Chapter 877 - 156 Declaration of War

EBM, officially known as the European Business Machines Corporation, became the world’s largest computer and high-tech manufacturer by the late 90s.

At the same time, it was the initiator of the first corporate war, the largest hostile takeover in the history of the free market—

For a long time, the European Business Machines, or EBM, was the most advanced computer and high-tech manufacturer in the world.

As a high-tech company, EBM, before 2020, publicly reported owning more than 50 AV4 armed floating cars, 20 second-generation vertical take-off attack aircraft, 20 corporate jets for executive travel, and five heavy transport aircraft, with each headquarters equipped with armed helicopters stationed at various European locations.

Moreover, EBM was among the few early companies with orbital laboratories, capable of competing in near-Earth orbit and outer space operations, although the latter turned this power into profitable projects, while the former used it for its own purposes.

Originally, EBM’s growth trajectory was terrifying, with almost no other high-tech companies able to compete until they reached a bottleneck, bought all the land in Hamburg, and claimed to be an entity equal to the European Union.

As a result, Interpol began to treat EBM and EBM Hamburg as separate entities.

Later, the internet collapse led to severe damage to most of EBM’s operations:

Bartmos’s rabies virus equally destroyed the plans of all companies, with those more reliant on network information technology suffering the most, EBM being one of them.

The former Kantao Company was nearly driven to bankruptcy by the old net’s collapse, with its CEO succumbing to the pressure and committing suicide. EBM’s situation was almost identical to Kantao’s...

The only difference was that Kantao waited decades for sponsorship from a major organization, while EBM was backed by EBM Hamburg.

Afterward, EBM cut most of its overseas operations, focused on data recovery, and developed slowly, leaving much of the North American Region market, resulting in the current Night City environment.

But in Europe, EBM remains one of the top super corporations.

At the same time, EBM is evidently a competitor of the Jilafa Group, with even their ideologies clashing:

The former aims to be the world’s largest high-tech manufacturer, slapping the EBM label on all tech items; the latter strives to make technological advancements accessible to all, creating technology affordable for everyone.

During the decline, the European Union took the opportunity to buy back EBM Hamburg’s property in Bremen, returning the land to Germany. However, it is clear that EBM’s influence is deeply rooted here, making it difficult for any other company to thrive unless it quietly endures EBM’s exploitation.

The local government’s money comes from taxes, and local businesses are essentially dictated by EBM, causing the European Union a lot of headaches, having to constantly shell out money to ensure the administrative agencies obey—

Now, the opportunity has arrived.

Perhaps a group of angry strikers could directly disrupt EBM’s production?

The European Union’s task is to have local police and Interpol curb the possibility of EBM openly using force, reclaiming the voice in Bremen’s business circle.

On the streets, workers stand orderly on either side, excitedly looking towards the savior from Foxstone, hoping the arrival of the Cyber Disorder Committee will change their situation...

Network Supervision granted the committee some minor powers, allowing Sevens to see how many people are currently on the streets:

"There are a total of 782 people active on the streets, with surveillance networks showing 6,832 people active on the workers’ forum expressing various degrees of support, and over 120,000 potential supporters...

This is too many, much more than I imagined..."

In the swaying car, Sevens felt surprised and elated.

Bremen is indeed a large city, but compared to a century ago, the global population has seen a decreasing trend.

Because Bremen is large enough and backed by the technologically advanced EBM, its production technology far exceeds that of Foxstone and even Night City, in terms of standardization, production efficiency, and coordinated production; therefore, massive production lines and factories don’t need many workers involved.

The entire city has a population of only 500,000, with 60% belonging to the worker group, nearly 300,000 various kinds of workers—

Unstable workers account for nearly 200,000, while the rest are high-tech workers able to find long-term jobs.

On the street, nearly 7,000 are mostly technical workers, while more potential supporters are those without stable work, with quite a few having recently become unemployed...

If they can’t find work for a long time, there’s a risk they could be expelled from the European Barrier for various reasons, suggesting the city was already in conflict before their arrival!

Nearly seven thousand technical workers decided to leave, with 120,000 potential supporters performing passively at their positions, causing the entire city to suddenly quiet down—

With their strike, the noisy industrial zones were left with only dull footsteps, and workers on the streets and alleys followed this Mackinaw, with their usual quietly vented discontent erupting simultaneously.

European Union police paved the way under system instructions, as more and more workers gathered from the streets and alleys like tidal waves, the fatigue on their faces wiped away, their eyes firmly locked on the buildings flanking the roads:

Drones hovered around the company’s assets, soldiers stood in front of factories and company buildings, hands gripping tightly to mechanical armor, while executives looked down from glass windows at the workers—

Compared to the workers’ exhilaration, most executives only responded with indifference:

They thought they knew how to resist, but in reality, they only attracted greater anger, with EBM having already paused their internal performance statistics.

This indicates that the next actions won’t consider cost!

Most workers perceived this as a victory: the committee’s officials survived to reach Bremen, so the next step must be celebrating the victory, just like in Foxstone and Bruges.

But EBM and Lille know this isn’t a post-victory parade; it is a declaration of war—

Precisely because it’s a declaration of war, the scene maintained a strangely ambiguous balance.

However... the balance on the streets was soon shattered.

A person broke from the crowd, running towards the road where only police cars and the Mackinaw were, looking exhausted, unable to even stand steady, with vacant eyes constantly leaning on and pulling the workers beside him—

When he reached the last worker, losing all support, he fell hard onto the firm road.

"Do you think stirring people up here will change anything? In the end, it’s us at the bottom tier factories who die! We really have no choice!"

The people in the car and the workers on the road were momentarily stunned.

Elliot questioned suspiciously, "What is this person talking about?"

Sevens instantly understood what this person was doing—this kneeling person was the owner of a basic component processing factory, supplying EBM.

According to Network Supervision’s data web, over half of his factory workers had fled, just in the past few days.

Clearly, real big company workers, especially those in EBM who had undergone an emergency adjustment, wouldn’t all run away at once.

It’s this kind of small business owner who’s unfortunate.

[Lille: Ignore it, keep pushing forward, let the police make way a bit, don’t run him over.]

Following these instructions, Elliot relayed them, but just as Phantom was about to turn the steering wheel, a screen popped up with instructions for her work...

She swallowed, knowing this phantom had saved them in a car accident, and now this phantom told her not to turn the wheel.

To steer or not to steer?

For some reason, Phantom suddenly recalled her days in Night City being called around by her big brother, and she steeled her resolve—

Then don’t steer.