Chipped into the Edge (Double Cyberpunk Gamer SI)
Chapter 1
~o~
My eyes flew open while air filled my lungs in such a desperate flood that it felt like my throat was burning. I writhed and squirmed, my blanket falling off of me as I gripped the bedsheets under me. It took a moment—or ten—for me to get enough oxygen through the desert-like canal that was my mouth and throat. It was only when I was finally able to catch my breath that I finally realized that I was not in my own bed.
Looking wildly around the closet-like space I was in, an alcove in the wall like a capsule hotel, it took me an excruciatingly long time for me to even comprehend what I was looking at. A hotel capsule? No, that couldn't be. I barely traveled far enough to need to sleep somewhere that wasn't my own bed. Then why was I…
No, I remembered.
My head began to pound as my beating heart felt like it was going to burst from my chest, and the reason for that was now more obvious to me.
I had died. Or at least, I thought I had died. The fact that I was breathing meant that I was alive–or in a strange rendition of the afterlife. Considering that I could still feel the soft pillow behind my head and the sweat dripping copiously from my brow, it seemed more likely that it was the former rather than the latter. After all, wouldn't I be more comfortable if this was the afterlife? Swallowing the little bit of saliva in my mouth, I took a few more breaths through my mouth, long and painfully audible.
Glancing to the side, to the opening in the alcove, the room that lay beyond was unfamiliar. It was white, empty, and clinical in a way, but it lacked all the hospital equipment that I was expecting to be hooked up to. In fact, there were none at all.
I pushed against the bed, leveraging it so that I could sit up. The arm that greeted my sight was thinner than what it was supposed to be–almost emaciated–and paler as well. My body itself felt different, but that was reasonable since I had been hit by a truck. If anything, the fact that none of my limbs was mangled or lost was a miracle in and of itself. With the speed that it had been going at, I wouldn't have been surprised if…
Never mind. That was too morbid of a thought for me to want to complete. Suffice to say, I was glad even though it looked like I had been knocked out for a while, especially since I wasn't hooked up to life support and nothing felt like it was hurting. Hopefully, I had only lost months and not years of my life, but it was a possibility that I couldn't outright deny.
"Nur–" I coughed, my dry throat feeling like it was sandpaper. Still, I forcefully gulped to soothe it, even though I didn't have any saliva left. Forcing my throat to work, I opened my mouth again and asked, "Nurse?"
No answer. I waited for a few seconds.
"Nurse? Doctor?!" When no answer came, I shouted, "Anyone?!"
My head felt dull–groggy as if I had slept for far too long–but I ignored the sensation to slide my legs over to the exit to the capsule bedroom. My feet touched the carpet, pleasantly soft but deeply unfamiliar. I gripped the wall as I slowly rose to my feet, my body feeling like it hadn't exercised in a decade. To alleviate the feeling, I stretched my back and arms, though it did very little to change things.
Looking around the room, it felt strangely rich for what it was. Across from me, there was a couch with a television set embedded into the wall. To my left was a window with closed shutters. The only source of light was coming from a lamp in the center of a ceiling fan, though it only gave off a sterile white glow. To my right, there was a metal door, and next to it was a desk along with a computer.
I took a couple of steps toward the door before I noticed there was a vending machine and bathroom next to my bed alcove. Feeling the call of nature, I padded over. When I entered through the doorless passage, there was a sink on my left and a washer and a dryer combo on my right, but I ignored them in favor of the sign on the wall that said the shower and toilet were a little further ahead, on the left and right respectively.
Even as I took care of nature's call, I couldn't help feeling that my body wasn't my own. Was I in a coma for that long? Was this a fancy hospital room? I certainly could afford something like this. Maybe my brother won the lottery or something. If not, I would have rather that he didn't; hospitals weren't cheap, and the massive debt that he would accrue wasn't worth it. Not for me.
If I didn't wake up, he would have been stuck with the debt. Thankfully, I did, and now that I was awake, I would be taking the debt off of him. Whether I could pay it off or not, I didn't know, but I would figure it out one way or another.
