164

I woke up and slowly stretched out. I had decided to sleep after we got home last night, and now I was ready to start the day.

More importantly, I was ready to test out my new chrome!

Viks time limit was over.

I stood up and felt for the mental toggle for the Sandy.

I flipped it on, and winced as I felt my body react.

Nerves lit up on fire, adrenaline spiked. Biological, and mechanical responses activated and suddenly everything was slow.

I moved, running towards my bedroom wall, but it felt like I was moving through molasses.

Yet, I was still moving fast. Even faster than I could have before my movement felt slow, and I knew that this Sandy wasn't as good at letting me cut through the sense of slowed down time.

I nearly reached the wall and made to stop, only for my feet to slide a bit on the floor.

I blinked stars out of my eyes.

"What the hell was that!?" Jun demanded as he burst into my room.

Had I? I blinked again. Yep. I had slammed into the wall so hard I knocked myself silly.

"I'm okay!" I called out arm up in the air from where I was laying on my back.

"You don't look okay. Your nose is bleeding. Motoko, what the hell?"

"I uh, miscalculated my Sandy." I mentioned, and instantly Jun's worry vanished.

"Gonk! Don't practice new chrome in the house! Look at the wall!"

I didn't want to look at the wall, thank you Jun. If I can't see the hole in the wall where my head smashed into it, it doesn't exist!

Jun looked down on me for a moment longer before sighing, and disappearing. I slowly rose up, and noticed my nose was bleeding. Groaning in annoyance, I was gonna go find something to clean it up but Jun walked in with a towel and a moment later he was gently holding my head and pressing the towel against my nose.

"Ow."

"I know it hurts, you might have broken your nose."

"I don't think so." I muttered, it didn't hurt like I broke it.

"Well that's good." He said and then glared at me. "This was dumb."

"Sorry."

He nodded at my apology, and that was that.

—--

I huffed a Maxdox after Jun stopped fussing and I was fully healed. But I had learned my lesson.

Sandy are difficult to use.

I considered dropping my one stat point into it, but my neck was also still super stiff, and I was tempted to drop a point into that for comfort.

So instead I didn't do either. I got dressed for the day and left the apartment before Jun could notice my sudden healing.

I walked the streets for a bit. Heading down towards Jig Jig street. While I walked. I did some testing.

I activated the Sandy and just tried walking. I could feel the hitch in my step as everything grew slow and my steps had to be forced to keep pumping through the thick air.

I turned it off, and the feeling left my heart beating and a warmth in my neck.

I walked on. Just cataloging the feelings the Sandy left in its wake. I shivered a bit as the heat from its activation didn't really go away. A hand pressed onto the chrome on the back of my neck, right where the chip for the Sandy was, gave me a rather uncomfortable feeling in my stomach.

There was no heat in the chrome left. The heat I was feeling was my nerves. Probably inflamed from the forced acceleration the Sandy caused. Needing to find out how long the effect lasted, I finished my walk to the Sakura Market, and ordered breakfast slurping down some nice Ramen.

Unfortunately I didn't really feel any better after my meal. My neck still felt hot and it was making me a little nervous. Yet before I went running to Viks to get checked out, I decided to pop another MaxDoc.

Instantly a sense of coolness ran down my spine and I stretched and adjusted myself. Throwing the used inhaler into a nearby trash can, I headed back home and once more cataloged the feeling.

I felt okay. No further heat or pain. But that didn't mean I wasn't going to look into this issue.

*Motoko: Hey Vik, not an emergency, but I activated my Sandy for the first time. Want to come in for a checkup.*

*Viktor Vector: If something is wrong come in kid, I'm at my office now. It's a slow morning.*

*Motoko: Yeah, okay. I'm on my way over. I'm okay though, I just want a check up.*

And with that I had the first stop today.

—--

"And you said a Maxdoc removed the feeling?"

