Chipped into the Edge (Double Cyberpunk Gamer SI)

by Icura

Waking up in a dystopian future run by heartless corporations wasn't what I would call ideal, but if there was a bright side to it, it was the fact that I wasn't going in alone. Even armed with a gamer system and charged with a mission, Night City wasn't the kind of place where it would be easy to survive, much less thrive. It was going to take much more firepower for that.

5. Chapter 5

Chipped into the Edge (Double Cyberpunk Gamer SI)

Chapter 5

~o~

We stalked through the indoor hallway, dimly illuminated by a lamp above each door. The hallway itself reminded me of a haunted hotel with its dirty and stained hardwood floors, wallpaper that contained faded oriental flowers, and rusty metal doors that contrasted the look of everything else. I wasn't even sure why they had carpets in the first place because they looked as if nobody ever cleaned them for a century.

The apartment numbers were alternating on both sides, even on the left and odd on the right. It wasn't long before we came upon our destination, three neighboring rooms on the right side. There was loud music playing, echoing through the walls which just showed how thin these walls were. The issue was that we didn't have any way to break into the apartments through the door, but that was why we needed another method.

Still, I was hesitant. We could still walk away from this. Even if we burn our bridges with Wakako, there were tons of fixers in the city. Ones who weren't in the game, but it wasn't like we had to stick to a single fixer. For a few moments, I was tempted to do just that and leave.

However, I clamped down on that urge. The world wasn't going to wait for us. I didn't have a year, and I wasn't even sure if I even had months. The time frame that I had was unclear, and if I backed away from here, I would keep doing that over and over again. At that point, it would be like putting a gun to my own head. No, I had to try. I had come too far to do otherwise.

I dialed Robert onto my internal phone—or holo, I supposed. It took only a moment for him to answer.

["Yeah?"]

'Let's keep this call open. We'll talk here instead of out loud.'

["Alright. How do you want to do this?"]

'Find out where all the noises are coming from. That'll be the spot.'

["Sure. I'll take this side and you take that side?"]

'Let's do it.'

I started from the first of the three apartments while he started at the last one. From there, we slowly began walking to each while listening in, sometimes placing our ears against the wall. Even with the blaring music, I could hear faint voices, and from those, I estimated the number before moving on. It was only when we met up in front of the middle apartment that we gave our results.

["I heard three on my side. Two for the middle."]

'Five on mine. Thinking three in the middle.'

["Okay, let's do yours."]

I led him over to the spot where I had heard the five voices talking to each other. This section of the wall was to the right of the door, the first of the apartments. This was a shock and awe operation so we needed to clear and go fast into the next one. Robert patted the wall as if he could feel something to it while I dropped our duffel bag against the opposite wall, just in case we needed the ammunition.

'Can you do it?'

["Yeah, I think I can. Just need to punch it or kick it to activate Wall Buster. Or at least, I think it will."]

'Take out your gun first before you do it.' Even as I said that over the call, I was pulling out my Masamune from my jacket, making sure that there was a round in the chamber. It was comfortable to hold, and I put the fire mode on three round burst since I didn't trust myself with full automatic. The most dangerous part of this mission would be the room clearing. 'I'll take right. You take left?'

["Yep. Let's do this." ]

With his Masamune in hand, Robert raised his foot and stomped the wall. Contrary to our much smaller expectations, the wall literally exploded. Wood and metal broke apart, propelled by a force that was akin to an explosive. However, that wasn't the only thing. Even as a jagged shard pierced into the neck of a woman with some kind of cheap holographic mask that shrouded her face, time slowed down.

I was bewildered, seeing the pieces in the air slow down. Glancing at Robert, he was similarly confused, but we were not slowed down even though the world around us became sluggish. That was when I felt it.

One second.

It was a feeling that was accompanied by certainty as if I knew it as a fact that one second had passed. That time was running out. Only one thing came to mind. The Assault perk, First Response, gave five seconds of immense increase to all stats when combat starts, though I didn't expect that when it said all stats that it would include even our speed, reaction time, and perception.

