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Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 102

“Future TV was a mistake.” I whispered after watching in horrified awe what passed for a popular action movie that only came out a few years ago.

It was horrible.

No wonder everyone in Night City was so violent. They had no good violence to watch on TV! I nodded to myself. I was gonna need to up the production quality of my XBD’s. The people deserved high quality violence!

“What are you doing?” I blinked, looking at Jun as he looked at me. I lowered my fist that ha...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 101

I left Jun to brood over his playboy ways. I headed out of the apartment entirely to give him some space. He was totally freaking out on the inside at flirting with Rita, and I would normally stick around to calm him down, but he honestly needed some private time to come to terms with the fact he might actually still be alive and interested in girls.

I headed out onto the street with no real plans.

Did I want to go hang out with my chooms? Go netrunning? Shoot something?

Tha...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 100!

I slept a full eight hours after that. Woke up to a warm sunrise over Night City that I could only just see outside the apartment window. Did the normal morning things. Had breakfast, watched TV, realized NC TV still sucked and in the end just didn’t do anything serious.

And in the end I was rewarded! Hiromi called asking if I wanted to meet up for lunch. Giving me something to do other than be lazy around the apartment.

Turns out she meant for us to meet up on her lunch break f...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 99

V went silent after my victory with nothing to refute my perfect argument for what Samurai song was the best. I settled down as well. V looked… Tired.

Honestly I kinda wondered who would look more worn. V now, Or V dying from the engram?

I felt a little sad for the woman knowing her future. Knowing that all the stress and heartache and pain she was suffering under from Arasaka would all amount to nothing. Hell less than nothing. A bullet to the head, if Jackie hadn’t been ther...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 98

V

It was time to get the fuck out of here. V ran straight towards the first Van Jackie right behind her.

She might make fun of Kang Tao as a corporation, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t send enough hardware at her to end her bought and paid for ass.

She slid right through the driver door into the passenger seat Jackie right behind her as he instantly started up the car and started driving. There was a parking garage a few blocks away that they could stash the...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 97

V

V sighed grimacing at the feeling of her insides swirling and shifting. Fucking BioMon was doing it’s best to keep her stress down, but Jackie just had to call at the worst fuckin’ time.

Jenkins was going to kill her when he found out she wasn’t following up on the new Militech Prototype Sandy, and instead was out trying to help out a non affiliate.

She exhaled, giving herself a moment to just breathe as the hacking shard downloaded everything it could from ...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 96

Nox

“It’s nothing like you’ll find anywhere else. It’s not some shock jock gore shit. This is an edgerunner, doing a real gig. A professional!” He commented practically slapping his bag as he talked the guy into it.

“Yeah kid I know. I heard about the Boat Heist.” The man offered, rolling his eyes as he looked around. He wasn’t the first customer Nox had that hadn’t been super comfortable buying pedaled BD’s, X or otherwise, off the street from a stree...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 95

Working through the catalog of Samurai songs took me most of the night. Each song needed multiple playthroughs, just for the initial tracks, and then I had to add the holo emitter setup which now that I had done it once with my first song, did go easier. I just needed to add a few more move sets for drums and guitar, and then set up the keyboard and bass.

Jun didn’t come home that night, which was annoying. I still needed to get my shard back from him. But at least I was able to distr...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 94

My heart was suddenly beating in my ears. Teeth grinding. If I wasn’t already a bit out of breath I was sure I would be screaming with every exhale.

MAELSTROM.

My hand instinctively already reaching for my Burya to put the monster down.

I snapped my eyes shut. Inhale. Exhale.

I opened my eyes feeling at least myself. I wasn’t sure if that feeling had been from all the rage I had been pumping into myself, or just…

Maelstrom.

But my hand fell away from ...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 93

(I accidently forgot to add the music here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQmIBHObtCs Enjoy!)

When I opened my eyes I was recording. Staring straight over the edge to the Scavs home. Not that the people watching this in the future would know that yet.

I could feel my breath coming out icy cold, but it wasn’t enough to stop the excitement I could feel pulsing up.

I pulled the shard out of ...