"Yeah. I thought the Sandy was just overheating at first, but after a few minutes the feeling didn't go away and the Sandy cooled off."

"Not unusual. Probably just put a lot of unusual stress on your nervous system." He mumbled out as he set me up for a scan. A few minutes of him just mumbling to himself he came back to himself. "Everything looks good." He determined looking to me.

"That's a relief." I exhaled shoulders slumping.

"Well it looks fine now, so your healing obviously helped, but I would like to get a scan of you while you activate that Sandy of yours." He said, and I threw him a thumbs up.

"Sure, just tell me when."

"Go for it." He answered instantly, turning to look at a screen, and I activated the Sandy.

Instantly everything slowed down. I blinked my eyelids felt heavy and slow at the motion.

I could basically 'feel' the cooldown on the Sandy tick down. A sense of energy or time limit built into the chrome that fed information to me through the Neural Link.

Then it deactivated and I gasped as I realized my heart was beating fast from the adrenaline surge,

"Alright, do you feel the heat again?" Vik asked, and I focused on my neck and nodded.

"A little? Maybe? I think I didn't really notice it until I used it twice."

"Alright, let's do that then. Go ahead whenever it's ready, kid."

I nodded, feeling the Sandy's cooldown finish its long cool down cycle and then I activated it again.

The experience was truly unique. Each time I activated the Sandy, I noticed something new. How air felt a little heavier making it harder to breathe. But it was actually just my sense of touch and my sense of time conflicting.

The Sandy turned off, and I was more ready for the feeling of the adrenaline surge ending as I calmed myself and just let my adrenaline fade away.

"I would bet you are feeling that now." Vik muttered as I shivered, my neck hot.

"Yeah."

"Well good news and bad news. Good news, this is pretty normal. It's nerve strain, pretty common with reflex boosters. As long as you give yourself time to recover you'll be fine. Bad news? It's not likely to go away. It's just how your body responds to the chrome."

"When I used a MaxDoc, I was fine after, does that mean I can keep doing that?" I asked, normally I wouldn't want to abuse my body's limitations, but only being able to use a Sandy twice sounded pretty useless.

"Honestly? I don't know kid. I wouldn't recommend it. Better to not risk it, but your healing is so unique, and filled with unknowns to start with. Be careful."

"I will. Thanks Vik. I appreciate the check up."

"Honestly, it's a nice change of pace, having a customer come in before the problem spiraled out of control." He joked, but there was a twinge of seriousness in this comment.

"Well I have the best ripper in Night City checking my chrome. Seems silly not to ask him for help."

Vik to my delight did a little scoff at my words, but his ears got a little red. I thought about teasing him, but no. I didn't want to embarrass him.

Thanking him once again I headed out.

I had a lunch date after all!

—--

"What!? Oh my god, Motoko! Eeee!" Hiromi rambled and squealed in happiness while we sat across from Arasaka tower in the City Center park. I had asked Hiromi if we could meet during her lunch. So we were enjoying a meal I had brought with.

"It was kinda awkward more than anything. But Denny liked Tank… I don't know if I want to sell it though? I mean, Tank is… I don't know, special I guess. So can you help? Act as my manager or somet-"

"Yes! I am your manager now." She demanded poking my chest with a finger. "No music deals of any kind without going through me! I know how you are with deals!" She ordered and I just laughed at her, because she was so serious about it.

"Okay okay. You win. I'm a bit of a gonk with eddies, I know."

"Good. Then I'll reach out after class, I'll need to do some research as well!" She said before turning to her food and stuffing some noodles into her mouth with the energy of someone in a rush.

I felt a little uncomfortable though. Hiromi already did a lot of work for me. Acting as a Fixer for Section 9, even doing all the selling and buying for Section 9.

And all of that on top of going to school. Taking classes, homework and schoolwork.

