Shard.13: Rosalind Myers - President of the NUSA. Cold-blooded Machiavellianism and the Embodiment of the 'Corporate War'

In Night City, where acid rain blurs the vivid neon colors into the asphalt, power always sits at the intersection of physical and capitalist violence. Looking up from the very bottom of the streets, the skyscrapers of megacorporations and the prestige of governments claiming to be nations are equally nothing more than parts of a ruthless system. However, there exists a monster who perfectly manipulates this system from its apex, treating everything from human life to the dignity of the soul as mere numbers on a Profit and Loss (P&L) statement. That monster is Rosalind Myers, the 3rd President of the NUSA.

Crawling out from the wreckage of the crashed Space Force One, this woman initially behaves like a guardian of democracy, bearing the prestige of the nation and standing up against terrorism. However, piecing together the fragments of history revealed by her background, her statements, and hidden data shards makes her true nature abundantly clear: she is a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) coldly running a colossal megacorporation disguised as a nation.

This report comprehensively unravels the background, inner workings, and the philosophy embodied by Rosalind Myers, the ultimate mastermind in CD Projekt RED’s game Cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion DLC, Phantom Liberty. By analyzing her career, the truth behind the Unification War, and the structure of her exploitation of others (Songbird, Reed, Hansen, and V), we will illuminate the abysses characteristic of cyberpunk literature that run throughout this work: “exploitation by hyper-capitalism,” “the tragedy of Transhumanism,” and “the defeat of Existentialism.”

1. From Corporate Empire to Head of State: The Collusion Between Militech and the NUSA

The absolute prerequisite for understanding the behavioral principles of Rosalind Myers is the historical fact that before she became a “politician,” she was a ruthless “Corpo.” Her governing philosophy is deeply rooted not in human rights awareness or democratic ideals based on the Constitution, but in the logic of Militech’s quarterly earnings and profit maximization.

1.1 [Fact] The History of “Sliding” from CEO to President

According to historical records and fragments from data shards, before assuming the presidency of the NUSA, Rosalind Myers was the CEO of Militech, one of the world’s leading military-industrial complexes. Taking the helm of Militech following the death of former CEO Donald Lundee, she led the company for about a decade. During this period, while portrayed as a promoter of peace who spearheaded the NUSA’s rapid economic recovery, she also possessed the face of a politician pushing highly protectionist and interventionist policies.

In the late 2060s, she succeeded Elizabeth Kress as the President of the NUSA, handing over the CEO position at Militech to Lucas Harford. Ostensibly a “third-term president” who went through a democratic electoral process, her military background and career at Militech continue to exert a decisive influence on her decision-making in the Oval Office.

1.2 [Analysis] The “Hostile Takeover” of State Functions and the Zenith of Capitalism

The truth inferred from this series of career moves is the fact that the nation known as the NUSA has effectively been reduced to a wholly-owned subsidiary or a puppet regime of Militech. Myers’s political career is cleverly disguised as having gone through democratic procedures, but its reality is tantamount to a “Hostile Takeover” of state functions by massive capital.

In the literary context of cyberpunk, “exploitation by hyper-capitalism” is always a core theme, and Myers’s existence presents its ultimate form. Corporations are no longer entities that evade state regulations; they have bought out the state itself and legally monopolized its apparatus of violence (the military and intelligence agencies). While Militech has a history of once being nationalized by the NUSA, the current relationship is such that it can be said Militech now controls the NUSA. Myers views citizens not as “sovereigns of the state,” but as “human capital” or “exploitable resources for corporate executives.” The words she speaks as president, such as “reunification of the nation” and “guardianship of freedom,” are all merely promotional slogans to justify Militech’s market expansion and military hegemony.

2. The Bloody P&L Statement: The Truth of the Unification War (Metal Wars)

Myers’s corporate Machiavellianism was etched into history in the most gruesome manner during the Unification War, also known as the Metal Wars, which took place from 2069 to 2070.

