Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 217

I’d hung out with Malcolm for a while, but we eventually split up as it was getting late.

Giving me time to look over my updates.

Quick Hacks skill level up!

1 Perk Point Gained.

This was big all on its own. I’d finally managed to get Quick Hacks to 10. That last level up from 9 to 10 was really a slog, but I’d managed it.

The feeling of surety in how to twist and alter Data on the fly felt surreal. What was a Quick Hack, but a long hack already programmed and ready, why not alter some variables when needed on the fly?

It was a big jump, but as always the perk was even bigger.

Level up achieved!

One Stat Point Gained.

One Skill Point Gained.

I had leveled up once after killing so many Daemons.

Dozens of the things had been spawned in that Server, it wasn’t quite as crazy as that first Server that Yoko had tossed me into, but it was still an excellent spot for some practice.

I’d have to see if I could go through it solo at some point. Sure, balancing defending against Daemons, and clearing server fortifications like that Moat room would be a bit more than normal, but it was still just a server.

Most importantly though, I needed to choose with my Stat point. Aaaah! It was always so hard to choose! I wanted more Adaptation for my Sandy, and I wanted more numbers for everything else!

I sighed and just looked at Intelligence. 

It was probably the best choice. Start getting some real specialty with Netrunning, especially since Sasha had asked me to join in her little challenge.

Honestly, I did want to impress Lucy. Although she was probably my superior in netrunning. Ugh. She probably wouldn’t be using her deep dive port, but the girl was trained to dive beyond the Blackwall. She would be scary to deal with. 

I sighed and just decided. Pushing the point into Intelligence.

I startled as I heard a negative tone and then looked at my Intelligence still at 14…. Wait.

Intelligence 14 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4. 

“Ah.”

I was already maxed out without more cyberware…

I forgot.

Looking around I relaxed, driving through Night City meant no one had just seen me do something so stupid.

Ugh. Okay, so should I go get something new to pump my Intelligence Cyberization, or just start leveling another Stat? Or I could put another point into my Sandy… 

I sighed, I really should focus on getting my netrunning up. I closed the stat page as I was at a red light and made a call.

Kid everything alright?

Hey Vik, everythings fine. I’m on the lookout for something. You know of any good Ram Upgrades, or something? I’m getting ready for a netrunner challenge in a week, and I want to boost myself as much as I can.

The light changed and I started driving.

I don’t have anything in stock, nothing that would be compatible with your netdeck. Let me put out some calls, for my favorite customer I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks Vik. I’ll try to look around as well, if you find something let me know?

Sure kid. Talk to you soon.

See ya!

I changed my calls as I drove through the city.

Motoko?

Hey Hiromi, I need some new cyberware, I already asked Vik about it, and he’s looking around, but I’m looking for a Ram Upgrade.

Oh! Okay, let me see. I have a list of Rippers that we worked with last time, I’ll ask around.

Okay just don’t promise anything right away unless it’s really good. I have Vik looking too.

Don’t worry Motoko! I won’t let you chip in some scop chrome! Just give me a minute! Bye!

The call closed and I couldn’t help but chuckle, as always Hiromi was so energetic. 

Alright that gave me time to look at the last reward.

The perk.

Quick Hacks 10, it honestly felt amazing to reach. An offensive skill finally reaching 10.

The list of perks as always was long, and I browsed through them as I drove, as I parked, as I rode the elevator up, as I flopped on the couch.

There were a lot of amazing options, but I had to pick just one. 

Ninja Hacking: Learn how to slip hacks below notice. 

The perk’s knowledge flooded me, and I had to stop for a moment and just close my eyes to process.

Mostly because it was just full of mathematics, and ways of thinking. Netrunning wasn’t a science really. There was an art to it. An understanding of how to insert a program to get the longest amount of time before it was noticed, ways to bypass human perception, and more.

It was all one more step to being able to Laughing Man anyone I came across. I was getting closer to being able to truly alter someone's sight in real time, closer and closer to simply being a Ghost.

Hopefully Vik or Hiromi would get back to me soon.

—--

Despite having spent all day active on the net, my body didn’t get the message and I felt antsy as I paced the apartment. Hiromi had only sent a single update text that she was working on a lead, so I didn’t want to just go to sleep. 

The information from the new perk still flowed through me, I was processing it, but I couldn’t relax.

