Chapter 92

Two days. Of programming and I was…

 

Done.

 

My music box, or at least the code was ready. I just needed to finish putting it all together.

 

I flopped back onto the couch and just groaned. You would think coding something like this would take less time than a Quick Hack, and in some ways you would be right, but this was sorta… Complicated. A quick hack only did one thing, this box needed to be flexible.

 

I ran through my head what parts I would need and that list started to grow.

 

But it would be worth it. This was my pet project. Sure it was a glorified toy, but it was important for me to finish it anyways.

 

I got up to get dressed, stopped and realized I hadn’t showered in…

 

Okay so it’s been two days. I wince as I was very thankful that Jun hadn’t noticed. If he thought I wasn’t taking care of myself he would be upset.

 

I took a quick shower, and then realized I really needed to eat.

 

Okay downside to be constantly inspired. I was gonna have to start setting alarms if I was going to code anything.

 

I finished getting dressed and headed downstairs. Meatstick stall guy was outside the apartment like usual and I ended up devouring a few of them before I felt better. Now that I was properly taken care of. It was time to get back to it.

 

To finish the box I really needed some specific supplies. I headed out driving to the music shop I had bought my guitar from.

 

As I walked in the first few chords of Never Fade Away played above me.

 

Something that still made me chuckle a bit. Johnny would be rolling in his digital grave if he realized that Samurai were practically corporate jingles now.

 

I walked right through the many instruments laying around until I found what I needed.

 

A synth keyboard.

 

I popped my personal link into the slot to check if it had everything I needed.

 

“You obviously know what you want.” A voice called out and I looked up to see the sales person. The guy looked like a forty year old rocker stuffed into a corporate uniform.

 

His bushy beard completely covered the lanyard with his name on it.

 

“Yeah, just checking the code to see if this is the one I need.”

“Oh? Looking to make some digital music huh?”

“I just need to replicate a lot of different instruments.” I offered and he nodded before pointing above me.

 

“If you want a wide selection you want the Digi-tizer. The E-Numeral you are looking at, has a real wonky brass selection.” He offered pointing to another Synth.

“Oh. Thanks.” I muttered pulling out of the synth and moving to the next, after a few checks including running a few riffs on the keyboard because I had the ability and it was fun I nodded. He was right. The Brass notes sounded better.

“Damn. Was that Chippin In? Rare to see a kid these days know the classics.” He said and I just smiled with a shrug.

 

“Samurai were good. Johnny might be a bit of a bastard, but he knew his music.”

 

“Hah! Spoken like a true Rockerboy. You lookin to take the Digi?”

 

“Yeah, I’ll take it. Thanks. I’ll take that amp and a few bits and bobs as well. You guys don’t happen to have a holo emitter?”

 

“Oh? Looking to make some bitchin visuals too? Unfortunately not. Instruments and supplies only, but I know the place my band bought one. Just don’t tell the bosses I told you to buy from them.” He said with a wink and I laughed at that, and made the promise.

 

—–

 

Back home I was taking up 90% of the couch, and 100% of the table as I worked everything together.

 

The synth had a personal link port, so with the coding of that, and literally ripping the instrument apart and hooking it into my music box, I now had the ability to play just about any instrument purely through my link.

 

To save size, I kept the speaker, and amp as separate items, but there was another thing I needed to hook directly into the system

 

Three holographic display emitters.

 

They were a cool piece of tech, a lot of places used holographic TVs, the tech was well used, and it didn’t take me long to hook them into the music box, a bit of soldering a bit of fitting things together, a bit of adjustment to the power links and they were in.

 

Once I finished it, I sat back enjoying the alert telling me I got a few blips of XP for my Tech Attribute. But not a level up.

 

I really needed to work with tech more. It was too useful to ignore.

 

But I ignored that because it was done!

 

Well part of it anyways.

 

The code was complete.

 

The hardware was put together.

 

But now I had to actually create what I wanted using what I had.

 

The author’s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

First thing, I went into my room and dressed up. Brushed my hair. Did some makeup, which took a while because I hadn’t exactly practiced doing any makeup since I woke up. But I managed it. Making my eyes pop a little. Wearing a clean leotard and even cleaned up my jacket before slipping into it.

 

Okay then I went back out and had the music box actually record what I looked like. Standing still as the emitter slowly ran a scan over me. Creating a 3d image of myself, that it could add into whatever holographic display I wanted it to show.

 

Of course right around then I realized I would need images of the instruments as well.

 

Dammit.

 

I rushed back to the music shop. Carrying in my music box, I ended up dropping a couple hundred eddies, to the music shop guy to let me take scans with all the instruments, particularly the best quality, or coolest looking ones.

 

—–

 

Once more back in the apartment I was ready to start my first test.

 

I decided on a song and went to work. Plugged my personal link into the music box, and started with the most important part.

 

The music.

 

With my guitar in my hands mostly just to let my hands play over the notes, I started recording a track.

 

The sound of the guitar played back into my head sounded great, any error was easy to cut the correct chord back in, and I was off. Finishing the song with the guitar without any issue. I had played it a few times with just that already.

 

Then I switched to drums. Mentally creating the track. Using the Synth to recreate the noise of the drums as I played through the song adding in the drums to the guitar track.

 

Something I couldn’t do without all my Rockerboy knowledge. I had never touched a guitar set before outside of playing around in a past life, or while getting scanned in this one, yet I knew exactly how to use the Synth to create a digital track. What notes and how to get the sound right. It all flowed together.

 

Then I had to stop and do some work on creating unique sounds because some of the sounds used in the song weren’t instrumental, I had to use my own programming skill to alter the Synths programming even further, to give me the ability to create entirely new sounds. Sounds that had only existed in my head.

 

Again and again, I played through the song until I had every beat sounding as perfect as I remember thanks to Perfect Musical Memory.

 

Guitar, drums, electronic, even the ending roaring vocals I managed myself. Every sound of the song pulled together completely from my brain, through a machine interface.

 

I loved the future.

 

And it was all silent as a grave outside my brain.

 

As I put the song together no neighbor heard it. It was just for me, and me alone.

 

—–

 

I hid behind my new stack of mess on the table when Jun came home, purposefully pretending I wasn’t able to see his judgemental look as I continued to put the display for the song together.

 

I ignored him when he came out later as well, as I was still editing the holographic display to match up.

 

I was watching a visual of what it would show on the laptop as I edited it mostly with my neural connection which was really really tough, but as long as I took it really slow, I could get better accuracy than going through it by hand.

 

The three emitters would all have their own image to display, and the track was finished, both with the guitar track baked in, and one without. Just in case I wanted to do a live play of the song.