2.1 [Fact] A Scorched Homeland and a Proxy War of Superpowers

In 2069, newly inaugurated President Myers announced the “Unification Program,” an expansion of federal control over the independent Free States, under the pretext of strengthening the nation. Naturally, the Free States rejected this, escalating into armed conflict.

The structure of this war was not a simple civil war. Behind the NUSA federal forces stood Militech, providing cutting-edge military technology and troops, while behind the Free States, Arasaka, aiming to restore its influence on the North American continent, secretly provided funds, weapons, and “security advisors.” The war was extremely brutal, and by mid-2070, most of the Free States, except for Texas and Northern California, were occupied by federal forces. However, in the process, Myers showed absolutely no mercy. On the night of June 6, 2070, Sacramento, the capital of Northern California, was subjected to indiscriminate carpet bombing by NUSA forces, resulting in massive civilian casualties. In the “Battle of Ridgecrest” in Southern California, 3,078 deaths were reported in a single day, recorded as the bloodiest battle of the war.

Ultimately, fearing that full-scale intervention by Arasaka would escalate the situation into an all-out war exceeding the economic and military capacity of the NUSA (and Militech), Myers signed the Treaty of Unification in Arvin, Southern California, bringing the war to an end.

2.2 [Analysis] The Deception of “Peace” That Calculates Human Lives as Costs

While history books record this war as a “righteous battle aimed at the reunification of the nation,” it was essentially nothing more than a proxy war for the “Fifth Corporate War” between Militech and Arasaka.

Myers’s ruthlessness lies in her ability to calmly process the carpet bombing of Sacramento and the mass casualties at Ridgecrest as “necessary expenses” on a P&L statement. Political cause is merely a package to conceal the true objective of market expansion through armed force. The signing of the Treaty of Unification was also not born out of a desire for peace, but was the result of highly corporate risk management (cutting losses), based on the calculation that “continuing the war any further would bring a fatal deficit to Militech’s stock prices and the NUSA’s national budget.” Furthermore, AI analysis software predicts a 74% probability that a “hot war” will break out again by 2080. For Myers, peace is nothing more than an interval to load ammunition for the next war.

3. The Abandoned Hound: Kurt Hansen and the Karma of Dogtown

The greatest living proof demonstrating Myers’s psychological manipulation and the cruelty of her calculated “discarding” is Colonel Kurt Hansen, the ruler of Dogtown and leader of Barghest.

3.1 [Fact] Betrayal on the Front Lines and the Birth of a Warlord

During the Unification War, Kurt Hansen was a frontline soldier, a Colonel in the NUSA army commanding the invasion operation into Pacifica (a district of Night City). However, when Night City Councilman Lucius Rhyne requested Arasaka’s intervention and an Arasaka supercarrier arrived, the tide of the situation changed dramatically. Fearing an escalation into an all-out war with Arasaka (the Fifth Corporate War), Myers suddenly ordered an immediate retreat for Hansen and his troops, who had advanced right to the doorstep of Night City.

For Hansen, who had pushed the front lines forward at the cost of immense blood and sacrifice, this order was an unbearable betrayal. He ignored Myers’s retreat order and decided to hole up with his entire unit in Pacifica’s unfinished infrastructure facilities (such as the stadium). This marked the birth of the private military faction known as Barghest, and the origin of “Dogtown,” an independent, lawless state within Night City.

3.2 [Analysis] The Dynamics of a Calculated “Scapegoat”

At first glance, Hansen’s defection appears to be a military failure where Myers’s orders failed to reach him. However, by deciphering the description in the shard “Psychological Evaluation: Colonel Kurt Hansen,” the causal relationship behind this event takes on a different aspect. The shard evaluates Hansen as someone who “communicates directly with subordinates and builds a natural relationship of trust,” while also clearly noting that he “Exhibits a moderate tendency for insubordination and individualistic behavior” towards his superiors.