However, there was no more time to waste. I raised my assault rifle and pulled the trigger, firing a three round burst into the woman with the pierced neck. That galvanized Robert into action.

Two seconds.

I could see through the dust and the plaster as if it weren't there, a benefit of another perk of mine—Unclouded Sight. Through the fog of particles, I fired a three round burst into two more individuals while Robert fired once into another.

Three seconds.

I stepped into the cloud of dust and particles, the shards in mid-air bouncing off upon touching my body despite being affected by the time slowness. It didn't make sense, but did it ever? When I collided with them, maybe it was my increased endurance and strength stat overpowering them. Whatever the case, I didn't care at the moment as I swept the room, firing a burst at a man sitting at a table. Robert followed in behind me, sweeping left, though not firing.

Four seconds.

Was that four seconds of real time or four seconds in this enhanced perception of the world? I didn't find another target, but I heard Robert's rifle bark off another burst. What I could see of the apartment was that it was a single large room for everything, not even separating the bathroom since the toilet and shower were in the corner. It was only a single apartment, the wall separating it from the other apartment was still intact.

And time resumed.

The plaster and dust fell—even though some still sustained in the air. Just the same, the corpses fell, their lifeless faces hidden behind the holographic masks of emojis. While I didn't hear any more groans, some of the bodies were still twitching even in death, agitating me.

'Go!' I shouted over the call to Robert, though he was already moving to the wall that connected to the next apartment. We reloaded our guns even though we still had bullets in the previous magazine, our perks making the reload only take a few seconds. He then held his rifle in only one hand.

With his free hand, he punched the wall, exploding it outward just like before. However, this time, there was no time slowing. I fired through the cloud of plaster that didn't impede my enhanced sight, knocking down two of them with my shots. The third had pulled out a revolver, but Robert—with the cloud of dust dying down—fired a burst into her. Two shots slammed in between her breasts while the third struck her neck, the force of it exploding out the back. We moved into the second apartment, sweeping it quickly.

Getting into the rhythm, Robert stacked up against the next wall and backhanded the spot next to him, exploding it out into the third apartment.

Through the dust cloud, I shot into the head of a man, the holographic mask covering up the gruesome sight of his face shattering. I moved in with Robert following behind me. However, that man had been the only one in the room. The front door was open.

'Guard the hole! I'll head out and hit them from behind.'

["Roger that."]

I ran over to the open door and peeked outside. There was one of them at the first hole, looking in, but the other one was already running for the elevator.

'One outside the first hole and one at the elevator!'

I snapped up my rifle and pulled the trigger, sending a burst downrange. At least one of the bullets hit the runner in the back, sending that person falling forward to the ground. The other scavenger snapped back to attention, but I was already firing. His cybernetics sparked as the bullets ate into him, but he still raised his machine pistol and held down the trigger, letting a deluge of bullets head down my way.

My shoulder jerked painfully, and I ducked back into the apartment.

'I'm hit, but they are too. Finish them!'

Dropping the rifle, I propped myself against the wall and quickly reached into my jacket. Thinking about the item I was looking for, I brought the MaxDoc inhaler out of my inventory as I heard the familiar burst fire of Robert's Masamune. The adrenaline was stopping the pain from reaching me, but I didn't have any time to spare. Putting my lips onto the opening of the inhaler, I pressed down firmly on the plunger. As the haze entered my throat, my vision narrowed and then widened beyond my field of view, sharpening and contrasting within that split second. Breathing down that deluge of nanomachines felt like being clapped on the cheeks, and I could feel them streaming through my throat and into my bloodstream.

["It's done. Coming back. Don't die on me, dude!"]

