Ghost in the City Cyberpunk Gamer SI
- Thread starter Seras
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- cyberpunk gamer self-insert
Chapter 64
Seras
Well-known member
First thing I did once I said goodbye to Vik, and stopped in to chat with Misty was call Wakako.
*Wakako! My favorite fixer! How are you?*
*What do you want?* She demanded instantly, my attempt to flatter obviously revealing my intentions.
*You have a guy looking to work with you. Jackie Welles?*
*I’m aware, what about him?*
*So he’s not half bad. Got the skill, and the desire to push to the top. Bit of a gonk though. You’ll do best by matching him up with someone, let him be the muscle and all that… But when you finally meet with him. Can I be there? Pleeease?* I begged, not even bothering to keep any sense of self respect.
Wakako let out a sigh and the line went quiet for a minute. *What nonsense are you trying to put together?*
*Okay so Jackie, nice guy, I like him. When he said he was trying to work with you. I had a thought. ‘Motoko you could help this guy finish this gig, and have a bit of muscle that you could trust on some gigs.’ But Jackie’s a bit of a gonk. Refused my help cause I’m a kid. So now when he meets you… I need to tease him a bit. Please Wakako! I just want to be there in person so he walks into the room and just sees me already there! The look on his face! You can’t tell me it won’t be funny!*
*Girl. I’m a professional. I don’t do things just because they will be funny.*
*I’ll give you a discount on my next gig. Two thousand off.* I said instantly.
The line went silent.
*I will inform you if he completes the gig.* She admits frankly without any sign that she had to walk back on her words.
Wakako! I love you.
*Cool. So-*
*I have a gig for you.* She said suddenly and my brain chirped as I got a text.
*Oh? It’s been a while. I expected you to be throwing gigs at me a lot sooner?*
*You’ve been busy enough without my assistance.* She says in a low tone. *But if you have so much more interest in work, I’ll have more gigs for you soon.*
Then she hung up on me.
Wakako! I hate you.
I sighed and checked the information. Humming a bit I sent back a confirmation I would get it done and turned around.
—--
This was gonna be interesting. I couldn’t help but think as I looked over the building. It was an office building. They had some data that a client of Wakako’s wanted. I was stealing from a small company.
Entity Retail LLC.
What did they do?
No idea. Their company net page was basically full of corpo slang talking about using intelligent solutions to solve problems ect ect.
The company could literally do anything if you actually believed its slogans. But that didn’t matter. I was here to steal some information, nothing more.
So I parked in a garage and walked in the front door of the business skyscraper.
The company only rented one of the offices on the eleventh floor so it wasn’t like I had to sneak all the way through.
The building lobby was basically empty, just a generic corporate business lobby that I walked right through to the elevator. It took me a few seconds to know that hacking the elevator was a no go. It would take too long, so I walked past it to the stairs.
The stairs were secured here at the bottom, but that took me far less time to break into than the elevator security, and then I was in the stairwell. Slowly I marched up the stairs actually enjoying the exercise a bit. Between this and training with Jackie I was getting a little physically tired.
I peeked through the door that was marked 11 to see what I was dealing with.
And it was a hallway.
Right this wasn’t some Arasaka Corpo office with HMGs around every corner. It was just an office building.
I slipped in to look around. The hallway led to a main foyer that had three different corporations that I could see, at least based on the doors.
It took me about thirty seconds after finding the corporation that I wanted to turn around and head back into the stairwell.
On the door was the office hours, and considering I had seen a bunch of people inside?
Now it was time to wait for closing time.
—--
It took a few hours, and if not for the ability to send texts and a really nice view off the roof of the building I would have been annoyed.
I had thought about heading home, but by the time I actually reached the apartment I would have had to go out again anyways.
So I spent a few hours enjoying the view from the top of the twelve story tower, while waiting for the office to close down…
Well that and hacking into the building security.
There was an access port on the roof, and I mean…
It was just sitting right there.
Sure the security was pretty good, and some of the different floors' security was even better, but I had a few hours to burn, and it was something to do.
So I breached in, and poked around. Taking over a few of the cameras in the system, deleting some files that had me on the camera, even if the image was blurry thanks to my Kiroshi. You know fun things.
I was watching through the cameras as the time finally came, the office started clearing out over the next thirty minutes, until finally a man exited and turned off the lights on his way out.
Go time.
I disconnected and headed down, the security of the building already broken before me, so nothing stopped me.
The office had its own secure system, and it was better than normal building security.
It was just unfortunate that building security still had access to the office per their lease. So since I had already broken one system, I had given myself security administrator access to the office.
I didn’t even have to hack the system. It simply beeped and let me in.
The office was dark, and a little spooky, but I fixed that by turning the lights on and started looking around. I needed to find the boss's office, and it took me a few minutes before I spotted it. The door was locked, and it actually had a private security pad.
Which was hilarious because I recognized the pad, it was one you could buy from basically any store for a few eddies.
The security was worse than the office itself. I suppose it was just meant to keep the workers in the office out.
Thirty seconds later I was in, and exploring the boss's office.
The man obviously thought highly of himself. Paintings on the walls. Golden doo dads on the desk. A fancy computer rig.
I woke it up, and it took me ten seconds to find the password written on a note nearby. It was almost sad that I didn’t even have to breach in. I accessed the system, and then jacked in.
Found the files the client wanted…
And stole a few extras for me. I would trade it in at the Dewdrop for something maybe.
Then I shut the computer down and whistled as I headed out.
I even shut the lights out on my way out the door. Used the elevator which I now had security access to use, to hit the bottom floor and walked out.
As I climbed into the Quadra, I sent a message to Wakako with the data.
Gig complete.
—--
“Finally!” I grumbled as I managed to get a new bit of code to compile. I was working on Weapon Glitch. Clearing out the jumbles of bad code, and trying to smooth out its process time. If my estimate was right. I could drastically increase the activation speed.
But more interesting was the fact I knew this Quickhack could be used on multiple people at a time.
The skill to do something like that was beyond me at the moment. I simply had no idea how to bounce a hack through multiple people, but it was possible, and it was something I wanted.
I still remember the scene in edgerunners when the entire group of Maelstrom had all their weapons and Cyberware malfunction suddenly from a single Netrunner.
That was edgerunner shit. Lucy, and Kiwi were at that level. The experience, Tech, and skill to pull it off.
I wasn’t, not yet anyways, but I just had to aim for that, and eventually the system would get me there.
I shook my thoughts away and stretched, the code compiled. I had managed to for at least a small section of the massive program to clean it up.
Now I just needed to do that like a thousand more times.
“Ugh. Stupid jerks putting out shitware. If I ever find out who fucked this code I’ll kill them.” I promised as I laid back on the couch.
I could use a nap.
No one was bugging me at the moment. Jun was at work. Wakako had her gig completed the same day. Regina was still quiet. Hiromi was dealing with homework. Ichi and Malcolm were both enjoying their wealth from the scav cleanup.
All was good.
I sighed.
“Another thousand snarls to go.” I reminded myself and rose up putting my hands back against the keyboard and starting on the next section of snarled goofy code.
*Intelligence Leveled up!*
I blinked at the sudden alert, I had barely been able to fix a single line of code before the alert popped up.
Intelligence 8!
The alert perked me right back up and I buried my head in the code once more.
—--
I woke up the next morning to sunlight streaming in through the armored blinds. I had fallen asleep on the couch again instead of going into my bedroom, but it didn’t really matter to me. I woke up feeling completely rested either way.
“Morning.” Jun said, almost startling me as he walked out of the bedroom. He hadn’t come home last night before I fell asleep, and I hadn’t even realized he had come home.
“I didn’t hear you come in.” I muttered glaring a bit and he actually smirked at me, before very obviously starting to pace in front of me in the living room.
It took a moment before I realized it. He made almost no sound as he stepped unlike the previous thuds he had made.
“Lynx Paws?”
“Yep.”
“Gonk!” I snarled, jumping at him suddenly, using the living room table to leap into the air to crash into him. A few moments of swinging myself around him turned into a grapple as I gripped his stupid face with both of my hands and smashed my forehead into his stupid gonk face.
“Fuck! Motherfuck!” He screamed out as he tried to rip me away.
“WHY DID YOU GET MORE CHROME YOU STUPID GONK FUCK!?” I screamed at him ready to smash his face again when he finally managed to grab my face to keep me from bashing him face to face again.
