It took a while to get everything sorted with Saul. First I got my Uragan of course, but I also got dragged around to talk to Mitch, and a few other Nomads regarding some of the stuff I wanted to know.

Mitch had been a bit grumpy about having to give away the knowledge of how to craft his baby, the Overwatch. Which really just meant the Suppressor. Turns out the reason it worked was a little trick with some crazy nanite goop that he had come across and fiddled with during the war. The inside of the Suppressor was literally a nanite swarm.

Fucking cool.

He did relent to give me the blueprints for how to make the stuff myself in a shard, but only after I promised to never tell anyone else.

Works for me. It’s not like I wanted someone else to have a silenced AT rifle.

With that done, and everything packed up in the trunk of the Quadra I went looking for my Choom.

“Hey Hiromi.” I greeted as I settled down onto the wooden stump beside her.

I had found her sitting around a firepit where all the nomads were hanging out, a few were even singing along to songs a cowboy was strumming out.

It was homey, and Hiromi was obviously having fun.

“Motoko! Done doing business?”

“For now! Saul finally pushed enough stuff at me, that he isn’t feeling bad about a debt anymore. But we are welcome to hang around. What’s this?” I asked as I took the seat next to her.

“Oh Daniel over here isn’t bad with a guitar and nomad karaoke is hilarious.” She tells me, the last part in a whisper. Grinning in delight as the singing continues, some weird country sounding tune that was very Cyberpunk being belted out at the top of the group of singers lungs. They were obviously drunk, and having the time of their life.

“Preem.” I said with a laugh as the voice cracks were making me giggle along with Hiromi.

“Hey don’t poke fun, unless you are willing to do it too.” Scorpion said, over Hiromi’s head. He was sitting on Hiromi's other side, laying back and seemingly enjoying the atmosphere.

“No way. I don’t sing.” I denied instantly crossing my arms in an X.

But this of course only threw blood into the water.

Scorpion and Hiromi both turned to me with a sinister grin.

“Don’t even think about it.” I grumbled. But that only made it worse. A few moments later I was being pushed into the ‘singing’ spot and watched over by my betraying chooms.

“C’mon! I don’t even know the lyrics to these songs!” I grumbled, but that only made Hiromi giggle all the louder.

“But you know the Samurai songs! Hey hey! Mark play Chippin’ In! Motoko knows the lyrics!” Hiromi called out, but I was trying to smother her.

“No I don’t!” I hissed, but then cheers went up around the fire as the intro to Chippin’ in started up.

“Fuck.”

“That’s not the lyrics!” Scorpion cheered and I felt myself flush a bit. Fine! I went cold, which thankfully cleared out the embarrassment. Mostly.

“C-can you feel it!” I belted out the first words to the song only stumbling a little on the words as the drunk Nomads cheered. Mark the guitar player wasn’t perfect, but he did a pretty good job of keeping up with the tempo of the song, and I had listened to the songs pretty often while driving around Night City. Or just on the radio while I was tinkering, or grinding.

So fine. Yeah I know the lyrics! What of it!?

When the song finally came to an end everyone was cheering Hiromi laughing in delight as she hugged my side and the Nomads were just having a great time. I blew out a heavy breath making Hiromi giggle even more.

“You’re so bad it’s great!”

“So embarrassing.” I uttered now that I let go of the cold blood.

“Now now kids, be nice. Relax kid this is just meant to be fun, you should hear Saul trying to sing to his favorites, man is completely tone deaf too… Anyway you a Samurai fan?” Mark asked from his stump.

“I mean… I guess?”

“Well hell let’s do another then, not often I get to play the classics. You aren’t Silverhand, but I’m not Eurodyne. Just have fun with it.” Mark the guitar player said, strumming a few notes and smiling up at me.

“No, no I think I’m done playing Rockerboy right now.” I grumbled which had Hiromi pouting. But the nomads laughed along and soon another song was playing.

Which gave me a bit of time to check on my menu. I had gotten a beep of an alert coming in while I sang, and that was…

Weird.

What the hell was leveling up?

Then I opened it and nearly choked on my tongue.

