Ghost in the City Cyberpunk Gamer SI

I left the club after hanging out for a while. Afterlife was neat, but I had spent my social batteries. Instead I decided to focus on what I wanted to do next, having used the time at the bar to figure it out. Getting home, I wandered over to my workbench inside my room and plopped down into the chair.

I wanted to level my Tech ability more.

Between my work on the armor for Section 9, and the tools I had made I made a big advancement, but I still wanted more.

So I plopped down the bag of supplies I had bought on my way home, and went to work.

CAD first.

Connecting my personal link into the laptop, I was able to do a lot of work without even touching the keyboard or mouse now, just letting my mental netrunning work on what I needed, as my hands parted out parts for what I was going to do.

I had a lot of money so I was going to basically burn a lot of it for experience.

The parts I had bought were everything I would need to make rudimentary drones.

Design Wizard, A.I. Whisperer and Robotics Wizard all synergized extremely well with what I was doing.

On the laptops screen a very simple drone was coming together. I still wanted Tachikoma. I couldn’t really cosplay the major without them!

So I was going to start. Even if a lot of the work would be wasted when I leveled up my tech, I could still start iterating on the design, start working on the AI. Of course at first it wouldn’t be an AI. I couldn’t possibly make something with AGI levels of awareness on what little processing power I had.

No, first it would all just be algorithms. A few learning scripts, to develop walking patterns, and things that my good little boys and girls would need.

But like all children, they would use the first steps of these algorithms to iterate from themselves.

But first, I needed a drone to start the process.

I basically was going to make something as similar to a full size Tachikoma that I could, just much smaller. Two feet or so across, maybe a foot tall at the head bulb. I likely wouldn’t add the back compartment in yet. That would simplify it for the first iteration.

I just needed to make the drone, and then start filling in the details with programming.

The CAD program took up my attention, once I parsed out the parts I needed I focused fully on that.

My 3d printer would be getting a lot of work tonight.

I kept tinkering away at it, the legs were a lot of work on their own, they had to be capable of the range of motion needed, plus needed enough power to actually actuate. Power sources thankfully weren’t too bad, although with the battery systems I could buy off the shelf, I would have some battery life concerns especially once I started running smarter and smarter systems to control the drone.

But for now it was a night of slowly building the internals of the drone, through the CAD program one piece at a time.

—--

*100 Engineering XP Gained.*

*Engineering skill level up!*

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

I blinked at the alert that came as I was working on the internal musculature of the drone. Multiple limbs meant, I either needed the electric motors to spread their strength, or have one for each limb.

I stepped back from the design to stretch, even and let my brain cool down. Working for hours on this design was definitely a lot of work, and I was only getting through because of my Perks.

My actual engineering skill was only just capable of keeping up with the exacting details of what I was working on.

Sure most people could kludge together a drone out of parts with a bit of effort, but I needed something capable of some pretty extreme performance.

It had four articulating legs, which had wheels, so I had to draw power for the drones to drive. They had to be able to jump. I wanted to work on a wall climbing function for their legs. Something to let them stick, or grab onto walls and climb vertically. I still wanted to do a stealth function, but I was leaving that out for a later design. I simply didn’t know enough about Optical Camo to get it to work.

Anyways, it was hard!

So to get another perk? Well that was something truly useful.

I once again skipped the grenade focused perks, because I still had no idea why Engineering was so focused on explosives, instead I scrolled through the perk list to where I went into the design focused perks.

Last time I had picked Design Wizard, vastly improving the quality of my designs.

I ran down the list skipping more than a few before I found the one that caught my eye.

Robotics Engineering: The robotic form is as familiar to you as your own.

Since my main desire was to make Tachikoma it seemed to be the best choice.

The moment I picked it I knew I had made the right choice.

I already had Robotics Wizard from Crafting, which was all about putting a robot together. Now I had the opposite, a synergy immediately began and I gasped as I realized how many tiny things could be done to enhance a robotic form.

I went from someone that could put a robot together, to someone who could design something that was more than just a robot.

It honestly made me think of Battle Bots. That show on TV that was so popular in my last life. Before I would have been one of the gen 1 bots. The ones that half the time caused their own downfall or something.

Now I was fully aware I could make a bot that would have crushed the entire competition. It was that much of a difference. Understanding the nuances of physics on the robotic form.

How easy it would be for their body to exert the forces I would need.

I looked at my own chrome arm for a moment and realized how… inadequate it was. How badly they had restrained the power the arm could exert, to make it easier to quickly replace in a desperate situation.

I shook it off, although it did create that burning desire to make myself better again. The desire for more chrome. To grow stronger.

I shook it off. Tachikoma first.

I went back to the CAD design I had made so far, and started reworking large sections of it. I didn’t need for each limb to have their own motor, I could use a muscle structure instead to make a single much more powerful motor supply the power.

Instead of each limb being fully robotic, I would just add synthetic muscles instead! It took up less room, which meant I could make the battery bigger! Fixing one of the supply issues!

Mwahahaha!

—---

As much as I wanted to really focus down and get the Tachikoma done, I still had other things distractions in my life, but that was okay. It was a good thing. Staying cooped up all day wasn’t good for you!

That is why I was waiting on the corner around Arasaka tower for Hiromi to meet me for lunch.

She had called and wanted to vent about her classes.

So I was hanging out besides a 25/7 with food already waiting in the passenger seat for Hiromi to get out of class.

I was only pecking at my own meal while I waited so we could eat together.

Which is of course when I jerked up at the sight of someone I had only seen from afar.

“David Martinez.”

The boy was walking over to the grassy section across the street and looked like he was both eating his lunch, and to my amusement set up a backpack next to him and started selling XBD’s.

The first boy that walked up to him to buy was handed a compact tablet and after a few moments the boy poked away and then handed it back. David nodded, seemed to confirm payment, and handed out one of the condom wrappers to the kid.

I grabbed the food, and stepped out of the Quadra, heading across the street when I got a chance.

I really really wanted to see this for myself.

“Selling BD’s?” I asked as I sauntered over, catching David's attention. The poor kid was half a second into biting into an XXL burrito and he gave it a look of yearning before turning to me.

“That’s right. Best BD’s in the city. None of that Scav scop. Mox work, and some really preem work that you can’t get anywhere else.” He offered as he once more reached into the bag and pulled out the tablet and handed it to me.

I was practically snickering at the situation, and there was no way I could end it here. I set the food down on the bench beside him and grabbed the tablet.

“First tab is all normal BD’s good stuff still. Inner Universe is one of our top sellers, It’ll make you think you can fly.” He said and I nearly ruptured something as I kept myself from laughing at such a corpo sounding sales pitch.

David was a riot!

“I’ve seen it. The Parkour is a little kludged at times, but the music is amazing.”

“What? No way! Inner Universe was perfect! The parkour, the death defying jumps!” He nearly jumped off the bench as he spoke. “The Ghost is preem stuff. Nothing else compares really.” He offered and I felt myself smile happily.

See! They got my name right!

“Well it’s preem that you like them. How’s working with Hiromi? She isn’t too bad is she?” I asked, changing the subject as I handed the tablet back.

“You know Hiromi?” He shot back surprised, and maybe a little suspicious.

“Yeah, she’s one of my best chooms. I’m actually here waiting for her. Saw you selling BD’s and wanted to come see.”

“Ah well, she’s great. Sure.” He said in a way that left me with the opposite feeling.

“Ah, she’s a bit too much?”

He just gave me a look and didn’t say anything.

“That’s fair. I hope she wasn’t too mean to you. She can get a little hyper focused. I’ll talk to her, make sure she is nicer to you and Nox.”

“You know Nox too?”

“Yeah? We are… Sorta chooms? I’m Motoko.”

David’s eyes instantly widened and I realized if he knew Nox, it was likely that he knew who I was.

“You’re the Ghost!” He said breathlessly.

“That’s my Netrunner name, and I guess Hiromi used it for the marketing of the BD’s too.”

“Holy shit! You’re nova! I’ve watched The Only Thing They Fear like a million times.” He blurted out, and I just winced.

“Ah, probably shouldn’t watch that one too much. I was totally agro in it. I just wanted to test out the song and stuff.”

