7-13

Chapter 7: Night Owl

The first thing that hit me when I woke up was the dull throbbing pain in my head and how dry my eye sockets felt.

I guess that's what happens when you plug a chip into the brain and replace your eyes…

Thankfully, I could see and my vision was much better than before, as if I had switched a video from 480p to 1440p. There was also something else in my vision, a HUD. Off in the corner was 'Settings', and when I focused on it, a new menu appeared.

"Mr. Halls, I am glad to see you awake. Please wait here while I notify Dr. Keyes," I glanced over at the woman who had addressed me. She was well-dressed impeccably in a light grey suit, complemented by a skirt in matching colors. Before I could reply to her, she exited the room.

I massaged my temples in an attempt to treat my headache and looked around. I realized they had moved me to a smaller room, similar in size to the one where I did my eye exams.

After five minutes, Dr. Keyes returned holding a small paper bag.

"Mr. Halls, how are you feeling?"

"Like a hangover, and could also really use some eyedrops."

"No need to worry, Mr. Halls. This is normal for your first time installing optics. You should make a full recovery in a week. Here are some painkillers while you recover, I included the dosage instructions inside."

Dr. Keyes handed me the paper bag. Inside was a small container with some green pills. I immediately took one, desperate to relieve the pain while I listened to him.

"Now let us test your new cybernetic vision enhancement and secretarial assistant implant device." The doctor gestured me over to a screen that had various symbols on it, exactly like an eye exam.

"Focus on the glyphs there and see if you have any issues zooming in and out."

The doctor made me do various exercises where I tried out the features of my new eyes, including night vision and thermal vision.

Some better models would have better definitions from greater distances. Some could highlight hostiles and potential weapon systems as well.

"Good, now open up your secretarial assistant program. You should be able to see your Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 and Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 itself listed there. It will be where you can find the status of all the cybernetics you have installed."

I verified what the doctor showed me, which didn't take too long because the SAID allowed me to navigate its menus with just a thought.

It was quite strange having my intentions read and being able to text with my mind.

After the doctor completed the diagnostics, I was finally free to leave, after I had made my payment, of course.

Once I got home, I stuffed myself with food and jumped into my bed before I opened my status screen.

Status

Level:

1

EXP:

90/100

Musculoskeletal:

11

Neural Reflex:

15

Visuomotor Coordination:

12

Endurance:

8

Sensory Perception:

37

Upgrade Points:

0

Upgrades:

Stealth +3

Hacking +3

Enhancements:

SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3

Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4

Hmm… my sensory perception went up and my new cybernetics are listed under enhancements now. I guess it makes sense that getting better eyes meant better perception.

I couldn't dwell on my status screen much longer. The pain and fatigue prevented me from focusing and my eyelids struggled to stay open.

Hopefully, I could sleep this off.

I spent the next five days mostly just resting at home and taking walks around the neighborhood. I also tried out the milkshakes throughout the area, as it was one of the few things that tasted like it was meant for human consumption. The soothing coldness also helped numb my dull headache.

On the sixth day, I took public transit and headed to the south end of the city.

"Good evening everybodyyyyy! Tonight, we are going to go crazy! It will soon be five hundred years since we restarted civilization, from living in the toxic wastelands to building a space elevator, twice! Out in space, we—"

The sound from the radio died as the subway doors opened and I exited. I followed along the GPS route displayed in the corner of my vision.

The roads grew more and more crowded as I got closer to the seaside. In the background, the enormous space elevator lit up the middle of the ocean as it loomed far above. It was like a giant glow stick.

There was a festive mood as people drank and partied out on the streets throughout the waterfront.

I arrived a little early, so I found a cafe and killed some time by going over how businesses were started here. I had gradually grown accustomed to my new implants and, with it, the convenience of a computer on standby in my head.

The SAID was super useful even when not considering the communication aspects of it, as I could use it as a digital wallet, allowing me to pay like some of my previous customers had done when I worked at the convenience stores.

When it was almost midnight, I headed out of the coffee shop and patrolled around the area.

I made my way into the alley of a building I picked, where I found a suitable place to jack into the security system with my worn-out terminal. I really needed to look into getting a specialized hacking terminal or a cybernetic version of one once I could afford it.

Within a minute, I could tell the building's security wasn't something I could breach with my current skills, not in a short time at least, so I did the sensible thing and gave up. I repeated the same thing with several other buildings until I found one that had an older security system, something that was manageable for me to bypass.

Once I had access to the building, I made my way to the roof.

With my new optics, there was no need for binoculars, as I could directly zoom in on my surroundings, though they didn't have the best clarity once it was too far away.

A stark contrast existed between the waterfront, where a boisterous crowd gathered, and the other streets in the opposite direction, where it was deserted and quiet.

The crowd grew louder when party boats came into view, along with several flying vehicles hovering above.

Not long after, midnight arrived. Everyone had counted down together for the last ten seconds. Once it was over, fireworks shot up around the space elevator, in the shape of a giant 500.

For a few seconds, I took some comfort in how similar the celebrations were to my old world before I shook off the sentimental thoughts and turned on the night vision mode on my optics.

I had looked around for hours from the roof of the building. If I still had my organic eyes, I'm sure I would have felt the strain by now. While I did not miss them, I wonder if I would feel the same when I started replacing other parts of the body.

I planned to get an implant to address my weak stamina, especially when I worked alone, where I had to do everything myself.

My thoughts were interrupted when I finally spotted what I was looking for. I watched as two figures exited their car and approached a drunk couple who were making out in a dark alleyway.

As it was now a race against time, I sprinted down the building and made my way toward the van the two people had got off.

I quietly followed them while I tried to control my breathing at the same time. I spotted one of the two figures crouched over the couple, who was now unconscious. One of the suspicious individuals had a cable connecting them with the couple. Meanwhile, their partner, who I made out to be a rough-looking woman, stood guard nearby with a metal baton in hand as she leaned against the wall.

"---longer til the damn jammer is up? We can probably snatch half a dozen more tonight if you could hurry your ass up." The woman turned in my direction and spat on the ground.

I got closer by hiding behind a nearby dumpster, moving as her field of view turned the other way. Once I got close enough for me to feel confident in my aim, I double-checked the safety of my new pistol.

"Yeah yeah, easy for you to say. Our clients this time want healthy adults, and these two have some decent corpo hardware. It'll just take a little longer to jam the signal." A man's voice resounded in response to his partner.

With a clear view of both my targets in the alleyway, I took my time aiming and pulled the trigger. Before the first bullet reached her, I gently squeezed the trigger again. Two soft electric buzzes hissed out.

+10 EXP

Immediately, I aimed at the crouched figure and shot out another two bullets from my coilgun as he tried to turn around. I rushed down the alley, carefully keeping the Suri trained on the prone man.

Once I was right above him, I carefully placed another shot at the back of his head.

+10 EXP

After examining the bodies, I found that the couple was still breathing, so I disconnected the cables that were attached to their necks.

I looted any guns and valuables off of my kills and found the unconscious couple's wallets with their corpo IDs in them. They were low-level employees who worked at Amazing Corp, one of the largest corp that dealt in military equipment.

I confirmed how my aim was with the first target, noting the woman had two gunshot wounds in the chest.

The guy I had shot also had a Nova Tech-branded cyberarm, but appeared to be a really old model. I thought about taking it so I could sell it, but it sounded like a lot of work, lugging around an arm and finding someone to buy it when the returns on it weren't that great. I decided to leave it and continued on.

I found four pistols and the baton, so I left two of them with the couple assuming they were theirs, and enough credits for them to get home, just in case they couldn't access their SAIDs.

Once I was done, I calmly walked out of the area and returned to the roof.

Although Elevate City had a great concentration of wealth with the support of the space elevator, it also brought along its own issues with crime and wealth disparity.

There were a ton of kidnappers looking to make some quick cash through ransoming, harvesting organs and cybernetics, or selling people for corporate experiments, which was probably what happened earlier.