Walking over to the sink to wash my hands, I barely paid attention to the strangely illuminated mirror, glowing blue words and symbols along the edges of it. That was because the face staring back at me in the mirror wasn't my own.
Gaunt would be the word I would use to describe this person as if he had starved himself on purpose. Despite that, I couldn't deny that he had a handsome face that shined through in spite of that. Black hair, caramel eyes, smooth skin, and blemishless Asiatic features that wouldn't have been out of place on a member of a boy band. The only thing that detracted from it was how emaciated his body looked.
My body.
This was my body. I raised my hand, and the man in the mirror raised his. I was stunned, and then I was confused. However, I knew what this kind of genre was so it didn't take long for me to get a grip on things, even if I didn't quite accept everything that I was seeing.
Was this a reincarnation or transmigration? No, I shouldn't be stupid about this. This was probably some kind of facial reconstruction, though would it really give me this kind of appearance that was better than my former?
More than that, I felt taller. Not to mention that moving my arm felt different, more than just from being almost skin and bone. Still, there was one thing that I could do to confirm everything.
Hooking a thumb into the waistband of my sweatpants, I pulled it forward and looked down.
…yep, this definitely wasn't mine.
This really was a reincarnation or transmigration. To tell the truth, I was a big fan of these kinds of genres, but to actually experience it myself wasn't something that I ever thought would happen to me nor something that I would want to happen. Especially since, most of the time, the method to do so was by dying first.
Turning on the sink, I poured liquid soap onto my hands and dunk them under the stream to wash them. Once they were clean enough, I formed a bowl shape with my hands to gather water into it. Bringing it up to my lips, I took a long drink.
I wasn't a fan of drinking unfiltered tap water, but I was too thirsty to care with my mind running a mile a minute. It didn't exactly taste clean, though it wasn't half bad. Just a bit chalky, probably from the additives to keep the water safe. Once that was done, I splashed my face with water to cool myself down, especially since my forehead felt like it was overheating.
That was when I noticed the palms of my hands. Inlaid into my palms was off-black metal of some kind. I touched my right palm with my fingers, letting them slide over the smooth metallic surface. What was this?
I put my hand on the faucet handle and turned off the water, letting my palm linger there. Despite it being some kind of metal, I could feel the handle where it was touching it. As if it was skin and flesh instead of whatever this was. It shouldn't exist. In fact, all of this shouldn't be possible.
Wait, maybe this was…
"Status."
The word, a common theme in the kind of stories that I liked to read, was the first thing that came to mind. Even though I was half-expecting it, it still surprised me when a screen did actually pop up in mid-air, semi-transparent enough that I could see through it to the mirror that displayed my bewildered look.
"My name is…Kyong Jin-Yeong…?"
The words in the name field were distinctly Korean so there was no mistaking it. Honestly, I didn't know how to feel about it, but to be quite frank, it seemed like the least of my problems. With that, my attention soon drifted over to the rest of the screen.
"Level one, huh. And these attributes are…"
My heart missed a beat. Or maybe it was the blood pounding in my head that made it hard to hear.
I quickly backed away and stumbled out of the bathroom, heading straight for the door. There was no handle on the solid metal door, but there was an interface panel on the wall beside it. It showed nothing until I brought my hand closer to it, at which point, it lit up with the word "open" displayed on it. I pressed it with the tip of my fingers, and the door in front of me promptly slid open.
The silence that I had been immersed in was shredded to pieces within a second as the sounds of the outside world flooded in. Loud, distant music and indistinct chatter overwhelmed my senses, stunning me as I took in the bright glare of neon-illuminated signs. Dark and smelly, the faint traces of sunlight filtering through the center of what seemed like the inner ring of an apartment complex, not enough to light up most of it. Crowded and loud, I couldn't help but gawk wordlessly at the people standing or walking just outside my door.
Two women leaned over the solid railings in front of me, paying me only a disdainful glance before turning back to their conversation. However, what caught my attention was the fact that one of the girls had silver chrome-plated legs. Just before I could look further, a man in a leather jacket with a blue mohawk sauntered by, breaking my sight line. He didn't even spare me a glance as he raised his cybernetic hand to pull the cigarette out of his mouth. On my right, next to my doorway, a woman was sleeping, covered by a ratty blanket. She pulled back the blanket slightly, glaring at me with glowing red robotic eyes as if asking me why I disturbed her sleep.
