Chapter 178: Accelerating the Process
“Is that so? What a pity. Looks like we won’t be meeting again.”
Zed shook his head. As his words fell, he instantly turned into a dark shadow and vanished from where he stood.
Kenichi Zaburo felt his vision blur. In the next instant, Kerenzikov triggered passively, and Sandevistan activated at the same time.
Missing one arm, he slid the katana to his waist and still managed to unleash a Kesa Slash.
Two arcs of blade light crossed in an instant, carving a terrifying X-shaped gash into the ground. Immediately after, a crisp, piercing sound rang out.
Michiko, still stunned, felt her vision flash.
Clang!
A broken blade fell straight from the air and stabbed into the ground. Zed’s fist blade now hovered only millimeters from Kenichi Zaburo’s throat.
Kenichi Zaburo let out a quiet sigh and closed his eyes.
“Do it, sir.”
Zed glanced at him and moved his hand.
Bang!
As Kenichi Zaburo’s body collapsed, Michiko cried out uncontrollably, “Mr. Kenichi!”
The sound drew Zed’s attention. Information about her flashed briefly before his eyes. He immediately lost interest, hoisted Kenichi Zaburo’s “corpse” onto his shoulder, and sank into the ground, disappearing without a trace.
Only Michiko Arasaka remained, her eyes unfocused.
To Michiko Arasaka, Kenichi Zaburo had never been just a bodyguard. He was more like a father figure. He had watched her grow up, and for so many years, the two of them had been inseparable.
Their bond had long since surpassed its original form.
Only then did the reinforcements finally arrive. They found Michiko slumped on the ground, the surrounding battle marks still fresh, and the car door standing open.
They rushed forward, lifted Michiko into the vehicle, and immediately sent her to the hospital for emergency treatment.
Even though she showed no obvious external injuries, no one dared to take that risk.
“Boss, the task you gave me is done.”
Zed set Kenichi Zaburo down and opened a comm channel to Roland.
“That fast? As expected of you, Zed.”
Roland smiled slightly, then told him to keep the man under control for now and hand him over afterward to the security robots arranged by Lissandra.
They would deliver him into Mudor’s hands.
“Militech’s sanctions… what a headache…”
Roland looked at the rejected launch request in his hand and felt his temples throb. Originally, the satellite was to be launched from Northern California, so there should have been no need to worry about the New United States. He had thought it would go smoothly.
Who would have expected… the Northern California government to reject it outright.
Roland had anticipated this possibility, but when it actually happened, it was still deeply irritating.
The intelligence obtained through Kelly only made him feel more helpless. A New United States agent embedded in Northern California had subtly influenced a key government official there.
That person had come to believe this was an opportunity to squeeze some profit out of PROJECT.
It had to be said—this method was extremely sophisticated, leaving almost no trace behind. But… Kelly and Lissandra’s network skills could no longer be described as merely extraordinary. They were practically godlike.
So… even data that had already been destroyed was still dragged back out of the data torrent by Kelly.
The true brilliance of this tactic wasn’t that it was hard to trace, but that even if it was exposed, the person being influenced would, in all likelihood, still refuse to change their stance.
After all… it really was an opportunity, and one with genuine benefits for them.
“Looks like I’ll have to send Zed to Northern California again…”
Roland rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Launching PROJECT’s satellites was crucial—it directly affected the use of several PROJECT technologies, especially some of its more specialized ones.
Orbital weapons, weather weapons, and the like.
Speaking of weather weapons… artificial disaster technology was already mature in the PROJECT world. It was capable of both creating and eliminating man-made disasters. Eliminating them was harder than creating them, but with enough effort, it could still be done.
For now, however, Roland had no intention of using weather weapons. The ecosystem of the cyberpunk world was already extremely fragile. Using something like that casually—without the ability to fully control the disasters it created—would be asking for things to spiral out of control.
Just how severe were disasters in the cyberpunk world? Many island nations had already been wiped off the map under these conditions.
That was how so many underwater cities had come into existence.
Some countries would have already collapsed entirely if not for their powerful defensive engineering.
...
“How are the troops doing?”
Jamde asked his adjutant.
“They’re almost at the outskirts of Elor City. About a hundred kilometers out.”
“Have them speed up. Finish off the PROJECT forces there as soon as possible. And if you can, seize their Nightmare War Machines.”
Jamde nodded as he spoke to his adjutant.
Compared to the better-supplied Free State Alliance and Arasaka’s security forces, their first target was Elor City, which was currently under PROJECT Corporation’s control.
In their view, although the enemy wasn’t weak, they only had this single force. It was better to swallow it early and avoid complications later.
Besides… the New United States was already getting impatient. The only reason things were still relatively stable was because they wanted to see whether the Free State Alliance had any hidden trump cards, to avoid stumbling into a disaster.
Now that it seemed there was nothing especially noteworthy, they wanted to end this war as quickly as possible. After all, warfare was an enormous drain on resources.
“Bring up the map, our troop deployments, and the defensive layouts of the Free State Alliance along with Arasaka’s security forces.”
After a brief pause, Jamde gave the order.
The adjutant nodded and projected everything onto the map.
Jamde narrowed his eyes, carefully studying the situation. He was considering one thing—how much they could gain if they launched a full-scale offensive right now.
Their primary target was Montana, a decision Jamde had made because it couldn’t receive much support and its military strength was far weaker than that of other states.
Before long, Montana was already struggling under the ferocious assault from the New United States and had begun calling for aid from other Free States.
However, the western Free States remained neutral, while the eastern ones bordered the New United States. Only the southern side bordered Wyoming—and even then, it was just a single state.
On the surface, Wyoming appeared to be the New United States’ second target. Compared to Montana, which was hard to reinforce and militarily weak, the other Free States decisively chose to support Wyoming and abandon Montana.
But in reality, the New United States’ true second target was not Wyoming—it was Colorado.
That decision had already been made back when Amir City was selected.
From the outside, once Montana fell, the militarily powerful Wyoming would seem to face a full-front assault, making it the obvious main battlefield for the Free State Alliance.
But the New United States had never planned to take everything in one sweep. Instead, they intended to advance step by step—and Colorado was the second objective.
If they launched a general offensive now, they could seize Montana in one decisive strike, then push through Amir City into Colorado’s various cities, driving deep into its heartland and escalating the conflict even further.
“Transmit my order,” Jamde said calmly. “Launch the general offensive.”
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