Ghost in the City: Cyberpunk Gamer SI

“T-Two.” I grunted as I forced myself up. Pushups were not easy, and my arms were still jello, but it was really good experience.

*100 Body XP Gained.*

Turns out I was now strong enough to do basic exercises, and while lifting my arms and working my incredibly weak body did give me XP after a while of doing it, actual direct exercise was a whole other class.

The first time I did an actual pushup I gained XP every rep. Of course I could only do one rep at a time at the start.

But with the ability to go to sleep and wake up fully recovered. I was cheating while Jun was out of the house. Normally the amount of muscle pain I would be in would put me out of commission for days. If not more considering how weak I still was.

But with a nap I was back and ready to push myself again. Turns out I could actually adjust how much time I slept for as well. There was an actual 24 hour clock when I decided to sleep. I just hadn’t seen it because I don’t usually keep my eyes open when trying to sleep.

Stupid weird Gamer system.

“T-Threeee!” I grunted, managing a third pushup but it left me on my stomach gasping my arms burning and I realized they weren’t going to be any help getting me back on my feet.

“Okay I’m out.” I whispered as I simply rested on the floor for a while. Until I realized just how gross the floor was.

“Damn, when was the last time we cleaned this place?” I grunted being able to look at the ground I could see just how much dust and trash had been stuffed in the corners.

Grumbling I rose up mostly without my arms since they were dead and I wandered around the apartment really taking it in. We were really poor huh? I couldn’t help but think. Most of the stuff was old. Worn or badly repaired. With that I realized I was looking at the metal slats that blocked the window and pushed the button to open them. Taking in the world outside the apartment for the first time since the drive home.

The world was full of trash.

But there right outside the window was a pretty sakura tree in full bloom. The pink petals not the only color I could see, but they were the only natural color, surrounded by faded graffiti or punks walking around in neon clothes.

It sorta fit. This city. It wasn’t a prison like a certain girl once thought.

It was just… Overgrown. A neglected garden.

“Huh. I’ve been inside too long. I'm getting philosophical.” I couldn’t help but mutter to myself as I decided to refocus.

Exercise like this might be pretty boring. Wearing out every part of myself until I couldn’t go on, and then sleeping for a few hours until I was fully recovered to do it again, but there was something…

Well it was like playing a game. Grinding out some stats in a game, except this was more real. More important. So instead of drifting off in my head I got back down on the floor and started trying to do a crunch.

It didn’t go over well, but the effort gave me some more XP.

—--

*Body Leveled up!*

I blinked, breaking my concentration on my failed attempts at squats to stare at the alert.

I quickly threw the alert to the side and opened my stats.

“Body level 1. I’m actually human again.” I muttered as I rose up my body was burning and I was sweaty, but this time as I rose up.

My body didn’t wobble. I didn’t feel weak other than normal exercise tiredness. I started walking around the small apartment and it didn’t tire me out, or make me feel like I should stay close to the wall.

I breathed in deeply and let it out. I felt… Normal.

Well…

I was hungry. I headed into my room and put on a few more clothes. A jacket over my light shirt I had been wearing while I exercised, a hat over my head, the hat looked like it was something I wore when I was younger. With a cute cat image on it, that had been covered in Tyger Claw stickers but I put it on anyway. And then my shoes. Which were weird.

Crazy neon boots. This fuckin city.

But with that I stepped out of the apartment for the first time since I entered it. The hallway was quiet other than old equipment struggling along. I decided to take the stairs to start. See if I could handle them, plus get some extra exercise.

I opened the heavy gate with the code I had and started down. My body handled the strain easily enough. Even if my legs were still aching from my previous exercise. But it felt nice, to just. Go.

Not be trapped inside anymore.

Two weeks. Not bad. I was partially thankful that Jun was sort of an idiot. He hadn’t thought it was weird that I was already able to walk. Just thankful that I could.

The doctors probably hadn’t bothered to tell him it should have taken me months to be able to walk on my own again.

I wasn’t going to bring that up to him. Instead I steadily walked down the stairs enjoying the feeling of moving farther and farther away from where I had been stuck until I hit the bottom floor.

“What a trash pit.” I scowled, noticing plenty of trash lying around. The whole bottom of the apartment complex was a mess. As I entered the lobby I noticed the two old asian men sitting in the corner

Since I was hungry I walked over to the vending machine only to swiftly turn around as I realized what it was they were offering.