I simply shut the door in response.
The moment that the steel door closed, sealing off the noise of the outside world, I put my hand on the wall on the side and stood there, trying to comprehend what I had just seen. Audibly swallowing, it took me a few moments to push myself off the wall. I turned around and headed to the other side of the room. The shutters that I had seen, there was actually glass in front of them. A window, I vaguely remembered, though what caught my attention on the display on the left side of the glass. Illuminated, light blue buttons for Day, Night, and Party. I pressed my index finger against the Day button, feeling the glass against my skin. The shutters beyond the glass flipped before shuttling upward and disappearing out of sight.
What I saw beyond was a cityscape of tall buildings, illuminated by so many lights and signs that I couldn't tell if they were the name of the buildings or ads. Flying vehicles zoomed by, moving by propulsion systems that looked like four glowing cushion pads on the four corners. Far down below—it must have been at least 30 floors—I could see cars driving on the streets with the occasional one recklessly speeding past the lines.
Vaguely, I could see the sun shining behind a large sign, but it was dimmed by a sort of fog. A morning fog? It was a bit surreal. At least, it seemed like the early morning, but I didn't exactly have a clock. Not to mention that I wasn't exactly sure what compass direction I was looking at so I couldn't tell if it was west or east. However, it probably didn't matter. This was enough evidence that validated my suspicions entirely.
I was in the Cyberpunk universe.
A world that I never wanted to live in.
The attributes were my first biggest clue. It was hard not to recognize them since they weren't exactly generic ones.
Body, Reflexes, Cool, Technical Ability, Intelligence.
However, there was something that wasn't supposed to be there.
A sixth attribute. Empathy.
It shouldn't be here. This was something from the tabletop roleplaying game rulebooks, but those took place in previous time periods. The first rulebook was situated in an alternative 2020 and the second was in 2045 while the video game was in 2076 and 2077. There shouldn't have been any overlap, especially since there were conflicting rules and game mechanics between the three. That meant a lot of things, but it also meant that I couldn't rely on solely what I knew from the video game. I would have to look into it more and test out a few things to—
Running a hand through my hair, I took a deep breath to calm myself as I stared out the window. Planning for the future was fine, but I was getting ahead of myself. What I needed to do now was deal with everything in the present before I worry about what was to come. The most glaring issue was the fact that I was alive.
I had died. Unless this was some kind of strange dream from a coma–in which case, I would be fucked no matter what–I was in another world. A fictional world.
It was a world where the divergence point from the world I knew was in the 1980s or 1990s. However, it was a slant that was much more corporate-focused and far less humane. It was a dystopic type of world that brought to mind a meat grinder where money was key and human lives were often worth less than tissue paper.
It was not a world that I would like to live in.
Everything that I had and knew was gone. Honestly, I didn't have much, and ambition wasn't something that was a big thing in my life, but it was still a comfortable living. There was plenty of fun to be had if I simply looked around, and that was enough to satisfy me.
However, that was over now. Still, I was grateful. If it weren't for this, I would be dead. If I had to choose between this or death, it was a no-brainer. Who would want to die?
That didn't mean that I didn't miss my old life, but I had to keep moving forward, though that was easier said than done.
The memories weighed me down, creeping in. I didn't have that many people who cared for me, but I had a few who would miss me, and that was enough.
"Fuck…"
I was tired; I was fatigued; and I was out of it so much that my head hurt. My emotions were out of wack, and I could feel unshed tears in my eyes so I just wanted to close them.
I made my way over to the alcove and crawled back into the bed. Curling up in the blanket, I resolved to fall asleep and hoped that all my thoughts would simply fade away. At least, for now.