“I didn’t! Fuck! Motoko you little!” He snarled as he kept trying to rip me away but failing.
Thank you Grapple perk.
“Bullshit!”
“I didn’t! The Lynx Paws were already installed! Fuck Owe! That hurt!”
“EXPLANATIONS REQUIRED OR PAIN WILL CONTINUE!” I snarled in his face.
“They were already installed, but they were shit. An old set, Motoko, now get off my face.” He growled and I finally accepted rolling backwards landing on my hands before pushing myself into a flip to land in a crouch on the couch.
“You did say you were going to Viks.”
“I did you fuckin’ gonk.” He growled at me “But the Lynx paws parts were from that chromed borg.”
“Grrr!” I growled at Jun waving my fingers threateningly as I considered angles to attack. He was aware of me now. The lack of surprise would make it harder.
“Enough! The crazy borg we fought had a set of Lynx paws, way better than the shit I had. So I got my chrome upgraded.”
“You shouldn’t be installing new chrome you chrome brained gonk!”
“I didn’t! I just upgraded!”
“Same. Thing!”
“Well it’s done! Jeeze. My head hurts.” He grumbled. “Since I flatlined him, a lot of his chrome was gathered up, I… did the smart thing and didn’t chip in any of the rest. Relax Motoko. I’m not gonna go cyberpsycho.”
“Go see Vik to get everything checked out! You know he is better than that TC ripper you went to before.”
“Yeah yeah. Alright, alright. If it’ll keep you from attacking me!” He stomped off to the kitchen, his new chrome making the act amusing since it wasn’t really loud enough to get the point across.
Ugh. My brother was a chrome dome.
I sat back on the couch and just let out a sigh. Keeping that moron alive was going to be a full time job wasn’t it? I really needed to get him a girlfriend… Or a keeper.
It might be a bit too soon still for the girlfriend thing. We hadn’t talked about his reason for revenge on the Maelstrom in a while.
Hell we were both basically pretending the group didn’t exist for now.
“Hey.” Jun started speaking as he popped open a can of his energy drink soda garbage that I refused to try.
“What?” I said a little sulkily as he snorted at me in amusement.
“I’m glad you’re okay. I was worried… That Edgerunner was.”
“Yeah a fucking monster.” I said, nodding in commiseration. “I’m glad you’re okay too. I was worried even when we killed him.”
“Yeah, I… Are you sure you’re okay? You were coughing up blood.”
“Yep! Vik fixed me up.” I waved it off not wanting to get into the nuance of how injured I had been.
“Good. Very good, also the TC are very very happy. Okina-Sama, the man we saved? He was super important. The fact we took out his attempted killer, and saved him? Word is getting around. Fujimura-Sama even angled it into both of us getting a lot of rep.”
“Ugh.” Jun snorted at my noise of displeasure but continued on.
“It’s a good thing Motoko. Think of it as the TC owing you something, if you ever get in trouble with them then you have some credit to fall back on.”
“It also means they will be trying to recruit me.”
“Nah, as far as the higher ups are concerned, you’re already one of us. Fujimura-sama is your ‘boss’ and no one else will mess with him.”
“Ugh!”
“Heh, it’s fine Motoko, I’ve spoken with him myself about it. He knows you aren’t really interested in the gang stuff. He isn’t happy about it, but he also knows that since I’m there, you will always have a connection to the TC. He is betting on you eventually giving in and joining up in full.” Jun offers, basically saying that Fujimura is blackmailing me into always being friendly with the TC thanks to Jun.
“So what then? I’ve got some rep with the TC? Seems kinda pointless.”
“Motoko. The video cameras of our fight were nabbed by the bosses, everyone saw what we did, what you did to save Okina-Sama. Okina-Sama himself actually had a fight with Fujimura-Sama about having you join his crew.” Jun revealed, making me grimace.
Just what I wanted. Gang bosses fighting to own me.
“It’s fine Fujimura-Sama won. You being a Member even not really of the Kamikaze meant Okina-Sama couldn’t touch you. Just… You did a good thing, and the TC won’t forget. I’ve been getting treated a lot better than before too. I’ve had a few of the bosses calling me Jun-Dono you know?” He said looking all proud of himself.
I just smiled and even reached up to pat his head which he quickly slapped away.
It was nice that Jun was feeling proud of his accomplishments. I wasn’t going to shit on that, even if I couldn’t help but think the respect of a few mob bosses was worth less than the words it took to breath it.
But hopefully since Jun was loyal and skilled that would only be to his benefit. Jun wandered off after that to relax and I was feeling bored.
I settled back into the couch not in the mood for programming. I wanted to do something with my hands…
I looked over to my room. It had been a while…
I got up and cleared a spot on the table making sure I would have the room. I had come a long way since I first decided I would take care of this.
I went into my room and after a few moments came tottering out with the damaged HMG that I had once claimed from my first Scav raid.
The damaged barrel was still the most annoying part. It wasn’t exactly a cheap piece of metal, having to take the forces the machine gun requires.
But I was a lot better than before, and I had a pretty solid grasp of my 3D printer.
As I took it apart, I ignored Juns look, which was obviously filled with jealousy at his little sister's wonderful heavy weapons.
If he wanted one he could get his own! This one was mine! I stol-Looted it fair and square!
With the barrel removed, I fed it into the 3d Printer. It could break it down and remake it with enough time, and I actually know how to program that now.
Then I basically broke down the weapon into component parts, checking every piece for damages.
Not surprising since it was a rugged design, the weapon mostly alright. A few dents here and there, with only one that I would have to actually take care of. The receiver, and mechanisms were mostly okay, a few bits needed cleaning of course, and I had to do some fixing on the electronics, some of the wiring had been shaken loose and needed to be resoldered.
But then it was basically done and ready to be put back together just waiting on the barrel, which was going to take a whole lot longer.
*100 Crafting XP Gained.*
I noted the XP alert, without much thought. With that I settled my almost completed HMG on the floor beside the couch and pulled my laptop back up.
Always more to do.
—--
Late that night long after my HMG was once more fixed, and ready to fire, and as I was still digging through code, I got a call I had been expecting a long time ago.
*Motoko.*
*Regina. I was wondering if our work relationship had ended without me knowing.* I grumbled at her, but she sighed, sounding tired.
*Things have been hectic over the last few days, I apologize. I told you before I had a gig that needed someone dead. You said you could do it.*
*Yeah?*
*Things happened, but the gig remains the same. The target is in hiding, and it took a while to confirm his location, but the client still wants him dead. You still in?*
*Yeah I’ll still take the gig. Send me the details.*
I hummed a bit as I received a text, but Regina didn’t hang up. I guess I was so used to Wakako throwing the details at me and then expecting me to get it done.
I looked it over, and it honestly wasn’t very different from the Jotaro job.
Except for one thing.
*What’s up with this bar that he is hiding in?* I muttered, earning a chuckle across the line.
*The Lions Den isn't a normal bar. And unfortunately, it’s likely that whatever face he walked into the bar with he is no longer wearing.*
*Wanting me to kill a guy who I can’t recognize isn’t exactly a thrilling gig here Regina.* I muttered as I looked over the details, the bar was built out of an old warehouse in Santo Domingo, nothing crazy about the location, although it was 6th St. Territory.
*The on site ripper keeps a log of all work she does. So you’ll need to go through her to find out where the target is. You’ll need to get in, get the info, kill him and get out. Think you are up for it?*
*Yeah, I’ll see what I can do tonight.* I mutter standing up and loading up. I might as well get started now. Maybe I’ll be able to hack into the rippers computer. That would certainly make finding him easier. Just what sort of bar had an on site ripper doc? What the hell was Regina aiming me at?
*Good, keep me informed.*
*Wakako! My favorite fixer! How are you?*
*What do you want?* She demanded instantly, my attempt to flatter obviously revealing my intentions.
*You have a guy looking to work with you. Jackie Welles?*
*I’m aware, what about him?*
*So he’s not half bad. Got the skill, and the desire to push to the top. Bit of a gonk though. You’ll do best by matching him up with someone, let him be the muscle and all that… But when you finally meet with him. Can I be there? Pleeease?* I begged, not even bothering to keep any sense of self respect.
