Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG
Chapter 261

I spent a couple days working on equipment and code. I was planning on spending more Perk Points at night, but I passed out as soon as I hit the bed every single time. Between controlling my electricity and all the math and stuff I was doing, I was just so exhausted. Coding, in particular, took it out of me. Although Badger’s Code Scan did let me know where any broken code was, it didn’t actually tell me what was broken. It took a lot of time to get everything right.

Even with all the issues, I made good progress! My gear was all repaired, I’d made several upgrades, and my projects were on the up and up. Aether Jumping was nearly complete, too, which would be a massive weight off my back. Just needed a few things.

Which brought me here, down to my speakeasy. The machines whirled away, buzzing and printing parts for future projects. At the moment, the stuff I’d need for Aether Jumping was priority. It’d been saying on my mind for way too long, and I really wanted it done.

Likewise, my chrome was also still in the works. I felt a bit empty without the NSI and Neural Link that’d been with me for so long. Too long, in fact. Even now, Quick Healing wasn’t filling in the flesh. Even the skin covering where my jacks used to be was synth-skin.

The basic framework for the new stuff was all done, and it held up against my electricity in the testing I did. As a side effect of that, the chrome was also super resistant to EMPs and some Netrunner attacks. I was still working on functionality, though. I had a few ideas that’d take some time.

I did want to keep working, but I had a plan today. A plan I’d been working on ever since I used Owl’s Knowledge Token. The beautiful Viper gave me a full breakdown on every single Aether Jumping facility across the world, and even the few out in the solar system. Even if it was just that, then the token would’ve been worth it. 

There were several facilities here in Aythryn City. I was going to knock one over tonight. It was so exciting I could hardly wait. It’d been hard even just focusing on work today.  As I thought, all that mercenary work and fighting stuff wasn’t for me. Klepping and investigating were where it was at. The former much more than the latter.

Now, there were two things I needed: an Anchor and a Tether. Both were extremely complicated pieces of tech that used an abundance of materials from the Aether. Not so simple to get, even with Transmutation speeding the process along. Why take months to build something when I could just go klep it? 

I geared up, pausing just inside the bar section. It was coming along nicely. While I waited on stuff to finish printing over the past couple of weeks, I‘d spent some time repairing and fixing this place up. I thought I’d have to get a construction crew down here to get everything done, but Transmutation proved to be even more useful than I hoped. Wood wasn’t an issue for it.

The ornate wooden panels, benches, and tables had all been fully repaired, making the speakeasy look much more whole. I was still working on getting the mood just right, and it needed a lot more work till it was ready, but I wasn’t in any rush. I still hadn’t even looked into getting the building. 

I headed on out through the hidden door, got back to my bike, and drove out to Portside.

— — —

I stood on a rooftop in the rain, looking down across the street at my target. A combo of Blackout, with enhanced cooling capabilities to last even longer before overheating, and my Perks kept me from any prying eyes. I leaned forward onto the railing around the roof, my shadow-clad arms fading into the darkness seamlessly.

In the distance, a massive explosion flashed. Looked like the Corporate Quarter? I wasn’t on duty for the month, though, so I thankfully didn’t have to worry about it in the slightest. Some other poor saps from the Crusade would have to take care of it.

I stared across the street, watching the neon lights flicker as lightning struck in the distance. Hmm… was I making more work for the Crusade? Nah, the corp would probably cover up the fact that one of their facilities was hit and just tighten security. 

My target for the night? AC Paper Co. At a glance, there was nothing important here. The building was relatively small and impoverished, hiding just how important the facilities below were. Most people would glance over it and immediately lose interest. Paper wasn’t exactly a great business to be in during this modern age of the Net. 

Even if a crew or gang hit it, they wouldn’t necessarily make a profit. Like I was always saying, the best kind of security? No one knew it was there in the first place. That was the founding principle for most of the Aether Jumping facilities across Aythryn City, from what it looked like.