“No way! It was the best. Especially the end, with the Cut-o-Matic!”

“Heh. Chainswords do hold a special place in my heart.”

“Yeah! You were like. Raaagh! And the Scavs were like Eeeee!”

I burst into laughter at the noises David was making. They had kinda sounded like that when I had the Chainsword.

Of course my laughter was interrupted a moment later by a Hiromi missile as I was slammed into.

“Motoko!” Hiromi called out suddenly as she instantly wrapped her arm around mine. “Did you wait for ‘me’ long?” She asked, emphasizing her sentence weirdly as she looked at David.

“Not super long, and I got distracted by David here. He did a good job trying to sell me the BD’s.”

“Which he doesn’t need to do, because Motoko gets any of the BD’s she wants for free. Obviously.” Hiromi said, continuing to look at David who was looking more and more nervous.

Don’t worry David! I’ll talk you up to Hiromi! Make you look good to your boss!

“It’s okay Hiromi, he didn’t know at first, but he did a great job. I was actually tempted to buy some of the BD’s even if they aren’t my thing! He’s a good salesman.” I offered throwing a wink to David over Hiromi’s head although for some reason he just kept looking even more nervous.

Ah, Hiromi, you are holding on pretty tight there. I reached over and patted her head, distracting her, enough to get free and then settling onto the bench.

“Don’t forget your lunch Hiromi.” I said lifting the bag and shaking it. “Why don’t we hang out with David while we eat? I interrupted his lunch as well.” I said as I settled onto the bench next to him and then pulled open the bag of food on my other side, so Hiromi could get access to it as well, although she didn’t seem to want to sit down for a moment before eventually settling in.

“We should go eat somewhere else, let David get back to work.” She almost hissed out the last bit, but I just laughed at her.

“It’s lunch time Hiromi, let him eat. Besides I want to hear about how he’s found working under you. I mean, since he is working for you, he is basically part of Section 9. Obliquely.”

“No. No he isn’t.” Hiromi said, but she was finally starting to eat.

Poor Hiromi must be Hangry.

“So David. Have you been making good eddies? Any problems? Anyone bothering you or anything?” I asked, and the boy once more stopped burrito halfway to his mouth.

Which… On one hand, I’m sorry for interrupting his meal, but it was an XXL.

Realizing this I reached over and grabbed one of the cartons of noodles I had planned on eating myself and handed it over.

“Here, have this instead.” I offered smiling, and he looked surprised for a moment before flashing me a boyish smile and taking the food.

“Hey, thanks.”

“No problem.” I offered, and he quickly started eating, which gave me time to look to Hiromi.

“So classes have been rough today?”

“Ugh! It’s those brats in class! No one believes that I’ve managed a major Op for my father! They just scoffed at me!”

“Well you did, and it’s probably on your record right? So no need to worry about what they think. They are your peers, not your bosses right?”

Hiromi just grumbled a bit but nodded accepting my words as she stuffed some Lo Mein in her mouth.

“Wait, you did an Op?” David asked, and Hiromi actually smirked looking oh so superior for a moment as she sat up straight.

“That’s right! My father hired our group Section 9, and we not only recovered the data that he wanted, but we brought home so much loot.”

“I’m still super excited to play with the Minotaur.” I whispered with a sigh. It was so fun! You just put on the head set, click in the control shard, and suddenly you were a massive walker ready to stomp on anyone in your way!

It was like all my dreams come true!

Of course it wasn’t my real body, so it was only a fun diversion. Someday I’d end up in a Dai-Oni, or something and then I would be the stompy bot!

“Really Motoko, what are we even going to do with that thing? It’s almost too heavy to move even in Ichi’s truck.”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure it will come in handy someday!”

“Ugh. I’ll have to figure out something.” She mumbled something after that I didn’t catch as David interrupted.

“Whoa. That’s so preem. You guys are like total edgerunners!”

“Nah.” I instantly denied, scrunching my nose at the thought. “Edgerunners are idiots who just want to die. Trust me David, you might some day decide to do Merc work, but remember something super important okay? Going home to the ones you love after a gig, is the only way to plan things out. If your end goal ends with you dead, then you failed step one.”

He didn’t look like he quite understood, but I shrugged. I would do my best to guide the gonk away from leaping off the edge, but some people were just dedicated to killing themselves.

“Did you make a BD of this gig? The one that you did for Arasaka.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I thought about it, but some gigs you are dealing with things that are too dangerous. The less people that know about that gig the better. So no BD.”

“Aw. I wanted to see it from your perspective.” Hiromi muttered and I just laughed at her.

“I didn’t say I didn’t scroll the BD. Just that I don’t plan on handing it to Judy. But maybe we can get it properly adjusted some time.”

Hiromi flashed me a smile and I went back to eating. In the end, I hung out with Hiromi and David until they had to go back to class, but I think my task to raise Hiromi’s estimation of David had worked, at least she had gotten real close to him on the way back to Arasaka tower. So they must have talked about something.

—--

I had a complete blueprint of the first draft of the Tachikoma.

It definitely wasn’t perfect, but after realizing the supply and price of some parts would be… Difficult. I downgraded a lot.

This was a testbed.

But the CAD design was done.

Tachikoma Mk.0.1.

My system liked it when I completed a design, and I had gotten a nice Engineering, and Technical Ability alert as I finished.

Now it was time to put one together.

The 3d printer went to work. Piece by piece, but that takes time so I didn’t want to just sit in front of the desk staring at it. Instead I switched to another grind.

“What are you doing?”

“Practice!” I chirped to Jun. He was sitting on the couch watching some TV show he liked, while I was practicing my Athletics.

Mostly I was just tumbling, Back Handsprings across the living room until I stopped at a wall, and then turning and doing it again.

Grinding!

“Alright… Just don’t break anything.” He rumbled but went back to his show after a bit.

“I won’t!” I said, as I completed a circuit. It was kinda intense flipping around so much, but since it was a newish exercise. I had done something like this before after all, but I hadn’t really grinded it like this much, but the alerts were coming in.

Mostly Athletics, although I did get a body alert on my tenth circuit, so that was nice!

I finally took a break, flopping down onto the ground to catch my breath as I felt my chest heave.

“Finally done?”

“For now!” I offered waving my wrist at Jun weakly.

“What are you practicing anyways?”

“Acrobatics! It’s useful!”

“I suppose with those ankles of yours it would be.”

“It’s just useful in general! Never know when you might need to leap into cover or something. Plus it’s good exercise in general!” I said, looking over to Jun and boring my eyes into him as I finished.

He of course swiftly turned away and continued snacking as he watched TV.

“You really need to exercise more Jun.”

“I’m already strong.”
“Only some of you! Chrome doesn’t count! You will get all flabby if you keep relying on it.”

“I’ll just chrome out the flab. We got plenty of eddies, between Fujimura-Sama giving me more for gigs, the cheaper apartment, you no longer needing an allowance.”

I grumbled at the last one. I had only needed a little money from Jun! Then I made my own! He was probably talking about old Motoko for the most part.

“You really shouldn’t joke about that Jun. You need a lot more time before you can chrome up any more.” I said quietly, more seriously.

This time he just grumbled at me. I snorted at him, finally standing up and walking over to sit on the couch beside him. Without hesitation I reached into the bag of snacks he was munching.

“So what are we watching any-ACK!” I choked as I threw the food into my mouth, instantly the taste registered and I spit it right back out.

“Motoko!” Jun yelped but I was too busy rushing to the bathroom.

Jun was snacking on Shwabshwab! It was ants! I had put ants in my mouth!

Hacking and spitting to remove as much as possible.

“W-why!? Why do they taste like ketchup!” I moaned as I rushed back out to get something to drink to wash the taste out with.

“I like the Ketchup flavored ones! Motoko! You are cleaning this up!” Jun yelled, pointing at the spray of spit and red colored ketchup flavored ants sprayed across the living room table.

“I’m dying!” I moaned desperately, popping one of Jun’s Ni-Cola just to wash the taste out, which didn’t really help as I was just replacing it with the horrid taste of cough medicine.