I settled in my spot on the rooftop and opened up my status while I continued to keep a lookout over the surrounding area.

Status

Level:

2

EXP:

10/200

Musculoskeletal:

11

Neural Reflex:

15

Visuomotor Coordination:

12

Endurance:

8

Sensory Perception:

37

Upgrade Points:

2

Upgrades:

Stealth +3

Hacking +3

Enhancements:

SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3

Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4

It was reassuring to see that I had finally leveled up, and I got two upgrade points from it as well. I thought I would only get one, which made it a pleasant surprise. It also confirmed that none of my other stats went up from leveling up, which was a shame. Good thing I wasn't planning on becoming a superman, anyway.

As much as I wanted to invest my new points into something that would help me safely make money, I knew that increasingly my ability to level up as safely as possible came first. Taking that into consideration, I dumped both points into stealth.

Once again, a wealth of knowledge entered my mind, as if someone uploaded textbooks directly into my brain. The strange part was that it felt like the new knowledge came with the muscle reflexes as well, which made my body feel like a puppet on strings, though that uneasiness went away as fast as it came.

Not long after I returned to the rooftop, I noticed a police cruiser and an armored vehicle marked with Amazing Corp's logo pulling up by the alley where the couple were. It seemed like the jammer thing the guy was talking about was undone. Lucky them.

With the presence of the police vehicle nearby, I decided to roam around the other desolate parts of town to try my luck elsewhere.

Not even fifteen minutes had passed since I was strolling around aimlessly when I spotted some guy stun-gunning a drunk who was puking his guts out.

Hopefully, it will stay this easy to find them for the rest of the night.

Chapter 8: Back to the Grind

When I woke up, it was already late afternoon, not long before sunset. I stayed out until sunrise yesterday but only found a grand total of three encounters to gain some experience.

Maybe I should start tracking them back to their hideouts, because what I was currently doing didn't seem efficient at all. I could also try asking Fitel, though I doubt he would hand out information for free.

With no obvious answers coming to me, I headed out to visit the weapon store downstairs. From the experience of my last visit, I unloaded my firearm with practiced ease and headed further into the store.

I headed straight to the counter to sell the loot I had gotten last night. It was a different clerk this time, a gruff man sporting scars on his face. We completed our transaction quickly, and my HUD notified me of the new funds I had received.

My next errand brought me to a place I had never visited before. It was three blocks down from where I lived, at the edge of the downtown area.

Honestly, I was surprised this place was open when I had checked earlier. My common sense told me a bank wouldn't be open on New Year's Day, let alone past 5:00 PM, but I guess there weren't any unions in this world and corporations didn't have their employee's working conditions in mind.

Now that I thought about it, I don't think there was even a public holiday, ever.

Fortunately, I didn't need a teller, so I headed for the much shorter line to use the ATM. I followed the instructions on the screen that weren't much different from my world and deposited the cash from my new gains.

As I was navigating the machine, my thoughts couldn't help but stray toward leveling up my hacking skill until I could hack the bank and get rich from it.

There was so much I could do with that money, though their security seemed tough. I was confident I could do it as long as I invested enough points into hacking.

It was only a thought though, as I doubt I would get away with it without an entire corporation or two hunting me down. I was just one man. I'd rather not take on an entire organization alone.

While getting rich was my goal, there was no point if I couldn't enjoy my wealth.

I put any tempting thoughts about robbing banks and corporations behind me and returned home.

I had rested enough, so it was time to take on another job. Once I got home, I immediately placed a call to my QG through my SAID.

"You have reached Fitel. What can I do for you today, Rollo?"

I minimized the empty profile picture with 'sound only' labeled in it to the corner of my vision.

"Fitel, got any jobs that suit me?"

"I hope that means you have fully recovered?"

"Yeah, I'm fine now."

"I see. There is a job that I have been waiting for someone like you to handle, though it's more of a lead in finding an item, so it may not pay if the lead is wrong."

"What's the missing item?"

"A SAID from one of their presumed to be deceased middle executives. Raiders wiped a Nova Tech caravan in New North America out in the wasteland and they want the SAID retrieved or proof of its destruction."

"New North America…you think it's here in Elevate City, a few thousand kilometers across the sea? And a big corporation like Nova Tech didn't have some fancy self-destruct function on their important equipment?"

"That is correct, and they did, but it seemed to have malfunctioned when their caravan got hit with an EMP. That is why we were hired. You'll be paid thirty thousand credits if you can retrieve the item, but nothing otherwise. They want this to be done quietly before any rival corporation catches wind of anything," Fitel emphasized the last part.

"Ok, I'll take the job, but you better find me something else if this lead doesn't work out. I'm not trying to waste time looking for a needle in a haystack or anything, not for long at least."

"... Excellent, I will have the information sent to you soon." Fitel uncharacteristically paused for a second before he got his last line in and hung up, as usual.

I laid flat on the couch as I started browsing through the intel he sent over. It helped that I didn't need to hold anything as I read, since the screen was literally in my eyes.

The lead Fitel had received was kind of a stretch. To be honest, it was just some guy selling some military-grade weapons that matched the ones the raided caravan used.

Even if it was the same weapons, there was a possibility someone just found it after killing some raiders out in the wasteland, though that meant I could find some details from them.

I first had to find the person and the only information I had were pictures of him and his car that was taken from a street camera in the Neon district. They were two of the same photos, taken on two separate Sunday mornings.

I moved along with the flow of the crowd as I passed by various clubs and bars that had huge lines. A lot of the establishments here had pink neon lights outside, with windows where you could see the people dancing inside, in their birthday suits.

There was a mixed bag of individuals in the entire area, from gang members, average-wage drones, to wealthy-looking guys who were let in as soon as they stepped out of their ride.

I kept my eyes open as I watched a valet driving the car, recently put into his care, toward a nearby parking complex.

My GPS guided me to my destination as I pulled up the photo on my optics so I could compare the faces of anyone I came across.

Before long, I arrived and thankfully, found the same car from the photos. I looked around and saw no one nearby, so I approached the vehicle and attached a small chip to it.

With that done, I could now take it easy. I made my way to a bar that had outdoor seats and a good view of the car, where I then sat back and ordered a drink. The cheap alcohol I had drunk in this world was frankly nasty, but it was better than nothing.

Another server, different from the one that took my order, brought my drink, but then sat down instead of leaving.

"Mind if I join you? You seem lonely."

Not wanting to cause a scene, I nodded and resumed watching the people around who were walking along or lining up for the various venues.

"So you looking for anything tonight hun?" The woman moved her seat closer and grabbed onto my arm.

"No, I'm just having a drink," I looked around the other tables where people flirted.

The woman had been staring at me, and from watching the others, I realized what she was getting at, so I ordered her a drink.

"Hun, no one comes to the Neon District desiring nothing. Here, anything can be bought, at the right price, of course," She took a sip of her drink and leaned in closer.

While she was attractive, I would never part with my money for anything she could offer.

"I can help you look for the person you are searching for," the lady leaned in close and whispered into my ear.

"...What do you mean? I'm not looking for any—"

"Hun, you don't have to pretend. I've been here long enough to tell what a man is looking for. I don't care if you're some detective looking into adultery or some hitman. You give me the creds and I can get you the information," She continued whispering.

"I don't need your help. Maybe next time, I'll keep it in mind."

I paid the bill, left her a tip, and started moving to where I would meet my cab.

The tracker I had put on the car started to move. It seemed like my target got into his car while I was distracted, but that didn't matter. I wasn't going to follow too closely, anyway.

My automated taxi arrived in three minutes. I guided the taxi toward my target, taking a slightly different route.

After twenty minutes of driving, the target seemed to have stopped at a secluded area that had nothing but storage buildings, so I had the cab stop a distance away.

With night as my ally, I stayed in the darker parts of the street and made my way toward my target. It didn't take long before I spotted a pair of old warehouses that were gated off with flimsy chains, surrounded mostly by a thicket of weird-looking trees.