~o~
In the end, I couldn't fall asleep. It must have been an hour or two before I finally couldn't take it anymore. With my stomach growling and feeling like it was shriveling into the void, I finally threw my blanket aside and crawled out of bed. Getting to my feet and standing up, I rubbed my neck as I glanced to my left. Looking out the window, I saw that the day seemed a little darker, but the sun was probably just hidden behind one of those tall buildings since it was still incredibly bright outside, enough to show off the grim, dirt, and stains that marked each building.
Glancing around, I didn't see any kind of kitchen or even a refrigerator. That was when I finally saw a glass door on the side of the room that I hadn't checked. Moving over to it, the door slid open upon my approach. However, what was inside was some sort of armory with racks on the wall and storage crates. Only one of the racks had a gun on it, a pistol that looked like a Beretta M9. I wanted to see if it was real—and knowing what this place was, it probably was—but my stomach chose this time to make a strange, whiny growl like it was dying. After a moment of quick deliberation, I decided to continue my search for food.
My feet eventually brought me to the vending machine that was near my bed alcove. There were three buttons on it, all of which displayed different types of burritos. I had a choice between Burrito XXL, Burrito XXL Rosado, and Burrito XXL Turquesa. I honestly didn't know the difference, but at this point, I didn't care either. I pressed the first button. On the left side of my vision, I saw "Transfer €$ -12" which was deducted from a bank account that had five digits to it, but all of it faded out way too fast for me to catch. It was only now that I realized that my eyes were probably cybernetic too. Otherwise, how else could I see that notice?
That merited a look into it, but right now, I was starving. Getting the brown, shiny bag that popped out from the dispenser, I unfolded the top opening and took out a burrito that was in between hot and lukewarm. However, it didn't smell fresh at all.
While it looked the same as what I thought it should be, the moment that I took a bite into it, I felt a burst of instant regret. I nearly gagged, but I managed to choke it down after a moment. Despite its appearance, it burned all the way down. To put it succulently, it tasted only somewhat like meat as if someone started it but forgot halfway through. Not only that, the mushy consistency was uniform and bland throughout, only seemingly held together by a wrap of tortilla that didn't taste like it was made of corn. In fact, I could even figure out what it tasted like.
Everything about it tasted synthetic—plastic and fake. Edible plastic? Despite my criticism, my hunger eventually won out, making me take another grueling and painful bite.
The thing about human beings was that they could adapt. By my fourth bite, I was already used to the food, enough that I tried to speed it up so I could end it faster.
After I scarfed the whole thing down, it felt like the mush was sticking to the insides of my throat so I went to the sink and drank some more faucet water to wash it all down.
With my stomach satisfied—even if my taste buds weren't—I decided to take my mind off of it so I walked back to the armory room. Taking the pistol off the rack, I nearly dropped it when I saw a small HUD display flicker at the bottom right edge of my vision. It showed the icon of a gun along with the number 10. The ammo count. Underneath the icon was a name.
Tsunami Nue.
"Just what is this…"
Ammo count, huh? Was that from the system or my cybernetics? Placing the gun down on a storage crate, I saw the gun icon disappear. Picking it up again, the icon reappeared. Holding the gun by just my thumb and index finger made the display disappear again.
"Okay, that's enough messing around."
I carefully placed the gun back onto the rack. While it was a necessary piece of self-protection, I wasn't planning on going outside any time soon. There was no point in going out and risking myself without exhausting first the resources that I had here.
There was more research to be done first. A whole lot more. Not just of this system that I seemed to have been transmigrated with, but of the city itself. I also needed to refresh myself on the common sense and information of this world.
"This would be easier if I had someone to talk to," I murmured to myself. However, what I wasn't expecting was for a contact list to suddenly pop up in front of my vision, probably triggered by my thoughts. Even more surprising was the fact that it actually had a name in it instead of being completely empty. Moreover, it was a name I was very familiar with.
Vahn.
Before I realized what I was doing, I dialed the contact. After a dozen rings of an odd, echoing ringtone that perfectly encapsulated my mildly building anxiety, the other side finally picked up the call, and a blank portrait appeared on the left side of my vision.
["Hello?"]
"Hey, Vahn," I said out loud. When I realized that it didn't go through the call, I mentally said the words. ['Uh, Vahn, can you hear me? Yo?']
