so he accepted immediately.
"Chris, what's going on?"
Roland looked at Chris on the screen, with Boros standing beside him.
"Yes. The New United States has withdrawn its troops."
"What?"
Roland immediately frowned. His first reaction was that he must have misheard.
"The New United States has pulled their main forces directly from the front line. They're no longer blocking our advance. Only small units remain nearby to monitor our movements."
Chris reported the entire situation.
"Why do you think they did it?"
Roland looked at Chris with a frown.
"After creating some distance from us, their forces stopped retreating. That means they have no intention of abandoning this battlefield. The only explanation is that they're preparing to deploy large-scale destructive weapons—ones that could easily cause friendly casualties if their troops stayed too close."
Hearing this, Roland's eyes sharpened.
Even without Chris finishing the sentence, Roland had already thought of the ultimate weapons from his previous life—nuclear bombs and hydrogen bombs.
Thinking of that, Roland couldn't help clicking his tongue inwardly.
Myers really thinks highly of us, huh?
"Can the Sovereign-class Fighter intercept them?"
"…Unless we intercept them before they reach Idaho, there will still be a certain level of risk. And if the interception distance isn't controlled properly… it could become the perfect detonation point."
Roland immediately felt a headache coming on.
The "perfect detonation point" meant the missile exploding mid-air. In that case, the nuclear blast would fully unleash its destructive power, potentially causing even greater casualties.
"Have the Sovereign-class Fighter try interception first. Do everything possible to stop it far away from our forces. Even if it detonates somewhere within Idaho, that's acceptable. Our technology is capable of dealing with the radiation. I'm leaving the specific operational plan entirely to you."
"I understand. I won't let you down!"
Chris nodded seriously and prepared to end the communication.
"Oh, right. Oblivion should be arriving at the front line soon… Yes, arrange for someone to deploy Oblivion behind their main force!"
Suddenly, Roland seemed to think of something. His eyes lit up as he spoke to Chris.
Hearing this order, Chris couldn't help twitching at the corner of his mouth.
Although he hated to admit it, this extremely straightforward, brute-force method was actually the best solution available right now.
In simple terms—overwhelming force breaks everything.
Unless the New United States was prepared to sacrifice the entire army currently stationed inside Idaho.
"Yes!"
Since it was an effective plan, Chris had no reason not to use it. With Oblivion about to arrive, he would have the Sovereign-class Fighter deploy it directly.
Meanwhile, the forces at the front would accelerate their advance toward the New United States' main army—not necessarily to collide with them, but to ensure they couldn't move far enough away.
After dealing with the situation in Idaho, Roland shifted his attention to another extremely important matter: the construction of Lissandra's base.
That project was tied to the birth of two top-tier combat forces. It was impossible not to pay attention.
Once Lissandra's base was completed, he would accumulate enough essence to exchange for Lissandra. At that point, he could begin spreading the dormant source code virus.
When the time was right, he would activate everything in one move and let the outside world deal with the chaos.
The benefits that would come from that would certainly be enormous—perhaps even enough to accumulate the resources needed for the Super Body in one go.
Lissandra was one of the prerequisites for obtaining the Super Body, which was why this base was tied to the birth of two top-tier forces.
However, once Lissandra herself was created, Roland would temporarily shift his focus away from those other major corporations.
The reason was simple.
Those megacorps still had certain ways to deal with superintelligence. It all depended on whether they were willing to cut off their own limbs to survive. Alerting them too early and plunging the world into chaos wasn't his goal.
The best outcome would be to wait until the Super Body and the source code virus were both ready—then launch everything in one decisive strike.
By that point, no one in the world would be able to say no to him.
So once Lissandra was born, Roland's next target would be every super AI beyond the Blackwall.
He had no intention of leaving any of them behind.
With Lissandra's power, he planned to turn that entire region into an AI factory.
Meanwhile, the reconstruction of Agas City was already nearly two-thirds complete.