SchwabSchwab Grape sold grape flavored fried ants.

I shuddered at the very idea of that. So instead I turned around and walked out into the street where a street vendor was cooking up some sort of meat balls on a stick right outside the door.

Did I have any idea what they were? Nope. But they weren’t ants.

I spent a couple eddies on buying one as I looked around.

People were walking back and forth all around and for a moment I felt like… This was real. These were actual people, not just NPC’s in a video game. I couldn’t help myself but keep moving.

Even if I promised myself just a once around the block. I didn’t want to be gone for too long.

So I walked. The smell of the city was… Strong. But it was the people that I watched. Hobos sitting in filth and just… Dying. Punks kids that were looking towards their future even if they had no idea what it would entail stalked around. Some in the neon looks of Tyger Claws, a few of the other gangs wandered. I saw a Mox girl saunter down the street, a bag of clothes or something hanging from her elbow.

She caught me watching and threw me a wink. I just smiled at her as I walked past. There were so many people. So much life, and so much death. I could hear shouts coming from alleyways. Which I purposefully made sure to walk as far away from as I could. In the distance over the sound of the vehicles rumbling around I heard a gunshot and then two, and then twenty. But it was far in the distance.

And all the while people just lived. Chattered either to each other or on a call. As I circled the block I came across a little restaurant out on the side of the street. The set up was cooking more of the meatballs on a stick. Still hungry I stopped and ordered a second helping, the taste was better at this place I noticed to my pleasure. Passing the eddies over and thanking the cook who looked quite pleased and gave me a very Japanese bow, which I returned.

Then I continued on. I realized where I was as I turned the corner. I could see the little underground shopping area. It took me a few minutes of walking before I found the name on a sign to confirm. “Cherry Blossom Market. Nice I live right next to it.” I muttered looking down into the glass roof into the market.

I decided to keep walking though. That would be an adventure for another day.

Continuing on I noticed the massive concrete structure that led up from the street lots and lots of stairs.

I walked around them for now, but I already had an idea forming in my head as I continued my walk around the block. I reached the front of my apartment complex. Giving a nod to the vendor that I bought the food from as I stepped back inside.

Time to get back to work.

I stopped at the bottom of the steps. “Five floors.” I reminded myself. As I started walking up the steps.

*100 Body Experience Gained.*

—--

“Ah Jun-Nii, welcome home.” I called out as I continued to do my crunches.

“Ah… Thanks.” He muttered, having stopped to stare as I continued to do my exercise.

“You aren’t overdoing it right?” He asked finally after a few moments but I shook my head on my upward bend.

“Nope! Just making sure my muscles aren’t all jello!” I tell him as I lay back down to get ready for another.

Body had leveled up again. Being able to do some basic running and be able to do more than just wave my limbs around had caused my XP to come in much faster.

Which did allow me to learn how leveling stats worked.

Each stat needed a thousand XP per level which multiplied by the level up. So to get to level 1 in a stat. I needed a thousand XP. To reach level 2 I needed 2000.

Of course as I learned, sometimes it was actually easier to level once you hit a point. Since I could do more than one pushup at a time, the amount of experience I was earning had gone up crazy fast. Which is when I learned that the more pushups I did the less experience I would get for each one.

I guess as my body grew stronger, weaker exercises wouldn’t help as much.

But for now it still gave me XP and I had switched to lots of different exercises to see. Crunches pushups squats jogging. Using the stairs in the apartment to go up and down.

All of it gave XP. Hence why I was already at Body 2, and working towards 3.

“Well don’t overdo it.” He demanded with a growl before wandering into the apartment losing his gear as he did, slowly going from a gangster to an irritable teenager.

“Oh, do I have a weapon? A knife or a gun or something?” I asked as I continued exercising.

“What? Why do you want a weapon?” He demanded. “Did someone bother you?”

“No no. I ugh hold on.” I groaned, taking a moment to lay back and catch my breath. My core was absolute fire. I rolled onto my side and got up that way knowing my stomach would be no good for a while. “No, I went out on a walk earlier.”