It is no coincidence that Myers deliberately placed Hansen, who possessed such a psychological profile, on the most difficult and dangerous front line of the Night City invasion. She utilized a “commander with a tendency for insubordination,” who would be easy to cut loose in a pinch, as a scapegoat. When Arasaka intervened, Myers sought a political compromise and prevented the responsibility from spilling over to the main body of the NUSA by discarding Hansen as “a rogue soldier who ignored orders and went out of control.” From Hansen’s perspective, Myers is not merely a political opponent, but a “ruthless former superior who betrayed the price of blood.” The shootdown of Space Force One, which serves as the catalyst for the DLC Phantom Liberty, is not mere terrorism. It is a perfect picture of karmic retribution, where the boomerang of resentment spawned in the past by Myers’s “corporate rationality” took the physical form of the Dogtown slum and shot down the President herself. Myers’s arrogance in treating others as disposable pawns pulled the trigger on the tragedy of her own downfall.

4. Weaponizing the Realm of God: The Madness of Project Cynosure

The worst evidence showing that the NUSA governed by Myers is not merely a tyrannical military state, but is committing “blasphemy against human souls and existence” on a national level from the perspective of Transhumanism, is the existence of “Project Cynosure.”

4.1 [Fact] Incursion Beyond the Blackwall

Project Cynosure was a top-secret military research project launched by Militech to counter Arasaka’s weapon, “Soulkiller.” Conducted deep underground in Pacifica, ironically in a subterranean facility (Cynosure Site C) beneath the Dogtown controlled by Hansen, the objective of this research was to capture, control, and contain “Rogue AIs” left behind in The Old Net before the DataKrash, and to utilize their neural networks as military and intelligence weapons of mass destruction. To borrow the words of Solomon Reed, it is the “cyberspace equivalent of a nuke.” This project was temporarily rebooted in the 2060s, producing prototypes of maddening AI-equipped weapons such as the “Canto” cyberdeck and the “Erebus” submachine gun, but it was ostensibly frozen to avoid diplomatic crises with NetWatch and Arasaka, as well as due to the complications of the Unification War. However, Myers and the NUSA’s intelligence agency (FIA) persistently continued to use the remnants of this facility as a “launchpad” to explore the outer fringes of the Blackwall.

4.2 [Analysis] A Philosophical Comparison of Two Demonic Weapons

Arasaka’s “Soulkiller” and Militech’s (NUSA’s) “Cynosure.” Comparing these two top-secret projects highlights the philosophical sinfulness of megacorporations in the world of Cyberpunk 2077.

If Arasaka’s Soulkiller is a direct ethical deviation against self-dignity that “digitizes and imprisons human souls, granting eternal life (or hell),” then Militech’s Cynosure is a catastrophic arrogance that threatens the very survival of all humanity by “summoning god-like demons (Rogue AIs) from beyond the Blackwall, humanity’s inviolable domain, for military use.”

Myers directly supervised the weaponization of Cynosure and the breaching of the Blackwall as a trump card staking the nation’s survival. To her, the Blackwall is not an absolute barrier protecting humanity from the threat of Rogue AIs, but merely a “treasure trove of untapped resources” to outmaneuver other nations. Behind her public face as President, she is a nihilistic Machiavellian who calmly dabbles in taboo technologies that could destroy the world.

5. The Sacrifice of Transhumanism: The Exploitation of Songbird’s Body and Mind

The one who had the runaway ambitions of Project Cynosure forced upon her physical body, made to embody the worst form of Transhumanism, is the genius netrunner Songbird (So Mi). The relationship between her and Myers gouges out the core of the themes of “capitalist exploitation” and “the separation of body and mind” in this work with bloodied hands.

5.1 [Fact] Ignored Warnings and the Depletion of a “Living Weapon”

Myers thoroughly exhausted So Mi’s unique talents as a netrunner, using her as a “weapon of the NUSA.” Using her presidential authority, Myers directly ordered So Mi to breach the Blackwall time and time again. These actions were extremely dangerous and illegal, and in December 2076, traces of a Blackwall breach were detected by NetWatch (though it was not identified as Songbird’s doing).