Wakako let out a sigh and the line went quiet for a minute. *What nonsense are you trying to put together?*
*Okay so Jackie, nice guy, I like him. When he said he was trying to work with you. I had a thought. ‘Motoko you could help this guy finish this gig, and have a bit of muscle that you could trust on some gigs.’ But Jackie’s a bit of a gonk. Refused my help cause I’m a kid. So now when he meets you… I need to tease him a bit. Please Wakako! I just want to be there in person so he walks into the room and just sees me already there! The look on his face! You can’t tell me it won’t be funny!*
*Girl. I’m a professional. I don’t do things just because they will be funny.*
*I’ll give you a discount on my next gig. Two thousand off.* I said instantly.
The line went silent.
*I will inform you if he completes the gig.* She admits frankly without any sign that she had to walk back on her words.
Wakako! I love you.
*Cool. So-*
*I have a gig for you.* She said suddenly and my brain chirped as I got a text.
*Oh? It’s been a while. I expected you to be throwing gigs at me a lot sooner?*
*You’ve been busy enough without my assistance.* She says in a low tone. *But if you have so much more interest in work, I’ll have more gigs for you soon.*
Then she hung up on me.
Wakako! I hate you.
I sighed and checked the information. Humming a bit I sent back a confirmation I would get it done and turned around.
—--
This was gonna be interesting. I couldn’t help but think as I looked over the building. It was an office building. They had some data that a client of Wakako’s wanted. I was stealing from a small company.
Entity Retail LLC.
What did they do?
No idea. Their company net page was basically full of corpo slang talking about using intelligent solutions to solve problems ect ect.
The company could literally do anything if you actually believed its slogans. But that didn’t matter. I was here to steal some information, nothing more.
So I parked in a garage and walked in the front door of the business skyscraper.
The company only rented one of the offices on the eleventh floor so it wasn’t like I had to sneak all the way through.
The building lobby was basically empty, just a generic corporate business lobby that I walked right through to the elevator. It took me a few seconds to know that hacking the elevator was a no go. It would take too long, so I walked past it to the stairs.
The stairs were secured here at the bottom, but that took me far less time to break into than the elevator security, and then I was in the stairwell. Slowly I marched up the stairs actually enjoying the exercise a bit. Between this and training with Jackie I was getting a little physically tired.
I peeked through the door that was marked 11 to see what I was dealing with.
And it was a hallway.
Right this wasn’t some Arasaka Corpo office with HMGs around every corner. It was just an office building.
I slipped in to look around. The hallway led to a main foyer that had three different corporations that I could see, at least based on the doors.
It took me about thirty seconds after finding the corporation that I wanted to turn around and head back into the stairwell.
On the door was the office hours, and considering I had seen a bunch of people inside?
Now it was time to wait for closing time.
—--
It took a few hours, and if not for the ability to send texts and a really nice view off the roof of the building I would have been annoyed.
I had thought about heading home, but by the time I actually reached the apartment I would have had to go out again anyways.
So I spent a few hours enjoying the view from the top of the twelve story tower, while waiting for the office to close down…
Well that and hacking into the building security.
There was an access port on the roof, and I mean…
It was just sitting right there.
Sure the security was pretty good, and some of the different floors' security was even better, but I had a few hours to burn, and it was something to do.
So I breached in, and poked around. Taking over a few of the cameras in the system, deleting some files that had me on the camera, even if the image was blurry thanks to my Kiroshi. You know fun things.
I was watching through the cameras as the time finally came, the office started clearing out over the next thirty minutes, until finally a man exited and turned off the lights on his way out.
Go time.
I disconnected and headed down, the security of the building already broken before me, so nothing stopped me.
The office had its own secure system, and it was better than normal building security.
It was just unfortunate that building security still had access to the office per their lease. So since I had already broken one system, I had given myself security administrator access to the office.
I didn’t even have to hack the system. It simply beeped and let me in.
The office was dark, and a little spooky, but I fixed that by turning the lights on and started looking around. I needed to find the boss's office, and it took me a few minutes before I spotted it. The door was locked, and it actually had a private security pad.
Which was hilarious because I recognized the pad, it was one you could buy from basically any store for a few eddies.
The security was worse than the office itself. I suppose it was just meant to keep the workers in the office out.
Thirty seconds later I was in, and exploring the boss's office.
The man obviously thought highly of himself. Paintings on the walls. Golden doo dads on the desk. A fancy computer rig.
I woke it up, and it took me ten seconds to find the password written on a note nearby. It was almost sad that I didn’t even have to breach in. I accessed the system, and then jacked in.
Found the files the client wanted…
And stole a few extras for me. I would trade it in at the Dewdrop for something maybe.
Then I shut the computer down and whistled as I headed out.
I even shut the lights out on my way out the door. Used the elevator which I now had security access to use, to hit the bottom floor and walked out.
As I climbed into the Quadra, I sent a message to Wakako with the data.
Gig complete.
—--
“Finally!” I grumbled as I managed to get a new bit of code to compile. I was working on Weapon Glitch. Clearing out the jumbles of bad code, and trying to smooth out its process time. If my estimate was right. I could drastically increase the activation speed.
But more interesting was the fact I knew this Quickhack could be used on multiple people at a time.
The skill to do something like that was beyond me at the moment. I simply had no idea how to bounce a hack through multiple people, but it was possible, and it was something I wanted.
I still remember the scene in edgerunners when the entire group of Maelstrom had all their weapons and Cyberware malfunction suddenly from a single Netrunner.
That was edgerunner shit. Lucy, and Kiwi were at that level. The experience, Tech, and skill to pull it off.
I wasn’t, not yet anyways, but I just had to aim for that, and eventually the system would get me there.
I shook my thoughts away and stretched, the code compiled. I had managed to for at least a small section of the massive program to clean it up.
Now I just needed to do that like a thousand more times.
“Ugh. Stupid jerks putting out shitware. If I ever find out who fucked this code I’ll kill them.” I promised as I laid back on the couch.
I could use a nap.
No one was bugging me at the moment. Jun was at work. Wakako had her gig completed the same day. Regina was still quiet. Hiromi was dealing with homework. Ichi and Malcolm were both enjoying their wealth from the scav cleanup.
All was good.
I sighed.
“Another thousand snarls to go.” I reminded myself and rose up putting my hands back against the keyboard and starting on the next section of snarled goofy code.
*Intelligence Leveled up!*
I blinked at the sudden alert, I had barely been able to fix a single line of code before the alert popped up.
Intelligence 8!
The alert perked me right back up and I buried my head in the code once more.
—--
I woke up the next morning to sunlight streaming in through the armored blinds. I had fallen asleep on the couch again instead of going into my bedroom, but it didn’t really matter to me. I woke up feeling completely rested either way.
“Morning.” Jun said, almost startling me as he walked out of the bedroom. He hadn’t come home last night before I fell asleep, and I hadn’t even realized he had come home.
“I didn’t hear you come in.” I muttered glaring a bit and he actually smirked at me, before very obviously starting to pace in front of me in the living room.
It took a moment before I realized it. He made almost no sound as he stepped unlike the previous thuds he had made.
“Lynx Paws?”
“Yep.”
“Gonk!” I snarled, jumping at him suddenly, using the living room table to leap into the air to crash into him. A few moments of swinging myself around him turned into a grapple as I gripped his stupid face with both of my hands and smashed my forehead into his stupid gonk face.
“Fuck! Motherfuck!” He screamed out as he tried to rip me away.
“WHY DID YOU GET MORE CHROME YOU STUPID GONK FUCK!?” I screamed at him ready to smash his face again when he finally managed to grab my face to keep me from bashing him face to face again.
“I didn’t! Fuck! Motoko you little!” He snarled as he kept trying to rip me away but failing.
Thank you Grapple perk.
“Bullshit!”
“I didn’t! The Lynx Paws were already installed! Fuck Owe! That hurt!”
“EXPLANATIONS REQUIRED OR PAIN WILL CONTINUE!” I snarled in his face.
“They were already installed, but they were shit. An old set, Motoko, now get off my face.” He growled and I finally accepted rolling backwards landing on my hands before pushing myself into a flip to land in a crouch on the couch.
“You did say you were going to Viks.”
“I did you fuckin’ gonk.” He growled at me “But the Lynx paws parts were from that chromed borg.”
“Grrr!” I growled at Jun waving my fingers threateningly as I considered angles to attack. He was aware of me now. The lack of surprise would make it harder.
