Chapter 56

I was back home setting up for some programming grinding since I still wanted to make my music box, when I got an incoming call from Jun.

 

*Hey Jun-Nii. What’s up?*

 

*Finally, I called you a few times this afternoon, where were you?*

 

I blushed a little when I noticed that I had alerts for missed calls. Okay Motoko you fucking boomer. You really need to remember to check your phone more often! I yelled at myself before answering Jun.

 

*I was with Vik, doing a sleep thing. He was giving me a check up but wanted me to stay for a bit so I took a nap. Sorry Jun-Nii. You okay? Need my help?*

 

*I’m fine Motoko just checking in on you. You weren’t home when I stopped by. Listen, I have a feeling you already know, but Jotaro Shobo is dead.*

 

*Waaa no waaay? Really? Oh man that’s terrrrrible.* I fake gasped to get a laugh but Jun wasn’t laughing.

 

*As far as anyone is concerned Jotaro was killed by the family of someone he… It doesn’t matter. But that’s what everyone is saying. Keep it that way. Motoko if you ever listen to me, then listen to me now. Never talk about Jotaro again.*

 

Jun was seriously worried. I frowned looking at my programming for a minute just to have something real to focus on.

 

*I promise Jun. It’s done. No point talking about it.*

 

*Good. Good… You know you can talk to me about stuff like this. I can protect you from anything Imouto, you just have to trust me enough to tell me.*

 

*I do trust you Jun. And you can trust me to protect you too. So if you ever need a hand.*

 

*I will call this scary sniper I know, yeah.* He said and I had to giggle at that. Sniping was like the least of my talents though. I wasn’t even that good at it. I was just sneaky.

 

*I have to go Motoko. I’ll be back in the morning, and we’ll talk more then. Just keep your head down for a bit.*

 

*Sure.*

 

The call clicked as it ended and I was left to refocus on my work. So the TC didn’t suspect me or at least the common members didn’t. Good.

 

Hopefully it will stay that way.

 

I put my hands back on the keyboard and started typing. I had a skill to level up.

 

—–

 

I was still only working on Ping as I had no other Quick Hack programs to mess with, and I didn’t feel confident enough in trying to create a program from scratch yet, when I got my second ding.

 

*Programming skill level up!*

 

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

 

“Yes!” I called out thrilled at the sudden burst of knowledge with Programming 2. Yeah I was definitely feeling a lot better about my programming, plus the perk meant I would have a serious advantage. Instantly I dug through the perk list. This perk would be supremely important to my future, because Programming was going to be a serious advantage in the future.

 

So I explored the options entirely. A few instantly popped to the forefront.

 

Inspired Programmer: Inspiration strikes constantly. Never run out of steam while programming.

 

It seemed kind of innocuous, but also secretly really powerful. Sure my system gave me knowledge, and I didn’t tend to get bored with whatever task I was doing, but constant inspiration would mean my programs come out better, come out faster. But it wasn’t the only one that caught my eye.

 

Debug: At a single glance, you will know what is causing your program not to work, or where the program can be improved.

 

Another extremely powerful sounding perk. It’s one thing to know programming, and it’s another to have confidence in being able to make it work. To figure out what was wrong…

 

The list went on, but I needed to decide. At Programming 2, I was still so new to the skill that a perk would make massive changes.

 

Did I want to make sure my programming worked? Or did I want to keep pumping out programs to level up?

 

It was two sides of the coin.

 

But I had to make a decision and so I did.

 

Debug. I decided to make sure what I was working with could work. It might not be the best, but the skill itself did give me knowledge on how to make the programs anyway. But making sure whatever I was working on would actually function would hopefully give me more XP in the long run than just pumping out Programming that was a mess.

 

Instantly I felt like I was some ancient programmer that debugged irritating students for a living.

 

But I knew.

 

I pulled out my Ping Quick Hacks details on the laptop again, and instantly I could see the absolute college programmer tier problems with it.

 

Made sense. The program was bottom of the barrel sludge ware. I could fix it though. At least somewhat.

 

That sense of knowing as always felt great, filled me with a sense of purpose.

 

My hands tore across the keyboard removing bloat, fixing leaks. Solving a problem that made the thing last half as long as it should in systems that aren’t resisting.

 

And to my delight each problem solved was a bit of XP.

 

With that the XP started racing in, as I was making honest real improvements to Ping. When I was done, I wouldn’t say it was quite at the level of an upgrade to its rarity in game terms, but I think I had actually reduced the RAM a Cyberdeck would need to run the program.

