“Hey, Vik, got some business for you.” Misty brought Ruan Xian to Viktor’s basement, called out to him, and then went back to tend her shop.
Ruan Xian scanned the basement.
It was quite large, and the equipment was more numerous and professional than in the game.
Professional freezers storing precious cyberware were located deep in the basement, and further in were boxing and fitness equipment.
“Need something?
Take a look.” Hearing there was business, Viktor paused the boxing match he never got tired of watching and handed a tablet to Ruan Xian.
“Alright, let me see.” Ruan Xian took the tablet and scrolled through.
It was all fairly common stuff: subdermal armor, monowire, Kiroshi Optics, defensive shields, nanofiber, self-ICE, that kind of thing.
Top-tier gear like Sandevistan, Kerenzikov, or Second Heart was nowhere to be seen.
“Hey Vik, do you have a Kerenzikov?
What about a Sandevistan?” Ruan Xian stopped looking at the tablet and asked directly.
“Huh?
I don’t keep top-tier gear like that in stock in a small place like this.
If you need it, I can order a Kerenzikov for you.
I have some connections.
As for a Sandevistan, I can only get my hands on outdated models like the Dynalar MK.3.
I don’t have the clearance to order Militech’s cutting-edge stuff.” Even though Viktor didn’t know why this guy was acting so familiar, he didn’t mind as long as there was money to be made.
Ruan Xian wasn’t surprised.
How could Militech or Biotechnica sell their top-tier gear everywhere like in the game, where every ripperdoc had an Apogee, Berserk, or NetWatch Netdriver?
“That’ll work.
Order me the Kerenzikov, and the Defenzikov and Nanorelays as well.
Skip the Dynalar MK.3.
Do you have a Second Heart?” Ruan Xian decided to order the three-piece set first, then buy a good shotgun.
In the game, the Kerenzikov was triggered by aiming and dodging for ranged combat, or sliding and punching for melee.
In reality, however, the Kerenzikov mainly worked by stimulating neural synapses during combat to slow down time.
It was more like a passive enhancement; the harder you fought, the more effective it became.
The Nanorelays assisted with calculations to reduce the neural load and slightly increase physical speed, while the Defenzikov provided defensive alerts for dangerous attacks and calculated the shortest dodge path to minimize damage.
And a Sandevistan was actually a chip inserted into the Kerenzikov to enhance active effects.
A Kerenzikov with Nanorelays only increased thinking speed and a tiny bit of physical speed, but a Sandevistan could enhance both thinking speed and physical speed simultaneously.
In short, one was “the brain thinks of it but the body can’t keep up,” and the other was true time dilation.
“Second Heart?
I can order that directly from Biotechnica, but it’s expensive.
A custom version will run you about 60,000 eddies.
The Kerenzikov three-piece set will cost you 100,000 eddies altogether.
Do you want to order?
That’s 160,000 eddies total.” Viktor’s quotes always only included a small profit.
Hearing this, Ruan Xian realized his 140,000 eddies were completely insufficient.
Buying some top-tier gear would wipe him out completely, and he still had to leave some money for a gun.
He couldn’t just resort to boxing every time he robbed Scavengers.
“Vik, forget the Second Heart for now.
Just order the Kerenzikov three-piece set for me.” Ruan Xian could only secure his time-dilation gear first.
Based on his combat experience with the Scavengers, as long as no heavy weapons were used within his totem’s range, he probably wouldn’t die.
Surely Arasaka or Militech wouldn’t use a nuclear bomb in the city to blow up a single mercenary just because a convoy got robbed, right? New chapters come out on g.com first.
If they used missiles or mechs to attack Ruan Xian—who was protected by his Data Fortress—who knew whose head the bomb would land on in the end.
“Short on cash?
How much do you need, kid?” Viktor asked softly, looking at Ruan Xian’s seemingly unaugmented, purely organic body.
“I can pull out 120,000 eddies at most.
No, make it 130,000.
I have to save some money to buy weapons and eat.” Ruan Xian was quite helpless.
Prices in Night City were just that ridiculous.
Wanting top-tier gear?
Everything was outrageously expensive.
Luckily, he had gotten those second-hand Militech agent implants from Makoto Ito; otherwise, he wouldn’t even have a single piece of cyberware to use.
“Want to make a name for yourself in Night City?