Ghost in the City: Early 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 starte...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 91

“So that’s the place Jackie.” I told the older man as we pulled up to the Scav den.

Ichi and Malcolm weren’t far behind. Hiromi wasn’t here this time, but that’s because she was at school, and super bummed that I had decided to hit this Scav den without her.

Instead I had asked Jackie if he wanted to join.

“Huh. You sure Hermanita? Doesn’t look like a Scav hole.”

“Yep. I’ve still got all their cameras infested. I’ve already looped the outside ca...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 90

I walked into the DewDrop Inn server to see there was a section set aside where a bunch of Netrunners were gathered, including Yoko.

She waved me over and smiled as I looked over the group. There were about ten of them, and other than Yoko, and the one Netrunner who Yoko had brought in when I did the server dive there wasn’t anyone I was familiar with, but they were all obviously here for me.

“Ah so it was you!” A voice called out and I had to blink.

His face… Wait, ...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 89

Home was nice. Jun was still at work when I got home but I was kind of glad because I was really wanting a nap.

My chest itched.

Like crazy.

I was forced to use Cool just to resist the irritation. So I really wanted a full sleep to hopefully remove the discomfort.

As I flopped onto the bed wincing a bit as I pulled my boots off my ankles that were all blotchy and swollen.

Despite Vik's gentle touch he had still stuffed shit into my body. I was bruised up a bit. I...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 88

I ended up stuck watching over the lot for an entire week as Hiromi wheeled and dealed. Selling off chrome to anyone and everyone willing to buy.

Considering the amount, it was almost lucky that the TC were interested in so much of it, because offloading it was not easy for Hiromi.

We definitely flooded the market for civilian chrome to rippers and the like.

In the end there wasn’t any trouble. Sure we had a few people sniffing around, but they all gave up when they saw th...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 87

I sauntered down the steps into the yacht, and into the room that was more like a club than what I expected on a boat.

And I actually had three sleepers…

Oh no there was a fourth person passed out, half way under a table.

Four.

One of them I recognized.

Too bad for Bartolomeo. The owner of the yacht was someone I had been planning on having a certain kind of meeting with already. The other three I didn’t recognize, although the fact the other two were women t...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 86

I was still hammering through the issue in my head when I got back home. I would call the team together soon to chat about what to do, but we had been running around for a few days now. Best to give everyone some time to decompress.

Unluckily for me. Jun wasn’t home which was disappointing. I really wanted to talk to him about what to do.

So instead I flopped onto the couch and pulled up all the data. All the recordings and pictures.

Oh! Hiromi had actually sent me a dossi...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 85

That night I parked the Quadra a long way from the marina, and spent a good walk down the sidewalk.

I wasn’t wearing my normal gear either. I was in my Section 9 outfit, including the ninja mask. Which would have earned me some weird looks walking down the street in Night City, but it was late, and I was purposefully avoiding attention. The few cameras that could have spotted me as I walked down the street were hacked and turned off.

It’s not like I cared if someone at Pawn Sh...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 84

Once everyone ate and had a break we jumped back in. I was back on the net. This time following the Van backwards along its path with my team helping out. And then to our delight, the van was on a different road back.

*It’s on Longshore! It just came off the Ringroad!* Malcolm called out through the call.

The Van hadn’t gone into City Central using the freeways through NC. It had been mostly on the street level. Using Congress St to go around Corpo Plaza to reach Corporation.<...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 83

“Motoko!” Hiromi called out as she entered Lizzies.

Sure she looked a bit awkward about it, staring a bit too long at some of the Mox bouncers, but I waved her over and her nervousness faded as she got closer.

I guess it might be a little awkward for a girl like Hiromi who usually was covered in TC stuff to walk into the Mox home.

But honestly I wanted to get away from using the Ho-Oh club as our meetup place.

That stupid mask I now had hidden away in my room was t...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 82

I opened my eyes in the net. My lobby was still blank…

I really needed to spend some time building this up. A lobby could be a really useful tool if prepared correctly.

But I shook that away and dived into the city.

I did plan on talking to Yoko today, but first there was something I wanted to explore myself.

