Chapter 126

A belly full of good food that wasn’t XXL burritos or nomad chili was exactly what I needed. Sure I had killed some gonk for it, but he threatened me first! If he didn’t want to get shot, he shouldn’t threaten people! Duh!

 

I would have to ditch the vehicle soon though. I wasn’t sure what the rules for this kind of thing were here in Seattle. I mean in Night City I wouldn’t even worry about it, but this was a whole new place. People were… Different here.

 

The sharp suspicious eyes as people kept an eye out all around them was gone. Instead there were more people hanging out on the streets. Fucking around, stopping and chatting. It wasn’t the constant get to where you need to be like it was in NC.

 

Also I had expected that arrogant fuck to be tougher. He had some chrome sure, but not enough protecting his skull. His goons were nearly pure meat. One of them had even tried to run once he realized his gun wasn’t working.

 

Which was kinda weird. Normally they would have dropped their weapons and attacked as one, or at least took cover and pulled a side gun.

 

Seattle was a really weird place.

 

*Ringing.*

 

I blinked at the call.

 

Huh?

 

*Hiromi?*

 

*Motokooooo! Are you in Seattle!? I’ve been calling for like two days! How was the trip! Panam didn’t do anything weird to you right?*

 

*Whoa slow down. It’s nice to hear from you! I’m in Seattle. I’m eating at a ramen joint over here. Food’s about the same, which is nice. We had to go around a big Raffen Shiv movement so it took a bit longer to get here, this is our first night.*

 

*You aren’t hurt?*

 

*Nah. I shot at them a few times and they took off. We were a bit too tough for them to bite into. How’s everything going over there?*

 

*Oh! Well Malcolm crashed his car. He’s okay, and the car is fine too. But you should have seen how mad he was. Don’t tell him, but it was honestly hilarious.*

 

*Oh no! That car is his baby. How bad?*

 

*Not too bad, he took a turn too hard from what I understand, he isn’t sharing the whole story of course. Just bashed in the rear end a bit, he hit a light pole. NCPD were not happy.*

 

*Pfft. I told him he needed to go slow for a while until he got used to her.*

 

*Yeah well. Everything else is okay. Quiet. I spoke to Jun! He’s doing okay, but Fujimura has got him on guard duty so I didn’t chat with him for long.*

 

*I’ll have to call him.*

 

*Yeah… But only after we are done! Tell me about your trip! How is Seattle? Are you taking pictures of everything?*

 

*The trip was mostly boring and dirty. Don’t recommend. Seattle is weird. People are way less worried about getting shot… I shot some punk gangster and his henchmen. It was kinda random.*

 

*Motoko, how long have you been in Seattle?*

 

*Umm… Like four hours? Maybe five?*

 

*Motoko we have to talk about your killing people thing.* Hiromi said with a sigh that came through the call. *You know Seattle isn’t Night City! What if SPD comes after you?*

 

*Wait… Is that even a thing?* I stopped myself because I almost just asked if the police tried to stop murders.

 

Wow. Is this the feeling you get when you realize your morals are super skewed?

 

*Hey Hiromi? I think I might be a little weird.*

 

The line went silent for a while as I slipped on some more noodles waiting for Hiromi to get back on the line. Did her parents bug her or something?

 

*Motoko. Just… Maybe stick to Panam, and come back… Soon.*

 

*Yeah, I think I’ll head back to the motel and go to sleep. I just wanted to explore a bit and get some chow, but Seattle is kinda wider than Night City, less stuff in walking distance.*

 

I finished the last of my Ramen slurping it up and headed out to my new car. As I started driving back to the Motel I was still chatting with Hiromi.

 

*So you have your meeting tomorrow? Are you ready?*

*Yeah, I have weapons and armor, and I’ll just be backing up Panam to make sure she gets out. She doesn’t think there will be trouble, but you-Oh my god. Is that an arcade!?* I gasped aloud as I did a rather dangerous U turn to find a spot near what I had just spotted.

 

*Motoko?*

 

*Hiromi! I just saw an old style arcade! I saw arcade machines!*

 

*Umm Okay?*

 

*I’ll talk to you later Hiromi!* I hung up as I ran across the street to enter into… Well it looked kinda like a bar, but it had a ton of old arcade machines! I didn’t recognize any of the games! Which honestly kind of made it better. Sure I didn’t see Street Fighter II, but I bet whatever these games were would be fun!

 

“Ah… I don’t have any quarters.” I muttered. None of the machines had updated payment. Just the old Quarter inputs.

