Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 191

“Zuku! It’s about time. Been trying to reach you for weeksh!” The ever-cold voice of Inquisitor Ligh came across the line.

”Inquisitor… about that…” What do I even say? How can I ward off an inquiry into a month-long absence? This is seriously too much to worry about. I didn’t even think about the Crusade before, during, or after the job.

Hmm… should I run away? With Master of Disguise, it’d be surprisingly easy to escape the Crusade. And anyone trying to find me for that matter. At least, based on my face. No matter what I did, I’d still have a technological footprint, so it wasn’t worth the risk. 

”Where have you been?” Surprisingly, the Inquisitor’s voice didn’t turn angry or irritated. More so… curious.

”Uh- don’t you remember?” Too bad Honest Face doesn’t work unless the other person can see me. Looks like I’ll just have to trust my natural deception ability.

There was a moment of silence on the line. “No? Should I remember shomething?”

“I- uh- I went out to investigate a lead from a Confidential Informant.” I ran through the little lie quickly. The best lies always had truth mixed into them. “I’ve been out of the city. Just got back.”

Inquisitor Ligh coughed a few times. “Ah, yesh… of courshe… I remember now. How was your, uh, trip?”

“I just got back from New Tress City. It was as my CI said; the entire city is covered in plants. I ran into several monstrous plants similar to the ones we ran into while facing the Circle.” Nice swing, Shiro! Now just land it… see if maybe you can get a few days off?

Inquisitor Ligh almost put the dream of even more time off to rest immediately. “That’sh good… that’sh good… when are you coming back in to report? You might not have heard, but we’re all handsh on deck after foiling the Circle’s attack on Down Town.”

”Uh, actually, sir, I need about two weeks longer to finish up this trail-“

The Inquisitor ruthlessly cut me off. ”Get it done in one. Then come in. I have a specific job in mind for you that can’t wait much longer.” He hung up before I could reply.

I took a deep breath. Successfully duped the Inquisitor once more. Maybe working under him wasn’t that big of an issue? Seriously, if I just said he forgot something and then came up with a plausible sequence of events, he’d just believe me thanks to his constant drunken stupor. 

Admittedly though, I wasn’t looking forward to this 'specific job'. Especially considering the context. And he said it was a job had had specifically in mind for me, which was… very unsettling to say the least.

At least I had a week to regear spend my Perk Points, and get ready once more… if I was going against the Circle though… maybe I should spend that Free Perk Point I’d been sitting on? Or should I keep saving it for a really standout Perk like I have been thus far? 

Decisions, decisions…

Regardless, for now, I still had the Firearms and Brawling Perk. Both were related to combat, which would be nice for the upcoming job. No telling if it involved raiding another Circle base or not. 

I took a drink from the canteen and then allowed myself to fall back into the pavilion. This time around, I was here for the Brawling Perk. The Perks were… well, they were about as I expected after looking through the melee Perks. 

About half of them were various martial arts that wouldn’t be too bad to know. Then there was about a third that seemed to be effect types, like Blazing Swallow Kick which would encase a kick in fire. Basically magic.

The fire effect ones were incredibly tempting, especially with my future of fighting plants. Even if a normal fire wasn’t all that great against the Circle’s magic plants, surely magic fire from the eidolons would be fine, right? 

Then again, blatantly using magic might not be the best idea. I was a lowkey person, and fire bursting from kicks wasn’t exactly lowkey. It was cool though. And if I really wanted Blazing Swallow Kick I could probably lie and say I had some kind of fire gadget.

The rest were various miscellaneous Perks that went alongside Brawling. After looking through the list, I settled on one in particular. It looked like it’d fit my style the most.

「Swipe -  The best thieves don’t stop even mid-fight.」

Not very clear, but it looked like some kind of martial art for stealing. And of course I’d take it if that were true. The thought of being able to klep something off of someone mid-fight was quite attractive. Not only stealing just to steal but also taking things like grenades… or the pins of grenades. 

And I was up against the Circle. If I took their protective charm thing, would the plants still recognize them and not attack? If not, then I had a great way to take care of the bastards. Give them a taste of their own medicine. That was assuming the charms were even functional in the first place. I still had yet to test the one I snagged from them.

I tossed the scroll onto the easel, finding a fully finished painting of a person dipping their hand into an attacker’s pocket as they dodged a blow from a sword. It was nice to see that only Cleaning’s stuff was half finished.

The scene subtly shifted around me until I stood before two actual figures. The thief moved as another attack came, brushing past and stealing a strap holding the attacker’s armor together. The armor fell off, and the thief took the opportunity to finish the fight with one brutal strike.

And then the fight faded entirely from view. A new figure approached, not hesitating to swing a sword toward me. The blow was slow and well-choreographed, so I could’ve easily dodged it. But this wasn’t an Evasion Perk.

A red outline appeared. I knew what it meant this time, easily following along with the motions. A dagger on the attacker’s hip glowed red, visible through the sheath as if I had x-ray vision. I dipped under the blow, swiping the dagger from the swordsmen. It felt like easy mode almost, as if that were a thing in the interface’s training.

