Chapter 57

I walked out of Viks clinic into a new world.

 

I could barely believe the difference a new Cyberdeck brought. The speed, the clarity.

 

The fact it was able to connect to my systems better. It wasn’t fifty year old tech trying to connect to modern Kiroshi, anymore.

 

The Seacho Mk. 2 wasn’t top of the line, but it was a specialist deck. Made for rapid instant break ins and uploads. It was more than three times the power of the Millitech just outright. And that was only the numbers, and the numbers didn’t tell the whole story.

 

It was new architecture. The difference of more than fifty years of improvements on the programming code…

 

Well fifty years was saying a lot considering the Data Krash pushed everything back so much the Paraline was even still being sold. But the Seacho was new. Responsive, and designed for someone like me.

 

In my old life, it would be the difference in RAM from going from a DDR2, to a DDR5 memory stick.

 

You could have both offer the same level of RAM, but the DDR5 was a different beast even with the same numbers.

 

I glanced at a vending machine, as I walked past, reaching down and scooping up the soda it dropped.

 

I didn’t even need to slow down. Didn’t need to hold my eyes on the machine as I breached through its ICE.

 

No.

 

I simply looked, and instantly the pointed knives of my attack slipped through all the defenses.

 

I stepped out onto the street. People traveling up and down the streets moved past me, but it didn’t matter. I was utterly focused on the netscape.

 

As I slipped through barriers, defenses, and peeked into their secrets.

 

This?

This was cool.

 

—–

 

I was feeling pretty good once I got home, but I had a lot of work to do.

 

First? I needed to level my programming skill up some more, because I wanted to do something crazy.

 

I wanted my own Quickhack.

 

That was my goal. I wanted to be the netrunner that creates their own tools, because I wasn’t some script kiddy playing around.

 

I was Motoko Fucking Kusanagi. I might not be The Major, but I would do her proud by not being a net moron.

 

So I took off my jacket, plopped my gloves on the table, stretched my fingers and got to typing.

 

Ping was still my target. I had managed to clean up a lot of the code, although now that I had a new deck I needed to adjust it again, the downside of slimming the program so much, but now it was a slim program that basically just did the one thing. It highlighted everything connected to the network, but I wanted it to do more than that.

 

It could do more than that.

 

First thing started adding to the program trying to make it harder to detect. Stealth was still my biggest advantage, and if I could ping a network without anyone noticing, even if there was an active netrunner that would be an advantage I couldn’t ignore.

 

I knew just enough about programming now that as I started writing code to try and hide the Ping network access that I knew it wasn’t going to totally work, but that wasn’t the point. I didn’t need perfect. I just needed code that I could improve, correct, rip apart and start again if I needed.

 

It was all about grinding, and even within just a few minutes of work, I got another alert.

 

*100 Programming XP Gained.*

 

Well that just meant I was on the right track.

 

—–

 

“Hey Jun!” I called out as I continued to type along. This bit of code was just not working, and it was driving me nuts!

 

Even my debug knowledge, while helpful, wasn’t enough to fix it immediately. Although a sense of knowing had narrowed the bug down to just a small section of the code. Something here was wrong.

 

I knew it was wrong. I knew it wouldn’t work and would crash if I tried to use it, but I didn’t know why. I was down to reading through each line of code going through the section I just knew something was wrong at, luckily once I finished reading a bit of the code I could ignore it after.

 

The bug wasn’t in anything I had already checked. So I just had to keep reading down the lines till I find it.

 

“Motoko… You okay?”

“This bug is going to die Jun. I kill things for a living so I will eventually kill this bug too.” I told him as my fingers continued to thrash along the keyboard slowly line after line the code dropped down further and further. I was nearing the end now.

 

Ah.

 

That’s why! The port information was wrong. I had mistyped while going through it! A few moments later I finished the line and I knew it would work. The surety from Debug telling me this bit of code would work.

 

It wasn’t pretty. It was messy and there was a memory leak in there I was gonna need to work out.

 

But it worked.

 

*Programming skill level up!*

 

Programming 3.

 

“Whew.”

 

“Get it?” he asked as I glanced up. Jun had obviously made himself at home while I was focused, a burrito in his hands as he sat on the couch, beside me.

 

I honestly hadn’t even felt him sit down.

 

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“Yeah mostly. It’s still garbage code, but it works, and it’s mine.” I told him with a smile as he nodded slowly, eyes on me as he ate his burrito.

 

“What?’

 

“You are so weird now. I’m proud of you, for actually sticking through it enough to learn netrunning stuff, but it’s still so weird to see you so focused.” He offered as he bit into his burrito and started chewing, eyes never leaving me.

 

I felt my cheeks heating up a bit.

 

“It’s just a useful skill… And it’s not boring exactly… I don’t really get bored as long as I’m doing something nowadays.” I had to admit. Fact was, that fully knowing you could improve just by slamming your face into something made boredom sort of a non issue. Like how someone can sit behind a computer and grind a stat in a video game, it was that same sense. Sure you had already killed a thousand goblins, but you only needed another four hundred and you would level your sword skill! That same sense of just a bit more to get there was nice.

 

“Well I’m glad. Maybe you’ll start putting out some useful programs, get rich and retire from all this crazy merc stuff.”

 

“Never!” I said with a sharp grin. “Even if I’m a bajillionaire I’ll still go out into the city and beat up gonks!” I cried out, chrome fist raised.

“Yeah. I know.” He said, not quite laughing but with a small smile on his face. “I’ll just have to keep getting dragged into your disasters to keep you safe.”

“You followed me last time! I didn’t drag you anywhere!”

 

“Sure.” He said disagreeing with me in tone as he reached out and patted me on the head a few times. “Whatever you say Imouto. Just make sure you tell me before you go do something crazy again.”

 

I huffed at him stupid Jun-nii! But since I was a generous little sister I decided not to kick him while he ate. I instead focused on the program infront of me.

 

It might be workable now.

 

But it wasn’t done.

 

And neither was I.

 

—–

 

After a few more hours of fixing the code that I just wrote, because as I leveled up, I already knew a few things I could do to improve it. I sat back. Jun was still sitting beside me, although he had moved around a few times since the last time we chatted. He was now on the floor instead of the couch cleaning his equipment. His Thermal Katana, currently getting a going over as he sat and worked over the blade.

 

I watched as he slowly wiped down the blade, he had already put it in a sharpener. The mechanical system rehoning the blade to a molecular edge.

 

Science katanas were pretty cool.

 

I should probably clean up mine too. I always did a little bit of work cleaning everything up when I was done, but my fingers were feeling a little itchy still.

 

So I pushed my laptop away, and instead grabbed my axe.

 

The guitar thrummed lightly as I hit some random notes, just a way to stretch out my fingers. The noise drew Juns attention as he looked up.

 

“Still interested in being a Rockerboy huh?”

 

“I just… It’s nice. To do something that has nothing to do with my merc work.” I told him honestly as I started strumming a little song. Nothing in particular. Instead just a mish mash of different songs and chords that I wanted to hear.

 

“Still no good at it.” He told me, teasing after a few minutes of me just playing around.

 

Outrage!

 

Vengeance!

 

I instantly started into the opening riff to Ballad of Buck Ravers. My eyes locked on Jun as I played ‘oldies’ just to punish my brother that had no taste.