*Rockerboy Experience Gained.*

*Skill not unlocked, no XP gained.*

*Rockerboy Unlocked.*

What the fuck? Rockerboy!? I was blinking away my shock trying to process when I remembered. In the TTRPG, Rockerboy was one of the classes, like how Solo, or Netrunner were a few of the others.

I guess… It made sense. 2077, had streamlined the classes as part of the system, just creating the skills as part of the skill tree. V hadn’t had any Rockerboy skills, but then again he also had Johnny Silverhand in his head sort of acting as a max level Rockerboy…

So I guess this was a thing… Fuck! It was so embarrassing! I had been singing! I was level 0, that meant my skill was garbage! If I had known I could have grinded out a few levels and actually been amazing before I had to sing in front of strangers! Hiromi! This is all your fault! I groaned into my arms as I put my head against my knees. I could feel my ears burning!

I was pouting for the next few minutes. I knew that. Hiromi knew that and was even teasing me a little for being all embarrassed about it.

But it was! I was gonna go home, and grind so hard! I was gonna be an amazing Rockerboy the next time Hiromi tried to embarrass me, and then I would shock her! She would be like ‘Motoko you’re so amazing! I’m so sorry for trying to embarrass you!’ and stuff!

It would be perfect!

Wait… It made me think. I did like music, I just was terrible at it… Wasn’t music a pretty good hobby? I could play an instrument and sing, and it would give myself something to do completely outside of me being a merc. I could grind and practice it while having fun making music! There! See Rita! I can do more than just merc stuff!

Something that wasn’t murdering people, or better ways to get to people to murder!

This could work.

Hiromi poking my cheek distracted me from my thoughts, “C’mon ‘Toko don’t be so grumpy. It was just one song.”

I shook my head wiping the thoughts away. I wasn’t going to let a little embarrassment hold me down!

“I’m fine. You want to grab some more food?” I asked her as I rose up and she nodded, reaching up to grab my hand as we wandered back to the kitchen area.

Barbeque! It was pretty good even if it wasn’t real meat.

—--

As nice as it was, I did eventually get started on the drive home that night. I didn’t really feel like sleeping in one of the Nomads tents, as nice as they were to offer. With everything decided between me and Saul I packed up Hiromi in the passenger seat, as she was getting pretty drowsy by now, and started driving home.

As we headed out I left the headlights off. Honestly my Kiroshi let me see better without the light. Trying to see into the darkness through the bright lights was actually harder.

“Can you even see anything?” Hiromi asked, surprising me, and of course my many years of filling my brain with movies provided me an answer.

“I see everything.” I said back mimicking Arnold's voice for a moment. Ah Terminator 2. Such a good movie.

Then I realized Hiromi had no idea what I was doing. “Ah yeah. I see just fine. Want me to turn the lights on so you can see?”

“Nah ain’t anything to look at anyways. You okay to drive? Not-” She broke up her sentence with a long yawn. “Tired?”

“I’m fine. Actually a little energized, I talked to a Mox I know the other day and she suggested I take up a spiritual hobby, something that won’t just leave me running towards fights all the time… I think I found it.” I told Hiromi. Although afterwards her many questions were ignored, I would tell her when I was ready.

Because music was very spiritual! It wasn’t directly related to me being a merc! I could grind and practice it while having fun making music! There! See Rita! I can do more than just merc stuff!

I was tempted to start grinding on the way home by singing along to the radio, but Hiromi was there, and my stat was still 0. And I hadn’t gotten any alerts for doing that before. There may be more to grinding it than just singing along to a recorded song.

I would need to experiment!

—--

After dropping off a sleepy Hiromi at home, I didn’t instantly head home myself. Instead I did a quick search and went looking for a store.

Luckily this was Night City.

A 24/7 music store was pretty easy to find. It was mostly empty at this time of night, but it would do. I walked in, the instruments along the walls weren’t open and free to take all of them secured and under surveillance, and a pop out turret if my eyes didn’t deceive me.

This was Night City after all.

Instead I found a guitar that I thought would work and let the man at the counter know. Only after paying for it did he go bring it down, I did grab a “How to play the Guitar” shard as well on my way out, it was cheap, and I honestly didn’t know how to play.