“Enough! The crazy borg we fought had a set of Lynx paws, way better than the shit I had. So I got my chrome upgraded.”
“You shouldn’t be installing new chrome you chrome brained gonk!”
“I didn’t! I just upgraded!”
“Same. Thing!”
“Well it’s done! Jeeze. My head hurts.” He grumbled. “Since I flatlined him, a lot of his chrome was gathered up, I… did the smart thing and didn’t chip in any of the rest. Relax Motoko. I’m not gonna go cyberpsycho.”
“Go see Vik to get everything checked out! You know he is better than that TC ripper you went to before.”
“Yeah yeah. Alright, alright. If it’ll keep you from attacking me!” He stomped off to the kitchen, his new chrome making the act amusing since it wasn’t really loud enough to get the point across.
Ugh. My brother was a chrome dome.
I sat back on the couch and just let out a sigh. Keeping that moron alive was going to be a full time job wasn’t it? I really needed to get him a girlfriend… Or a keeper.
It might be a bit too soon still for the girlfriend thing. We hadn’t talked about his reason for revenge on the Maelstrom in a while.
Hell we were both basically pretending the group didn’t exist for now.
“Hey.” Jun started speaking as he popped open a can of his energy drink soda garbage that I refused to try.
“What?” I said a little sulkily as he snorted at me in amusement.
“I’m glad you’re okay. I was worried… That Edgerunner was.”
“Yeah a fucking monster.” I said, nodding in commiseration. “I’m glad you’re okay too. I was worried even when we killed him.”
“Yeah, I… Are you sure you’re okay? You were coughing up blood.”
“Yep! Vik fixed me up.” I waved it off not wanting to get into the nuance of how injured I had been.
“Good. Very good, also the TC are very very happy. Okina-Sama, the man we saved? He was super important. The fact we took out his attempted killer, and saved him? Word is getting around. Fujimura-Sama even angled it into both of us getting a lot of rep.”
“Ugh.” Jun snorted at my noise of displeasure but continued on.
“It’s a good thing Motoko. Think of it as the TC owing you something, if you ever get in trouble with them then you have some credit to fall back on.”
“It also means they will be trying to recruit me.”
“Nah, as far as the higher ups are concerned, you’re already one of us. Fujimura-sama is your ‘boss’ and no one else will mess with him.”
“Ugh!”
“Heh, it’s fine Motoko, I’ve spoken with him myself about it. He knows you aren’t really interested in the gang stuff. He isn’t happy about it, but he also knows that since I’m there, you will always have a connection to the TC. He is betting on you eventually giving in and joining up in full.” Jun offers, basically saying that Fujimura is blackmailing me into always being friendly with the TC thanks to Jun.
“So what then? I’ve got some rep with the TC? Seems kinda pointless.”
“Motoko. The video cameras of our fight were nabbed by the bosses, everyone saw what we did, what you did to save Okina-Sama. Okina-Sama himself actually had a fight with Fujimura-Sama about having you join his crew.” Jun revealed, making me grimace.
Just what I wanted. Gang bosses fighting to own me.
“It’s fine Fujimura-Sama won. You being a Member even not really of the Kamikaze meant Okina-Sama couldn’t touch you. Just… You did a good thing, and the TC won’t forget. I’ve been getting treated a lot better than before too. I’ve had a few of the bosses calling me Jun-Dono you know?” He said looking all proud of himself.
I just smiled and even reached up to pat his head which he quickly slapped away.
It was nice that Jun was feeling proud of his accomplishments. I wasn’t going to shit on that, even if I couldn’t help but think the respect of a few mob bosses was worth less than the words it took to breath it.
But hopefully since Jun was loyal and skilled that would only be to his benefit. Jun wandered off after that to relax and I was feeling bored.
I settled back into the couch not in the mood for programming. I wanted to do something with my hands…
I looked over to my room. It had been a while…
I got up and cleared a spot on the table making sure I would have the room. I had come a long way since I first decided I would take care of this.
I went into my room and after a few moments came tottering out with the damaged HMG that I had once claimed from my first Scav raid.
The damaged barrel was still the most annoying part. It wasn’t exactly a cheap piece of metal, having to take the forces the machine gun requires.
But I was a lot better than before, and I had a pretty solid grasp of my 3D printer.
As I took it apart, I ignored Juns look, which was obviously filled with jealousy at his little sister's wonderful heavy weapons.
If he wanted one he could get his own! This one was mine! I stol-Looted it fair and square!
With the barrel removed, I fed it into the 3d Printer. It could break it down and remake it with enough time, and I actually know how to program that now.
Then I basically broke down the weapon into component parts, checking every piece for damages.
Not surprising since it was a rugged design, the weapon mostly alright. A few dents here and there, with only one that I would have to actually take care of. The receiver, and mechanisms were mostly okay, a few bits needed cleaning of course, and I had to do some fixing on the electronics, some of the wiring had been shaken loose and needed to be resoldered.
But then it was basically done and ready to be put back together just waiting on the barrel, which was going to take a whole lot longer.
*100 Crafting XP Gained.*
I noted the XP alert, without much thought. With that I settled my almost completed HMG on the floor beside the couch and pulled my laptop back up.
Always more to do.
—--
Late that night long after my HMG was once more fixed, and ready to fire, and as I was still digging through code, I got a call I had been expecting a long time ago.
*Motoko.*
*Regina. I was wondering if our work relationship had ended without me knowing.* I grumbled at her, but she sighed, sounding tired.
*Things have been hectic over the last few days, I apologize. I told you before I had a gig that needed someone dead. You said you could do it.*
*Yeah?*
*Things happened, but the gig remains the same. The target is in hiding, and it took a while to confirm his location, but the client still wants him dead. You still in?*
*Yeah I’ll still take the gig. Send me the details.*
I hummed a bit as I received a text, but Regina didn’t hang up. I guess I was so used to Wakako throwing the details at me and then expecting me to get it done.
I looked it over, and it honestly wasn’t very different from the Jotaro job.
Except for one thing.
*What’s up with this bar that he is hiding in?* I muttered, earning a chuckle across the line.
*The Lions Den isn't a normal bar. And unfortunately, it’s likely that whatever face he walked into the bar with he is no longer wearing.*
*Wanting me to kill a guy who I can’t recognize isn’t exactly a thrilling gig here Regina.* I muttered as I looked over the details, the bar was built out of an old warehouse in Santo Domingo, nothing crazy about the location, although it was 6th St. Territory.
*The on site ripper keeps a log of all work she does. So you’ll need to go through her to find out where the target is. You’ll need to get in, get the info, kill him and get out. Think you are up for it?*
*Yeah, I’ll see what I can do tonight.* I mutter standing up and loading up. I might as well get started now. Maybe I’ll be able to hack into the rippers computer. That would certainly make finding him easier. Just what sort of bar had an on site ripper doc? What the hell was Regina aiming me at?
*Good, keep me informed.*
Chapter 65
Seras
Well-known member
My left eyelid was twitching, as I listened to the…
Okay he looked like a shark man. So I’m just calling him Sharkman.
The Lions Den isn’t just any bar in Night City apparently.
It’s the Exotics bar.
Exotics was the description of a type of Biomod. I knew a little bit about it, although I hadn’t actually even seen someone with them yet.
But here they are. People that used Bioware to turn themselves into animals.
I had parked in the bars parking and walking up to the entrance only to get instantly held up by Sharkman, the bouncer.
His blue tinted skin, and grinning shark maw was intimidating I guess. Although I suppose the fact he was nearly eight feet tall probably helped.
“Listen kid. This ain’t a public watering hole. Go find another bar.” He had denied me entrance instantly. Which was irritating.
“Listen I’m meeting a choom of mine-”
“If you were meeting a choom, you’d be on the invite list. You ain’t.” He stated simply arms crossing over his massive chest, which was bare. Showing off perfectly sculpted muscles.
You know if you were into Furries.
“She must have forgotten. I just want to-” Once again I was cut off by the Sharkman shaking his head instantly, and poking a finger into my chest pushing me back.
He might be the shark, but if he kept that up, he was going to lose some digits.
“Listen, not sure if you’re just curious. Or you are planning some shit, but this place doesn’t welcome standards.” He said and it took me a moment to realize he was using standard to refer to… Well everyone.
