Deciding to go full in on netrunning for a bit to make myself feel better about getting my ass kicked, and failing a gig. I went full ham into grinding.

Breaching through the ICE with full intent, it did mean I wasn’t doing much besides thinking about the puzzle of code in front of me, and thanks to Ghost Touch, If I was having a lot of problems, I could slow down, and work my way around the ICE.

Acting as if it wasn’t even there.

The actual mechanic behind the perk was weird. In essence, I was sending my data through back channels, sending bytes worth of data, at a time through old ports, and system code that hadn’t been used in… Forever.

But then those little bits of code would all collect together behind the ICE and create a channel that bypassed the ICE entirely.

It took a long time though. The one time I tried to use it, Took me over an hour just to set up on the system. That’s with the ICE being something I could break in a few minutes or work normally, and it being against a laptop, and not a corpo server.

But it worked. The sort of crazy hacking trick that only someone that truly understood computers, could ever hope to pull off.

Completing it the first time had even given me a couple of Breaching alerts throughout the attempt.

I kept at the grind though. As much as my guitar was calling for me, the fact was I needed the self improvement.

I hated feeling sorry for myself, and if a few days grinding like crazy to get some level ups was all I needed to feel better then it was worth it.

In the end, even though it cost me all the rest of the WET ICE, I gained two levels thanks to nonstop hardcore and experimental grinding.

Mixing what I learned from Ghost Touch, into my normal Breaching. I did the opposite. Breaching loudly, without care about the alerts sent up just to see how the program would react, and over the course of three hours, figuring out how to not just hard breach an ICE system, but how to muffle the alerts… At least somewhat. It was basically learning what the Perk would have taught me if I picked it instead of Ghost touch, but of course not as skillfully.

Thought it didn’t mean I didn’t get some level ups over the entire course.

*Breach Protocol skill level up!*

Level 7 Breach!

When I got the alert, I hadn’t actually noticed at first and kept working on Ghost Touching through an ICE I had already breached before, just because of how distracted I was.

“Done.” I grumbled, rubbing my eyes. They felt tired despite not being actually able to feel weariness. My body didn’t feel stiff, in fact I stood up and stretched a bit and felt physically fine, but I could feel the tiredness in my mind.

I had gone without sleep before, but never when I was simply slamming my head into a complex mental problem like this.

I walked into my bedroom and flopped on my bed. Jun was out. So I would sleep.

—--

I was at the ramen joint in the Cherry Blossom Market the next morning. Slurping up a bowl of noodles for breakfast as I ran through a few things in my head.

I had a few responsibilities, and a few things I needed to keep doing.

Grinding. Doing gigs. Helping out my chooms with work. Making sure Jun ate something besides his XXL burritos.

But honestly, the grinding kept me busy, the gigs paid more than any amount of bills I might have, and helping out my chooms wasn’t too hard. Find some evil gonks, kill them, steal everything.

But what was it that I wanted?

It wasn’t eddies. I was pretty comfy in the apartment that Jun and I shared, although I knew someday we would probably get something bigger, or split up.

But I wasn’t planning on jumping off the edge like David. I liked living. I liked waking up every morning and deciding for myself what the day will be full of.

But in order to keep that comfy pace, I was gonna need to get stronger. The fact was the more of a rep I built by doing fun stuff, the more dangerous my life would become.

So I would have to keep growing stronger and stronger to ensure that I could have my fun filled life.

Which meant… I needed to kill. I needed enemies, and a lot of them. But, I needed them at my pace. I didn’t want to go piss of Arasaka and end up overwhelmed.

With the gang war over, things were quiet.

But there were still plenty of Maelstrom gonks around. Lots of Scavs, or just evil people in general.

But as easy as it was to say I have plenty of people I could kill it was really hard to know where they were.

Which is why I realized I needed to stop fucking around with the most powerful weapon in my arsenal.

It was time to step into the net.

To stand among the ones and zeroes, and find out just how much it would open up for me. Problem was. I didn’t have a lot of gear for it. If I was going into the net, I would need a full Netrunner suit to start with, since I didn’t have a bathtub in the apartment.

