ตอน 17: Uncomfortable!
{Alley outside Misty's Esoterica, Watson, Night City}
...
Wally Elwin wasn't a normal cop. In a city tainted by darkness and corruption, he still strove to do his job. It's been seven years since he started working in the force, but not until today did he find something so odd.
"You are saying the bodies disappeared?" He asked Alex. The guy was frowning as he looked at the tablet in his hands. Drones were flying all around the crime scene, scanning every inch of the place, but apparently, they weren't able to do the scene reconstruction.
"Yeah, it's not unusual, as many gangs and most corps would clean up the sitch shortly after before disappearing. This one is a little weird. The scene is still so messy, but at the same time, it's cleaned quite thoroughly where it matters. The body's disappearance is a work of art that removes several factors from the algo designed to work, which is messing everything up. I'm trying to remove the bodies from the equation, but the gonk who designed it has put several fail safes in place." Alex replied in frustration, and he gave up not long after.
"~Mass shooting sighted in 34 Street Heywood, all officers nearby, please respond, cyberpsycho at large~"
Comms suddenly crackled directly through the holo, and both of them shared a look; Alex clicked on the computer multiple times as he grumbled, "Great, another one of those gonk going trigger active high on chrome. Why do we even have to respond? It's all the way in Heywood, and by the time we go there, MaxTac will have already finished with the gonk."
Wally didn't say anything. He still looked at the messy blood and gore splattered around the alley, unwilling to let a murderer get away.
"You sure we can't do anything about this?" Wally asked. He pointed to the clear signs of a series of crimes painted across the walls.
"Hey gonk, I've already told you the sitch, jus be glad there aren't any bodies to dump after and forget about it. You'll see more bodies in a few minutes anyway; don't be so glum..." Alex shook his head as, with a final couple of touches, the drones flew back into their car.
"Come on, we gotta see about a cyberpsycho," Alex spoke as he walked back to the cruiser. There was no hurry in his steps, which again irked Wally, but he couldn't fault the man. Wally looked back at the messy scene once again before he sighed.
'I would look into this in my spare time, but with nothing to go on and Alex surely won't work overtime, I can't do anything. Searching for murderers in this city is...' Wally tried to think of a working analogy but couldn't. There was just no way to compare it to any of the sayings.
'Murders in Night City, huh... Isn't that jus about everyone?'
...
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{Apartment 0923, Megabuilding H10, Little China, Watson}
{Next Day}
...
[Achieved Status condition {Well-Rested}]
[+25% EXP for 30 mins.]
...
[Abnormal Status condition applied {Infection}]
[-25% {Body}]
...
I woke up feeling like shit. My body felt weak as I groaned into the mattress. My hand shivered from exertion as I brought it up, and I felt my burning forehead when I went to rub my eyes off the cobwebs.
'So the Rest function isn't almighty, huh,' I concluded as I groaned again. My body felt sore. After a long workout, I wasn't entirely sure what the cause was, but I needed to get to Vik's. With another groan, which already felt like a chore, I stood up. The heaviness of my movements made me realize that I was carrying three bodies of people that I had killed in a metaphysical space that only I had access to.
'Fucking great. I don't need the physiological discussion right now.' I cursed myself for not getting rid of this extra baggage yesterday as I stood up. My eyes turned to the sight of my messed up bed. Earlier, I had collapsed with my shoes on. Apparently, I did sleep like a normal person, twisted and turning, and not like a robot that had just powered off.
'Which was a good thing. Now I wonder if I set up a physical alarm or one in my Holo, will I wake up.' The questions helped me distract myself as I started walking; I stopped before going through the door and with a thought, the Lexington appeared in my hand. I had almost gone through the entire clip of Tier-3 ammo during that fight. Maybe it had been overpowered, as it really did cleave through those three.
I quickly removed the magazine, and as it disappeared into my inventory, another one appeared in my hand, and I slotted it into place.
'This one is filled with Tier-3 ammo as well. The last one has Tier-2 ammo, so that I would mark it as untested and unreliable.' I walked out of my room. The heaviness in my steps made me feel like a walking zombie, which added to the burning fever and shivering, made me feel right at home with the walking, breathing crap of drug addicts that loitered the space. My eyes scanned through everyone and names that held little meaning, but the scanner built into the eyes helped.
I saw that most of the people were marked as NC Residents with no known affiliation. Now, someone could be working under a false identity, but the chances of that happening are too low. My scanner was, in fact, advanced enough to detect the cyberware and weapons that the residents were carrying, and I quickly realized there was an option for a deep scanner, along with an infrared vision.
'Damm, this makes it stealth a moot point, huh? I know Kiroshi's are top shelf, but even the blue-haired chick had Kiroshi, so why won't most of the Corpo agents and senior-level gang members also have one.' I grimaced a little. The mess of blue and yellow and the whole spectrum of colors in between made it difficult to see the details, but people were glowing hot in my vision.