The area was quiet, but from the thermal vision of my optics, I spotted figures at the entrance of each warehouse that faced a shared outdoor parking lot.

I moved around to an unmonitored section of the fence. I pulled out my dagger and flipped the switch on it, producing a dull buzzing noise as it was brought to life. Slowly pushing the blade toward the fence, the obstacle parted way before my knife with little resistance, like cutting through butter.

I moved cautiously, mindful of generating any noises, and made my way to the other side of the fence. I spotted the car I was tracking in front of the warehouse closest to my position.

As I had done to infiltrate buildings previously, I moved toward the side door but to my surprise; it didn't have any electronics to hack into. It was a mechanical lock.

Why can't these people use half-decent facilities…?

I hugged the building's walls and made my way around until I noticed an open window on the second floor.

Luckily, there were also dumpsters nearby, so I slowly pushed one toward the opened window. When I was halfway there, the dumpster suddenly screeched loudly.

Damn it, underneath the patch of grass on where I pushed it, was a hidden patch of worn-out pavement.

I quickly jumped into a dark patch of tall grass and aimed my firearm at the back door that was nearby.

I waited for five minutes, but there didn't seem to be any movement.

After another minute, I got back up and started moving the dumpster again, while trying my best not to screw up again. Before long, I managed to push it right under the window. I climbed it and reached for the window when I suddenly heard the metal door that was just around the corner swing open.

It caught me off-guard. I froze awkwardly atop the dumpster with my gun pointed to the corner of the building, hoping no one would come my way.

The noise of a lighter being lit rang out, accompanied by footsteps that only grew louder as it headed my way.

A bald man soon entered my vision with a cigarette in hand. He took a puff before looking up and found me frozen atop the dumpster.

Our gaze met for a full second before he reached for the gun on his hip, but he was too slow. I pulled the trigger repeatedly in a slight panic.

The Suri quietly hissed out multiple times and the man soon collapsed onto the ground.

+10 EXP

I jumped off the dumpster and took cover behind it, while I kept my gun aimed toward where the man came from. It took a full minute before I realized there wasn't anyone else and released the breath I had been holding.

Okay, while I admit that wasn't the most elegant, it did the job. The previously locked door was now opened, and I also had the window as another potential point of entry as well.

Let's hope the rest of the night goes more smoothly than that had gone…

Chapter 9: Sneaky Beaky Like

Once I realized there were no other threats, I recollected myself and inspected the person who I had shot. From the experience notification, I knew he was dead, so I searched the body.

The body didn't have keys or anything, so I threw it into the dumpster along with any equipment, opting to go over it later. With that set aside, I entered the building from the door that the man had opened.

I tried to stay as silent as possible as I traversed the hallway, checking each room I came across. Most of the rooms looked abandoned and were piled with trash or dusty boxes.

At the end of the hallway was a door that led to the main room of the warehouse, where tall empty shelves loomed over.

Off to one side of the warehouse was an open area with stacks of metal shipping containers half surrounding it. The open area was well-lit, with one person who sat below a set of stairs that led atop the containers, leisurely reading an actual book.

It seemed like there weren't many of them active at this time. I couldn't really blame them either as it was around 4:00 AM.

With the place so lightly guarded, I easily moved around unhindered and climbed up to the second floor of the shipping containers. I slowly opened the door to a container that they were using as makeshift rooms and found a man in a sleeping bag snoring away. I moved on when his face didn't match with the image of the target I had pulled up in my optics.

I repeated the same steps for all the rooms on this floor. Some of them were empty, but most weren't. Not having found my target, I made my way back down to the first floor of containers, away from where the man was still reading, near the bottom of the stairs.

I dropped down as lightly as possible, but I couldn't entirely kill the sound. I hastily moved to another spot and kept watch for any reaction. The man looked up from his book for a second but didn't bother investigating and returned to his reading.

After allowing the man some time to be absorbed into his book, I resumed investigating the remaining makeshift rooms on the ground floor.

It wasn't until the third one that I found someone awake.

"Would it kill you to knock—" The man froze as he turned toward the barrel of my gun.

I gestured for him to stay silent while I kept my Suri trained on him while I closed the door behind me.

"Adam, I'm just here to ask a few questions. Now you answer them quietly and we all can go our way. Do you understand?"

He nodded before I gave him permission to speak.

"...Who are you, why are you looking for me?" Adam spoke as he kept alternating glances at me and the barrel pointed at him.

"No, Adam, I am the one asking questions here. Now tell me, where did you get those weapons you sold a few weeks earlier?"

"Weapons? What weapons?"

"Come on now, Adam, we both know you are lying. Let's not make this difficult."

"Look, I do a lot of errands for our group, so I probably sold off many packages, but that doesn't mean I know what it was," He said as he wiped the sweat that was building around his temple.

I stared at him unflinchingly.

"...Okay, look, it wasn't my idea. I'm just a grunt, I didn't know we were raiding your corp. I'll do anything you tell me, just let me go," He nervously pleaded.

So his group was responsible for the raid? I thought wastelanders did it…Was this guy a raider? No way, I thought they didn't stay in cities.

"So what did you do with the things you stole from us?" I asked, playing into the role of the corpo that he had assigned me.

Might as well go along with it, right?

"It's all here with us. I even have the keys to the stash. It's right there in the drawer," He slowly placed his hand on it and looked toward me for permission to continue.

I nodded and took a step back.

Adam gradually opened the drawer but then abruptly jerked it fully open and grabbed something from within it.

Two soft 'Pfft' noises resonated within the small shipping container, followed by two 'clinks' noises of the bullet hitting the walls.

+10 EXP

I should have known this was how it was going to end…

As I inspected the room and his body, I found nothing in particular besides the gun he tried to pull on me.

I was on my way out of his room when a knock came from the door.

"You okay in there, Adam?" A man's voice spoke out, and when no one responded, he continued knocking.

Shit, my gun may be quiet, but the sound of the bullets hitting the metal walls wasn't.

I stalked closer to the door and pushed it slightly open. I aimed my gun at the gap and waited.

"You mute now or what? The fuck you doi—"

As his head poked out through the gap, I opened fire from almost point-blank range, right at his forehead. Immediately, I dashed back into the warehouse, away from the shipping containers.

After five minutes had passed, it didn't seem like anyone else had noticed the commotion.

Now that their group was deemed hostile in my books, it was time to earn some experience points. I already killed three of them, and the last thing I wanted was to be a potential target of revenge.

I retraced my previous path, then quietly entered the shipping container rooms one by one to silently dispatch the occupants with my dagger. I didn't even need to turn on the vibroblade function as I could take my time aiming for the vitals.

I secured the area after I had gone through every container. I took some time to go over any loot they had and piled it all by the area where the man had been reading, though it was mostly just guns.

Just as I was bringing the last few hauls of loot out, someone called out while I had my hands full and was in the middle of descending the stairs.

"Hey, Baron! When the fuck are you coming to relieve my shift? I've been—" The man stopped talking and stared at me once he got close enough to make out my masked face and dark attire.

"Who the fuck are you?" He raised his rifle toward me.

I swiftly dropped everything in my hand away, jumped off the side of the stairs, and took cover behind the metal staircase.

Several loud shots echoed throughout the warehouse as the man started shooting as soon as I had moved.

Now that I was in cover, I could take the time to prepare for a fair gunfight… Okay, maybe not something I was confident in, but thankfully I had some aces up my sleeve.

As I tried to swap the mag in my gun, I fumbled it as my left hand didn't respond like I was used to.

Shit!

I looked down and saw my blood trickling out of a hole in my upper arm.

Deeming the imminent threat that was still shooting at me more important, I peeked out to scan for my opponent's location. In response, I received several more shots fired at me that forced me to duck back into cover. Though now I had a rough idea of where he was, behind an old forklift.

I swapped the ammo in the gun with my one good arm and blind-fired several times in his direction.

Boom

Boom

Boom

Three explosions rang out consecutively, and he hadn't shot back this time.