Or I would need to netrun from somewhere other than home.

Ugh!

I swirled the last bits of Ramen in the bowl and downed it like a thirty year old Japanese businessman downing Yebisu after work.

I suppose I could go talk to Yoko at the Dewdrop Inn. Maybe rent her Netrunning chair?

But what if I embarrassed myself? I had never really gone into the net except for that one time, and I had nearly melted by brain then!

No, I couldn’t allow anyone to see my first Netrunning experience. They might think I’m a noob!

So I needed to get some supplies…

Wait. I knew how to set up all the equipment for a netrunner thanks to Technical attribute.

I could just steal everything I needed! I nodded to myself that would make it all easier, and I already had a crew capable of hauling everything out of some gonks Netrunning den.

Now I just needed to find a target!

Wait… That was the problem I had in the first place! God dammit!

—--

“So that’s the problem.” I explained to Wakako a few minutes later. In the end I realized I needed to stop trying to handle everything myself. I simply didn’t have the knowledge I needed to start my new plan, but that was what contacts were for!

Wakako took a drag on her cigarette and nodded. “You seek info on someone who has a full set of Netrunning equipment, you could steal?”

“Loot! The correct terminology is looting Wakako! C’mon get with the times!” I joked only to instantly cough and settle back down as I realized what I had just said could be taken negatively.

Thankfully Wakako seemed to ignore me.

“Hmm, I can gather the information. The price will be high.”

“Aww C’mon Wakako, you know I’m not just messing around. I’m good for pay, and work.” I tried to argue, and maybe, just maybe I saw a hint of give in the old dragon lady.

“I will give you the information you want, but you will kill the one that has your equipment. The information itself will be your pay.” She said smirking at me, as if she thought I wouldn’t accept!

I blinked. Wait. Did Wakako just ask me to murder a gangbanger who had my future loot, and the payment would be the info to find them!?

Wakako! I love you!

“Sure!” I chirped happily, not earning direct eddies from Wakako was one thing, but this all started because I needed to find more people to kill! “Wakako? Tell me everything.”

—--

I looked over the rundown apartment building that my new target was inhabiting. It was more complicated than I liked. The netrunner I was after had taken over the fifth floor of the building according to reports, run everyone out of the apartments, and turned it into a little kingdom. Not so different than what the scavs did.

But this wasn’t scavs.

But only barely.

The netrunner had made a gang. No rather it was one of the netrunners chooms, had made the gang around the netrunner. To protect him, while using his information.

I was on the roof of a nearby building looking over the side at the building. And at all the security that had been put up all of it turned the building into a secure vault.

The street gang would have been ignored, maybe even been a non entity to Wakako if not for one fact.

They had a Netrunner, and he was a pretty good one.

One of the first acts the small gang had done was hijack an electronics store delivery. The Netrunner had known exactly where to hit it, and it had been the first in a string of successes. The only problem?

The Netrunner was a greedy bastard, and had stolen things he shouldn’t. Stolen from someone he shouldn’t.

Wakako hadn’t been interested in taking the gig beforehand. Pay wasn’t high enough, and it was in her interest to leave them be as they weren’t stealing from her.

But suddenly I showed up, asking for gear, and Wakako realized she could use this.

She’d get paid for a gig, I would clean up, and I would become even more useful. Netrunners are always useful after all.

I had just come by to get some images of the place and look around their security, but just from what I had seen, made me realize this wasn’t going to be a one woman job.

Not even my chooms who still called themselves Section 9 in the group chat they had put together!

Traitors!

They wouldn’t be enough. I was gonna need another gun. There were too many of them, and no way I would be able to sneak in. Sure. I could probably hack the system, shut down the cameras, but the moment I did the gang would know.

There was one other problem.

From the rooftop I looked over at the party that was going on. The gang was hanging out on the roof drinking and partying.

But they were kids.

Most of them were teenagers. Even if I knew their ‘boss’ was in his thirties.