These repeated dives into the Blackwall inflicted irreversible damage on So Mi’s body and mind. Her brain and nervous system were gradually “devoured” and eroded by the AIs beyond the Blackwall. What is noteworthy here is the existence of a medical diagnosis data shard left by Dr. Baehr, an exclusive physician for the FIA. In his examination of So Mi, Dr. Baehr accurately assessed that she was afflicted with a severe, unknown illness caused by contact with the Blackwall, and strongly advised and recommended to Myers that “in accordance with standard medical protocols, she should be immediately removed from duty to halt the progression of her symptoms.”

However, Myers completely ignored this medical warning and continued to make So Mi dive into the depths of the Blackwall. So Mi’s body gradually collapsed, and to compensate for this, she was forced into extreme mechanization using cutting-edge Militech Cyberware. To function as a self-contained netrunning station that did not require an ice bath, her back and flesh were replaced with cold Chrome.

5.2 [Analysis] Physical Requisition by the State and the Loss of Ego

Myers’s actions represent the utmost malice, elevating the metaphor of a megacorporation’s toxic work environment to the level of cyberpunk body modification (Transhumanism). The “Cyberpsychosis” that ordinary street Mercs and gangers fall into has an aspect of personal responsibility, as it is triggered by implanting excessive Chrome due to personal desires or poverty. However, So Mi’s transhumanistic physical transformation and mental collapse were not her personal choice, but a forced requisition of her body and soul by the “state (Myers).”

The fact that Myers intentionally ignored Dr. Baehr’s diagnosis completely shuts down the excuse that she “didn’t know So Mi was suffering.” To the President, So Mi was not a human being with emotions, but a “high-performance router” to be used until broken, and nothing more than a “tool to reach into the Blackwall.” Myers occasionally refers to So Mi as a “friend” when speaking to others, but this is merely nauseating gaslighting meant to conveniently manipulate and psychologically bind her.

This structure of exploitation is a complete denial of the “human free will” questioned by Existentialism. It is the despair of humans not approaching godhood by merging with machines, but being downgraded into mere “machine parts” by immense power. Myers was gradually chipping away at So Mi’s ego, her future, and her very soul, converting them into a surplus on the P&L statement known as the national interest of the NUSA.

6. The Curse of Loyalty and the Death of the Underclass: The Tragedy of Solomon Reed and Jacob

Another symbolic victim of Myers’s exploitation is Solomon Reed, a veteran FIA spy. His existence highlights how blind loyalty to an organization distorts an individual’s existence and, furthermore, grinds down unrelated, vulnerable people.

6.1 [Fact] A Seven-Year Slumber and the Invisible Strings Pulled Once Again

In the past, while working in the shadows for the NUSA, Reed was left behind in enemy territory due to Myers’s political decisions behind the scenes of the Unification War, effectively being “left for dead (or forced into long-term illegal deep cover).” However, at the onset of Phantom Liberty, having crash-landed in Dogtown and fallen into a desperate situation, Myers “reactivates” Reed as a sleeper agent through V to secure her own safety once again. Despite carrying the fact that he was betrayed by Myers in the past and nearly lost his life, Reed immediately responds to her call, maintaining an almost abnormal loyalty to the state.

6.2 [Analysis] Existential Bad Faith and a Falling Empire

Reed’s tragedy lies in the fact that he has fallen into what Sartre calls “Bad Faith”: “deep down, he fully understands that he is a convenient, disposable pawn for Myers, yet he cannot let go of that role (service to the state).” He justifies his actions through the “curse” of patriotism and a sense of duty, but Myers herself, the object of his loyalty, is a cold-blooded CEO who does not believe in national ideals in the slightest.

