Arroyo, Megabuilding H4
At the ground floor of the megabuilding, Ken slumped his shoulders after suffering from another existential crisis.
Vegetables...
This world had no real vegetables...
Or to say, no real veggies for broke guys like him.
He doubted his life when realizing all this time he had been surviving on synth food.
After reminding himself that the utility bills still had to be paid, Ken gave up on heading to groceries which were 100% all synthetic.
Cooking Rice SubstituteTM and Synth Meat?
Mm, let’s leave it up to future Ken.
‘You can do it, Ken, you have been eating this for your whole life.’ As he psyched himself up, Ken bit into the Burrito XXL, courtesy of the nearby vending machine.
Good news, it didn’t taste bad as one would expect. Bad news, he realized he was used to it.
Ken’s eyes flashed yellow as he holo-dialed a contact.
The call connected almost instantly, “Hermano, you still kickin?”
Ken: “Brother Jackie, put me in touch with Gin, or any good fixer on that matter.”
Jackie: “Fixer? *bang-bang* Hermano, aren’t you with the Arasaka Academy?”
Ken: “Eeeh, it doesn’t seem like a good time to talk. Let me get back to you sometime later!”
Jackie: “It’s fine, hermano. What were you saying? *bang bang-bang*”
Ken: “I’m in a pinch, bro. About to be chased out of my apartment. I would be grateful if you could introduce me to some job or fixer.”
Jackie: “Hm, you are a complete newbie on this road, no? I’m anxious to let you go alone but the gig I’m on is going to take some time. Alright, call Gin after 19 today but don’t get anything dangerous. Let me show you around once I’m done with this. And don’t go around firing that Sandy too much!”
Jackie hung up before Ken could thank him.
“Shit, whatever do I do? I’m free again.” As much worried as he was about eddies, Ken was even more afraid of having nothing to do. Every thought either led to Gloria or another existential crisis.
“Right, I have that. Status,” Ken called.
The benefits of having cyberoptics meant, nobody would mind seeing a floating window appear suddenly.
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Ken Martinez
Level: 0/99
Body: 4
Reflexes: 4
Intelligence: 6
Technical Ability: 5
Cool: 3
Cyberware
Street Cred: Unknown
Reputation: Unknown
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“Hm, so it does appear even without saying profile... maybe its the thought of wanting to view my profile?” Ken’s legs moved as he pondered.
There was no manual for these stats.
Even if he tapped physically his finger passed through the screen.
Neither thinking nor saying it aloud brought up any descriptions.
Ignoring the unknown Street Cred and Reputation, he focused on the important attributes.
Did Body here represent stamina, endurance, and muscle strength all in one? What about Intelligence? Thought process, new ideas or just the ability to recall information? What was Cool anyway?
While still hard to understand, Reflex and Technical Ability was more straightforward.
“Wait, it does say Reflexes, does that mean both physical and neural reflex? I guess I can think of a way to track Body stat, but how do I do that? I think Gyms had those punch strength testers or weights for me to get a gauge, but the membership fee... That’s a few hundred eddies. Let’s push that to later.
“So, the most important part of this will be how to level up, I guess... There’s no EXP bar that I can track to see what actually gives me experience.”
Actually, the real problem was his lack of experience. Even if Ken had played games, they were only alien games focused on exploring alien spaceships, and ruins. Only one game featured aliens of various kinds leveling up and unlocking different superpowers.
“Are there any skills–?” As soon as Ken thought, another ‘skill’ window popped up.
But it was emptier than his bank account. Zero, none.
However, this discovery gave him some hope. The gaming system wasn’t limited to [Profile], and [Cyberware].
“What’s in a game aside from skills, right!”
Maps are a must in any exploration type games.
A big screen opened in front of Ken. It was mostly dark with a few pointers. Checking along the line, it seemed only after the system installation the roads he took became visible.
Then he focused on the farthest pointer, and two descriptions popped up.
[Viktor’s Clinic (Ripperdoc)
Integrity and Ripperdoc; a combination nowhere else in NC.
