“We’ve arrived. Time to do our job,” Flo said before immediately rushing out of the car with a massive gun. She wore a heavy-looking vest and matching closed-face helmet, while Erza followed right behind her in a similar get-up.

“Ha ha finally, time to go shoot up some scumbags, follow me intern, and watch the show!” Said Liz, whose demeanor took a sudden turn as she exited the vehicle holding a compact SMG.

I followed her into the treeline off the side of the road. It appeared as though we crashed through a metal gate where a worn-down two-story villa was visible just off in the distance. There were trees decorating the side of the road that led from the gate to the mansion. Overall, it looked like some fancy estate that had an unreasonably large yard.

Not long after we started navigating through the trees and bushes, the sound of gunshots echoed throughout the area, coming from the road where we came from.

I barely kept up with Liz even though I wasn’t wearing a heavy-looking backpack like her, but it wasn’t long before we made it out of the thicket, where we got a clear view of the firefight taking place.

To our left was the villa where several gunmen took turns peeking out to take potshots from their cover, which comprised sandbags and blocks of concrete. Meanwhile, Flo and Erza on the right were right in the middle of the road, slowly advancing toward their position.

Flo held a heavy-looking metallic tower shield with her cybernetic arm with her gun poking through an opening specifically made to allow her to lay down suppressing fire. Based on the sound alone, I could tell that her gun was some sort of shotgun and not a rifle that it appeared to be.

Erza, on the other hand, took cover behind Flo’s shield, where she fired what seemed to be a grenade launcher toward their foes.

“Come on, let’s go,” Liz said.

She led us closer toward the enemy position, where we had a clear view of a dozen of them in cover. She signaled to me with her eyes before we took aim at our targets.

I brought up my pistol and aimed at the woman, with a face full of tattoos. She was reloading behind the cover, which made her a sitting target from my vantage point. I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger when I heard Liz shoot from beside me.

I had done worse back in my days when I hung with the wrong crowd, so I didn’t hesitate at all. I thought I could get away from this kind of violent life, but I was obviously wrong.

I watched my target drop, then readjusted my aim before I pulled the trigger again.

+10 EXP

I searched for my next target and pointed my Vipera toward him. As I lined up my shot, he reacted and tried to point his rifle toward me, but he was too slow.

+10 EXP

This time, it appeared I shot him right in the head as I saw the experience notification float above him instantly.

While I took my time lining shots one after the other, Liz dumped her entire mag toward everyone in sight while laughing manically. It seemed she got quite a few of them, but her theatrics definitely caught their attention.

Right after I finished my second kill, I ducked back down into the treeline for cover while Liz followed a moment later. Following her was a hail of bullets that landed where we just had been.

Immediately afterward, explosions rang out at the enemy positions. The bullets stopped flying in our direction, so I peeked to see Flo and Erza much closer to the enemy than before, with several new bodies lying in a pool of blood by their feet.

Without saying anything, Liz rushed up toward the enemy position to join her friends while our foes were distracted. A few noticed her running out, but before they could do anything, a giant hole appeared in their chests. I looked in the direction where I thought the bullet came from, yet I couldn’t spot the shooter. I had a pretty good idea who it was though.

With our enemies pressured from two angles, they started retreating into the mansion behind them. The only ones left outside were dead or incapacitated, so we started gathering by the entrance. While I walked by the carnage, I noticed a few gang members on the ground were unconscious but still breathing.

I took out a knife and plunged it into any bodies that were still breathing. For my efforts, I was rewarded with several experience notifications, though most were duds.

Hey, if they are going to die anyway, then don’t mind me. I’m just helping them avoid prolonged suffering, even though I may benefit from it as well. Ha ha ha, isn’t this what they call a win-win situation?

Once I reunited with the group, Flo and Erza both stared at me, probably because I took too long, which was kind of embarrassing. At least Liz just flashed me a smile, which I returned with my own.

The group exchanged glances while I awkwardly stood there. Just before I was about to ask what was going on, Flo spoke up.

“You should look into getting some optics and a SAID soon. It’ll do you well in group ops like these so you can see Liz’s drone feeds and be on comms with us. Okay, we’re ready to head in, stay behind us.”

I followed them in but couldn’t see anything from the back with the tower shield in the way. Flo moved surprisingly fast while lugging that thing around. She stood at the forefront, bashing open doors, and unloaded her heavy shotgun into any poor sods we found.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Rollo, stay on this floor while we clear upstairs,” Erza said as Flo was halfway up the stairs.

I nodded. I’d rather not be in a straight-up firefight or mess up their teamwork in enclosed spaces.

A few seconds after they were out of sight, I heard some noise from the window above. As I carefully made my way toward it, gunshots roared from upstairs. When I peeked out the window, I saw a body lying motionless in a pool of blood right outside the building.

Before I could take another step, a thunderous impact rang out from the floor above. A window shattered and two figures came crashing down onto the ground before each rolling to their feet.