In the quest “Lucretia My Reflection,” the scene at the hideout where Myers and Reed reunite is highly symbolic. The quest name is taken from the song of the same name by The Sisters of Mercy, and its lyrics are interpreted as alluding to an “Empire falling.” The NUSA governed by Myers is now an empire of vanity devoid of ideals, and Reed is a sorrowful knight who continues to stain his hands with blood solely to support its corrupted throne. Myers accurately grasps Reed’s “excessive sense of responsibility and spirit of self-sacrifice,” perfectly controlling his reins.

6.3 [Fact] The Murderous Intent Concealed by the Shard “Myers’ notes”

There is hidden environmental storytelling that decisively depicts Myers’s humanity and the ruthlessness of the FIA as an organization. It is the fate of Jacob and Taylor, two street denizens whom V and the others get involved with at the hideout in Dogtown.

After a brief rest at the hideout, the data shard “Myers’ notes” left by Myers lists tasks such as “Anonymous payment for J. & T.” or the transfer of a luxury Rayfield car, alongside administrative communications like messages to Dr. Baehr and arrangements for a relative’s funeral. However, the reality of cause and effect is cruel. If the player neglects to deal with the surveillance cameras on the way to the hideout and is ambushed by Barghest, Jacob and Taylor are found dead. What is even more terrifying is that even if the cameras are dealt with and Myers leaves the hideout while they are still alive, a text message sent later from Reed to V states, “They’ve been taken care of. No need to worry,” strongly suggesting that they were eliminated by Reed (or an FIA operative unit) to silence them.

6.4 [Analysis] The FIA as a Blood-Sucking Automaton

This series of events perfectly illustrates the organizational structure of corporate Machiavellianism built by Myers. Myers herself leaves notes as if she ostensibly intends to pay rewards (a Rayfield or Eddies) for their favor. This might be a pose she strikes as a “rational CEO” trying to balance the books of a transaction, or perhaps an excuse to herself. However, her direct subordinate and expert in dirty work, Reed, unhesitatingly “takes care” of them to eliminate a security risk (street vagrants who know the President’s hiding place).

Whether Myers directly ordered Reed to assassinate them, or whether Reed acted autonomously by surmising the logic of the organization, is no longer the issue. What is important is that the system (FIA) over which Myers reigns supreme is designed and functions to automatically eliminate and crush powerless people of the lower class as “security bugs.” Without dirtying her own hands with blood, Myers speaks only of beautiful ideals (promises of reward) and lets subordinates possessed by the “bug of loyalty,” like Reed, handle all the dirty work. This is the true terror of one who stands at the apex of a corporate state.

7. King of Pentacles: The Arrogant Ruler and a Life Worth 5,000 Eddies

The tarot cards in Cyberpunk 2077 are powerful metaphors that indicate the essence and fate of the characters. The tarot card painted on the wall near the hideout in Dogtown, the exact place where Myers was hiding, is the “King of Pentacles.”

7.1 The Ruthless Materialism Prophesied by the Tarot

In the tarot database, the “King of Pentacles” is clearly defined as follows: “The King of Pentacles is imperious. They embody ambition and pragmatism, but also represent obsession. From such a person, one can expect ruthlessness and an attachment to material wealth. Sooner or later, they will turn your world upside down.”

7.2 [Analysis] A Flawlessly Accurate Portrait

The implication of this card describes the person Rosalind Myers with astonishing accuracy. Her “pragmatism” is blatantly evident in her attitude of weaponizing the Blackwall at the expense of Songbird’s health, and re-employing Reed by exploiting even his past grudges. Her “attachment to material wealth” is not mere greed for money, but a desire on a massive scale: the territorial expansion of the NUSA (the Unification War) and the protection of Militech’s interests. And the sentence “they will turn your world upside down” brilliantly prophesies the fact that everyone involved with her—Hansen, Reed, Songbird, and none other than the protagonist V—became collateral damage to her ambitions, having their lives destroyed from the ground up.

