On the Grind!

What's good, fumbled the last chapter forgetting to add the Shotguns skill on the stat screen. Got that fixed.

Anyway, I appreciate all the support and I'll keep updating as much as I can.

Enjoy the chapter!

-+=[BoG]=+-

After a few hours of farming, fishing, and mining, he got up and stretched a bit before noticing that it was time to sleep.

Getting undressed and throwing them into the wash, he laid down and got ready to sleep, but he was interrupted.

Choose the time to wake up

7:00 am

Close

'At least there's an option to fall asleep naturally. It's currently 10, so I'll get like 9 hours.' Marcus liked sleeping so he didn't mind an extra hour or two.

He selected 7 and instantly passed out.

-+=[BoG]=+-

It was a new day and Marcus groggily got up staring at the Samurai digital image.

'Another day to grind it out.' He yawned a bit before taking care of his business in the bathroom and brushing his teeth.

Looking at the washer and dryer, he noticed it took a total of 20 eddies to wash which was wild. On the toilet he also noted that 5 eddies was taken.

He decided to take a shower.

'Wonder if they'll charge me by the minute.' Marcus snorted. 'Damn, it's pretty big.' He is very happy now.

After getting out and drying himself off, it did, in fact, charge him by the minute. A five-minute shower was 25 eddies. Crazy work.

Next time, he'll wait until the washer is full before starting it, or what, they'll charge by weight too?

'This world is ridiculous.' He wasn't entirely surprised though. It was run by Megacorps after all.

He got dressed in the same outfit and went back to the wardrobe shelf to get his hat.

'Here we go again.' Marcus cracked his neck and got down.

His performance was much more respectable as he could do 20 pushups without stopping and directly went into squats followed by situps. Next, he did something different and did running-mans, burpees, and jump rope...without the rope. 

Marcus was sweating profusely and grabbed a towel to dab himself off before sitting down.

It felt good though and as his heartrate lowered back down he grabbed a cigarette and lighter from the coffee table and lit up.

Exhaling slowly he pressed his back into the sofa and started planning for the day.

He wants to level up Body some more as having a stronger physique will always be helpful. Following that, he'll want to keep leveling Reflexes as he did notice some improvements in reaction time and overall agility and the fluidity of his movements was a bit better.

Now he has to decide when he'd go out and get things done.

First, he needs a cyberdeck to even level up Intelligence, sure I'm sure there are external methods, but he plans on being a netrunner slash main combatant. Add stealth on there and that's a frightening person, so he needed to level everything. 

Second, heading to the 2nd Amendment and getting real guns, but which ones is the question? Definitely the Kyubi, that thing was fucking sick. Built-in laser sight on the barrel and a holographic sight? It was also a powerful beast. He can see the inspiration from the name. The Crusher shotgun for sure and the Nue. Don't know how much that shit costs but he has money to spend.

Finally, he'd need to find a gym and while the one Coach Fred had was alright, he'd want to be in an actual building with multiple equipment, not one set up on a walk way.

'Perhaps in a week once I have some confidence not to get fucking fried stepping out the front door.' Marcus took another drag and just chilled. 'Some music should be ni…'

He forgot he had a playlist in his head.

Oops.

The first song he plays in this world?

Never Fade Away.

He just had to.

Chilling out with the song on repeat, he took a final drag before extinguishing it.

Marcus grabbed some breakfast that consisted of a burrito and RealWater. Taking a sip, it tasted like a bottle of water that sat out too long in a hot room and this RealWater was cold!

It could've been worse, to be honest.

After finishing up, he cut off the music and slotted in the training shard.

Back at the classroom, he headed back to the Gunplay module.

This time he changed the targets to mannequins while trying to aim for the head.

He cycled through pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles.

This took about 3 hours, one hour for each before he went back to the classroom.

Marcus was going to try Melee Combat, but he had to check his stats first.

Body 2(200/600xp)

- Athletics 2(200/600xp)

- Shotguns 2(300/600xp)

Reflexes 2(325/1200xp)

- Pistols 2(350/600xp)

- Assault Rifles 2(300/600xp)

"I'm speed leveling out here." Marcus laughed and truly understood that his speed was busted. It would be even faster without the tutorial debuff and his own physique and potential benefits.

His thoughts were focused on Reflexes as he knew he'd max out both skills without the attribute itself being filled up. This means he'd have to get another skill from that tree.

That's where Melee Combat comes in. He's sure that Blades was a skill from Reflexes. This time he's more confident than mistaking Assault Rifles as a Reflexes skill.

He walked up to the door and was transported once again as his vision glitched out.

This time it looked like he was inside some kind of gym with a few boxing-style rings with bots in them. He noticed that there was an indicator at the base of the ring to adjust the three bots' level.

One bot was unarmed, another had a blade, and the last had a bat.

It seemed The Examiner really cooked with this tutorial as he can have combat practice while leveling up.

Behind him, naturally, was a multitude of weapons.

Throwing knives, regular knives, machetes, bats, swords, and a familiar-looking kanabo.