I wanted to find more Scavs.

What? My Bank account was looking a little thin, and it was better to find another den to raid sooner rather than later. Ichi...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 81

Pre-Chapter note! 

As you might have guessed this chapter has Motoko play a song, and it's not the original or something. So I figured I would add it here. I don't usually do 'song' fics, but if you want to hear what I was thinking Motoko was playing and singing. Then here is the song! I hope you enjoy and feel free to mock her weeb levels as much as you want. I take no responsibility it definitely isn't one of my favorite songs IRL or anything! (Also there are english versions but...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 80

Hiromi took care of giving Richard the car back, I hadn’t wanted to talk to the gonk after everything, and in the end I drove her home. Both of us were pretty quiet on the way, but to my surprise Hiromi didn’t just get out when I reached her home.

“Come up with me. There’s something I still need to do.” She demanded, and I looked surprised at her sudden aggressiveness.

“Hiromi, I’m-”

“I know. You have to go talk to Jun and deal with Fujimura-whatever. But c...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 79

Hiromi and I left Richard at the apartments, the two of us piled into my car and I was driving a few blocks over to a Tyger Claw front operation.

From what Richard had said it was actually a drug distribution center, but it pretended to be a tattoo parlor.

Considering how big tattoos were with TC members. I was sure it was also a fairly active tattoo parlor.

I pulled up into the parking lot and couldn’t help but shake my head.

There were times I could forget that the...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 78

After getting confirmation from Wakako that she had the target, we both got wired the eddies as I was driving back home.

“So what did you think?” I asked, Jackie had been quiet for a while, mostly just smiling to himself at the reward for the gig.

“You’re certainly the best overwatch I’ve ever been with. You helped every step of the way.” Jackie muttered quietly, obviously the big man was thinking.

“Yep, and I couldn’t have done it without you. Trying to haul...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 77

I walked into Wakako’s parlor to find Jackie not there and Wakako greeting me with a point towards a chair.

Her eyes were on her TV again.

Huh. Wakako really liked her shows huh?

I just shrugged and settled in to watch it with her, she would tell me what was up when Jackie got here.

And it wasn’t more than twenty minutes later that Wakako reached over and shut off the TV, just as Jackie Welles walked his bulk through the beaded door.

“Ah, Wakako, I hope I�...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 76

In the end I did agree to a trade, Yoko would owe me multiple favors, and a few quick hacks to be able to sell out my Ping to netrunners.

Picking up a few Quick hacks that I wanted to fill out my Cyberdeck really did make it worth it, even if the future favors that Yoko now owed me would probably be more valuable in the long run.

But more importantly than that. The pure excitement that Yoko had shown as we got into the programming, as we dug into the whys and hows made my night. 2023-05-20 13:34:51 +0000 UTC View Post

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 75

I plugged into my laptop with my neural cord, and opened up the program for Ping.

I was going to start at the beginning.

Instantly I felt literal revulsion.

Whoever had put this program together should be shot…

Okay I had been shot before so I’ll give myself a pass here.

It was a mess. My own work wasn’t… good. But it wasn’t just my work I was critiquing. Such a simple program bloated and twisted.

I could fix this.

But why bother?

Inst...

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 74

I ended up having to go home after I woke up. While I did have a sink in the basement so I was able to clean the blood off my face, my netrunner suit needed an actual cleaning since some of my blood had caked on.

So I was throwing my clothes in the washer back at the apartment, and slumping onto the couch when I thought to check my stat page.

I had killed a lot of Daemons after all, and they did give XP.

I started looking through the update list with wider and wider eyes. 2023-05-14 16:47:34 +0000 UTC View Post

Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 73

“No way Simon makes it this time. This is his third try.” I argue even gesturing with my hands at Wakako.

“He is scrappy, and he has a great desire. I think he will make it.” Wakako offered taking a drag as we argued about the show she had been watching.

Apparently Wakako was really into this weird mix of Price is Right, and Takashis Castle, gameshow.

Night City Televison was fucking weird.

One segment will have these people trying to win prizes in strange game...