"Haha!" I couldn't help but laugh to myself. Firing off explosives sure was fun, if only I wasn't starting to feel the pain from my wound…

Those explosive rounds had better be effective too, they were quite expensive! At least the cost was a good deterrent for me from getting addicted to it.

I took another peek out and bullets once again came at me in response.

I responded with my own shots, exploding ones at that, but this time, I started pushing forward to my assailant by diving behind a crate while laying down suppressing fire.

Let's see if you can fight back when pelted by a rain of explosive rounds! I'll show you that money is power!

When I jumped out of cover again, no more shots were fired my way. I made my way to where I last saw him, behind the forklift.

When I cleared the corner, I spotted the man holding onto his bloodied chest while panting heavily. His rifle was lying on the ground, slightly away from him.

I pulled the trigger to finish the man off from the cover of the forklift.

+10 EXP

With the system having helped me confirm the kill, I took a closer look at my left arm as I felt warm liquids continuing to drip out.

Shit, I sure fucked up…

I should've known there still was a guard out front…This wasn't a video game where enemies stayed in place and patrolled in fixed routes.

Wait… there is still an entire building next door that I haven't checked out yet and there's also a guard posted out in front of it too…

After I realized the threat I was under, I retrieved a syringe from my med kit and stabbed it right beside the wound to stop the bleeding and doubled time out of the building the same way I entered.

By the time I was outside, I heard car engines starting up and lots of yelling. I made my way out of the fenced area and back into the thicket.

"Over there!" A voice yelled out behind me.

Damn it, it seems like they spotted me.

I headed further in where the foliage was thicker, covering my tracks. I made my way around a hill to ensure I broke the line of sight from my pursuers before I found a nice hiding spot atop a large tree.

In a minute or so, I spotted several lights moving nearby. I waited until it was a distance away from me before I started dressing up my wound and collected my thoughts.

Well, at least I now know that I hit the right target…But if I left now, who knows if they would relocate or not? In the first place, could I even get away?

They had cars on standby, and people searching for me on foot. I would need to call for a pickup to extract me, but that was probably something they would expect.

In that case, I should play to my strengths.

"Status," I called out.

Status

Level:

3

EXP:

20/300

Musculoskeletal:

11

Neural Reflex:

15

Visuomotor Coordination:

12

Endurance:

8

Sensory Perception:

37

Upgrade Points:

2

Upgrades:

Stealth +5

Hacking +3

Enhancements:

SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3

Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4

You know, I planned to start spending my points on technology skills that could help me start earning credits, but I guess the saying "No plan survives contact with the enemy" was too true.

I took a deep breath, mentally preparing myself for the direct knowledge dump into my brain that I got when using my points, and double-checked my equipment.

I really need to be more careful and avoid falling into situations like these from now on. Let's hope this will be the last time…

Chapter 10: Sneaky Beaky Like Pt.2

Yuri Kasakov - Outland Marauders

"What the fuck is going on, Yuri?" The six-foot-five tall man walked towards Yuri with anxiety in his voice. His face was stoic as always though, likely because he could no longer display any facial expression due to all the augments he had.

"It seems someone attacked the other warehouse, everyone there is dead. We spotted a person running from the scene and a team is chasing them right now."

"Everyone is dead?! How many of them are there? We better get ready to evacuate from this shithole."

"Yes…Most of them were killed in their sleep and we only spotted one of them so far. Our cars are all on standby, but we don't even have 20 men left now…"

"Idiots! The lot of them! Go recall everyone. We're packing up and leaving."

"...We're just going to let them go?"

"Do I have to repeat myself?"

"No sir, I'll go call the team back myself," Yuri said and immediately speed-walked out of the boss's room.

"That fucker was probably happy now that there were fewer of us to share our latest score with." A beautiful red-haired woman said from behind him.

"Now is not the time for this, Kat," At his words, Kat pouted, which he could only ruefully shake his head to.

He used his SAID to place a call to Jarvin, the team leader of the pursuit team, and was answered on the second ring.

"Jarvin, it's time to leave. Get your men back here double time."

After a few seconds of waiting, he still got no response, but he knew he was on the line as he could hear heaving and breathing on the other end.

"Hey Jarvin, answer me!"

"...Can't talk, we're pinned down, send reinforcements," The man whispered before the call disconnected.

Damn it, did they get led into a trap?

"Kat darling, I'm going to pick up Jarvin and his team. I need you to stay here to coordinate."

"What!? I'm coming with you!"

"No, we don't have any men to spare. I need you here. Don't worry, I'll have Roman with me."

She sighed, "...Fine."

He walked out of the building and found his brother leaning against his car.

"Roman, let's go, Jarvin and his boys are calling for help," Roman nodded back at him before grabbing his shotgun from the trunk and then started following him.

They started heading out of the compound in the direction he had previously sent the team toward.

They headed into the thicket fast, without needing to use any lighting equipment as both of them could see perfectly fine in the dark with their optics.

Occasionally, the two heard shots ring out from the distance, so they had no confusion about the direction they needed to go. Once the gunshot grew louder, the duo readied their weapons, kept low, and moved from cover to cover.

In fifteen minutes, they were close enough to start worrying about friendly fire as the brothers neared the position they were informed of. He called Jarvin again as they inched closer to receive updates on their position.

The two made their way to a small space surrounded by thick trees and a steep hill. They spotted their man peeking out and rushed toward their position.

"What's the sitch Jarvin? Where's the rest of your team?" He said as he looked him over along with the only other person with him, a woman who he recalled was called Sandra, someone he had spoken little to.

"We're the only two left. Someone's out there hunting us. They keep shooting us from every direction and we can't find them, so we took cover here."

He took out a mirror and used it to look around from the safety of cover in response to his warning.

"How long has it been since you were last under fire?" He said as he threw the mirror over to his brother to see if he could find anything that he hadn't.

"I don't know… Maybe like 5 minutes ago."

His brother finished scanning the area and shook his head.

"That means they could've been gone by now. We didn't see anything or get shot at on our way here," He said as he rose to his full height while he made sure his gun covered the gaps in his armor. Before he could step out, a hand landed on his shoulder.

"...Or maybe they are waiting for us to get out of cover to start picking us off again," Jarvin warned.

"Boss wants us out of here ASAP. We don't have time for this." He brushed Jarvin's hand off his shoulder and started jogging back in a zig-zag pattern, just in case there really was someone out there.

Several minutes of jogging later, the group encountered no issues and arrived at the edge of the compound, where he gestured for them to come to a stop.

"Something's wrong…I don't see any movement up ahead and they are supposed to be packing up right now."

He made a call to his boss, but it just kept ringing, with no one answering. He then tried Kat, but got the same result…

"Hey you guys, see if you can reach anyone. The boss ain't answering."

A few minutes later, after everyone had tried every number they had, they still couldn't get hold of anyone.

"This ain't right man…I knew it! It's probably some corpos hit squad. They found out after all… I don't want none of this shit, man," Jarvin said nervously as he started backing away.

"Come on Jarvin, boss won't enjoy hearing about you going off with that shit again. Let's carefully check things out. We still have a huge fortune sitting back in there," He pleaded, as he wanted as much help as he could get to go save Kat.

"I don't know, man…" He gave a troubled look over to his partner, Sandra, who simply returned a shrug.

"We'll be quick. I mean, if you leave and the boss is still kicking, he ain't going to take kindly to traitors."

"...Fine, fine. We're in, let's go quickly. We needed a car anyway."

He gave Roman a quick glance, who nodded back.

Guess I don't have to ask if he is in too.

They moved in a diamond-shaped formation as they had been trained to do, with Yuri at the front.

Seeing how everything was quiet, they opted to go in swiftly as opposed to quietly. They weren't that good at being quiet, anyway.

The group got close enough to the parking area to make out a few bodies spread around. The cars nearby still had their engines and headlights on, so they had adequate lighting in the area.

