章節 7: Predator Or Prey I

Niya ripped the dive visor off checking all of the systems using the analog screen attached to Fia's deep dive chamber nothing seemed out of order so she wanted to be sure why she couldn't connect back into the game servers and that it wasn't due to a mistake with her software. Everything checked out she wasn't sure why she had been booted out. The sliding door leading into the room reveals a young man fairly tall and with thin dark blue hair hanging around a soft face. He pushes the pair of glasses he's wearing up his nose and they slide right back down into place.

"They said you were a really diligent worker but you gotta know when to take a break." The cute young man gave a soft smile that made Niya blush hard. Niya was a tall gal six feet even with a curvier build than most Netrunners and a lack of prosthetics that typically came with the culture that's not to say she didn't have any cyberware but most of hers was in her head and neck the orphanage that she and Fia grew up in took money on the side from shady corporations willing to test their next best product on people who weren't being looked for by anyone.

Fias test group spent days upon days in deep-dive technology a lot of the children died under stress while our little group survived. Niya's group had to spend time on the old internet and dealing with untamed A.I. roaming the back web of the current system, she couldn't grow hair of her own anymore so after a couple of jobs with Fia and the rest she bought an overlay that grew beautiful long Neon green hair to match her grass green eyes. She tucked a few strands behind her ear before sheepishly stammering out "i-I can't get back into the dive do you know what's going on?"

"Owner thought for the first couple of rounds the shoulder angels won't be necessary so he's giving us the free time to watch it play out... everyone's gathering in the commons and I was wondering if you wanted to choke down half stale chips and flat soda with me before we have to oversee a couple of gamers who will be shitting and pissing themselves for the next few days?" The tall cute boy joked which received a giggle from Niya who immediately realized how embarrassing it was to be giggling so freely in her situation, but then she remembered Fias' lessons of "Always be blending Niya!" So she flashes her sweetest smile before shaking her head in affirmation.

"Really?" The cute boy spits out quickly in disbelief his accent thickening in the process.

"I mean cool awesome I'm Kharon by the way people call me PP but I much prefer Kharon." He says trying to regain some form of composure this got Niya giggling again which he at the moment realized might have been the cutest sound he's ever had the pleasure of hearing.

"Nice to meet you PP I'm Niya." She replies teasingly joining him near the threshold.

"Oh, that's rude even after I told you me preference and everything also the pissing and shitting was a joke by the way." Kharon says with a chuckle before turning on his heels and making his way to the common areas a bunch of excited Netrunners funneled the corridors all scurrying quickly to the break area to watch the game begin. This was the game of the century never had there been so many players going under a deep dive at the same time and for so long the company would use this display as a sounding board for the first ever home consumer deep dive chambers soon families across the world will line up to buy their at-home entertainment chambers making deep dive arcades and cafés a thing of the past.

They make it to the commons a massive room with a glass ceiling where the tech and net operators co-mingle everyone finds their way to the vendors or the vending machines and then chooses a set of couches or standing tables to rest at. Kharon made his way to a vending machine while Niya waited in line for a vendor. The machine had a litany of choices between chips, synth yogurt, and soft drinks. He could've sworn it took him only a couple of minutes to make his selection and by the time he returned to Niya, she had a platter filled to the brim with food he could make out two synth hotdogs, a few real meat burgers, nachos, and the list went on.

"Fucking hell how are you going to pay for all that?" He asked somewhat concerned for very much impressed.

"Oh, I already did?" She replies between scarfing down a third synth hotdog he didn't notice this made Kharon smile he liked a woman who could eat especially since he often was hungry himself.

"Wow, you can afford that on a Netrunner salary?" He asks genuinely this causes Niya to panic and choke a little on a chunk of food.

"Ack, no I do freelance jobs here and there." She managed after swallowing the rest of her food.

"Well if you get another one let me-

-Oi! Double P over here!" A smaller young man calls out to Kharon motioning for the pair to come sit with him and someone else at one of the standing tables. Kharon makes his way over to them while Niya with her mountain of food sheepishly follows behind.

