Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Motoko dont cause any- Motoko? Jun asked as he had caught up to me but was surprised I was just standing there. He followed my gaze and I caught the way his face jerked back to me. You want to try it? He asked, trying to sound casual.

I hesitated, I wasnt exactly big on singing in front of people But on one hand, I was bored.

Like really bored.

On the other It was a real piano. Dont see many of those in Night City. A real antique.

Yeah. I nodded firmly, marching over to stand in front of the ancient thing. It was old, probably been here since before the TC took over the place. I hit a key and was surprised it was in key.

I tested a few more, with a little trill of notes and to my delight my fingers not only hit the right keys, it sounded fine.

Of course now I had the eyes of every man and woman in the bar on me. I just shrugged, bars were supposed to have music. If anyone complained I would just sic Jun on them.

So after testing out my fingers I nodded. I could definitely be better, but I could play.

Now I just needed to figure out what song to do.

Nervous?

No. Just not sure what to play. I offered as I considered it. Vocal and Piano only piece I didnt listen to many songs like that. And even less that I really enjoyed

But there was that anime OP.

Fuck it, it probably didnt exist in this world, so no one would know how much of a weeb I was. Plus I did love the composer, even if he did a lot of anime stuff.

I hummed a bit until I got my voice to the right tone. The vocal needed to be smooth, and I had to figure out what language to use

Ill just stick to english. It made a bit more sense that way, considering the original was a mix of multiple languages turned into almost gibberish at times. I loved it, but with an unfamiliar audience? Better to stick to one language.

I started the first notes letting the sound of the piano flow through the bar, but then I kept my eyes on the piano because the only thing I needed to do was focus on the song.

I will rise in resistance. I crooned out, beginning the intro for Hiroyuki Sawanos aLIEz. I loved Sawano, and the fact his songs were heavily electronic, was actually workable this time since he did a lot of them on piano as well.

I remember watching a video of just him and the singer playing the song together, that memory is what guided my fingers. The sound of the haunting lyrics guiding my voice.

It wasnt perfect. It did lose something without the additional sounds. I would have to fix that some day, recreate it in truth.

But it was fun! I loved this song!

I got lost in playing the notes and crooning along, my voice probably carrying the song more than my playing. Siren Song, and Perfect Musical Memory shoring up my pitfalls in playing, but none of that really mattered.

Because I was jamming out.

Wake me from this nightmare. I finished the song by the gentle crooning that it finished on as I played out the last notes letting the song come to its quiet end.

*100 Rockerboy XP Gained.*

It would have been even better if I had my music box. I really needed to fini-

The clapping behind me nearly startled me as I was looking at the alert. Jun was leaning against the wall beside me looking pleased, and there were a few at the bar clapping quietly, but it was the much closer noise that had startled me.

Fujimura.

Kusanagi. He greeted back, the man was bracketed by two people only one of them I recognized. Akari was clapping as enthusiastically as I expected, the other man nodded as my eyes ran over him.

Youre late. I inform him bluntly. Owe! I hissed as Jun tapped me on the back of my head.

Dont be rude. Jun demanded and I just rolled my eyes.

Its fine Junichirou. Join me in the booth, we have something to speak about. He stated with a deep grunt and started walking towards it expecting obedience.

That was great! Akari said suddenly right there as she grabbed me and shook a bit. You never told me you could sing! Can you do-

If you say anything by the Us Cracks, I will kill you. I inform her bluntly.

I still remember how Akari never seemed to mind Juns music taste when we were in the car together.

Aww.

Akari cmon. Jun called, pulling me away from her grasp and gently pushing me towards the booths.

I guess it was business time.

I headed into the back booth, mostly ignoring the looks I was getting. Whether people actually liked the song or not, I wouldnt find out, but that was fine.

This wasnt my sort of place anyways.

I settled into the booth Jun and I had abandoned and was set next to Jun with Akari on my other side, with Fujimura across from me with his other guard there too.

The trouble yesterday. Kotoniki has been disciplined harshly. Even if you were not one of us, to act in such a way dishonors us all.

I dont really care. My fist already evened the debt. I told him and to my surprise Fujimura actually chuckled.

Kotoniki was with a ripper when we got to him. You broke his jaw. The man offered nodding as if pleased.

Well my fist is chrome.

Regardless. The man was disciplined, but there is a debt between us. He offered using a finger to flow between me and him.

