Chapter 182

 

I stepped down into the bright light of the netrunner club, waving a hand at the woman that was seemingly just watching the door. She didn’t bother to look away from her file but I knew she had seen me regardless.

 

Walking inside I quickly found a booth and accessed the system, taking a look at the battle that was currently being shown. It wasn’t anything special, but I knew Ichi would enjoy it as I kept half an eye on that screen, so he could see it, while I opened up another part of the system.

 

A chat layer.

 

There was a main discussion, and then sub chats, for offers, and discussions. Many of them were battle requests, or sales, and purchases of things that were needed.

 

While I waited, I browsed through what was being sold, and what was being asked for.

 

Unfortunately it didn’t seem like anyone really used this place for programming help. But I did see a few interesting offers on netrunning equipment.

 

*So who do you think is going to win?* Ichi asked me, and I looked over at the battle screen for a moment.

 

*Hard to say.* I admitted, although I did pay more attention to the battle since it was giving me plenty of ideas on how a normal netrunner battled.

 

It reminded me of why I was really here.

 

I started checking the battle request section, searching. I had just battled whoever I wanted last time, but I was here for a reason.

 

I found it.

 

A netrunner looking for a battle, that was a well known for using Daemons. Exactly what I wanted.

 

I smirked as I sent the request, and waited a bit before it was confirmed, Our battle would be three more down.

 

*I got a match.* I told the boys and settled in to wait.

 

St33lSister huh? This should be fun.

 

—–

 

An hour later I left the arena with a bit of a wince.

 

St33lSister had not been happy to deal with my sort of netrunner shenanigans.

 

I had gone into this battle for two things. One, some experience to level up even more, and two, a test to see how long I could remain completely out of sight against someone that was considered actually skilled.

 

I uh… Hadn’t kept in mind this was supposed to be a fun game, and what happens when gamers stop having fun.

 

St33l had spent the last two minutes cussing me out in broadcast over the entire arena before retiring.

 

Definitely going to have to offer an apology to the woman.

 

But on the other hand? I had killed a lot of Daemons. She had summoned a custom version of the hound daemons, and then backed them up with an array of IMPS and Soldier types.

 

She was a one woman army. Of course it wasn’t extremely efficient, she was obviously using the battle as a way to show off her daemons. Something I had only realized after I had spent thirty minutes tearing through her summons, and forcing her to keep resummoning them.

 

I had turned the Digital Jungle into a death trap for anything that walked inside, and St33lSister wasn’t happy about it.

 

I kinda was though.

 

With my HEAT bullet hack, I was taking out Daemons very quickly, with very little RAM usage. The real trick had been keeping out of sight as I continued to mulch her little army.

 

Two levels.

 

I had killed over a hundred Daemons, and gained two levels from this battle alone. When I exited the arena, I looked around for St33lSister, but didn’t see her unfortunately. I felt kind of bad, but at the same time it had been so incredibly profitable for me I couldn’t help but want to do it again.

 

*That was awesome.* I sent the boys reconnecting as I once more took a seat around the club. I noticed I had eyes on me, but no one had come to talk to me this time.

 

*That was kinda boring to me, but it was still cool.* Malcolm offered, trying not to offend.

 

*It was cool for the first bit, but eventually it was just kinda there. The other runner got pissed, what happened?*

*Well normally you aren’t really supposed to just kill the Daemons over and over like I was. I was sort of being weird.*

*Motoko weird? Never.* Malcolm responded back and I promised myself I would slap the back of his head when I left the server. I considered joining another session, and started looking through the network. There were a few that used Daemons, not nearly to the same extent though. But as I sent out a request for a match each of them denied me…

 

I think I might have over done it a bit.

 

—–

 

After realizing I wasn’t getting any more matches today, at least not without putting up some sort of anty to drag someone into it, I logged out.

 

The boys were happy to eat on my dime, but eventually we split up. I went back to the netrunner cave while they headed off doing whatever boy things they got up to when Hiromi and I weren’t around.

 

I wanted some peace and quiet to get my stats figured out.

 

Two level ups was a lot. More than enough to get something good.

 

But I had made a promise, one for adaptation, one for levels, now just to figure out what I should upgrade.

 

I was tempted to put another point into my ODA Neural link, but the first point had cleared up most of the constant issues.

 

Instead I dropped one into my Sandevistan.

 

Despite being such a high adaptation, I didn’t really have any day to day issues with the Sandy. It was just a chip after all, and I wasn’t using it constantly.

 

But turning it on was an issue, if not for my ability to heal so quickly, it might have been dangerous just to use it.

 

Dynalar Sandevistan Mk.2 *Adaptation Dynalar Sandevistan 1/4*

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

 

One point was added, and then I added the other stat point I had free into my Intelligence.

 

Intelligence 13 (14)

 

The only issue here, was that I was getting close to maxing out my available Cyberization. I would need some more chrome that enhanced my netrunning to be able to level it higher.

 

Which only opened me up for more adaptation costs and the spiral continues.

 

Either way. The points were gone, and I still had lots of skill points.

 

I dropped another point into programming. Programming 13. I couldn’t help but hiss as the knowledge flowed into me, it was so much the density of the information actually made me stop and take a moment.

 

There were structures, on structures. Tricks, and pathways. Digital understanding that could write code in a way a human mind couldn’t reach, and I was starting to touch on it.

 

The Tachikoma might be a solid seed for a mortal created AI, but what could it do, if I created it fully as a digital entity?

 

Could I ever understand the ocean better than a fish could? Could a human ever understand the digital sea, as well as an entity born into it?

 

But it was possible. I had taken another step closer to being able to do it.

 

Eventually I shook it off and stood up from the couch, pacing around a bit just to let the feeling of my brain filling up cool down. I walked to the fridge, opened it, ignored the many burritos and grabbed a soda, taking a drink of it, and letting the cold liquid ground me.

 

I was okay, that had just been a lot. I couldn’t believe how much more I was gaining in programming. I had thought myself a master when I hit programming 10, but now? I think I was only a master of one way of looking at the programs.

 

There was a whole other frontier to learn about.

 

Once my head stopped buzzing, I used a second skill point.

 

Breach Protocol 12. Technically I could level it again, my Intelligence was 13 now…

 

I hummed as the knowledge flowed into me. I would take a rest, get some food, do some other things and then put another point into the skill. I hadn’t leveled it up to max like I should have last time I really thought about my stats, and it was too important to not keep maxed out.

 

Satisfied by my improvements so far, I decided to get some other work done.

 

My 3D printer was set up, and I went to work, grinding out some more grenade cases for now. It wasn’t anything special, but it would keep me occupied, and help me level up while I let my brain cool down.