Chapter 148

I left the club after hanging out for a while. Afterlife was neat, but I had spent my social batteries. Instead I decided to focus on what I wanted to do next, having used the time at the bar to figure it out. Getting home, I wandered over to my workbench inside my room and plopped down into the chair.

 

I wanted to level my Tech ability more.

 

Between my work on the armor for Section 9, and the tools I had made I made a big advancement, but I still wanted more.

 

So I plopped down the bag of supplies I had bought on my way home, and went to work.

 

CAD first.

 

Connecting my personal link into the laptop, I was able to do a lot of work without even touching the keyboard or mouse now, just letting my mental netrunning work on what I needed, as my hands parted out parts for what I was going to do.

 

I had a lot of money so I was going to basically burn a lot of it for experience.

 

The parts I had bought were everything I would need to make rudimentary drones.

 

Design Wizard, A.I. Whisperer and Robotics Wizard all synergized extremely well with what I was doing.

 

On the laptops screen a very simple drone was coming together. I still wanted Tachikoma. I couldn’t really cosplay the major without them!

 

So I was going to start. Even if a lot of the work would be wasted when I leveled up my tech, I could still start iterating on the design, start working on the AI. Of course at first it wouldn’t be an AI. I couldn’t possibly make something with AGI levels of awareness on what little processing power I had.

 

No, first it would all just be algorithms. A few learning scripts, to develop walking patterns, and things that my good little boys and girls would need.

 

But like all children, they would use the first steps of these algorithms to iterate from themselves.

 

But first, I needed a drone to start the process.

 

I basically was going to make something as similar to a full size Tachikoma that I could, just much smaller. Two feet or so across, maybe a foot tall at the head bulb. I likely wouldn’t add the back compartment in yet. That would simplify it for the first iteration.

 

I just needed to make the drone, and then start filling in the details with programming.

 

The CAD program took up my attention, once I parsed out the parts I needed I focused fully on that.

 

My 3d printer would be getting a lot of work tonight.

 

I kept tinkering away at it, the legs were a lot of work on their own, they had to be capable of the range of motion needed, plus needed enough power to actually actuate. Power sources thankfully weren’t too bad, although with the battery systems I could buy off the shelf, I would have some battery life concerns especially once I started running smarter and smarter systems to control the drone.

 

But for now it was a night of slowly building the internals of the drone, through the CAD program one piece at a time.

 

—–

 

*100 Engineering XP Gained.*

 

*Engineering skill level up!*

 

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

 

I blinked at the alert that came as I was working on the internal musculature of the drone. Multiple limbs meant, I either needed the electric motors to spread their strength, or have one for each limb.

 

I stepped back from the design to stretch, even and let my brain cool down. Working for hours on this design was definitely a lot of work, and I was only getting through because of my Perks.

 

My actual engineering skill was only just capable of keeping up with the exacting details of what I was working on.

 

Sure most people could kludge together a drone out of parts with a bit of effort, but I needed something capable of some pretty extreme performance.

 

It had four articulating legs, which had wheels, so I had to draw power for the drones to drive. They had to be able to jump. I wanted to work on a wall climbing function for their legs. Something to let them stick, or grab onto walls and climb vertically. I still wanted to do a stealth function, but I was leaving that out for a later design. I simply didn’t know enough about Optical Camo to get it to work.

 

Anyways, it was hard!

 

So to get another perk? Well that was something truly useful.

 

I once again skipped the grenade focused perks, because I still had no idea why Engineering was so focused on explosives, instead I scrolled through the perk list to where I went into the design focused perks.

 

Last time I had picked Design Wizard, vastly improving the quality of my designs.

 

I ran down the list skipping more than a few before I found the one that caught my eye.

 

Robotics Engineering: The robotic form is as familiar to you as your own.

 

Since my main desire was to make Tachikoma it seemed to be the best choice.

The moment I picked it I knew I had made the right choice.

 

I already had Robotics Wizard from Crafting, which was all about putting a robot together. Now I had the opposite, a synergy immediately began and I gasped as I realized how many tiny things could be done to enhance a robotic form.

 

I went from someone that could put a robot together, to someone who could design something that was more than just a robot.