I reached out and pulled Hiromi into a hug. Ignoring her surprised noise as I pulled her in while making sure she wasn't going to drop her food. "Hiromi. Just don't overwork yourself okay? Definitely not for me, and not for something this silly. I've been throwing a lot on your plate and I just want to make sure you don't get too stressed okay?"

"Wha-t-this is nothing! I can do all of this and more! You can rely on me!" She stuttered before nearly jumping to her feet in her eagerness to assure me, but I wasn't happy to hear that. I frowned at her, and then reached out before she could get away, chrome palms trapping her cheeks so she had to look into my eyes.

"Don't overwork yourself." I demanded and she nodded slowly looking almost embarrassed at my firm tone.

At least she understood now. I would be really mad if she made herself sick or something over this!

"Okay. The music thing can wait, it's not really important." I said flippantly, but Hiromi whined in her throat.

"I'll deal with it tonight! Do you have any idea what that number means?" She asked and I shook my head and she sighed. "It means that I now have a contact in the music industry. When I call, the manager will try to trip me up, I'll haggle, and we'll end up with lots of eddies, and a new name. A contact I can reach out to speak to for any information in the music industry. Contacts are better than eddies Motoko!"

"Well just… Don't work on it too hard." I said, not really understanding how a business deal would turn into contacts in the future. But that was Hiromi's thing so I would take her word on it. "I mean… It's a lot of work for nothing."

"Nothing?" And then Hiromi surprised me, by instantly pushing into my personal space, her face reddened but she did it anyways poking me in the cheek with her face really close. "I'm taking twenty percent off the top." She said almost sinisterly and then settled back onto the bench with a cackle.

Hiromi around eddies was scary!

—--

With the music issue passed off to Hiromi, and my chrome settled and functional, I made a call.

*Kitten! What's my little Kohai calling about?" Sasha said cheerfully, although it did sound a little forced.

*Well you asked me to netrun with you last time. Just got my final checkup from my ripper, if you still want some company?*

*Yeeees! It's so boring! The only thing I'm allowed to do is Netdive or watch TV! Okay! You come over and use the bath?*

*I'd much rather just head to my place, and we can meet on the net? My chair is way more comfortable.*

*Pfft. That's right you are so prissy about it! It's kinda cute! Very moe-moe point! Okay fine you can have your senpai stuck with crappy ice baths while you get your fancy equipment, it won't matter. I'll show you what a real netrunner is like, chu!*

Did she just kiss noise at me?

*Right?*

*Hehe! Okay where should we meet? Should I give you my lobby code? Did I clean it up! What if I left dirty laundry laying around!* She fake gasped at that, and I couldn't help but laugh.

*How about we meet at the Roundabout? Yoko is a choom of mine.*

*Ugh. The foxs den? Paaaass. Here I know a fun net club. I'll send you the IP. Meet me at the bar yeah?*

*Sure.*

*Preeem! Now I gotta go get dressed up for our date! Bye!*

*Wha- It's not a d-* The call ended.

"That cat is going to be trouble." I whispered to myself, suddenly feeling like I had just invited a stray cat into my home.

—--

Plugged in, I dived into the net and landed in the casual atmosphere of my lobby, stretching my body. I took a moment to feel the slight differences that new chrome brought with.

Sure, my cyberdeck was the same, but a new neural link did make a difference.

My old one was a civilian model, something kids would get. My new one wasn't state of the art, but it was vastly improved.

But now wasn't the time to enjoy the slight difference in latency I could feel. I stepped out of my lobby and into a search engine and then I was across the city in a blaze, connection after connection, until I appeared in a blink on a busy digital street.

The server was somewhere in Charter Hill, and there was a ton of traffic through the streets. Mostly business traffic, large massive data streams that were more like trains to my senses than a normal user's connection demanded priority in the air above.

But I wasn't going up there. No, the IP that Sasha had given me tugged my attention down. I was at the top of a set of stairs that led down into darkness.

