Chapter 10

I didn’t go home.

With eddies comes… Potential. First step was to finally get an outfit that I could be happy with. It was a little embarrassing to show up to a gig and face Wakako wearing an old ratty T-shirt and scuffed jeans.

First I called Hiromi, but unfortunately she was still out of contact again. It would have been nice to go on a shopping spree with her, but probably for the best that I didn’t. So I started hitting clothing stores.

Boots. New pants. And something special that I had been thinking about for a while.

Boots were easy. Combat boots could be found all over the place, although finding a pair that fit my feet weren’t as easy. They didn’t usually make them in fourteen year old girl size.

I found a set eventually way out in 6th St. territory. Turns out the military aesthetic meant there was interest for girls too.

I even grabbed a pair of tight jeans there. Slim and tight, but they were military weave. The sort of clothing that stretched when needed so the tightness was a benefit not a negative.

I even grabbed a few strap on pockets for extra loot potential. Super tight jeans weren’t great for pockets anyways.

The last piece was more difficult.

I headed to the Kabuki market. It was the only place that I knew for sure there was a Netrunner shop.

Parking Jun’s bike and finding the store took forever. It was a maze of a circular design and I had to walk around the whole thing twice before I found the shop I was looking for.

The Dewdrop Inn. Hence why I didn’t check it out at first. It was a Netrunner shop. It even had two Netrunner stations in the back, but I was here for info.

“Nice to meet, you. I’m Motoko.” I greeted the older woman standing behind the counter.

“Yoko. Your name’s not a familiar one.”

“No it wouldn’t be. I just have a few questions, and maybe make some purchases?”

The Japanese woman looked me over a bit before shrugging. “Well, go on.”

“Do you know where I can buy a Netrunner suit?”

“Hoh. I see. Alright. Yeah kid, I know some sellers. Since they are always looking for business I don’t mind handing it over.” Her eyes went yellow and I received a text a moment later with a few different locations.

I gave her a smile. I couldn’t help it. I had been looking for a netrunner suit for a while.

“Preem. Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. You lookin’ to buy?”

“Maybe. I’m looking for a starter setup. Something to learn off. I’m uh. Not much of a Netrunner myself, but I want to pick up some basics.” For now. Eventually I would be a Bartmoss. But that was in the future.

“You want a netrun suit but aren’t a Netrunner? Interesting. But alright. Sure kid I can get you setup. You got the eddies?”

“I have some, but I have no idea what the cost would be. Don’t stiff me too hard?” I asked, and it earned a genuine laugh from the older woman. She even took down her circular glasses and rubbed at her eyes as she regained control.

“Alright. I’ll go easy on you. Listen I’m obviously not a ripper, so anything I hand over will need to be chipped in. Lucky for you, I actually have an old deck, not the best, but it’s cheap. I’ll hand it over for Four-thousand five.” She reached under her desk and pulled out a case, sort of like a shard case but a bit larger, and after wiping it off from a bit of dust she opened it.

“Militech Paraline. It’s cheap. About all that can be said about it, but if you want to learn how to run the net, it’s a solid starting point.”

“Okay.” I agreed. It was a lot of money. But I needed to take the next step on my path as a merc. I needed to be able to hack stuff. My eyes went blue as I sent the money over.

“Well, alright, well let me get you set up. I’ll even throw in some freebies. Funny kid. Netrunner suit and a basic deck. Alright.” She said with a chuckle.

“Thank you.” I said again. Despite spending so much cash at once. I really did need this. If I had been a Netrunner I could have shut down the Camera on the last job without all the fuss. It would have made it easier on me for sure.

“Also here is a Program. It’s just Ping, the basics of the basics. Should give you somewhere to start.” She said, handing me a shard.

“Oh! Thank you very much!”

“Go on then kid. Happy running.”

I thanked her again as I headed out. I would have to reach out to the Netrunner suit people. See if they have what I am looking for.

But first? I needed to see a Ripper.

—-

As much as I would have liked to stop and see Viktor. I already had a Ripper that I thought was good enough right behind my house.

So an hour later I walked into the Ripper of Japantown, the same one that had helped me fix my optics.

“Welcome, how can we help you?” The receptionist. A different girl this time I noted asked as she looked up from her desktop computer.

“I’m here to have a Cyberdeck installed. I already have the deck.”

“Excellent. I will inform the Doctor. Payment is here.” She said handing over an actual data pad for a moment which I noticed had all the little fees and such.