You know I dont reallyThis chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

Yes. You have little interest in gang work. Im aware. He seemed to say flatly, but it came out like a grumble. Junichirou has spoken on your behalf. To keep you out of our business until you are ready. Yet your own business has brought you into conflict with us. Ive considered the best way to ensure there wont be any further issues like yesterday.

Okay? That doesnt exactly sound comforting.

I wasnt just making a cludged together program that would be good enough.

I was making

A magnum opus. Well that was a bit much, but still.

I was trying to create the peak of the Reboot Optics I could design.

It was funny there was a version of the program stored on V3Ls server. The quality of it was much higher than the one I had bought from Yoko, but both programs were actually done by two different people. Mine was a copy of a copy of a copy, deteriorating each time, or purposefully weakened.

V3Ls was a copy of a much better program. The coding was different, the goal was the same, yet both had shown me what people considered Reboot Optics to be.

I was trying to surpass both. To create an entirely new version of the Quickhack, a new peer in the market.

It was hard.

It was time consuming.

It was exhilarating!

I was creating magic. Literally designing a digital spell that would blind my enemies.

I mean this wasnt a wizards tower, but sitting on a couch in an apartment was probably more comfortable anyways.

I snorted at my own joke as I worked. The code coming together, slowly forming into something more than just code.

Something complete.

Finally long after Jun had fallen asleep. I finished typing.

I finished debugging.

I finished crafting a spell.

A spell designed to be both longer lasting than the original idea with the brightness trick, and much wider.

It was unfortunately going to be weaker against other netrunners. Any good ICE and defenses could stall the upload out, but in exchange I could rapid fire it out as it had a much lower RAM cost, plus I could always breach some arrogant Netrunner, and push it through that way.

It was also capable of jumping to other people. When it overrode the optics, it branched out and infested the communication systems. Anyone with an interior agent would have it hijacked, have it connect to others already in communication with them, or those in the system close by. If someone was hit by multiple attack vectors the difficulty in stopping it could spike. If it worked correctly, it could overwhelm even moderately good ICE.

A self duplicating viral code.

It was something really difficult to program. Sure there were plenty of hacks that had that aspect, but those were created by teams of corpo coders all working to get it to work, and most of the best duplicating hacks werent program, but hardware bonuses.

I still remembered the Tetratronic Rippler from the video game. That let the super ultimate quick hacks spread to an extra person. Yeah that was probably a bit unrealistic, but then again the rippler wasnt on the market at the moment, so who knows? Maybe some corp will figure it out in the coming year.

Regardless, I created this program in just a few long sessions.

And it was entirely my own.

Sure I doubt it was unique, but it would still be different enough from anyone else's work that it should come as a nasty surprise.

I pushed the program into compiling, receiving the finished file and uploaded it into my Cyberdeck.

Two completed hacks.

I leaned back in the dim light of the apartment. The sun was setting, Jun was still napping, beside me on the couch, and I had completed one of my big goals.

Instead of working on another quick hack, or something I instead grabbed my little music box.

It had been a project I wanted to complete for a while.

It wasnt productive. It wasnt going to make me a better merc. A better Netrunner, or a better Edgerunner if I wanted to call myself that.

But it was a project I really wanted to finish.

So I settled in, and started working. The moment a new file was opened and I started coding my fingers picked up and blurred.

I was inspired.

I had a goal.

And I had the knowledge to complete it.

--

Morning Jun. I muttered as I continued to build piece after piece of a very complex piece of equipment. I was really glad that Programming gave info dumps, because making a Quick Hack wasnt the same thing as designing the function of a physical item. It was easier in a lot of ways, but more finicky.

Morning. He grumbled as he rose up rubbing his eyes. He stood and stretched, grumbling the whole way as he headed into the kitchen.

If Jun was up I should probably get moving too.

I closed the laptop, that project wasnt going anywhere, and there was something I had been wanting to do.

Im heading out, gonna be netrunning for a while, so I might be hard to reach. I called out to Jun who was drinking an entire energy drink can as he chugged it down.

You need to show me this netrunning place you got set up. He said as he wiped his mouth tossing the can into the trash.

You want to come with me now? Its not much to see though. The interesting part is the net itself.

No. I have stuff I need to do today Youll be careful?

Course! Im gonna be hunting some info down today, so I should be pretty safe.

Jun frowned but eventually nodded. I grinned as I headed out. Time to explore the net once again!