Chapter Fifty-Two – Fingerguns

Chapter Fifty-Two – Fingerguns

“A Joytoy is a member of the lower to middle class who participates in the personal entertainment industry. They provide companionship and sexual gratification to playing clients.

The modern Joytoy is often equipped with a range of cybernetic enhancements for their personal protection (C-IUDs, Bloodcheckers, STI-removal Biogear, ect) as well as personal enhancements to better serve their customers.”

–Commodification and U – A Guide to Bringing Joy and Earning Credits, 2047

***

“How many tokens do I have?” I asked. Somehow I ended up sitting on the edge of the bed again. Sure, I’d slept a good bit, but I was still a little tired, and standing around while talking to Myalis was always kind of awkward.

She was something of a voice in my head. There wasn’t any way to interact with her directly, not like when talking to a person face-to-face, and even on a call with someone, I’d at least have a phone in hand, or a screen open on my augs. With Myalis I had neither.

Most of the time that was fine. It wasn’t like I needed to see her or whatever. But it did make things a little awkward when I wasn’t moving around or doing anything.

You currently have four tokens saved up.

I nodded along. That sounded about right. I didn’t track those nearly as closely as I did my points, and even my points were… mostly being accumulated off to the side now.

“Four tokens, huh? So that’s four class two catalogues? How much does class three cost?”

A class three catalogue would cost you three tokens. You could afford a single one at the moment. Speaking plainly, you have the choice between widening your spread of abilities and owned catalogues, or pushing one of your current catalogues up a tier which would help you hyper-specialise in one area.

I nodded along. “Yeah, I get that,” I said. “So, oh wise Myalis of my brain, what do you recommend?”

I see three options before you. The first is as I mentioned, spend some number of points unlocking a number of new catalogues, then push these up a class with your current tokens. This option would widen the breadth of abilities and items at your disposal.

“Go on,” I said.

The next two options are similar to each other. Either focus on your Esoteric weapons specialisation, or on your Sunwatcher Technologies, elevating either to class three. At that level, both options would give you incredible abilities when it comes to handling higher-tier threats.

“How high are we talking, here?” I asked.

The correlation isn’t exact.

“What’s that mean?” I asked as I leaned back.

Most Antithesis you’re likely to see within your lifespan can be defeated with equipment purchased from class one catalogues. The greater the class of the catalogue, the further from humanity’s technological base the items are, but that does not mean that near-human technology cannot defeat the enemy.

“Right, okay,” I said. It was like… anyone could die by being shot by a shitty handgun. Some things made that harder, body armour and the like, but that didn’t prevent that same gun from being dangerous. Higher classes of catalogues were like… upgrading from a dinky pistol to something bigger. It helped, but it didn’t mean that it was entirely necessary. “So, why those two catalogues? I mean, besides the fact that I’ve invested in both already.”

They’re both catalogues that fit your current preferences in terms of combat and lifestyle. Your Esoteric Explosives catalogue provides most of the equipment that has been allowing you to punch above your weight-class, and the Sunwatch Technologies catalogue has been providing you with most of your weaponry, armour, and other equipment.

Right, so it was a three-way choice between going wide, going all-in on offence, or continuing with a pretty large set of very thematic equipment that covered a lot of bases.

I flopped back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling for a bit. “Okay,” I said. “I think… logically, Sunwatcher Technologies feels like the right choice. It’s got a lot of prosthetics, it’s got armour, it’s got weapons. My mech’s mostly from there, yeah? So if I wanna upgrade that, then it’s the way to go.”

Indeed.

“But!” I said. “But… that’s not what would be the most useful right now.”

That went to the Esoteric Explosives catalogue, hands down. Explosives were what we were chucking at Phobos from the Big gun, and I’d left a dozen rounds behind of a few different flavours to see what worked.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

A higher class of that catalogue would mean more bombs and more variety, it would also probably mean a lot more oomph. We needed all the oomph we could get at the moment.

“Shit… I think the right call is getting Esoteric Explosives up. It’s the right call for the short term, at least.”

There would definitely still be longer term benefits to such a thing. For one, you would have greater access to esoteric ammunition for even your simplest projectile weapons.

“Right,” I said. It wasn’t like it would be a loss. It was just that the Sunwatcher Technologies catalogue would probably kick more ass in the long run.

Don’t forget that the number of tokens you have will only increase over time. The destruction of Phobos will certainly contribute.

That was also true. I’d have one token left over if I bought the next class up for Esoteric Explosives. So I’d only be missing two more to bring Sunwatcher Technologies to par.

I’d probably get at least one from Phobos, that much Myalis had confirmed, so I’d at most be missing one more token. That couldn’t be too hard to pick up, right? “Yeah, alright,” I said. “Grab me that Esoteric Explosives catalogue, the next class up.”

To be clear, the cost isn’t limited to a number of tokens. The next class up is rather expensive.