The injury wasn't that bad since there didn't seem to be an exit wound, but the MaxDoc would only stop the bleeding and deal with surface damage. I would need to go see a doctor. However, it was strange that it didn't feel painful at—

The bullet was ejected from my wound, falling onto the floor. Looking wide-eyed at it before turning my gaze to the wound, I could see my flesh knitting before my eyes, tendrils of muscles weaving together until it formed a solid mass. It only took moments before even my skin was back into place without a single blemish. I swiped my hand over my skin, wiping away the blood, but I couldn't see or feel the wound there anymore. Using my fingers, I squeezed and pinched the spot, but it felt fine. Better than fine, even.

["Hey, you okay?"]

'I got shot in the arm, but the MaxDoc healed me up to full. It's working like how it did in the game.'

["Then you're good?"]

'Yeah, I'm good.' I bent down and picked up my Masamune. 'Disconnecting the call. Got to inform Wakako.'

["Got it. I'll keep my eye out."]

I ended the call between us and dialed for Wakako. It only took a couple of rings before she picked up.

["Since you're calling me, I assume you survived." ]

'The den is clear. You can send your guys up.'

["Unfortunately, you were much too loud."] Wakako's tone had a hint of annoyance to it. ["The NCPD will be arriving soon. You must retrieve the item."]

'Shit.' I thought making noise didn't matter since it didn't in the game, but I supposed that—in real life—it depended on the situation. 'Okay, what item?'

["It is a katana of significant value to certain individuals. It should be in one of their possessions. Sending picture."] There was a ding, notifying me of a new text message. Opening it up, I saw a picture of the garish-looking katana. In fact, I had seen it on one of the first people I shot.

'Got it.' I quickly began moving. "Robert, come on. We're grabbing a sword and getting out. The cops are coming."

["The NCPD have arrived, but they will take the elevator. Leave by the stairway."]

'Those two are still there?' I arrived at the first apartment, and I quickly spotted my target. Snatching the sheathed katana off of the dead woman's belt, I began running with Robert following closely behind.

["Yes, and they will keep waiting. Go. I expect pleasant news."]

The call disconnected.

"Robert, we got to go quick. Police are heading up by the elevator so we're going down the stairs."

"What about the tools you wanted to grab?"

"No time!"

Robert nodded, leading the way out of the apartment. He grabbed the duffel bag of ammunition that we left in the hallway which had turned out to be a completely unnecessary addition to the mission. We rushed over to the stairway entrance near the elevator and went in. Skipping down the stairs two or three steps at a time, we nearly flew down the stairway.

It took a while, but when we reached down to the door that was labeled "Parking Garage," Robert opened the door slightly and peeked outside, despite breathing roughly. By this time, the adrenaline was wearing off and my lungs felt like they were burning from our stairway exertion. Once he was sure that the sight was clear, he pushed open the door and rushed out. I quickly followed after him.

The van was parked in front of the stairs, the engine already running. The side door slid open, and the Chinese man quickly ushered us in. Once we got in, he slammed the door shut and took a seat with us in the back. Rubber burned as the van's wheel squealed, the driver stomping on the pedal to rush out of the parking garage. It was only when we were back on the streets a block away that the van finally started returning back to under the speed limit.

The Chinese man let out a long and deep sigh of relief. Then, with the annoyance of a man with his patience worn thin, he held out his hand. Wordlessly, I placed the sheathed katana into his palm.

"Crazy solos," the Chinese man spat out like it was a curse. "Your pay."

He dropped a credchip into my hand. I looked at it curiously before pocketing it for later. That caused him to raise an eyebrow.

"Not going to check amount?"

"It doesn't matter," I said. "Wakako wouldn't risk her reputation to cheat me out of a few eurodollars."

"Smart man, but not so smart earlier."

"You mean the loudness?" I asked, annoyance starting to flavor my tone. "What can I say? I just like killing."

That shut him up. Probably because that wasn't exactly a lie. Not just the fact that I wouldn't lose sleep over scavengers, but also because the experience point notifications were numerous and extensive. Just from glancing at it, I knew that I had gotten a level up from this, and that feeling of progression was something that couldn't be underestimated. It reminded me a lot of how I was with mmorpgs.

