Motoko dont cause any- Motoko? Jun asked as he had caught up to but was surprised I was just standing there. He followed my gaze and I caught the way his face jerked back to . You want to try it? He asked, trying to sound casual.
I hesitated, I wasnt exactly big on singing in front of people But on one hand, I was bored.
Like really bored.
On the other It was a real piano. Dont see many of those in Night City. A real antique.
Yeah. I nodded firmly, marching over to stand in front of the ancient thing. It was old, probably been here since before the TC took over the place. I hit a key and was surprised it was in key.
I tested a few more, with a little trill of notes and to my delight my fingers not only hit the right keys, it sounded fine.
Of course now I had the eyes of every man and woman in the bar on . I just shrugged, bars were supposed to have music. If anyone complained I would just sic Jun on them.
So after testing out my fingers I nodded. I could definitely be better, but I could play.
Now I just needed to figure out what song to do.
Nervous?
No. Just not sure what to play. I offered as I considered it. Vocal and Piano only piece I didnt listen to many songs like that. And even less that I really enjoyed
But there was that ani OP.
Fuck it, it probably didnt exist in this world, so no one would know how much of a weeb I was. Plus I did love the composer, even if he did a lot of ani stuff.
I humd a bit until I got my voice to the right tone. The vocal needed to be smooth, and I had to figure out what language to use
Ill just stick to english. It made a bit more sense that way, considering the original was a mix of multiple languages turned into almost gibberish at tis. I loved it, but with an unfamiliar audience? Better to stick to one language.
I started the first notes letting the sound of the piano flow through the bar, but then I kept my eyes on the piano because the only thing I needed to do was focus on the song.
I will rise in resistance. I crooned out, beginning the intro for Hiroyuki Sawanos aLIEz. I loved Sawano, and the fact his songs were heavily electronic, was actually workable this ti since he did a lot of them on piano as well.
I rember watching a video of just him and the singer playing the song together, that mory is what guided my fingers. The sound of the haunting lyrics guiding my voice.
It wasnt perfect. It did lose sothing without the additional sounds. I would have to fix that so day, recreate it in truth.
But it was fun! I loved this song!
I got lost in playing the notes and crooning along, my voice probably carrying the song more than my playing. Siren Song, and Perfect Musical mory shoring up my pitfalls in playing, but none of that really mattered.
Because I was jamming out.
Wake from this nightmare. I finished the song by the gentle crooning that it finished on as I played out the last notes letting the song co to its quiet end.
*100 Rockerboy XP Gained.*
It would have been even better if I had my music box. I really needed to fini-
The clapping behind nearly startled as I was looking at the alert. Jun was leaning against the wall beside looking pleased, and there were a few at the bar clapping quietly, but it was the much closer noise that had startled .
Fujimura.
Kusanagi. He greeted back, the man was bracketed by two people only one of them I recognized. Akari was clapping as enthusiastically as I expected, the other man nodded as my eyes ran over him.
Youre late. I inform him bluntly. Owe! I hissed as Jun tapped on the back of my head.
Dont be rude. Jun demanded and I just rolled my eyes.
Its fine Junichirou. Join in the booth, we have sothing to speak about. He stated with a deep grunt and started walking towards it expecting obedience.
That was great! Akari said suddenly right there as she grabbed and shook a bit. You never told you could sing! Can you do-
If you say anything by the Us Cracks, I will kill you. I inform her bluntly.
I still rember how Akari never seed to mind Juns music taste when we were in the car together.
Aww.
Akari cmon. Jun called, pulling away from her grasp and gently pushing towards the booths.
I guess it was business ti.
I headed into the back booth, mostly ignoring the looks I was getting. Whether people actually liked the song or not, I wouldnt find out, but that was fine.
This wasnt my sort of place anyways.
I settled into the booth Jun and I had abandoned and was set next to Jun with Akari on my other side, with Fujimura across from with his other guard there too.
The trouble yesterday. Kotoniki has been disciplined harshly. Even if you were not one of us, to act in such a way dishonors us all.
I dont really care. My fist already evened the debt. I told him and to my surprise Fujimura actually chuckled.
Kotoniki was with a ripper when we got to him. You broke his jaw. The man offered nodding as if pleased.
Well my fist is chro.
Regardless. The man was disciplined, but there is a debt between us. He offered using a finger to flow between and him.