“Die after you clean it up!” He demanded grumbling at me.

Hiromi Mitsunashi

“So treat Motoko as if she was me.” Hiromi added with a glare. To find her Motoko sitting on a bench besides Martinez of all people! Martinez who even Hiromi could admit was good looking and had a tendency to attract attention even from the other corpo girls! Not that any of them allowed themselves time with a boy with no future.

Martinez was smart. Too smart. Martinez was also poor. Too poor.

“Yeah, I got it. She’s the Ghost! I can’t believe I actually met the Ghost, and she’s a teenager too?” Martinez still looked a little bewildered, and awed at the sudden meeting, something Hiromi could only accept.

Motoko had that effect on her-People. Motoko had that effect on people. Especially when she was being all cuddly and leaned in close with a smile, and she was sure that Motoko was going to press her lip-”Buee!” she nearly squealed, shaking her head and pressing her cool fingers against her cheeks to try and cool off.

Motoko was too strong!

“Hiromi?”

“It’s still Boss, Martinez.” She didn’t quite snap, but reminded him. It was important to make sure underlings understood their positions in any company.

“Sure. Boss.” He responded full of sarcasm.

Martinez was… a difficult underling. Some days he was completely out of sync, almost depressed, some days he was snarky, and those were the days that got him in trouble with the rest of the class.

Hiromi didn’t care though, because Martinez was a good salesman once she had gotten him to stop trying to sell BD’s out of dark corners, and constantly looking around like the NCPD were coming to collect his stock.

Fucking gonk. This was Arasaka Academy. There were no teachers or staff here that would disrupt a small business! We were the future of Arasaka NC! Of course we had to understand how businesses functioned, including success and failure.

Everyone had thought he was doing something creepy while selling his BD’s so despite having pretty good stock through his old source he had barely managed any sales.

Cause Martinez was the dumbest smart person Hiromi had ever met.

He had zero street smarts. Which was really shocking for a kid that was so poor.

Hiromi had only had to see Mrs. Martinez once, to understand though.

David was fucking spoiled.

If Hiromi’s mother acted even half as affectionate as Gloria Martinez, Hiromi was sure she would have died in embarrassment.

“Remember the eddies Martinez. Now. I have work to do. Excuse me.” She added and the mention of money jerked the boy's spine right up. Sure Martinez was a moody kid, but well…

Eddies got him nice and compliant.

It was chump change honestly. Even without Section 9’s cash flow the money for the BD’s and XBD’s was literally pocket change, but for Martinez?

It meant he had pocket change for a change, and Hiromi was very free with employee percentages.

Right now her goal wasn’t to pull every eddy to profit, but to expand.

Martinez was a part of it. Covering Arasaka Academy from the inside.

Nox was another, as both supplier of the Mox collection, as well as a pseudo partner, although she had long ago taken over the leadership position.

He still griped about it, but only until the weekly profits came in. That always shut him up.

Straight Lane Shooters acting as a third connection to her burgeoning XBD empire. The gang was still working on their income streams, but Hiromi had cut them in. Letting them sell her stock for a majority of the profit in exchange for another benefit.

Hustle. Hired Muscle.

Nox often had two of the bigger SLS boys guarding his ass, and it had worked extremely well.

The SLS were expanding in their area, not through hostile acts, but through being a supplier of easy entertainment.

Hiromi had even set up a local net site, where customers could order over the Citinet, and a SLS boy would drop off their desired BD’s right to their door!

Considering how many BD Junkies there were in NC? Oh yeah. Every new customer was a nice bundle of eddies on the weekly.

And all of the revenue streams zipped up the tree right into her hands.

“Heh… Hehehehehehe!” She burst in laughter at how well everything was going. Hiromi had used to think corpo shit like this had been boring, but that was before she had created a company underneath her!

Well her and Motoko, and even Malcolm and Ichi. In her mind the two boys were sub leaders more than anything.

Motoko of course was co-leader. Hiromi might be proud of her work building income streams, but Motoko is the one that made it all happen. That and the real income was from Section 9 duty, and Motoko was undoubtedly in charge there.

Ah! The sight of Motoko being all serious, and deadly serious, and utterly utterly lethal…

Hiromi cooled her cheeks once again. Hiromi had once been interested in Jun a little. Enough at least to use him to tease Motoko. Enjoying how the girl had always become outraged that Hiromi flirted with her older brother. Well before the coma anyways. Afterwards she hadn’t cared at all that Hiromi tried to flirt with Jun.

But Hiromi hadn’t needed to feign interest in the dangerous gangster boy. Not when Motoko had turned herself into such a deadly woman.

Hiromi still checked every Motoko BD, and was still thrilled every time at the casual lethal grace Motoko now moved with.

You wouldn’t notice it at first, or at least she hadn’t, but feeling every muscle shift and move as Motoko scaled a wall, or battered scavs to death was an intimate experience.

“Mistunashi.” A voice interrupted her daydream and she scowled.

“Hmm? Oh, it’s you Tanaka.” She confirmed. The boy wasn’t someone Hiromi usually would have needed to interact with. Being a year ahead of her, same as Martinez, but she had to for her employee.

That was how Hiromi had first interacted with Katsuo Tanaka. She almost wished she hadn’t had to.

“You’ve done an acceptable job handling Martinez. He hasn’t caused nearly as many issues since you took him under your wing. My congratulations.” The boy offered snootily, that ugly smirk on his face only making Hiromi want to punch him.

“What do you want Tanaka?” She demanded, not at all interested in dealing with this. Idly she reached up and adjusted her tie. The Arasaka academy uniform wasn’t the most comfortable thing. She almost envied Martinez and his casual disdain for dress code.
“Simply to request a meeting. Tonight? Dinner, my treat of course. Dark Matter? My father has an open pass of course. I figured we can discuss… Business.”

Hiromi was flabbergasted, caught completely flat footed.

“What?” She asked and then instantly shook her head, stupid question. “What are you talking about Tanaka, we don’t have any business together.”

“Not so. Not so. Father mentioned how impressed he was with your handling of the downed AV cargo. The fact you are already leading a mercenary strike team? When he heard that it was one of my peers. Well Father wanted us to have a closer relationship.”

You mean, your father realized how much of a disappointment you are for not being on my level. Was what Hiromi really wanted to say. To watch Tanaka crumble into the petulant child he really was.

The funny thing was, despite all the problems he gave David, Katsuo was one of the least respected members of the Academy.

He just couldn’t do anything without his father holding his hand.

“Listen. Tanaka. I’m busy with work, and I don’t have any interest in cutting you in, or joining up with you. You just don’t bring any value in my eyes for a merger.” Hiromi said, eyes looking down on the taller boy with every ounce of apathy she could bring.

Tanaka took it as well as he did any critique.

“You wannabe street rat bitch! You think I actually want to be around you? You stink like Martinez. My father was wrong. You have no value, and I’ll make sure you remember that!”

“Sure Tanaka. We done? Yes. We are.” She decided to not even give him the power to argue the point. She walked away.

She was surrounded by kids playing at being corpos. The thought made her scoff as she was practically one of them.

No way could Hiromi have done this without Motoko handling the difficult bits. But having valued personnel was a skill all on its own, something she had learned that had changed her world.

She might never rise as high as Tanaka in the company, because he would be pulled up by his father, but that was fine. Because Tanaka would never be more than just a company boy.

Hiromi? Hiromi would have her own assets, her own company, and her own projects. She would stay with Arasaka, but she wouldn’t be just another drone like Tanaka.

—--

We were hanging out on the couch together watching some TV, but it wasn’t a relaxing experience.

Jun wass purposefully ruffling the bag of ants! They were ants! Ants are ants! Not food! He was doing it just to watch me jerk away from them.

I didn’t even want to look at the damned things! They had been in my mouth! I now knew the texture of ants!

“Heh.” Jun chuckled as he grabbed a handful and tossed them into his mouth. He was doing it on purpose!

“I hate you.”

“Heh!”

I considered punching him, but Jun still had a nuclear weapon in his lap. What if… What if he chucked them at me or something!? I could get them in my hair! I don’t think I could mentally handle that!

