Ghost in the City

Chapter 21

After spending a night watching terrible movies Hiromi left in the morning, unfortunately her parents wanted her home.

So I settled in for some more tech work.

First thing first I noticed I had an odd bit next to my stats.

Technical attribute 1(5)

Crafting 1

It was the first thing I noticed when I opened my stat page. I decided to check through my alerts, because I had gotten a few when Vik installed my new optics.

*Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4. Technical Attribute.*

I blinked, what did maximum value mean?

I had no idea.

I continued through the alerts. Most of them were simply describing the uninstallation of my old optics, and installation of my new ones.

Except for one message.

*Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 0/2*

What the hell was Adaptation!?

I checked my stats page and it did have a Cyberware section. Under it I had two options currently. Although I did have plenty of minor bits and bobs that everyone tended toward.

I guess like V the Gamer only tracked the bigger stuff.

Militech Paraline *Adaptation Militech Paraline 0/0*

Kiroshi Mk1 *Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 0/2*

Okay so what was adaptation? And why did the Paraline Cyberdeck have a 0/0.

I tried clicking on it and to my happiness I got something, if not a complete answer.

*Spend 1 Stat point to improve Adaptation?*

No. I pulled back. I needed my stat points. And for now I had no idea what adaptation meant. I mean I could guess. Adapting my Cyberware? But I already had it installed. It was working as it should.

I shrugged. I would mess with it another time. At least I had one question answered. Ish.

Then I moved back to the stat page. Why does my Tech have a number next to it? I honestly couldnt get an answer. There wasnt a damn options menu, or a players guide with this Gamer system.

So I shrugged it off. It had something to do with my eyes, and bigger numbers were better. So I would just accept it was a good thing and move on.

But I did notice one last thing since I was playing with my stat sheet. I still had a perk to choose. Well two actually.

Blades and Street Brawler.

Both were easy choices.

Parry: With a blade in hand, deflect attacks.

Honestly there was only one reason to pick this Perk. Eventually I could parry bullets. Listen, if anyone ever says they dont think cutting a bullet out of the air with a katana is cool. They are lying. Sure it would cost me a few perks, but I didnt really plan on running around with a Katana very often, and defense was always super important.

Then there was Street Brawler. Which I also already had my path picked out.

Improvised Weapons: Sometimes in a brawl anything you can grab needs to be used, know the best way to fight with day to day items.

One more perk in that tree away from Gun-Fu.

Instantly though my mind was a whirl. I looked around at all the tech stuff I had been planning on tinkering with and I kinda cringed at just how deadly everything around me could be.

That could both come in handy, and be a little distracting, if everything I looked at was processed as a weapon first.

I shook it away. First I needed to continue disassembling all this tech. I smiled as I familiarized myself with old junk and slowly I got more and more alerts.

Until finally, the sun setting long ago I got the alert I wanted.

*Technical Attribute Leveled up!*

Tech 2? Yes! Now I could level Crafting more!

I yawned despite myself and looked around, realizing I had barely eaten all day. I stretched and groaned a bit as my spine popped as I decided to grab some chow before I hit the hay.

--

I was glaring. My hands were completely calm despite my constant desire to start throwing stuff.

*Jun: Im alive.*

Thats it. After so long? After not knowing if Jun was dead in a Maelstrom base somewhere? He just sends Im alive?

And he refused to respond to any messages back either.

I was gripping my soldering iron a little too tightly as I slowly turned it off and set it down.

I needed to go kill something.

No. I shook that thought away. I was not going to turn to murder for stress relief. That is absolutely where I draw the line. I took a deep breath and let it out. Deciding to grab something to eat instead. As I was getting dressed I considered it.

Jun was alive. That was good. But he was withdrawing, and I had no idea what the Claws were doing to him, or making him do.

Considering Juns personality? I had no doubt that next time I see him, he will have a lot more chrome. If that was the case. Next time. Would I be dealing with Jun as he lost himself? Cyberpsychosis?

If the Tyger Claws dont take care of Jun. I will end them. I whispered to myself, unable to stop the words slipping from my mouth.

I honestly wasnt a fan of the claws in general. The whole sex work thing tends to piss me off. Even if Judys plan in the game was destined for failure.

Mine wouldnt. I wouldnt go after their business. I would just kill them until they stopped existing if they let Jun get hurt.

I sighed pushing myself away from the table to head to the bathroom. I was getting worked up. So I walked in and turned on the tap. I washed my face a bit and looked into the mirror. Almost flinching as reddish purple eyes stared back.

I had forgotten for a second that I changed my eye color last night. It wasnt hard, Kiroshi was top of the line. Of course they would have an option to adjust color.