Thankfully, the rest of the trip was quiet.

~o~

They couldn't get us out of that van fast enough. We were dropped off at the parking garage of our Megabuilding, but I was sure that if they weren't afraid of dying, they would have dropped us off a lot earlier. Well, if they weren't afraid of dying, then they wouldn't have been afraid of us and would have treated us better so I supposed that the point was moot. We arrived back into our apartment none the worse for wear, though I did now have a bullet hole in my jacket and shirt. It probably could count as a fashion statement.

We took turns getting cleaned up since there was only one bathroom, and we had to laundry our clothes because they were covered in dust and plaster. Oddly enough, my clothes were the only ones that had bloodstains, and that was from my own blood. While Robert got cleaned up, I went outside and bought meals from a food stand before bringing them back. Surprisingly enough, I didn't feel much tension or paranoia at all anymore; it just felt kind of insignificant in comparison to what I did today. By the time that I got back, Robert was still in the shower so I took out my cartoned meal—white rice and fried pork substitute—before bringing it over to the computer.

There was something that I wanted to research while I eat, and quite frankly, I was pretty used to eating at my computer even if sometimes, food particles would get into my keyboard. All you had to do was just clean out the keyboard periodically so it wasn't much of an issue to me, though I didn't exactly have such tools here to take off the individual keys. Eating with the plastic fork that came with the purchase, I ate out of the carton as I did some more research.

The thing that bothered me? We were able to use our internal phone the whole time throughout the raid, but to my knowledge, not many people did that even in the game. Why wasn't it more widespread? It couldn't simply be that they didn't have the cyberware for it. As I searched it up, scrolling through websites and message boards, the already bland meal started tasting even more bitter on my taste buds. There was only one conclusion that came from all of this new information.

We had lucked out.

"Oh, nice! You got us food." Robert had come out of the bathroom with a plain white shirt and pajamas on him. He was rubbing the towel through his hair which reminded me. We probably should get a hairdryer later. I quickly opened up a document on the computer and wrote that down before I forget since I did have a tendency to do that.

"Yeah, just rice and some kind of pork thing," I said, pointing to the plastic bag sitting on a counter.

"Any good?" Robert had gone over and took the carton out.

"It's food."

"Not so good then." Piercing a piece of the pork substitute, he raised it up speculatively. "What is this thing made of? It's like meat paste or something."

"It's synthetic," I simply said. However, I didn't want to elaborate more because I knew that Robert was something of a food connoisseur—or at least as much of one that an amateur could be. If he actually knew that all meat substitutes were basically farm-grown worms mashed up and injected with artificial flavoring, it was possible that he would go full-on vegetarian. Ignorance was better in this case so I changed the subject. "You know how we were on a call throughout the raid? I was looking up why everyone wasn't doing the same."

"Oh?" Robert was munching on the fried pork substitute.

"Turns out that besides the lag problem which could get worse from bad reception, it could get intercepted and hacked," I said. "That's why the calls tend to be short during the mission or left to text message."

"It didn't seem all that bad when we did it."

"If they had even a novice netrunner, they could have listened in, got our location, or blared a siren in our ears." I took a sip from my water bottle. "Quite frankly, we lucked out."

"Anything we can do to stop it?"

"Don't use call for long during a mission?" I shrugged my shoulders. "One of us can take up netrunning to secure the connection and counter any intrusion, but that is a long term thing, and we weren't able to grab any of the tools for that during the mission—if they even had any. Well, in the meantime, we could get some good ICE, I suppose."

"ICE?"

"Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics. Basically, it's like a firewall to prevent hackers from getting into your head."

"Oh shit, isn't that really important?"

"It's not exactly cheap, but I'll look into it. Probably won't be military-grade, but it'll be something." That was when I remembered the credchip that I had placed on the computer desk. "Now that I think about it, I probably should check out how much is on that credchip. Though, maybe tomorrow; I'm feeling pretty lazy right now."

