Now, here was the thing. I did not actually know much about the cyberpunk 2077 setting, other than it was of the ones that was fairly popular, though that could just be a modern and 'new thing' sort of deal. Sure, I was placed inside of the setting, but I had a superpower. Yeah, technically it also came with a sort of gamer interface and progression system, but most of that was seemingly skill based, though there were options down the line, far down the line, for some expansion. Now, the power itself was something insanely broken in this sort of setting, to the point where I was likely going to have people after my ass.
The power itself? Psionic control of metal. In a cyberpunk setting. Where people regularly replace bits and pieces of themselves with metal, flesh and blood spliced with circuits and chrome. Where someone who was strictly organic was in many ways seen as a cripple, someone not worth bothering about, not when you can just chrome up and git gud. Sure, there was also bioware, but most of the big dangerous threats? That came from chrome. At least, based on all the things I saw for the setting. Which could be not entirely accurate.
Case in point, as I look into some of the higher end parts of my various skill trees? A lot of the modification and attachment schematics seem to be fairly supernatural, even more than just the fact that by the time I unlocked them I should be able to passively be aware of all metals in a three kilometer sphere around myself and capable of going Water D Law on anyone with a lot of chrome in their bodies. There was something in my head about animals, but yeah, I never actually played the games, only read some fanfics that used them as settings.
But, I will admit that I have a plan! A simple as fuck plan, but hey, I was not going to go for something crazy. I just needed to have a safe house, grind out some of my skills (mostly range and power), work on a few techniques, and I should be good for the most part. Yes, there were a few things that could go wrong, but it was not like I was going to go hunting for any gangbanger or corporate types. I should be able to work under the radar to protect myself eventually, but no reason to take unneeded risks.
Okay, so, things got kinda out of hand? Not too much, just a bit... okay, yeah, they crashed and burned because of the damn Maelstrom nutjobs. On the one hand, I had actually been doing fairly well, located a place willing to take scrap metal, which meant cash, which meant seedy motels and cheap and crap tasting food. But it would be safer than the streets and I could check most kinds of cameras or microphones, since I was able to sense and identify the metals. Not in a large range and most of the time not much detail, but hey, progress.
As it is, my planned big money maker? Dumpster diving and going for junk and scrap I would be able to manipulate and then sell. Get some supplies, work on unlocking some defensive techniques and techs, and maybe work on some of the more mystic leaning things in a year or two. but all in all? While my main power WAS broken as hell for the setting, it was also... not quite at Pyrrha Nikos levels of power, and comparisons to Magneto's feats (against metal)? I might damage some organs from laughing that hard.
At the same time, I didn't need to break into the extreme ends of the power spectrum, but I want decent range, power and area of effect. Mostly as I was realistic enough to know that gangsters would come in numbers, same with bots and drones. But, while I was a lazy, greedy and mildly perverted asshole, what else was I supposed to do when two of the assholes grabbed a kid right on the street and were starting to 'play' with the crying child, as the kid begged for help, screaming as everyone stood still, knives starting to nick and carve?
I mean sure, there was nothing sexual, as I grabbed the metal in their bones, holding them tight as their fancy implanted eyes tore themselves apart, diving right into the brain and shredding away at the soft flesh. My first kills too, which is why I started puking. There were screams, shouting, eyes wide as people looked around, as the child ran, taken by his mother as they fled... and as everyone was wondering what the hell had just happened as they scattered. After all, if it happened to a pair of maelstrom thugs, whose to say they were not next?
But... in those two acts of brutality, I had managed to gain more... essence? Power? Skill points? Whatever it was, progress than I had managed the last three days. Then again, was it not said that one could only gain heaven through violence?
Regina Jones
So, there was some weird shit happening. Something, or someone, was ripping through the street level members of the Maelstrom, And the means of death? Their chrome turning on them and killing them, shredding and tearing their bodies apart. Some of them looked like got fed into a industrial grinder.
Which of course, was making everyone freak out. Made a shiver run down her spine, no lie there, as she could almost feel each piece of chrome, as she pictured it suddenly turning on her, ripping itself free or becoming a weapon worse than any kind of hackers dream. But, she looked over the data, over the leads.. and there he was. A bennie near each of the incidents. Sure, some of the people where at more than one incident, but only this guy was at each use of the weapon. Which could be some kind of nanotech.
And not something that she could pick up on the cameras. Which means that it could be a stealth weapon, maybe some sort of piece of tech meant for assassinations? Given how it seemed to fuck up chrome... she was going to reach out to some NCPD contacts, see if this was meant as an anti-psycho weapon? Given just what it seemed to do... it made more and more sense, even as she wondered. Was it something the government was working on, some sort of plan for purging the corpo's to take back control?
Or, given how the effects on chrome? Fuck, was this something from Biotechnia, meant to make people move from chrome to being organic? Her blood chilled, as she considered the possibilities... and as she started to make some calls.