I sighed, but put my hand on the pad and accepted the transfer.

There goes another couple grand.

“Alright, the Doctor will see you now.”

I shrugged and walked into the Doctor’s Ripper room.

“Oh you again. Good. Come get settled in. What are we doing today?”

“Cyberdeck.” I inform her holding up the case and she nods takes it from my hands. Her right hand already covered in equipment pulls the deck out and seems to be scanning it over.

“Old but in good condition. Alright. Here are the options, let’s get everything picked out before we start ripping.” She told me pushing a screen over infront of me. I made a few selections and asked her if something else was possible for one but in the end I got what I wanted.

“Settle in, and let me put in the anesthesia.”

I settled into the chair and rested back as she gave me a quick injection and I started falling asleep.

—-

I settled onto the couch. Now with something a bit better than baby’s first netdeck, and got to work actually messing around. So there was still one problem that I would have to deal with for now. My optics weren’t Kiroshi I didn’t have a ‘scan’ mode nearly as powerful, in fact mine was pretty much useless. Cyberdecks worked with a combination of optic scans to find the wireless connection port which opened up the device for the hack.

So since my scan was so weak, it wasn’t exactly fast.

But I could at least do it. I did have one more alteration that I had talked to the Ripper about. It cost me a couple hundred extra eddies on my ‘surgery’ but I didn’t have the normal cord that anyone with a cyberdeck had. The one attached to the wrist.

I always thought it was kinda stupid to lose access to a hand in order to breach a system.

Especially since I already had a better idea. I reached behind my head and felt the semi hidden cord port on the back of my neck.

It felt super weird whenever I pulled the cord out, but hey. I could now start breaching a system manually without losing access to one of my hands.

Plus it made me feel like the Major.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Now that I was home though? It was time to do some grinding.

First I looked over to the radio. And after just a minute I was in. That was a lot easier compared to the hour it had taken me with the external netdeck.

*100 Breach Protocol XP Gained.*

*100 Intelligence XP Gained*

I grinned at that. This was so much easier! Easy peasy. I turned from the Radio to the TV doing the same thing. Breaching its firmware in a minute.

*100 Breach Protocol XP Gained.*

Perfect! Despite my worry over Jun. Despite the loneliness that had started creeping in now that he wasn’t coming home. Despite my worry about my unearthed murderous desire. I had fun. It was hacking. Of course it was fun! I giggled as I got the TV to change channels. I even peeked my head out the door and started hacking into the Burrito vendor.

I was gonna make that thing stop giving Jun burritos if he was going to pull this shit.

This time it took some real work. The security on the thing wasn’t… Great? At least I didn’t think it would be, but it was still more secure than my TV or Radio. Sitting up against the door of the apartment when I realized it was gonna take a few minutes as I stared at the vending machine. My eyes only seeing code, was… Fun. Weird but fun.

Finally I managed to get in. Breaching its security.

*100 Breach Protocol XP Gained.*

*Breach Protocol skill level up!*

*100 Intelligence XP Gained*

I was a bit distracted though. I had to shake my head just to get it to calm down. Breach Protocol information was… Dense. Not just instinct on how to do it. But general knowledge of how to Breach systems. The protocols and common tricks, yet more. Knowledge about tons of different electronic systems. Their security. How good it would be. It was the first time as well that I could instantly know what I didn’t know. Some things I could think about like vehicles. I had no idea how to Breach. The knowledge wasn’t there, but it would be.

I knew.

“Wow. I am hackerman.” I blinked at my own stupid statement looked around and was really glad no one was here.

“I really need to stop spending so much time alone.” I mutter. Idly standing up and leaving the poor vending machine alone as I head inside, Turning on the tv and setting it to a news channel just to have some noise.

I crashed on the couch and closed down the Cyberdeck connection. In essence turning it off for now.

I sighed and closed my eyes.

Sleep.

—–

My eyes opened in shock when the door opened. I was on my knees in front of the couch Unity drawn and aimed as I was ready to blow some holes in whoever had just tried to break in. The man that entered was…

“Jun?” I asked in surprise. It was Jun. But not.

“Hey Imouto.” He grumbled the same as always as he stopped at the entranceway looking at my reaction for a minute.

“Jun… What happened!?” I gasped in horror, dropping the Unity, because Jun’s arms. Both of them all the way up to his shoulders were no longer natural. Sure they still had patches of his real skin, and those patches were covered in tattoos. But it was obvious he had Cyberarms now.