Chapter 169 (Nice.)

I ended up hanging out with Misty and Hiromi for a couple of hours. The three of us just all hanging out.

 

Misty sometimes looked a little embarrassed about hanging out with a couple of girls much younger than her, but in the end Hiromi and I were cool, and Misty relaxed and enjoyed sending out her big sister energy.

 

Hiromi definitely liked it. I guess being an only child meant you didn’t normally get to experience some things.

 

Afterwards I dropped Hiromi off at home. She still had school tomorrow, and I headed to my netrunner cave.

 

Pulling a fresh batch of hacks off my server when I got there, I spent a little bit installing all of my normal hacks so I was back in action. Yet even with all the hacks installed I still had a lot more space in my new deck.

 

I made a mental note that I should buy some new hacks and fill it out… In fact I should do that right now.

 

I jumped onto my netchair and started hooking myself up, before wincing at the smell.

 

I had sweat like a pig while overheating.

 

Grabbing a scrubby brush I found under the sink and a bucket I got to work. Cleaning out the pads and making the chair not smell like a locker room.

 

When I was done, bucket emptied I looked over the chair. It would take a bit to dry, which sort of stymied my plan… I sighed, and grabbed a roller chair, then another, and with a bit of work was able to plug myself in while laying across the roller chairs and leaving the pads on the netrunner chair to dry.

 

Then I closed my eyes and opened them in the net.

 

I sighed in relief at returning here. Walking over to the window I looked out over the digital cityscape for a while.

 

The streaming lights of digital information flowing through this world was as always an interesting sight.

 

So… Here I was. Back in the net again. With an upgraded Cyberdeck, hacks installed, but… Was I better than I was?

 

Sure my Cyberdeck was better, I would be able to send out far more hacks before overheating, but…

 

I had basically been killed if not for my fast healing.

 

Again.

 

I’ll admit I hadn’t really worked overly hard to improve my netrunning recently. I enjoyed casually playing around. Making eddies doing some grinds from time to time…

 

But I was kind of sick of nearly getting killed.

 

I looked at my stats.

 

Level 17

 

Body 8(16) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 8.

-Athletics 7

-Street Brawler 8

-Annihilation 5

 

Reflex 8(14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 6.

-Blades 7

-Handguns 7

-Assault 8

-Driving 7

 

Intelligence 11 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

-Breach Protocol 10

-Quick Hacks 9

-Programming 11

 

Cool 9

-Ninjutsu 9

-Cold Blood 8

-Rockerboy 9

 

Technical Ability 7 (11) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

-Crafting 6

-Engineering 6

 

0 Stat point.

6 Skill point.

Perks.

Ambidextrous Blades 2

Quickdraw Handguns 2

Gun Nut Assault 2

Parkour Athletics 2

Grappling Street Brawler 2

Drive By Driving 2

Cat-like Athletics 5

Cool Nerves Cold Blood 2

Danger Sense Ninjutsu 2

Wall Breaking Breach Protocol 2

Cyber Security Quick Hack 2

Recoil Reduction Annihilation 2

Cyber Ninja Ninjutsu 5

Fearless Chill Cold Blood 5

Improvised Weapons Street Brawler 5

Parry Blades 5

Robotics wizard Crafting 2

Drifting Driving 5

Rapid Reload Handguns 5

Design Wizard Engineering 2

Rifle Ace Assault 5

Ghost touch Breach 5

Perfect Musical Memory Rockerboy 2

Debug Programming 2

Siren Song Rockerboy 5

Hacking Wizard Quick Hacks 5

Inspired Programmer Programming 5

A.I. Whisperer Programming 10

Slam Fire Annihilation 5

Enduring Builds Crafting 5

Robotics Engineering Engineering 5

*Unselected* Breach 10

 

Cyberware:

Arasaka Corporation Cyberdeck ‘Shadow’ Mk.4 *Adaptation ‘Shadow’ Mk.4 0/0*

Kiroshi Mk1 *Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 1/2*

Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 6/6*

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Arasaka Smart Link System. *Adaptation Smart Link 0/0*

Arasaka Ex-Disk *Adaptation Ex-Disk 0/0*

Militech-Armalite Ballistic Guard *Adaptation Ballistic Guard 1/2*

Serano Air-Groove Ankles *Adaptation Serano Air 1/1*

MoorE Titanium Bones (Shoulders, back, and ribs. +Legs, Pelvis, and Ribs.) *Adaptation Titanium Bones 0/2*

Biotechnica Muscle and Bone Lace *Adaptation Muscle and Bone Lace 0/0*

Arasaka ODA Neural Link Mk3 *Adaptation ODA Mk.3 1/2*

Dynalar Sandevistan Mk.2 *Adaptation Dynalar Sandevistan 0/4*

 

I needed another 9 adaptation to cover my chrome. I had no idea if it was going over 10 ‘open’ adaptation had caused the issue, or if it was just my own issues coming to light…

 

At least my neck didn’t bother me anymore. I shook it off and focused on what was important.

 

Obviously the first thing I needed to deal with was my perk. Breach 10. That was gonna be a big upgrade. Not least because Breach was so integral to net running.

 

In the end, there was only one that still stuck out to me, at least only one that I could unlock without prerequisites.

 

Strong Breach: A door is only as strong as the wall. Damage code, break data make your own path.

 

It would allow me to break into nearly any system, only it would definitely alert anyone on the system something was wrong. Like taking a canon to the front door.

 

I picked it anyway.

 

I shivered as the knowledge flooded me. I had a new understanding about server architecture, how fragile it really was. How easy it would be with a virus, to delete just one bit of code and have all the defenses tumble down.

 

Every system had a weakness. Every system was just code iterative on top of older code, and older.

 

That would be useful for the future. With that done I focused on everything else.

 

Eleven was my highest stat. Before I had nearly got killed in the net that hadn’t bothered me. Now it did, but I also knew I still had stats that needed to catch up. I was close to bringing a lot of my stats and skills to ten.

 

I had been playing around a lot recently.