NC Profession Ranking: 6]
[Misty’s Esoterica
Esoterica and Chakra Harmonization? Seriously? Search for upgrades elsewhere. The owner is a fine piece of art, currently taken, but hey, you can try.
What else do you want?]
“Uhem, who is even writing these?” Ken seriously considered for half a second before giving up.
Sys.Ai never responded to him from the very start. Even thinking now wouldn’t bring him any results.
“But if even it says that about Viktor that means I did luck out with him, huh. I guess I will need to thank Carla for it.”
Then there was the pointer just beside his location.
[Ken Martinez’s Dwelling
Situationship: Eviction Risk!
Dwelling Quality: Garbage, what else do you want?]
Kek!
The emotional damage was stronger than he would ever admit.
Ken vehemently bit on the last bit of burrito, stomped the wrapper and fumed, “What do I want?! I want eddies! Can you not show me some hidden stashes of eddies?! Worthless Map!”
“Hmph, useless system, there’s Skills, Map. Does it become a mini-map too?”
With his pondering, the map minimized to the bottom-left corner of his vision. Unlike the map, the mini-map had countless dots.
“Neat–” as he was focusing deeply on the new mini-map, he bumped into someone. Along with that, one of the dots turned red.
Ken’s heart skipped a beat.
“Fucking shorty, do you wanna be the first guy to test my new baby arms!” The guy was six-feet two with a rough face, glowing red eyes, and bulky cyberarms with the girth of Ken’s waist.
However, noticing the gaps between the joints, Ken knew those were cheap old era relics. That didn’t mean he could tank a punch from one of those.
He raised his arms and handled the situation how he usually did. “Relax, choom. I mean no harm. You see, how things are in the morning. I will leave you with your arms, maybe find your other chooms to test it. Bye then.”
Nodding to himself Ken already moved.
“Stop there, you shorty! Who's chooms with fucking garbage like you?” The guy already raised his arms, intent on making Ken his target.
Ken was already prepared to run, but the moment the rough gonk raised his fist, Ken’s fight and flight instinct triggered. Along with it, the world slowed.
Ken observed something he failed to notice yesterday. The hint of nervousness and apprehension built inside him had vanished, and a strange sense of control washed over him.
He turned back and noticed the arm slowly crawling at him. He didn’t really have any measurement device but looking at the fist trying desperately to reach him; it felt like he was experiencing 1 second as 5 or 6?
‘Actually, why don’t I teach him a lesson, calling me shorty this and shorty that.’ As soon as he had that thought, Ken moved. He didn’t run, he walked behind the guy like he was strolling.
The gonk just finished punching the air and his eyes desperately trying, but failing to track his test target.
Ken had zero experience in fighting human-sized targets. So he did the first thing that came to his mind and kicked the knee joint.
The result?
Too destructive.
THUD!
The gonk did not just get on his knees, his right leg flew forward and he fell on his back.
Ken tsked, lightly kicked his head, and continued on his way. Something of this level was commonplace in the Santo Domingo area. Normally, he would be striking a deal, get beat up, but mostly fleeing before it came to that. It was a breath of fresh air for him to get the upper hand...
The mini-map also showed the red dot faded and joined the transparent ones. The transparent dots were hollow without any color but a white ring.
The guy had likely realized he had kicked a hard board.
“How does it work? Red are likely enemies. Is it intention based, like hostility or intent? It did turn red before the guy even tried to attack me, but did it change back because I defeated him or the guy lost any hostility toward me? Ah... Fuck!” The curse slipped his tongue when he realized he had been walking 30 something seconds on Sandy mode.
But one thing Ken realized, understanding the mechanics of the Gaming System would have been fun if he had not been scraping for every bit of eddies.
Switching off Sandy, Ken ran to the NCART.
He let out a sigh of relief and prayed nobody had been curious enough to notice his odd movements.
As he passed the ticket gate, a pop up to his optics reminded him.