“You what!? Motoko you don’t know anything! You can barely walk, and-”

“And I can walk better actually.” I told him as I stood up and walked around showing him just how firm I was as I walked around the apartment. “And I know I don’t know a lot, which is why I need to learn. But from what I can see it’s dangerous out there, so I wanted to know if I had a weapon or something?”

“Your katana was lost when… You don’t currently. I’ll get you something. A knife, and a gun at least.” He tells me firmly as he turns his back and plops a pair of burritos onto the table. “Come eat first. You must be hungry.”

“We have to talk about your burrito obsession Onii-San.” I say plainly as I sigh and grab the burrito. Causing Jun to look surprised as he looked at his own burrito in confusion.

“What’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

—--

Jun was a teenager of his word. The next day he came home to me doing pushups as I listened to the Netrunner guide, which had surprisingly given me some Intelligence XP as well. So I was definitely doing something right there.

“Here.” He said as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a pistol, and a combat knife. Laying them on the table.

“Oh. That was fast, Jun-Nii.” I told him. “Thank you.” I grinned as I went to check them over but his hand firmly pushing them against the table kept me from touching.

“Do you even know how to use a gun?”

“Mostly?” I offered which was the truth. I knew enough to at least not accidently shoot myself, or someone else. Although I didn’t have a lot of practice firing them. Shooting hadn’t been big on my hobbies in my last life.

“Then I’ll walk you through some of it. I’m not going to have you kill yourself after everything.” He ordered settling down on the couch as he grabbed the gun and casually unloaded it, putting the magazine and bullet that had been in the chamber down on the table. “Alright, first this is a Unity handgun. Twelve round standard magazine. Let me show you how to hold it, so you don’t shoot yourself. Or lose control of it.” He started firmly.

After an hour of focused training from Jun I felt my alert sound off.

*Handguns Experience Gained.*

*Skill not unlocked, no XP gained.*

*Handguns Unlocked.*

I smiled as I felt myself growing more confident. Whatever I was doing was right. And a skill? Yeah I liked that.

—--

I slept like usual that night, waking up the next morning feeling refreshed, and instantly got up to grab my pistol.

My normal exercise right in the morning usually left me pretty wrecked to do anything else. So instead I was going to practice with my handgun to make sure the skill was raised up.

I didn’t want to die after all, and a handgun was only like barely above unarmed in this city.

So as Jun continued to sleep as I opened the windows in the living room spotting the Sakura tree with a smile I began practicing drawing and falling into a stance with my pistol. Over and over, Every few times it gave me an alert.

*125 Handguns Experience Gained.*

Over and over. Because drawing your weapon and getting on target was more important in real life than just accuracy.

Although I would like both.

Slowly I was even gaining Reflex XP as well as I was training in moving very quickly, and not just exercising.

At least I had found a way to raise that one as well. It was currently at 1. Just like most of my stats, other than body.

I grumbled 1 Intelligence? I was smarter than that! Stupid Gamer system!

With a grin I got another alert.

*100 Handguns XP gained.*

*Handguns skill level up!*

Instantly I felt it take effect. With a gasp I went from my own guessed draw of my handgun to a smooth surety.

I knew a better way to draw my handgun. Not guessed, knew. It wasn’t like it had been downloaded into my head, it was more like… I just knew instinct muscle memory. The whole thing.

I could feel my grip shifting becoming better. My stance adjusting naturally to better aim and control the gun.

It felt great. I kept grinding, if this is what it was like at level 1 Handguns, what would level 2 be like?

Unfortunately no Handguns alert came, only a few more for reflexes until finally I stopped to check my stat screen.

What happened?! It had been way way too long since I got something!

Then I noticed it.

Handguns was listed as *Max* at level 1?!

With a bit of struggle I managed to focus on Handguns and that is when I noticed it.

Good knews. I would be able to raise my skill above level 1. Bad news, skills were limited by their governing stat. Without raising Reflex which had Handguns listed under it, I couldn’t raise Handguns anymore.

Which was like the Cyberpunk game, now that I thought about it.

“Dammit.” I cursed. I had really wanted to keep that feel good gamer feel. But now I am stuck, unable to raise the skill anymore! Ugh. Nothing worse than being mid grind only to have to stop.

“What is it?” Jun asked sounding tired as he stuck his head into the living room.

