Chapter 129

Chapter 129

Deal done I fled from Yokos physical domain and headed home to get to work. Jun was in his room getting ready for bed as I flopped onto the couch which was perfect, giving me time to get started.

I quickly started examining the code for Short Circuit. I noticed its benefits and weaknesses pretty quickly.

The hack overloaded the microcircuits of anyone with chrome. Basically it tricked the safeties on the power supply to push everything into the system, which caused immediate electrocution.

It did have some weaknesses. First off, you couldnt keep doing it to someone over and over. One Short Circuit usually drained the energy out of the chrome. Which meant after a single use, there usually wasnt enough power in the batteries to do it again.

Of course it worked on basically anyone with chrome though. Unless you were equipped with a grounding system. Most people arent going to have that unless they work with high voltage in their day to day, but it was something to think about.

Another problem was as bad as it was to get electrocuted, it wasnt directly lethal. You could knock someone out with it, and sometimes get their heart to stop, but in the end it was just a powerful electrical shock.

I pulled out the shard case that Yoko gave me and pulled out the shard containing the hack as I plugged it into my laptop that I gathered.

The code bloomed out and I nodded. Whoever made this wasn't Yoko. I recognized her coding by now having done a few debugs for her. This though? It was corporate. It felt like the sort of rote coding you would see from a group of people all cleaning up a single hack.

It was impressive, but it was irritating, because someone had gone through and tried to black box the hack.

With a bit of checking I found the creator was Militech.

Thankfully I was intending on doing a complete rewrite anyways, but I still wanted to examine how people normally do it. Yoko was good at her job, she had picked a difficult to parse hack, but it felt like it was a little bit of everything. Multiple attack vectors were in the hack, and it had a dense targeting list for how to go about performing its duty.

The problem was size. Like almost every hack I had seen it bloated up with the quality of the hack.

I closed my eyes and hummed as I considered the information in front of me.

What did I actually want from the hack? How could I make it better? I could make it smaller, sure, but better? That needed something else. I had been pretty good at coming up with a gimmick for my hacks that made them exceptional in what way I needed.

This was my first true offensive hack. It was like Learning lightning bolt for the first time as a wizard, when only having CC spells before.

What did I need a damage spell for? What was the goal?

In the end I wanted two things out of it. AOE, and disabling high end borgs.

Mass groups of enemies were annoying and being able to just take out a bunch of people at once was useful, but it was borgs that were the biggest threat to me, although I guess that meant I was still thinking of it more like a CC spell, than a damage one.

Plus I still remembered Kiwis use of Short Circuit from the anime. A single hack that disabled an entire room full of Maelstrom? That was powerful.

I want it.

So I dug through the code, finding interesting bits that I knew I could use, and started tearing away parts of the code that were just garbage.

As usual half of the code was seemingly downgraded. Even Militech kept the best hacks they made for themselves, while only selling a weaker version.

I fell into the rhythm quite easily. It wasnt hard to just sit there and slowly build up a quick hack. Not anymore.

It wasnt until Jun came stumbling out of his room the next morning that I looked away from the screen. Once again thankful for my Kiroshi, as my eyes would have been bloodshot after over eight hours of nonstop programming.

Morning Jun.

Mornin Wait, did you sleep?

No. I was working. Ill get some sleep soon. I lied to him, it wasnt very often that Jun noticed I had pulled an all nighter, one of the reasons I did try to sleep often enough that he wouldnt notice my lack of sleep.

Well Go to sleep. He said blinking sort of blankly at me as he was still half asleep himself.

Sure Jun. I agreed not wanting to argue, as I turned back to my laptop. I had made good progress, but trying to work on the versatility of the hack was a time sink. I shook off the idea of just making it do one thing instead of both.

This wasnt just for me, but hopefully a hack that Sasha could use to keep herself alive. I couldnt half ass it.

--

Jun left for work still side-eyeing me and I took a break from programming to do the rest of my attempt at daily exercise.

