Johnny Silverhand, he understood, but this Arasaka Kei, Saburo Arasaka's son, the Crown Prince who died in the Arasaka Tower nuclear explosion in 2023, was also here?
This indeed piqued Osiris' greater interest.
Did Rogue return his digital soul to Arasaka back then? This might explain why she was able to remain safe afterward.
Compared to Johnny Silverhand, this former Arasaka Crown Prince made Osiris even more curious.
Perhaps the part of his consciousness uploaded into the Mikoshi carried more emotions and exploratory desires from when he was 'human.' Osiris decided to converse with him rather than simply browse his data files.
He allocated a portion of his vast processing power, injecting it like energy, to activate the glowing point representing Arasaka Kei, supporting his digital soul to simulate normal thought and communication activities.
Light flowed, and a holographic image of a well-dressed, serious-faced middle-aged man with a typical Japanese aristocratic demeanor appeared in the data space before Osiris.
His eyes were initially somewhat bewildered but quickly regained their sharpness and calm, seemingly possessing a clear understanding of his own situation.
"You are not from Arasaka." Arasaka Kei's digital soul spoke, his voice steady, with a rigorously trained restraint. "Your form of existence... is very peculiar.
I sense a power far beyond the data processing protocols of this era. Who are you? Why have you intruded upon Arasaka's sacred ground?"
Osiris' virtual avatar looked at him calmly: "A passerby, a researcher. You don't seem surprised by your situation, Mr. Arasaka Kei."
Arasaka Kei nodded slightly, maintaining his graceful posture: "My memory stops at that night in 2023... attacked by that rock 'n' roll punk and that traitor with Soulkiller.
After that... my consciousness has existed in this void. Intermittently, sometimes awakened, sometimes sealed.
Arasaka... my family, placed me here. I understand my state, a digitized ghost, an... asset."
There wasn't much anger or sadness in his tone; it was more like stating an objective fact. This calmness even made Osiris feel it was a bit too inhuman.
"Why do they awaken you?" Osiris asked.
"Tests." Arasaka Kei's reply was without hesitation. "A new project based on Soulkiller technology — the Relic chip.
My father, Saburo Arasaka, his lifelong obsession is to use it to 'download' selected digital souls and stably implant them into a brand new, living body."
He paused slightly, and a faint, almost self-mocking ripple seemed to pass across his calm, digital face.
"What he pursues is far from simple consciousness backup, but true... digital resurrection and consciousness immortality.
And I, as his bloodline, a ready-made digital sample highly correlated with him on genetic and cognitive levels, naturally became the... preferred test subject for verifying the feasibility of this theory."
Osiris, of course, knew about the Relic chip.
Saburo Arasaka had been dedicated to this since acquiring Alt Cunningham's technology fifty years ago, aiming directly for digital immortality to ensure Arasaka's rule would last forever.
Uploading via Soulkiller, downloading via Relic – although there were philosophical and mystical debates about whether it was the same 'soul,' when memories and personalities were perfectly replicated, the boundaries indeed became blurred.
"Digital immortality... an interesting technological path." Osiris commented, his tone neither praising nor disparaging. "But in our view, this is not the optimal solution; it carries obvious single point of failure risks."
He thought of the Adeptus Mechanicus Magos who had successfully transferred their consciousness into mechanical carriers, achieving another form of 'immortality,' albeit dependent on specific equipment.
Arasaka Kei looked at Osiris: "'We'? It seems you represent an unknown force. Your technological level... is awe-inspiring. So, what is your purpose? To acquire Arasaka's data? Or... these imprisoned souls?"
"Both." Osiris stated frankly. "Knowledge has its value, whether about the past or about... a possible future. As for these digital souls, they are valuable research samples, recording various states of human consciousness during the digitization process."
"Samples..." Arasaka Kei repeated the word, his face showing no emotion. "A very cold assessment, but perhaps... it is the truth. In this data cage, time loses meaning, leaving only endless waiting and exploitation. So, researcher, how do you plan to deal with us 'samples'?"
"Copy, analyze, archive." Osiris replied. "Your original data will be securely transferred. As for whether you will be 'activated' in the future, it depends on research needs."
Arasaka Kei was silent for a moment, then slowly said: "At least, this is better than being forever imprisoned in Arasaka's servers, waiting to be used by my father as a tool to achieve his ambitions, or being completely deleted in some system cleanup. I accept this fate."
Osiris nodded, saying no more.
He continued his work, copying and packaging all the data within the Mikoshi, including every soul in the digital prison, and transmitting it back to the Wasteland Town through a stable data stream.
The entire process was efficient and thorough, not missing a single byte.
After completing all this, Osiris' consciousness withdrew from the Mikoshi.
He issued the final command in Maine's crew's communication channel: "Data collection complete. Execute cleanup protocol, completely destroy the Mikoshi server array, then evacuate according to the planned route."
—
Upon receiving the order, Maine's crew immediately sprang into action.
Rebecca and Pilar placed the remaining explosives at critical nodes of the server cluster.
Maine, meanwhile, used a plasma cannon to Key destruction the core interfaces and supporting structures.
Violent explosions erupted from deep beneath Arasaka Tower, shaking the entire building.
Flames and thick smoke poured from the windows in the middle section of the tower, the internal data center turning into a sea of fire. The Mikoshi, Arasaka's most important data core in North America, was completely physically destroyed.
Maine's crew retreated along the planned route, fighting as they went.
Arasaka's security forces, having lost unified command and their core objective, were even less able to stop their advance.
They burst out of the burning Arasaka Tower, boarded the waiting vehicles, and, pursued by Night City's chaotic sirens and media helicopters, vanished into the city's neon lights and shadows.
Inside the wasteland workshop, Osiris watched as the data transfer progress bar reached 100%, then cut off the monitoring connection to the Arasaka Tower area.
His crimson optical lens turned to the internal data storage unit, which now held the massive amount of information and an era's worth of digital souls acquired from the Mikoshi.
An efficient harvest.
He thought, his attention returning to the control panel, where Bartmoss' neural structure model once again occupied his primary processing power.