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> Corpo Age [Cyberpunk Progression LitRPG] > Chapter 7: Night Owl

Chapter 7: Night Owl

Corpo Age [Cyberpunk Progression LitRPG] by RandomBlueCat

1.1k 0 56

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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.

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> Corpo Age [Cyberpunk Progression LitRPG] > Chapter 8: Back to the Grind

Chapter 8: Back to the Grind

Corpo Age [Cyberpunk Progression LitRPG] by RandomBlueCat

1.1k 2 57

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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 didn't 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…

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