The IP matched, so I took a step, and then another. Deeper into the darkness. I came out upside down which was an irritating fact, stepping 'up' out of what had been down a moment before until I was level, and then I stepped off the last step that ended in empty air.

I felt the world flip around, and I was right side up, landing on digital concrete. I was in an alley now. Faux trash cans, and dumpsters lined the sides, with fire escapes leading to nothing looming overhead. But it was a single difference that caught my eye. A warm yellow light, like from a lightbulb streaked across the alley from a small round window in a door, indented into the side of the alley.

I walked over and even as I approached I could hear laughter, and noises like you would expect before walking into a bar.

Someone went to a lot of work to get that track right. Digital as it was. I opened the door, and the noise changed, soft strobing electronic music, and another set of stairs.

This server Sasha invited me to was seriously deep in the net. Down again, this time into a warm burgundy carpeted entrance.

"Welcome to Elysium." A woman greeted me, sitting behind the counter. Her eyes hidden behind a magazine. Like an actual paper magazine. A glance closer showed it was just a file she was reading, made to look like that, but it was still weird.

"Thanks. I'm here to-"

"Ah-ah-ah." She interrupted. "That's none of my bizz. Go on in. No trouble, or I introduce you to Elysiums darkest Black ICE. All the other rules should be self evident if you found the server."

I nodded in exchange and walked through the door, instantly I was blasted by heavy music, the entire server set up so the music felt like it was right there.

It was actually kind of overbearing, but I powered through it and looked around. The club actually looked less techno than what I would expect from a runners club. Instead everything was more old school. Hard wood and warm colors. The lights actually looked like lightbulbs giving the place a warm glow.

But it was obviously fake. The facade peeled and cracked in the dark corners. As data shone through.

The server was old. That was what I came to realize as I looked around. Unlike Yoko's club, this was the sort of place that had been around for a long time.

But I shook that off and headed for the bar. I frowned when I realized there was no Sasha. Had I beat her here? I shrugged it off and took a chair. A bartender behind the counter wasn't actually a person, just a daemon watching over everything.

It would definitely agro the moment someone caused trouble.

I hadn't managed to sit down for more than a few moments before a back door of the bar opened and out came a giggly Sasha.

"Yay!" She cheered happily bouncing around. Her appearance and cheer caused a few of the netrunners sitting in booths around the bar to groan and feign outrage at her.

"Kohai!" She cheered, noticing me and bouncing over.

Instantly I realized the difference between Sasha in real life, and Sasha on the net.

She was happy here. Or at least faking it way better.

"Sa-"

"Nenene!" She demanded a finger hovering over my lips, not that her finger would have reached me anyways. "I'm Mysterious Neko-Nyan!<3 on the net." She demanded with a wink.

"Shut up Sasha you gonk!" A man called out from across the room and Sasha instantly zipped away to glare at the man.

"Don't do that, you rusty pipe!" She hissed very much like a cat but he just laughed at her.

"Okay Neko. Wh-"

"Neko-Nyan<3!" She demanded and I glared. The fact she had added a fucking emote into her speech and my brain actually processed it as such was toxic.

"No." I said and she huffed a sigh, before looking pleased as punch and reaching out to fake poke at me.

"Fine Kitten, we-"

"Ghost. On the net I'm Ghost." I poked back right on her nose.

"Eeee, Cringe! You and like fifty others! Whiskers is better!" She denied and I huffed at her.

"It's what I called myself before, and it's what I'm using. Ghost is cool…" I said ignoring the look of disgust she was giving me. "But if I have to, It's Ghost in the Shell." I answered. Adding a bit more onto it so I wasn't just all the other 'Ghosts' on the net.

"Hmmm… Less Cringe, but not very cute. Very 4/10. Not very Nova-Preem of you."

I visibly cringed in response, what else could I do. She had said that like some old out of touch lady trying to be cool.

"Hehehe!" She giggled at my obvious disgust.

"Why are you like this?"