 

“Hey kid! Get away from those! Those are antiques!” The man behind the bar called out pointing a dirty rag at me.

 

I looked away from where I had kneeled down to check the quarter tray. Desperate for any hope.

 

“Yeah I know! You got this thing on auto play or something? I need to kick some ass for a few hours!” I called back over the loud ambience of the bar. The stink of smoke and alcohol was heavy, but I could deal with that for some good old gaming.

 

“A kid like you wants to play the old stuff? Let’s see then.” The guy behind the bar said as he tossed down a rag and a glass nodding to another worker before coming around. He walked behind the machine and hit a switch and it turned onto free play. “Don’t want people to come in and trash my machines. These things are expensive.”

“Yeah I bet. This would be almost a hundred years old! Well. If it was original. It’s not.” The game I was talking about was some fighting game, but it literally looked like an arcade cabinet you would see in the eighties. Cartoonish characters on the side of old wood, with an actual CRT screen fizzing a little from age, but still clear.

“Heh. Interesting you can spot that.” He muttered. I looked over the machines, honestly it was mostly the condition. I had seen arcade machines after just a few decades. They tended to be burnt out, and rough.

 

But these were pristine.

 

No way you would see pristine machines after nearly a century.

 

“If you can give me a challenge, I’ll let you play on any of them that you want… As long as you don’t break anything.”

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“Deal!”

—–

 

“Mwahaha!” I laughed evilly just like the character on the screen. Evil Chun-Li basically was my new favorite character.

 

“Damn kid!” The owner of the shop as it turned out, grumbled as I wrecked him. I hadn’t at first, it had taken me a while to remember the controls, but that was like… Two games? Before I was pushing him hard.

 

I wasn’t even really a fighting game lover. I did end up playing a lot, but more as someone to play against than because I was interested.

 

“Heh. Where did you even play this before? I don’t think anyone else in the city even still keeps cabinets.”

 

“Ah. I’m from Night City, so yeah.” I answer lying to hide where my knowledge came from.

 

“That explains it. Wonder if any other games survived over there. Can you tell me where you played? I wouldn’t mind finding some new data to make a few new machines.”

 

“Ah… Sorry, they don’t exist anymore.”

 

The man sighed, shaking his head. “That’s the way of things isn’t it. Time erodes it all down.”

 

I frowned. I mean sure, I could see how easy it would be for data to be lost considering how much was lost during the datakrash.

 

But the data wasn’t lost-lost…

 

“I mean, it’s not completely lost.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I mean I’m a netrunner. There is tons of data out there on the net, or even on the old nets that would probably be someone’s full collection of arcade games and stuff.”

 

“Heh. It’s been fifty years, kid. That data is long lost, either gobbled up by AI, or just had the old servers fail. Trust me, I spend a lot of time maintaining this equipment. Imagine a server out in the desert somewhere running 24/7 to keep an AI alive.” The man shook his head. “It’s why I keep this stuff running. A reminder of all we lost.”

 

Ouch. Old man! Don’t hit me with the decay of civilization so hard okay? “Yeah.” I muttered, no longer really wanting to play games.

Stupid apocalypse.

 

I sighed and moved to leave before stopping. Across the street there was an SPD car parked behind the Villefort Alvarado I had stolen.

 

Wow. That was fast. I popped the key shard out of my neck and tossed it into a trash can. “Well this was fun old man. If I ever get more game data, I’ll come see you.”

“Heh. Sure kid.” He offered as he rubbed down the machine and set it back to pay mode.

 

I walked out and down the street disappearing out of the cops view and getting the hell out of there. It would be a bit of a long walk back to Panam, but eh.

 

Better than getting arrested.

 

—–

 

“Okay Motoko you ready?”

 

“Honestly Panam, I’ve been waiting for hours for this.” I offered, we were coming up on the drop off point. The fact it was in an abandoned section of the docks, in an old industrial park that had long been overrun with trash from what little I’ve seen of it. Made me more suspicious than nervous.

 

“I’m going to get out early. I’ll be watching over you, so don’t worry about them doing something stupid. If they try to attack you, just get back to your truck, I’ll cover you.” I said as I opened the door moving to slip out before she pulled into the park.

 

“Wait! What do you mean watching over! I hired you to guard me!”

 

“Panam. Trust me, I’ll be way more effective if they don’t know I’m here.” I offered and only once she sighed and nodded did I jump out of the car as she slowed and then I raced over, Leaping over the barbed wire fencing and then into the industrial park.