『Felix Karl Grimm』
"Urgh... my fucking head..."
I rose up and out of a rather stiff bed that was just a tad uncomfortable. I am... yep, I am still Felix, same body and all, not even the slightest dissonance. I looked around my room as I nursed my headache, my eyes widened to the size of saucers as I did so. A rather spacious, sleek, and rather empty room greeted me, neon lights on the walls, a hologram TV-like thing near some couches, a bunch of boxes piled up in the corner, and a cold metal floor covered in a hexagonal pattern. Where I lay was an indent on the wall where a two-person bed was situated.
There were... memories in my head. No, not memories, more like information downloaded straight into my head without me ever experiencing learning them. Was this how using Skill Shards felt like? The knowledge felt foreign almost.
I was Felix Karl Grimm, I had just moved into Night City from... somewhere? I couldn't recall that part, or it was not given to me because it was not relevant. Yesterday night I rented this apartment in Megabuilding H10 in Watson, Little China and finished moving in everything before going straight to sleep.
There was no second set of memories or anything, just knowledge. I got up from my bed and slipped on my slippers to look around the apartment. A part of me was geeking at how cool everything looked with the cyberpunk aesthetic, the holograms, the LEDs, the corporate intrusion of your homelife with the wall-integrated vending machine, the mirror that can turn on and off, the window that lets in air that smells like burning garbage.
The other part of me was rationally evaluating my options. I knew I had absolutely zero implants or "chrome" and instead had my "Agent" in my pocket, a more advanced smartphone that most people replace with their neuroports. And I was actually more than fine with it.
I wasn't in this world for implants; the certainty of metal can be good compared to the flesh if only the gacha couldn't promise you flesh stronger than any metal.
That did not mean I was completely against "chipping in" but I wanted to avoid it if I could. There were several reasons, first was the one I stated above, my physical stats could probably outscale any implants I could install. And there was the problem of maintaining the implants in where such technology was not commonplace, which was over 90% of worlds.
And there was the fact that it put a weakness in me where there should be none. I didn't want install some cyberware only for some techwizard(netrunners) to melt my skull inside out by hacking it. I did not want to my implants to get reduced to molten slag as I slept by some corporation netrunners infiltrating the cameras of my home.
So yeah, no implants unless I feel like I cannot compete without them. And if I do get implants, I'll get the top shelf ones that won't malfunction and burn my dick and balls off like that one guy.
Slumping on the couch and watching the scenery straight out of Sci-Fi out of my windows as a flying AV passed by, I took a moment to just marvel at the scenery. Towering building of glass and metal, advertisements floating on thin air through holograms. Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath to center myself I opened my Agent, basically the superphones of this world.
It only took me a few minutes to get the hang of operating this thing. Because apparently even the basic bitchest of Agents apparently have a Self-Adaptive Artificial Intelligence to help you use them, it can even reconfigure the locations of your apps and such, so that even the most mentally impaired of people can use it, which they need to due to how many chemicals Corpos dump into the water or hit people over the head weapons during their conflicts. Disability access was essential.
Checking the manufacturer of the Agent, just in case someone most likely would have been listening to me through it, yielded the result of...
CG Inc.
How cute.
C = Chaos, G = Gacha.
At least I didn't have to worry about getting eavesdropped on, at least on my own agent, which would be essential. Checking my accounts showed that I had exactly 5000 Eurodollars, not a cent more, not a cent less. The rent on my Megabuilding apartment was already paid for the month, so I could use the 5000 for whatever I pleased. Though I also had this lying on top of my desk.
A dark grey, simplistic, if not a tad bulky gun. Constitutional Arms Unity. The most basic common bitch of guns around, at least 30% of the city has one of these lying around, but for good reason. It is the Glock of this world; it's not great, or even good for that matter, but it will get the job done for the most effective price.
I grabbed the gun and held it in my hands, finger not on the trigger. It felt unusually heavy in my hands. This was a gun, loaded and ready to kill someone with the pull of a trigger.
Was I ready to kill someone for my own gain?
Probably.
Not bothering with the self-reflection, introspection or debates about the morality of what I was going to be doing, I instead focused on using that Silver Ticket I was given. I rifled through my pants before finding a red and black pamphlet in my back pocket. Opening it up, I was greeted by a lot of useful information that would come in useful later. Mostly about how the gacha worked.