My pacing stopped as I headed into my room and pulled out Musashi’s Katana  and headed back to the living room. Drawing the blade I slipped into the forms relying on instinct to swing the blade.

I’d need to make some adjustments to my quick hacks. While the perk was mostly knowledge of what I could do, there were things I now understood about netrunning that meant with a few tweaks I could make all of my hacks more stealthy. 

I wonder if I could entice Yoko with an even more stealthy Ping? I’d already called my older Ping a stealth Ping, but that had been arrogant. I could make it even less impactful on a network, I could upload it right to the face of a netrunner protecting a network and they probably wouldn’t even notice.

Well unless it was someone like Yoko.

The fact was she was still better than I was, I still had heights to reach. 

I stalled, my blade held for a cutting strike above my head as I held it. There was a moment, a stirring along the back of my neck, I shifted, adjusting to face the door and then it opened a moment later as Jun walked in stopping as he noticed me with my Katana out.

“Motoko?”

“Hey Jun.” I greeted back and lowered my Katana, shifting into a completely casual position  “I’m feeling antsy.” I told him and he just nodded.

“Well, be careful in the apartment. I don’t want to explain to Fujimura-Sama why he needs to send someone to fix a cut in the wall.”

“I’d never! What do you take me for some sort of gonk, drawing a blade for the first time?”

“Yes.”

I narrowed my eyes and lowered my sword before pointing the sheath at him threateningly. 

“Those are fighting words.” I said eyes narrowed, and he smirked, drawing his sheathed sword from his hip, pulling the blade out and laying it gently on a table near the door. I walked over and put my blade on the kitchen counter and then we both shifted. “Prepare to die.” I told him, and he snorted.

“Prepare to be humiliated.” 

We charged and the sheaths smacked as we instantly fell into a rhythm.

“Foolish Nii-chan, you will be a good test for my progress!”

“Motoko… You’re embarrassing.” He told me to my face and I responded hotly, our ‘blades’ crossing and searching each other for weaknesses. 

Jun was stronger. Annoying. But he was also more limited, his muscles, and strength were limited. Like a bodybuilder going for absolute gains, without realizing that he couldn’t even scratch his own back anymore.

I abused that, coming up from angles, where he couldn’t bring his strength to bear, and most importantly, I was just better than him.

I could taste his instincts, Jun had definitely been taught by Sensei, but I’d fought the entire Dojo.

I knew all the common motions and movements that sensei taught, and it was child's play to put Jun right into a position where suddenly I flicked up and his sheath was flying out of his hands.

“Hah! I’m invin-Hey!” I growled as he grabbed my wrist while I raised my hands in victory. “That’s a real bit-Eeeee!” I went flying as he spun, lifting me entirely off my feet and flung me like a ragdoll towards the couch.

I spun, shifting my angle and landed feet first spread out and staring right at him.

“No, that’s bullshit.” he grumbled pointing at my successful save. “How did you do that? I just threw you!”

“Motoko is a ninja, Nin nin.” I informed him, giving a big smirk and that only made him glare harder.

“Ninja my ass. Alright I’m done.” He went to grab his sheath and I stood up and wiped myself down to do the same, we both put our swords away and honestly I did feel a lot better!

—--

Thanks Vik. I confirmed, as my favorite ripper had found something. A Ram Upgrade that would be a solid upgrade. It wasn’t top of the line, and it wasn’t bottom of the barrel, but anything was better than nothing to be fair.

I pulled away from the couch where I’d been lazing around and sent a text to Hiromi.

Motoko: Vik pulled through, He found a Zetatech 6.5 RAM. It’s usable.

Hiromi: Hold on.

I blinked at the quick response, but Hiromi was going to Hiromi so I headed into my room to check some stuff. My Tachikoma project was doing well, I noticed. The little drone was wheeling around doing much better than it had when I first put it down. It still spent most of the day exploring my room, but that was fine.

Wandering around, I snatched up some equipment, grabbed my guns and such. Before stopping and grabbing a Katana. 

I was so close! Just a little more and I could finally level it up!

Then I headed out, Jun was in his room napping so I left quietly and headed towards the elevator. I could go see Vik while I waited for Hiromi, probably go check out the RAM he found. I’d hate to find some scop shit from another ripper.

Just as I was unlocking my Quadra I got a call back from Hiromi.