"Cause it's fun, Duh!" She chirped, before looking more serious. "Okay so! Elysium isn't just a hangout, it's a gambling den! We are here to make Sasha some eddies! And you! Don't worry Senpai won't cheat you!"

"I don't gamble."

"Psh. Don't worry, it's not gambling when we will definitely win!"

"Said every gambling addict ever." I mumbled a little annoyed. What was up with this? Sasha hadn't mentioned gambling.

"You are such a cute little kid! Don't worry so much! You don't have to do anything! I just need a second body so I can go into doubles. Single battles aren't making me as much anymore, but you are fresh! Odds should be preem."

I just looked at her for a minute before feeling like I wanted to rub my nose. "Sasha what is even going on. What double battles?"

"Oooh, you are so new! Like a shiny fresh Daemon just created and naive to the ways of the netrunner! Elysium is the number one Netrunner combat zone in NC."

"We go in, beat up some low rank rezzers, and make some fun eddies! It's a good way to get your name out too!" Sasha offered practically bouncing despite being in cyberspace.

"What kind of battles? I don't like the sound of Combat Zone, and Sasha, really I need some deets before I do something like this."

She looked at me for a moment before sighing. "Okay come with me." She demanded and faux grabbed my wrist to tug me along. I eventually relented and rose to follow. She led me back through the door she had entered and into a… It reminded me of a locker room.

"Okay Motoko, here is the deal. We are 2v2. There will be a couple of amateurs on the other side. We beat them. No killing, but you do your hacks to disable them. They will get tugged out by the system if something goes bad. It's all safe as can be. Hasn't been a death in the Combat Zone in years. And that was practically a suicide. Follow me so far?"

"Sort of. Why, though? Why would a netrunner show off their hacks like that? Isn't that dumb?"

"Eh. You don't really bring in the best of the best stuff that you want to keep secret, and kiddy scripts aren't going to be new to anyone. But yeah if you got something special you come in show it off, and you might get someone, or multiple someones interested, then you trade for better hacks, or data, or equipment."

"I never heard about this place before."

"Which is weird!" She suddenly exclaimed, arms waving. "Even kiddy scripters hear about it! The fact you don't know is super weird! So here we are! You back me up. I can handle this myself if I have to, but I have to bring a +1 for the double battles. So just sit back and let Senpai Neko-Nyan<3 show you how it's done!"

"I'm not sure I want to jump right in Sasha, I'd kinda rather watch to get an idea of what's going on first. Besides my hacks aren-"

"Oh it's too late for that." She interrupted, and then suddenly I felt it. I was pulled from the server I had been on before, and instantly moved to another section. I couldn't even fight it, as it felt more like the entire server section I was in dropped deeper into the net.

Which was a truly uncomfortable feeling. This server wasn't normal. The restrictions, and setup was odd. Truly odd. I could feel foreign code slam down. Rules of the server architecture that…

It was a game. I was in a game. I twitched, wanting to rip the entire thing apart and get out of here, but I mean…

It was a little intrusive with how I had just dropped in, and I didn't know the rules, but I quickly pinged the system and confirmed that the rules would keep anything from going too wrong.

Suddenly the far wall of the locker room burst apart into data revealing what looked like a recreation of a garbage dump beyond.

"Sasha." I said flatly not at all amused. "Did you just walk me into the arena while explaining what this place even is?"

"Yep! Put down a bet on your behalf as well!" She said with a wink.

"Don't kill her Motoko. Don't kill her." I whispered to myself. I just saved her. Killing her would be a mistake…

"Wooo!" Sasha cried out as she charged ahead, and then threw out a hack. The data coalesced from her hand in a stream of white hot plasma that ripped a hole straight across the arena towards the other side. The blast distorted the data in the way, smashing through every piece of terrain the arena had created.

A moment later she snapped her fingers. "Aww. That sometimes works. Killing them before they leave their starting zone."