[Student Pass Expires in 6 Days.]
“Right, it was time for that too. Forget it, forget it, no time for depressing things. Where was I? Right. Profile, Skills, Map, Cyberware... I know those four but what else, hm, I can’t remember its been too long.” Ken seriously brainstormed. Had it been alien technology he could think of some ways to deduce. “Maybe I should go play a game? I know there’s some near the Corpo Plaza.”
Old arcades were everywhere in Night City but if you wanted something better than Roach Race or Trauma Drama, you better find some game center. Though after the DataKrash, good games became increasingly rare.
“So, among the list of pages Cyberware is the most useless one?” Ken thought as he willed for it to appear. “So I don’t have to open the profile for it, why does this one appear in profile?”
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Cyberware
Neural System
• Heavy-Duty Neuroport
• Unnamed Sandevistan
- (RCD: 2H | Neural Sync: 1% Paused)
Ocular System
• Kiroshi Optics Mk.1
Hands
• Interface Plugs
Neural Interface
• Chipware Socket
Legs
• Ankle Reinforcement
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“Huh, why are the colors different now? There’s also something new, RCD and Neural Sync?”
The meaning of RCD came to Ken instantly.
Recommended Cool Down. But the meaning of Neural Sync was more ambiguous. Also, only the Sandevistan and Neuroport were the light of light-orange, aside from that everything was gray-white.
“That just means I’m nothing if not for the sandy, huh.” Ken sighed and looked outside. The ocean looked beautiful from here but it was green and reeked if you went close.
“Huh?” Ken suddenly realized, in the reflection of the glass windows the system screen was not visible.
Ken tried recording and found it the same. It was not visible on the video either.
Pretty neat. He moved on, even the holo function worked the same way unless you made it visible to others.
Finding the game arcade had been easier. He thanked the gods they were open 24/7.
However, the line of arcades made Ken’s stomach churn. Most of the games started at 10 eddies. Even the cheapest one was 8. He could not possibly play multiple and get one function if this idea even worked.
So after a round of awkward discussion turned arguing with the part-timer who wanted to do nothing with him, Ken settled on an old-era game.
Conquest of the CyberPriestess
It was an old-era computer game with lots of levelling, open world, skills, and gaming mechanics.
Unlike the arcade game, he was charged for the game runtime per hour. Account creation and the first hour cost him 15 eddies and 5 eddies for every additional hour.
The price was cutthroat but old-era games were rare and every piece was controlled.
Ken grumbled as he casually inputted the character settings.
He was going to play for an hour, understand the mechanics and never set foot in here.
At least that was the plan until he clicked [Game Start].
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YOU ARE GAMING!
GAMING SUPREMACY
DOMINANCE ASSERTED.
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Every quest felt interesting, skill acquisitions had their own charms, and every level-up? They were like water in the desert. And achievements? They were his trophies worth more than any gold.
From a newbie who touched a game for the first time, his understanding and control of the said game mechanics soared through the roof by the time he reached mid Arc-1.
He didn’t become magically skilled in gaming controls, no, he just became single-mindedly focused.
The tunnel vision was so severe that he didn’t see the screen. He saw the world he had delved into and lived it and its mechanisms with 500% of his focus.
“Gasp!”
When Ken came to his senses, he was practically gasping with his palms shaking like a mess from the sheer intensity of his focus.
“Fuck, choom, I’ve never seen someone playing so intensely. How did you make those moves?!”
“Gonk’s practically a god!”
“Impossible! How could anyone finish Arc 1 without getting brainwashed even once?!”
“Look at the clear time! Fuck, he finished it in one sitting under 12 hours? That’s a new fucking record!”
“More than that gonks, we have a new Gaming Legend in Night City!”
Unknowingly a large crowd had gathered around and the time...
18:37
Balance: 128
That’s -65 eddies.
“Fuck!”
{Alternative Titles: Learning the Game; Testing the System; Gaming Instinct; Broke but Gaming; Gaming Supremacy; Learning the Rules}