"What is this…? This is incredible! I can feel my body—I'm human again! Hahaha! I'm human again!"
The military colonel's mad laughter echoed throughout the laboratory; his voice filled with uncontrollable excitement and deep hatred toward Arasaka.
"Saburo Arasaka—just wait! When I truly come back to life, I'll kill you all, you bastards!"
"Hahaha! Good, good! The Relic works! I was right! He's a real person—he's human! Hahaha!"
Listening to the colonel's curses and threats, Saburo Arasaka burst into joyous laughter outside the isolation wall.
At that moment, he felt an endless surge of vitality flow through his body. His entire being felt rejuvenated, as if he were ten years younger simply from the excitement.
"Congratulations, Father. Our long-cherished wish will soon come true."
Hanako Arasaka wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. It had been many years since she had seen her father smile like this.
As the military colonel's body gradually took shape inside the laboratory, Hanako pressed a button. A scorching white laser precisely struck the Relic chip embedded in the colonel's body, forcibly shutting it down.
Buzz—
The nanomechanical insects that had gathered like liquid mercury instantly lost their core support and collapsed to the ground. They rapidly dispersed, shrinking down to atomic size and reverting into the materials they had absorbed.
"Success… we're about to succeed!"
Saburo Arasaka's eyes burned with manic excitement. The facts had proven it—his path to immortality was correct. As long as he continued, he would eventually obtain everything he desired.
"Hanako, let's suspend research into these useless things for now. Relic chips are the future."
"When we truly master the Relic, the so-called God of All Machines will have no choice but to hand over his technology obediently!"
Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, Saburo turned around and returned to his life-support chamber, entering slumber once more. He wanted to live—long enough to witness the completion of the true Relic.
"Good night, Father. Sweet dreams."
Hanako Arasaka carefully stored away all data related to the nanomechanical insects and returned to the laboratory to continue her research on the Relic.
…
…
At the same time, behind the scenes of the world's major corporations, once the true nature of nanomechanical insect technology was confirmed, all of them made the same decision—
To give up.
This technology had clearly reached an insurmountable level. Based on this alone, the Mechanicum already possessed the qualifications to ascend into the ranks of the giant corporations.
Nanomechanical insect technology was an exclusive domain—something that could not be replicated. Even if another company somehow managed to imitate it, they would never reach the same heights.
To become a giant enterprise, a company needed more than its own banks and private military forces. The most crucial requirement was a core technology—one that was absolutely irreplaceable, unbreakable, and capable of monopolizing an entire field.
Every giant corporation possessed such a trump card.
For example, Arasaka dominated the cyberspace domain with nearly invincible hacking technology.
The Relic chip allowed them to copy personality imprints and seize others' bodies, while the original version of Soulkiller could directly erase a person's identity imprint.
Soulkiller attacks bypassed ICE defenses entirely, destroying the opponent's consciousness without leaving a trace—equivalent to truly killing the soul itself.
In contrast, Militech dominated the field of military prosthetics, with Sandevistan standing at the pinnacle. No one could surpass Militech in this area.
Militech had even mastered Blackwall technology, allowing them to temporarily activate its power. Even in 2077, they had developed a data nuclear bomb capable of annihilating all humans and machines across half of Night City with a single detonation.
The European Community was even more extreme. During the First Corporate War, their space-based weapons technology was put to use.
A mere "warning" from Militech was interpreted as provocation, and in response, the European Community dropped a five-ton meteorite onto Washington, D.C. of the New United States—killing hundreds of thousands instantly.
Even the comparatively weaker Biotechnica possessed terrifying core technologies, such as nanomedical robots, CHOOH2 energy, and biological cloning.
If pushed too far, Biotechnica was fully capable of releasing a biochemical virus capable of wiping out all of humanity.
Thus, to become a giant corporation, one had to possess a technology capable of monopolizing resources—and one powerful enough to destroy the world.
Only with such a deterrent could a company earn its place among the giants.
After witnessing the miracle-like performance and terrifying data of the Mechanicum's nanomechanical insects, capital finally understood their potential.
Executives across all corporations began contemplating a single question:
What would happen if these nanomechanical insects were weaponized and released without restraint?
The answer was unanimous.
No one could stop them.
The only option was to ensure the God of All Machines never turned them into weapons.
Otherwise, just imagining an endless swarm of atomic-scale insects transforming into streams of light and devouring everything in existence was enough to send chills down their spines.
The Mechanicum's rise to giant status was inevitable.
In order to appease the God of All Machines—and prevent him from going berserk and unleashing nano-swarms—the corporations had no choice but to acknowledge the Mechanicum's existence.
Continuing hostilities would only risk igniting the Fifth Corporate War.
After all, humanity was already exhausted.
Four Corporate Wars had reduced the global population by two-thirds. The planet's environment had deteriorated to the point where survival in the wild was nearly impossible.
Clean land no longer existed.
Industrial pollution and metal debris covered the world.
With each war, the arms race between corporations had grown increasingly terrifying. What began as localized gunfights had evolved into extinction-level weapons.
The giant corporations were businessmen. They wanted profit—not annihilation.
If another war broke out now, once one side lost, it was entirely possible they would activate doomsday weapons and drag all of humanity down with them.
Thus, whenever conflict arose at the level of giant corporations, all sides would grow tense, rush to mediate, and compromise wherever possible.
A recent example was the Unification War launched five years ago by NUSA President Myers, who sought to unify the entire American continent and turn NUSA into a superpower.
However, when NUSA attempted to absorb the Independent State that included Night City, they encountered fierce resistance. Forced into a corner, the Independent State requested Arasaka's support.
Arasaka immediately dispatched a massive warship to Night City.
At that point, the major corporations intervened at once, preventing further escalation.
Because if they hadn't—
What followed would likely have been the collective suppression of anyone daring to initiate the Fifth Corporate War.
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