"Great. I'm teamed up with a spawn camper." I muttered in realization.

Sasha was a toxic gamer.

Fuck.

I hurried to escape the spawn point not sure what the fuck was gonna happen in retaliation, and I did so just in time.

A… Missile? It looked like a missile, or lots of them anyways, shot over the terrain and then came down in a mass towards our entrance. Slamming into the little locker room and exploding constantly, a barrage of damage, that I was able to see beyond the display, and realize it was tearing apart data that was struck. A virus, and a nasty one.

Looking around I realized that Sasha was completely missing.

"Bitch." I muttered and then breached into the server around me. Its defenses were strong. Probably to stop people from doing just what I was up to, but I hadn't been seen, and I wasn't going to.

I could hear explosions and sounds of fire, and wind, and even the noise of many footsteps all rushing around, but I remained hidden. Using everything I knew about staying invisible to keep me out of this mess as I started breaching. Whoever we were against wouldn't have access to the server right? They would have to breach in too, so they shouldn't notice?

Fuck if I know. Fuck if Sasha had given me a chance to figure out what the fuck was happening!

Finally I broke through. The entire server architecture displayed before my eyes.

Then it reconfigured, and… Those fucking gonks.

I was looking at a minimap. Whoever designed this arena planned for a breach of access and set it up so that if you slipped through the defenses you could get a mini map…

Which meant someone might know where I was. I quickly removed my information from the system, my stealth Daemon activating as I had access now. It appeared beside me since the breach was complete. The Face Hugger burst away from me, going invisible as it did, and it spread, each Daemon it would find it would help blind me in their eyes.

That left Sasha and…

Two were still there, two big red dots that were netrunners. Dozens of smaller ones that were Daemons, and one green one. Sasha.

Sasha was fighting them. I could see her green dot running around blasting massive server breaking attacks at them, but together they seemed to be defending.

I considered it. I could just fucking leave. Let Sasha take the loss…

But I was also pretty competitive, and while this was a mess I had walked into, it was also Sasha.

For the girl I had watched die so many times… Yeah fine. I would deal with this.

But I didn't have the programs for this. What Sasha and the enemy netrunners were throwing around was way beyond what I had.

The programs I had picked up from V3L0CITY way back, had been on his server storage. They weren't his best, but hacks he didn't use anymore, or just found and thought they were interesting. I wasn't throwing Kamehameha waves around like Sasha had just done! My hacks were mostly Anti-Daemon tools. Sure Hell Flame wasn't something a netrunner wanted to touch, but it was easily defended against by anyone competent.

So I would just have to be sneaky.

I couldn't program something fast enough to matter here, but I could at least act as support, and maybe an assassin.

So I got up and started moving. As I did I walked around a corner and had to duck backwards. A Daemon. The netrunners we were fighting must have activated it. It was a pretty common grunt Daemon, but it was designed to look like a soldier, and came in a squad of five.

Their faces were already covered by my face hugger daemon so they didn't notice me… That gave me a chance.

I breached one of them. If I had a Cyberpsychosis hack I could probably cause them some trouble, but I didn't have anything like that installed.

Considering what I did have installed…

I walked up behind them, made a quick modification of the upload rate of my hack and activated it, feeling the heat of the flame almost echo the heat of my Cyberdeck heating up.

I cast the hack five times, each of them only barely moving. Just a flame sort of hanging in the air, before I released them all at once.

The fire shot forward towards the five Daemons that were walking away from me, and had no clue I was around.

Instantly all four took the hit and burned into nothing.

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

I blinked at the little menu pop up.

That's right.

Daemons killed meant XP for me… Okay maybe after bitching out Sasha after this I might think about forgiving her.

I took off, moving through the server as fast as I could. I wasn't so much walking, as forcing my position to change on the digital landscape. It was an aspect of breaching. Basically instead of using my normal virtual movement, I was just force moving myself through the architecture.