So I just casually moved away from him, yep super casual. Not squirming and flinching at all. Nope!

“I’m gonna go do something! In my room!” I decided that a tactical retreat was in order and Jun just kept smirking at me as I flipped over the back of the couch, sliding into a tumble to let me land on my feet at my door.

Yep. Just going to avoid that whole thing.

Inside my room the Tachikoma piece was nearly finished, but I didn’t want to sit there and just look at it, so I grabbed my guitar and hooked it into my amp.

To get back at Jun just a little I belted into the opening strings to Chippin in.

Singing it at the top of my lungs just utterly belting it out made me feel better and probably annoyed Jun so there you go.

Then on my third repeat of the song my 3d printer finally finished, and I hurried over, quickly pulling out the piece of casing and putting in the feeder material for the next section, loading it up and then starting it up again.

Then because I wanted to be a little shit, I walked back to where I was grabbed my guitar and started the song back exactly where I had left off.

That finally got me a reaction.

“MOTOKO! CUT IT OUT!” Jun yelled from the living room, loud enough I could actually hear it over the song. That finally earned him some relief as I stopped playing and toned down the volume before jumping back into it, at a much more reasonable level.

I was trolling Jun, not trying to be an asshole.

But then as I was starting up, there was a knock on the door. None of my chooms were supposed to be coming over. I put the guitar down and grabbed my Lexington from the holster and met Jun who just rolled his eyes as he saw me come out of my room armed as he walked to the door.

At least grab the door gun Jun! The Tactician was for this exact thing!

But he ignored it and opened the door.

“Uh, hey.” Jun offered looking surprised and I concealed my lexington in the back of my pants as I wandered over to see.

“Hey neighbor. I was uh… Oh.” She remarked upon seeing me.

It was Rockerboy Neighbor. She was standing at the door, hand idly twirling a bit of her techhair that was flashing slowly to her heartbeat…

FLIRTING! RED ALERT!

I glared as I hurried over grabbing Jun’s arm and narrowing my eyes a bit at her.

“Can we help you?” I asked, making my point clear. She just looked a little awkward for a second before seeming to cool down and then flashed a smile.

“Hey I just heard you playing and stuff. Samurai? That’s nova, oldschool, but nova, we should jam sometime-” She started speaking and the moment I realized what she was going for, I instantly started laughing. Practically busting a gut because she hadn’t been looking at me while saying that.

Worse? Jun looked like someone had fed him something sour.

The look of confusion on the girls was great, and I just laughed and laughed in delight at the natural 1 she just rolled.

“I don’t play guitar.” Jun offered after a moment saving the girl a bit of confusion. “Motoko is nova though. She can play anything.”

I could see the flush go up the girl's pale cheeks at Jun’s statement, and even worse her cool confidence was a bit broken.

She had definitely come here for a chance to flirt with Jun about music.

“Motoko, it's rude to laugh at people.” Jun pointed out to me, because I was absolutely busting a gut.

I brought myself under control, as much as I wanted to just point at Jun and tell him the look on his face was forever my favorite thing. But instead I calmed down to just softer chuckles. “Sorry. Sorry. Yeah Jun.” I said getting myself under control.

I looked at the girl who looked a little lost and felt a bit bad.

She had been rude on our first meeting, but I could be the better person.

Besides that look of disgust on Jun’s face was never going to be forgotten. Mostly because I took a picture.

“That was you?” She finally asked and I nodded.

“Yeah Jun hates Samurai, so I was messing with him by playing it. Wanna jam together?” I asked, surprising the girl with my sudden offer.

“Oh? That would be nice, Motoko's never played with anyone else before.” Jun said, dropping one of his stupid big hands over the top of my head.

It took only half a second for the girl to realize that Jun was a good big brother, and that would be her way in.

“Preem. Sure, I have some time to jam a bit. Let me get my guitar.” She said walking away quickly, and I was pretty sure she needed a moment to reset her plan.

She had definitely come for Jun. I had no doubt she was going to want to play in front of Jun.

I rolled my eyes, silly Rockerboys.

Heading back to my room I grabbed my amp and equipment and hauled it out to the living room.

No way was I letting some random Rockerboy gonk in my room.

A minute later there was another knock at the door, and Jun answered it as I was setting up my stuff.

Rockerboy neighbor was there with a flirty smile for Jun.

“Huh. That’s not the Orphean you had at your gig.” I mentioned cutting in a bit. She was carrying an old beat up Washburn guitar.

She looked to me, and shook her head. “Course not. That’s not a guitar you use while playing around.”

“Gotcha! Well come on in, feel free to plug into the amp. Jun come sit!”

“Yeah yeah.” He muttered laughing as he walked over and flopped onto the couch, although since it was a big circle he had to sit sideways to see. Rockerboy neighbor instantly hurried over and plugged in, and the moment she did I could see she was actually plugged into the guitar as well. Her hair instantly shifted, and as she strummed a few chords to check the sound her hair shifted with her.

That was kinda nova. Should I get Tech Hair like that? Lucy had something like that too and I always thought it was cool.

I shook it off as she strummed a few chords and from the sound I knew she was all set.

So I instantly started into the intro to her own song. The one Violent Hemorrhage had opened their gig with although I didn’t know the name of it.

The look on her face as she jerked up at the sound as I played it perfectly made me smirk. I had to repeat the refrain twice before she shook herself loose and finally joined in.

Then we just jammed. I played the songs Violent Hemorrhage had played the night of their gig. Playing along from memory, and every time I kept up, Rockerboy neighbor looked more and more surprised.

Jun looked sort of meh about the song choices, but I could tell that she didn’t really notice that. Only that his attention was on her, and she strutted under my brother's eyes.

We took a break after a few songs and Jun was a good boy bringing both of us drinks.

“Thanks Jun.” I said as I drank my soda, while Rockerboy neighbor flirted, leaning in a bit as she took the drink.

“Yeah. Thanks.” She offered, and I think even Jun wasn’t dense enough not to notice that level of flirtation.

“Uh. Sure, anytime.” He offered back, and that only made the girl smirk even more wicked.

“So what’s… Okay seriously how do you know every song my band plays? You a super fan or something?”

“No? I saw you play a gig once. The songs were alright, not really my thing.” I admitted with a shrug. “I tend to like older rock more. Or more electronic stuff. I guess.”

“That’s…” She trailed off, glancing at Jun. Probably wondering how to call me a liar or something. It was pretty crazy.

“Motoko is a genius.” Jun said with a smile reaching out and ruffling my hair.

The girl looked like she wanted to argue. Which… Yeah I could feel that. I mean, I had just perfectly played her own songs having only heard them once?

Well I had heard them a few times vaguely, I supposed. She did practice in her apartment, but that was rarely clear enough to do more than vaguely recall the song she was playing.

But that brought me up to another issue.

“So what’s your name anyways?” I asked, and the girl nearly spewed her drink out as she was taking a drink as I asked.

“What you don’t know?”
“You never introduced yourself, and I only know you from the one time I heard you play.”

“Yeah but…” She shook her head. “Alice. Fujimura Alice.”

My eyes narrowed but Jun made an ‘ah’ noise as if it just dawned on him. “Fujimura-Sama’s niece. I remember now. He mentioned you lived on this floor too.”

“Yeah. Oji-san let me stay here while I get my band together. Since it’s closer to all the clubs.” she offered with a shrug.

My narrow eyed look eventually relented and I shrugged. The fact she was related to that jerk face Fujimura didn’t matter much. She was more like me than anything. TC connections but not actually a member.

Couldn’t really get annoyed with it considering that was very similar to me and Jun.

“Alice then, nova. I’m Motoko, since I didn’t actually say that, but you already heard Jun call me that.”

“Yeah. The Kusanagi siblings. I remember Oji-san told me about you when you first moved in. Said the Oni was a good underling, but his sister was difficult.”

“That sounds about right.” I agreed without hesitation. Earning an actual amused look from the girl.

“So know anything besides your own songs?”

“I know a couple songs.” She offered and started up something I had never heard before.

Thankfully with Perfect Musical Memory I caught on and on the second play through I was matching her tempo.

To my surprise, she seemed actually pretty happy to jam out with me.