In actuality, AC Paper Company was a front for Raijin International. It was one of many hiding Raijin’s Aether Jumping facilities throughout Aythryn City. It was also the smallest, least guarded of the bunch. Likewise, it would be the easiest to get into and find what I needed.

Viper’s book that went over every jump facility had been rather informative. Even without deep research, I had a full schematic of the place’s underground floors. The surface building’s schematics were even easier to find by running through the Blue Crusade’s database. Unless there were secret rooms, I knew this place from top to bottom.

Getting in wouldn't be much of an issue. Contrary to my usual techwear style, I had on business casual underneath my poncho. A blue tie, matching Raijin’s colors,  loosely hung around a black button-up shirt. I even wore a skirt to further enhance the look. For all intents and purposes, I looked like any other Raijin corpo. I’d even practiced my smile and strut to fit the image.

I glanced at my wrist pad, checking the time. Still had twenty minutes until shift change. I backed away, ducked behind an AC unit, stripped off all of my gear that might trigger an alarm. Unfortunately, that was most of it. Anything that wouldn’t fit my bag was left behind, hidden on the roof.

That meant wrist pad, wrist guns v2, ballistic armor, and all that fun stuff. I even gave up my shock gauntlets. I did have my usual stuff, freshly created Dragonflies, and pistol stuffed into my bag, though, so I wasn’t exactly going in naked. Oh! And the explosives and equipment for the plan.

My bag itself had seen several improvements since I last used it. Namely, I’d modified it to resist most scanners and give false feedback. As long as it could fit into my bag, I could probably sneak anything through light scans. Deeper checks would get past the deception, but as long as I played my cards right, I shouldn’t be going through a deep scan.

Going in without most of my gear was undoubtedly dangerous. I had a few things that kept my hopes of getting out high, even if this was an offshoot of one of the Big 7. My odds? I gave myself about a ninety-nine percent chance of getting out should something go wrong, and an eighty percent chance of getting what I needed before I had to bail.

The linchpin of my high hopes? Spectral Flock. The experimental Trait from Crow was an interesting one, and it practically guaranteed my escape from almost anything as long as I set it up beforehand. I wasn’t worried about getting out in the slightest.

I held out a hand, focusing intently. A different kind of energy from my Kinetic ability seemed to surge through me, emanating from the Aether. It condensed slowly, forming a shape upon my palm. It was smaller than Corvid-

Ah, Corvid… I miss my little bird. He was still recovering, though hopefully he’d be alright soon. Mother had done a number on him. Until then, I had my Spectral Flock to keep me company, I guess. The summoned crow was transparent and ghastly, radiating a slight chill. Once it was fully here, the spectral crow stretched out its wings, flapping violently. “Caw~!”

I patted the bird on the head gently, feeling it nuzzle up into my palm. As far as I could tell? The ‘spectral flock’ were just reskinned Sprites. They acted like it, at least. Fully lacked any kind of combat or movement capabilities, unfortunately. Their only purpose was for the Switch Teleport function of Spectral Flock. Couldn’t move far from the original summoning location.

The spectral crow glanced around for a moment before I pressed it underneath the AC unit, hiding away. I felt a mental connection to it, one I could pull on if I needed to. From previous testing, the range of the spectral crow was only a few blocks. If I went out of that, the connection would grow weaker and weaker before breaking. 

At any moment, I could ‘pull’ on the connection and teleport back up here. If anything looked particularly dangerous, or I feared for my life for even a moment? I could escape immediately and get out. The Trait was what gave me the confidence to attempt this. And, of course, my planning.

I took a deep breath. That preheist jitter flowed through my body like an old friend. It was almost time. I hopped off the side of the building. I lightly splashed down in the alley, the Drop Chutes canceled my fall. I tied my hair back into a loose ponytail as moved to the mouth of the alley. I stopped on the street corner, eyeing the crowd.

