Chapter 231

*Alice: Check out Growl FM!*

 

The message was simple and instantly had me on guard.

 

Looked up from my junk. I’d been doing some cleaning on my guns, so I had an array of stuff all over the living room table and a brush scrubbing down everything.

 

Flipping on the radio and changing the channel, I heard it.

 

“-Was the wonderful track Do or Die by NoWorld. I really love that one. Now as promised I got a special treat. Last night a new band hit Night City. Well a mixture really. Stand Alone Complex. You might know one half of the band as Violent Hemorrhage, who unfortunately seemed to have fallen apart after losing their previous frontman Carmen SinCity to Outerscope Records.”

 

I pointedly didn’t give in to the temptation to turn off the radio, or worse hide in the covers.

 

“And I know all of you listening have heard of Ghost in the Shell, the stand alone artist, that I’ve gotten plenty of requests to play more of. Well they’ve combined their power. Stand Alone Complex, a new band, always good, I love new bands. But last night they had a gig in Electric Orgasm, Umph! I could use one of those right now folks, and from everything I’ve heard? They blew everyone away. I got a full recording of their gig coming up, so enjoy a live play, from Stand Alone Complex!”

 

“Fuck.”

I simply dropped my head and started cleaning, as my own voice came over the radio. Even if it was Sexy Motoko voice, it still made me uncomfortable to hear myself.

 

As I listened, because I couldn’t quite pull the plug on the radio I heard plenty of mistakes.

 

And yet… The gig was good. When Heathens dropped Ash actually stopped the recording.

 

“Okay I need to pause everything for a moment, to let everyone know I’m messaging my contact with Stand Alone Complex, yeah I got one. Maybe if a producer reaches out, I’ll pass the info over, but I’m gonna start begging for a studio version of that song. Mama wants. Okay back to the music!”

 

I snorted. Sure that Hiromi had already gotten that message.

 

Jeeze. This hadn’t really been what I planned, but… I felt my stomach turning a bit, but I wasn’t going to hide. I’d decided to do this…

 

That doesn’t mean I couldn’t go lay under a blanket for a while to get away from it all.

Unfortunately that plan failed when I remembered how much stuff I still had to do. Needed to finish cleaning my guns.

 

Grumbling and not in fact hiding under a blanket I kept working as I listened to the concert in full.

 

This was something I’d have to get used to.

 

This was my life now.

 

—–

 

The next morning I headed out early. I’d already had Alice send me a text talking about trying to set up another gig, and we already had a scheduled practice session tonight, but if I was going to play more music and not want to scream I had some other stuff I needed to do.

 

Like get some XP.

 

Taking my Kusanagi across the city I slipped into the Straight Lane Apartments and down into my net runner cave. Only once I was down there did I relax.

 

I’d considered bugging Malcolm to come back me up, but this was going to be a pretty easy session.

 

As I settled into the netrunner chair I opened up my stat sheet. Dropping a skill point into Quick Hacks.

 

As the chair started its cooling process I sat back not jumping into the net and just letting the information flow through me.

 

For a quick hack every millisecond was important. Reducing the amount of time a scan to target lock, for the hack to upload, for the program to initialize.

 

Speed was life, and even just taking milliseconds was a lifetime.

 

With Programming I mostly focused on hardware, but with Quick Hacks themselves, it was about connecting the human to the machine. How to set up targeting systems early, to cut time, and the ways to split your focus to reduce latency.

 

It was another step. Another synergy between hardware, program, and flesh.

 

I dropped into the net, my lobby warm and inviting as I walked through it for a moment to get myself back into the mindset of the program.

Then I jumped, re-routing myself through network node, and server until I arrived once again at the No/Brainer server.

 

I slipped inside, delighting as Daemons already began appearing. Relatively free XP was still free XP. The grind was on.

 

—–

 

“Motoko!”

“Hiromi!” I teased back and she pouted at me.

 

“I’m serious.”

“I know you are!” I threw my hands up. Sighing. Hiromi had made a deal with the producer, or talent scout guy.

 

Basically if we did a gig and were big enough, he’d send a formal offer to join his brand.

 

Alice, Klein, and Jared were totally in. This was big for them.

 

“I’m doing this for you.” She pouted at me, and I nodded.

 

“I know. And I do appreciate it… I’m, I’m trying to be more positive about it.” I offered and she looked at me for a long moment before nodding once.

 

“That’s okay. I just want to support you.”

“You do.” I said reaching out and pulling her into a hug. “You’ve always got my back and helped me smooth out my crazy schemes.”

“M-Motoko!”

“Whooo! Take it off!”

“Rebecca!” Hiromi shrieked and turned like she was going to swing at the other girl, and I just laughed as I held her back.

 

Today was the Section 9 training meeting.

 

Or really, I just made an excuse to get everyone together. We were shooting guns!

 

But of course Hiromi was more focused on her manager stuff, than anything.

 

I finally let her go as Rebecca had a moment to get a head start and chased after. I looked around. Malcolm and Ichi were laughing at Hiromi, as the two boys held rifles. I’d been setting out some targets and things before Hiromi had gotten distracted with her manager stuff.

 

Finishing up I walked back over to the boys and settled in as Malcolm brought his Masamune up.

 

The high end Rifle was slightly adjusted and he fired, popping one of the Brosef bottles in one shot.

 

“Hah!”

“Good shooting, now do all of them without stopping and without missing.” I poked at him, and he nodded locked in and started firing.

 

He missed, but got all of them with a few retries.

 

“Quick reload like you ran out of ammo in the middle of a firefight..” I reminded him, as I headed over to put up more bottles and trash to shoot.

 

Malcolm was honestly the only one besides Rebecca that had much interest in training. ichi was mostly just playing around, and Hiromi was here more to bug me about things than because she planned on picking up a gun.

 

Rebecca was into it a bit, but not as much.

 

She had that Edgerunner attitude, she was already skilled with a gun, and in her mind that was enough.

 

It was a little frustrating.

 

“This isn’t working.” I decided, looking over my group of chooms.

“What isn’t?” Ichi asked, looking over, Malcolm’s staccato firing from his Masamune echoed out the only productive noise from the entire group!

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“This training. It’s supposed to be a way to make sure everyone stays alive, but no one is really training, except Malcolm.”

“Ah… I mean, I don’t really fight much. I’ve got my turrets.”

“Ichi, you still need to practice shooting. Being quicker on the draw could save your life.”

“Eh.” He shrugged, casually. “I’m as well protected as I can get in the truck, I don’t think practicing shooting a pistol is going to matter. Anything that can get through my cab is already going to kill me.”

“That’s not the point. What if you are just walking inside when you get home and someone is there trying to take you out.”

“It’s a peaceful neighborhood.”

“Ichi.” I grumbled glaring at him.

“Hey I’m just being honest. I’m not a fighter Motoko. Truck guy? That I can do. Guns? I’m not really good with it, and this is boring.”

“Boring!? We’re shooting guns!”

 

“Yeah which is alright a bit, but you’re asking for like…” He rolled his wrist like he couldn’t find the word.