After a few songs Alice called for a break, and then casually flopped onto the couch next to Jun.

Flirting.

I rolled my eyes, but she had been surprisingly nice this time, so I decided to give her a bit of space.

I wasn’t exactly thrilled that Fujimura’s niece was into Jun, but I would just rely on my brother's denseness to romance.

Instead I headed into my room.

The Tachikoma part was completed, so I prepped the next piece, messing with the printer making sure it was good to go, and started it up.

Considering I was giving Alice some space with Jun I decided to be semi productive and look at my stat sheet.

Level 17

Body 8(16) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 8.
-Athletics 7
-Street Brawler 8
-Annihilation 5

Reflex 8
-Blades 7
-Handguns 7
-Assault 8
-Driving 7

Intelligence 11 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Breach Protocol 9
-Quick Hacks 8
-Programming 11

Cool 9
-Ninjutsu 9
-Cold Blood 8
-Rockerboy 8

Technical Ability 6 (10) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Crafting 5
-Engineering 5

1 Stat point.
6 Skill point.


Perks.
Ambidextrous Blades 2
Quickdraw Handguns 2
Gun Nut Assault 2
Parkour Athletics 2
Grappling Street Brawler 2
Drive By Driving 2
Cat-like Athletics 5
Cool Nerves Cold Blood 2
Danger Sense Ninjutsu 2
Wall Breaking Breach Protocol 2
Cyber Security Quick Hack 2
Recoil Reduction. Annihilation 2
Cyber Ninja Ninjutsu 5
Fearless Chill. Cold Blood 5.
Improvised Weapons Street Brawler 5
Parry Blades 5
Robotics wizard Crafting 2
Drifting Driving 5
Rapid Reload Handguns 5
Design Wizard Engineering 2
Rifle Ace Assault 5
Ghost touch Breach 5
Perfect Musical Memory Rockerboy 2.
Debug Programming 2
Siren Song Rockerboy 5
Hacking Wizard Quick Hacks 5
Inspired Programmer Programming 5
A.I. Whisperer Programming 10
Slam Fire Annihilation 5
Enduring Builds Crafting 5

That was where I currently was. I looked through my stat block to try and figure out what I wanted to grind next.

Weapons popped to mind. I was a bit behind on gun skills still. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to the range again.

Actually I did have Annihilation. I could grab a shotgun, or a machine gun… Actually no, no machine guns. Shotguns were good though.

Also Engineering and Crafting still stood out… Okay. Grenade time.

I gathered some parts I had. I would stop at a shop and head to the Straight Lane Apartments, to make some grenades since Jun still refused to let me make them in the apartment.

I was low on grenades after that one kid stole them from my Quadra.

I walked out to see Jun looking pretty uncomfortable, as Alice flirted with him, her hair was throbbing pretty quickly to the beat of her heart.

Oooh. Jun was in trouble.

Be strong Jun-nii. It’s only a rockstar going for your innocence! I’m sure no rockstar has ever defiled an innocent maiden before…

“Heh.” I snickered as I walked through the apartment. “I’m heading out. Gonna go build some grenades. You want any?”

“What, you’re leaving? Are you sur- Wait!? What was that about grenades!?” Jun called trying to rise up but I was already out the door.

I guess that means he doesn’t want any.

Slipping into the garage from the elevator I walked over to my Quadra and slipped in. Uncaring about the TC toughs that still hung out down here. I guess it was safe? Being down here kept the kids from being targeted by other gangs I guess.

I roared out of the garage, enjoying the way the Quadra got a little air at the exit every time, I whooped as I slid into the street and then slowed down to the speed limit and drove to the gun store.

Buying a metric ton of supplies I carried the heavy box out of the shop and into the passenger seat of the Quadra before heading to the Straight Lane Apartments.

Time to get to work.

—--

Tinkering with grenades was a surprisingly soothing experience. Future tech meant they were actually pretty safe, like handling C4. You pretty much knew exactly what it would take to cause an explosion and as long as you didn’t do that one thing you were good.

I made a dozen of them using old parts before I ran into the problem of lack of supplies for the casings. Sure I had all the internals, and the triggers, but I had run out of the casings to hold everything.

I frowned. Normally I would head back to the apartment to run the 3D printer, but that was already in use…

Did I want to buy a new one? I was making a lot more stuff. I could probably get a way higher quality printer as well…

I considered it as I spun around in the chair and took in the sight of the netrunning basement.

I shrugged. It wasn’t like I could get any more work done here without either going out and buying casings wholesale, or making them myself. I packed up the grenades, noted that I had earned a Crafting and Tech alert from the dozen completed grenades, and grabbed the box of completed explosives to take with me.

My Quadra was running low on big boom after all.

Heading up, I was stopped as the elevator opened by a pair of girls that I recognized.

“Ah it’s you two.”

“And it’s you.” The smaller one hissed glaring, but the taller girl rested a hand on her shoulder to calm her. “We were waiting for you, hoping you might be willing to discuss something.” She asked, and I felt my eyes narrow.

Last time I had met these two, they had threatened Hiromi, and hadn’t been happy to have us around. It had been a while since then though. So I guess something had changed.

“I don’t really have a lot of time.” I lied, “But if you make it quick I’ll hear you out.”

“Perfect. We are having an issue with a rival gang causing some problems. While we can certainly defend our territory… We are a bit outgunned this time, and wanted to hire you.”

“Call Hiromi then, and run the gig through her. She’s my fixer.” I replied and made to move but the girl moved in.

“Wait! We… We told Hiromi we had everything under control! If she realizes we are struggling with our end of the deal we might lose the deal entirely. Please. It’s just one group. We don’t even need them flatlined or anything! They have higher end weapons is all. They made some deal with 6th St. So they have rifles and things. We just need them to lose the weapons. If they do, everything goes back to normal.”

I sighed. This was dumb. Like literally dumb.

“Okay listen. Hiromi is my best choom, so let’s be real, hiring me is still going to alert her. So let’s cut all the shit. You guys are street kids. You aren’t meant to handle something like 6th St. Hiromi knows that. Just call her, tell her what’s up. I’ll send her a text right now. To look into it, and that we’ll help out.”

The taller girl looked nervous before sighing. “Please.”

“Great. Call her! If she is being a bitch I’ll talk to her, but I doubt she’s gonna drop you guys like that.” Hiromi had mentioned from time to time that the SLS was acting as her low level muscle. No way Hiromi would drop them just because…

Wait, did these kids think Hiromi was some super fixer like Wakako or something… Heh.

I turned and walked away to hide my smirk and my desire to giggle. I was gonna tease Hiromi so bad about how everyone thought she was some elite fixer!

—--

“Best model you can find on the market! The Militech marketplace also offers a wide variety of printable options for the discerning customer!” The man said, patting a 3D printer with one hand.

This was now the third Militech branded printer he had shown me.

“That’s great, but I don’t need a Militech marketplace. I’m looking for something I can run on my own. Which this one won’t. As I have to upload my blueprints to be able to print them.” I argued for the third time. It was actually a good marketing ploy.

The printer was cheaper, and pretty good quality. So by tying it into a local net marketplace Militech got free product to sell, and a constant income.

And I’m pretty sure I could jailbreak it, but I didn’t want to deal with this! I just wanted it to work!

“The Militech marketplace is the greatest concentration of-”

“Choom. I’m not interested.”

The man shut his mouth and then breathed out.

“Yeah alright kid. You want something a bit more flexible, we got that too. C’mon.” His tone had completely changed from the corpo tag line he had been hawking at me.

He led me over to the side of the shop that was sort of tucked away, and there I finally found what I wanted.

“These don’t have any corp support for production, but you know that.”

“I do.” I said checking out the varieties he had. These printers would only work if I could input the model myself without any of the libraries that some of the other printers offered.

“This one.” I said pointing at a Vance T-Form. I had never heard of Vance before, but just checking out the printing details this is the one I wanted.

“Figured you’d grab that. The T are good, but be careful about buildup. They have a really shit cleaning system, so you’ll want to do it yourself. But if you do. They are solid.” He offered hefting up the box that was pretty large, definitely some do it yourself building involved, but I paid and hauled it out to the Quadra to take… Home.

