Chapter 146

I was back outside the next morning, after spending all night working on the program I was out at the gym. Pushing myself as hard as I could to try and get more Body XP.

 

There was no John bothering me today thankfully. Just me and the weights that I was pushing myself against.

 

And the new chrome was making a massive difference.

 

I was pushing weight I never would have managed before. My arms were connected to my body far more intrinsically now. No more tingling feeling around my shoulders telling me I was pulling at my bones a bit too much.

 

No, I felt strong. My chrome secured into the whole making Motoko stronk.

 

I finally put down the weights, wiping my forehead on a towel, as I then wiped down the weights.

 

That was a good physical workout, but I had more to grind.

 

I cleaned up a bit and double checked my boots were secure before I started jogging.

 

Down the neon lit stairs and to the street and then I turned right and started moving. Pushing myself to keep going despite already being tired. I jogged all the way to where the road ended, Jig Jig street just below, I took the elevator keeping myself moving as it went down by shadowboxing and keeping my heart rate up.

 

When it opened I was out and moving, jogging quickly through the dark street of Jig Jig, ignoring the looks I was getting as I ran through and then ended up at Sakura Market. Though this time I didn’t stop for Ramen.

 

Instead I ran up the concrete stairs, ending back up on the upper levels, I ran towards home. Sprinting and jogging in bursts to try and push myself even more.

 

By the time I made it back, I had earned some alerts for Athletics, and Body, but no level ups.

 

I sighed, heading upstairs ignoring the noise of Rockerboy Neighbor playing her music again and headed in for a shower.

 

As I finished that, head half covered in a towel, Jun was up. Jun was making himself breakfast, and looking at me tiredly.

 

“Mornin.”

 

“Morning Jun-Nii. Sleep well?”

He blinked at me, both eyelids closing at slightly different paces.

 

“Slept okay. Not enough.” He grumbled, and I nodded, walking over and patting his back.

 

“Can’t go back to sleep for a while?”

“Got a gig from Fujimura-Sama. Just bodyguard stuff like usual, but he wants me.”

 

“Hmm. Well if you start feeling too tired, you tell him that you need a break to get some sleep.” I ordered as I wandered away. I knew Jun wouldn’t and couldn’t do that, but I cared more for Jun’s health than I did Fujimura’s wants.

 

“Sure Imouto.”

 

I laughed at his obviously insincere reply, but that was fine. I buzzed around Jun, making sure his XXL burrito was warmed enough but not too hot before plopping it in his hand, which he stared at in surprise for a moment before looking happy as he took a bite.

 

My own breakfast was a mix of a few other things I liked that I could find in vending machines in the area.

 

I choked it all down as fast as I could, ignoring the taste as most food in Night City I could only just stomach, and certainly didn’t enjoy.

 

But food was food, and while it didn’t taste good, one thing NC did have was a dietary fulfilling foodstuffs.

 

Jun seemed to finally wake up a bit after his breakfast, looked at me as I was sitting at the living room table tinkering with the ECM program. “What about you? Doing anything today?”

“Mostly programming this Militech ECM unit. It’s gonna take a while, but everything is quiet at the moment. I told you about the eddies we made in the badlands, so we aren’t exactly hurting right now.”

Jun just snorted.

 

That gig made more than Jun made in a year and then some.

 

“Don’t rub it in.” He told me with a huff, and I laughed shaking my head.

 

“I wasn’t! Although if you ever want to leave the gangoon biz Section 9 would consider your resume… Consider it.” I offered, eyes narrowed like I was judging him and he instantly grabbed a pillow off the couch and launched it at me.

 

But I was too fast!

 

I saw it coming, and leapt leaping backwards from where I was sitting to land crouched on the back of the couch having dodged his attack!

 

“Nin-nin!”

 

“Fuck off!” He snapped half serious and half laughing at me as he wandered to the bathroom for his own shower.

 

I was actually a little disappointed that Jun didn’t want to rough house, but he was pretty tired.