["Whoa! I thought I was seeing things when I saw your name pop up."]
'Yeah, it's uh—wait, how do I know that it's really you?'
["What do you mean by that?"]
'You might be an impersonator.'
["Impersonator? Are you being serious? How do I know that it's really you?"] There was a pause as if to wait for my response. When it didn't come, he finally shouted, ["Of course, it's fucking me!"]
'Okay, then answer me this. The first time we met, what article did we talk to each other about?'
["Article? What article? Didn't we meet over that story I wrote?"]
'Okay, okay… So it…it really is you… Goddamn, man, this is—I mean, I…' The intense relief that flooded me almost made me sag in place. 'We're both in the same world, right? This is not like a transdimensional phone call or something, right?'
["If you mean the futuristic place I'm in? Then yeah. Looks pretty dirty though."]
'You're… You're really here…' I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. 'I mean I was just talking to you yesterday, but goddamn.'
["Yesterday? I haven't talked to you since you ghosted me six months ago."]
'Ghosted? I died!' I opened my eyes and started pacing around the apartment, more to calm myself down than anything. 'I got hit by a truck while crossing the street.'
["Well, isn't that the only way this kind of stuff happens? I was driving on the highway, and the last thing I remembered was some asshole 18-wheeler cutting in front of me. Probably didn't see me in his blind spot."] His tone started to fill with panic. ["Dude, where the fuck are we?"]
'Do you remember Cyberpunk 2077?' After I said that, I almost slapped myself as I remembered the answer right away. Of course, he didn't. He had never played the game in the first place. 'I mean Cyberpunk: Edgerunner. You remember that anime, right?"
["Yeah, but why—"] There was another pause. A longer one this time. "…this apartment looks just like David's pad."
"Wait, the same kind of apartment? That means we're both in a Megabuildin—"
["Fuck! Are you fucking shitting me? Fucking shit! Fuck, fuck, fuuuuuck!']
'Uh…' I began pacing the room. 'You uh… You okay there?'
["Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know! Why the fuck did it have to be here? In this goddamn dystopian shithole?!"]
'Yeah, that's kinda bad, but at least we're alive, right? Better than being dead.'
["Why not a fantasy world or something? Even Warcraft would be better!"]
'I don't think that would actually be better, and I would miss all the modern conveniences like flushing toilets.'
["Conveniences like catching a stray bullet. It's a dystopia, dude! A dystopia! I don't do dyst—wait, how am I getting this call?"] There was a groan over the line. ["Shit, I'm chipped in."]
'You didn't notice?' I shook my head to get my thoughts back on track. 'I know everything seems kinda—very bad, but look on the bright side.'
["What bright side?"]
'We could be dead. Think about it. This is a second chance, and it's not like we're going in alone. We got each other.'
["I'm trying to stay calm. Seriously, I'm trying,"] he said in a voice that was nowhere near calm. ["But fuck! Why couldn't this be someplace else where we'd have a better chance?"]
'You know, our chances aren't that bad since we got some kind of gamer system.'
["…what system?"]
'That wasn't the first thing you checked? Oh right, you didn't realize this was a fictional world. Just say status.' Actually, now that I thought about it, could I do it without talking? I mentally thought of the word status, and lo' and behold, the screen popped up in front of my eyes. 'Or you can just think it. It seems to work both ways.'
There was a pause for a couple of seconds before an excited exclamation came across the line. ["Oooooh!"]
'See? It even has levels so that means we'll probably be able to get stronger.'
["What do all these attributes mean?"]
'Uh, that's a little complicated. Let me think how to, uh, explain that properly,' I said. 'Actually, what's the name it gives you?'
["Robert Mason."]
'…huh.' That confused me for a moment, but I supposed that it wasn't too weird. 'Well, I'm Korean now. Kyong Jin-Yeong. Jin and Yeong are together with a dash in between them. Uh, I believe Kyong is the surname.'
["Yeah, it is. Their family names don't have those hyphens in them."] There was a slight pause. ["I think I'm half Caucasian and half Asian, but I'm not too sure. It's hard to tell."]