“O-Oh. Sorry Jun-Nii, I was just… It’s nothing. I was practicing my draw a bit. Just in case.” I told him with a sigh as I realized I was already feeling pretty sweaty this morning just from that.

Ugh. I hadn’t even done my morning workout yet either.

“Alri-Yawn!-ght. Just don’t blow a hole in the wall.”

“It’s unloaded!”

“Just don’t be a gonk.” He reiterates and turns back around to his bed. I guess it was still pretty early for Jun. He was a teenage boy and it wasn’t even noon yet. I sighed before settling the gun on the table beside its magazine.

Then my hand twitched towards the knife.

I would still have to practice with that too. If I needed to stab some.. Gonk. Heh. Gonk. If I had to stab some gonk I better know how to stab.

So I grabbed the knife and started working into a rhythm of stabbing outward. It was… awkward. I was really glad Jun had gone back to bed, because if he saw how awkward I was he might just take it away.

But that didn’t matter because minutes into the practice I got an alert.

*Blades Experience Gained.*

*Skill not unlocked, no XP gained.*

*Blades Unlocked.*

With a grin I continued to practice. Rushing towards that high of gaining a skill up.

I became a lot more practiced with the gun in just one skill up, how would that translate to my Knife?

*100 Reflex XP Gained*

Another alert popped up reminding me that moving like this wasn’t just increasing my Blades skill.

I smiled. Even if it was awkward, even if it was weird, even if it was kinda boring, although I did turn the radio on quietly so I didn’t wake Jun, just to have some background noise. Being able to see my own improvement, made it impossible to stop.

In the real world this would be the most boring thing I had ever done. Just jab and slash with a knife over and over again at thin air. The fact I was already tired from before meant my arms were aching. My breath was coming out in puffs, but just the idea that with a bit more work I could see the numbers go up?

Numbers make Motoko brain go brrr.

I grinned at the joke as I continued. I wouldn’t stop until it was too much. Until I had to stop and go back to sleep and recover. Then I would start again.

It honestly felt like I was in a tutorial space. That the outside world was barely impacting me for now.

But I knew the truth. This wasn’t a game. It wouldn’t wait for me to get ready before kicking me in the head.

So I had to train. And train hard. Whatever happened that caused me to get picked up by Scavs, it wouldn’t happen again.

—--

I could hear Jun wake up and come out of his room but I ignored that because hot water over my shoulders was niiiice, and all I cared about at that moment.

I hadn’t managed to hit the next level of knife or reflex, but I would be good to go once I wake up after a shower. I had sweated like a pig, I didn’t want to make a mess of my bed.

“Hey. You alive in there?” Jun called out, and I groaned.

“I’m alive. Just enjoying the water on my muscles.” I called out. It was kinda awkward how… open? The bathroom was. The only real privacy was a row of blinds that fell down from the bathroom ‘door’ not that there was a door.

Which meant that pooping or showering left me feeling a little exposed.

“Good. Don’t make me go in there and drag you out. I need a shower before I leave too.”

“Right right. I’m done.” I grumbled, shutting off the flow as I grabbed a towel weakly with my tired arms.

The only problem with my heavy skill grinding was that it left me feeling pretty worn out anytime I hadn’t just woken up. But when I woke up I felt great and wanted to make my numbers go up.

This was going to become an addiction wasn’t it? I couldn’t help but ask myself as I sighed. Drying off and wrapping the towel around me.

“Hey Jun-Nii?” I asked as I walked past him. “You’re safe right? When you leave? I mean… I won’t have to worry about you just disappearing one day right? I mean… what is it you do anyways?” I asked as I stopped at the entranceway to the bedroom.

My question obviously surprised the Teen who scoffed. “I work at a casino. I’m protection and sometimes help out at the bar. It’s perfectly safe, no one is gonk enough to try and break in or rob us. We have a lot of guards. You don’t have to worry about me imouto.” He said as I automatically translated the japanese.

“Well your little sister is worried… You are all I have Jun. I don’t even know enough about life to survive without you.” I inform him seriously. “So be careful okay?”

He is quiet for a moment before nodding to me. “I’m respected even for a kid, cause I don’t klep the merchandise at the Casino, so they trust me and pay me well. I don’t need to run around and klep stuff for some eddies. Don’t worry imouto. I’ll make sure I stay safe.”