"That's fine. Actually, you shouldn't even be up right now. Didn't you get shot earlier?"

"In the arm, but I'm doing fine." I flexed my arm to double-check but also to alleviate his concerns. "Seems like the perk makes the MaxDoc heal like a video game item now. It even pushed out the bullet and regrew my flesh."

"Thank god!" Robert exclaimed, looking almost as if he was exaggerating his relief. "Doesn't that mean we don't have to go through real healing anymore? Not being stuck in bed for months sounds like a good thing to me."

"Eh, that probably wouldn't happen either way. Medical technology is advanced here so it would only be a matter of days if you have enough money."

"Seconds are better than days." Robert got contemplative. "You know...we can probably exploit that..."

"Probably, though that reminds me. I should get my arm checked out. Make sure that the system is doing the work and not just covering it up with paper mache," I commented. "There's a good ripperdoc that I remember from the game in Little China or Kabuki. Somewhere around there."

"Sounds like a smart call, but do we really need to?"

"I know it's a staple of video games, but we need to verify to make sure. Besides, he's a good guy. His name is—hold on, I'm getting a call from Wakako."

I answered the internal phone call as Wakako's portrait appeared on the left side of my vision.

'Hello?'

["It seems that you held up your end, though in a way that I did not expect,"] Wakako said musingly. ["I was most surprised when I saw the recording my observer sent to me."]

'You did mention an observer, but I didn't see anyone.'

["She was in the apartments across the street."]

'Ah,' I said blandly. 'I thought all the windows were boarded up.'

["Not all and not completely. Enough to see two mysterious gentlemen with unique cyberware not found on the market,"] she commented. ["Mounted repulsors are not readily available, much less ones that fit into a cyberhand." ]

I grimaced. So she saw Robert use the Wall Buster perk. That was not good, but there was nothing I could do about it now.

'Does it matter?'

["Will it bring trouble to my door?"]

'Nope.'

["Then it does not. For now."] Her voice was stern. ["You did the job, though loudly. Very loudly. Subtlety is not your strength."]

'We aren't used to stealth.' We weren't used to fighting either, but I wasn't going to state that.

["So I can see,"] Wakako said in a neutral tone. ["Is this the type of work you will be looking for?"]

'Elimination, extermination. But like I said before, they have to deserve it,' I replied. 'There are already too few good people in the world.'

["Collateral damage?"]

'None if we can help it. We don't want to involve innocent people unnecessarily.'

["There are very few innocents in Night City."]

'The sentiment still stands.'

["Be that as it may, there are times when it is unavoidable."]

'Maybe, but we'll accept or reject work on a job to job basis.'

["As is the prerogative of any edgerunner,"] she spoke. ["You will hear from me if there is more work to be done. Until then."]

'Oh, sorry. Just one last question,' I said. 'Will the police be coming after us?'

["For your little stunt?"] There was an audible smirk in her voice. ["No, the NCPD will not pursue cases pertaining to the death of criminals and gangsters. For better and for worse."]

That was just how it was in the game. If you shot and killed gang members in broad daylight, you wouldn't get a police alert on you. Of course, that wouldn't be the same in real life, but I would assume that criminals getting killed would warrant a lot less police attention. Cops getting killed was not exactly a rare occurrence in Night City, and the usual suspects tended to be those very same criminals and gang bangers. That brought grudges and resentment, even if bribes under the table sometimes buried such cases.

'Thank you for being patient with me. I do realize that you didn't have to answer my questions.'

["Polite and courteous. Rare in this city. Goodbye, Jin-Yeong."]

The call disconnected.

"The call's done." I leaned back in the chair, rubbing my fingers against my temple.

"What did she want?" Robert asked, even as he shoved a forkful of rice into his mouth. Now that I thought about it, shouldn't they have given us chopsticks?