As soon as I followed the outline to its final point with a dagger in hand, the scenario reset. The scenery faded till I stood atop a rooftop in the middle of a city. Advertisements for… Fox, Echidna, Bear, and at least a dozen other eidolons popped up all around. Real subtle guys.

This time, a cyborg approached at breakneck speed from the other side of the roof. He lanced toward me with a shock baton as his other chrome arm rippled with fire. The goal of this one was… a servo on the inside of the cyborg’s arm. I could see the red glow of it through his chrome.

The difficulty of this amped up quite far, eh? Can’t we tone it down a bit? Please? I flung myself to the side as Insight warned me of fire washing over my body. A moment later, the flaming arm launched a powerful jet out. It entirely melted through the section of the roof I just stood on.

The flamethrower kept me back as the ‘borg approached once more, slashing with the baton. The chrome-enhanced movement was too fast for me to dodge so I once more chose to retreat. 

I took my first glance at the guy’s chrome. To even get access to the servos, I’d have to get into his arm’s access shaft or somehow manage to pull off a piece of metal plating. It was looking to be an impossible task.

Unfortunately, thanks to my previous dodge, I put myself right into the flamethrower's path. Insight’s warning came, but I was still stuck in the middle of my dodge, so the jet of fire caught me. The scorching flames washed over my body-

The scenario reset once more before the pain could hit. I stared at the glowing servo through the guy’s arm, sighing deeply. Of course, it wasn’t easy.

— — —

I collapsed onto my bed, feeling a weird combination of entirely drained and yet well rested. This last Perk… Swipe was something else. 

By the end, simply getting a servo out of a chrome arm was a cakewalk compared to a few of the latter tasks. Especially once modifiers to the task like ‘stay unnoticed’ started coming in. That sucked. Massively. Especially since I couldn’t even use Technical Expertise to copy some of the crazy tech the interface pulled out.

 I checked my phone as I quenched my raging thirst with Crow’s Canteen of Chaos. Two days. Should I go back in- 

No. Mental health was important, or something like that. I was better off taking at least a day's break before going back in for the Firearms Perk. The SITCH in my speakeasy’s back room was still blitzing away and wouldn’t be down for three more days, so there was no point in going back unless I wanted to make more toys.

Should I go sightseeing? That was a pretty brainless activity, right? Hmm… while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do, I fished out the Constellation Night Market card and scanned it. The next market was in a week and a half in Portside, really close to the water. 

Could always go out klepping pockets. That was always fun. Or just read up on events in the city while I was gone. Try to figure out what kicked the Blue Crusade into high gear. Hmm…

I checked my notifications. Bunch of spam and scam texts. There was a message from Mira letting me know she’d be in a dead zone for the next month or so and wouldn’t be able to respond. That was half a month ago. 

And, surprisingly, a message from Sean Sentinel. It was from a few days ago, so it hadn’t been sitting for an entire month. ‘Hey, Lady Meno. How are you? You miss Aythryn City?’

What was the name I used when talking to him again? Meno Myknee? That sounded right. I don’t think it is, but it sounds right, so I don’t really care. Seriously, remembering several names was such a hassle. Shiro Tsukuyomi was good enough for me.

‘Hey, Sean! Sorry, I couldn’t respond. I’m doing good. Aythryn City certainly had its appeal.’ I sent back. ‘How about you?”

The reply was immediate as if he’d been camping by his phone. More accurately, he probably had it wired directly into his chrome. ‘I understand, it’s not a problem. I’ve taken an interest in art history and mechanical engineering, so it's been quite busy.’

How funny. Those were both the things I was said I was interested in back then. Is he- there’s no way he’s still pining for me, right? Whatever happened out of sight out of mind?

Though it is a bit flattering, I suppose… Still, I doubt I’d ever see him as anything but a foolish and lost boy. One with a golden spoon I’d be more than happy to swipe.

I chatted with Sean for several hours in between reading Cold Moon Solutions documents, listening to the radio, and putting together a good enough story I could sell to the Inquisitor. It ended up being a rather nice night, especially when Corvid dropped by with a gift. 

The crow flew over to my bed from the Aether, lightly dropping a small blue stone next to my pillow. “Caw!” 

“Thank you!” I called out to the scavenging bird as he once more vanished into the Aether. I checked the stone out, feeling a slight jolt of electricity as I touched it. A frown crossed my face as I threw it next to the other dozens of stones Corvid had occasionally dropped off. 

Almost all of them were the same as the original black crystal. There were a few standouts like the jolting crystal he just gave me though. I really needed to get someone to check them out and tell me what each one was. My only fear was that they were extremely valuable and whoever checked them out would short-change me. For now, I was just collecting them. 

I put away the stone and then dropped back onto my bed. It hadn't been nearly long enough, but I was already bored waiting. I dropped back into unconsciousness as the pavilion beckoned.