This place had shifts of five hundred Adepts. There were all sorts of reasons to go into the Aether, but for Raijin’s facilities? Most of them were mining ‘outposts’ for Aetheria, the raw material used to produce AE3. They needed a ton of Adepts to mine for them, hence the massive shifts that worked night and day.

In particular, during my prep for this, dozens of women stood out with similar enough features to mine. Thanks to Master of Disguise, as long as they had similar height and hair, anyone would work. I waited for one to show up and then made my move.

I stalked down the street behind her, lightly passing her by. My hand flickered, Hidden Hands and Swipe working in perfect cohesion alongside Illusive to hide my movements. I withdrew my hand end easily slid on by, ID dangling from my fingers.

I sped up while she stopped to chat with a group of coworkers, entering the lobby of AC Paper Co. If I didn't know something was wrong with the company beforehand, then it was apparent upon entering the lobby. The heavy security immediately gave up the jig.

Raijin androids stood around the lobby, clad in heavy riot gear. Ballistic helmets with heavy tinted face shields glared out into the lobby. They stood a stalwart presence against intruders. As long as they knew there was an intruder in the first place, that is.

I passed through their watchful gaze, getting in line to enter the building proper. Guards manned the way in, protecting gates with ID scanners. I moved through the line easily and swiped the klept ID. The gate flashed green, letting me through.

Next came a full-body pat-down and a sensor array. If I had any of my gear, this is where I would’ve been exposed. That didn’t happen. The pat down was half assed to begin with. Even without my prep, Hidden Weapons alone probably would’ve been enough to get through the search.

A guard pulled me to the side before I could go further. I kept my features mostly neutral, hiding the internal panic as I was stopped at the entry. This hadn’t been a part of the plan. “ID?”

I glanced at it and passed it over, memorizing the details. “Here.”

The guard looked me over. The face shield was up, revealing his boredom. Or, at least, what should’ve been boredom. It may have worked on someone else, but his acting skills couldn’t get past Cues. There was a sharpness in his eyes. “Mathilda Forest?”

“Yes? I-is something wrong?” I threw on a confused smile. Honest Face helped sell the expression. I thought about dropping the stutter and worry, but it’d probably be more suspicious to appear cool and stoic.

The sharpness in his eyes faded slightly and he shook his head. “No, no… the scanner picked up a knife in your boot.”

My emergency shiv betrayed me! Ah, the misery! Hmm… I just had it shoved in there, but maybe I should actually design some boots? Why hadn’t I thought of this before? There were all kinds of cool and useful functions I could hide in them.

I shifted from foot to foot as a story rapidly formed in my mind. ”Oh… my b-brother is making me carry it… h-he’s worried with all that’s going on in the city these days..”

“I see, I see.” The guard flicked around on a datapad and handed the ID back to me. “Alright. You aren’t the only one seeking a bit more protection these days. Once everything settles back down, leave it at home, yes?”

”O-of course. Thank you!” I bowed to the man lightly. He stepped out of my way and moved onto the next person to catch his eye.

I moved on, stopping just before the elevators and eyed the main door. I casually joined a group chatting about breakfast as I waited. A moment later, Mathilda Forest stepped through the door alongside a group of coworkers.

I subtly flicked my hand. Shadows covered the ID and it launched through the air, flickering in and out of sight. It drifted around the edge of the scanners, slicing past a tiny gap between machines. In a perfect display of throwing weapon mastery, the card bounced off a surface and slipped into Mathilda’s pocket. She reached for it a moment later, none the wiser.

I left the group and slid into an arriving elevator. From behind, I heard Mathilda get stopped by one of the guards. Thankfully, it was different from the guard who stopped me. “Oh, I-I must’ve forgot to clock out this morning. I’m so sorry!”

A smirk came to my lips as a dozen people piled in behind me, all dressed similarly. I was just another blank face in the crowd now. My chances of succeeding jumped even further through the roof.

“Everyone here a miner?” A wave of assent came across from the elevator. An Adept at the front hit a button for sub-level three. The lights flickered and the elevator slowly descended into the depths.