So that’s how it was. The fucker had grown so fast by hiring street kids.

It’s why the gang was closer to fifty gonks from what I could see, than Wakako’s report that only listed ten. I watched from the shadows as the kids enjoyed themselves, girls from the apartment, and from neighboring apartments, joining in as the boys that had become members of a gang used their new clout to attract the cuties.

Almost all of the gang was on the roof, a lot of kids more than ready to fight.

This was a fucking mess.

“Dammit Wakako. I hate you.” I mumbled as I stared at the party, gathered info, memorized faces, while taking pictures.

I was gonna need to figure this shit out.

Why did all my gigs have to be so hard!? Where are all of V’s super easy go in and murder forty faceless gonks gigs! I want to murder forty gonks!

That’s 20,000XP! Minimum!

This was like the stolen car gig all over again. Wakako… We really need to talk about this.

I switched to my scan mode, looking over all the electronics set up all over the building. I would have to figure this out.

I had to.

Slowly I gathered information, checked every angle of the building. Scanned everything I could. I even slowly slipped a ping into the camera system just to see everything I was working with.

I winced as I looked at the absolute spider web of light. So much was connected to that system.

No way I could break it. No way I could beat this netrunner, not on his home turf.

I sighed as I started taking note of where all the lights went. They would at least lead me to the Netrunner…

Found him.

It would have to be enough.

—--

“Hey Malcolm, You’re late!” I called out waving over my head as the last of our troupe showed up.

“Yeah yeah, sorry my folks needed me to run an errand. Of course they only asked, as I was walking out the door.” He grumbled but settled into the booth at Ho-Oh club.

So apparently this was still our hangout.

Well with Jotaro dead, it was fine I guess.

“Okay Motoko, explain why we all had to meet up.” Hiromi demands, and Ichi nods cradling a beer he had picked up from the bar.

My eyes flashed gold as I called all of them into a conference call. Which they all joined in quietly. Of course Malcolm didn’t have the internal agent pickup, so he would have to speak up verbally to talk to us so he wouldn’t be able to share much, unless he decided to send a text.

This was a serious gig, and deserved secrecy…

And Ho-Oh was packed, and so even if we got a booth it wasn’t exactly private… And it was cool to be all secret agent levels of secrecy. Good practice too.

*Okay I got a new gig from Wakako. Should be tons of loot, and particularly, some netrunner gear that I absolutely need. Problem? It’s a small gang with a skilled Netrunner hidden away… And they hired about forty kids to be their muscle.*

I didn’t get a response right away as I started sending pictures of what I had seen, security systems, even the floor plans that Wakako had given me for my gig.

Then I waited, letting my chooms get a chance to go through everything.

*So we kill them and loot? What’s the issue?* Ichi asked, confused as he looked over everything. *We could probably set up the truck with Malcolm and I in the back, if they try to run, just open the back door and mow them down.*

*We aren’t murdering a bunch of kids.* I denied frowning at my chooms with my frowniest face.

Really guys?

*How are we going to get in then? Look.* Ichi pointed out a dozen pictures that all showed the guns the kids were carrying.

*Maybe we can just talk to them, make them give up or something.* I offered but Hiromi scoffed out loud.

*Don’t be stupid Motoko. Those kids are probably making more eddies than they have ever seen before. They are powerful now, at least in their minds. There is no chance they will let us get in and take out the Netrunner. Besides, this says Wakako wants the gang removed. While the gang will break apart if we kill their Netrunner and this other guy. How are you going to get to them through that?* Hiromi pointed out and I winced.

Dammit.

I nibbled on my lips as everyone talked around me for a bit. Obviously the killing would mostly be done by me. So it was really my decision how this would work.

Could I kill a bunch of teenagers just trying to make themselves a life here in Night City? Even if I didn’t kill them, that would leave fourty-ish teenagers with guns and a bone to pick against the world.

Well… I didn’t have to kill them. If I took them all out and just stole all their weapons that would work…

Fuck. Even if I could disable all of them, that’s still a lot of people to disarm. The danger level of the gig only grew with every step.