"You know Ki you keep downing synth yogurt like that your gonna shit for days mate." Kharon mocks pointing at the seven or eight unopened synth yogurts on Ki's right and then the seven or eight opened synth yogurts on his left. Ki had short white hair and a pair of kaleidoscope-colored eyes he scooped the last bit of yogurt into his mouth before licking the cup and spoon clean.

"Then I'll make sure to do it in your room's bathroom." He says before cracking open the next one. Niya noticed the other person at the table was a woman her long purplish hair flowed down her back she exhaustedly rested her head on the table when she noticed Niya's gaze she managed the sleepiest of smiles that Niya returned with her shiest. Ki with a quick glance up from his yogurt cup gives Niya's pile of food and then her a once over.

"Whose the tall hungry chick PP?" Ki bluntly asks without hesitation. Niya blushes realizing she hadn't introduced herself and had brought a tower of food that she awkwardly stood next to. The sleepy woman slugs Ki in the arm giving a hardy thud and spilling one of his synthetic yogurts.

"Ow! What the hell Alice!?" He exclaimed trying to salvage the yogurt as quickly as possible.

"That's not how you address people, you little idiot." Alice states through yawns and stretches.

"Yeah well, you don't just throw haymakers to correct people either!" Ki growls pinching her love handles and causing her body to lurch soon there's a flurry of jabs and pinches from Ki and Alice aimed at each other's weak spots. This embarrassed Kharon but caused Niya to laugh which subsided most of the embarrassment.

"You guys remind me so much of my friends! I'm Niya by the way." Niya interrupts the duel of the century to introduce herself Ki and Alice smile welcoming her to the table.

"Good to see I'm not the only one with Parasitic Implants mine give me the choice to sleep or eat though... and I much prefer sleep." Alice manages to get out between yawns and before laying her head back on the table.

"Ohhh you have implants like Alice is that you both are so bi-" Before Ki could finish his thought Alice and Niya both plant finishing haymakers on each cheek giving a combo knockout.

"Ha ha as you can see this is the little savant or rather the little idiot Ki and the sleeping buxom beauty Alice." Kharon explains hoping Niya wouldn't judge his friend group too hard.

"And you already know Kharon the great and powerful PP." Ki adds Chuckling to himself.

"Nice to meet you all it's really awesome that you all have such cool nicknames for each other except I am a little confused about why you guys call Kharon PP." Niya says with a slight bow to her head.

"Oh, we didn't give each other these names the top rankers for the Netrunner exams were given nicknames by the others behind our back so we just owned them... Mister PP here or rather Pyschopump got number one and everyone found out he used to be a runner for the deep web old and new so that name stuck." Ki explains opening a new yogurt cup in the process.

"Pyschopump? Wait nicknames so everyone who did well got one?" Niya asks she didn't do much mingling after getting the job so she was left out of the loop.

"Yup fourth place the sleeping buxom beauty that's me third place the little savant Ki and first place Kharon the Pyschopump and your second place got the name Oracle... it was like your code came from the future itself whatever implants you got running must be heavy duty." Alice said eyeing her mountain of food slowly waking from the smell of the almost meat burgers. Even though it was praise Niya couldn't help but think about the doctors and the experiments which Alice seemed to notice.

"Hey we all got pasts here name a netrunner that doesn't hell dark web boy here hates his nickname and past but the truth of the matter is it got us here working as angels for one of the world's greatest tech companies. Now there's only two questions to answer do you think your players gonna win that prize money and are you gonna share all that food?" Alice's inspirational pep talk and proposition for food made Niay chuckle she pushed the mountain of food to the center of the table giving everyone the chance to dig in.

"I mean hell yeah my players gonna win the ten million bitz!" Ki exclaims while demolishing an almost meat burger.

"Ten million bitz?" Niya asks not fully sure what the end of the game rewards.

"Ten million bitz to the winner of this game and their angel gets twenty-five percent... you really must be here for the job if you didn't know about the money." Kharon explains while scarfing down nachos by the handful. Niya realized she didn't know much about the games and that she was here just for the job but another type of job she wasn't sure she wanted to get these people involved in. Before she could excuse herself a giant screen appeared above them across the glass dome ceiling.

"It's about to begin!" Kharon whispers to her excitedly.