7.3 [Fact] The Value of a Life at 5,000 Eddies and a Medal of Emptiness

There is a moment near the end of the game when Myers’s “ruthless materialism” is directed straight at V, a Merc. This is the difference in rewards depending on the ending branches of the expansion DLC.

If V respects Songbird’s life and chooses the route of granting her wish to be euthanized or letting her escape to the moon, the result is that V cannot hand over a “living Songbird (a vital NUSA asset)” to Myers. If this conclusion is reached, Myers hardens her attitude toward V to be as cold as ice. For a Merc who ran through Dogtown and survived countless brushes with death to save the President’s life, the reward Myers pays is a mere “5,000 Eddies.” On the other hand, if V ruthlessly restrains Songbird and delivers her to Myers as a “living weapon,” V can receive a “Medal” and “30,000 Eddies.”

7.4 [Analysis] The Ultimate Insult to a Merc and the Litmus Test of Existence

In Night City, where prices have skyrocketed, the sum of 5,000 Eddies is roughly the pocket money of a street punk, barely enough to buy even low-grade Cyberware. As a reward for saving the life of a nation’s supreme leader, it is insanely low. This blatantly proves that to Myers, “Songbird, a military asset capable of connecting to the Blackwall,” held far more corporate value than “her own life (the personal safety of the President).” Since V caused the loss (or escape) of that highest-value asset, V was immediately downgraded on Myers’s P&L statement to a “third-rate subcontractor who failed to fully execute the contract,” and was no longer a subject worthy of further respect or compensation.

Furthermore, the “Medal” grandly awarded upon successfully capturing her alive is also nothing more than a thoroughly empty symbol. In a cyberpunk dystopia, a national medal is the “cheapest possible salary” used to buy out a soldier’s life and dignity at the cost of a scrap of paper, making them self-justify through the drug of patriotism. Whether V accepts this bloodstained medal or not (there is an option to refuse it) functions as the game’s ultimate litmus test: whether the player themselves will yield to the colossal capitalist exploitation system that is Myers, or show an existential will of rebellion at the very end.

Conclusion: The Defeat of Existentialism and the Ruler of an Empire of Nothingness

Rosalind Myers is the most perfected “monster” in the blood-soaked narratives of Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty. She does not suffer from the delusion of being a god looking down from the sky like Saburo Arasaka, nor does she mechanize her entire body to find pleasure in slaughter itself like Adam Smasher. She perfectly wears the good-looking suit of the Stars and Stripes and democracy, speaking pleasant-sounding slogans of “unity and peace” to the masses.

However, beneath that skin squirms a bottomless emptiness and a cold-blooded algorithm that recognizes even the souls of others (Engrams and egos) only as numbers on a P&L statement. She burned the continent with Militech’s military might (the Unification War), abandoned a loyal frontline subject for her own political survival (Hansen), reused a spy by turning his past grudges against him (Reed), and offered a young woman’s brain to the demons dwelling in the abyss of the universe for the sake of national hegemony (Songbird and the Blackwall). And without ever directly dirtying her own hands with blood, she brilliantly shifts all inhumane responsibility onto “national security” or “unavoidable unforeseen circumstances.”

If the fundamental worldview of cyberpunk is that “corporations (megacorps) have devoured the state,” then Rosalind Myers is “the corporation itself wearing the skin of a state.” Just as So Mi lost her ego in the depths of the Blackwall and transformed into a cold machine, the nation known as the NUSA has also been reduced to a “profit-seeking autonomous machine” completely devoid of humanity and morality, by the will of the cold-blooded Machiavellian that is Myers.

Behind the friendly smile she showed in the dim ruins of Dogtown, and the beer toast she shared with V, the ruthless cost calculations churned out by the King of Pentacles were always at work. In the world where Rosalind Myers reigns, true Liberty does not exist anywhere. All that remains there are the corpses of “Phantom” pawns, continuing to dance while harboring illusions of honor and loyalty on the giant chessboard she controls.