Yuri briefly noted who the bodies were once they got close enough, ensuring Kat wasn't one of them, and led the team toward the boss's room, which was right next to where the gang had stashed their loot.

Inside the warehouse, it was completely dark beside the flashlight attachments Jarvin and Sandra had on their rifles. Their lights shined on the floor, which showed a few trails of blood but no bodies since they entered the building. It was so quiet he could hear Jarvin swallow nervously as he adjusted the grip on his weapon.

It didn't take long before the four of them arrived at the shipping container that was the boss's room. The door was already open, and they saw the figure of a large man who resembled their boss. He sat at his desk with his head planted on the table, face down. It almost seemed like he had fallen asleep at his desk, but the gaping hole at the back of his head told a different story.

They next went to check the room where the loot was stored, but found it still locked. As the second in command, Yuri had a key as well, so he started searching for it in his pack.

Just as he was about to insert the key, the noise of something dropping entered his ears, followed by a few dull thuds. He turned around and saw Sandra, Jarvin's last remaining team member, sprawled out on the ground while his brother Roman crouched down and fired his shotgun repeatedly into the darkness.

Even with night vision, he couldn't spot anything in the direction Roman was shooting at.

"Backs against each other now!" Yuri yelled out louder than he intended.

He ran up and brushed his shoulders against his brother's and covered a different angle. After a moment, he didn't feel Jarvin in the space they had left for him and looked over in his direction.

"Fuck! I told you this was a bad idea!" Jarvin yelled out before he started running toward the exit.

That goddamn coward.

"Brother, we should get out of here," Roman whispered to him.

"But what about Kat—"

"She probably already escaped if…the worst hadn't already happened. We need to stay alive to find her."

"...Fine." He gritted his teeth. He knew Roman was right, and he wasn't thinking straight right now.

The brothers rearranged themselves with their backs against each other and started going for the back exit, but were startled by the sound of automatic gunfire followed by a few explosions coming from the parking lot.

Spying out of a window, they noted a new flaming vehicle by the main entrance of the warehouse.

Deciding it wasn't worth it to go toward the parking lot, the duo continued toward the back door. Just as they were about halfway there, Yuri unexpectedly felt some pressure punch into his chest and the dull thud that accompanied it.

He could tell from experience that he was shot, but luckily, it didn't penetrate his body armor. He briskly started scanning for what shot him while laying down suppressing fire to hopefully discourage his attacker from continuing their attack.

He caught a brief glimpse of a shadow just as it ducked back behind a nearby shipping container. His brother, Roman, followed closely behind, but both of them were now pinned down.

The two dashed away in the opposite direction of the enemy while keeping a close watch. Yuri felt bullets hitting body armor once more, but this time, from a completely different direction.

Roman started firing back at their assailant to no avail, as they could only catch glimpses of the enemy before they relocated.

"We can't stay in here any longer. There's too much cover in here. Their weapons may be silent, but they can't penetrate our armor. Run out together now!"

They sprinted back toward the main entrance, and when they were just around the corner, a sudden explosion loudly went off right next to him. It threw him straight onto the ground and left his ears ringing.

He felt his body heat leave him, carried away by the warm liquids flowing out from his wounds.

Fuck, is this the end…?

After what felt like an eternity, the ringing in his head lightened up. He tried to get up, but only made it halfway when he saw a figure standing over him. The figure pointed something blurry in his direction… no; he realized it was his vision that was blurry, and that something pointed at him was obviously a gun.

So I guess this is the end…

He always knew it was coming. He had killed enough to know it would one day be his turn, especially with all the misdeeds he had done.

But he didn't regret it. You had to do what you needed to survive in this world.

He mustered every bit of air he had left in his lungs and was able to mutter out his last words.

"Do it."

Then everything faded to black.

Chapter 11: Raiders

Once I finished what should be the last enemy, I immediately went to examine the rooms near the big, dangerous cyborg I had taken out first.

Unfortunately, with one arm injured, I didn't have any leeway to leave anyone alive to question, but judging from the reaction of the last group I dealt with, it seemed like he was someone important. I found the dropped key the man had tried to use earlier and unlocked the crate.

Inside the shipping container were neat stacks of crates with Nova Tech logos on them. Upon opening one, I found several hands, prosthetic ones. The other crates were all filled with similar cybernetics, various limbs, tendons, and muscle replacements.

This was… a fortune. It was worth way more than the 30,000 credits from this job. It was a flat-out jackpot.

The models in the crates were all current-gen ones, worth a pretty penny. This was a huge payday! I couldn't wait to be able to afford better food, buy like bots to do cleaning and cooking, and maybe even move to a better place…though that would require stabler income.

I could also bring forth my plan to start a business with this startup fund. I just needed to level up more and upgrade a suitable tech to base my business around.

While taking in the mountain of expensive tech packed in front of me, I spotted in the corner an out-of-place box that didn't have any markings on it. Within it lay various limbs and other smaller cybernetics in a disorganized fashion. Rummaging through the box, I sorted out the smaller cybernetics, and examined what make and model they were.

It didn't take long until I found the SAID I was supposed to be looking for. I guess the box contained all the chrome looted from the bodies of the caravan's personnel.

With my newfound fortune came the problem of how to move it.

With the mission objective secured, I walked out to the parking lot to secure a means of transport. It was about time I got my own ride. I wonder how the ownership and insurance stuff would work…I was not looking forward to that one bit.

I inspected the vehicles and found they all looked pretty worn and some of them had bullet holes all over. Only two didn't, a sedan and an SUV. After spending some time searching the bodies, I found the corresponding keys and started packing away all my loot into the cars.

It took over half an hour to load all the crates from the shipping container into cars, and with some room left, I went to search all the other locked areas I ignored previously when I was busy taking out the surrounding hostiles.

The shipping containers I searched in the first warehouse I snuck into were simply bedrooms with nothing special in them. When I went to search for the final remaining ones in the second warehouse where the boss was, my search came up empty until I opened up the one furthest from the exit.

The moment I opened the last container, a pungent stench instantly rushed out, and within, I could make out the two slim figures in the corner, huddled together. What was most notable from the silhouettes were the chains tied around their arms and feet, attached to the railing welded to the wall.

As I wasn't able to make out much detail even with night vision, I took out a flashlight and shined it towards them. With color restored to the world, I spotted a girl with long brown hair around my age holding onto a boy around eight, who looked similar to the girl.

"Who are you two?" I asked as I made my way closer.

"You're not with them, are you? Why don't you introduce yourself first?" The girl snapped while she placed herself between me and the boy.

"I'm Rollo. I had some business with your captors, but they aren't around anymore. Now I can leave you alone and be on my way if you want, or I could do some charity work and bust you out of there, up to you."

While helping them wasn't profitable in a financial sense, I hope they could bring me some useful business connections; it wasn't that steep of an investment for me, anyway.

"...Yes, remove these chains… please."

"Sure thing, stay still," I pulled out my‌ handy vibro dagger to cut the chains loose.

The two of them followed me as I headed out. I had everything packed and looted the place clean, so I was ready to leave. They didn't speak until the moment they had stepped outside.

"Where are we?" The girl said as she looked around.

"We are…in the outskirts of District 12." I read off the map from my optics.

"...Is that in the north part of NLA?"

"NLA?"

"New Los Angeles," The girl stared at me as if I was dumb.

Okay, maybe they aren't the local connection I was looking to make.

"I'm just going to go ahead and let you know we are in Elevate City, over 3,500 kilometers off the coast of New North America."

"...How many miles is that?"

"Um. over 2,000."

She froze for a second as the young boy held her closer.

"...You guys want to stay at my place for now?"

"Excellent work, Mr. Halls. Send me a message once you have dropped off the package at the designated spot."

"About that loot I mentioned. Are you sure Nova Tech won't be looking for it back?" I asked while I kept my eyes on the lights, waiting for it to turn green.

"The chances are very low, as they likely have written it off and claimed their insurance policy already. Unless you retrieved a sizable part of the shipment and flaunted it around, there should be no one looking for it." Fitel replied at his usual measured pace.