You know I dont really
Yes. You have little interest in gang work. Im aware. He seed to say flatly, but it ca out like a grumble. Junichirou has spoken on your behalf. To keep you out of our business until you are ready. Yet your own business has brought you into conflict with us. Ive considered the best way to ensure there wont be any further issues like yesterday.
Okay? That doesnt exactly sound comforting.
From his side the guard I didnt know reached into his jacket and pulled out sothing, putting it on the table.
The card has my assistant's number on it. If you ever find yourself in a situation with the Tyger Claws like before, you may call for a diation. I do not want to find out that so fools forced your hand, and created a loss for us. Or did sothing so foolish as to injure you, and potentially forcing Junichirou to overextend himself.
I looked over the business card, It wasnt paper, but a sort of plastic, but didnt really look special. it was pretty standard and I shrugged putting the number into my agent with a shrug. Not like I needed the card really.
There is one other thing. I have said before Kusanagi, that just because you do not wish to work with the gang it doesnt an that soday you wont need to. That having friends in this city will one day be sothing you need.
This ti what was placed on the table was a mask. The assistant had hidden it within his jacket.
It was a mouth piece. Just like Juns. A npo if I rember the word right, although this one was very similar to the one Jun would wear while he was working. Eerily similar if I was honest. Telling.
I dont think I need it.
Take it anyways. If you never have a need of it, then it will be forgotten, but soday? Soday you may need the Tyger Claws on your side, that day? That mask will prove you are not just an outsider, or a hangeron. Fujimura offered firmly, making it seem like the plastic mask was sothing more than just a piece of junk.
Jun wasnt going to let leave it though, I could feel him nudging on the side.
Fine. I grumbled grabbing the stupid Oni mask. I ended up just holding it as I didnt have a better place to tuck it away.
Then that is that. Yesterday was a mistake, we have made arrangents now to ensure it does not happen again. Are you satisfied with our apology? Fujimura asked, and I sorta took a second to process.
I suppose to the TC this would be a big dishonor thing. I had saved one of their bosses and almost got flatlined or worse by one of their henchn.
Yeah. Its fine. Shit happens. I offered and I could practically hear Juns eyes roll beside , but Fujimura nodded seemingly satisfied.
Then I must leave. I have other business to complete. Junichirou, take the afternoon off. Akari I will need you. Fujimura demanded, causing Akari to pout as she put down the drink she was about halfway through.
Also. Kusanagi Your piano needs work, feel free to practice. He told suddenly then walked off.
Did Did Fujimura just fucking burn !?
Asshole!
--
I did not in fact play more on the piano. Now that the eting was over I glared at Jun until we headed ho, and luckily for Jun I didnt make him ride bitch, he hadnt had much to drink so he was still good to drive.
What are you going to do with your day off? I asked him and he shrugged as he pulled into the parking space at the apartnt.
Take a nap?
I snorted at my brother's decision, but I wasnt going to tease him for it. Naps were amazing sotis.
Ill be coding so more, so Ill be quiet.
Dont worry about it. He said, patting on the head while looking down towards the npo I had currently half out of one of my pouch pockets. Jun had one of those stupid proud looks on his face.
Ugh, just because its the sa as yours doesnt an Im gonna wear it.
It ans they think you are valuable. You are much safer now. If anything happens, I wont have to push to rescue you again. He smiled pleased and I just scoffed.
I wasnt planning on getting kidnapped again!
Okay after yesterday Im not planning on getting kidnapped again. I wont be walking into a place of what should be nominal allies, with a VIP beside again.
Next ti Itll be alone, fully ard, and ready to start shooting if soone does sothing I dont like.
In the end I followed Jun back inside the apartnt, stopping only to grab a drink from a vending machine, and then a quick stop in my room to drop the npo off.
I didnt exactly plan to use it. Kinda tacky the color wasnt mine either. The snarling Oni face was set in a sort of neon green, yeah it was pretty ugly, maybe black?
No dummy, you arent wearing the fucking npo. I tapped my head to get that insidious thought out and put it away where it would collect dust.
Forever.
Then I flopped on the couch and pulled up my laptop. To my surprise Jun ca out of his room a minute later wearing casual clothes, and a blanket, he settled onto the couch, put his feet up on the table and turned on the TV.
Looks cozy.
Yep.
Ill be quiet.
Its fine. He says with a shrug as he sort of just relaxes back.
This was nice.
Ti to work on this program.
--
Slowly it ca together.
A program designed to do one simple thing. Stop soone from seeing. The loss of sight could cripple the strongest fighter. My own addition to it, made it just that much more difficult to stop.