I would flip the printers around. This one could keep working on the Tachikoma, I would need tighter tolerances there anyways, while the old printer could be sent over to the Netrunner lair for grenade parts.

—---

Jun wasn’t home when I got back, which made me wonder if Alice had actually gotten her claws into him. But I ignored it heading into my room, taking out the Tachikoma part that was done. And unplugging and moving the old printer, to make room for the much much larger new one.

I started cackling as I put it together. So much power! So much building! Tachikoma!

Once I had it all settled and ran a quick test part to see.

It came out smooth and within my actual tolerances. Usually the printer made things a bit wonky, but not this time. It was nearly exactly what I wanted.

Perfect.

Satisfied I started on another part, and the timer for completion was certainly better than before.

Well, I still had my old one.

I popped the second printer onto the floor and started printing out grenade casings. Slowly working through the process as the new printer buzzed quietly working much much faster than this old one.

An hour later I swapped out the part being constructed for another build and took all the Tachikoma parts so far and started fitting them together.

I had enough of the outer casing done now that I could start putting together the brain and start fitting it together. I had the parts already, especially since it wasn’t like I was building an AI here.

A SCSM would have about the same level of intelligence as my Tachikoma, at least to start.

Then again Brendan was a S.C.S.M. Yet he was smart enough to make people think he was alive.

It would all come down to the iterative design, and my skill as a programmer.

The brain came together, just some hardware capable of running an OS. It was honestly basic, but it didn’t need to be complex. I just needed the start.

With the brain put together, even with the body still only half completed. I grabbed my laptop and started programming.

—--

I dumped the box of grenade casings onto the table down in the netrunner cave. I had a few hours before the piece of Tachikoma was done. So I had some time to grind more crafting points.

I had made a lot of casings, enough that I wouldn’t need more for a long time. But really it was just a grinding method. I probably wouldn’t even keep all the grenades live.

My hands grabbed the basic tools I need and I went to work. Explosive fitted into the casing, electronic trigger connected to the mechanical one, and then a final twist of a screwdriver sealing it all together.

I gave it a little scan with my Kiroshi, confirming it was live, and then put it to the side.

Then moved on to the next one.

And the next. All the while XP came in small bursts.

*100 Technical Ability XP Gained*

*100 Crafting XP Gained.*

—--

*100 Crafting XP Gained.*

*Crafting skill level up!*

Crafting six? Nice!

I had stilled as the alert came in, slowly putting down the grenade I had been working on. I had dozens of the things now. Each one lined up to the side ready to be used.

I stretched raising my arms high above my head and groaned as I felt my muscles in my back stretch.

That had been a good grinding session!

Now what was I going to do with all of these grenades?

The idea struck me and I laughed, instantly pulling up my agent to make a call.

*Ringing.* I hummed a bit as the call went through, already gathering up the grenades into a box for transport.

*Ringing.*

*Hello? Motoko?*

*Ichi! Glad you picked up. You doing anything right now?*

*Nothing I can’t put down, what’s up?*

*I have a ton of grenades and I figured having some stored in your truck would be a good idea. Just in case you need something with a bit more boom, than the HMG.*

*Grenades? Motoko I don’t really… I don’t think I’m comfortable with that.*

*What? Why? They’re just grenades Ichi.*

*I’ve never handled grenades before Motoko. I don’t exactly want to blow my hand off or something.*

I looked at my box of grenades, ones I had just been planning on storing and using sparingly…

Then I started grabbing all of them and throwing them into the box.

*Ichi meet me at the Straight Lane Apartments. I’m calling Hiromi and Malcolm as well! We are running a grenade course.*

*Fuck… Uh can I opt out?*

*Nope! This is an important skill! Plus it gives me an excuse to actually have so many grenades! So Jun can’t yell at me anymore.*

*Where did you even get all these grenades from? Did you do a gig without telling us?*

*What? No. I just made them.*

*You… Made them? Motoko-*

*Yep! It’s easy. Like super easy. Don’t worry they are safe! Hell they are safer than the ones you can buy bulk from gun stores and stuff. Don’t worry! I made the whole thing myself!*

*Oh god.* He whispered quietly, but this was happening Ichi. Your boss at Section 9 demanded it!

*Okay! Hurry up. I’m calling everyone in.*

—--

“I don’t like this idea.” Hiromi muttered but I ignored her whining as well. Only Malcolm had been all for the idea of practicing with grenades.

But I had gotten them all here now so it was too late!

“Welcome to the Section 9 grenade testing range!” I called out waving behind me at the bare desert.”

“This is just the Badlands.”

“Section 9 grenade testing range!” I repeated, ignoring Ichi’s remarks.

“Yeah!” Malcolm called out, the only one of my chooms that was actually here to have fun.

I kicked the box I was standing over knocking off the lid, and all of my chooms even Malcolm jerked back.

Scaredy cats! Just because it was a crate of grenades!

“Alright! So everyone come up and grab a grenade, just don’t twist the top and we won’t have any issues. If you do accidently twist it just throw it far away, but let’s not do that! First off. Get a feel for the heft of the grenades! They aren’t that heavy!”

Malcolm instantly walked up to grab a grenade, while Hiromi and Malcolm both stayed far back.

“C’mon! Both of you! They aren’t going to hurt you unless you don’t know what you’re doing and that’s why we are here!”

“As a fixer, I don’t think grenade usage falls under my job description.” Hiromi tried to argue.

“I just drive. I don’t do combat much. So I don’t think I need to know this.” Ichi added a moment later.

“Don’t be silly! Hiromi! Combat skills are very important even to a fixer. What are you going to do against some corporate hatchetman squad coming to kill you if you don’t know how to toss high explosives at the bad guys until they are just chunky burrito mix?” I said while pointing at Hiromi, then I switched to Ichi making him flinch.

“And you! Throwing grenades out of your car's window at gonks chasing you is a very useful skill! You both are learning this.” I demanded stomping my foot causing the crate to shift and Ichi and Hiromi both flinched back.

“Wow this is pretty nova Motoko. You made this?” Malcolm asked, looking over the grenade he had picked up.

“Yep! The cap on the top is a timer. The more you twist it the shorter the fuse, while the large pin is the safety. As long as you are holding that no explosion. The timer can’t go under one and a half second. So you should be able to throw it far enough to be safe as well. At the max it has a ten second timer!”

“Why so long?”

“Traps! Pop two or three set the timer and run. Ten seconds is a long time, more than enough for most gonks to think wherever you were is safe to run to now.”

Malcolm nodded, taking in my wisdom.

Hiromi and Ichi were still too far away.

“Get over here and grab a grenade or I’m throwing them at you!” I called out, and that finally got my chooms moving. Hiromi first, with Ichi following behind as both of them walked up to the crate and gently pulled a grenade out.

“Okay so like I said, get a feel for it. First thing we are doing is some test throws! Without popping the timer we are going to see how far you can throw it!”

“Preem.” Malcolm said walking over to where I was on a little hill, and then chucked it over to the other side. Malcolm had a good arm!

“Nice distance! You’ll be able to really freak people out with surprise grenades!” I said while throwing him a thumbs up.

Malcolm smiled happily at my words.

“Hiromi and Ichi’s turn!”

They both tossed the grenade and I winced as Hiromi’s didn’t quite go right, instead throwing almost too far up, as it landed on the hill and then rolled back towards her.

“A-ah!?”

“It’s okay.” I called out walking over and grabbed the rolling grenade, I checked just to be safe, but the primer wasn’t started. “We’ll work on your throw first.” I mentioned without saying that Hiromi would have blown herself up with that throw.

The explosion of the grenade going off sent dust and debris flying everywhere, but we were all safe.

“Woo! Yeah! Nova!” Malcolm called out as he bounced on his feet. He had already thrown a half dozen grenades, but still cheered every time.

The others had even started to get into it too. Hiromi actually had a really good throw once she got a little practice. Turned out her chrome hands had been to blame as it messed with her throw. Something she hadn’t even known until now.

Ichi had finally gotten comfortable, and the two boys were seeing who could throw the farthest.