That was useful to know. I had only told him I found a few cybernetics instead of the dozens of crates that I actually had.

"I see…thank you. Then I'll text you once I drop off the package."

"Understood, and one more thing, Mr. Halls, I would recommend keeping minimal contact with people affiliated with raiders, regardless of age."

"...Thank you, I have it under control."

"Very well, until we speak again," Fitel said before he hung up.

I turned to look at the other two people in the car sitting behind me and gave them a smile.

They had opened up a little, and we managed to hold a conversion with them while the car's auto-drive did its work. It seemed like they were children of a tribe living out in the wastelands of New North America, what most people called wastelanders or raiders. Apparently, they were being held hostage and their tribe was made to do work for the group.

I guessed that wasn't a half-bad plan for a motley put-together crew, as corporations rarely cared as much about raider attacks. They were considered cockroaches that kept coming back no matter how many times they were put down, and it was an unprofitable business trying to wipe them out considering the harsh terrains they lived in.

They were able to use the information they gathered in the city and use raiders to do the actual work and would have gotten away with it too, if only they didn't happen to get a hold of some sensitive item the corp wanted back.

I took some time messaging my building's management office through my SAID and attained two guest parking passes. It seemed like I would have to go in person if I wanted to rent one.

Once that was done, I spent some time surfing the web, looking for ways to send these two to NLA, the closest city to their tribe. Plane tickets were way more expensive than I had thought, easily in the five digits, and these two didn't have any IDs in the first place either.

"And we're here. How about we grab some food first for you guys before going up to my place?" I turned around to ask the two as we pulled up to the colossal megabuilding.

"Woah, you live in this giant tower?" The little boy asked excitedly.

"Just renting a small place here. They're almost two hundred floors, housing hundreds of thousands of people."

"That's like… a lot," The boy replied, counting his fingers.

I grabbed a crate with my one good arm, dreading the fact that I had to move them all to the apartment now.

"Here, let me give you a hand," The girl quickly took a crate, wincing at my poor one-armed display.

"No, it's fine. I'm sure you're both tired. Let's go get something for you guys to eat first."

"I insist. It would shame my clan to eat without having worked for it," She glared at me with determined eyes.

"I'll help too!" The boy said brightly and carefully picked up a crate with both arms.

"...By the way, my name is Sarah of the Wells clan, and my brother is Caleb." The girl muttered as she carefully watched her brother lift the crate.

"Well, nice to meet you, Sarah, and Caleb. Now follow me. I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

We safely arrived at my apartment without incident and picked up some food along the way. It seemed like the siblings did not enjoy the cheap food here, but still ravenously ate it all.

Can't believe even raider clans probably eat better than the garbage sold around here. How far have we fallen…

Once we finished eating, I rented a cart from the building used for moving in or out and transported all the crates into my unit. I had the two accompany me to both keep an eye on them and to make it seem like they were moving in to help keep curious eyes off my cargo.

With all the moving around and excitement dying down, Caleb fell asleep soon after, so I let the two of them rest while I headed out after organizing the crates.

Ensuring the cameras placed in my apartment were in order, I first headed to drop off SAID at a lockbox and messaged Fitel. Then I headed to the cybernetic clinic I had previously used. Fortunately, I only had to wait twenty minutes even without an appointment.

"Dr. Keyes, we meet again. How are you doing?"

"I am fine, but you have seen better days." He paused and stared at my bandaged-up arm before continuing. "You know, you should go to a normal clinic to get your wounds looked at. We mainly perform installation or removal of cybernetics here."

While I could have gone to the hospital instead, for my arm, it would take some time to heal. Not to talk about the rehabilitation period. I was planning on installing cybernetics anyway, and this just accelerated that decision.

"Yes, I am aware. I'm looking to have my arm replaced with this." I placed a package on the desk between us.

I had gone over the cybernetics from my loot and picked the best one that suited me, a Nova Tech Mudra. It retailed for 20,000 credits and was considered one of the better middle-tier cyberarms.

Dr. Keyes took a moment to take out the arm from its factory-new packaging and inspected it for a few minutes.

"I can do that. There doesn't seem to be any problem with it. The fee for installing a cyberarm for the first time will be 5,000 credits. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes, do you guys accept cybernetics as payment, or would you like to buy some? I happen to be in possession of a few pieces you may be interested in." I immediately took the chance to hawk my new wares. The loot wasn't useful to me until I converted them to credits, after all.

"No, Mr. Halls, it is against our company policies and procurement contracts."

Damn it, the payment for the job hadn't come through yet so I'll be using almost all I had left, but I had plenty of stuff to sell if I needed so I wasn't too worried. It was better to get the cyberarm now than to wait weeks for my wounds to recover naturally, plus all the new functions that came along with it.

"Understood. Please go ahead with the installation."

"Perfect, as a licensed cybernetic surgeon. I do need you to sign here to confirm that you would like to remove your current arm. I will not be able to reattach it after the operation if you change your mind."

"Ha, I can always get a new one grown if I come to regret my choice," I said as I read over the waiver before signing it.

"Well, if you had a couple of hundred thousand credits to spare, you could do that. Anyway, the procedure won't be too different from last time. Please lay down on the table and inhale from this."

I guess that means it is time for lights out. Hopefully, Fitel will come through with the payment by the time this is done.

Chapter 12: Planning

I was able to return home by early evening after having my new Nova Tech cyberarm installed. When I stepped into the apartment, both Sarah and Caleb sat on the couch, watching TV.

"You guys all good?" I asked as I placed down several bags.

"Yes, we are fine. What did you bring back? The two walked over to sate their curiosity. Woah, is that a new arm there?" Caleb's eyes sparkled as he stared at my new arm.

"Yeah, the old one wasn't in the best of condition anymore," I gave Caleb a wink.

"Woah, can I get an arm like that too, sis?" Caleb pleaded with puppy eyes.

In response, Sarah crossed her arms and made her displeasure apparent, "You know you can't. Don't make me tell Dad."

"Aww…"

"Here, both of you, I got you guys some stuff. See if the clothes are the right size," I push two bags toward them.

Since all they had were the dirty clothes they had been wearing, I bought some daily necessities, clothes, and some blankets.

The two went ahead and tore open the bags and inspected the items within.

"I guess this will do," Sarah muttered while Caleb continued going through everything with excitement.

"Hey, I can't say I'm well-versed in fashion, let alone for teenage girls."

She glared at me and walked away towards the bathroom. Once they both cleaned themselves and changed into new clothes, we sat down and ate.

"So, do you both remember anything about how you got here?"

"We… don't really know. Once they captured us, they kept us in that container the entire time until you came."

"I see… how long were you guys in there for?"

"I don't know. It's not easy to keep track after the first few days, trapped in a box."

"Thanks for telling me about it, even though you may not want to talk about it. I'll try to figure a way to get you back to your tribe."

"It's clan, clan Wells, and we can take care of our—" Sarah paused for a second and looked at Caleb, who had pulled at her sleeve. "...If you get us back to NLA, we can make it back from there…In return, I'll handle cleaning and laundry for you." She looked around at the unit as if to emphasize how valuable her service would be.

I mean, it wasn't that bad, presentable at least. The priority of a cleaning robot on my wish list may need to be bumped up a little…

"Sure thing. I'll see what we can do. Anyway, let's eat before the food gets cold."

If they were in the shipping container the entire time, that meant they probably didn't get here by plane. The more likely method was probably by cargo ships. That made sense, as that was the best way to smuggle something, considering they didn't have any IDs.

Now, I had a direction to look into.

With Fitel not wanting to get involved, I had to go find a cargo ship to smuggle Sarah and Caleb, myself. I doubt Flo and her team are experts at that, and I'd rather not bother them for this.

The next morning, after having failed to find any cargo ship information regarding their routes online, I went to District 20, where the biggest commercial port in Elevate City was.