A bit of aggressive design to make it insidious.
But the biggest thing holding it back was trying to make it multi-target.
The difference between a hack that can only hit one person, and one that can attack multiple people simultaneously was massive.
Whether it was the program attacking two separate people at once, or a program that hit one person and used their connection to jump to the next.
I had to figure them both out.
I wasnt just making a cludged together program that would be good enough.
I was making
A magnum opus. Well that was a bit much, but still.
I was trying to create the peak of the Reboot Optics I could design.
It was funny there was a version of the program stored on V3Ls server. The quality of it was much higher than the one I had bought from Yoko, but both programs were actually done by two different people. Mine was a copy of a copy of a copy, deteriorating each ti, or purposefully weakened.
V3Ls was a copy of a much better program. The coding was different, the goal was the sa, yet both had shown what people considered Reboot Optics to be.
I was trying to surpass both. To create an entirely new version of the Quickhack, a new peer in the market.
It was hard.
It was ti consuming.
It was exhilarating!
I was creating magic. Literally designing a digital spell that would blind my enemies.
I an this wasnt a wizards tower, but sitting on a couch in an apartnt was probably more comfortable anyways.
I snorted at my own joke as I worked. The code coming together, slowly forming into sothing more than just code.
Sothing complete.
Finally long after Jun had fallen asleep. I finished typing.
I finished debugging.
I finished crafting a spell.
A spell designed to be both longer lasting than the original idea with the brightness trick, and much wider.
It was unfortunately going to be weaker against other netrunners. Any good ICE and defenses could stall the upload out, but in exchange I could rapid fire it out as it had a much lower RAM cost, plus I could always breach so arrogant Netrunner, and push it through that way.
It was also capable of jumping to other people. When it overrode the optics, it branched out and infested the communication systems. Anyone with an interior agent would have it hijacked, have it connect to others already in communication with them, or those in the system close by. If soone was hit by multiple attack vectors the difficulty in stopping it could spike. If it worked correctly, it could overwhelm even moderately good ICE.
A self duplicating viral code.
It was sothing really difficult to program. Sure there were plenty of hacks that had that aspect, but those were created by teams of corpo coders all working to get it to work, and most of the best duplicating hacks werent program, but hardware bonuses.
I still rembered the Tetratronic Rippler from the video ga. That let the super ultimate quick hacks spread to an extra person. Yeah that was probably a bit unrealistic, but then again the rippler wasnt on the market at the mont, so who knows? Maybe so corp will figure it out in the coming year.
Regardless, I created this program in just a few long sessions.
And it was entirely my own.
Sure I doubt it was unique, but it would still be different enough from anyone else's work that it should co as a nasty surprise.
I pushed the program into compiling, receiving the finished file and uploaded it into my Cyberdeck.
Two completed hacks.
I leaned back in the dim light of the apartnt. The sun was setting, Jun was still napping, beside on the couch, and I had completed one of my big goals.
Instead of working on another quick hack, or sothing I instead grabbed my little music box.
It had been a project I wanted to complete for a while.
It wasnt productive. It wasnt going to make a better rc. A better Netrunner, or a better Edgerunner if I wanted to call myself that.
But it was a project I really wanted to finish.
So I settled in, and started working. The mont a new file was opened and I started coding my fingers picked up and blurred.
I was inspired.
I had a goal.
And I had the knowledge to complete it.
--
Morning Jun. I muttered as I continued to build piece after piece of a very complex piece of equipnt. I was really glad that Programming gave info dumps, because making a Quick Hack wasnt the sa thing as designing the function of a physical item. It was easier in a lot of ways, but more finicky.
Morning. He grumbled as he rose up rubbing his eyes. He stood and stretched, grumbling the whole way as he headed into the kitchen.
If Jun was up I should probably get moving too.
I closed the laptop, that project wasnt going anywhere, and there was sothing I had been wanting to do.
Im heading out, gonna be netrunning for a while, so I might be hard to reach. I called out to Jun who was drinking an entire energy drink can as he chugged it down.
You need to show this netrunning place you got set up. He said as he wiped his mouth tossing the can into the trash.
You want to co with now? Its not much to see though. The interesting part is the net itself.
No. I have stuff I need to do today Youll be careful?
Course! Im gonna be hunting so info down today, so I should be pretty safe.
Jun frowned but eventually nodded. I grinned as I headed out. Ti to explore the net once again!
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