 

I’d make sure he got a good nights sleep tonight and wake him up with a pillow to the face tomorrow for daring to attack me!

 

I was grinning evilly as I settled back onto the couch to continue the programming.

 

—–

 

I ran the program through the ECM unit, seeing it turn on, I cobbled together a holo emitter to get it to actually display showing just a circle of light that activated.

 

Everything looked good.

 

But I would need to actually test it.

 

Gathering up a unit, as well as grabbing a spare Yukimura from the Arasaka equipment, I loaded it up and left the apartment.

 

Couldn’t exactly do any shooting in here. In fact I couldn’t do it in most places.

 

I loaded up and drove north. Taking the long circuitous road out to Westbrook. It didn’t take too long to find a side of the road that was full of trash and empty enough I could do some practice.

 

I plopped the ECM unit on an old crate, and then walked away, hooking the Yukimura up into my Smart link and then placing a target to the side of the ECM.

 

I didn’t exactly want to shoot it after all.

 

Then I remotely activated the ECM unit and opened fire.

 

Pretty much instantly the rounds shot forward and then simply went wild as their targeting systems fed them nothing but false data.

 

Bullets instead of shooting straight went wild thunking and slamming into the ground, one even got so turned around it spun towards me, and I had to duck out of the way as it zipped past.

 

“Well that was… A thing.” I muttered. Quickly checking the ECM System and checking the programming. Finding out how it handled actually being targeted.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it’s taken without the author’s consent. Report it.

 

Most of that was stripped wholesale from the original programming. So it handled it just fine. A few quick tests, and a few more rounds shot towards the ECM, and I was convinced.

 

It works.

 

Not it was time to install.

 

—–

 

“What are you doing?” Jun asked as he got home that night. I looked up from the chest rig I was rigging the holo emitters through to shake it at him.

 

“Armor!”

 

“Yes I see that. But what are you doing?”

 

“The little boxes right there? ECM modules. I’m outfitting the chest rigging with the holo emitters it needs to spoof Smart weapon tracking right now. The dang things are fiddly.”

 

He nodded as he picked one up that I already finished and settled in its place, looking it over as I continued to work.

 

I was almost done!

 

The hardest part had been peeling apart the cloth sections, to slip wires through to power the emitters. I had to do actual sewing, but sewing with Kevlar wasn’t easy.

 

“The work looks good. Why do you need holo emitters?”

“Same reason your tattoos glow. The smart weapons tracking gets spoofed by the data in the hologram.”

“Why not just get a ECM tattoo then? They aren’t expensive.”

“While having an ECM on me at all times could be useful… I don’t like tattoos.” I said and Jun actually looked shocked at what I just said.

 

“What’s wrong with tattoos!?”

 

“I just don’t like them.” I finally got the wire to go through! Quickly soldering it into the power system, I started sewing kevlar closed again.

 

“Well… You should! Mine are preem!”

 

I looked over to Jun. His stupid vest-like jacket that didn’t cover his chest or arms to show off his chrome muscles, and the dragon tattoos across his chest…

 

“If you say so.” I answered, earning an honest squawk of outrage from Jun.

 

“My Tattoos are awesome Motoko!”

 

“I’m glad you like them.” I answered and he grumbled deep in his chest and my continued disinterest.

 

“You just aren’t preem enough to have tats.”

 

“Reverse psychology? I wouldn’t want them even if they were offered.” I replied, continuing to sew up the armor. C’mon so close to being done!

 

Jun’s big hand suddenly reached over and fell over my head patting me lightly and I scoffed a bit, but leaned in and nudged him to show that I appreciated the attention.

 

“Done!” I proclaimed holding up the complete chest rig and then just as I expected. I got the alert I needed.

 

*100 Technical Ability XP Gained*

 

*Technical Ability Leveled up!*

 

Tech 6!

 

I giggled and clutched the rig tight as I luxuriated in a job well done!

 

“What’s with you?”

“I finished it! Well okay no I still have a lot of work to do, but I finished the ECM units! These were such a pain in the ass Jun!”