Chapter 179: A Sense of Mission

"Power runs the system, and you just fed the grid."

Massive thanks to the following legends for fueling this story with power stones:

⚡ DevilsArray⚡ DaoistahH8hp⚡ lomp⚡ indarius⚡ INDRA32⚡ Roach_mobile⚡ Cryotivity⚡ SaintWeetard⚡ KnuckledBehemoth⚡ Demiurge_Ohara⚡ Osiris_Dawns⚡ Derpy_Bird⚡ AshGraveborn⚡ Koo_Znack⚡ Overshotfir979⚡ aayojibear⚡ Phavalve⚡ Renegade_Lemur⚡ SaidElMane⚡ Datboi9968⚡ Burning_Toast⚡ Descentofpotential⚡ Alex_IK⚡ Drwall⚡ Yodathink⚡ adetya_suridno⚡ 8Normal6Guy0⚡ Xzeo⚡ Chirag_Mangla

You jacked in, dropped the stones, and kept the story alive. Respect, chooms.

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"Everything you heard today—keep it to yourself."

Inside the descending elevator, Karl nodded at Kenichiro's words. "Of course, I won't say a word. After all…"

Karl let out a small smile. "I've reached a sponsorship agreement with you, haven't I?"

"I don't know why Miss places so much trust in you," Kenichiro replied, his voice steady, but with an unmistakable underlying pressure. "But I hope you won't disappoint me by doing something irrational."

He didn't move an inch, but the weight of his gaze carried a sharp intensity.

"Compared to Miss finding out that someone she trusted betrayed her, I think she'd find it much easier to accept that the person she trusted simply met an unfortunate end."

"Is that so?"

Karl responded calmly, but his gaze shifted, locking onto Kenichiro. His wrist lifted slightly. "Then let me turn the question around, Kenichiro-san."

"Turn it around?"

"Who do you truly serve? The leader of the doves, or the Miss you claim to protect?"

Karl's words made Kenichiro freeze.

For the past fourteen years, since inheriting Kenichiro Ichirou's role, he had acted as a guardian—almost a father figure—to Arasaka Hanako, who had been raised in Japan. And in all that time, he had never once questioned this.

Because in his mind, how could a father and son, or a mother and daughter, ever belong to separate factions?

"I, of course…"

Halfway through his sentence, he realized—he didn't know how to finish it.

If he said his loyalty was to Hanako, it was Arasaka Michiko, Hanako's mother, who had assigned him to protect her.

But if he claimed to be loyal to Michiko, then why had he never reported Hanako's secret actions? Why had he allowed them to continue?

"I don't need someone who hasn't even thought through their own loyalties lecturing me," Karl said, his voice sharp. "Instead of interrogating the person Miss has chosen to trust, shouldn't you be focusing on your job as her bodyguard?"

"Ding."

The elevator reached the first floor.

Karl glanced at Kenichiro before stepping forward.

"Make sure you protect Arasaka Hanako, Kenichiro-san. I'd hate for my sponsor to be taken out by some ridiculous accident before I even get the chance to intervene. You're the more capable one right now, aren't you?"

Kenichiro watched Karl's back as he walked away. His expression shifted slightly—then returned to stillness.

His gaze deepened. Thoughtful.

As a bodyguard, he wasn't supposed to overthink things.

And yet, he was thinking too much.

'Did you see through something, Karl?'

'Or do you simply understand Miss's ambition better than I do?'

The elevator doors closed.

Kenichiro never called Karl back. Never asked what was on his mind.

Because how ridiculous would it be—

For someone who didn't even know who he truly served to question an outsider's loyalty?

Meanwhile…

Karl left the Arasaka building with a smirk.

'Internal strife, internal strife—constant infighting to the point where even the so-called loyal dogs don't know who they're actually loyal to. Yeah, I've got a pretty solid grasp on how Arasaka operates now.'

Still…

He had to admit—this was an interesting idea.

To rise to the top of Arasaka and reshape it according to her own will…

'That's some real ambition.'