I just needed enough of a start to hit level 1, and I should be good to go.

So I headed home. The apartment was quiet when I got in, and I dropped the Guitar on the living room table right next to my laptops, and my tinkering gear… And my guns.

Okay so Jun may have a point when he talks about me needing to clean up a bit.

Speaking of Jun, I peeked into his bedroom and he wasn’t there. Considering how late it was, that made me a little concerned, so I sent off a text asking if he was alright. Then sighed in relief that he wasn’t here as I headed back outside to my Quadra.

The Uragan needed to be brought inside… After successfully. Mostly. Bringing the crate with the launcher and ammunition into the apartment and hiding it under my bed.

I mean not hiding it. Because hiding it meant I was embarrassed I now had a Rocket Launcher. I was just… Saving it. For later. Along with a few of the other goodies that Saul had sent me off with. Honestly I was just glad the Quadra had a big trunk because it had all barely fit.

Once that was done I settled down on the couch.

“Okay Motoko, just… Play the Guitar.” I told myself as I picked it up, and strummed a chord… Well tried too.

I winced at the tone in my head. The noise was… Well.

It wasn’t any musical note I had ever heard. Realizing how loud it could be as well, I grabbed my cord out of the back of my neck and pushed it into the access port of the guitar. One of the reasons I bought this guitar specifically. I could jack into it, and instead of playing the sound aloud, it would play in my head.

I also grabbed the How to Guitar shard and clicked that in. Following along as it walked me through playing baby chords.

The problem was, it wasn’t giving me any experience. I stopped after about twenty minutes with nothing to show for it.

“What am I missing?” I wondered, grumbling as I rested back and closed my eyes. It wasn’t just singing or something, because I sang along to the radio plenty of times.

Was it the people? With no one to hear, did I not get Rockerboy XP?

That seemed… Annoying. I guess I could go outside and play on the street?

The flutter in my stomach at that thought told me that wasn’t going to happen. Instead I decided to try a few other things. I turned on the radio until I found a song I actually knew the lyrics for, and started singing along, strumming the Guitar as best I could following along.

When the song finished I flushed in pleasure.

*100 Rockerboy XP Gained.*

Okay! So I could gain XP without people watching… What was it exactly though? I continued working on it, a few hours of grinding and I had some basic answers.

I had to actually complete the song to get XP. From start to finish. If I stopped halfway I got nothing.

I guess my system agreed that the show must go on.

Each completed song seemed to get me an alert, so completing a full song was the way to grind. Which meant I spent a lot of time on Morro Rock, for the Samurai songs.

But it worked. As I played along song after song, singing and trying to strum the guitar to the right chord.

It wasn’t the right chord… ever. It was an attempt. Completing a song, right or wrong was where the XP came from.

But it didn’t matter. Alerts came in, and eventually? Eventually I got it.

*Rockerboy skill level up!*

And suddenly I knew the basic chords. I couldn’t perfectly pick out the right chord to a song, but I now at least knew when I was on the right track. I adjusted my fingers, actually holding the damn thing correctly now, and with a movement played my first real chord.

My playing along actually started to sound… Okay.

Just okay.

So I needed more levels. As I worked on it, I was trying to memorize more songs as well.

I wasn’t very good at it, never could remember lyrics to songs perfectly well. Thankfully as long as I kept trying, the system didn’t seem to care if I butchered some lyrics, which I did. A lot.

Which is why I was forced to change radio stations at times. Some of the songs were things I had never heard before. Couldn’t exactly sing along to a song you’ve never heard before. But it was taking a lot of concentration to get right.

Which is why I didn’t hear the door. I was half way through Resist and Disorder by the Cartesian Duelists, one of my favorite songs in this world so far, when Jun suddenly walked in.

I could feel my throat close as my soul died. I had been audibly singing…

He looked at me.

I looked at him.

His lips twitched.

Mine quivered.

I could feel the heat shooting up my neck. My neck, my cheeks, my ears were all growing red. I just knew it!

He turned and walked into his room without a word, and honestly? I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than if he had actually said something.

I turned the radio off. I was done grinding. Instead I pushed my face into a pillow and pretended nothing existed for a while.