For V, Jack, and the people on the Mann team, the death of Saburo Arasaka is sensational news, just like the long-awaited Queen of the United Kingdom finally died in 2022.
Perhaps Saburo Arasaka can control far more power than the Queen of England, who only has prestige and title left, but his death may not have as much impact on the people at the bottom of the world as someone from a street gang.
The boss is hanging up.
At least the leader of the street gang is dead, which means that the forces in this street will be reshuffled. The protection fee I paid yesterday may not count tomorrow and will have to be paid to the new leader again.
And Saburo Arasaka's death is nothing more than that the company dog has changed his boss. The company is still a company, and the street boy is still a street boy. It will not happen that a certain street boy is the illegitimate son of Saburo Arasaka. The Arasaka family welcomes back the true heir of the family.
The drama of overthrowing the patricide Arasaka Yorinobu was staged.
There will be no chance that the new leader, who is a street boy, will not understand everything about the Arasaka Group and wants to tear everything down and start all over again. From then on, the Arasaka Group will eat fast, chant Buddha's name, and do good deeds.
So in addition to witnessing the death of Saburo Arasaka, knowing that Yorinobu Arasaka killed his father, and having a little more talkative talk after drinking, there are only so many changes and influences that V, Jack and the Mann team have gained
Already.
As for the pursuit of the Arasaka Group? If they didn't want to avoid the limelight and don't want to cause more trouble, Arasaka's security team and two teams of mercenaries would really be able to survive.
Especially during the period of hiding, the wanderers of Adkardos helped to send over the two tactical mechas that had been stored there before, and they were repaired by Tony's genius brain and a pair of skillful hands.
It became two sets of heavy power armor.
To be able to transform a tactical mecha into a powered armor, perhaps only Tony Stark, a smart man cursed by knowledge, could do it.
In short, with these two big treasures, the strength of V, Jack and the Mann team will be greatly improved.
According to the previously discussed distribution plan, V and Jack took one of them. The remaining one originally belonged to Tony, but Mann really wanted such a power armor, which would increase the combat effectiveness and strength of their team.
By rising straight up, he can also have more power to protect his teammates.
So he asked Tony and planned to use the dividends from the last time they attacked the military technology team with V and Jack and this business to buy this set of power armor.
But Tony gave it to him directly without caring.
Rather than what these mercenaries care about about improving their strength and whether they can get good deals from middlemen tomorrow, Tony is more concerned about how he and Steve will pass the test.
They have fully realized the unimaginable huge difference between the top and the bottom of this world.
Can you imagine that when someone is staying in a luxury hotel on a space station in space and enjoying the top-notch luxury, there are still many people on the earth who go hungry for nine meals in three days and are dragged away and drained on the fourth day?
?
Yes, the cyberpunk world of 2077 has indeed reached a very exaggerated level of technological development. Food cultivation and food synthesis technology can allow everyone to eat and drink. The blessing of food technology has already made the world's food production enough to feed the world.
Everyone, or even more, can use corn-refined ethanol to make cheap high-calorie fuel to supply cars around the world, replacing fossil energy as fuel.
But that doesn't mean no one is hungry.
In fact, most people in this world just make ends meet and eat the cheapest synthetic food to ensure that they don't starve to death.
The food they eat is not terrible to say the least. The various flavorings put into the synthetic food are enough to simulate the deliciousness that you can't tell the difference in taste, and the taste of a large amount of the same synthetic sauces can also completely let you down.
My tongue is numb after eating it and I can't taste the difference at all.
As for nutrition, there is no need to worry. The processing technology of synthetic foods is enough to put all the nutrients the human body needs every day into a small pill the size of a fingernail, not to mention the large amount of synthetic foods you need to consume every day.
However, the company is not a charity. These synthetic foods have to be sold for money. If you don't have money, you will starve to death.
Even if their food production is enough to be used as firewood, the company will not give you even a grain of corn, even if you only need one bite to survive.
You may ask, if giant companies have grown to such an extent and are oppressing and exploiting people, do the countries and governments not care about them?
The answer is that they took care of it. In the history of the cyberpunk world, in 2005, because an official appointed by the president was assassinated, a large amount of evidence pointed to a giant enterprise at the time, so the United States launched a campaign called "Big Stick"
The then-President of the United States ordered the giant company to be expelled from the United States.
This is the first time in the history of the cyberpunk world that a government action has been used to expel a giant company. As for the result?
After the Fourth Corporate War, the former United States was shattered into pieces and turned into six different forces. The largest of them was called New America and nationalized military technology.
However, the current president of New America was supported by military technology, so it is clear who is in charge of New America and military technology.
Although the New America still uses the Stars and Stripes, the fifty white stars that originally represented the states of the United States have been replaced by one large star and fourteen small stars.
As for Night City, it is an independent and free city-state that does not belong to any force, and this is the main reason why Arasaka, Military Technology and other giant companies compete for control of this city.
You ask other countries in the world? European countries formed an organization called the European Community to fight against various giant companies, but in the end the European Community itself evolved into a new giant company.
As for Russia? The Soviet Union in the cyberpunk world has not collapsed, but it is also affected and controlled by giant companies.
And a certain Eastern country whose name cannot be mentioned has a giant company named Kangtao, and Japan across the sea is Arasaka's home base.
Although this world will have regular flights to and from Mars in 2023, and will have manned Jupiter exploration in 2025, the low-level bastards in Night City still face fighting and crime every day.