It was nice that everything was coming together!
“Motoko! We got company!” Ichi called out, and I looked over and frowned. We were pretty far out in the middle of nowhere. Specifically because hey we were throwing grenades around. We had even driven off the main highway into the desert to do our training. And now a few cars spewing dust up behind them were driving towards us.

“Ichi! Get in your van and hide out. Malcolm! You have your weapons?”

“Yeah.”

“Load up. Hiromi get in the Quadra.” I ordered as I hurried to the Quadra’s trunk.

I wasn’t exactly armored up at the moment, but I grabbed my Copperhead and a spare magazine in one hand, and my own Shingen in the other, which I quickly passed over to Hiromi.

She nodded, holstering her own pistol and grabbing the Smart SMG as she hunkered down in the armored vehicle. I noticed with a bit of amusement she was still gripping a grenade in her off hand.

Then I turned to the approaching cars, which as they approached I noticed were in fact Wraith markings covering them.

Well this just got more interesting, and a lot more dangerous.

I walked a bit away from the Quadra and let myself go casual. Hiromi was hidden in the Quadra. Ichi had his HMG’s ready to go, and Malcolm? Malcolm was being smart.

He was hiding! I was actually really impressed for a moment, as he had hunkered down under the truck. Using brush to break up his outline. Shingen poking out and just waiting.

The two Wraith vehicles pulled up in a sliding skid, sending dirt and gravel flying, and then a moment later out stepped four gonks. Two from each vehicle.

I quickly scanned all four as the dust cleared. Each of them was armed, and swaggered out, only hesitating a tiny amount when they saw my Copperhead. One of them nudged the other and pointed me out, pointing out that I was armed.

“Drop the gun kid.” The apparent leader called out waving around an Ajax. Something I noticed he had experience handling.

Like most of the Wraiths, these guys were a small step above the normal Night City gangs. Better weapons, usually some military training.

So I dropped the Copperhead.

I didn’t need it, and it would make them let down their guard a bit. “Satisfied? Now what do you want?”

“Yeah, I am. You’re out here using up our turf, fucking around on Wraith territory. I know you Night City kids don’t think much of us Nomads, but out here? Well this isn’t Night City. This is our home, and now you owe us a nice Juicy tax.” The man said, but to my surprise he wasn’t talking about eddies. “Preem ride. Where’d you get her?”

My eyes narrowed and my hackles rose up. Because he was looking squarely at my Quadra.

“It’s a bit of a long story, and if I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.” I answered back, sounding like I was joking.

I wasn’t joking.

“Hah! Nice one kid, but those are nomad wheels, and you don’t look like any nomad I know of. You Clan?”

“No. Night City brat through and through.” I admited with a laugh.

“Even more interesting, but I think that’ll do, just hand over the wheels, and you lot can go home, and tell everyone about the big scary Wraiths. It’ll be a fun story to tell your chooms.”

He demanded, his focus on me shifting as he looked away. His three other buddies were split, looking at me, or at Ichi in the cab of the truck who had been faux hiding.

Making enough noise and moving around that they knew he was there. I wonder if Malcolm had asked him to do that.

Since everyone was in position and these gonks thought they had won. It was time to act.

The leader had his back turned, and none of them had visible speedware.

So I quick drew the Burya and punched a hole through the leader.

*750 XP Gained.*

I must have hit something serious, because I got the XP alert instantly.

“Fuc-” I was already moving, leaping up and over the Quadra, drawing the idiots attention to me, and away from the truck.

The truck that even as I started taking some fire, suddenly opened up. The idiots didn’t even hear it, too focused on me, and then the noise of their rifles was drowned out.

The roar of the HMG’s firing in unison echoed out, despite the fact they weren’t super accurate, rate of fire had a charm of it’s own. The three gonks despite moving a bit into cover to surround the Quadra were soon mulched without me even needing to do more than take cover. Malcolm was firing as well, so even as they tried to slip into new cover the Smart rounds pelted down onto them.

Then everything went quiet.

“Kill check!” I called out as I stepped out from around the Quadra to quickly look over the four bodies. I popped bullets into the three extras just to be sure, but they were dead.

“Everyone alright?” I called out, and Malcolm and Ichi both confirmed they were okay. Malcolm took a moment longer to slide out from under the truck.

But as I walked over to the Quadra, Hiromi still hadn’t spoken up. I hurried to the car and popped it open only to relax, Hiromi was shaking a bit, and looking…

She wiped at her eyes, but she was okay.

I leaned in and pulled her into a hug.

“It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re okay. Everything’s fine.”

“It’s stupid. They weren’t even shooting at me.” She whispered back and I just hugged her tighter. For a while until she eventually calmed down and nodded quietly, pushing me away and stepping out.

“You okay?” Ichi asked Hiromi gently and she nodded.

“I’ll be fine. Ugh. Look at this mess.” She said instead, staring at the corpses.

“Well… I mean…” I trailed off looking at the Wraith vehicles. Considering how many of them we had already sold off these probably wouldn’t net us much…. “Who wants to throw grenades at the cars until they explode?”

“Oh! Me me me!” Malcolm called out jumping up and down like a little kid, and even Ichi snuffed out a laugh before raising his own hand.

“Oh fine.” Hiromi added herself. Stomping over to grab some grenades.

“Okay, first let’s check them for loot, then let’s turn this into good practice. Try to aim into the cabin!” I called out as my chooms all grabbed high explosives.

This was such a good day.

—--

I flopped onto the couch beside Jun when I got home that evening. We had used up all the grenades I had crafted, turning the Wraith vehicles into hunks of scrap.

Fuck the Wraiths.

“Welcome home. You’ve been out in the badlands?” Jun asked, I looked up and he was looking me over. Huh. Did he scan me?

“Gonk. You don’t have to scan me, you can just ask where I’ve been.”

“I didn’t! I just noticed all the dust on you.” He answered back trying to sound cool, but I was barely dusty anymore. So I just kept staring at him until he got awkward.

“Okay I did a small scan.”

“Goooonk. But yeah, Section 9 didn’t know how to use grenades so I made a whole bunch of them, and we went out into the desert and blew shit up. It was kinda nova.”

“You could have invited me.”

“Jun I love you, but inviting my brother along with my chooms is weird.” Then because I really didn’t care about being weird… Well mostly… Sometimes… I shook my head. “You can come next time.”

Jun smiled at my offer and reached over, dropping a hand into my hair.

“Next time then. What are your plans for the rest of the night?” He asked and in return I smiled and adjusted myself so I was laying sideways on the couch.

“Well first, I’m going to veg out on the couch with my gonk brother and watch his crappy TV shows. Then I’ll probably do some more work on my drone.”

“Heh. Well this gonk brother knows there is going to be a new show starting tonight!”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah it’s about a drug dealer in-”

“Blegh.” I answered instantly. “That sounds like total scop. I don’t want to watch that.” I grumbled, but Jun was by now well used to ignoring my complaints about any and all TV shows in the future.

He just continued to ramble on about what he had heard about this new show.

I ended up watching the first episode.

I wanted to kill the director.

—---

The Tachikoma Chassis was done.

I had finished every piece, and put it all together, even uploaded the very basic program into its little brain the moment it was finished I got a burst of alerts. Programming. Engineering. Technical Ability. The system liked when I finished a big project.

Then I set the tiny drone onto its four limbs and flipped it on.

It ran through its check process. It’s eye rolling around as it checked the rotation. Limbs one at a time stretching and moving gathering range of motion data.

Then it was off. Taking a wavering slow step forward, then another leg moved, and another and soon despite how unsteady it was, the program I had created was learning, and it walked, and walked. And…

Touched the wall. Then it just kept trying to walk forward…

I waited a minute, hopeful the program would figure out something was in the way.

But no.

“Oookay. That needs to be fixed.” I reached down and picked it up, and despite being lifted it still just tried to walk forward.

I grabbed my personal link and plugged it in….

Yep it had gotten stuck on the basic walking program I had made. It hadn’t actually switched over to the learning process….

Oh. It wasn’t a programming fault.

It was hardware.