I nod once firmly. Good. I kinda liked Jun even with all of his attitude and obvious hot headedness. Like I said he seemed to have a rough life, and he was taking care of his kid sister. I could respect that.

No, I did respect that. Whatever happened with my Gamer skills and stuff. I would remember Jun’s efforts.

With that I got dressed into some clean clothes and crashed into bed.

—--

*Blades Skill leveled up!*

I wasn’t breathing too heavily when I finally got the alert that afternoon. After waking up, I went back to it.

I hadn’t quite reached Reflex level 2. But it was getting close.

But instantly I knew. I had been holding my knife like a gonk. I was more likely to lose my knife in a stab than actually shank someone. My grip shifted, my body adjusted and this time when I made a stab it was fast and smooth.

I grinned as I felt how much smoother I was. Yeah that was cool. I rose back up, adjusted the grip on my knife as if I had been doing it for years and placed the knife on the table next to the Handgun.

There was just one more problem.

“I really need a sheathe and a holster.” I grumbled. The gun and knife had been handed over bare.

How was I supposed to walk around with my weapons on me without any kind of holder? “Stupid Onii-chan.” I joked to myself sounding like every anime little sister ever for a moment.

I stopped for a moment remembering that Cyberpunk Edgerunners was an anime.

“I guess that means I can make anime real.” I whispered to the room before bursting into giggles at the stupidity of that meme.

“Oh man. I need to get out more. I'm breaking down at my own jokes.” I told myself as I decided to check out the market. Maybe I could find somebody with something that I could use. Getting dressed in my outdoor clothes once again I put the knife in my jacket pocket although I winced at how it felt like it was going to cut something, before sliding my now loaded gun into the back of my pants.

It might be a stupid place to put it, but it was probably the safest place for now.

With that I wandered down the stairs through the lobby and took a right. Turning towards the Cherry Blossom market.

I still felt weak, but not because I was exactly. More because when I walked past a guy that was eight feet tall and probably weighed in at a ton of chrome it made me realize how easy it would be to get killed here.

No wonder people are terrified of Cyberpsychos. Suddenly I am too.

I shook it off and headed into the market smiling at all the little stalls full of random junk. I didn’t end up stopping to talk to anybody as I walked around, just enjoying the sights even if nothing I saw was what I was looking for.

Eventually I came across a little shop with a woman that looked partially familiar. As I watched trying to piece it together I noticed her turn and start working on a radio.

Something twigged. I think she was part of a quest or something?

Huh.

How weird. To see a person where before I had seen a video game character.

“Can I help you?” She finally asked suddenly turning to look at me, and I realized I had been staring for a while.

“Ah sorry sorry, no I was… I guess you looked familiar for a moment and I was trying to figure out why. It’s nothing you just remind me of someone else I met.”

“Huh. Well do you need work done?”

“No. Not at the moment anyways… You wouldn’t happen to have a gun or knife holster?” I asked quietly after all I had gone through the whole shop and hadn’t seen a damn thing.

“Not something I deal with. I just do repairs. If you want something like that you would need to find a gun store. They would have what you need.” She answered with a shrug.

“Oh yeah that makes sense… Is there a gun store around here?”

My question must have been super weird because she actually looked up from her radio that she had turned to to look me over. “What’s your deal? I can see you have some implants. Your eyes aren’t natural at least. So what’s the problem?”

“I uh. Don’t know what you mean?”

“A bit slow aint ya? Check your map. You have the cyberware for it. Get outta here girl. You're wiggling me out. I don’t want to know if you are just an odd one or a Cyberpsycho waiting to happen.” She said a bit brusquely.

I blinked. Wow that was pretty rude. “Sure.” I offer walking back home for now. My trip to the market was a bust but at least I had some new info.

That and something to see if I could figure it out.

I didn’t have a map in my list of options on my implants hud… At least I didn’t see one…

Ugh these stupid eye things! I had no idea how they worked, it was like moving my eyes wrong would close everything, or just spin the whole hud making it useless. I felt like one of those old people always complaining about losing their program when they just minimized the damn window.

I really needed to get a primer on my cyberware. You think I would have by now, but it’s not like the internet worked the same way here. I couldn’t just connect to google and ask.

Plus Jun hadn’t quite understood my questions either. It was so natural to use for people here, that he didn’t understand my confusion.