Wakako! I hate you!

“You guys are overthinking this.” Malcolm offered with a roll of his eyes as he went silent, obviously sending a text.

*Just take over the gang you gonk.*

I blinked, wincing at the thought. I didn’t like the idea of taking over a bunch of street kids!

*I’m in.* Hiromi offered with a nod. *That many gonks? We could do some serious heists with that much muscle.*

*It would be nice to have someone else drive trucks for me.* Ichi offered but he laughed after showing he was joking. *But more seriously it’s not a terrible idea… Motoko. We can do it. Take over the gang. Clean up the older guys leading them. Hell just tell them your pay structure and they would be yours.* He said laughing in reality.

*But I don’t want to lead a bunch of teenagers!* I whined! Even my little group was almost more than I wanted to deal with!

*Then kill them.* Hiromi said looking a little sympathetic but giving me a shrug. *Or cancel the gig.*

“Fuck.” I said aloud, shaking my head but Hiromi shrugged.

My chooms continued to pour over the information I had brought. My own hesitation wasn’t shared. There were eddies to be made, and that was that.

They weren’t even being cruel, it was just the way Street Kids and I guess Corpo kids were raised.

The data I had was gone over. Interesting things were pointed out and I let the chatter filter through me.

There had to be something. Some way this could be done… Someone poked me.

I looked up into Malcolms face as he had a shit eating grin.

“Malcolm?” I said waving the others to be silent as I looked over the data he was pointing out. I nodded.

“Good job.”

—--

“I still don’t know about this.” I muttered as I left my chooms behind. We all had some ideas on what to do, but I had decided to put a pause on it after a point.

This city, the culture… It was so weird. It still hit me sometimes that despite being in California, I wasn’t actually in the United States.

Hell. There wasn’t a USA anymore. It was New United States of America, or the NUSA. That was how weird it all was.

I had gotten so irritated that despite heading home I had gone on a walk. Traveling through the Cherry Blossom Market, just looking around as I thought.

I could cancel this gig too.

I could find Netrunner gear somewhere else. Wakako would probably be annoyed though…

And I didn’t like giving up. I could do this. I could take over this little gang, it’s not like any of the kids would have much real experience.

I just didn’t want the responsibility. I didn’t want to lead a gang! That was an escalation in my life that I really didn’t want to deal with.

I leaned over a railing looking down at the market below me, watching the people come and go.

I didn’t have to lead them. Not really. They would already have their own leaders among the kids. No way some thirty something gangbanger was properly acting as a mentor to forty teenagers.

I could just… Set them up to be able to protect their apartment complex and deal with them as I would any other gang after…

I sighed. This was going to be such a mess.

I stood to head home. I was going to need to talk to Jun.

—--

“So that’s the sitch.” I explained shoveling a bit of food into my mouth to catch up.

Jun, who had been eating as I explained my frustration, only shook his head.

“Stop taking stupid gigs.” He said simply and then nodded his head like he was giving sage wisdom.

The only reason I didn’t kick him is because Jun kicked harder.

“That’s so useful Jun-Nii! Truly I would be useless without your ad- FUCK OFF!” I screamed, cutting off my chipper tone and flipping him off. “I came to you for actual advice!”

“I can’t really help you Motoko. Kill them.” He said with a shrug. “They picked up weapons and knew what they were getting into.”

“They’re teenagers… We never know what we are getting into.” I said, a little sad at that fact.

“It’s just how it is. Do you need help?” He asked, gently.

I just shook my head. “No, I can handle it, and if you came along they would just think it’s the Tyger Claws trying to press in… No, I guess I’ll have to talk to them. To find out what’s really going on.” I decided with a nod. I sometimes wish I did have the memories of Motoko before the coma. It would make dealing with peers a little easier…

Actually. That gave me an idea. I knew exactly who I needed to call in for information gathering, my eyes went yellow as I walked away from Jun. Maybe I could actually actually get somewhere with some help!