Motoko! Okay listen! I just got a contact, someone is selling some really nice netrunning cyberware! A whole batch!

I blinked at how breathless she sounded coming through the agent, and then felt excited.

Really? Do you know what?

Somewhat, I got confirmation on some RAM, a Raven Micro RAM, T3716. She offered, and honestly?

I had no idea if that was good or not.

Whoa! That’s great Hiromi! Okay give me a second to check in with Vik, but I still want to check on this sale. Meet up?

Yes! Sending my cords!

I nodded, and ended the call as I jumped in. Sending Vik a message asking about the T3716

—--

I pulled up to find Hiromi waiting on the side of a road, obviously having just come out of a market area in City Central, and sliding into the passenger seat. She was practically bouncing showing how excited she was.

“I talked to Vik, he said the T3716 is top of the line. Way better than the RAM he managed to find. Great job. Thanks Hiromi.”

She sent me a big toothy smile, but then shook herself. “Don’t thank me yet, we still need to actually buy it…. Uh, the dealer is in Dogtown.”

“Fuck.” I grumbled, but I nodded and turned towards Pacifica.

“Yeah I know. But it’s a stand in the old stadium. I got confirmation they sell amazing stuff there, and they’ll be there today.”

“Alright. Well… We probably don’t need to call everyone.”

“We don’t. It’ll be fine. Barghest are focused on trying to make themselves official, they want things peaceful especially when it comes to trade.”

“Yeah yeah.” I grumbled, as I turned towards Pacifica. I still didn’t like it, but Hiromi just shot me a triumphant look and I had to shift my grumpy face to something accepting.

“Thanks Hiromi, I know I bug you all the time.”

“Pfft. My number one most trusted agent deserves the best of the best. How will I earn eddies, if my money maker doesn’t have what she needs?” She said completely straight faced and I had to shift to look at her before she started giggling.

“Funny.”

“I know! It’s fine Motoko. We make so many eddies, and this is a great experience. My classes at Arasaka are good but… They leave a lot of things out. Like making contacts on the black market.” She said and I heard her irritation. “Stupid formulaic classes. They tell you that having Black Market contacts can be useful, but don’t actually teach you how.”

“But you figured it out.”

“But I figured it out! It’s something I can put on my worker log. I’ve had some of the teachers pay a lot more attention to me after everything.”

“And that’s good?”

“It’s great! I’m actually treated as an important student. You remember Tomaru?”

“Uhhh.”

“You pulled your gun on him when he tried to touch you once. It was a while ago.”

“Yeah I don’t. Sorry.” I made the turn onto the freeway.

“Heh! No it’s better that you don’t. He used to cause me a lot of problems, thought he was hot shit, but the teachers actually stopped him from fucking with me after class.” She smirked. I could see it out of the corner of my eye as she told the story.

“Want me to kill him?”

“Nah.” She denied and there was a sinister edge to it all. “He isn’t worth it, and he’s below me now in the hierarchy, everyone knows it. His father is a bit higher than my parents, but now I’m above him from my own work. It’s made things interesting.”

“Well I’m glad classes are going well.”

“Yeah.” She trailed off, but I didn’t press. Hiromi had never really enjoyed her schooling. I think the only reason she even went is because of my urging her to go.

But if some shit lord corpo was fucking with my choom, I’d visit him and make sure that problem was nipped in the bud. 

We made it to the massive wall around Dogtown, and went through their security with Hiromi handling the pass and then we were through. The badly maintained streets rumbled beneath the Quadra as we turned towards the old stadium. We found a parking space, and I locked up the Quadra and even activated the Tachikoma, just in case.

I wanted to know the moment someone stupidly tried to steal my Quadra.

I looked around double checking the wandering people around us, as I stuck close to Hiromi.

Hiromi didn’t seem to mind my presence at her side as I stayed close. At least she understood this place was dangerous even if she constantly argued the opposite. 

We headed up the long stairs, past more than a few Barghest troops. Most of them were street kids dressed up like soldiers. New recruits instead of the original unit that had turned traitor and took over Dogtown. 

Walking inside, I let Hiromi guide us, keeping a close watch on everyone that even walked near us. My eyes locked open, and hand on the Katana at my hip. I watched, ready and willing to cut down anyone that caused trouble.

No Cyberpsychoes jumped out of the woodwork, and no one tried to pickpocket, or worse.