They still felt weird. I realized it was that little thing in the back of your mind, an irritation that told you something wasnt quite right. Like something is in your eye but doesnt hurt, but you still know something is wrong.

I suppose that was how I would process Cyberware. A slight discomfort.

I think I had figured out what Adaptation was. I closed my eyes letting myself breath for a minute.

It wasnt bad. Just different. Id live.

I stepped away, turning back to my table. There was a part of me begging to go outside with a gun in hand. To go find some more scavs, or take a job.

I shook that part away. Settled down on my couch.

I had taken apart most of the scrap I had gathered by now. Learning a ton as I did. Or rather learning as the XP continued to flow. I had a few ideas of neat toys that could help me out on jobs, but all of the actually useful stuff was way outside of my skill level, much less a price range.

But I now had parts. So I took a laptop, broken and stripped for now. And started putting it together. Simple really I had scrapped multiple of them from the dump so I had all the parts I needed, and as I worked, the XP both Tech, and Crafting flowed in.

I guess my system liked me actually making something rather than just disassembling.

It took me a bit but when I was done. I turned it on, and the OS actually started.

I was using the Hard drive that was in one of the laptops and it started up. Asking for a password.

Half a second later I pulled out my connect cord from my neck and plugged it in. A moment to breach it and I was in.

There wasnt anything interesting. This laptop belonged to some woman a nobody. I mean there was literally nothing but crappy games, useless stuff like that.

I restarted the system and started wiping the data.

Who knows maybe Ill just sell the laptop? Could make some eddies.

When it was done I nodded and put it to the side.

Now what else can I fix?

--

I had a fan now. It buzzed merrily away next to the radio, and I basically just controlled it by hacking it every time I wanted to change its settings.

It was cool.

Heh.

But more importantly, putting junk together gave me that sweet sweet XP alerts.

So much so that Crafting had leveled up!

*Crafting skill level up!*

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

I was giggly because perks let me hyper focus, or gain stuff that my normal skill didnt cover. In this case the options were crazy!

Crafting was so Wide. There was perks that spread out into tons of stuff.

Salvager. Get an eye for locating scrap.

Enduring builds. You can make it stronger. Tougher. The tricks of the trade to make your product rough and tumble.

And so much more. There were a lot of perks I wanted in crafting, but I would have to pick what I thought would be the most useful. Which is why as I browsed through the lists I came across the one thing that had me grinning.

Robotics wizard. Others make machines. You make life.

I knew it was premature. I didnt have the skill to be making robots. But at the same time. There had been an idea I had that I couldnt just ignore.

It was possible. Dangerous. Stupid maybe. But possible. I even had an idea on how to solve the whole lack of processing power that would have made my idea impossible.

So I picked it.

Worse comes to worse, I end up not using it much.

Instantly though my mind was full of knowledge. This time it was kinda weird. Not just how to make robots, because part of that was covered under base Crafting. But how to make them better.

Heh. I could probably sign on as an engineer at a Corporation and design Cyber limbs. And it was true. Sure I couldnt use most of the higher end stuff from the perk, but it still gave me an eye and experience in smoothing robotic designs that would make me a very useful cog in a corpo machine.

Oh well. I shrugged, settling back onto the couch. Looking up to hack into the TV to change the channel to something mindless so I could go back to work tinkering when I got an alert.

*Breach Protocol skill level up!*

Breach 3 huh. That was lucky!

--

Bitch! I cursed as I waved my finger. I had just zapped my finger like a gonk.

Idiot! Moron! Dont touch the fucking active electric wire you you! I cursed as I danced around the room. Fuck was I electroBOOM now?

Okay I need a break Also stop talking to myself. I rumbled as I walked over and powered everything down. I had been tinkering all day. Mostly just grinding out Technical Attribute since I was maxed in crafting.

It was slow. Sometimes painful work.

But I was close to another level, so it was all worth it.

I opened up my contacts. Unfortunately Hiromi was locked down again. Her parents were worried about her running around with the active, and escalating gang war burning down the city every day, so she was stuck in school.

Ichi was still working for Shobo.

And Jun wasnt responding.

I didnt really have anyone else.

That thought made me sad. For about five seconds.

I wasnt going to let that get me down! So I decided to wander out into the city. I had stats to grind. Things to improve at! I wasnt going to let myself get worn down by Jun being a massive pain in the ass!

As I headed out I started quick hacking stuff again. Pinging every device I could find mostly just for something to do. It was sorta relaxing in a way, to just Interface with everything around me.

Even if all I was doing was sending a ping through the system it felt like I was a piece of the network. It was nice.

Of course the actual quick hack XP was a little slow. So I started pinging people as I jogged past. Enjoying the small web of lights my Kiroshis displayed across my vision as I pinged more and more systems around me. Soon it felt like I was jogging through a spider web, seeing how so many things were connected.