Then I landed on top of the highest point, giving me not just a minimap view, but also an actual view of the arena.

It was a giant circle. Trash piles meant to block sight and movement. With paths in between.

And I could see the battle. Sasha was zipping around sending out massive attacks that disrupted the terrain every time. While the two netrunners worked together on defense, assisting each other.

One was constantly activating more Daemons. The soldiers I saw before, a search program shaped like a dog, and a mass amount of flying I.M.Ps.

The daemons weren't doing much as most of them searched the arena, probably for me. But the rest focused on Sasha, disrupting her mass AOE hacks, forcing her to stop attacking the runners and protect herself.

I should probably go help.

On the other hand. She wanted to handle it on her own and got herself into this situation. And that was a lot of Daemons wandering around.

I turned and leapt, disappearing as I breached close to another group of soldiers.

A few moments later they burned into digital slag.

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

And that was worth it all. XP. Easy XP. Non murder focused XP.

I didn't have the equipment for this really. I was only able to ambush the Daemons, because of my own. But I couldn't really mass kill them as fast as I would like.

And it seems I couldn't do it stealthily. Before I even moved away from the latest kills, I heard it. Scrambling claws.

The Daemons had reacted to the loss of each other and was coming to investigate.

I moved, hiding away and throwing up some garbage data to conceal myself, as three of the scout dogs arrived. They sniffed at the melted still on fire remains of the daemons I had hit and then started their search subroutine.

They were actually pretty low tier. I could tell that just from one look at them. Their bodies were slim, but had bulky sections where inefficient code left them awkward. And their search function was literally to just go in circles from the start point. They were circling around in ever expanding circles trying to find me.

Fortunately they were also already infested with my Daemon.

Which made these weak daemons completely incapable of being a threat to me, as I threw out my ICE hack. Instantly the one I targeted was coated in digital ice, slowing it down to a crawl as I charged in.

I pulled up a modification of my Hell Flame hack I had once made in a rush so long ago, and a longsword made of flame arced out of my hand as I cut through the daemon.

Its data deleted in a massive arc caused the digital program to collapse.

*250 XP Gained.*

The two dogs left both turned to me. My Daemon might keep myself out of sight, make it harder to see me, but something like this would still break the stealth.

Both dogs howled. Alerting the netrunners that they had discovered me, and then charged.

One slammed into a shield, its form distorting a bit as it was bogged down by junk data, while I focused on the other one, I sent off another Hell Flame, blasting the Daemon as it jumped at me. And it landed in a heap half burned away already.

Then I walked over and cut down the last dog that was too bogged down.

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

Everything went quiet for a moment, which was good, because I also had another alert that was taking up all my attention.

*100 Quick Hack XP Gained.*

*Quick Hack skill level up!*

Quick Hack 9. I had been using so many hacks on the net I must have finally clicked over. I luxuriated in the moment of knowledge slipping through. But I refocused, I wasn't safe here. I checked the update from my net chair, showing me my internal temperature was raised, but nothing terrible. I was okay still.

"Ah there you are." A voice called out and I looked up to see another netrunner standing on top of the pile of garbage. "Have fun derezzing my search programs?"

"Honestly it's kinda fun. Nice to meet you." I offered a friendly greeting. Just because this was a weird betting arena, didn't mean we shouldn't be civil.

"Aww. aren't you a cute one. Some one-byte runner that the stray cat dragged along? Yeah, I looked you up already. You don't have a record in the arena. Sorry about that one. The cat has a rep… Listen, we can't be gentle about this as long as you don't quit, just how the game is played you know? Nothing personal."

Then I heard it. A heavy stomping. I looked towards where the dogs had come running and cursed.

"These guys are just rezzers." I mocked. "It'll be easy, just let me handle it." I continued as I stared at the burning Daemon that was a digital hazard, melting the trash around it, as it deleted and warped data in a space around it.

A Balrog.

