Chapter 7

"Thanks for the ride."

Grinning y held out his fist to Panam, which she struck with her own fist.

"Uh, uh. I'm sorry about the scene in the clan parking lot. I have a bit of a temper."

"Don't sweat it..."

I waved my hand.

"...I'm not offended. So stop moping and cheer up. I liked Panam who is ready to tear me apart much more than Panam who feels guilty."

"Tz... Asshole..."

"I liked you, too."

When I got out of the car, I quietly slammed the cabin door shut. Then I went to the door of Misty's Esoterica, and with the quiet tinkling of bells and the squeal of the spinning wheels of the Tortika, I went inside.

"Hello..."

"Greetings, hint there must be a Victor Vector clinic around here somewhere..."

I looked around a little confused. The girl who'd met me in Esoterica was peculiar. No, she wasn't ugly, but the style she favored didn't look right to me. She had this gothic, homeless style.

"Victor?"

"Yeah. (chuckles)"

"You go through that door, once you're out, there's an exit to the basement where the clinic is located."

"Is he free?"

The girl shrugged.

"Yeah..."

"Thank you, beautiful."

The girl grinned.

"Don't be flattered."

I shrugged.

"No flattery, you really are a pretty girl, not my style of course, but you are pretty for sure."

"Huh, thanks..."

I walked past the girl and out into the small courtyard to the basement entrance, where I could hear a working TV with a boxing program on.

"I apologize..."

As I entered the clinic I caught the attention of a Reaper.

"...are you Victor Vector?"

"Yeah. (chuckles)"

The man gave me an attentive look.

"My name is David, I used to live in Aroyo, and there's only a ripper there nicknamed Doc..."

I wrinkled my nose slightly.

"...I had him put in an implant I found in the back of my apartment and I'd like to check it out. Oh, I have my suspicions."

"Come on, show me your implant..."

I took off my jacket and then my t-shirt after which I turned my back to the riper.

"Fuck..."

He sighed and did a couple of manipulations to his chair turning it into a couch to lie face down on.

"...Come on, now that you're here..."

I grinned, and lay down on the couch, after which I was injected with several different shots in my back and fell into a light slumber, from which I came out only at the end of the procedures.

"Well..."

Victor wrinkled his nose slightly.

"...the sandevistan was set, although not perfect, but not bad on the whole. I have corrected some points, of course, and I will also prescribe you a course of medicines to be taken from the dispenser I gave you."

"Okay, how much do I owe you? Just so I know if there's anything else I can count on today or not..."

"Well, I didn't do anything wrong, so five hundred for the checkup and another two hundred for the meds."

I nodded my head.

"What kind of optics do you have?"

"It's all there..."

Victor shrugged.

"And from optics with infrared vision mode."

"Kiroshi's second episode already has this, but you're solo, right?"

I nodded my head.

"Then advise the third series, it is certainly more expensive, but there and protection is better."

I nodded my head.

"Great, so we need to change the optics and install a newer cyberdeck. What do you got?"

"I don't have anything profiled for runners unfortunately."

"А..."

I waved my hand.

"...I'm not a rauner. I just want a well-protected piece of hardware.

"Well, get up, I'll fix the chair and we'll do the optics and the deck."

A couple of minutes and I am already in a half-slumber again, and Victor installs me a new chrome preliminarily removing the old one.

"So..."

When all the procedures were over I was brought back to my senses.

"...I've changed everything for you, the meds are here..."

He placed a small dispenser on the table which I took and immediately inhaled the medicinal mixture from it.

"Uh-huh. take it easy today and the day after tomorrow you can start working. It's enough for a week, take it every night before you go to bed.

"Got it, thanks."

"Uh-huh. and the guy, uh.

He cast an attentive glance at me.

"Uh-huh?

"Don't rush the chrome. let your body get used to it, or you'll go crazy..."

"I wasn't going to."

I shrugged.

"...I'm more than happy with my meat carcass so far. So I wasn't planning on installing more."

"Okay, if that's the case."

Victor nodded and I finally stood up to leave.

"Boy, you should at least come back once a month to check on the status of your chrome."

"Okay, Victor Vector."

"Vic is fine."

I smiled and nodded to the man and left the clinic. The Esoterica store was already closed, so I walked across the courtyard and went out through one of the iron gates, then caught the car and went home...

Already at home I took a shower and went to bed...

Morning...