Really. A lot of stuff was connected. Vending machines were a dizzying maze of connections between them. I stopped and just watched for a minute.

*Intelligence Leveled up!*

I stopped double checking that alert. Intelligence 4?

Already!? How did Intelligence level up so quickly? I hadnt even gotten a quick hack level!

I went back through my alerts, and yeah I got a pretty nice little surge of Intelligence XP as I was jogging. But why? Sure I was pinging people as well as electronics I could see, but that doesnt explain the sudden surge.

What did I know about the intelligence stat? Well not much. In the game it was the control stat for hacking. It also gave you more Ram for every point. No wait I remember reading the actual stat description in the game.

Determines netrunning proficiency. I muttered thinking back to all the stats in Cyberpunk.

Intelligence wasnt Well intelligence, or how smart you were exactly. It was processing speed But more. It was understanding!

I realized everything was connected If almost everything is connected, even through different internets Then that opens a lot of possibilities doesnt it? I muttered looking up as I got an alert.

*100 Intelligence XP Gained*

I guess Im on the right track. So I had been thinking of Intelligence wrong from the start. I was thinking it was how smart I am, but that isnt right at all. Its more about netrunning! Understanding, processing power. All of that fell under intelligence.

After all I remember a lot of skills I would normally think of falling under Intelligence fell under Tech in Cyberpunk.

I looked over at a vending machine, following its network connection to the roof of a nearby building. That was the network node then. Where a lot of the vending machines were connected through.

I instantly found a way up using a nearby fence and grabbing onto the edge of the building I clambered up. Settling next to the node.

I pulled out the cord from my neck and clicked it into place.

Security blocked me out, but I wasnt exactly hacking into Arasaka tower.

A few minutes of slowly peeling through the ICE, I breached in. There wasnt much there, Internet traffic mostly sending and receiving data from the vending machines, nothing I was too interested in, no I was more focused on the connections themselves.

I stood and pinged the node, with the security already punched through it activated instantly.

A spiderweb erupted from the satellite dish it was connected to.

Reaching out from it in all directions. I looked around, staring at the connections just taking in the sight of something so ethereal.

I looked at the web and decided to try out an idea. I was already at its central node. Where everything connected through. So I should be able to I closed my eyes. I hadn't actually done this yet, letting myself enter the net in a way. Actual Netrunning I closed my eyes and let myself fall through the cord.

Suddenly I was in a world of light. Of data. My body wasnt even there, Instead I was just an awareness. My connection was not good enough to form an actual digital avatar. Still I was there. In the net.

Connected.

I cant even describe where I was. Nothing was solid. Just lights, and data transferring on connections making bridges, a web streaking out into pure darkness, but I could move through them. I accessed one of the connections letting me move from the node I was out to one of the peripheries. A vending machine from the data I was able to access with a mental touch.

With a thought I activated ping. Quick hacking the device I was literally inside the CPU of. A wave of light. A mass of data erupting in a wave that ran up the spideweb before bouncing around more and more.

It was Beautiful.

So this was the net. This is what it looked like in Cyberpunk.

No wonder people were so interested in it. To see it. Experience it as more than just a window on a screen.

To be data.

I pulled back, going back up the connection to the node, and unjacking.

I couldnt even pull the pull the jack out before I was on my ass gasping.

Fuck! I hissed my head felt like it was on fire! I reached back and felt the port that had my Cyberdeck installed in it, and I had to hiss.

The entire area was hot. Like an overheating computer.

Fuck. I cursed again standing up a little woozily as I rushed down the building, a single glance had a vending machine dispensing some cold drink I had no name for. I had already breached the entire system after all.

I pressed the can against the back of my head, letting its icy coldness combat the heat.

No wonder they use the damn icebaths. I grumbled. As I sat on a bench and just let my head cool down.

So that was the net. A net I had taken my first step into. A child in netrunners terms.

So where does the child go from here? The Net is truly vast and infinite. I whispered, out an old quote leaning back and staring up into the sky.

--

After cooling off I went home, an eye on my alerts told me I had gained a ton just from my brief foray into the net.

*Quickhacking skill level up!*

Which put me at level 3 for that, and a ton of Intelligence alerts.

I was almost ready for the next level. That was how much I had learned about the net with just stepping a toe into its depths.

Of course my head was still warm, and I wasnt exactly up for trying that again. At least not without an upgrade, or an ice bath prepared.

Considering my apartment didnt even have a bath, that made things more difficult.

I flopped onto the couch staring at my wild assortment of tech that I had been tinkering with reached out and grabbed the wire that had shocked me this morning.

Time to get back to work. I kept at it until late when I decided to sleep so I would be ready for the next day.

That night I was woken up by shooting.

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