"Just a debriefing. She thinks your Wall Buster perk is some kind of hand repulsor cyberware."

"Like Ironman?"

"Oh shit, that's where I was remembering it from." I couldn't see my own face, but I probably had an enlightened expression on it. "Still, I didn't confirm anything. I could've said it was an explosive or something, but she would have probably checked the crime scene report. She's a good enough fixer that I would be surprised if she didn't have a police insider."

"It's fine. Doesn't matter even if she does find out."

"Oh? Didn't think you'd like being a guinea pig." At Robert's confused look, I said, "You do realize that every corp would be after us just to get us on a dissecting table to research it."

"Then we'll just take her out."

"If it comes down to it." Getting rid of a fixer would set us back, especially if we were discovered, but it was better than the alternative. Still, it wasn't an option that I particularly wanted to do. She was more valuable to us alive than dead.

"Anything else she said?"

"If she has any job for us, she'll call us," I said. "Also, the cops won't be coming after us."

"Why would they? It's just scavengers," Robert said disdainfully.

It still felt weird. For all that I was telling myself that it was a good thing that they were gone and that I gained a lot of experience points from it, I still had my hang-ups and reservations. To go from a complete civilian to a killer to a mass killer, all in the span of a week, was more than a little overwhelming. However, I tried not to show it and pretended that I felt nothing about it. The scary thing? I was sure that it would become true after a few more times.

For all my killing urges, when it came down to it, I felt like shit. That was, if it was even killing urges in the first place and not my own self-delusions.

"So," Robert began. "Why are you sulking?"

"I'm not sulking."

To hide my irritation, I picked up my carton and got back to eating. Taking the hint, Robert resumed eating his meal too. It was only after I finished my food, when my temper had calmed, that I finally admitted to myself that keeping it all bottled up wasn't doing me any good.

"Okay, so maybe I am sulking," I said morosely. "I just thought that I had gotten used to all of this already. The killing and everything."

"I…" Robert clenched his jaw for a couple of moments before exhaling loudly. "Surprisingly, I don't feel any guilt at all. Not a single ounce. Thought it might be some gamer mind shit, but we don't have that, right?"

I shook my head to confirm.

"Just like how I wouldn't feel bad if a robber got killed by their victim, I find myself not really caring. They were scum after all."

"It's probably not guilt," I admitted. Though, now that I thought about it, it was Robert's first time killing, yet he didn't really seem bothered by it at all. "I don't know. It's just a weird feeling. Maybe melancholy?"

"I mean, I get it, but they're bad guys. Think of all the innocent people we're saving by getting rid of them."

"So you would have no problems doing it again?"

"Look, I ain't a sociopath, but…" Robert closed up his empty carton and stuffed it in the plastic bag. "I can live with the choices I make. Can you?"

"That sounds like vigilantism."

"Think of it more like the Wild West. No one's gonna enforce the law," Robert replied. "You gotta play it where it lands, bro."

As I watched Robert head to the bathroom to brush his teeth, I couldn't help but think about all of this. I had always been somewhat wishy-washy, wanting to look at everything from every perspective. When there were multiple choices, I always wanted to go back and try out all the rest of the choices that I missed the first time around. Good and evil didn't matter as much to me as making sure that I didn't miss out on anything. However, Robert was different. He always chose the good option—one hundred percent—and never looked back. Frankly, I limited our jobs with Wakako because I was catering to his inclination rather than any moral decision of my own. Despite that, he wasn't a saint. That, I knew well.

"Yo, heads up."

I raised my head just as he tossed over my toothbrush and toothpaste tube. Before I could really think about it, I caught them out of the air, one for each hand.

"Thanks," I muttered, bringing the toothbrush up and touching the bristles to my bottom lip. It was wet so that meant he had washed it for me. Spinning the cap off the toothpaste tube, I squeezed out a layer onto my toothbrush's bristles and then began brushing my teeth.