“Fucker sold me an off brand CPU.” I grumbled. It literally wasn’t strong enough to run both sides of the program, which meant I needed to buy a new one, and or get creative.

I sighed as I grabbed a personal link cord and my laptop.

“Time to offload some of that thinking little Tachikoma.”

—--

While I watched the Tachikoma slowly walk in circles hampered by a length of cord, I at least was happy enough.

It was definitely learning now.

The laptop was basically running the learning part of the program, and the chassis was running the actual movement.

It was a bit of a gonk setup, but at least it was improving. Slowly becoming more and more capable of taking the steps with surety.

The learning program was just something I had nabbed out of a SCSM. Basically the same thing that would have likely evolved into the program Brendan used to learn about people. Well with a few years of advancement.

It wasn’t anywhere near an actual AI of course. We were talking low level iterative learning. Half the time I had to plug into the laptop and make the adjustment manually before the Tachikoma would actually learn it.

But that’s okay. It wasn’t about what it could do now. It was just the first step. Tachikoma V0.000001.

“Okay while you keep figuring out walking. I’m going to go make more grenades.” I reached down and patted the Tachikoma on its head. “Ganbatte Tachikoma-Chan!”

Satisfied I had cheered on my little bot I headed out. I would need to stop at the store for more parts though.

Thankfully the new printer was hammering out the grenade casings I would need.

—---

The sun came up long before I took another break. The Netrunner lair was now stocked up on a good amount of grenades. I pushed the second box full of them under the table and out of the way.

But I was all smiles despite the long session.

*100 Technical Ability XP Gained*

*Technical Ability Leveled up!*

That was Tech 7. And since it had upgraded. I was finding myself excited to do even more builds.

Mostly because despite getting one Crafting alert after leveling, the grenade grind was nearing its limits.

I needed to make something new.

Well my first idea was to go sideways more than anything. Right now all I was doing was making frag grenades, but grenades in Night City were crazy. Laser grenades. Poison grenades. All sorts of different stuff.

And EMP grenades could be super useful against borgs.

Unfortunately I didn’t actually have the blueprints for them, and I wasn’t going to try and make explosives, especially an EMP in my netrunner cave.

So that meant it was time to go on the net.

I stretched and wandered over to my net chair. I needed some data, so of course I was going to steal it!

Plugging in I shivered a bit, as the coolant started flowing through my leotard, but then I paused… I should be smart about this… Yeah… Smart! I could do that!

*Ringing,*

*Ringing.*

*Motoko?*

*Hey Malcolm, you doing anything right now?*

*Noo?*

*Preem. Hiromi is at school, so I had to call someone. Want to help me with some netrunning? I can’t promise it’ll be exciting, but I’m going to steal some weapon blueprints, so I-”

“Stop talking. You had me at stealing. Your netrunning lair?*

*Yeah. I’m already here.*

*Alright on my way!*

—--

“Okay so what do I do?” Malcolm asked as he arrived and I just pointed him at the laptop station that my chooms had used to monitor the videos while we hunted people down.

“Really simple. Mostly just take data that I sent to the server. Make sure it has what we need, and if I start flatlining. Save my butt.”

“Right. Sure, how do I do that?”

“Well, mostly unplug me and call for Vik.”

“Preem. That I can do.”

“Alright I’m diving. Thanks Malcolm, I know this might be kinda boring, but I appreciate having someone to watch my back.”

“Hey, that's what Section 9 is all about.” He said and I flashed him a massive smile.

They were calling themselves Section 9 now! Eeeee!

I quickly flopped back, shivered as the coolant once more started up, and then blinked.

I was no longer in the basement. No, I was in my private lobby. A classy Tron like meeting room.

“I love this place.”

*It’s kinda cool I guess.* Malcolm replied and I laughed, having not expected him to hear me.

“You going to watch over my shoulder?”

*I figure I might as well… That okay?*

“Sure, enjoy the sights of the net.”

*It doesn’t look all that. Whoa.*

I had opened the wall of my lobby revealing the actual net space. The digital city of moving lights, and data streams, and Malcolm was basically seeing what I was seeing. If not in great quality.

“I’ll probably not keep the camera going once things get started Malcolm. I’ll need the bandwidth.”

*Oh sure. Don’t let me hold you back.*

“Nah, choom. You are definitely pushing me forward. Alright let’s go.” I jumped, disappearing into a search engine as I went looking for what I needed.

Thankfully it wasn’t exactly like I was trying to steal military secrets. So I slipped into the search engine and found exactly what I wanted.

A weapon store that sold the grenades that I wanted.

It was a Gun O’ Rama. I came up to their website and entered. The digital interface schized out and I rolled my eyes at the terrible web maintenance, as I walked into basically a white room with a menu screen.

Whoever ran this place, definitely didn’t have a netrunner on tap.

I bypassed the shitty website and walked right behind it to the sealed door.

Ten seconds of breaching, and the door opened, and I was into their system.

The back end of the shop made me still instantly. It was an actual net space. I was wrong. This place did have a netrunner on retainer, they just didn’t actually jazz up the front end. There were defenses all over, Daemons awake and active.

The room reminded me of some level out of doom. Gray concrete stone, and a single door to continue on the other end of the room, worse?

Most of the Daemons were off the shelf defenses, but not all of them.

I looked across and grimaced at the two ‘turrets’ that were already unfolding from their defenses. Some kind of protected Daemon? They didn’t have my stealth Daemons attached to them. They had seen me.

I’d have to examine those to figure out how they had bypassed my own hack after this.

I instantly raised a Barrier as the system came to life. The two turrets alerting the horde to my presence.

A few random bits of code slammed into the barrier and slowed to a crawl, the attacks from the blinded Daemons weren’t entirely focused. Shooting in my general area thankfully, but that would go away once they got a lock.

I would have to act fast.

[Hell Fire] Was activated and I lashed it out, focusing on the most dangerous Daemons. A set of Guards that looked like men in trench coats. Their guns raised and lashing out with purple beams of coded death. The fire hit the first one, and instantly it started melting, its code turning into spaghetti.

*250 XP Gained.*

Of course my own assault had broken the stealth effect of my Daemons. The facehuggers basically stopped working as I attacked. Something else I should probably have learned before this. But my own lack of netrunning experience was biting me. All the daemons focused on me, and the wriggling blinding Daemons all turned into particles. Their ability to hamper my enemies gone.

*Dropping connection for a minute Malcolm!* I called as I cut his video monitor. I needed all the bandwidth I could get, instantly I got a small boost in speed, and used it.

I activated my ICE Shield to create a wall of scrap data that the Daemons were forced to chew through. Giving me some protection from the purple beams of death, small Imp Daemons throwing digital fireballs, and the two automated turrets. I’ve never seen turret Daemons like that before, but I realized just how dangerous they were when they started firing.

They shot the same weapons as the Guard Daemons, but in rapid fire. I did a quick scan, and realized the hack they were sending out was a really nasty sort Short Circuit. Trying to fry me right out of their system.

I threw up more ICE Shield And moved, hiding behind the wall of ice that was quickly disintegrating despite my new additions and fired another [Hell Fire] at the Guards.

*250 XP Gained.*

Then another, turning the main guards into puddles of dead code.

But this system seriously had a lot of defense Daemons. Whoever set this up was a fucking maniac about their private information.

Imp fireballs started getting closer and closer, but the turrets were the biggest threat.

I threw up another barrier and winced, hearing the warning from my system about my body heating up as I was burning through programs, but I didn’t have any other choice, unless I wanted to just run away.

Hell Fire was activated again, and this time I was able to aim towards one of the turrets, watching it melt down.

*250 XP Gained.*

With only one more turret, despite the Imps moving in, I had more breathing room, and was able to rebuild my defenses for a few moments. Throwing out more ICE walls, and Barriers to fortify up. Despite the turret still chewing through with its constant attacks. Wincing at the way even through cyberspace I could feel my body heating up.

Once I was more secure. I took a bit of time to try and cool off, before sending out another Hell Fire was activated again and again, as soon as I could without frying myself, as I burned first the turret, and then through the horde of Imps.

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

Finally the room was quiet, and I took a deep breath despite being a digital avatar at the moment. That was a lot.