Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 188

I found what I was looking for without too much searching. It was rather simple to find once I was free to look. A bookshelf on the back wall didn’t match the pattern the rest of the Back Archives abided by, which threw me off when I first saw it. Then add in the fact that touching one of the books triggered Technical Expertise, and my suspicions were through the roof.

By simply tapping every book on the shelf, I found four books that were connected to a mechanism in some kind of code. Then it was as easy as pulling the four and resetting the mechanisms until I got it right. 

Eventually, the entire bookshelf slid into the ground, seamlessly revealing yet another hallway. It ended in two metal doors. Maybe an elevator? It looked like a cursed elevator. I tapped a button on a panel beside the doors.

A few minutes later, the metal doors slid open with a light ding, revealing an ornate interior. It seemed the fancy designs didn’t stop even in this creepy elevator. Should I just go and let someone else go down the shaft first? Elevators and I had a… complicated relationship. But what if there’s treasure down there? Like even more than what was up here.

I forced myself into the death trap, hesitantly checking over the entire structure with Technical Expertise. Everything looked good enough. Nothing seemed broken, at least at a glance. There was always something that could go wrong though, so I double and triple-checked the elevator.

Nothing would fail. I hoped. I tapped on the elevator’s control. It only had two options, up and down. I imagine the sublevel was the up option, so I tapped on the down option. The elevator doors dinged before slowly closing.

The machinery lurched, grinding loudly as it descended into the depths. I wasn’t scared. Nope, not at all. What could go wrong? The elevator breaking off its shaft and plummeting hundreds of stories down to my instant and awful death? The chances of that were- were not high. Though they weren’t low either. Especially considering my special connection with elevators.

Nearly a minute passed as the elevator slowly worked its way down the shaft. Wherever this thing was headed, it was deep. Like, super deep. Probably as deep if not deeper than the Underground below Aythryn City.

My data pad at my wrist flashed a red warning light as it picked up spiking radiation. My Blinder was off though and had been since I broke all the security in the Back Archives. I looked down at my wrist. The radiation sensor I threw in there rapidly climbed. Different radiation though. Not the same kind the Rykon Crystal gave off though. Why-?

I hurriedly hit the emergency stop on the elevator’s console. The emergency brakes screeched as they roughly ground against the rest of the shaft. Something loud snapped against the side as the elevator ground to a sudden stop. I nearly fell as my legs turned to jelly.

The lights in the elevator flickered and then shut off entirely. I leaned against the wall in absolute darkness. My eyes quickly adapted to the level of darkness as everything started to become clearer, albeit in a dull gray shade rather than with color.

I tapped around the elevator with Technical Expertise, carefully inspecting every bit of the deathtrap. The sudden stop broke several parts, including the power connections. It wouldn’t be going up or down anytime soon. 

I used my rifle to wedge up the access trapdoor of the elevator. With a single use of Burst Step, I launched myself up and snatched onto the edge, pulling myself up and out of the elevator.

The flashing indicator on my wrist flashed faster exposed to the shaft fully. I tapped on it, going to the sensor’s history. There were noticeable spikes in radiation throughout the sensors history, which should be the times I used my Blinder. 

More recently though, entirely different from the sharp incline of Radiation that typically followed the Blinder, a steady and continuous rise of radiation was recorded. If it wasn’t for my Blinder’s sensors, I would’ve unknowingly taken huge amounts of radiation.

It wasn’t quite lethal, though at the rate it spiked, it would’ve been lethal if I kept going down. I threw on my mask and all protective gear. I wasn’t sure if it would help with the radiation, but any protection would be better than nothing.

I needed to get out of here. Even if the levels of radiation weren’t fatal yeah, continuous exposure could quickly become fatal if not cause lasting harm. Assuming Quick Healing wouldn’t heal radiation damage, that is. And I'd rather not try that out.

What’s down there anyway? An exploded nuke? Looks like I’ll never know. At least, not without getting radiation-resistant suits or mutants immune to radiation. Unfortunately, it most definitely wouldn’t be worth the effort or danger to send someone down to investigate. As they say, curiosity killed the cat.

I looked up at the long cables descending from the top of the elevator shaft. I really should’ve bought an Ascender by now. I go up and down enough I’d get a ton of value out of one. Well… better get started going the old-fashioned way.

I stretched out, shaking my limbs out. I made a quick harness to stop my fall if I were to have one then slowly started lifting myself hand over hand. It was an extraordinarily slow-going and painful process. Especially with my most recent Burst Step already taxing my legs.

By the time I reached the top, my limbs burned with overuse. My arms wouldn’t stop shaking as I pried open the elevator doors. I had a momentary regret of not carrying around a crowbar, though that regret passed as barely I got the doors open and flung myself back to the safety of the Back Archives.