Flo stood there, without her shield and shotgun, while the other person, a large man, stood missing his right arm. The man’s entire body appeared to be metal except for his face. Even the wound where his arm was missing gave off an electric sparkling noise with no blood or bones in sight.

While the two caught their breath, another figure leaped down from above and swung down at the cyborg with a sword. The blade met no resistance and smoothly sliced through the cyborg’s metallic shoulders. The cut made him freeze in place before he collapsed on his back.

With the enemy dealt with, the entire place suddenly sounded eerily quiet without the sound of fighting. I walked outside and gathered around the dead cyborg where Erza was taking the body apart.

“Think we got all of ‘em that was here, though no vehicles around, so a few probably weren’t home. I don’t think we need to worry about them coming back here though. Those corpos will probably have their demolition team here within the hour as soon as we let them know the job is complete.” Flo stated.

“Corpos?” I asked

“Construction jobs like these are all usually for corps, not that hard to guess, though I doubt Fitel would confirm it if you asked. C’mon, let’s gather up any loot and jet.”

I headed back and looted any guns or cybernetics that were still functional from the corpses, while everyone else did the same.

Before I left the area around the house, I went over to what remained of the dead cyborg and stabbed his skull. It shattered like a jar of liquid as fluids came gushing out.

+20 EXP

It seemed like I was right, his brain was still being kept alive. I wasn’t sure what exactly the system counted as a kill, especially when I still got experience prompts right away, even when I hit the torso. The brain couldn’t have possibly died so fast, and I still got the experience points.

I also got double the experience point for some reason…

We then returned to the car where Max was already waiting before we drove off together. We had the same seating arrangements as before, and the moment Liz sat down, it was like her switch flipped. Her energy disappeared, reverting back to her listless self.

“So what do you say, wanna join our crew?” Flo said as she stared at me through the rearview mirror. Thankfully, the car was on autopilot because she was at the wheel.

“You guys were great and all, but I’m not really looking to join a crew. I’d rather be solo and doing jobs that involved less fighting for my life.”

“Ha, no need to mince your words. Suit yourself.”

We returned and parked at the area where the bar Haven was and sorted out the loot while they made calls to report the success of the job.

With the sun coming up soon, Flo paid me my cut and gave me some extra credits for my share of the loot, which I was glad to accept rather than have to carry it back and sell it.

With business settled, the group quickly split up and departed to get some much-needed rest. It felt a little awkward as the only one who didn’t have their own vehicle. I declined Flo’s offer for a ride, as I’m sure they were more tired than I was as they did the heavy lifting.

I guess that was one more thing to add to my shopping list. I seriously needed to take a few days off, I haven’t had the chance to really rest since I started doing mercenary work. It didn’t help that I got more excitement than I was looking for today.

Thankfully, my trip back home went smoothly as I called a cab, especially as it was self-driven, so I didn’t need to interact with a driver while I was exhausted.

Like a drone, I mechanically went through my nighttime routine and threw myself into my bed.

“Status,” I muttered.

Status

Level:

1

EXP:

90/100

Musculoskeletal:

11

Neural Reflex:

15

Visuomotor Coordination:

12

Endurance:

8

Sensory Perception:

12

Upgrade Points:

0

Upgrades:

* Stealth +3

* Hacking +3

Enhancements:

null

Ten more to go, but I wasn’t in any rush. It would become a lot easier once I had more practice, and with the upgrade points, it would snowball sooner or later.

I also had to start investing in better gear and cybernetics as well, but for now, it was time for some rest. With that as my last thought, I fell asleep as soon as I relaxed.

----------------------------------------

I slept until late afternoon and by the time I left my apartment; it was evening already.

I was always shopping in my megabuilding or in the area nearby, so this time I decided to go somewhere new. A shopping mall I had looked up online had a comprehensive variety of products and was classier than what I was used to.

The first thing I was looking for when I arrived was food!

All the stuff I had been eating was honestly terrible. They were all synthetic foods, insect protein, and stuff that was no different from flavored animal feed.

Now that I had a little more money, I wanted to splurge for once! I mean, there was absolutely no point in money if I didn’t use it. This would surely motivate me, as good food was one of the reasons I wanted to be rich, anyway!

I went through the menus of many places, but to my disappointment; I found nothing I was looking for at all.

How hard can it be to have some real meat like chicken or beef?

I picked the place with the most traffic and ordered a few dishes that were recommended, but it was hard to be excited about “Authentic Locust Stir-fry” when I didn’t even know what the unauthentic version was like.

Unfortunately, it was about as expected, but at least felt like food suitable for human consumption. The one saving grace was the dessert menu. It seemed like artificial sweeteners or whatever crap they used actually tasted good, though I would be so pissed if they somehow managed to make ice cream bad.

Finally, having found something that tasted familiar, I couldn’t help but get a milkshake to go as well.

With my appetite sated, I was ready to start shopping.