Chapter 1

"Mijo, hurry up, you'll be late for School." Gloria Martinez yelled as she pounded on her son's door.

"Gimme a sec ma, I'm almost finished."

David was working on his latest personal project, self-replicating nanobots. He was finishing up some of the coding that would control them once he could start making them. Sadly, he was lacking the eddies to buy the raw materials. Precious metals were hard to come by in Night City and one of the primary components for these bots would be gold. Once he was able to acquire some, he would be able to fire up his custom 3D printer to get the first few thousand made after that they could build themselves.

David loved chrome, but not just your regular stuff anyone could get off the street. He loved making his own. He didn't have all that much installed besides his shard slots and a holo, but that was mostly because of financial reasons. Rippers cost money, a lot of money. Even if he brought his own chrome for them to install, they'd just mark up the installation cost to fatten up their profit margin.

All the rippers in Arroyo were shady as hell too. He knew that for sure cause he kind of worked part time for one. The dude was high half the time, and the other half the time was frying his brain cells in a BD.

It kind of sucked because he'd designed and built some pretty sweet chrome for himself. So far he had a pair of arms and legs ready to go, but no way to install them. That's where the nanobots come into play. Once enough of them were built the bots would be injected into his body and handle the chrome installation. David still wasn't sure if the bots could break down the organic matter of his arms and legs or if he would have to find a way to cut them off. Oh well, problems for the future.

Getting out of his chair David threw on his school uniform jacket and grabbed his bag. Double checking his BD was in there he was ready to go.

Leaving his room, he said adios to his mom and headed for the metro station. No elevator so the fastest way down was free falling into piles of garbage. Goddamn he smelled like shit.

The metro wasn't far from megabuilding H4, but he had to book it through the crowded streets of Night City if he was gonna make it on time. Arasaka actually charged you if you were late to class. It didn't mean much to the Corpos. They had money to spend, but a late fee would cost his mom a month's salary.

Scanning his card at the entrance and racing through the doors just before they closed he made it just on time. After a 15 minute ride David was exiting the metro into Corpo Plaza.

It was like a night and day difference compared to Arroyo. Some people owned clothes that cost more money than he'd ever seen. Skyscrapers that stretched into the sky, police on every corner, gardens, art, pristine parks everywhere you look. It was like a little paradise in the middle of Night City.

It's all bullshit though you were just as likely to get flatlined here as anywhere else in this city. Just instead of chromed out maelstrom or Valentino gangster filling you with lead. It'd be a guy or gal in a suit who fries your brain while they're taking a sip of coffee.

Finally reaching school David scanned his ID at the gate and was let through. Class was on the 3rd floor because he's a junior, just one year left after this one and he can start his climb up Arasaka tower… hurray.

If this place didn't have the best damn resources in the city on all things cyberware he'd have dropped out on his first day. Spoiled Corpo kids can make a street kid's life hell. It also didn't help that David was one of the top students in the school. Tough pill to swallow, that even with all the money and resources in the world a broke kid still outperforms you just because he's that good.

Walking through the sliding door of his class room he sees that he's one of the last to arrive. Many of the students are already in their net-chairs waiting for the AI teacher to begin class.

"Look at that, the street trash finally showed up, what happened David? Took you longer than usual to wade through all the garbage." Katsuo, the biggest piece of shit in the school. Along with his hanger ons. Middle of the pack kind of student and the only reason he goes here is because his father works for Arasaka.

"Nah, just stopped and looked at the class rankings making sure I was still first." Corpo dialect can be used in any language. You just have to remind the person you're speaking to that you're better than them.

Katsuo's face contorted into an ugly raging expression. He wouldn't say anything more though. David learned early on Katsuo had some major self esteem issues. He always had to be the best or have the best. Reminding him that he wasn't was the only way to get him to piss off. Show any weakness or overt aggression and he'd keep pressing you, assured in his eventual victory.

Putting his bag down and pulling out his visor David hopped into his chair. Sliding the visor over his eyes, he logged in and was transported to the classes' waiting room lobby. A digital environment that looked like the inside of the Arasaka tower lobby. A subtle way of reminding them who'd they'd be working for in the future.

David didn't have to wait long before the AI teacher started the class.

"Welcome students, let's begin with our meditative relaxation program."

They were seamlessly transported to a place that looked like the garden of Eden. Flowing streams, grassy meadows, tall trees for shade, and birds chirping.

"Take these moments to let all those unimportant thoughts fade away. You are students of Arasaka academy and your focus needs to reflect that. Everything else is negligible compared to your education." These meditation sessions also acted as brainwashing sessions, for the uninitiated. It was helpful though it gave me 10 minutes to settle in and get ready for the work to start. Coding, engineering, anatomy, metallurgy, and a plethora of other courses ensured Arasaka had the leading talent when it came to cyberware.

Unlike a normal day however, David's 10 minutes to relax were interrupted. A screen popped up in front of him. His visor was being hacked and a daemon was currently being uploaded. Well that just wouldn't do. Expanding his screen he saw it looked like a decent short circuit quickhack. It wouldn't do much more than fry his BD visor, but since he was logged into the classes system chances are it'd spread to the other students as well, Daemons were finicky like that.

The only response that made sense was to send this back to the sender. Then log out of the class system before it spreads. Running a counter program that went about bundling up the daemon. It wasn't difficult to shoot it back to the IP of whoever sent it. After that David logged off real quick, he wanted to see who got hit first that'd let him know who sent it.

Pulling up his visor David looked around the class.

"Mr. Martinez, is there an issue?" Asked the AI instructor having seen him log off.

"Yep."

Just then Katsuo's back arced off his chair and let out a high pitched screech. Short circuits hit those with more chrome harder. Like he was the first domino afterwards his other classmates began to get hit. Wails and screeches filled the classroom till eventually it hit the main system causing the AI teacher to malfunction.

"Error, error, system shutdown imminent. Report error to administration." Guess class is down for today.