'How could I not be interested in this kind of internal struggle?'

A weakling with barely any support, reaching for the peak of Arasaka.

And the mercenary she chose—one who was already on his way to the top of Night City.

It was pure insanity.

A suicide mission.

And yet—

Why had he agreed?

Karl already knew the answer.

Maybe, just as Jackie and Oliver had once asked—what was his dream?

Reaching the top of Night City was just the beginning. Just the first step.

What he really wanted—

Was change.

Changing just one city? That was too small. Not enough.

Ambition—true ambition—required a world stage.

And at that thought, Karl's heart beat just a little faster.

"Why have I always pursued an endless cycle of excitement? Why do I constantly challenge myself with impossible tasks? Why do I deliberately set myself up against overwhelming odds? Why do I feel an urge to test my strength against powerhouses like Adam Smasher and Ken'ichiro?"

From the very beginning, ever since I first held a gun, I've known—I refuse to live a mundane, complacent life.

A heart can grow numb. A person can spend their whole life staring down at the ground.

But as long as I still exist, as long as someone like me—someone from the past—still walks this earth, then no one can say this era is over.

It's about time someone in this age looked up.

Looked beyond the neon haze.

And saw a sky untouched by artificial light—a clear and open sky.

Karl was a man of the past. What was this world worth to him?

Not a damn thing.

But that also made it priceless.

"I've made up my mind."

Karl strode confidently out of the Arasaka Emerald Tower.

"For lunch today, I think I'll make sweet and sour pork."

—

Back on the 100th floor of the penthouse, Ken'ichiro watched Karl's departing figure on the suite's massive display screen.

Across from him, seated elegantly while meticulously whisking her matcha, was Hanako Arasaka.

As Karl's face lit up with a bright and unrestrained smile, perfectly captured by the security cameras around the Emerald Tower, Ken'ichiro unconsciously stepped closer to the screen.

"Miss, are you truly certain about trusting him? If we act now, we can still eliminate him and prevent any information leaks. I can activate emergency security protocols."

"I trust him."

Without a moment's hesitation, Hanako turned her gaze toward Ken'ichiro and spoke softly, her voice unwavering.

"Just as I trust you, Ken'ichiro-san—who has cared for me like a father all these years."

Ken'ichiro froze.

It was the second time today.

The first time was because of Karl.

The second—because of her.

They had both taken him by surprise.

"I…"

Ken'ichiro opened his mouth as if to say something, but the words wouldn't come. His face tensed for a brief moment before he sighed and sat down on the cushion positioned at Hanako's left.

At last, he had found clarity in his loyalty.

That bastard… He really had seen through everything.

Sitting in quiet contemplation, Ken'ichiro shifted his gaze between Hanako and Karl's beaming image on the screen.

And for some reason, despite knowing he had been understood—completely and unmistakably—Ken'ichiro couldn't muster even the slightest bit of goodwill toward Karl.

If anything, he felt a strange sense of emptiness.

A hollow, nagging loss.

Ken'ichiro watched as Hanako once again fixed her gaze upon the display.

He couldn't help but murmur, "He looks too damn carefree. Watching him like this… it's hard to believe he bears any sense of duty."

Hanako let out a soft laugh.

Still smiling, she handed him a freshly prepared cup of matcha.

"That's exactly why he carries a sense of duty."

In Night City, a place where true smiles were a rarity, someone who could laugh so freely was already an anomaly.

Ken'ichiro fell silent as he accepted the tea, while Hanako simply kept her eyes fixed on the screen, engrossed.

…I should remind her—staring at a screen for too long could affect her eyesight.

Ken'ichiro took a sip of the tea.

It was bitter.

Her skills hadn't improved at all.

"Damn brat…"

Ken'ichiro, a man raised with the utmost discipline and etiquette, wasn't one for cursing.

But in the privacy of his thoughts, he muttered one final warning:

"You'd better not have any funny ideas about Miss Hanako."

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