'You're in front of a mirror right now?'
["Yeah."]
'What does your body look like? Mine is pretty much skin and bones.'
["Same. All the work I did to keep in shape is gone. Feels like my bones will break if I bump into something."] There was a sigh over the line. ["This is going to take months to fix."]
'Not necessarily.' I walked over to the couch and sat down. 'If we raise our Body attribute, that should change things.'
["And how do we do that?"]
'We'll have to do some testing, but if it's anything like the video game, we should be able to gain experience points just by doing things related to the attribute or the associated skill trees.'
["Well, you know this shitty world better than I do so where do we start?"]
'Athletic skill tree is under the Body attribute so if we exercise, it should increase that. At least, I think it will,' I said over the line. 'Before that though, let me explain all of the attributes to you. If you already closed your status screen, bring that back up.'
["It's still up."]
'Okay, you see those six attributes? I'll summarize them real quick for you. Body is like the strength and constitution stat in a high fantasy game. Reflexes is like dexterity and agility. Cool is wisdom, charisma, and stealth. Well, more for stealth if it's anything like the game.' I leaned back on the couch. 'Technical ability is for handling hardware while intelligence is for software. That includes creation, repair, utilization, and everything in between. Empathy…that one, I only know it vaguely from what I skimmed of the tabletop rulebooks, but it's basically the attribute for determining how much cyberware you can have before you go insane.'
["Cyberpsychosis?"]
'Yeah, that,' I replied with a nod, even though he couldn't see it. 'Okay, you understand everything now?'
["Nope."]
'Oh, for the love of—' I cut myself off. 'Okay, listen. The first three are the ones that we can work on right now. The last three require money to even get started. Eddies. European Dollars, if you don't know.'
["What happened to regular dollars?"]
'Something, something happened with the U.S. dollar and now, it's gone. Fuck, I don't remember, but that's not important right now. What's important is which of the three should we focus on. Body, Reflexes, or Cool?'
["It'd be Body and Reflex for me. I don't care much for stealth."]
'Actually, that's Reflexes, plural.' Wait, why was it even plural in the first place? The other attributes weren't. In fact, why was Technical Ability two words while the rest were just one? 'Uh, anyways, I was thinking about those two as well. Both of them will probably let us take or dodge a bullet without dying.'
["Fuck yeah, I want to survive."]
'I'm not sure about Reflexes, but we can probably increase Body by doing exercises.'
["You mean I can get stronger just by doing my old workout routine?"]
'Maybe? Don't know until we try.'
["I was planning on doing that anyways."]
'Well, I'm gonna do it too, but keep me updated on that. As for the rest of the status screen, there isn't…' I trailed off when I noticed something that I had somehow missed earlier. There was a square button on the right side of the screen. 'Quests? Hey, do you see a tab on the right that says that?'
Without waiting for a response, I mentally pressed on it. The screen changed to a new one.
'Oh, you got to be fucking kidding me.'
["Huh? What happened?"]
I didn't give a response as I closed my eyes. After a couple of seconds, I opened them. However, the words on the screen didn't change.
'…it says my main quest is to protect Rebecca.'
["You mean the little girl from Edgerunner?"]
'Yeah, that's the one,' I said. 'Though not so little; she's like around twenty years old in the anime if I remember correctly.'
["Well, she doesn't act like it,"] Robert commented. ["What else does it say?"]
'There is nothing in the time limit and the duration fields, but the consequence of failure is death. So if she dies, I die.' I leaned further back into the couch as the weight of the words hit me. 'Basically, it wants me to be a bodyguard for life. It even has a goddamn biomonitor on it!'
["That doesn't sound too bad."]
'Are you even thinking about what you're saying? She's basically a murderhobo! How the hell do I keep a murderhobo alive?!'
["She's not homeless."]
'Okay, murder gremlin. The point remains.'
["Just kill Adam Smasher?"]
'That's not a solution. Even if we do that, it won't keep her alive. She's a mercenary for hire. Their lives are counted in months and maybe years if they're cautious enough, but does she seem like the cautious type to you?'
["Don't worry, we'll figure something out. We still got three years after all."]