 

It honestly made me think of Battle Bots. That show on TV that was so popular in my last life. Before I would have been one of the gen 1 bots. The ones that half the time caused their own downfall or something.

 

Now I was fully aware I could make a bot that would have crushed the entire competition. It was that much of a difference. Understanding the nuances of physics on the robotic form.

 

How easy it would be for their body to exert the forces I would need.

 

I looked at my own chrome arm for a moment and realized how… inadequate it was. How badly they had restrained the power the arm could exert, to make it easier to quickly replace in a desperate situation.

 

I shook it off, although it did create that burning desire to make myself better again. The desire for more chrome. To grow stronger.

 

I shook it off. Tachikoma first.

 

I went back to the CAD design I had made so far, and started reworking large sections of it. I didn’t need for each limb to have their own motor, I could use a muscle structure instead to make a single much more powerful motor supply the power.

 

Instead of each limb being fully robotic, I would just add synthetic muscles instead! It took up less room, which meant I could make the battery bigger! Fixing one of the supply issues!

 

Mwahahaha!

 

——

 

As much as I wanted to really focus down and get the Tachikoma done, I still had other things distractions in my life, but that was okay. It was a good thing. Staying cooped up all day wasn’t good for you!

Stolen novel; please report.

 

That is why I was waiting on the corner around Arasaka tower for Hiromi to meet me for lunch.

 

She had called and wanted to vent about her classes.

 

So I was hanging out besides a 25/7 with food already waiting in the passenger seat for Hiromi to get out of class.

 

I was only pecking at my own meal while I waited so we could eat together.

 

Which is of course when I jerked up at the sight of someone I had only seen from afar.

 

“David Martinez.”

 

The boy was walking over to the grassy section across the street and looked like he was both eating his lunch, and to my amusement set up a backpack next to him and started selling XBD’s.

 

The first boy that walked up to him to buy was handed a compact tablet and after a few moments the boy poked away and then handed it back. David nodded, seemed to confirm payment, and handed out one of the condom wrappers to the kid.

 

I grabbed the food, and stepped out of the Quadra, heading across the street when I got a chance.

 

I really really wanted to see this for myself.

 

“Selling BD’s?” I asked as I sauntered over, catching David’s attention. The poor kid was half a second into biting into an XXL burrito and he gave it a look of yearning before turning to me.

 

“That’s right. Best BD’s in the city. None of that Scav scop. Mox work, and some really preem work that you can’t get anywhere else.” He offered as he once more reached into the bag and pulled out the tablet and handed it to me.

 

I was practically snickering at the situation, and there was no way I could end it here. I set the food down on the bench beside him and grabbed the tablet.

 

“First tab is all normal BD’s good stuff still. Inner Universe is one of our top sellers, It’ll make you think you can fly.” He said and I nearly ruptured something as I kept myself from laughing at such a corpo sounding sales pitch.

 

David was a riot!

 

“I’ve seen it. The Parkour is a little kludged at times, but the music is amazing.”

“What? No way! Inner Universe was perfect! The parkour, the death defying jumps!” He nearly jumped off the bench as he spoke. “The Ghost is preem stuff. Nothing else compares really.” He offered and I felt myself smile happily.

 

See! They got my name right!

 

“Well it’s preem that you like them. How’s working with Hiromi? She isn’t too bad is she?” I asked, changing the subject as I handed the tablet back.

 

“You know Hiromi?” He shot back surprised, and maybe a little suspicious.

 

“Yeah, she’s one of my best chooms. I’m actually here waiting for her. Saw you selling BD’s and wanted to come see.”

“Ah well, she’s great. Sure.” He said in a way that left me with the opposite feeling.

 

“Ah, she’s a bit too much?”

 

He just gave me a look and didn’t say anything.

 

“That’s fair. I hope she wasn’t too mean to you. She can get a little hyper focused. I’ll talk to her, make sure she is nicer to you and Nox.”

“You know Nox too?”

“Yeah? We are… Sorta chooms? I’m Motoko.”

 

David’s eyes instantly widened and I realized if he knew Nox, it was likely that he knew who I was.

 

“You’re the Ghost!” He said breathlessly.