There were crowds of workers rushing about their day throughout the entire area. I managed to enter the port management building uncontested. From the signs on the wall, it was apparent that port customs were on the third floor, but I didn't need to head all the way there.

I directly headed to an automated terminal that dealt with all the incoming ships that docked here and directly jacked into it, using the cable from my new cyberarm. The new arm had a slot to hold a portable terminal to perform the hacking that I had been doing with my old terminal.

To be honest, the three points in hacking weren't enough to make me into a super hacker. If one point gave me beginner knowledge, three points only made me a little better than an amateur. Judging from my stealth upgrades, five points would make me about average in the relevant industry, enough to be a professional, and seven would be around the veteran level.

Luckily, the shipping routes submitted to the port authorities were stored in this outdated security terminal that even an amateur like me could handle. I got through after several minutes and downloaded everything into my terminal, then exited the port by blending with the crowd.

With my new data in hand, I headed to a fast-food chain and got to work, looking over the data while enjoying a refreshing milkshake.

Dozens of vessels arrived in Elevate City every day so the files I downloaded were quite a pain to go through, even with a search function, but I narrowed down the dozen of ships that would leave within the week.

I crossed out the options that had their cargo noted as classified or were obviously managing stuff from large corporations, which left me with four options.

Then I checked the shipping company for each option and investigated how much their employee's pay was. To nobody's surprise, they were paid like crap unless they were higher up on the totem pole or had valuable skill sets as captains did.

I looked up the file for the Chief stewards for each of my options and examined the details.

Within two hours, I found everything I needed and headed to the closest hostel where one of the Chief Stewards was staying.

I waited outside and soon found a tall woman walking out with several others who matched the profile I had. I followed them, heading into a diner where they ordered their lunch. My patience paid off as she left the table and headed to the washroom.

"Chief Stewardess Ava, can I have a moment of your time?" I asked as she was about to pass by me.

Her body snapped toward me and had a hand on her holster while looking warily at me.

"Ambushing a lady on her way to the washroom isn't very gentlemen-like. Why don't you introduce yourself first?"

"You can call me…User, I don't mean any harm, just wanted to propose to you a business opportunity."

"Really?" She said as she raised an eyebrow at me.

"Your ship is heading to NLA next, right?"

"... Yeah, I ain't doing anything that would harm our ship. The crews are like family to me." She glared at me and tightened her grip on her pistol.

"Relax, I just want you to bring some people with you and ensure their safety. How does 5,000 credits sound? That's almost your entire monthly wage."

"Smuggling? They wanted or something?"

"No, just no IDs. They're fine otherwise."

"...5k per person, upfront payment."

"I'm only paying you half upfront, the other half once I confirmed you got the job done."

"You look here boy, I'm the one taking the risks here, upfront payment or no deal." The Chief Stewardess made a show of slowly walking away.

"...6,000 per person, if you can accommodate half now, half after the job."

I didn't mind paying more, as long as she accepted my condition. People worked harder if they still had something on the line. Upfront payment would incur a higher risk of her screwing over Sarah and Caleb if anything went wrong.

"Fine, but they bring their own supplies. The trip's going to take a week or two."

"Deal," I replied and held out my hand.

While we ate lunch, I informed the siblings of the ride back I secured for them. The ship was scheduled to leave in two days' time.

With their situation settled, what was left was for me to begin serious planning for the business I wanted to start.

I had a ton of valuable cybernetics that hadn't been liquidated yet. It wasn't something easy to do in a short time without tipping people off on the amount I had.

Anyway, to start my business, I, of course, had to decide on which industry I would go into. The system would definitely be an integral part of this, as it served as the basis of the business. Therefore, I opened up my status page and went through all the potential upgrades that would fit what I was looking for.

Status

Level:

3

EXP:

210/300

Musculoskeletal:

51

Neural Reflex:

15

Visuomotor Coordination:

12

Endurance:

8

Sensory Perception:

37

Upgrade Points:

0

Upgrades:

Stealth +7

Hacking +3

Enhancements:

SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3

Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4

Cyberarm(Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6

After installing my cyberarm, my musculoskeletal stat shot straight up, which definitely tempted me to install more implants to raise the scores, but I was wary of the augments that dealt with how my brain worked, especially with the cheaper models.

I proceeded to select upgrade and went over the vast collections of various things I could spend points on.

While some names like energy weapons popped at me, I doubt I could enjoy my wealth for long with all the attention that it would draw. It wouldn't surprise me if a corp violently took over my business if I proceeded recklessly like that. I also didn't want any tech that was in markets that made me compete against big corporations for the same reason.

The more mundane everyday products weren't something I wanted to go into either, as the system's technological aid wouldn't be as helpful and those industries required more brand recognition than quality of products, anyway.

I remembered a line I had heard before: "Third-class businesses sold products, second-class businesses sold brands, and first-class businesses sold markets." I would have to start from the bottom with a great product first.

I would still need to level up a lot more in order to attain enough upgrade points for my selected field. Gaining experience points would only get harder and harder, so maybe I should select something that synergized with helping me gain the experience points as well, in other words, killing.

There was an option to level stealth technologies, but all the best stealth products I knew were, for good reason, cybernetics. It simply blended in better when it was literally hidden within you, but cybernetic engineering was a separate category in the system.

There currently wasn't much stealth-oriented cybernetics out in the market though, as corporations kept that technology to themselves, but a solid target market for it was there too. Mercenaries like Flo had sufficient disposable income and were willing to spend big, since they could always die on their next job.

That meant I should focus on cybernetics first. I probably needed both points in cybernetic tech and stealth tech to create any half-decent implants, but I happen to be sitting on a pile of cybernetics right now.

Cybernetics was definitely something cool that only this world had, and it was honestly exciting too. It's decided, I will focus on cybernetics first and then go into stealth technologies to create my own implants.

In the afternoon, I finished up the last of my errands, dealing with my two new cars. They may have seen better days, but they were still new in my books.

I tried to rent the parking spot to keep the SUV, but apparently, car registration was actually something required, so I headed to a second-hand dealership instead.

The place I went to had a wide selection of vehicles displayed up front and they all looked to be in much better condition than my two rust buckets. Though for now, I was satisfied to have something practical, I'd rather not waste unnecessary credits in my current situation.

"Hey there, I wanted to sell the sedan over there and fix the registration information on the SUV," I spoke to the man in a suit who immediately came to greet me the moment I walked in.

"Welcome to Don's Auto. We can definitely do that for you. Why don't we get a closer look at the vehicle you would like to sell!"

To no one's surprise, the sedan wasn't worth a lot but could cover the cost of having the SUV registered to me. It didn't sound very legal, but I guessed no one cared, especially not for an old car.

I was on the road once I sorted the insurance out and enjoyed my first actual drive without the auto drive this time. Just as I got out of the dealer's parking lot, I received a call.

"Hey, Mr. Rollo, this is Caleb. Can you buy some ice cream when you come back?" A childish voice rang out.

"Sure thing, kid."

"Thank you!"

"I'll be back in half an hour." I hung up, only to realize I forgot to ask what flavor they liked.

Just as I was about to call back, another call came in first and I quickly picked it up as I started accelerating onto the freeway.

"What flavor did you—"

Before I finished, a different voice than the one I expected interrupted, "Rollo, are you free right now? We could really use your help."

It took a second before I realized it was Flo on the line. Well, unfortunately for Caleb, it seemed like ice cream was going to be delayed.

Chapter 13: The Way In

"Rollo, are you free right now? We could really use your help."

"Flo? What's going on?" I put the car back into auto drive to focus on the call.

"An idiot on my team got picked up a few days ago, and we finally located him. The problem is that he is being held in some corp facility, so we can't just go in guns blazing this time."

"I'd love to help Flo but I don't think I can go against some corporation even you're hesitant to antagonize…"

"Look, they aren't some big untouchable corp. They are just some fucked up startup specializing in human experimentation that other corps outsource to. If we went guns blazing, they would activate their fail-safes that would dispose of all their 'subjects' for some bullshit confidentiality contract. Can you take a shot at sneaking in to disable it?"

