Ambush! Part-1

{Misty's Esoterica, Watson, Night City}

{45 Minutes Later}

...

"...combined with the first two cards, it says that you have gone through a huge change; your whole life as you have known it had been turned upside down. The Ace of Pentacles represents the opportunity that lies before you, and combined with The Moon, you could reach heights never heard before. But the reversed King of Swords could indicate misuse of power, so you need to be careful." Misty finished as she laid down the final card on the table before me. 

I was a little spooked. Whether she spun this little story based on the backstory I told her or witchcraft, apparently, was something I didn't know about.

'Surely it's not that right. These cards could be digital, and she's picking them based on what I told her...' I extended my hand and touched the card. It was made of paper, so my theory went down the drain a little bit, but it is possible for a paper-textured digital screen to be created in this world, right?

"Uhh... Thanks for the warning?" I replied, still a little apprehensive about this future-revealing bullshit.

"Don't be afraid of the future. Learn to embrace it." Misty quoted from a handbook that spiritualists used to dupe people in my old world, "The cards don't represent the absolute truth, just as a warning. At least from how these cards were drawn, they could make a different picture. Your actions and conscience would surely be tested." She looked down at the cards for a moment before she continued, "At the very least, beware, for I see trials and tribulations in your path arriving sooner than later."

"Okay..." I nodded. I didn't know what to say about how this conversation turned out. It seemed Misty had a better EQ than me, as her eyes glowed blue. Then she said, "Okay, Vik can see you now. Just go through the door in the back."

I sighed in relief as I nodded. After all these hurdles, I finally got through her; I don't think Vik would be as grueling to talk to as Misty. I walked through her shop. The door at the back that led to the alley was glowing green, signifying that I had access through it. I punched the open panel next to the door, and it slid open with its signature swishing sound.

I looked around the familiar alley, and a set of stairs went down into another set of doors. Red lanterns gave the dingy alley some ambiance, and the stairs were glowing green, reflecting the green light above the door to Vik's clinic. It had letters written in Japanese or Chinese script—I couldn't tell which.

I looked around. There were a couple of bums, high as a kite on some drugs, just lazing around. I looked around for the cat, but it wasn't there.

'Maybe I'm too early, and the cat isn't a stray yet?' I thought as I walked toward the set of stairs. Not that I was a cat person anyway. I opened the door through a similar process and saw the shutters. The green glow was once again welcome as they opened when I got close. The sounds of an announcer could be heard on the TV as Vik looked up at me.

"I don't think I've seen you around, kid," Vik spoke, his voice a little grainy, making it difficult to guess his age. 

"Yeah, I was recommended to you if I ever wanted some upgrades," I replied as I examined him up close and real. He was wearing a plain blue denim short-sleeved shirt, a stethoscope around his neck, and some metal glove kind of thing on his hand. I watched his fingers move slightly as he leaned back, his chair sliding on the floor as he examined me.

"Well then, what ya looking for, kid? I'm not giving you a sandy or anything military grade." His tone was a little more serious as his eyes glowed blue, likely scanning me.

'Huh, no questions about who recommended me?'

"Nothing like that; I just need a better cyberdeck installed and maybe some better optics." I was hoping for Kiroshi, but I'm pretty sure they would be out of my price range.

He regarded me for a moment before nodding. It seemed that attaching better equipment that might lead me to fry my brain was okay as long as I didn't intend to dive headfirst into a combat zone.

"What kind we talking?" Vik asked as he pulled up a tablet.

"Do you have any from the Tetratronic Rippler line or any high-end Arasaka decks?" Aside from the Blackwall hack that comes with the mk.6 that we can craft, I asked. But with no crafting system in place, I can either go the extra Ram that Tetratronic Rippler has or take the stealth route with the Arasaka cyberdeck.

"Tetratronic Rippler, huh? It seems like you did your research, kid. Unfortunately, their latest and greatest aren't something that someone like me can get their hands on; as for Arasaka, I do have a couple of them. Do you want the high-end ones? It depends on your price range, kid. As for the optics, your Militech pair is already at the top of the line. Anything above that is Kiroshi, but they are quite expensive and would cost somewhere above €$15k, though the price would come down to €$5k if you are parting with your Militech optics." Vik said as he browsed through his selection of parts.

In the game, cyberdecks had stats related to damage and other things attached to them. I wonder how they would work here. The one I had had a bonus to queue times, so maybe they all went that route, as HP and damage aren't really quantifiable. At the same time, I brought up my bank balance. How much of this was I realistically willing to spend?

"A better cyberdeck then. What model do you have?" I asked as I looked at the neon pink sign of 'Spunky Monkey.'

"Well..." Vik muttered as he looked at the tablet, "I have a decent Arasaka Mk.4. It's the latest model and the highest-end deck that I have. But I don't know if you can handle it; although a deck isn't like a sandy, it still interacts with your neural port, and some people can't handle it. I'll recommend Arasaka Mk.3 for safety reasons, and that's just because you seem perfectly capable of handling an Mk.1 model from Militech. The Mk.3 is a last-gen model but can handle most of your diving needs."

'Right, I totally forgot about those intelligence requirements. And considering that these cyberdecks would be using quite a lot of processing power of my brain to do stuff, breaching those requirements isn't a good idea. The Militeck Paraline that I have has an Intelligence requirement of 4. If the requirement goes up by 1 for every generation, then for Mk.3, it would be 6... Did Vik correctly guess that, or were the average stats I have in my mind wrong?'

I was lost in my thoughts as Vik waited patiently, though his eyes strayed back to the game again.

"How much does it cost?" I asked, having forgotten the actual prices of blue-tiered items.