Stupid Onii-chan!

I grumbled all the way home as I flopped onto the couch and started to once more pull up the hud system.

It was so weird. How was I supposed to know that flicking my eyes upwards very fast would alter the huds location? But flicking my eyes slowly would just scroll through the list? Seriously I kept causing my hud to flip going from the right side of my peripheral sight to my left.

Whoever designed this equipment needed to be shot. No wait, calm down Motoko, that is how you go Cyberpsycho… but it would feel pretty good.

Eventually the woman was right. I was able to find a map icon. It just wasn’t on my huds dropdown along the sides, it was an actual icon like a damn desktop icon. I hadn’t seen it, because it was on the other side of my periphery whenever I was using the dropdown. Thankfully it was lonely, the only other program installed from what I could see.

I remember Jun saying they had reinstalled most of my cyberware while I was in the coma, so whatever extras old Motoko had installed must have been reset.

I guess that was good. I would hate to find out if people stored porn on their optic systems…

Shaking that thought out. I hit the map and had to blink as a 3d style map was now the center of my attention, with a grin I started trying to move through it only to realize.

I couldn’t use my hands on this either. Stupid design. I grumbled but slowly poked at it with my eyes until I got it moving around a bit. It reminded me of the map from the game…

Which basically meant it was useless. Any part of the interior city was too cluttered to get any use out of it, but it did have an icon system for the big things. I was able to search for Ripperdocs in the area, and to my surprise, there were actually two!

There was the one in Jig-jig street which was that creepy asshole. But there was one just outside of Cherry Blossom Market too! I blinked. I had been pretty close to it on my walks. It was just across the street from the little food market I tended to get a snack from.

Huh I would check that out and see if I could get a Cyberware primer.

Then I did a search for gun stores.

Unfortunately the nearest one was a few blocks away. Definitely in walking distance, but it would still be a trip. I would have to prepare.

—--

Turns out I could actually set waypoints like in the game. I mean I doubted they could ever work like in the games where the quests would auto update and the like, but if I had an address I could set it up so my implant would give me directions. Basically just cyberware GPS.

So after a bit of exercise I suited up again with my weapons ready and started walking to the gun store.

I headed straight out from my apartment across the street. The first time I had done that in the city. I made extra sure I was checking each way even with the crosswalk telling me to walk.

I didn’t trust Night City residents not to run me over.

Then I had a few blocks to walk almost a straight shot as I wandered down a sort of shopping district, lots of little shops on either side of the long street. I even saw a clothes shop on the other side of the road that I might want to take a look at. It had a very asian feel to it. Might find something cool.

At the very end of the street I crossed the way and found the gun shop. Sliding inside I hesitated a bit. This place was full of weaponry and the fact the owner was standing behind reinforced glass with a weapon that looked strong enough to shoot back through the glass at the ready made me a little nervous.

But I wasn’t here to cause trouble.

Since he wasn’t dealing with anyone I walked up.

“I’m looking for a holster for a Unity, and a sheath for a knife.” I told him after he gave me a nod acknowledging my presence.

“Got the knife on you?”

I nod gently pulling it out making sure it was a slow motion.

Didn’t want to get shot by automated turrets or whatever other security this guy had.

“Hmmph. Might have something that will fit. Gimme a sec.” He called turning away to go wander around the back room he had, only to return again in about 30 seconds. Two pieces of metal and cloth in his hands.

“Holster for a unity and a sheath. Should fit the knife. Let me check.” He demanded waving at me to push the knife through the gap under the glass.

I did so and he slipped it into the sheath adjusting the sheath for a moment or two before nodding and showing me how it fit snug.

“$50 eddies.”

I winced, that was a majority of the eddies that Jun had left me. I didn’t end up spending much on food since Jun kept bringing home his gross burritos every night, but I did need this, it wasn’t safe to keep the gun in my waistband, or the knife in my pocket.

“Alright.” I agreed, sending him the money before he slipped both items back through the glass. I spent a moment getting everything situated. The gun holster was actually meant to go in the small of my back, which the shop owner told me after I was trying to figure out how to get the weird clip to attach to the side of my belt. It left the gun in easy reach behind me instead. Which would take a little getting used to.

My jacket was definitely not long enough to hide it. But I guess in this city that was a good thing?