'Three years?'
["It's June 14th, 2073. Didn't you check the calendar?"]
'Oh shit, you're right.' My HUD display even had a clock function, though I didn't pay it much attention since my mind became a whirl of thoughts. 'Actually, if we can find her before she becomes a part of Maine's crew, we can stop her from becoming an edgerunner in the first place.'
["What if she's already an edgerunner?"]
'Eh, we'll cross that bridge when we get there, but we have to find her first. They didn't ever mention her last name, but a brother and sister combo should be easier to search for. What was her brother's name again? Killer? Diller? Wait, I think it's…Miller? Yeah, Miller sounds about right.'
["I don't know, but I remember that his name was pretty stupid. Miller doesn't sound that stupid of a name."]
Shit. That could be a dead end then. What was Rebecca's past? If I remembered correctly. Rebecca was in that music video prequel to the anime that featured Sasha who was the netrunner for Maine's crew before Kiwi replaced her. After that, Kiwi recruited Lucy, and that was like a year before the anime. That would mean Kiwi and Lucy were in 2075. Mercenary life was fast-paced so it was possible that Sasha died in 2075 or the year before, 2074.
That really didn't give me a lot of time.
'We got to stop her before she becomes the murder gremlin that we all know or I'm fucked.' I sighed deeply. Maybe it was already too late. It would make sense to give me this system if this was the task I was being saddled with. 'Well, what about you? What's your quest?'
["Same thing except I got to protect some girl named Judy Alvarez."]
"…what the hell?!" I sat up abruptly, my tiredness washed away by righteous anger. "You never even played the game! How did you get her?!"
["It was already there?"]
"I mean, Judy is from the game, but she's never in danger. She doesn't even die in any of the endings."
["Nice. That means I got an easy one then."]
"Well, she might be in danger later on after the game's plot, but what the hell is this difference in difficulty? At least your protection target has some common sense and knows how to keep herself out of danger. Mine would probably dive into a crowd of Maelstromers if she had the chance!"
["Hey, don't stress out. I'm in this too. If you die, I'll be left alone in this shithole of a world."]
'Ah…' My boiling blood began to cool down. It was the same for me; I didn't want him to die either. That meant that we would be taking on each other's quest regardless. The easier his quest was, the more to our benefit it was. 'I guess you're right.'
["Damn right, I'm right."]
'Yeah, yeah,' I said, my tone becoming somewhat mellow. 'Anyways, we'll need to figure out how the system works so let's try exercising and see what happens. Also, don't go outside unless you have to. You mentioned your apartment was like David's so that means that it's the same as mine. We'll figure out if we're in the same Megabuilding later, but there should be a vending machine in there that you can get food out of. For water, just drink out of the bathroom faucet. That's what I'm doing.'
["Food? Wait, we have money?"]
'Yeah, we have an account, though I'm not too sure how to access it. Just press the button on the vending machine, and it'll automatically deduct the cost from your account.' My eyes glanced over to the vending machine in my apartment. 'Just don't expect it to taste like anything you're used to.'
["I think I might take a peek around to get the lay of the land."]
'…for better food, right?' I wanted to stop him, of course, but I also knew that he was a big-time foodie. It was hard to imagine him choking down more than one serving of the mysterious burrito. 'Well, I can't stop you, but just be careful. With our bodies like this, we'll probably die straight away if we get glared at hard enough.'
["Yeah, I think I'm getting hungry so I'll try the burrito. It can't be that bad, right?"]
'…give me a review later. Also, call me or text me if you find anything out, Vahn—no, Robert. We probably should start calling each other by our new names so we can get used to it.'
["Right. What was your name again?"]
'Jin-Yeong, but just call me Jin. I think I'm mispronouncing Yeong anyways.'
["Alright, Jin. Stay safe. Now, how do I hang—"] The blank portrait with his pen name blinked out. I made a mental note to figure out how to change the contact name later.