"The Arasaka Mk.3 costs €$16k; since this is your first time, I won't charge you an installment fee," Vik said. I winced slightly at that price and sighed. I honestly expected it to cost a little less, but the price made sense. The last price I remember was for the Tier 5 version, and that was in the 80k range.

'Hopefully, the INT requirement is 6, not higher, because I don't think I could go through back-to-back operations. As for the Kiroshi, the NCPD database that Vik gives is invaluable; it has so much information that would make my life a lot easier.' With my decision made, I nodded toward Vik.

"I'll take them both and trade in my optics for the basic Kiroshi. Can you integrate the NCPD database with the scanner as well?" I spoke, my eyes glowed blue as I transferred the last chunk of my savings to Vik.

Vik gave me a long look before finally speaking, "Whatever you want, kid, though I like your request. It's a good idea to upload the NCPD database into the optics UI and integrate that..." He started muttering as he picked up a screwdriver and slid his stool over to the longer chair.

"Settle in, kid; this will just take a while." He spoke, and I nodded; I walked over and slowly settled down into the chair. The chair didn't give me much confidence as this wasn't really an optimal sterile condition to cut into a human body.

'I'm sure humans must have conquered bacteria in 2077. Otherwise, this whole city would be in a famine.' My thoughts wandered as Vik picked up a small device that looked like asthma inhaled before pressing it against my hand and saying, "Rest easy, kid. I'll see you in a bit."

As my eyes slowly closed, the last thing I saw was Vik pulling over his instruments. His fingers, encased in metal skeleton, moved with an eerie alien-like fluidity.

...

-----------------------------------

{3 Hours later}

*Ting**Ting**Ting*

Bells rang around in my brain as I scrambled to understand what was happening. The whirling sound of machines was the next as my sense of self slowly returned. I opened my eyes to see a lot of data and windows interrupting my vision.

...

[Porting Access shards... Complete]

[Porting Holo Contacts... Complete]

[Retrieving Stored shards... Complete]

[Retrieving UI settings]

[Setting up profile]

...

The windows flashed past one after another as Vik performed a different set of diagnostics.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

"Uhuh..." Vik grunted as he looked at his tablet; after a moment, he unhooked a wire from my personal port, and the diagnostic and other popup windows vanished.

"I have ported over your profile. Run a full scan on your cyberware and new cyberdeck. What about your eyes? Do you feel some glitches or hypersensitivity to light?" He asked. 

I looked around, my vision transforming from normal to zoomed-in to the scanning feature. My eyes strayed on Vik's figure for a moment before the results of the facial scan were displayed in front of me.

...

[Scan Results]

[Viktor Vektor]

[Affiliation]

[Civillian]

[Viktor Vector: Best Ripperdoc in Night City, a Night City Veteran.]

...

'Huh... neat'

"They work fine... so do the NCPD consider you the Best ripperdoc in Night City?" I joked as I leaned forward and moved. My body felt a little stiff, and after going to my UI, it became clear that quite a bit of time had passed. 

"Huh, maybe your body gets used to cyberware quickly..." Vik mused as he presented me with two sets of inhalers.

"Take this inhaler now and the other one in a couple of hours; they should take care of any lingering soreness," Vik spoke his tone once a gain dipping into the serious category at the drop of a hat. I quickly did as instructed and felt the cold rush of whatever drugs were in that thing through my system. I shivered slightly as I stood up. 

"Thanks, Vik. I'll return if I need anything," I spoke as I walked over toward the exit. Vik didn't say anything, but I could hear the tires on his chair squeak as he likely returned to his boxing match. 

'That worked out okay,' I said quickly, bringing up the CDPR menu and then moving to my new cyberware.

...

[Arasaka Shadow Mk.3]

[A Highly functional stealth model that has added covert capabilities- the main advantage of the Shadow series lies in its ability to handle covert quickhacks and remain undetected for a while, even under a netrunners control.]

[Cyberwarev Capacity: 16]

[RAM Units:7]

[Quickhack Slots: 8]

[Buffer Size: 6]

[Intelligence Requirement: 6]

[Effects: Allows you to perform quickhacks on enemies and devices while scanning. 

Enemies take 40% longer to trace your location.

-2 RAM cost for Covert quickhacks.

When Overclock is active:

-All quickhacks convert into covert quickhacks.]

...

'Okay... wow, now that's something. This was exactly what I was hoping for. My build needs to be all about stealth. Still, that Overclock option... is that a specific perk I can get because that seems OP?' I thought as I walked back to Misty's shop. I could have taken the side route, but saying bye before going felt a bit route, especially since I need to come back here often.

The goodbye with Misty was a quick affair, and I promised her I would return. Besides her spooky tarot reading, the other relaxation stuff wasn't half bad, even though I didn't get a meditation skill as I expected. My eyes left the screen as I closed my cyberware page to focus on the map. I wasn't really used to the city yet, and the minimap was a godsend. 

'Wait, what's that.' I froze as I saw three yellow markers on the other end of the road. They normally indicated gang warfare, so I turned away from them and walked back towards the Megabuilding. The sinking feeling in my stomach increased as I saw those three dots move, and they began shadowing me.

'What happened? Surely Vik and Misty didn't rat me out, right?' I tried to come up with an answer, but it seemed like my day of ups and downs was going through a trough right now. I continued walking as I walked toward the main road. Before I turned right and slipped into the alley. I managed to sneak a glimpse at one of the figures and forced myself to keep walking as I recognized the man.

'Is he here to finish the job?'

...

------------------------------------

AN - A few upgrades and the First fight?