Ruan Xian counted his assets once again: a pile of broken, trashy cyberware stripped from Scavengers, a few crappy guns, a bit over 140,000 eddies in secure funds, a motorcycle, and a car.
The car wasn’t of much use; he would sell it later.
“What’s the fastest way to make money?
Set up a telecom fraud company?
No, the Voodoo Boys have that completely locked down, and they’re over in Pacifica anyway, too far to rob.
Human trafficking?
The Scavengers are already doing that; I can just rob them.
Selling glitter and street drugs is the Tyger Claws’ business—alright, I’ll rob them too.
Then I can hijack corporate convoys and drones, and maybe kidnap a few corporate executives for ransom.” Ruan Xian felt he might be getting a bit too extreme.
“Let’s calm down first.
I’m a shaman, after all.
I still need to advance my class, and I should consider the acting method.” Ruan Xian began to recall how a shaman was supposed to make money.
On the righteous path: performing spiritual rituals, giving blessings, healing the sick, dispelling curses, and selling carved crafts.
On the crooked path: placing curses, conducting blood sacrifices, spreading plagues and demanding money to cure them, and selling carved crafts.
“Damn it, I don’t know how to do any of that.” Ruan Xian felt the righteous path was a dead end.
Only selling carved crafts seemed slightly feasible, but with a Technical Ability of only 3, hand-crafting them was out of the question.
He would have to get raw materials, bring them into the Spirit World, and use his spirituality and Root Totem to 3D print them.
The crooked path actually had some potential.
Next time he killed Scavengers, he could throw them into the Spirit World, keep only their bones and skins, and then arrange the real-world crime scene to look like an XBD set.
He would draw some random, chaotic lines and write some cursed words like *kidney-snatchers must die by skinning and deboning*.
That would do the trick.
In the Spirit World, as long as there was enough spirituality, a shaman could make thoughts reality to a certain extent within their totem’s range.
As for the physical world, the passive effects were still very strong, but the active effects were honestly garbage.
Once he built the altar, though, everything would get better.
“I’m still short 460,000 eddies.
It doesn’t look like I can make that in the short term.
I’ll scavenge around, rob some gangs to scout the area, and find an opportunity to pull off a big score.” Ruan Xian felt out his own strength; beating up street gangs was definitely within his capabilities.
“My cyberware isn’t maxed out yet, and I need a good gun.
For a pistol, I’ll buy a Nue and strip the silencer and scope from that Tamayura.
For a primary weapon, I’ll get a shotgun, plus the Kerenzikov three-piece set.” Ruan Xian did the math—damn, 140,000 eddies wouldn’t even make a splash.
“No, I can’t skimp on military expenses.
Two Scavenger nests got me 140,000.
At worst, I’ll wipe out one nest a day.
600,000 means killing ten nests.
Ten days is enough.” To build the altar, Ruan Xian decided to ruthlessly purge the natives—uh, no, the Scavengers.
“Should I ask Sandra for advanced netrunning tutorials?
*Rua~*” Just thinking about learning advanced netrunning made Ruan Xian want to throw up.
Being locked in a dark room and forbidden from leaving until he finished studying was too terrifying.
His aversion to studying wasn’t going away anytime soon; just the thought of it made him want to die.
“Forget it, forget it, not studying a single thing.
I’ll go see Vik first to see if he has the Kerenzikov three-piece set, nanotech fibers, or whatever, and maybe learn some boxing.” Ruan Xian felt that becoming a netrunner or a ripperdoc required long-term classes, hands-on braindance training, and learning chips.
He absolutely couldn’t do it.
Ruan Xian first shifted his consciousness into the Lotus Leaf Data Fortress and set keyword filters: “corporate transport,” “smuggling,” “high-value,” “easy to flip,” “compact.” If any matching info appeared, he would be notified immediately for confirmation.
If any of them dared to pass through Watson, he would hijack them.
Unfortunately, his totem’s range didn’t cover the Badlands yet; otherwise, robbing in the Badlands would cause less of a stir, and even bulky cargo could be quickly transferred to the Spirit World.
“Let’s go.
Vik, your boy is coming to visit.”
Viktor Vector, the godfather of Night City.
He was one of the few genuinely good people in Night City, a top-tier boxer, and a self-taught ripperdoc genius whom corporations couldn’t resist trying to recruit.
In the game, he would give you—a dying punk—credit.
No matter what ending V chose, Vik was a respectable elder who always cared about you.
—Press F to skip travel—
“Misty’s Esoterica.
Here we are.” Ruan Xian walked into the famous diviner’s shop.
The room looked much larger than in the game, filled with all sorts of strange items: altars, incense, candles, ornaments, carvings, censers, and so on.