It probably said something about me that all I wanted to do now was just sink back into the couch and stay there. Despite the fact that we had practically made a resolution to test out the system, I was reluctant to even get started. All that I wanted to do was just take in everything that I had learned since it was all a bit too much. However, there was something that would keep on bugging me if I didn't get it done now. Even with how lethargic and mentally tired I felt, I forced myself up to my feet and walked over to the empty space in the middle of the apartment.
Dropping down to the floor, I took up a push-up position and started doing the exercise. Unsurprisingly, by the fifth push-up, my arms were feeling wobbly enough that I was tittering on the brink, but I pushed through. When I reached ten, I collapsed onto the rug, my breath coming hard and in wheezing bursts. However, there was now a notification in my vision.
[Athletics skill tree (Body) is now unlocked at level 1]
It took me a while to regain my breath and feel a little less pathetic than I did. Still, the fact that the skill tree was unlocked in the first place meant that I was on the right path. Just to make sure, I brought up the status window. Where it used to be blank underneath the Body attribute—except for an experience meter—there was now Athletics visible as a pressable button. Going into it, a skill tree appeared with the first tier of perks available for purchase. However, there was one problem.
"I don't have any perk points…"
Honestly, I thought it would give me some, but maybe I needed to level up the skill tree more.
Another issue was that the experience meter under my General Level didn't increase at all. I thought that it would, just like in the game, but it looks like it works on a different system. Well, I would have to test it out more to check out what works.
At the very least, the experience bar for my Body attribute was increasing as well. Just a small increment, really, but with how little I did, that was reasonable. That did tell me that as long as I did something to progress my skill tree, the associated attribute would benefit as well.
Awkwardly and wobbly getting to my feet, I walked over to the computer desk. While I should be dropping to the floor and doing more push-ups, I also wanted to check the computer and all the documents I could find to see just what kind of life this guy, Kyong Jin-Yeong, had. After all, I had stolen that very life from him. Even if I didn't feel guilty at all about it, I would still need to find out the information so that I could play his role properly if I needed to. This was absolutely not an excuse to avoid doing more push-ups.
I sat down into the chair, and it didn't take me long afterward to find the power button for the computer. However, what appeared on the display monitor was not something that I was ever expecting.
"New user registration…?" I stared blankly at the computer screen. "Did he never use this computer before?"
I took the time to complete all the registration information, especially since there didn't seem to be any way to skip it all. I couldn't say that it was surprising, given how these corporations treated even their customers, but I wasn't truthful anyways; I just put whatever in each slot to get it over with. I wanted to get through it fast since there should be something in there about him. However, even with my minimal expectations at this point, I was sorely disappointed. This really was a brand new computer. It wasn't simply reformatted so there was absolutely no data about him to be found on it. At least, none that I could find out. The user interface was intuitive enough, even for something that was supposed to be many decades beyond my time.
Though, on the bright side, it was already connected to the city-wide net so I could look up any information that I needed, and I had plenty of needs for that. However, that was for later.
Swiveling in my chair, I searched the drawers of the desk. There was nothing in them except for one dataslate. Turning it on, I found that it had a copy of a contract on it. More specifically, it was a contrast for this apartment, prepaid for half a year. It even had Jin-Yeong's signature at the end, one that looked suspiciously like my handwriting.
"Megabuilding H11."
I had no clue where that was, but it shouldn't be hard to look up. Now, I just had to find out where Vahn—no, Robert—was and figure out how to reach him.
~o~
Author's Note: Special thanks for Seras (author of Ghost in the City) for permission to use her modified system. Thank you very much! Though, I started with it being the base, it has deviated quite a lot to better fit my story.
Yeah, so I started this story because my pal, Vahn, was doing a SI so I wanted to do one too. For this one, I wanted to try a double SI since I always did like trying new things so we'll see how it goes. Thanks for reading!
Anyways, thanks to Vahn (Vahnhammer on SB) for proofreading despite being on his break. Besides providing his engram, heh.
Since I am not able to post a notice on my other fic because of the website's policy, anyone wondering why we haven't updated our other story, it's because Vahn is on a break due to his father's passing. Once he feels much better, we'll resume work on that other story. This story is pretty much my own story with input and such for his insert.
If you want to support me, I do have a and a ko-fi.