I opened my mouth to argue but I could feel someone walking up behind me so I stepped aside, letting a woman that was definitely supposed to be some type of lizard pass without any issue from Sharkman.
“This is so annoying.” I grumbled turning back to the conversation but the Sharkman seemed done.
“Go on kid, you ain’t one of us, and until you are, you ain't welcome here.”
“I’m just here to see someone. I’m not looking for trouble, choom.”
“If you don’t leave you’ll find it.” He threatened simply, and I considered it. But I wasn’t here to kill a bunch of people doing their jobs.
I backed off. Walking back to the Quadra in a huff. I would just sneak in then. There was always a back door, or a roof access.
An old Warehouse turned club wasn’t going to stop me.
So I drove down the block, found a place to park and walked back, this time making sure I was out of sight from the bouncer as I checked around the warehouse.
Two ground floor entrances I noted. The front, and a rear entrance that was an old loading dock, but had a few vehicles parked around the walled off rear parking lot, turned… Private park?
It also had security.
A camera was sweeping around over the rear door. I stuck to the shadows far from the building, hugging old storage units that were the nearest building to the club as I scoped out the place. Unfortunately the rear door was going to be difficult too.
Not just the security camera, there was activity in the back, all along the loading dock, there were tables set up, and revelers were hanging around drinking, smoking, or worse.
And all of them were Exotics.
Guys with fur, women with multiple arms and eyes, some were minor exotics. Dog or cat ears at most. Some were full bore, looking more like a werewolf than a man.
All of them were friendly and knew each other. They were all partying together, chatting or switching tables.
There were a lot more people here than expected, and I wasn’t going to be able to sneak in without instantly being noticeable. I wasn’t a regular here, I would stick out immediately.
I climbed up onto the storage units nearby and started checking out the roof of the warehouse, but that was a no go as well. There were tall walls surrounding the roof, and it took me climbing from the storage units roof to a nearby powerline before I was able to see down onto the roof.
There was a pool up there.
For fuck sake. What kind of bar was this?
I bonked my head. Exotics weren’t cheap. The mods required the risk to yourself, only rich crazy people tended to do it. It was even more of a niche culture now than it had been decades ago, Exotics haven’t been cool in like thirty years. There weren’t any exotic gangs in NC anymore, except maybe the animals, if you squinted.
So if you were an older rich person wanting to hang out with an in group? One that was no longer fashionable?
Of course they all kept their bar in top condition, private, secure, and if Regina had said was right, had an in house exotics ripper.
I sighed, running through the options.
I could go loud… I mean, I did have a Rocket Launcher… No I shook that thought away, I wasn’t going to shoot up a bar to kill one guy. I would just have to do this like Jotaro, only I had known how to kill Jotaro, here? I didn’t even know what my target looked like.
Regina. I’m going to be asking for a raise on this one I grumbled to myself as I realized this wasn’t going to be a single night gig.
Okay so Loud was out. Quiet was looking extremely unlikely… I would have to hang around for a while and see if the bar got quiet. If they closed down in the morning, I could sneak in during the off periods.
If anything else, there was another option…
I didn’t really want to consider that option.
—--
I had gone home, picked up a full selection of stakeout snacks, and then headed back up onto the roof of the storage units next to the bar so I could keep an eye out.
With my Laptop in hand, at least I could do something while I waited, so I programmed as I watched the club.
Stupid private furry club. Just let me in so I can systematically target and kill one of your people! Damn gonks!
By the time the sun was peeking up hours later I was growing annoyed. Despite it being the start of the day, people were still showing up.
People were leaving, but the amount overall seemed to stay the same.
To my annoyance, I couldn’t even sneak in as a worker. The cooks were exotics. The bartenders were exotics!
The whole damn place was exotics!
“Fuck.” I grumbled thinking of other options… I couldn’t even rely on reboot optics or something to just blind anyone that I came across.
Biomods can’t be quick hacked. Most of the exotics didn’t have a lick of chrome in them, at lest not the high end ones. Bioware only.
Okay, I wasn’t going to be able to infiltrate normally. It just wasn’t going to happen without me doing something drastic.
Let’s get more information.
With the confirmation the party never ends, I peaked out from behind the top of the storage units until I could see the camera sweeping back and forth over the rear door.
My eyes flashed as I started breaching in.
Time to see what net security was like.
The camera itself fell without too much issue, and I used it as an access point to their main system, but I immediately hit a snag.
The system security was good.
Really good. I wasn’t net diving so I couldn’t see the exact way the security revealed itself, but it wasn’t off the shelf. A Netrunner maintained the security at the club I realized as I poked around. And I was pretty sure they weren’t active in the system right now.
Which at least opened up a chance.
So I started poking through the ICE. Security alerts popping up as my searching daggers weren’t as quiet as I would have liked.
I broke through the initial ICE after about ten minutes, mostly I was just hoping the netrunner was asleep.
The breach was successful, I could feel my Wall Breaking Daemon slip in and hide within the system. That particular Perk hadn’t been as useful as I thought when I initially took it, but hopefully here it would help
I began exploring, the window in my eyes showing the directory of connected systems as I began navigating through them, trying to find…
I found it. The internal security cameras.
There were a lot of them. And there were a lot of people inside like I suspected.
The old warehouse had been completely remodeled, and there was even a basement floor! Any hope of me being able to slip in sight unseen went out the window. There were just too many exotics around.
Especially when the cameras confirmed the ripper lived in an apartment in the basement. A full ripper office, and personal room that was heavily lived in. There wasn’t a camera directly in her private room, but the door in her office was open and I could see inside a bit.
Unfortunately I couldn’t just hack into her computer from the camera either.
Everything was locked down and secured.
This Netrunner knew their stuff.
I managed to get a look at the ripper, she looked like a cat woman. Not a catgirl, that was something different, but a catwoman.
The fur must be awful to deal with, I thought with a bit of a laugh as I pulled free of the system. The only thing about this I could actually laugh at.
This gig was trash.
I tapped my chrome fingers on my knee for a while. I was only seeing a few ways I could get this to work.
I could go and spend a lot of eddies on improving my chrome, maybe getting an Optical Camo cyberware. It was on the list already…
Or I could go and get a temp cyberware so I could fit into the club. A few animal accessories, and they would let me in… Probably.
I groaned as I considered it. Both options were going to be expensive, and didn’t have a guaranteed chance of success. Even if I got the Optical Camo, that wasn’t a guarantee someone wouldn’t notice. Exotics often had enhanced senses, and Optical Camo wasn’t foolproof.
And even if I went through chipping myself with some cat ears or something, no guarantee I would be able to move around.
I did a bit of quick mental math, considering how much I would earn for this gig, versus what it would cost me to be able to complete it.
Fuck.
Honestly. Considering I wasn’t ready to get more chrome, I was going to have to do something I didn’t want to do. I gathered all the information I had gained into a file including the security cam footage I had been watching, too bad there was no way to access prior recordings, I might be able to get my man that way, and sent it to Regina.
I gave her a few minutes to look through everything, including my notes on what I was seeing when the call came in.
*Motoko.*
*Regina.*
*You aren’t able to complete the gig?* She asked her tone a little flat. She sounded a little put out.
*Not without chipping in a lot of chrome for the job. Either direct stealth chrome, or something to blend in.* I tell her honestly. *The security of this place is good, maybe if I was an elite netrunner I could get in that way, but I’m not that good. Sorry Regina. I’m pulling out. I can’t complete the gig as it stands.*
*Then you are off the gig.* She said suddenly and the line hung up.
Huh.
I shrugged.
“I’m going home to take a nap.”
—--
When I got home Jun was asleep, passed out in his bed.
Which is why I went into my bedroom, put away all my equipment, and then turned around and cannonballed his ass.
I had sworn to get revenge on Jun a while back and had forgotten about it until now, and here was a perfect opportunity.
He jolted awake as I slammed into him making a groaning shriek of complaint as he jerked up trying to free himself.
Which is why I pushed my foot into his face.
“Morning Jun-nii.” I told him casually as he struggled to defeat sleepiness.
Hah!
“Wha? MOTOKO!” He growled trying to push me off and failing as his blanket kept him just a little wrapped up.
But I wasn’t trying too hard.
Soon enough I went limp as he wrapped me up in his blankets like the burritos he so loves and then he was sitting on me.