The morning brought me an unfamiliar feeling of lightness. I had never felt that in this body before...

With a sigh, I got out of bed and stretched. Still, even if the chrome had previously been set to go right and now completely right, the difference felt quite clear.

"So...what am I supposed to do?"

Yesterday, on the way back from Vic's, I'd told Regina that I was taking a medical leave of absence for the day on the advice of the Reaper. I stood under the shower for a while and went into my room, taking one of the Trashman machines out of my bag.

A couple minutes and the weapon is disassembled into its components, and with a sigh I take out the next machine gun and disassemble it, then another and another.

Only after disassembling all the automatics did I start cleaning the parts and inspecting them.

When I had already finished cleaning the parts, there was a knock on the door.

With a sigh, I stood up and walked to the door and opened it, looking through the visor to see who was behind it.

"What do you want?"

"Talk..."

The big man looked at me through his sunglasses.

"Go ahead."

"Why don't I come through?"

"No, I don't."

"And yet..."

He takes a step forward and my gun rests in his groin.

"I said no. Tell me what you want."

"Your mom sold me one item. for thirty grand."

I raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Are there any documents or some kind of contract on this subject? Maybe a receipt?"

"From where?"

"I mean."

I looked at the man carefully.

"...you come to me and claim that your mom sold you something. You either came to return it or you didn't get it for some reason."

"Two. Your mom disappeared the day before she was supposed to give me the goods."

I nodded my head.

Inhale...

Wait a minute...

I closed the door right in front of the man's nose and leaned my back against the door, activating the deck I'd used to pull up the receipts and payments that had passed to me after Gloria's death. And there was indeed a strange inflow of funds, or rather not an inflow, but a spending spree, as she paid for another semester at the academy.

Of course you could shake on the rights, but...

Opening the door I looked at the man.

"What's your account?"

He bewilderedly handed me his account information and I dumped thirty thousand into it, which was exactly the odd amount Gloria had spent.

"All of them?"

"I'd actually rather pick up the goods..."

"And I don't know what she wanted to sell there, and I didn't find anything strange in the last apartment."

"Boy don't lie..."

"Did you get your money back?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, get outta here..."

I hummed, and closed the door and went back to work. Having quietly cleaned the parts, I examined them carefully and realized that I could assemble only two working automatons, which I would have no claims to the quality of. I did exactly that, and then I loaded the defective parts into a separate bag.

They can still be used.

If it wasn't for the bulky guy, I'd probably buy myself a nice 3D printer that can melt materials and turn them into the stuff it prints from. But now I'll have to wait.

Putting aside the two year old assault rifles I took the pistols out of my bag and continued working...

The day was extremely productive and by the end of it I was completely relaxed as I enjoyed tinkering with the iron. To be honest, I was even thinking about changing from a solo field worker to a solo technician who mainly maintains the weapons.

But this thought as it came into my head, so and flew out of it as still in the field money can be earned more good.

And it's not that I'm so mercantile, but there's a lot of money to be made in this world, and if I want to ensure the safety of some girls ...

Mm...

How long have I been here?

A couple days?

I've already got a crush on two beauties.

However, the world itself turned to me that side when I met them and just couldn't help but fall for them, and if one of them is very controversial in terms of the novel, as in the canon it's kind of more on girls, then the second ...

I grinned imagining how Panam might moan under me...

However, I would have nothing against Judy's moaning, nor would I have anything against their joint concert in my honor. But to do that, you'd have to maintain a relationship with them and definitely have a reputation in town.

Already in the habit of some tradition I got under the shower in the evening and washed myself a little, then turned on the TV and mindlessly switched channels.

"A shootout between Malstrom and the Animals at the intersection of Thirty-third and...

"Nicola! A life full of flavor and..."

"Julio, that chrome belonged to my grandfather, and I can't just..."

"Kiroshi Optical Cyberimplants! Kiroshi is a quality and reliable..."

I switched a few more channels, and instead of news or commercials, I got to the music channel.

"...Fuck me on the rooftops of Knight City ..."

"Oh, I wish I had a fucker."

"And now a song by one of Russia's singers of the past, who is still eternally young Yellow Sand!"

I grinned as I looked at the singer dressed in a very garish costume that was an exact replica of the pop king from my past life.

I turned off the TV with a sigh, realizing that nothing decent was on anyway. I would have to take care of the movie library myself, but that would be a matter for tomorrow, and tonight I would sleep...