Downstairs at the gym it was quiet and I found myself doing some stretches with weights in each hand. It wasnt working my arms, but I still had muscles in my shoulders, chest and back.

I was working through the reps counting the number in my head when John walked over.

Still interested in that spar?

Its tomorrow. I agreed and he chuckled. Deravaja in an hour work for you?

Sure. Ill be there. I grit out as I ended the reps and stood up. Might as well head over and give myself time to recover.

Good. I know the kid is looking forward to it, dont tell her I said that.

Ill think about it. I teased but figured I might as well head over. Sensei would probably give me that look and demand to see how my training had been again.

So I called for my Kusanagi, and started driving.

The city was as busy as always, traffic beeping and honking and making a mess as everyone tried to get to work.

But I wasnt in a rush, and I did love driving my bike. It didnt take me long to pull up to the dojo where an array of Mizuchi were parked, each of them more ugly than the last.

My march towards the dojo was cut off though as I smelled something pretty good and ended up instead sitting at a little meat skewer stand to the side of the entrance and chowing down on breakfast.

Eventually my belly was full enough and I tipped the older man running the stall, as I headed into the dojo.

It hadnt changed much from the last time I was here. As I walked in, there was a man waiting behind the counter, but I ignored him walking right in towards the dojo proper.

I had a feeling Hayato would have already set up our little spar. She was the princess type like that.

Inside there were the normal sounds of sparring and the clack of shinai as people trained.

I was spotted instantly by Sensei who nodded to me and then jerked his head towards a corner. I looked over expecting to see Hayato or something but it was an empty corner

Ah.

I looked back at him and he just quirked an eyebrow at me and told me with just his eyes he expected me to get to work.

I sighed as I walked over pulling off my jacket and adjusting my holsters so they wouldnt get in the way as I threw my jacket over the Shinai rack that was the only thing in the corner.

With a sigh I picked one up and started practicing my forms as I waited. Under Sensei's stern eyes.

Dangit! I didnt sign up for this!

--

What are you doing? A haughty voice asked me as I continued to work on my swings. Every time I had made to put the shinai away Sensei had noticed and given me a look.

Judging.

I dont know how he did it, but I just kept going instead of stopping each time. Stupid sensei powers.

Mostly? Getting judged really hard by an old man. Ready for the spar? I asked, turning to see Hayato had arrived. The girl was wearing a gi, with pads on her hands and feet, and she was looking at me like I was weird.

Are you? You look exhausted!

I remember Johnny mentioning in the game once, about happy endings. There I stood at the stairs leading down into Afterlife. The groupies and wannabes that hung around took no notice of me.

Despite everything I had done, I was just another face in a crowd.

Here, for folks like us? Wrong City, wrong people. I muttered to myself. A reminder about happy endings in Night City.

About how the path would eventually go, but that wasn't set in stone.

Johnny Silverhand was wrong about most of the gonk shit he said.

Taking advice from him wasnt something I planned to do.

Wrong City?

Wrong People?

I would just have to change the city. Change the people. One person at a time if I had to.

I walked down the steps with confidence. It was time to save the catgirl!

You arent on the list. The bouncer told me as he stopped me from moving forward.

Dammit.

---

Pfft! You should have said you werent a regular! Sasha was laughing at me a while later. I had eventually gotten access after calling Sasha and being let in.

I forgot how tetchy this place is. I replied with a light blush and a shrug. It was kinda embarrassing to need to call for help to get into the club.

Well that was fun. Cmon. Ive got a booth over here. She said sashaying deeper into the club as we left the bouncer behind us.

I ignored the music, and the bar following after the girl that I needed to save. As I walked in, I couldnt help but notice she grooved to the music as she walked, hips swaying and even twirling a bit as the music pounded.

It was kinda cute, but a little distracting. Custom netrunner suits didnt leave much to the imagination Sasha. You should be more careful with shaking everything like that. Even I wore actual pants over my leotard.

I followed until she came to a booth and to my surprise it wasnt empty.