“Heavy ass.” I mumbled a little breathless, he hadn’t been gentle. As I had noted before Sleepy Jun has no chill.
“Irritating bitch.” He snapped, and I couldn’t help but snort.
“I failed a gig tonight.” I told him then before he could get any more annoyed with me. “I’m… Frustrated. Like honestly angry about it.” I revealed bluntly, which did turn the conversation around from him being angry at me, to concerned.
“It’s too early for this.” He grumbled wiping his eyes clear, but making no move to get off me.
I didn’t say anything just stuck in a burrito with Jun sitting on me as he slowly woke up. “Fine. C’mon.” He grumbled standing up but before I could move he picked me up still in the blanket and hauled me out to the living room. He flopped me a little painfully onto the couch and walked into the kitchen, coming out with some energy drink in a can that he liked.
“Talk to me about it.”
“Fucking furry ass jerks!” I ranted Legs kicking up into the air, the only part of me I could move. “Their stupid secret private club has serious security, and unless you’re an exotic you can’t enter. I tried everything I could, but I just don’t have the equipment to get in. I could go and get some Cyberware, make myself look like an animal or something, or even some Optical Camo. But neither option guarantees I could finish the gig, and, and… It’s dumb.” I mumbled at the end.
“Still not ready to get more chrome?” He asked and I shook my head.
“I don’t know! It sounds stupid, but… I don’t like chipping in cyberware, just because a job needs it. If I add chrome, I want to do it because I wanted to.”
“Huh.” He muttered nodding a bit then he leaned down and patted me on the head. “It’s okay.” He finally said after a few moments and I scrunched up and glared at him, but Jun just kept patting me on the head.
“Stupid Onii-chan.”
“Baka Imouto.” He responded back instantly.
—--
So I took a nap after Jun finally left me alone. He was still yawning, but he left to go grab some lunch.
I was still wrapped up in the blanket though.
It was cozy, and I was so done.
First that stupid borg beating me half to death, needing Jun’s help. Not that Jun and I’s teamwork wasn’t super cool.
But then I get my first gig from Regina and I can’t even finish it.
What’s the point of having all of these skills if people could still whoop, my ass? If I could still fail at gigs!?
If I was a better Netrunner I could have gotten the data I needed, either by actually dipping into the net to access their system, or by pulling a laughing man. If I was a wizard level hacker I could just hack optics in real time, I could have pulled it off… Maybe. The exotics biomods would still make that not work…
If I was a better Techie I could have built a drone like the Flathead, and hacked into their system directly. Hell I could have made a suicide drone to kill the target as well!
If I was better at stealth I could have figured out a way in, Optical Camo would have made it possible, if not easy.
If if if.
I had been grinding my skills, and I liked doing it. It had opened up so many options for me, but while my stealth was pretty good, I still felt…
Like I should be better. My stats, my skills they should be higher!
I pulled up my stat sheet.
Level 9
7000/10,000
Body 7(11) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Athletics 6
-Street Brawler 6
-Annihilation 4
Reflex 7
-Blades 6
-Handguns 6
-Assault 5
-Driving 6
Intelligence 8 (12) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Breach Protocol 6
-Quick Hacks 4
-Programming 4
Cool 8
-Ninjutsu 8
-Cold Blood 8
-Rockerboy 5
Technical attribute 4 (8) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Crafting 4
-Engineering 3
0 Stat point.
4 Skill point.
Perks.
Ambidextrous Blades 2
Quickdraw Handguns 2
Gun Nut Assault 2
Parkour Athletics 2
Grappling Street Brawler 2 Future unlock: Improvised weapons.>Gun-Fu.
Drive By Driver 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
*Unused* Breach 5
Perfect Musical Memory Rockerboy 2.
Debug Programming 2
Siren Song Rockerboy 5
Cyberware:
Seacho Electronics Mk.2 *Adaptation Seacho Mk.2 0/0*
Kiroshi Mk1 *Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 1/2*
Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 3/8*
Arasaka SmartLink System. *Adaptation Smart Link 0/0*
Arasaka Ex-Disk *Adaptation Ex-Disk 0/0*
I browsed through the page. Honestly I didn’t tend to look directly at my stats very often. More often I just checked where I was at, and then went to work on whatever stat or skill I was focused on at that moment.
I still had four Skill points.
I also still had a breaching perk I hadn’t used.
“Ugh I’m such a gonk… I forgot all about my perk.” I sighed staring through the floating screen to look at the ceiling.
I had decided to hold off on using it until later when I might need something special, but I had ended up just forgetting about it.
Would a Breach perk have solved my problem?
I started looking down the list. The options I had looked at before were still there, but my understanding of systems was wider now.
I had a better idea of what I would need, and what I wouldn’t.
Strong Breach still sounded useful though. Being able to breach through a system much faster, in exchange for guaranteeing an alert would get sent off?
Well considering most systems weren’t secured well in the first place, it would give me some neat tricks.
But it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.
Let’s be honest. Speed is useful, but when it comes to netrunning, there was only one true king.
Stealth.
If no one ever realized I had breached their system, they had no hope to stop me. So I started browsing the perks.
I hadn’t seen what I was looking for last time, but I hadn’t done a perfect deep dive back then either.
Then, because I was reading through every perk. I found it.
Ghost touch: Slow and quiet, Breach through a system as a ghost, without anyone the wiser.
I thought about it for a moment.
Then I decided that fuck it, it was what I had just decided I wanted. I pushed the button accepting the Perk.
I shivered as the ideas slipped into my head. Tricks on how to not just break security, but to bypass it entirely.
I blinked.
Then I blinked again because wow. That was some serious shit.
I knew as well that as powerful as it was now, it would only grow stronger as breach leveled up. The time it would take would reduce, and my ability to ghost through systems would grow.
Yeah.
That’s right! I’m Motoko Kusanagi! My skill with a gun or a knife was great! But on a digital battlefield? I wouldn’t be matched by anyone!
I knew with a surety of self, that I was going to become the sort of super hacker that made corpo netrunners piss themselves in fear.
I rose up untangling myself from the blanket and popped my access cord out of the back of my head as I grabbed my ICE laptop.
Time to get to work.
Okay he looked like a shark man. So I’m just calling him Sharkman.
The Lions Den isn’t just any bar in Night City apparently.
It’s the Exotics bar.
Exotics was the description of a type of Biomod. I knew a little bit about it, although I hadn’t actually even seen someone with them yet.
But here they are. People that used Bioware to turn themselves into animals.
I had parked in the bars parking and walking up to the entrance only to get instantly held up by Sharkman, the bouncer.
His blue tinted skin, and grinning shark maw was intimidating I guess. Although I suppose the fact he was nearly eight feet tall probably helped.
“Listen kid. This ain’t a public watering hole. Go find another bar.” He had denied me entrance instantly. Which was irritating.
“Listen I’m meeting a choom of mine-”
“If you were meeting a choom, you’d be on the invite list. You ain’t.” He stated simply arms crossing over his massive chest, which was bare. Showing off perfectly sculpted muscles.
You know if you were into Furries.
“She must have forgotten. I just want to-” Once again I was cut off by the Sharkman shaking his head instantly, and poking a finger into my chest pushing me back.
He might be the shark, but if he kept that up, he was going to lose some digits.
“Listen, not sure if you’re just curious. Or you are planning some shit, but this place doesn’t welcome standards.” He said and it took me a moment to realize he was using standard to refer to… Well everyone.
I opened my mouth to argue but I could feel someone walking up behind me so I stepped aside, letting a woman that was definitely supposed to be some type of lizard pass without any issue from Sharkman.
“This is so annoying.” I grumbled turning back to the conversation but the Sharkman seemed done.
“Go on kid, you ain’t one of us, and until you are, you ain't welcome here.”
“I’m just here to see someone. I’m not looking for trouble, choom.”
“If you don’t leave you’ll find it.” He threatened simply, and I considered it. But I wasn’t here to kill a bunch of people doing their jobs.
I backed off. Walking back to the Quadra in a huff. I would just sneak in then. There was always a back door, or a roof access.
An old Warehouse turned club wasn’t going to stop me.
So I drove down the block, found a place to park and walked back, this time making sure I was out of sight from the bouncer as I checked around the warehouse.