I just lay there for a time. Every one of my muscles felt torn, and my legs were too jelly to do much walking. Eventually, I forced myself up to my feet and staggered to the hallway. Just before I could open the door, I remembered the security on the other side was still set to kill. As soon as I opened the door, I’d get riddled with bullets.

Hmm… how do I get out of this? I thought long and hard, taking the chance to walk around the scattered display stands and idly look at the relics as my mind whirled. 

I couldn’t just brute force my way through. That was suicide. I’d get gunned down immediately. I might not be able to kill even one of the bots before a rocket blew me into chunks.

I couldn’t sneak through either. Not with the system alert and ready for me. If I tried, I’d probably get killed by spammed shots and rockets toward the vault door. Again, suicide. 

Unfortunately, my Net skills weren’t good enough to take a hacking route. I doubt I’d be able to even get into the mainframe, let alone turn off the murder bots. It made me regret not leveling Net up, though I don’t think it would matter much anyway. I’d need Net to a high level, and Net and I didn’t really get along well. Even if I focused on leveling it up, I doubt I’d get past level four without some serious investment that could be better spent augmenting something I was actually good at. 'Sides, it'd been a while since I was straight up offered a Skill Point.

So that left me waiting for a rescue. I couldn’t call one though since the vault blocked my signal. I’d be fine to live that long though. Crow’s Canteen was perfect for situations like these. I’d be fine until a rescue came. At least, physically. Mentally though? Not quite as fine.

Not to mention a rescue might never come. I mean, there was a high chance of a rescue squad since this was where most of the valuables were. There was always a chance that something would happen though and Captain Roger wouldn’t be able to spare the manpower to get in.

And just sitting around like a princess was… not ideal. I rethought my options, pulling out every piece of my tech to see if I could whip something up to help me escape. A plan slowly formed in my head as I stared down at the jury-rigged ultrasonic frequency muter.

The system could detect me through seismic and ultrasonic frequencies, right? What if I took away those ways of detection? The system would probably think the intruder was trying to come back down the hall. Wouldn’t the bots just spam down the murder hall then? 

Sure, they were incredibly dangerous, but they only had so much ammo. Unlike the attendant bots up above, they couldn’t even go restock themselves. If they wasted all their ammo down the hall, it would be much, much easier to get through. If they happened to injure each other with said spam damage? All the better for me.

I modified my tech, even going so far as to disassemble my deck. It’d served me well up to this point, but I really needed its speaker system. That, and I could always buy a newer, better one back in the city if I got back.

I added all the speakers I could, modifying the device to not only cancel out the ultrasonic waves but also to blare a deep base to trip the seismic sensors. Then, I wrapped it tightly in a couple of bolts of fabric to protect the thrown-together internals.

With all my careful designing done, I cracked the vault door and tossed the bundle out. It flew true thanks to my training with Throwing Weapon Master. Getting something like this exactly where I wanted wasn't even a problem. Immediately, a bullet whizzed past my head. Several more followed though nothing hit too close as I closed the door tightly once more. It provided ample cover from the mad combat bots.

The rain of bullets continued to pound against the vault door, followed by several explosions as the bots kept up the pressure. Then, the firepower noticeably shifted as explosions from out in the hall itself started to ring out. They lost their target as my tech activated, throwing off their aiming parameters.

For several long minutes, the mainframe continued to fight my ghost. The explosions constantly rang out alongside cracks of bullets. The longer the fight dragged out, the more infrequent the attacks were. What started as a hail of death quickly slowly turned into an occasional drop.

Once the constant attacks stopped entirely, I cracked open the door and slid out a Scouter. I immediately shut the door again and pulled the feed up on my HUD. Or, at least tried to. No signal. I had to crack the door again, opening myself up to a potential attack.

Then the Scouter’s view came across and I got a full view of the carnage the bots wrought. Only one remained standing, the others blasted into piles of scrap metal. At the far end of the hall, an unfired rocket pod exploded and the remaining bot immediately opened fire on it. 

The last bot standing wasn’t in great shape either. Its leg and arm had been blown off, leaving it barely hanging on. Its internal circuits hung out of its chassis, ready for me to fire one last shot into it and end its life. 

I did exactly that, ducking around the edge of the vault door to blast the bot with a burst from my AR. I peeked just as the world slowed thanks to Dexterity and shredded the last working circuits of the combat bot. It dropped to the ground, as broken as its brethren.

I took a while, staying inside the Back Archives as the occasional explosion rang out from the torn-up hallway. Only once I felt safe enough did I slip out and head down the hall. 

Unfortunately, in all the fighting, my tech had been thoroughly smashed to bits. I’d have to replace it all once I returned to the city. This trip was proving to be a costly one, though with what I saw in the vault, I had the feeling it would more than pay itself off.

Or, at least, that’s what I told myself as I left and staggered back to report in.