"Fine… I'll try, but no promises. You guys already have a plan?"

"Great, we'll owe you one. Come on over to Haven and we'll go over the details."

They filled me in on the plan in one of the private rooms inside Haven. There were glass windows in the room that looked out to the rest of the bar, though we set the windows to be opaque.

By the time we finished, the sun was just setting.

We headed out right away, driving circles around a small but normal-looking office building with only a dozen floors and a loading area in the back.

I ensured I had everything I needed before getting out of the car.

"Test, test. Can you hear me alright?" A woman's voice rang out in my head thanks to my SAID.

"Yeah, loud and clear."

"Okay, you can respond by text once you're in, but our connection will break up once you pass into the jammed area and you'll be on your own. Once you get in, you should be able to disable it."

"Yeah, yeah. We just went over it."

"Just wanted to remind you that once you're in, you're on your own. You better do exactly as I instructed, because your shitty intern-level hacking skills ain't going to do shit in their system."

I sent a thumbs-up emoji through my SAID and observed the people going in and out of the building.

The girl was a hacker they brought on for the rescue called Lana. She was apparently the one who tracked down our target, her friend, Leo, who was the hacker for Flo's team.

I waited until the loading area was clear and casually walked as close as I could without entering the camera's view. Once I was in position, I aimed my Suri and shot right at the base of the camera.

*You should get a connection soon.*

"Okay, I'm in, but as we expected, their security systems are air-gapped from the cameras. I'm looping the camera feeds now. You should be good to go, "Lana responded almost instantly to my text, with a symphony of clicking and clacking noises in her background. I couldn't believe someone still used mechanical keyboards when she could do it through her SAID.

I walked up to the door and pried into the panel covering the jack for technicians. Once I plugged in, I didn't have to do my usual hacking and could sit back while Lana did the job for me.

Before long, the door's lock clicked open, and I made my way into the building. I headed for the staircase where the call connection I had with Lana started breaking up as I descended.

I went as far as I could until I reached a floor that required an ID card to access, so I made my way back up to the previous floor. I made my way through the mechanical rooms, searching for the one that was responsible for this building's HVAC.

According to the info we had, the lab where they held Leo was on the bottommost floor, and the security control room was on the topmost restricted basement level, so I had to somehow gain access to that floor.

I eventually found the mechanical room I was looking for and brought out a grenade that looked more like a toy. I pressed the button on it and threw it toward the control panel. After a second, a loud fizzing noise echoed throughout the room.

Within seconds, I heard the machines around me slowing down, making a whining noise that it definitely wasn't supposed to make.

I picked up the spent grenade, then went to conceal myself in a corner of the room, and started praying the plan would work. If no one came, then we would have to abort the mission and go back to the drawing board.

With no connection to the outside world, I spent my time playing around with the settings of my cybernetics and ensured they were in optimal condition. Right now, I relied on official patches to their firmware, so I was going through them as a reference for the day when I would design my own cybernetics.

After 15 minutes, I finally heard someone approach. I watched the door intently while trying to calm my nerves and stay quiet. I watched a man in a dirty technician outfit with a hard hat open the door and walk straight toward the control panel.

I gave it a second to see if anyone else was behind him, but once I was sure there was no one, I made my move. In one swift motion, I covered his face with a cloth I had gotten from Flo and put him in a chokehold. I felt his surprise and struggle, but my cyberarm had him in a tightly locked in place, and soon his struggle weakened until his body completely fell limp.

I quickly dragged his body to the corner where I then swapped outfits. I packed my old clothes into a bag and ensured I had his security card and all my gear before heading back down the stairs.

This time, with the security card, I could pass through. I casually strolled through the empty hallway while searching for the security control room. The entire floor looped around in a circle, so I eventually spotted the room.

I walked up and stood in front of the door, and pressed the button on the intercom.

"What do you want, techy? You better have good news about the cooling, cuz it's getting really hot in here with all the equipment running."

"Yes sir, it should be fixed now, but I need to manually reset each control panel until we get the replacement parts."

"All right, hurry up and reset ours." The door automatically opened.

I walked in slowly and a guard soon came into view. I scoured the room; not that large and had only two guards in total. The other guard had his attention on the screens while he fanned himself with a terminal.

"That's the panel for the AC," The first guard pointed and then crossed his arms while he watched me. He didn't seem like he was going to go away, so I guess it was time to pull one of the oldest tricks in the book.

I placed my bag down beside the panel and then pretended to rummage through it as I grabbed my Suri within. I looked back and locked eyes with the man who still had his full attention on me.

"If this is the AC panel, then what is that one for?" I put on the best show of looking as confused as I could and pointed at the one on the other side of the room.

The moment the man turned, I brought my gun up and placed a well-aimed shot right at his head, then unloaded the rest of the 20-round mag into the remaining guard who was still in his seat until I saw the experience notification.

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

I raced over to the terminal, pushed the body out of the way, and searched for the jack to plug into. After fumbling for a bit, I found the jack and inserted the chip the hacker Lana had given me.

I executed the program as instructed, then it automatically took over with no further need for my input. While I let the program do its thing, I started looking over the screens and the layout of the floors that we didn't have information on.

I could see rooms with about half a dozen people living in them, all wearing simple white gowns. There were also a few rooms with surgical tables, like the one found in Dr. Keyes's clinic.

Outside in the corridors were a few people in lab coats walking around and a few armed guards.

Before I could find Leo, the person we were rescuing, the console in front of me made a ding noise, informing me of the program's completion. A familiar voice then spoke out to me within my head.

"Can you hear me, Rollo?"

"Yeah, loud and clear."

"...I've got full control of their system now, but I can't disable the fail-safes remotely. You've got to go to the head researcher's room and do it from his terminal. I'll send you the floor layout with real-time information on where everyone in the facility is."

"Okay, got it, but you do see how many people are in there, right? Do we even have enough transportation to get them all out?"

"No, we're only here for Leo. The rest of them are going to have to find their own way once they're out."

"Really? At least half of them are going to die or get caught again." I took a deep breath and sighed.

"We aren't charity workers. They can stay there if they want, but if they do, they're guaranteed to be dead within a year or two. A slow and painful death too. We're already giving them a chance to escape. Come on, focus on what we came here for."

She was right, there was no profit to it even if I could save them all. I could only do so much.

I placed the real-time layout in a corner of my vision like a minimap. I then made my way to the head researcher's room after I swapped into the guard's uniform.

With the help of the minimap, it was practically like cheating. I effortlessly hid in the blind spots or avoided anyone in my way. It was really annoying how each set of stairs that led further down was located somewhere different on each floor, but I eventually managed to arrive at the door to the head researcher's office.

I hate whoever designed this place, security be damned. It must suck, having to go through this maze every day to get to work.

I scanned my security card, but the scanner turned red, denying me access.

Seeing no one within earshot, I called out to my helper.

"Hey, I need help getting into the researcher's room, plugging you in now."

"Where's the please?" She sighed, "Give me a second…and you're in."

Entering the room, I found the terminal at the head researcher's desk. I repeated the same steps I went through in the security room, plugging in the chip, and then waited for the program to do its job.

"Okay, the program is done. Can you deactivate it now?"

"That terminal doesn't respond to remote commands, so you will have to be the one to deactivate it."

Following Lana's instructions, I eventually found the command to disable the fail-safe. Even so, once the test subjects escaped, they would still need to visit a cybernetic clinic to remove the physical chip that was forcibly installed in their heads…

I then searched the files on the subjects within this facility and downloaded what they had into my SAID. The information included a file on Leo and where they kept him.

"Okay, I found him, and the fail-safes are off. It's time for you guys to do the heavy lifting."

"Gotcha, Flo's team is coming in hot now. Go secure Leo before the chaos spreads down to you."

Within ten seconds of her words, the entire place violently shook, almost throwing me off my feet.