It was just a normal trip through the stadium as Hiromi guided us to a corner where an old van had been parked. An actual van… I had no idea how it had gotten up here, there must be some sort of vehicle entrance down the way. 

The side door was closed and resting against an old beach chair was…

A netrunner? I guess? It felt like someone trying too hard to appear to be a netrunner than anything. Netrunning suit, goggles, that were pulled up, and some older equipment, an actual external cyberdeck, a Zetatech Micromate if my quick scan told the truth.

“I’m Mitsunashi, here to see Koko.”

“Yeah?” The boy asked, his eyes flashing as he scanned over Hiromi, and looked at me. I just waited, letting it happen before he nodded. “Alright then chooms. Let me introduce you to the product.” He waved behind him, and the door opened. And inside, there was a lot of gear.

Cyberware hung from little hooks through the van, plastic bags sealed and hopefully secure. Either way I’d be doing a full clean before installing any of this.

I had a feeling I was dealing with a scav seller now.

“Good. I’d like confirmation on what we discussed.”

“Yeah yeah, Corp, I get you.” He grumbled, seemingly annoyed at Hiromi’s professionalism. 

He stood up and stepped into the van, pulling a few packages off hooks more than what I had originally asked for, what was Hiromi up to?

Then he laid them all out and I looked it over.

There was the Raven Microcybernetics RAM. I looked over the package doing a quick scan, and it looked functional. “You wanted the T3716 right? Good shit right there. Real top of the line. Its former owner was a runner, got derezzed going up against corpo security, his chrome is going out to the public now with a bit of his anti-corpo spirit along with it… Or I guess if you’re corps, then you can do something good with his chrome, or whatever you corpo’s believe.”

“I’m not!” Hiromi started, but then just shook it off. “Motoko?”

“Looks good. Nothing on my scan shows damage.” 

“Course not. I don’t sell scop, Hansen would flatline any dealer here selling like that. I pay good eddies for a space right here.” He grumbled at me, but I just nodded, uncaring about his opinion. As if that would stop him from selling me something not working if he could.

“And the other pieces?” Hiromi asked hesitantly, and I took a look away from what I had wanted to see what else Hiromi had found. The first that caught my eye was an Ex-Disk. Something I already had, but… Well mine was scop, literal trash I pulled from a Scav den. 

This was another top of the line. Same company too. Raven Microcybernetics put out good equipment. It only took a glance over the cyberware to confirm they were functional. It… Yeah I wanted it.

I reached over and shifted the package on top of the other, then looked at what was left. Two packages and both…

Okay that was a good selection. I looked at Hiromi and she smiled as I gave her a nod in thanks. 

“Is that Camillo?”

“Course it is.” The seller commented. “Top of the line!”

“Well, top of the line for stuff that isn’t super rare. It’s a RAM Manager, and not a Reallocator.”

“Pfft. If you think I’d be selling a Reallocator off the back of the van and not just calling up some top runners to bid it away you’re crazy.” He responded back and all I could do was chuckle along with him.

Fair enough. I looked it over. Camillo was not what I would call top of the line, but… It was functional, and it did what it said on the tin. More Ram, and a faster restore time. It meant more hacks, less heat. 

I scanned it over, and once again everything seemed in order. Even the cords inside the packaging were individually wrapped so they wouldn’t cause any issue for the delicate cyberware. 

I put it on top of the pile. This was going to cost me, but…

I looked at the last thing and… I put it on top as well.

Not as needed, but this was definitely a Hiromi thing. Self-ICE. Protection against quick hacks, at least somewhat. I’d have to check what sort of ICE it was using, and probably program in something even better. Something more personal, but it would give me automatic protection without me needing to constantly fend everything off myself. 

Plus it also came with an additional bit of RAM.

Literally everything here did. My Arasaka Shadow had eight RAM, I’m used to an extra bit from my EX-Disk, but all of this equipment together? I’d probably be doubling the available RAM to work with…

I couldn’t help but think it was time to start installing some bigger hacks as well. I still had ‘that’ hack that Yoko had given me so long ago. She’d wanted to see what I could do with it, with my programming so far.

 I put the other package with the others.

“Alright. Seems I got some interested customers! Let’s talk price!” The runner said with a smile, and Hiromi of course had her smile grow even larger as she stepped forward, nearly into the man's space as she went to work at what she was best at.