So high that gangs are needed to govern the streets and maintain order in life.
Under such circumstances, Tony and Steve really don't know how they will survive the trials in this world.
After several discussions to no avail, Tony and Steve could only choose to shelve the topic for the time being and instead consider what impact the previous events would have on them, as well as the fate of the relic chip they half-stolen and half-robbed.
What's the use?
Out of a scientist's interest, Tony began to study this chip.
Anyway, Rogge hasn't sent anyone to connect it yet, so the chip is still in their hands for the time being, and it doesn't matter if they study it.
Steve, on the other hand, had nothing to do. Instead of bragging with V and the others, he hung out in what looked like an abandoned farm where they were temporarily hiding.
This actually led him to discover an interesting place, which was originally the study room of the owner of the farm.
Although the books in the study were basically emptied, Steve still found a few books that looked very dated in the secret compartment of a bookshelf.
A set of several copies of the Russian version of "The Complete Works of Lenin" published in 1980. It can be seen that they were originally a set, but it seems that the farm owner left part of it behind when he left.
During World War II, Steve fought side by side with the Soviet army at that time, and he taught himself a little Russian. Therefore, although there are many unfamiliar words in this set of books that he cannot understand, he can still read them to a certain extent.
In addition, the technology in the cyberpunk world has advanced to a point where he cannot understand it at all. It is not difficult to come up with a gadget that can translate text content in real time.
With nothing to do, he started reading these books and chatting to pass the time.
At this time, in the study room outside the timeline, Tony and Steve, who had completed the test of the World War II timeline, were speechless as they watched Chen Mo almost cheating and throw these books to Steve in the cyberpunk world.
in front of her husband.
"Why don't you give this old popsicle a book on American democratic thought?" Tony looked disgusted, and deliberately said in a very pitiful tone: "If you don't know, I can recommend some good books to you.
They are all written by well-known American sociologists and are enough to help
Help the old popsicle in that world solve the problem at hand."
"American liberal democracy? Are you serious? Mr. Tony Stark, the big capitalist?" However, after hearing what he said, Chen Mo put on a very strange expression.
He looked at Tony Stark seriously and asked in a skeptical tone: "As the largest arms supplier to the U.S. military and the head of the largest military-industrial complex in the U.S., Tony, I don't think you can
Don’t you know what the essence of American democracy is?”
"Freedom and democracy, what else?" Perhaps American democracy is too deeply rooted in the hearts of Americans. Even people like Tony Stark, who should have the best insight into the nature of this system, put on a show of propaganda.
Looks like he's been brainwashed.
And he looked like this, even Steve beside him couldn't stand it.
"Tony, freedom and democracy were first used by the Soviets to promote their socialism. If you mentioned this during the Edgar Hoover era, you would be invited to tea by the FBI." Steve reminded.
Tony.
"As I mentioned in my speech at the United Nations in another world, for those countries that are not developed enough or whose social systems are not sound enough, so-called American democracy is not what they need." Chen Mo also said at this time
He began to explain his point of view, and at this time he seemed to have used some of the power of the gods to make what he said more powerful, or to use another more popular term, he gave himself some special effects.
But Tony Stark was not an easily influenced person. He still said disdainfully: "Freedom and democracy are not what they need. Is it a dictatorship?"
"Order, rules and protection, this is what they need." Chen Mo was very calm and did not have any emotions because of Tony Stark's disgusting attitude, but continued to explain to him
He explained: "You need to understand one detail, which is the so-called American democracy, which refers to the people's freedom to participate in the management of the country, that is, they can enjoy the right to vote and the right to be elected.
But this is meaningless in some areas where the economy is not developed enough, the social order is not sound enough, and the people's education level is extremely low, because they simply cannot understand the meaning of elections and what the votes they cast mean.
In many places, it is even impossible to hold a fair and impartial election. This is true even in the United States.
To give you the simplest example, Mr. Stark, if you want Mr. Steve Rogers to become an alderman of New York City, what is the simplest way to do it?"
"An agreement was reached with the New York City Government to invest and set up factories in New York, providing thousands of jobs for the entire New York, and then let these people vote for Steve." Tony blurted out almost without thinking, and after saying this
After speaking, his face suddenly became ugly.
Obviously, Tony understood what Chen Mo wanted to express.
"Yes, you see, the essence of the so-called American democratic elections is nothing more than the drive and promotion of interests. What they choose is not the person who represents them, but the person that capital wants them to elect." Chen Mo
He was still explaining all this, but at this time he had extended the topic to socialist democracy: "Socialism also pays attention to democracy, but socialist democracy means that all rights belong to the people, and the people are the masters of the country and manage the country.
They are representatives elected by the people, which is fundamentally different from American democracy.
Of course, I am not telling you this to debate the merits of American democracy or socialist democracy. I just want to tell you that in a region full of wars and multi-party conflicts, what you have to do is not to be rude.
Use bombs or missiles to hit the local dictator or the leader of a certain force, and then act as a savior to help them establish a so-called democratic system.
For countries with imperfect social systems, this can easily evolve into a dictatorship. I don’t think you need me to list for you how many dictatorships have been spawned in various countries that have accepted American democracy since World War II.
Is that right?"
Chen Mo's words made Tony completely silent. He had no more words at this time. No matter how eloquent he was, Tony could not deny the fact that in an extremely chaotic place, if he could not clarify the local
various power relations
, re-establishing a complete set of social rules, stabilizing everything, and talking about freedom and democracy is indeed a very ironic thing.
