So this started as a joke a while ago, someone was shitposting about how fucked up it'll be when Adam runs in from offscreen and powerbombs Roman in Edgerunners 2. And I laughed cause no way that could happen. We killed him! He's dead, just like disco. Unless we never killed him, cause Arasaka beat us to the punch by decades.
TLDR if you don't want to read a ramble: Arasaka says they need to unplug him and do routine maintenance. Toss his brainpod into Soulkiller to create a Smasher construct. Now copy the shard, paste it into a new Smasher bod. Boom, eternal, unstoppable, always returning boogieman. Dude doesn't even know. That's the short version.
The longer version now!
So how that would happen is basically as above. This is the why. Adam is a cyberpycho. He's probably the most "stable" one but since it's mostly degenerative mental disorder, how could you relay on your best muscle to guard the Arasaka family, watch Mikoshi, or just be around sensitive projects. I have no doubt there's a killswitch in him, but when the guy has a top of the line Sandy, snapping for a second could be catastrophic. But he's been a borged out nightmare since around the 2020s and hasn't snapped, which is noted as being weird. If he's a construct they could just give them a "shelf-life" and when one's been used too long, time to copy another.
We also know from the Lizzie Wizzie side mission you can edit constructs. Oh he used to like running around in an Elvis body in 2020 on his off hours? Seems inefficient. Cut that out. Need him clocked in 24/7. To ensure he's not going to snap, edit it to make sure he views Arasaka and it's staff positively. The digital equivalent of lowering cortisol and pumping up the dopamine. Plus being a construct could keep him from devolving further into cyberpsychosis, possibly? Johnny's shard helps V avoid it, according to Mike Pondsmith, so I imagine being one would help, or just curtail the degenerative effects.
And the evidence is mostly just 2077 stories and hearsay. I've been replaying recently, like a lot of people, and I've noticed a few things around him. Lot's of stories of him dying more than once. I wrote those off as stories, but what if some are true? There were rumors that Morgan Blackhand got him at one time. Adam is noted by a few people of having a habit of disappearing, sometimes years at a time. Sounds like work on his body or his construct where getting done.
Finally, it feels like the most cyberpunk, dystopian thing that Adam god damned Smasher could actually be one of Arasaka's most high profile victims. He stripped away his humanity, and signed up with a megacorp who stripped more and more of him, to make him a better enforcer and weapon. He dies or get's shut down and brought back and might never know. Alternatively he might know and thinks it's sick that he'll come back. He is kind of a monster like that.
I don't think he's coming back in Edgerunners 2, and I doubt he'd come back in Orion, but it could be a gutpunch if in the future we see his chromed face again, maybe bigger and more dangerous. Or maybe mass produced and sold as god tier muscle. "Sensitive project? Elite facility? Worried about security? Well worry no more. We have an Adam Smasher for every situation. Think Arasaka. Think Smasher." Sure V killed Smasher, and is part of an exclusive club, but that doesn't matter. Arasaka is still there, and Smasher is too.