To his left was a wooden board with a bullseye, likely for the throwing knives, and to his right was a punching bag and multiple wooden pillars. He also noticed a setting that could adjust the formation of the pillars so that he could have them surround him or he has to move forward striking at them and going to the next.

This one is likely to train everything from unarmed to blunt weapons. It would help get used to maneuvering around with weapons and hitting multiple targets in succession. Now that's cool.

Before taking on the bots, he felt he should at least get to the first level of each weapon, so he trained some more.

He walked up to the bag and started punching. Marcus has never gotten into a fight but he at least knew to use your hips drive your legs and shift your torso in a fluid motion to generate the most power in a punch.

That's all he knew though. He'd be depending on memories to help him further.

After a few minutes…

Brawling +50

'Nice, onwards!'

After some time he got the skill to level 1 and mentally leveled the skill.

An influx later, and he had a better idea of striking, guarding, and countering.

Now it was onto the weapons.

30 minutes later he got the skills, Blades, Blunt Weapons, and Throwing Weapons.

His favorite was the kanabo and while the swords were cool, he felt that the machete was more suited to him. Throwing Knives were sick to use.

Now it was time to face the bots.

He felt it was a shame that he didn't have a punching bag in his apartment as he wouldn't have to deal with the tutorial experience debuff but not much he could do.

It was time for his first fight in this world.

He stepped into the ring and the fight automatically started.

The bot threw an obvious punch as its whole body winded up for it and Marcus ducked under it and dealt a massive uppercut that caused the bot to stumble back. He didn't let the bot off the hook and stayed on him and in its disorientated state threw a right hook followed by a left.

Falling to the ground on its back, the bot was done.

'...Really?' Marcus couldn't believe it but soon shook his head. It was only the first level.

He upped the bot level and it went about the same, but it blocked a few punches from him before going down.

The third level was very difficult as it blocked most of his hits and dealt some of its own, but after a hard-fought battle, it was over.

The fourth…

Marcus stepped into the ring and the bot approached him. It started by, what looked to Marcus, a right hook and he instinctively ducked, but to his surprise the bot feinted and delivered a left-handed uppercut to his chin as Marcus recoiled from the blow. The bot followed the attack with a jab which he blocked; however, the bot then stepped forward twisting it's body and threw another punch.

He thought it was another right hook so he blocked high, but he was struck in the kidney causing his legs to wobble. The bot threw a left and the next thing Marcus knew, he was lying on his back. The bot immediately stopped when he was on the ground and went back to his original starting position.

The fight was over.

'Damn, he really rocked my shit.' Groaning in pain, Marcus made his way off the ring and to a chair conveniently placed below the ring. Perhaps The Examiner knew he'd get his ass kicked and gave him a seat. It was also nice knowing the bot wouldn't pummel him on the ground.

'I guess I know what Coach Fred feels like. Next-gen ass whooping indeed.' Marcus panted in exhaustion.

He called up his stats once again.

Body 2(325/600xp)

- Brawling 1(200/400xp)

- Athletics 2(400/600xp)

- Shotguns 2(300/600xp)

- Blunt Weapons 1(0/400xp)

Reflexes 2(325/1200)XP

- Pistols 2(350/600xp)

- Assault Rifles 2(300/600xp)

- Blades 1(0/400xp)

Technical Ability 1(625/800)XP

- Gunsmithing: Level 1(800/800)XP

Cool 1(50/800)XP

- Throwing Weapons 1(0/400xp)

'That's some fucking progress. Four skills in Body? My level should shoot through the roof in the next couple of days.' Marcus grinned wildly at the thought. Oh, and Throwing Weapons was in Cool, that's something.

Reflexes was still bothering him, but he supposed he could get the SMG skill for it.

His stamina, while better, was still not great and he was already tired. Maybe some chill training like Driving or even Rockerboy would be fun.

Backing out into the classroom he looked for the Driving door and found it. He stepped up to it and it transferred him.

He ended up in a giant parking garage filled with different cars, motorcycles, and even vans and trucks. There was a pillar in front of him explaining that he had to enter a vehicle to start.

Wandering for a bit, Marcus finally found the car he was looking for.

V's starting car. The Archer Hella EC-D i360. Pretty cheap but also made cheaply, but reliable and easy to repair.

He got in the car and his surroundings immediately turned pitch-black with a menu popping up on the windshield.

Marcus saw he could choose anywhere in Night City to drive and also many settings. Pedestrians, cars, whether those cars or pedestrians are acting erratically and even car chasing where they're shooting at him.

Truly a Night City experience.

To start off, he decided to drive in a completely empty Watson.

His vision distorted before he looked around and saw he was outside his megabuilding on the road. The car was already started so he pressed the gas and went off adjusting to the handling of the vehicle. It was quite easy as he naturally had a license in his previous life.

Like a true Night City resident, he started speeding soon after.

-+=[BoG]=+-

There's the chapter.

I appreciate all the support thus far!

Leave a comment if you want and I'll answer, probably.

Later!