Veracruz

I sat my ass down in my genuine leather office chair and enjoyed the benefits of the four level ups I'd picked up during this latest go around with running the world from the shadows. Between my regular embezzlement, money laundering, kickbacks, and bribes, instigating and funding SoCal's attempt to bring back big oil, and robbing Biotechnica's R & D sector while they were busy spazzing out over said come back, I'd done a hefty amount of the Devil's business.

Thinking circles around people is easy when I'm rocking an IQ of 200 and everyone is busy panicking about war, ecological doom, threatened stock prices, and so on and so forth. Is it any wonder that all went according to plan?

Sasuga, Juan-sama.

Biotechnica's body of research complimented some of my less combat oriented implants, and I'd gone under the knife once more to install the Mk II versions of Implants Y-7 and Y-3, which together greatly enhanced the benefits I received from eating and drinking and filtered out any toxins and radiation poisoning my consumables.

Those both worked wonderfully with Chemist, my level 38 perk that doubles the effects of drugs… on paper. In practice Chemist doubles the durations of all consumables for me, essentially doubling the effects of food, drink, medication, and other more fun things via increased efficacious duration.

Level 40 turned out to be life changing for me. Enhanced Sensors gave me a sixth sense that lets me know where everything is within a hundred yards. My superpower is that I always know where the TV remote is.

Enough said.

"I thought you said you'd never eat plants. Something about it all being soy and a plot to take everyone's boners away to sell more Mr. Studs." V mused as I enjoyed a balanced meal for the first time in my life.

"Got my hands on some research that made some implant options worth it." I shrugged as I took the last bite of my tacos, now complete with finely shredded lettuce and cheese over a divine carne asada, and continued going over the data taken from Biotechnica, "They protect me from the evils of soy."

She snickered at my continued distrust of that wretched crop.

At one point Biotechnica had the capacity to make synthetic humans by putting personality matrices into clones, but they - like everyone - lost a massive amount of capability during the Datakrash of 2023. They've been trying to get back to that level of biotech for decades, but haven't found that silver bullet. They have made a number of GMO animals with increased intelligence, so Planet of the Apes crossover inbound.

Leaving worms in their system is necessary if I ever want to build a G.E.C.K. Doing all that science is a pain in the ass, but having a bunch of bioterrorist fanatics do it for me is what I'm about. Work smarter, not harder. On that front, Ciri collected the ED-E bots she delivered months ago.

In order of ascending success, the first struck out hard. She'd dropped the unit on a virgin garden world. There would definitely be opportunities there if not for the microbiome being apocalyptic level warfare. Holy fuck were those microscopic terrors aggressive, and they mutated the plant life constantly. Bringing them to Earth would unleash a green doomsday, something I already have access to via Big MT research.

Next up was one I'd have to go to personally, as it was another Sci-Fi world in the year 2069. The eyebot could pick up street level information, but differing coding languages and ports meant I'd need to problem shoot on the scene to steal their goodies. While the military tech was frankly weak sauce, their space exploration tech kicked ass. Where we are still moving about our home system, they can make it to Andromeda in just under seven years. Mother fuckers are fast as fuck, boys.

Last off was the most promising option. The Witcher World not only could sustain life from many dimensions and planets but also had many forms of magic for me to research. As a craftsman, just the Rune and Glyph stones made me giddy, and the eyebot tolerated no interruptions in its two month long quest to get me as many as it could find.

This world was another I'd go to personally, as there is simply too much to explore for me to leave it to robots. Plus I want to go on a fantasy adventure and Duchess Anna Henrietta had some clapable cheeks. Her sister too. I will strive to help them bond over a shared love of my 'Hammer' D. Family should work together, after all.

Sasuga, Juan-sama.

"Alright, that's all I needed to do." I said as I got up and tied a red bandana around my neck with the tails hanging down my white linen shirt like a short tie.

"Finally." V groaned as she got up off the couch in white lace dress with a flower ornament in her hair.

The two of us left the Welles Arms Santo Domingo Park in my truck and took the slow drive back to Heywood, stopping in the parking lot of a dancing salon. I donned a white cattleman hat to complete the costume for the evening and V a red shawl.

Inside the Mariachi played - a band of eight - and couples in similar outfits enjoyed a night of Mexican tap dancing. These were mostly Valentino couples, as preservation of our culture was one of the tenants of the gang. While not racially exclusive, members had to at least pay lip service to Mexican and Chicano tradition. The people V and I go dancing with regularly are those with an actual love of who we are as a nation.

Which was why after an hour of dancing and visiting with them I felt quite angered by what my new sixth sense picked up rolling into the parking lot. Without saying a word I activated the Wave Breaker and the full power of the world's most advanced Sandevistan and Berserk system ignited power through my whole body carried by the smooth release of GRX Turbo into my system.

I carefully walked around all the people who slowed to a crawl around me and gently opened the door back out to the parking lot where four military grade borgs were exiting the back of an armored vehicle. They moved faster than the people back in the club due to their active Sandevistans, but they were still moving in slow motion to me as their systems lacked the potency of mine.

Instead of a great combat advantage, they just got to watch in horror as my speed of movement and attack fully outclassed them even without opening up fully. I launched a chain of punches at the first man that cratered his armored vest and body plating, blood and lubricant leaking out of him as he died with his perception of time doubled.

I put my hands on the head of the next as his expression slowly shifted from a man screaming to pump himself up to a man screaming in horror as I turned his head around fully, the screeching of steel playing out in our ears as everything internally connecting his head to his body gave out.

The final two tried to twist away as I slipped their monoblade combat knives off their tactical vests and casually inserted them into their skulls, giving a nice twist that broke the blades off inside their scrambled brains.

My work with the goons done, I went around to the front and pried the door off the armored vehicle. The woman driving this attack force lacked the Sandevistan of the others, so for her me turning her head into a bloody pulp by slamming it into the steering wheel happened before she even knew their attack failed so spectacularly.

The rush of power faded away and I looked at my gore soaked clothes. In a way, these assholes succeeded in their attack. My night is ruined.

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Shout out to Cat_a_strophic for the idea that Juan was the one to set up the Megarig situation. Much love, choom. I try to make Juan someone who is always doing two things at once, plans within plans, but it is hard to accomplish all the time, and ideas like that make everything better.

Obviously, I decided that Juan's Sandevistan would work as advertised, meaning he has complete domination of the footspeed game in Cyberpunk and in many other settings.

I do believe that Big Juan may be the star of my final fanfiction, in which Bulma gets her wish for the perfect boyfriend and one of my characters gets snagged by Shenron for the role. Mark, Grunt, Thrag, and Dio are all too powerful for Shenron to take, and to be quite frank, only Thrag would still be in the running by the end of his story. While there could be competition from Ryuji or Jaune, I feel Juan fits the bill best.

You can support me and my family at

ko - fi . com / jmanm