Two ground floor entrances I noted. The front, and a rear entrance that was an old loading dock, but had a few vehicles parked around the walled off rear parking lot, turned… Private park?
It also had security.
A camera was sweeping around over the rear door. I stuck to the shadows far from the building, hugging old storage units that were the nearest building to the club as I scoped out the place. Unfortunately the rear door was going to be difficult too.
Not just the security camera, there was activity in the back, all along the loading dock, there were tables set up, and revelers were hanging around drinking, smoking, or worse.
And all of them were Exotics.
Guys with fur, women with multiple arms and eyes, some were minor exotics. Dog or cat ears at most. Some were full bore, looking more like a werewolf than a man.
All of them were friendly and knew each other. They were all partying together, chatting or switching tables.
There were a lot more people here than expected, and I wasn’t going to be able to sneak in without instantly being noticeable. I wasn’t a regular here, I would stick out immediately.
I climbed up onto the storage units nearby and started checking out the roof of the warehouse, but that was a no go as well. There were tall walls surrounding the roof, and it took me climbing from the storage units roof to a nearby powerline before I was able to see down onto the roof.
There was a pool up there.
For fuck sake. What kind of bar was this?
I bonked my head. Exotics weren’t cheap. The mods required the risk to yourself, only rich crazy people tended to do it. It was even more of a niche culture now than it had been decades ago, Exotics haven’t been cool in like thirty years. There weren’t any exotic gangs in NC anymore, except maybe the animals, if you squinted.
So if you were an older rich person wanting to hang out with an in group? One that was no longer fashionable?
Of course they all kept their bar in top condition, private, secure, and if Regina had said was right, had an in house exotics ripper.
I sighed, running through the options.
I could go loud… I mean, I did have a Rocket Launcher… No I shook that thought away, I wasn’t going to shoot up a bar to kill one guy. I would just have to do this like Jotaro, only I had known how to kill Jotaro, here? I didn’t even know what my target looked like.
Regina. I’m going to be asking for a raise on this one I grumbled to myself as I realized this wasn’t going to be a single night gig.
Okay so Loud was out. Quiet was looking extremely unlikely… I would have to hang around for a while and see if the bar got quiet. If they closed down in the morning, I could sneak in during the off periods.
If anything else, there was another option…
I didn’t really want to consider that option.
—--
I had gone home, picked up a full selection of stakeout snacks, and then headed back up onto the roof of the storage units next to the bar so I could keep an eye out.
With my Laptop in hand, at least I could do something while I waited, so I programmed as I watched the club.
Stupid private furry club. Just let me in so I can systematically target and kill one of your people! Damn gonks!
By the time the sun was peeking up hours later I was growing annoyed. Despite it being the start of the day, people were still showing up.
People were leaving, but the amount overall seemed to stay the same.
To my annoyance, I couldn’t even sneak in as a worker. The cooks were exotics. The bartenders were exotics!
The whole damn place was exotics!
“Fuck.” I grumbled thinking of other options… I couldn’t even rely on reboot optics or something to just blind anyone that I came across.
Biomods can’t be quick hacked. Most of the exotics didn’t have a lick of chrome in them, at lest not the high end ones. Bioware only.
Okay, I wasn’t going to be able to infiltrate normally. It just wasn’t going to happen without me doing something drastic.
Let’s get more information.
With the confirmation the party never ends, I peaked out from behind the top of the storage units until I could see the camera sweeping back and forth over the rear door.
My eyes flashed as I started breaching in.
Time to see what net security was like.
The camera itself fell without too much issue, and I used it as an access point to their main system, but I immediately hit a snag.
The system security was good.
Really good. I wasn’t net diving so I couldn’t see the exact way the security revealed itself, but it wasn’t off the shelf. A Netrunner maintained the security at the club I realized as I poked around. And I was pretty sure they weren’t active in the system right now.
Which at least opened up a chance.
So I started poking through the ICE. Security alerts popping up as my searching daggers weren’t as quiet as I would have liked.
I broke through the initial ICE after about ten minutes, mostly I was just hoping the netrunner was asleep.
The breach was successful, I could feel my Wall Breaking Daemon slip in and hide within the system. That particular Perk hadn’t been as useful as I thought when I initially took it, but hopefully here it would help
I began exploring, the window in my eyes showing the directory of connected systems as I began navigating through them, trying to find…
I found it. The internal security cameras.
There were a lot of them. And there were a lot of people inside like I suspected.
The old warehouse had been completely remodeled, and there was even a basement floor! Any hope of me being able to slip in sight unseen went out the window. There were just too many exotics around.
Especially when the cameras confirmed the ripper lived in an apartment in the basement. A full ripper office, and personal room that was heavily lived in. There wasn’t a camera directly in her private room, but the door in her office was open and I could see inside a bit.
Unfortunately I couldn’t just hack into her computer from the camera either.
Everything was locked down and secured.
This Netrunner knew their stuff.
I managed to get a look at the ripper, she looked like a cat woman. Not a catgirl, that was something different, but a catwoman.
The fur must be awful to deal with, I thought with a bit of a laugh as I pulled free of the system. The only thing about this I could actually laugh at.
This gig was trash.
I tapped my chrome fingers on my knee for a while. I was only seeing a few ways I could get this to work.
I could go and spend a lot of eddies on improving my chrome, maybe getting an Optical Camo cyberware. It was on the list already…
Or I could go and get a temp cyberware so I could fit into the club. A few animal accessories, and they would let me in… Probably.
I groaned as I considered it. Both options were going to be expensive, and didn’t have a guaranteed chance of success. Even if I got the Optical Camo, that wasn’t a guarantee someone wouldn’t notice. Exotics often had enhanced senses, and Optical Camo wasn’t foolproof.
And even if I went through chipping myself with some cat ears or something, no guarantee I would be able to move around.
I did a bit of quick mental math, considering how much I would earn for this gig, versus what it would cost me to be able to complete it.
Fuck.
Honestly. Considering I wasn’t ready to get more chrome, I was going to have to do something I didn’t want to do. I gathered all the information I had gained into a file including the security cam footage I had been watching, too bad there was no way to access prior recordings, I might be able to get my man that way, and sent it to Regina.
I gave her a few minutes to look through everything, including my notes on what I was seeing when the call came in.
*Motoko.*
*Regina.*
*You aren’t able to complete the gig?* She asked her tone a little flat. She sounded a little put out.
*Not without chipping in a lot of chrome for the job. Either direct stealth chrome, or something to blend in.* I tell her honestly. *The security of this place is good, maybe if I was an elite netrunner I could get in that way, but I’m not that good. Sorry Regina. I’m pulling out. I can’t complete the gig as it stands.*
*Then you are off the gig.* She said suddenly and the line hung up.
Huh.
I shrugged.
“I’m going home to take a nap.”
—--
When I got home Jun was asleep, passed out in his bed.
Which is why I went into my bedroom, put away all my equipment, and then turned around and cannonballed his ass.
I had sworn to get revenge on Jun a while back and had forgotten about it until now, and here was a perfect opportunity.
He jolted awake as I slammed into him making a groaning shriek of complaint as he jerked up trying to free himself.
Which is why I pushed my foot into his face.
“Morning Jun-nii.” I told him casually as he struggled to defeat sleepiness.
Hah!
“Wha? MOTOKO!” He growled trying to push me off and failing as his blanket kept him just a little wrapped up.
But I wasn’t trying too hard.
Soon enough I went limp as he wrapped me up in his blankets like the burritos he so loves and then he was sitting on me.
“Heavy ass.” I mumbled a little breathless, he hadn’t been gentle. As I had noted before Sleepy Jun has no chill.
“Irritating bitch.” He snapped, and I couldn’t help but snort.
“I failed a gig tonight.” I told him then before he could get any more annoyed with me. “I’m… Frustrated. Like honestly angry about it.” I revealed bluntly, which did turn the conversation around from him being angry at me, to concerned.
“It’s too early for this.” He grumbled wiping his eyes clear, but making no move to get off me.
I didn’t say anything just stuck in a burrito with Jun sitting on me as he slowly woke up. “Fine. C’mon.” He grumbled standing up but before I could move he picked me up still in the blanket and hauled me out to the living room. He flopped me a little painfully onto the couch and walked into the kitchen, coming out with some energy drink in a can that he liked.
“Talk to me about it.”