The catgirl turned as she reached it and smirked at me with a look that said she knew something I didnt, which is weird because I have no idea what she was thinking. No, I was more interested in the fact that Maine was sitting in the booth resting back face covered in those shades of his and sipping something from a glass as he took me in.

I could practically feel his eyes scanning me, both literally and metaphorically.

Hey Maine, dont mind us, my cute little contact finally showed up! Sasha called out as she slid into the booth and then turned to me, patting the place next to her.

This your contact? Shit, is this a kindergarten now? He grumbled, taking his eyes off me to focus on his drink.

The temptation to move, to act was there, but that was gonk shit. I dont care if he insulted me, my skills would speak for themselves if it ever came down to it.

Besides Maine talked big, but only his loyalty to his crew was something I could respect. The guy had over-chromed, and lost it in the end. So I wasnt exactly giving much weight to his words.

So I ignored him. Sliding into the space, and then pulling out a few shards and setting the laptop on the table.

Heres a few examples of my custom work. Feel free to take a look, but no copies unless you want to buy it. If you have something you want me to check over, now's the time.

Oh! Goodies. She chirped, snatching up the shards like an over enthusiastic cat.

I wasnt sure how much of that was her real personality, or just her persona to be honest.

It was kinda cute though, especially when she flashed me a smile in turn.

Ah netrunner shit. Whym I here again?

To look big and tough for me! Sasha replied shooting Maine a big smirk that he just sighed at and to my amusement decided to just stay quiet and drink in peace.

Then Sasah pulled out a shard of her own.

Tell me what you think of this. She asked and I shrugged, took the shard and slotted it into my laptop.

I checked it over and had to quirk an eyebrow as I read through her code.

It was good. Solid. She was obviously no amateur about what she did

But I instantly felt my teeth grinding as I read through it.

Why are there so many cat emojis!? I demanded in frustration! Using Cat emojis as part of your code base was just gonk!

Its my signature work Nya!

I looked at her. She continued smiling like the cat that Never mind.

Instead I pointed at a segment of the code. Your emoji here got inputed wrong. Thats why this section wont compile. I told her, and instantly the amusement on her face vanished as she jerked towards the laptop to look at what I was pointing out.

She might have gotten some laughs at me with this, but the look of relief on her face as I pointed out a problem meant I got the last laugh.

You caught that so fast!

Debugging is a skill, and you have to practice it to be any good. That one was free... I trailed off leadingly and she smiled in return.

Well lets talk deals then. She offered with a grin. I like this hack. I heard about it down the grapevine. Would have bought it from Yoko if I could get her to agree to a deal. she said my Reboot Optics shard waved in front of my nose.

Ill have a Short Circuit done sometime soon as well. I offered, but she didnt seem very interested which was annoying.

Ill take a look at it when you finish it. She agreed without really getting into it. So how long would it take you to clean up the code here? She asked, sounding much more focused on her task.

I ignored the question for a moment instead checking over the code scrolling through it, checking functions and basically just figuring out exactly what it was trying to do.

It was Fuck I recognized this hack.

Cyberpsychosis. I muttered and I looked up to see her grinning in delight.

You are quick!

Whats that? Maine asked, but Sasha just waved her hand at him to quiet him down.

Well?

If you got the eddies. I can get this done right now. I told her, and it was true. The hack was basically finished. I mean, it was complicated. Definitely the most dense quickhack I had ever even seen, but it was still just a quickhack.

Really? She questioned after a moment like she didnt believe me.

You pay the eddies, and Ill fix your work right here, right now. I told her, and her usual smiling face was gone as if she was dissecting me before the edge of her lips quirked up and she fell into her normal smirk.

I want to see that. Instantly her eyes changed colors, and I got an alert for a hefty dump of eddies into my account.

Challenge accepted I guess.

I turned away from her, pulled my personal link and inserted it into the laptop, and then I went to work.

The noise of my chrome fingers on the keyboard was the only noise in the booth besides the bumping bass of the music playing in the club for a long while.