"As a former corporate employee—and a mid-to-high-level one at that—you should know better than anyone what kind of monster a megacorporation truly is, right?"
Xiao's voice was calm, but there was a faint smile at the corner of his lips.
V fell silent.
She knew exactly what he meant.
Megacorporations did not exist to serve people.
They existed to exploit them.
From food, clothing, housing, and transportation to land, water, energy, and human labor—everything was a resource to be squeezed dry.
And among all exploitable resources, the easiest to consume were the people at the bottom.
Their time.
Their bodies.
Their lives.
A corporation would never willingly let go of anything that still held value.
If there was still oil to be pressed from the marrow of your bones, it would keep pressing.
People spent their entire lives working for the company.
Then, when they were too old, too weak, or too broken to remain useful, they were discarded.
Sometimes literally.
Organs harvested.
Cyberware repossessed.
Bodies sold.
Even in death, they were made profitable.
This was the true face of a world ruled by capital.
Cruel.
Indifferent.
Deceitful.
The relic chip was simply the ultimate expression of that philosophy.
Not just labor exploitation.
Not just bodily exploitation.
It was the exploitation of identity itself.
The theft of consciousness.
The theft of free will.
The theft of self.
Your body?
No.
Corporate property.
Why would you put your name on something that belonged to the company?
V let out a slow breath.
Then she looked up.
"If you're telling me all this, then there must be a solution."
Her voice was steady now.
Xiao nodded.
"There is."
He turned the display toward her.
"But I need the core data."
His expression grew serious.
"This chip has already overwritten its original internal framework."
"What remains now is Johnny Silverhand's consciousness construct and memory architecture."
He tapped the screen.
"What I need is the original foundational data."
"The source code."
"The core structure behind the relic's operating model."
"Without that, there's no way to truly solve your body's rejection issue."
V frowned.
"Even with the chip right here, you can't reverse-engineer it?"
Xiao shook his head.
"That's the strange part."
He leaned back slightly.
"I've stripped every accessible layer of Johnny's data."
"Memories."
"Neural pathways."
"Personality framework."
"Everything."
He gave a faint smile.
"I could probably tell you the color of his underwear."
That actually drew a small snort from Jackie.
But Xiao's expression quickly returned to seriousness.
"And yet the original data isn't there."
"It's gone."
"Completely overwritten."
He let the words settle.
"In other words, once the relic has been used, it only retains the active consciousness construct."
"The original system data gets replaced."
V's expression darkened.
"So, what exactly happened to me?"
Xiao crossed his arms.
"The simplest explanation?"
He pointed at her head.
"Pressure differential."
V blinked.
Xiao continued.
"The earliest version of the relic was most likely nothing more than an empty container."
"A vacuum chamber for consciousness."
"The chip's internal pressure was lower than the pressure within the human brain."
"That imbalance forcibly siphoned consciousness out of the body."
He paused.
"That was Soulkiller's original principle."
Jackie's face changed.
"So, Johnny got sucked out and trapped inside it."
"Exactly."
Xiao nodded.
"Once consciousness is stored inside, the pressure stabilizes."
"At that point, the chip acts like a storage medium."
"Normally, Johnny would've just existed as a construct."
"Like an old ghost in your head."
"A digital advisor."
"A parasite, maybe."
"But not a replacement."
His gaze shifted back to V.
"The problem is that Dexter's bullet destroyed your brain."
The room fell silent.
"For a brief moment, your own consciousness framework collapsed."
"That reset the internal balance."
"The pressure inside your body dropped lower than the chip."
"So instead of siphoning out…"
"It siphoned in."
V's fingers tightened.
Xiao's voice remained clinical.
"Johnny's construct was pulled into your neural architecture."
"And because your body was in recovery mode, it accepted the rewrite."
Jackie muttered a curse under his breath.
Xiao continued.
"By accident, you solved a technical problem Arasaka had been failing to solve for decades."
V stared at him.
"What?"
He nodded.
"You completed true consciousness transfer."
A bitter smile touched his lips.
"You're basically a miracle."
V looked away.
Somehow, hearing that only made things worse.
Xiao's gaze sharpened.
"That's also why Arasaka would never willingly let you go."
"They'd use you as a test subject."
"A living prototype."
"For them, your survival is secondary."
"The data matters more."
V clenched her jaw.
"So where do we get the core data?"
Her voice had become hard.
Focused.
Xiao met her eyes.
"Anders Hellman."
The name landed like a blade.
"One of the principal developers behind the relic."
"If anyone has access to the source architecture, it's him."
V exhaled slowly.
Then nodded.
"I know what I need to do."
Her old expression was back now.
Cold.
Sharp.
Mercenary.
"As long as we find Hellman, we get the data."
Xiao extended his hand.
"Bring me the core data."
"I'll fix your body."
For a moment, V looked at his hand.
She knew this wasn't charity.
Xiao wanted Arasaka's technology.
She wanted to survive.
A transaction.
Nothing more.
But right now, that was enough.
She took his hand and shook it firmly.
"Deal."
Jackie let out a breath he'd been holding.
V gave a tired sigh.
"I thought I was done with this line of work."
A faint smile touched Xiao's face.
"Then consider this one last job."
He handed her a data slate.
"Cyberware."
"Weapons."
"Combat systems."
"Take your time choosing."
His tone was almost casual.
"I'll handle the surgery personally."
V took the list.
Her eyes narrowed almost immediately.
These weren't normal commercial implants.
Every single item listed was top-tier corporate-grade hardware.
Military-spec gear.
Restricted systems.
Experimental equipment.
None of it was publicly available.
V looked up slowly.
"You're seriously giving me access to all this?"
Xiao smiled.
"If I'm sending you after Arasaka, I'm not doing it half-heartedly."
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