I had only faced one of these before, and it had sent me scurrying away. This one wasn't set into a dying server. The netrunner looked proud as his Daemon finished loading and then it locked onto me.

"Oh fuck this." I muttered and took off. Using every bit of my breaching skill to move as far from that thing as I could.

It followed, roaring a challenge as it stomped after me.

It was slow. Much slower than I was, so I quickly decided on a battle plan.

Just stay the fuck away from it.

It lost direct sight of me quickly enough, and instead of trying to hide, I knew what I had to do.

Sasha might have pulled me into this nonsense, but if I ignored it, then good chance, she would have to face it as well. That Daemon is not something she could handle along with both netrunners at the same time.

So I would be the bait keeping it busy.

And while I did that, I would go murder a bunch of Daemons. I had a minimap after all.

I turned and ran up some garbage leaping over it and then right into an array of five of the soldier daemons.

One was blasted from a full strength Hell Flame. Another was cut in half and it distorted its form glitching unable to stay coherent. I continued on and turned slamming up an ICE shield, letting it absorb the array of lights the three remaining Daemons fired at me.

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

The three couldn't reach me though. Despite their shared attacks, my ICE wall absorbed attack after attack.

I used that moment to cool down. I could feel my Cyberdeck cycling and only once I was cooled off did I prep another three attacks melting the daemons down.

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

*250 XP Gained.*

I checked the minimap.

Sasha was still fighting, and the two netrunners were back together.

I guess they didn't expect me to be able to handle their Daemon. The daemon I noticed was catching up to me.

I moved at a normal speed, trying to give my cyberdeck cool down time. As I considered what I could do.

Sure I could run around and clear up the groups of small Daemons they had sent out. And it would benefit me, but it wouldn't do much for Sasha…

"Ugh!" I groaned, aloud because despite my own greed at having XP bags just wandering around. Sasha was on her own, and whether people died or not…

Sasha was still my choom. Even if she didn't know me well, and I didn't know her well. Even if she had put herself into this situation, even if she didn't understand why I was so connected to her.

The image of her falling. Of glass glittering around her, ran through my mind.

An image of her smile. The smile she carried into death.

It was stupid. I barely knew her, and she barely knew me, but… Dammit I respected her even if she was a pain in the ass.

I couldn't handle this Daemon, but I bet Sasha could.

I shifted where I was going.

I arrived as another of the missile barrages slammed into the area Sasha had just been standing.

When the smoke cleared almost instantly after Sasha was fine, a barrier of light stood before her. Immovable.

"That the best you got!?" She screamed out in challenge, but the two netrunners didn't react, just stayed together. Both men worked in sync to prep more attacks, to prep more Daemons to distract her and me with.

Probably more a distraction for me than anything.

The moment after, a group of Daemons spawned in, the soldiers instantly pointed and started pelting shots at Sasha.

I could see her frustration.

Which is why I teleported in right next to her, instantly my defenses activated, ICE wall absorbed the shots, and started spawning in Barriers as well.

"Wha? Kitten!"

"It's Ghost. I'm on defense. Also a big Daemon is coming. I don't have anything that can handle it." I warned, but Sasha just laughed. "You leave offense to me then! Maybe breach the server if you can! I could use some info!"

"What? Oh, I breached the server already!" I called in response, as I started throwing up ICE and barriers wherever I could as another missile barrage arced in, and those were nasty. My Barriers slowed them, but I had to remake the ICE each time a missile struck them.

Playing defense was already starting to overwhelm me, but it gave Sasha the moment she needed.

I nearly flinched as she lobbed what looked like a star straight towards the runners. And the attacks instantly stopped as they desperately switched to defense.

It smashed into them, and a howling noise of distorted data reached my ears.

Pretty terrifying considering just where we were.

"Hehe! See Kitten! Look at how amazing Senpai is!" Sasha crowed out in delight at her attack, but I just huffed at her.

"They blocked it! Do something else!"