Chapter 157: Training Chip
"Flawless execution, exceptional speed—without a doubt, a perfect outcome. This job is complete, Mr. Karl."
Listening to the voice of the blue-eyed middle-aged man over the comms, Karl sat in Wild Wraiths Bar, casually eating fries as he responded in a calm tone.
"I figured you'd come to collect the target yourself. But you sent someone else instead. Guess the guy wasn't all that important to you after all."
"You misunderstand, Mr. Karl. He has his significance. There are simply matters that don't require a personal appearance."
The man continued, "What truly matters now is our next job together."
"Judging by that, you're about to send the files over now, aren't you?"
"Rest is necessary. I'd rather you be in peak condition before carrying out my task."
"So, you're telling me to take two days off?"
"As a merc, your efficiency and speed in completing jobs are certainly reassuring. But your mental state also requires some care."
His wording was weirdly formal, but his meaning was clear.
He was concerned about Karl's mental state and wanted him to take a break.
Karl had heard this enough times from people who didn't really know him, so he couldn't be bothered to argue anymore.
Just because he worked a little harder than most, now people were worried about his psyche? What was he supposed to say to that?
If mercs all slacked off, corpos like this guy wouldn't even be able to find someone to do their dirty work.
"Fine. I'll wait for your update. Just hope this big job comes with the right kind of payout."
"You'll be satisfied, Mr. Karl. But as an apology for not being able to provide you with immediate work, I've sent something to your apartment. I believe it will interest you. Consider it a token of compensation."
My apartment…
Of course they knew where he lived.
Karl wasn't dumb enough to ask something that obvious. In this age, privacy was a joke. If someone with the right connections wanted to know where you slept, they'd know.
He was about to ask what exactly had been sent—when the line abruptly cut off.
Weird.
That was the only way Karl could describe this mysterious client.
No idea what this thing I'll find interesting was supposed to be.
Curious, Karl didn't linger in Wild Wraiths Bar for long after finishing the job.
After Mama Welles handed him a massive bag of fries, he gave a quick farewell to Jack and Oliver—who were still drinking—and hopped on the metro home.
It wasn't long before he reached his floor in the megabuilding.
Stepping into his apartment, the first thing he saw was a package sitting in the corner of the room.
Guess they had a delivery bot bring it in.
Man, this megabuilding really has zero privacy. They'll literally drop shit right inside your home.
Karl wasn't in a rush to open it.
It probably wasn't dangerous, but being cautious with unexpected packages was just common sense.
Keeping a safe distance, he used his monowire to slice open the wrapping from a few meters away.
Inside was a transparent glass case.
A case?
Looking through the roughly 60-centimeter glass cube, Karl spotted what was inside—
A single chip.
They really needed a case this big just to transport a chip?
Karl opened the case, held his breath for a few seconds, and confirmed there were no gas traps or other nasty surprises before picking up the chip.
He slotted it into his computer and ran a basic scan using his netrunning skills.
Turned out, it was a training chip.
Training chips were widely used in military forces across many nations. Once slotted in, the user would be transported into a virtual environment where they could simulate combat against various enemies across different terrain—an advanced tool for honing skills.
Karl remembered that Militech had invested heavily in this tech, and New America's soldiers used them in bulk. No idea if this one was a Militech-issue version or not.
His PC wasn't as reliable for security checks as his personal interface station, so after running a basic scan and confirming it was clean, Karl slotted the chip into his neural port for a deeper scan.
Risky, sure.
But nothing in here seemed off.
For what it was worth, the blue-eyed client had actually sent him something genuine.
The only question was—how good was it?
Karl was familiar with the standard training chips issued to low-rank Militech grunts.
To put it bluntly, they were shit.
The simulated opponents were barely above the level of bottom-feeder gangoons—thugs so useless they couldn't even get into a real crew. The kind of guys even the laziest NCPD cop would charge at head-on for an easy promotion.
If this is supposed to impress me, the AI better be on par with 6th Street's elites at least.
Karl activated the chip. His consciousness sank into the virtual space, and a series of calibration panels materialized in front of him.
A list of enemy combatants appeared—data that had been loaded into the training program.
Available Opponents:
Arasaka Special Operations Agents Arasaka Ninjas Militech Tactical Operatives New America Sergeants Kang Tao Security Mechs Phantom Dogs Elite Operatives Lazarus Official Mercenaries
Karl only needed a quick glance to realize—this was good.
Every single opponent listed here?
Any one of them could solo a Scav hideout without breaking a sweat.
The strongest ones? Clearing out an entire gang outpost would be nothing.
Even the weakest among them could at least take on three or four armed gangsters in a straight fight.
Looking over the opponent profiles—cyberware, loadouts, combat abilities—Karl had to admit, the blue-eyed client's gift was far beyond expectations.
In fact, he was beyond satisfied.
By Karl's own standard—
Anyone in this dataset, aside from the mechs, was at least on the level of Mr. Johnson.
Which, well… was kind of an insult to Johnson.
Still, how the hell had this guy collected so much high-end combat data?
This chip could probably sell for over 100,000 eddies easy.
Guess I'll give it a test run.
Karl decided to set up a difficulty test—see just how far he could push himself.
Simulation Setup
Location:
A three-story villa, including surrounding area (7,200 m² total).
Enemy Force:
15 Kang Tao security mechs 10 Phantom Dogs elite operatives 7 New America sergeants 3 Lazarus official mercenaries 2 Arasaka ninjas Total: 37 enemies
Weapons:
Lexington Pistol Copperhead Assault Rifle
Mission Objective:
Complete elimination.
Karl added a few more constraints.
Additional Conditions:
Max 40 rounds allowed. Headshots only. Firearms only.
Even the blue-eyed corpo probably never expected his gift, meant to help Karl stay sharp over his two-day break, would end up being used for brutal high-intensity training instead.
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