 

Which was impressive enough, since the program was already fairly light.

 

But I kept working on it. Tearing it apart piece by piece, line by line.

 

And a program, even one as simple as Ping wasn’t a small piece of code. The amount of systems it had to interface with, both external and internal as it had to use whatever optics you had installed to display the information it had gained?

 

The thing was overly complicated.

 

Which made me realize I could completely do away with most of it.

 

I tore apart huge swaths of the code reducing it so it would only work and display on my particular optics. Since it didn’t have to query or check for any other internal systems, the program slimmed right down. Practically reducing the actual program slot usage to almost nothing.

 

I realized that it was completely possible for Ping since it was much smaller than the juggernauts of the Quick Hack world to be reduced to a completely negligible size on my Cyberdeck.

 

I might actually be able to reduce it so much that it wouldn’t even use up the Cyberdecks slot count.

 

To always have Ping installed, ready and able? That would be supremely useful, and give me more utility.

 

I couldn’t help but laugh as I stepped away late in the afternoon to get a meal from the street vendors. I was right Programming was truly a weapon that I had to utilize.

 

I decided to step away from the apartment for a bit while I ate. I still had my Burya and Lexington on me, so I decided to walk around the block. Like I had done back when I was still grinding out my body. It was… Nice to go back to something so simple.

 

It reminded me that I needed to keep choosing to live my life how I wanted, and not be subconsciously afraid of Maelstrom Borgs around every corner.

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

 

I stuck the final bit of meat on a stick into my mouth, tossed the skewer into the trash and decided to move around a bit. Instead of heading straight home I went for a jog. First up further into Japantown taking the stairs up to the surface near Cherry Blossom Market. Then just around the shops along the strip malls trailing the roads.

 

Honestly I just had that urge to move. I had spent days grinding or planning murder, and only did a little bit of time outside while actually committing the murder.

 

I just wanted to be free of of it all for a bit.

 

I walked through crowds amused at how many of them were armed. And how easy it would be to kill almost all of them. It was amazing what just having a bit of skill and experience will do to someone. Sure everyone had a gun, but most of them would die before ever getting to use it in an emergency.

 

I shook that thought away. I had a benefit that no one else did, and there were still people better than me. I shouldn’t get arrogant. The fact was, I was only special because of a random blip of chance.

 

One in a trillion.

 

I didn’t know if there was a god in this world. I mean, chances were there actually was magic considering the Cyberpunk references in the Witcher.

 

But I wasn’t sure what great deity I should thank for my circumstances, so instead of picking one I just looked up into the sky for a moment, and sent a silent thank you into the air.

 

Because the fact was. I loved this life. With all the horrors and disgusting elements. Even without puppies.

 

Because I had power. And power gave me autonomy. I could choose what I wanted to do. Where I wanted to go.

 

In my last life I didn’t have that. Stuck in the same routine to survive. Now, if I ran low on eddies I could find a fixer and in a single afternoon make thousands of eddies while also making myself stronger.

 

The dopamine rush of improving yourself, and knowing you are getting better mixed with the freedom to do as I liked? Yeah I loved this crapsack world. I blinked as a drop of water landed on my nose. The sky had been cloudy all morning, and suddenly it started raining. I looked around. Noticing some people grabbed umbrellas out of bags and continued on with their day. Some ignored the water throwing hoods over their heads, or just walking through it without a care. Either too drugged, too chromed, or too indifferent to care.

 

Others hurried under overhangs or moved out of the open to get out of the water.

 

And there I stood. Letting the rain come down, and soak my hair as I watched the people all around me.

 

The water darkening the california sun, the people hurrying around neon shining off wet umbrellas and coats.

 

It might be a cyberpunk dystopia. But it’s my cyberpunk dystopia.

 

I continued walking through the streets just enjoying the ambiance of a rainy cyberpunk city.

 

I would think about grinding more. Killing more, and living more in a few hours. For now I was just enjoying the backdrop.

 

——

 

The next day I got a call from Regina to meet.

 

I suited up, making sure I had some max-docs in my pockets just to be safe and headed out.

 

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Regina.

 

…It was just that I didn’t trust Regina. Or rather I was cautious. I had sorta forced the gig on her, and I hadn’t been nice to her underling.

 

Pulling into a space near her building I walked up to the side entrance like before, but this time when I entered the little elevator room on the side of the building and hit the button Regina answered.

 

“Come on up.” The elevator came down moments later and I slipped in, the option was already pressed when I entered and it started moving upwards.