“Fucking furry ass jerks!” I ranted Legs kicking up into the air, the only part of me I could move. “Their stupid secret private club has serious security, and unless you’re an exotic you can’t enter. I tried everything I could, but I just don’t have the equipment to get in. I could go and get some Cyberware, make myself look like an animal or something, or even some Optical Camo. But neither option guarantees I could finish the gig, and, and… It’s dumb.” I mumbled at the end.
“Still not ready to get more chrome?” He asked and I shook my head.
“I don’t know! It sounds stupid, but… I don’t like chipping in cyberware, just because a job needs it. If I add chrome, I want to do it because I wanted to.”
“Huh.” He muttered nodding a bit then he leaned down and patted me on the head. “It’s okay.” He finally said after a few moments and I scrunched up and glared at him, but Jun just kept patting me on the head.
“Stupid Onii-chan.”
“Baka Imouto.” He responded back instantly.
—--
So I took a nap after Jun finally left me alone. He was still yawning, but he left to go grab some lunch.
I was still wrapped up in the blanket though.
It was cozy, and I was so done.
First that stupid borg beating me half to death, needing Jun’s help. Not that Jun and I’s teamwork wasn’t super cool.
But then I get my first gig from Regina and I can’t even finish it.
What’s the point of having all of these skills if people could still whoop, my ass? If I could still fail at gigs!?
If I was a better Netrunner I could have gotten the data I needed, either by actually dipping into the net to access their system, or by pulling a laughing man. If I was a wizard level hacker I could just hack optics in real time, I could have pulled it off… Maybe. The exotics biomods would still make that not work…
If I was a better Techie I could have built a drone like the Flathead, and hacked into their system directly. Hell I could have made a suicide drone to kill the target as well!
If I was better at stealth I could have figured out a way in, Optical Camo would have made it possible, if not easy.
If if if.
I had been grinding my skills, and I liked doing it. It had opened up so many options for me, but while my stealth was pretty good, I still felt…
Like I should be better. My stats, my skills they should be higher!
I pulled up my stat sheet.
Level 9
7000/10,000
Body 7(11) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Athletics 6
-Street Brawler 6
-Annihilation 4
Reflex 7
-Blades 6
-Handguns 6
-Assault 5
-Driving 6
Intelligence 8 (12) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Breach Protocol 6
-Quick Hacks 4
-Programming 4
Cool 8
-Ninjutsu 8
-Cold Blood 8
-Rockerboy 5
Technical attribute 4 (8) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.
-Crafting 4
-Engineering 3
0 Stat point.
4 Skill point.
Perks.
Ambidextrous Blades 2
Quickdraw Handguns 2
Gun Nut Assault 2
Parkour Athletics 2
Grappling Street Brawler 2 Future unlock: Improvised weapons.>Gun-Fu.
Drive By Driver 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
*Unused* Breach 5
Perfect Musical Memory Rockerboy 2.
Debug Programming 2
Siren Song Rockerboy 5
Cyberware:
Seacho Electronics Mk.2 *Adaptation Seacho Mk.2 0/0*
Kiroshi Mk1 *Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 1/2*
Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 3/8*
Arasaka SmartLink System. *Adaptation Smart Link 0/0*
Arasaka Ex-Disk *Adaptation Ex-Disk 0/0*
I browsed through the page. Honestly I didn’t tend to look directly at my stats very often. More often I just checked where I was at, and then went to work on whatever stat or skill I was focused on at that moment.
I still had four Skill points.
I also still had a breaching perk I hadn’t used.
“Ugh I’m such a gonk… I forgot all about my perk.” I sighed staring through the floating screen to look at the ceiling.
I had decided to hold off on using it until later when I might need something special, but I had ended up just forgetting about it.
Would a Breach perk have solved my problem?
I started looking down the list. The options I had looked at before were still there, but my understanding of systems was wider now.
I had a better idea of what I would need, and what I wouldn’t.
Strong Breach still sounded useful though. Being able to breach through a system much faster, in exchange for guaranteeing an alert would get sent off?
Well considering most systems weren’t secured well in the first place, it would give me some neat tricks.
But it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.
Let’s be honest. Speed is useful, but when it comes to netrunning, there was only one true king.
Stealth.
If no one ever realized I had breached their system, they had no hope to stop me. So I started browsing the perks.
I hadn’t seen what I was looking for last time, but I hadn’t done a perfect deep dive back then either.
Then, because I was reading through every perk. I found it.
Ghost touch: Slow and quiet, Breach through a system as a ghost, without anyone the wiser.
I thought about it for a moment.
Then I decided that fuck it, it was what I had just decided I wanted. I pushed the button accepting the Perk.
I shivered as the ideas slipped into my head. Tricks on how to not just break security, but to bypass it entirely.
I blinked.
Then I blinked again because wow. That was some serious shit.
I knew as well that as powerful as it was now, it would only grow stronger as breach leveled up. The time it would take would reduce, and my ability to ghost through systems would grow.
Yeah.
That’s right! I’m Motoko Kusanagi! My skill with a gun or a knife was great! But on a digital battlefield? I wouldn’t be matched by anyone!
I knew with a surety of self, that I was going to become the sort of super hacker that made corpo netrunners piss themselves in fear.
I rose up untangling myself from the blanket and popped my access cord out of the back of my head as I grabbed my ICE laptop.
Time to get to work.
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Karmic Acumen
Well-known member
Does this mean she COULD do the gig now, or still no?
PeaceMaker 03
Well-known member
I think it is a maybe, as in might just be able to meet skill requirements to do the job.
One way to find out.
One way to find out.
Bassoe
Well-known member
Counterargument, they’re furries. Furries whose henchman publicly disrespected you.
UberIguana
Well-known member
That rarest of gamer abilities: knowing when to quit.
Also the thread on SB is getting kind of funny with the furry butthurt. Even the mods are feeling it (though that might just be their natural state).
Also the thread on SB is getting kind of funny with the furry butthurt. Even the mods are feeling it (though that might just be their natural state).
Karmic Acumen
Well-known member
Nah, Gamers find it very easy to quit, they just don't feel the need when they have the option of reloading to try again, and then they go and play different parts of the game if that doesn't work.
Blasterbot
Well-known member
Blue pencil claiming furries are an oppressed minority is pretty funny. banning 2 people from the thread over it is hilarious.
great chapter and good decision on giving up the job. my usual plan for stealth missions is
but I am awful at stealth missions.
hyperspacewizard
Well-known member
I really wish the 2077 had some BioWare and kept the humanity stat it could had lead to more interesting build decisions plus having some enemies just immune to certain hacks or all of them could have been interesting.
im glad seras is including some of the lore left out of the game the world of cyberpunk is way crazier then the game depicted. Hopefully the dlc brings in some of the coolier things.
im glad seras is including some of the lore left out of the game the world of cyberpunk is way crazier then the game depicted. Hopefully the dlc brings in some of the coolier things.
posh-goofiness
Well-known member
It won't.
Seras
Well-known member
Yeah but it's because that is the design of Motoko in the new ghost in the shell. This is what Motoko looks like as I based her off the 2045 SAC 'anime'Sound this picture on the SB thread.
Let's be real, the only way those jeans are staying up are if they are strapped to her leotard. Otherwise, the story would be little more than a long gag-real of Motoko getting pansed by her enemies... and friends.
She might as well not wear pants in that picture. Just put on stockings or leggings. I hate that look. It can't be comfortable with how she moves in the anime those pants would be giving you burnsSound this picture on the SB thread.
Let's be real, the only way those jeans are staying up are if they are strapped to her leotard. Otherwise, the story would be little more than a long gag-real of Motoko getting pansed by her enemies... and friends.
Yinko
Well-known member
So she's wearing low-rider yoga pants? But there's a belt, so they'll stay up.Yeah but it's because that is the design of Motoko in the new ghost in the shell. This is what Motoko looks like as I based her off the 2045 SAC 'anime'
Blasterbot
Well-known member
Cyberpunk styles. It being a bit weird and impractical but cool is unironically the goal for edgerunner outfits.
Seras
Well-known member
Always assumed they were more jeans than yoga pants. They are combat rated at the least in SAC. And they are jeans in my story.
They both exist? They always did. If you mean the Arasaka tower bombing? That was just Silverhand the engram which was made at less than great circumstances having missing memories, and Johnny being a narcissist filling in the info with him being a badass.