Work began early in the morning, and with Aigis by my side, the entire tech tree was finally at my fingertips.

Plugging myself into a computer, I allowed my memories to be stored by the device, turning them into blueprints I could sift through in the future. Most of it was scrap that was barely useable, but that was to be expected, with the amount of stuff in cyberpunk, it was damn near expected. Though, with a few printers, it wouldn't be long until I filled out the entire catalog.

With a grin on my face, I flexed my what little muscle I had on my body. Watching with rapt fascination as the synthetic muscles and machines shifted, moved in ways I could only dream of. I had changed my body. In a way that I never thought possible before I got my powers.

Then, my gaze drifted off to a bucket nearby, filled to the brim with what was previously inside of me.

I was still in the operating room, fresh from the surgery Aigis had performed. The sterile cement room still made me feel dizzy, but to a lesser extent. But none of that was important. My flesh, the thing that made up my body for the longest time. I stipped it away. Just like that.

And I felt so much better for it.

What would happen if I just removed a little bit mo- "Aigis!" I called, the AI in a flesh suit appearing before me in a flash. "Could you be a dear and upload my consciousness into the computer? Supply more power into it. Let it allocate as much resources as it needs."

The robot hesitantly nodded at my decision, acquiescing even if it meant I was virtually killing myself. But none of that mattered, did it? If I still used the same body, the same brain. It didn't matter if I was an evolved being.

{--}

The operation went off without a hitch. And I felt more powerful than ever. But not enough. I knew for damn fact I could go even further.

So I entered my workshop, my shard still guiding me despite not even being myself any more. It knew that, I knew that it knew that. It knew that I knew that it knew. But neither of us did anything about it. Doing our job as we were told, and giving it as much data as possible.

The amount of tech stacking at my desk grew by the day, molding together until I'd optimized them to their fullest, and even further beyond that by combining designs from experimental variants from each one of the corporations, the power at my fingertips practically rising with each new advancement I discovered.

Stepping into the operations table, I say Aigis glance at me with a worried look on her fake face, each of her features perfectly sculpted to elicit some form of emotion from me. To make me think and take a step back. But it wouldn't work. Not now that I was the best I could ever be.

Stretching my back, I felt the stitches pull, yelling at me to stop or else they would be torn open again. But with a puff of a stim, the pain disappeared.

And I felt fucking invincible.

Activating the sandevistan, the world came to a screeching halt, the world molding into a blur of colors and confusing sounds. It was like I hit the slomo button. It felt amazing.

But why stop there?

I'd enhanced every single part of my body already, why stop at just a sandy, when I could do so much more. With a snap of a finger, a hud appear in my periphery, my cyberdeck already ping the various objects around me, waiting for me to activate it.

Looking at Aigis, a small smile spread across my face, as I disappeared.

I'd gotten what I wanted. I did what I could. But there was more. Of course there was more. I could feel it at my very finger tips. I wanted more. And of course, it had.

Appearing in my workshop once more, I set the printers to start fabricating, feeding the parts into a small disk shape device after a little bit of trouble. If things went as expected, then I was going to start a chain reaction that would result in me escalating things to the point where they'd go too far.

But it was all for the greater good.

I suppressed a chuckle. For a moment, I almost sounded like Cauldron there. And I would be if things went according to plan. If things went my way.

Planting the bombs all throughout the city, I felt a grin slide onto my face as I dusted my fingers, watching as the last one settled into place. Only to be distracted as the sound of my phone ringing alerted me to something.

"Yes?" I answered, my tone cordial despite what I was about to do. "What can I do for you, sir?"

Instead of the voice I was expecting, I was met with another, a different one. It sounded Japanese, from what I could tell, thick like tar, and with a slight edge to the voice. "You can start by greeting us at the front door instead of your sex toy. It's common courtesy, and the bare minimum for guests of the house."

There was an authoritativeness that hung in those words. Like I'd die if I disrespected him. "Yes, Lung." No other words needed to be said, my body zipping back to the warehouse, as I opened the main entrance, finding Lung in the living room, Aigis standing right next to him with a platter of tea and biscuits in her hand.

I was going to have tea and biscuits with lung. Compared to what I was about to do, this was almost laughable.

"You wanted to meet with me, Lung?" There was a sort o reverence to my voice, just enough to where he wouldn't be annoyed. "I'm afraid I got caught up in the middle of a run around the city. I apologize for making you wake so long."

He waved me down, moving a hand towards Aigis as he spoke. "Don't worry, your little toy was able to entertain me for long enough. Takes her service above and beyond, that one."

"Only the best gifts for you, Lung."

"The best? Then you wouldn't mind if I took her, would you?"

"And what's a hundred more? I can make another one, make them loyal to you and only you. Hey, I could make them good for the business, make each of the girls installed with this tech, and distributed amongst the brothels. I'm sure that would improve profits."

I said calmly, taking a biscuit. "You know, It was thanks to your help I was able to do so much in the past week alone. I was able to find out my specialization, create something I could truly be proud of. And after triggering only two weeks before? Shit, I bed I'm at the top five tinkers of all time. That certainly sounds like something to be happy about, right?"

"Hmm, can't say I'm very knowledgeable on the topic, care to enlighten me, Lester?"

My brows furrowed for a moment, perplexation warping my face at how polite the big bad dragon was. "Sure, it's not that bad. See, tinkers don't receive all of their power from the start. Sure they can start building immediately, but like with everyone else, they'll have to discover what their power is before they can truly start.

"However, with how tinkers are and with the number of stuff they can build. It's no wonder that most thinkers have a hard time discovering what they've good at. What makes them tick." I could feel a smile touch the corners of my lips as I continued to speak. "And I am one of the fair few who learned what theirs was in such a short amount of time."

"Well, you keep going on and on about it. Why don't you actually tell me what it is already." His tone grew darker, heavier, but it wasn't something that stunned me. Not one bit.

"Well, it's nothing too special," I said humbly, sending the signal to half of the bombs that I placed. "It's just a little bit of advanced tech. Explosives of some kind, with cybermetic, and synthetic muscle. But, that didn't matt-."

My voiced was silenced by the sound of a thousand exploding suns. "I can make pretty little fireworks that go boom!"

Lung covered his ears, and I activated all my enhancements, closing the distance between himself and I before he could react and popped the mantis blade stashed in my left forearm.

The limb extended, firing out like a gun shot and cleaving through the dragon of Kyushu like a hot knife through butter. Two halves, his body laid flat on the floor, falling with little more than a "plop."

"Aigis?" I called out once more, the robot taking my side as her face grew more and more robotic. "Care to put him back together again? I'm afraid I have more matters to attend to.

"Yes, creator." She replied, her voice more monotone than before.

Watching her retreating figure, a soft smile appeared on my face as I let go of a contented sigh. "What would I do without that girl?"

Alright. Hit the power fantasy button. I turned him into an AI. Nuked Brockton, and provoked quite literally everyone. Fall out chapter soon (possibly never, but always have some hope)