'I can't see the footsteps or trial that a person leaves, so stealth isn't completely off the table, but at the same time. Any direct sightlines under this kind of scan would make any stealth obsolete. Still, as my focus is on hard stealth, it's not a complete deal breaker. Not that I'm ever going to be a gunslinger anyway. Last night was enough of an action sequence for a lifetime.' The thought caused me to shiver slightly; the panic that was suppressed by the CDPR system or whatever the hell reality-defying powers it was had allowed me to survive.
'Weren't there a lot of notifications during the fight that I brushed aside? Can I get them back?' I thought as I looked through the menu. There was no option to read through the logs, which caused me to frown.
'Don't tell me I would be forced to go through the notifications in the middle of a fight or risk not knowing what skills I gained,' I frowned. Unable to find anything, I could only turn to my character sheet, which had evolved a couple of times from the basic build just two days ago. I punched the ground floor on the elevator as I looked through the list.
'Has it really been just two days... feels like a lifetime ago.'
...
[Character ]
[Stats]
[Body: 4{450/3000}]
[Reflex: 5{375/5000}]
[Technical Ability: 4{300/4000}]
[Intelligence: 6{150/6000}]
[Cool: 4{600/4000}]
[Skills]
[Knives Lv 3 {350/3000} *Reflex attuned {Passive}]
[Cooking Lv 0 {100/500} *Intelligence attuned {Passive}]
[Netrunner Lv 1 {100/1000} *Intelligence attuned {Passive}]
[Handgun Lv 2 {500/2000} *Reflex attuned {Passive}]
[Boxing Lv 1 {50/1000} *Body attuned {Passive}]
[Programming Lv 1 {300/1000} *Intelligence attuned {Passive}]
[Stealth Lv 0 {400/500} *Body attuned {Passive}]
[Cold Blooded Lv 1 {200/1000} *Cool attuned {Passive}]
...
The list was expansive, and several unknown experiences were gained that were irregular and seemed to be the result of the altercation. Quite simply, each of my stats has gained experience; almost all of them gained 300 EXP, with Cool gaining double and Intelligence gaining 150.
The fact that my gains were in a multiple of 3 presented a dark meaning and alternative way to progress, a fact that I was expecting with the game-like logic, but reducing human life to simply numbers felt...
I shook my head, changing my train of thought as I looked at the last skill.
...
[Cold Blooded Lv 1 {200/1000} *Cool attuned {Passive}]
[Allows the user to remain calm even in the direst of circumstances and think calmly through a situation.]
...
'Why the fuck is it at level one already?' I thought as I closed the screens and looked at the cars passing through the road. Sensing the timing, I walked and hobbled my way across; the weight and pressure were now a little daunting, and although my body felt a little weak, I decided on a small detour.
Night City was apparently made with the need for body disposal in mind, as I found a large dumpster in the first alley I saw. Although this place was not too far away from the initial scene of the crime, I had trust in NCPD to never find it or connect the dots.
The disposal truck was a big green monstrosity, and I put my hand through its opening and thought about retrieving the man with the punctured neck. A weight appeared in my hand, which I quickly let go of, and with a dull thud, the guy was now inside the disposal truck. I repeated this process three more times quickly and then walked back, retreating my steps.
I took the next right and quickly arrived before Misty's shop once again. My vision zoomed to the guy who was looking at me with red eyes; his jaw was missing, and I could see a bunch of wires shoved in its place.
'NC Resident and a civillian.' The reading told me, and after giving him another look, I walked past him, still on high alert, but since my minimap didn't mark him as a threat, I didn't worry. Just as I was about to stumble into Misty's shop, I froze as another download of information and muscle memory happened. This time, it had nothing related to combat but a more auxiliary skill.
...
[125 {Stealth} EXP gained]
[{Stealth} skill leveled up to 1]
...
'Well, that's a welcome surprise, and wow, is there a lot.' I concluded as I got used to the new information. Apparently, I had several misconceptions about Stealth. Stealth is not just the skill needed to sneak around. It was just another part of what stealth really is: the ability to move unseen in a crowd, mimicking its behavior from walking to talking, hiding in the darkest of shadows, and walking straight through in plain sight. The true meaning of stealth skill is to remain unknown, just another face in the crowd.
'Wow... okay... Now, how am I going to train this?'
...
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AN - I have decided against having the Rest function as the quick fix to cheat-like health, as it could be as bad as HP. So instead, Nooa would have to face infections and other problems if, for example, he went to sleep with a bullet, that who knows has been where, embedded inside his body.
P.S - Had to work a lot of overtime, sorry about the delay!
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