You’ve picked good gear.
The Kerenzikov speeds up your reflexes, the Defenzikov reduces accidental injuries, and the Second Heart is for saving your life.
But remember, cyberware can only help you; it doesn’t make you invincible.” An experienced older brother like Viktor could tell what Ruan Xian wanted to do with just one look.
“Your body is very strong, and you’re very restrained about installing cyberware.
Having only these things shouldn’t drive you cyberpsycho.
I’ll order them for you for 130,000.
Just don’t die.
Remember, you owe me 30,000 eddies.” Viktor pondered for a moment and said.
*Holy crap, Vik, you’re a lifesaver!*
“Vik, giving credit on our first meeting?
Running your business like this, you’ll go bankrupt sooner or later.” Ruan Xian was deeply touched, but he couldn’t help but banter.
“And my friends will drag me back.
Don’t worry about me, kid.
Worry about yourself.
I don’t help just anyone.
Misty is a good judge of character.
Since she was willing to bring you here personally, I’m willing to give you some trust.” Vik smiled, not caring at all.
“I’ve seen all kinds of crazy shit.
You think 30,000 eddies can bankrupt me?
No way.”
“Lie down.
I need to check your physical condition to order the parts.” Viktor pointed to the operating chair, put on his exoskeleton-style tools, and prepped a needle for his arm.
“Vik, I’ll become a big shot in Night City sooner or later.
A measly 30,000 eddies is nothing.
When the time comes, I’ll put you in charge of every ripperdoc in the city.” Ruan Xian was deeply touched and started painting a grand picture, but he had the confidence to make Vik eat this cake.
“Sure, sure, big shot.
Lie down and let me take a look.” Vik had seen all kinds of blowhards; this level of boasting didn’t faze him at all.
“Your physical condition is excellent.
Your brain activity is highly dynamic, though your coordination is a bit lacking.
But it’s fine; we can tune it back up once your coordination improves.
Your internal neural port is quite high-end; I can’t even scan it.” Vik had really never seen this before.
Actually, Ruan Xian had adjusted his neural port after learning netrunning.
Making phone calls and transferring money was fine, but if someone tried to read his data, the scan would endlessly stall at 99%, never reaching the truth.
To Vik, this guy really looked like a pure meat-man, but his neural port protection was so thick that no data could be read.
Moreover, he was an organic human with Body at 15 and Intelligence at 10.
His body had already broken past the human limit of 10 without any cyberware.
Could he be some runaway corporate heir playing rebel?
Only those people disliked cyberware and had strange techniques to break human physical limits.
“Don’t worry, Vik.
It’s just some high-end bioware, normal that you can’t scan it.
Is this enough?” Ruan Xian couldn’t exactly tell him he was a shaman whose power mostly relied on cheating.
“Uh-huh, that’s enough.
It’s just ordering cyberware, doesn’t need to be that precise.
Get up, kid.
I have even more confidence in you now.” Viktor’s eyes began to glow red as he contacted his supplier to place the order.
“Of course.
In the future, when it comes to Night City, whatever Vik says goes.
No one else’s word will count.” Ruan Xian rolled out of bed and stretched his limbs.
“How long will it take for the cyberware to arrive?” Ruan Xian asked.
“Three days or so.
They have stock; just need to calibrate the parameters.
It’ll be quick,” Vik answered quickly.
“Alright, I’ll be back in three days.
By the way, Vik, do you have any boxing tutorial chips?
I want to see how it differs from the Sanda I learned.” Ruan Xian glanced at the boxing videos on the table and asked.
“Like boxing?
Too bad every boxer now fights with cyberware.
Even regional fighters have nanofiber skin and full subdermal armor.
A perfect guard-breaking heavy punch can’t even score a KO.
Here, take this.
I used it for training back in the day.
It’s yours.” Viktor’s eyes lit up.
This kid had broken physical limits as a pure meat-man; he was prime material for boxing.
Pull him into the sport!
He pulled out an old chip he used for training and stuffed it into Ruan Xian’s hand.
He had recorded it himself, so the cost was zero, but the knowledge was priceless.
“Thanks, Vik.
I’ve transferred the deposit.” Ruan Xian silently sent the eddies.
[Transferred: 130,000 eddies]
Ouch, that hurt.
No, he had to go out and withdraw some cash from the Scavengers right away.