What caught my eye was the silver ticket tucked between the pages that I took and read the top of, although the words themselves I couldn't read what was written, but I could understand what it tried to convey. A random gacha ticket. I promptly tore it, making the ticket vanish into notes of light.
Rolling Silver Random Gacha Ticket...
A Common Trait.
[Strong]
|Common Trait|
You were always pretty strong, granting you slightly increased strength, allowing you to exert more force with your body.
I marvelled at the strength that had just flooded my limbs, a noticeable increase in my strength, probably I wasn't very strong already, I could probably easily beat myself before I got this ability very easily. I was without a doubt above the common man in strength.
Which meant very little in a world with Uber Steroids and commercially available arms that can lift in measurements of tons. But it still had its definite use, especially for me.
The reason I found it so useful was because it would allow me to handle weapons that had a kick without having to chip in augments. Bite me, I, as a man, want to wield a motherfucking Overture.
And wear a cowboy hat and a trenchcoat.
I will not be denied this dream.
But first of all, I had to make some preparations before I even dared step out of this Megabuilding. I had to at least know how to shoot a gun properly. Thankfully, from what I looked up, this Megabuilding has a gun range I can use to practice, and I've got enough money not to worry about running out of bullets for the near future.
I'll also have to spend money on bulletproof clothing; thankfully, they have ballistic weave and stuff here. But before all of that, I need to learn how to aim.
Picking up Unity, I left my apartment with a pep in my step. Ready to greet the new world.
✧―✧―✧―✧「」✧―✧―✧―✧
That pep in my step vanished pretty damn quickly.
Let me tell you, the megabuilding FUCKING STINKS.
You'd think a city without many dogs wouldn't smell like burnt dog piss and you would be dead wrong. Breathing in through my mouth had a taste.
The smell was what took off the rose-tinted glasses I had for this world. And so were the bums. Megabuilding did not look... great. Well, it looked about as good as it could get for being a building made to fit as many people as possible. I was familiar with the sight, of course, but it looked way worse in person. Some of the people around definitely didn't live here; some guy was sitting on cardboard with some machine sex toy draining him, and no one even batted an eye.
...No wonder this place smelled like shit. I doubt the rest of the city would smell that much better.
I noted with some amusement that my apartment was the same one that the titular John Cyberpunk, otherwise known as V, would eventually move into. I already knew, of course, what with the year being 2076 and all. I was probably close to the start of Edgerunners because it would just make sense for me to get sent around that time, since that sounded more interesting for my patron to do.
I perused several floors until finding the 7th floor where the goods were and where I would spend most of my time here. I moved past the Gym and boxing ring where two chromed-up dudes were going at it to reach the gun store, named "2nd Amendment".
"Hey kid, welcome to the 2nd Amendment, looking for some iron, attachments or some magazines?"
The person who greeted me as I entered the room was an overweight balding man with a handlebar moustache and a low ponytail wearing military-esque equipment. I projected a sense of confidence as I approached the man.
"Yeah, I'm looking for 10 mags that fit a unity, wanna work on my aim."
The man nodded and bent under, taking a few moments to pick up 10 magazines for the Unity pistol and putting them on the counter. His eyes glowed for a brief moment before he looked at me.
"Alright, that's 240 for the mags, and 10 to use the shooting range for an hour since you bought something. Comes out to a neat 250 eddies."
I pulled out my agent and quickly initiated the payment. Thankfully, I already looked up how to do payments via agent before stepping out. The man's eyes glowed before he nodded.
"No neuralport? Must be a new face here. I'm Robert Wilson, if you need guns come here first. Shooting Range is half off for regulars."
I picked up the mags and stuffed them in my jacket pockets before giving a friendly nod and smile to the man.
"Good to hear, I'll be coming often to practice my aim."
He crossed his arms and nodded, seeming to find some respect for me.
"Nice to hear, you gotta respect a gun, if you don't know how to shoot it, don't shoot it. Plenty of gonks die that way. Gun range is that way, the controls for the targets are included. Knock yourself out."
I waved to the man as I moved to the shooting range behind him with Unity in hand.
Time to see if I can at least shoot a gun without killing myself.
A/N: Welcome to Night City, it sucks here! Seriously, the world of Cyberpunk, and especially Night City just sucks so badly. You are not going to be having fun living there. Especially if you are an unchromed gonk. But if you are a chromed gonk there is a chance you'll probably get Voodoo Boy'd.
What did you guys think about Felix's introduction to Night City and his current plans? What do you look forward to? I'd love to know.