“Hey there, customer.
Looking for anything?” Misty asked, sporting her signature disaffected alt-girl makeup.
“Do you have anything related to shamanism?
I’ve been interested in it lately.” Ruan Xian wanted to do some market research to see what kind of designs would fit Night City’s aesthetic for his future sales.
“Interested in shamans?
I hope you didn’t see some garbage in a spam email.
That stuff is always nonsense.
I do have a few masks and animal carvings that could be said to be related to shamanism.” Misty was a bit surprised to find that he was an actual customer.
The last person who walked in was a delivery guy who brought the wrong pizza.
“Can I take a look?” Ruan Xian didn’t mind.
It was just for reference anyway.
“Uh-huh, come on, then.
This way.” Misty led Ruan Xian to the shelves on the right.
“Look at this.
A bronze mask with a carved divine face, decorated with the tail feathers of a sacred eagle.
Legend has it that Mongolian shamans used it to pray for blessings.
The one next to it is a carved demon face, looks a bit like a bear, representing strength and used to ward off evil.
Pretty interesting, right?” Misty introduced.
“Impressive, impressive.” Ruan Xian thought it looked pretty cool.
He’d find some time to pick up some scrap metal and craft some even cooler ones in the Spirit World.
Drawing inspiration from videos and games he’d seen before, he could use them to scam—uh, sell to wealthy corporate suits to change their luck or adjust their feng shui.
“These are shamanic carvings.
Shamanism believes that everything has a spirit, and devout offerings can gain power from animal spirits.
Though it’s hard to see any living animals these days.” Misty pointed at what looked like wooden animal carvings: bears, wolves, eagles, leopards, bulls, and so on.
“Very cool.
“Fake wood.
These days, getting actual, naturally grown wood for carving is incredibly difficult.
That kind of stuff is very expensive,” Misty said, shaking her head.
“Very expensive?” Ruan Xian’s interest was instantly piqued.
At worst, he could use his Root Totem’s Lotus Root to craft carvings.
It only cost a bit of spirituality to grow them anyway.
Real, pure, natural plants—well, maybe not exactly plants.
“Extremely expensive.
Anything purely natural is pricey these days.
Aside from a few eco-preserves owned by megacorps, the rest is probably in AI territory beyond the Blackwall.
If you can get your hands on natural goods, they sell very easily.” Misty looked like a spiritual alt-girl on the outside, but she was actually very sharp and kind-hearted, immediately telling Ruan Xian what he cared about most.
“Wow, nice, nice.” Ruan Xian planned to go back and craft carvings with Lotus Root.
The last time he returned to the Spirit World, he felt that its current range had reached its limit, and the growth of the Lotus Root had also reached its peak; the underground of the Spirit World couldn’t hold any more.
It would be better to use spirituality to grow some Lotus Root to make things, make up some BS stories, and sell them.
“First, find a way to digest the Shaman program, then build the altar.
That should trigger some changes in the Spirit World.” This was also Ruan Xian’s first time being a shaman.
There was no established church of a righteous god to consult, so he had to figure things out on his own.
“So, customer, would you like to buy one?” Misty looked at Ruan Xian expectantly.
“Uh, do you have any carvings representing strength, revenge, or curses?” Ruan Xian did feel a bit embarrassed; after all, he’d probably be coming here often in the future.
“Curses aren’t really a good idea.
Strength or revenge…
let me think.
A wild boar, or maybe a snake should work.
Shamanism reveres heaven, earth, nature, and animism.
Maybe some plants count too, depending on the sect.” Misty’s knowledge of shamanism was also limited, so she just spoke off the cuff.
“I see.
Then I’ll take a snake.” Ruan Xian didn’t really care; his main goal was to make a friend.
“Then this one it is.
A snake, symbolizing the cycle of cosmic energy, strength, shedding of skin, and mysterious magical power.
It actually suits you quite well.” Misty reached down to the bottom shelf, pulled out a white snake figurine, and handed it to Ruan Xian.
“Ah, alright.
How much?” Ruan Xian was slightly startled.
He wondered if Misty had sensed something.
After all, her tarot readings in the game were incredibly accurate.
“Let’s say 200 eddies.
You don’t look like you came just to buy things.
Is there something else?” Misty offered a cheap price.
[Transferred: 200 eddies]
“Huh, you can tell?
I heard about a ripperdoc named Viktor who’s very reliable, so I wanted to ask if he’s around.” Although Ruan Xian knew where he was, he had to play dumb a little.
“He’s right in the basement out back.
I’ll take you.” Although Misty didn’t know where Ruan Xian had heard of him, it was a good thing that someone came to the door.