We brushed in silence until he needed to rinse. I rinsed after he did so. It was odd how we were doing something so mundane after a day of…not so mundane things.

That was when we got into the main meat of our ongoing discussion. Perks.

Talking back and forth with each other, putting up observations and rebutting contradictory points, we went late into the night with these discussions. However, we did come out of it with a fair bit better understanding of the system.

Perks seemed to be divided up into two categories. Either they gave knowledge and instinct for skills and techniques that would have taken years to master or they allowed for abilities that were beyond human norm, though not outside the scope of cybernetics. The Wall Buster perk was an example of the latter, but it wasn't so outrageous that it wasn't possible. With powerful gorilla arm cyberware or explosives, the same effect could be achieved. Even the First Response perk with the time slowdown could be done with a Sandivistan.

The problem with these supernatural perks was that we couldn't allow them to be known. In a medieval fantasy world, these abilities would have made us heroes. However, in a world of science and technology, all it did was make us test subjects. I was getting confident in my strength, but a Militech or Arasaka capture squad was way beyond our abilities. Wakako finding out wasn't in the plan, but thankfully, she didn't realize that it was part of our supernatural abilities rather than cyberware.

So many things were different from the game that it was starting to boggle my mind. Then again, if I remembered correctly, a lot of the perks in the game were basically variations of "this percentage of damage increase" or "that percentage of faster aim-down-sights." Basically, a numerical increase to some kind of stat.

The number of perk points that we had were limited. I still had the universal perk points that the level-up gave me, but the gamer in me didn't want to use them. That was because I could save them up for later when I had unlocked more tiers of the skill trees. However, that wouldn't do me any good if I was dead.

The hardest part of any game was the start when you had to get used to all the systems. If anything, our chances of dying were particularly high for the first encounter since none of us were really sure how we would do in the moment. Would we freeze up? Would we fumble our weapons?

This had been a small scavenger's haunt. Despite that, there had been about ten people that we had killed, mostly through the element of surprise. We hit them fast, and we hit them hard. I couldn't count on that for all of our future encounters.

"Maybe we should invest in stealth," I commented musingly.

"Stealth?" Robert stared incredulously at that. "Fuck that. You can go stealth if you want, but I'm not gonna."

"Nah, if you aren't, there's no point to."

Sure, I could go stealth while he went loud, but then we would have to attack through two separate methods. Like he could distract while I could attack from the shadows. However, we wouldn't be in a position to help each other most of the time; we would be off doing our own thing, and that would defeat the purpose of teaming up together. Sure, we could take down the same targets, but if something were to happen on his side, it would be difficult for me to rescue him and vice versa.

Besides, even in video games, I had never been one for stealth. Horror games and such where you had to hide from killers were a hard pass for me. Even with assassination games, I would eventually get tired of sneaking around and go in all guns blazing.

Not to mention the inherent issues of stealth which was that it was all or nothing. It was overpowered if nobody discovered you, but the moment that they did and an alarm was raised, it had very little application. All that would be left was hiding, ambushing, and escaping, but you couldn't exactly stealth yourself away from a person pointing a gun point-blank at your head.

"So what do you think we should use our universal perk points on?"

"Survivability," Robert answered without hesitation. Then his face became a little hesitant. "And aiming?"

"Sure, I was thinking along the same line, though some utility would be good," I said. "That Wall Buster perk was a lot better than I thought it would be. Though, maybe we should save our universal perk points for later? We might unlock better perks."

"Why bother? We're going to keep leveling up anyways."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

I was probably thinking about it too hard.

In the end, we put both points into Athletics: Medical Efficiency to upgrade it to the max because fuck it, we didn't want to die.

~o~

Author's Note:

Looking back on this, I think I should have combined chapter 4 and 5. However, since I only started writing chapter 5 after posting chapter 4, that makes this impossible!

At this point, the gamer system barely has any resemblance to the one I was trying to emulate…

Also, thanks to Vahn (Vahnhammer on SB) for proofreading and giving opinions.