Chapter 193

The next day I went into the net, and checked the NCTV server. Thankfully, thanks to my Perk gained knowledge I had slipped a few backdoors into the server as I breached it, so the netrunners never noticed me peaking in again. I was able to slip in without issue and double check the information.

 

Nothing yet. Yuto’s subscription was still set to the Japantown apartment.

 

I decided not to waste time trying to find him through cameras considering the sparseness of good cameras in Arroyo, and instead focusing on other things.

 

It turns out, I had a problem, and it was time to solve it.

 

While at the netrunner cave I opened up the batch of files that Yoko had sent over to me, and pulled out a quick hack I hadn’t really considered using before.

 

Vehicle hacks.

 

They were… Different from normal quick hacking, but vehicles did have computers that could be hacked just like anything else.

 

They just also tended to have much stronger defenses, but almost never outright Black ICE.

 

The idea was simple. I was going to take a Quick Hack that would make the on board computer think there was an emergency and brake hard.

 

That way no one would be getting away from me like yesterday again.

 

The hack, like most of the stuff Yoko had sent me, was pretty rough. Full of extra data, or just terrible coding cycles.

 

I ripped out the important bit and started re-writing it from the ground up, not in the real world, but in my Server Lobby.

 

That way I could also sit down and finally do some more work for my Tachikoma as well.

 

I hadn’t been giving it the full attention it needed, so I was doing that while programming.

 

Sitting in my server lobby, feet up on the high end table, one hand programming what I needed my Tachikoma to do, cleaning up junk data, while the other worked on the hack was a pretty fun experience.

 

The cooling cap kept my Cyberdeck cool enough I wasn’t having any issues and it felt good to just sit and do some work.

 

“Why the hell does this code have data on heating seats!? It doesn’t fucking matter!” I yelled planning on sending Yoko a piece of my mind for always giving me such garbage to work with.

The hack really was simple enough. I would breach in using my own skills, so my knowledge from Strong Breach would let me just hammer through a vehicles defenses. This let me slim down the program by removing all the insertion protocols from the hack. Then I would dump it into the car’s processor. It would slam on the brakes thinking the engine was damaged.

 

It created a very slim program in the end, but I continued tinkering with streamlining the process. The many differences in car manufacturers was an annoyance, but even the cheapest Galena had an on board computer.

I just had to adjust the hack to be able to activate regardless of system. Locking down brakes was actually really easy, because anti-lock brakes all used computer systems.

 

I glanced over at the Tachikoma.

 

It was currently set up in a server section. A small maze I had created and it was navigating it.

For the first time the Tachikoma truly needed to use its intelligence to explore the maze, learning to move in a space that wasn’t clear to the poor thing…

 

Well right now it was just going in circles only taking the left path…

 

I sighed and sent an adjustment order, and it stopped letting the process get logged realizing it wasn’t going anywhere.

 

Then it took the left turn again.

 

Well… It was a learning process.

—–

 

I slurped up some noodles staring blankly at the television that was playing above the ramen bar.

 

Boring news, but whatever, it wasn’t like I was actually focused on it. I was just decompressing from staying twelve hours inside the net.

 

It wasn’t… Terrible. And I felt okay, but I definitely felt a little burned out.

 

Sluuuuurp.

 

I had checked on the NCTV connection again before logging out, but didn’t get anything. It wasn’t that much of a surprise. He had gotten in a nasty car crash and I probably shot him at least once. Healing, especially fast healing, was expensive. He was probably put together with tape and spit and left to heal naturally.

 

I doubt 6th Street cared that much about him after all.

 

Whatever plot they had for him was likely purely selfish. Yuto was a dead man walking. I could only wonder if he knew it already.

 

News flicked onto commercials and I ignored the stupid thing trying to sell me Buck a Slice and continued to zone out.

 

Stupid Yuto. I could be doing more important things than hunting his gonk ass down.

 

Suddenly notes startled me out of my reverie and I jerked as I stared at the TV.

 

At the sounds of old brass and thrumming strings.

 

A song I recognized because the only reason it existed in Night City was because of me.

 

“Mr. Stud, All night. Every Night. Don’t be soft, upgrade to version 2.3 now.”

I spit Ramen. Noodles escaped me, and one particular one went straight up my sinuses and out my nose.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author’s work.

 

No.

 

No no no no!

 

Not Tank! They couldn’t have! They used Tank to sell Cyber Dicks!?

 

“Hey, watch it!” The owner of the stand yelled at me waving a ladle at me, but I was too busy coughing and hacking and pulling a noodle out of my nose.

 

This was….

 

I stood up. Appetite completely killed. Tossing some eddies to the chef I stomped out.

 

What the fuck?

 

—–

 

I knew Hiromi wouldn’t be entirely sympathetic, so instead I went looking for a kinder touch.

 

“It’s not right!” I whined, and Misty nodded at me slowly, fighting off her obvious amusement as she tried to be understanding.

 

“I can understand how it might be embarrassing.” Misty added, doing her best to keep her lips from twitching.

 

“I’m really not feeling the love Misty.” I grumbled, but her grin just got a little wider.

 

“It’s not something I have any advice for, but if you want to hear something… Let it go. It’s gone and done. You already said you didn’t feel like you could do anything about it, right?”

 

I grumbled poking at the mystic stuff Misty had on her desk, but in the end she was right. I wasn’t going to go killing people for this, and I had sold it. I just didn’t expect to hear my song on a- I shook it off. “It just sucks.”

 

“Well if you don’t like it, you should make enough songs that you never have to mind if one of them is used for something you don’t like.” Misty offered almost too casually.

 

I felt my eyes narrow as Misty did her best to continue to look casual.

 

“Did Hiromi put you up to this?” I demanded quietly and Misty finally broke, her forced casualness breaking into giggles.