The knife went onto my left hip. That way I could draw my gun with my right hand, and my knife with my left. Satisfied I threw the owner a thumbs up which he simply gave me a nod at as I headed out.

As I stepped out I noticed that I felt… Better. The whole city was now seemingly there in front of me, and here I was a lot more protected and now visibly armed.

I wasn’t just a civilian open to any gang banger to mess with.

I was dangerous in my own right. It made the city infront of me look different. Look… Well curiosity had killed plenty of cats.

I decided to head back towards home, but stop at the ripperdoc.

I really needed to find out more about my cyberware.

—-

Stepping inside a ripperdoc was an odd experience. The shop had a little office at the front that felt like I just entered a dentist.

“Can I help you?” The receptionist asked, looking me over.

“Yeah I need some information, rather than a ripper exactly. Do you have a primer, or instructions on use for optical cyberware?”

The receptionist seemed to blink confused at my question. “Umm, I’m not sure I understand.” She offered and I sighed, seriously what is it with these people and not understanding?

“I don’t know how to use everything on these.” I offer pointing to my eyes. “I need some instructions, or a how to.. Or something.” I mumbled waving my hands a bit at how annoying this was.

The receptionist took a moment before I could see her lips twitching a bit. When she spoke next I could tell she is holding back laughter.

“We don’t have anything like that. That is something that is handed out to… Children.” She chuckled. “Did you never get chipped as a kid?” The receptionist asked, but I knew she wasn’t really wondering.

She was just being a bitch.

“Listen if you don’t have it. I’m outta here. Have a nice day.” I snarked back at her, and was just about turned around when a gravely voice called out.

“A moment.” I stilled because the woman that I was looking at had twigged me about where I was. I remember this shop. The old asian lady that was the ripper here, looked like she got into a fight with a bear. Her face was a little scarred up.

She was the lady that had a Cyberpsycho go off on her on the operating table. I remembered her little dialogue blurb in the game.

“Come on in girl. I can help.” She spoke ignoring her receptionist who looked like she realized she might have gone a bit overboard.

Bitch.

I entered into the docs office scoping out the many many guns set up next to her chair.

“It’s rare to see a girl as old as you not know how to use her cyberware.”

“Yeah well…” I hesitated, but fuck it. “Amnesia will do that to a person. Got picked up by some scavs apparently, they klepped a bunch of my chrome. I was rescued but in a coma for a year. When I wake up, I don’t remember anything. I mean, other than how to talk and stuff. Still getting used to my cyberware again. At least trying to. It keeps moving around on me.”

“Ah. You were re-chipped after the scavs?”

“Yeah.”

“You are still in user setup mode.” She said simply waving me over as she took a long drag on a cigarette she was holding in her chrome hand. “Come sit. I’ll show you how to get everything setup to your liking.”

“Oh. Thanks.” I said taking a seat and a few moments later the woman was walking me through how to actually setup my HUD interface.

“Most people don’t remember how to do this. They set it up as children with their first Ripper and never have to do it again. Can’t tell you how many frustrated adults I’ve had to deal with after they had a complete reset of their chrome, or lost their chrome like you.” She tells me as I am adjusting a few settings after finally finding the damn settings menu. What is this crap? I had to do a fucking Konami cheat code to get it to pop up!

Look up, down left right in a circle faster circle. Reverse that circle and then close and open your eyes. What a load of shit! Anyway. With that the full hud was revealed to me covering my eyes and letting me adjust where everything was to my liking. It would also mean my stuff would stop moving around on accident with the wrong eye twitch. It would be locked letting me more easily access everything.

I had literally been stuck in “setup your hud” mode which is why stuff kept shifting constantly.

Piece of shit.

Finally done I blinked my eyes now able to see everything again and after a moment able to access my hud including my gamer options with almost startling ease.

I literally sighed in relief, feeling my stress drop.

“Thanks Doc.”

“Sure. Come by when you want to get some more chrome. I get the feeling I’ll be seeing you again.” She tells me with a nod before shooing me out. I hurry away almost feeling like skipping as I ignore the receptionist and head out onto the street.

I exhaled in relief. I actually felt like a person that belonged now.

Time to grab some yummy street vendor food and go home… Oh wait. I was broke. Dammit.

I pouted all the way home.