The sun shone brightly from above, somehow hitting Damien through a maze of skyscrapers that peered down at him. Strange people filled the bustling streets which were saturated with aggressive neon ads. He couldn’t help but stare at all the oddities which passed him by as he walked. Kat on the other hand, didn’t seem interested in the least.

“What is this place?” Damien asked as he walked alongside her.

Kat squinted at him, giving the impression that he’d just asked a stupid question. “Neopolis. You’ll get a good look at it on the way to this job. Maybe the sights will refresh your memory.”

“Hopefully.” Damien said. “So what exactly is this job?”

“We gotta go somewhere and get something. I’ll explain when we get there.”

Ignoring his desire to press the question further, Damien followed along as Kat pushed through a sea of bodies at a busy intersection. He tried his best not to gawk at the variety of people on display, but he couldn’t help himself. Some looked somewhat natural, others like a mash up of human and technology. Some sported metal prosthetics, others chrome padding. It was all so strange.

Then again, everything up to this point had been strange. He’d woken up with no memories; apparently saved by Kat and Roger. He wasn’t exactly sure if he could trust them, but as things stood, he didn’t seem to have any other option.

The strange augments that people wore were called cyberware, according to Kat, who gave him an explanation of all the technical jargon that Roger had used earlier. It turned out that he had a few of them installed in his body, probably by that TrillTech organization. She’d given him a quick rundown of two of the things that Roger had found.

The first, was sub-dermal armor. Armor that was installed under the skin, almost like a cast of a metal protecting his insides. It was supposed to make his body durable. The second, was an optical scanner; a type of scanner implanted into his eye that could alter his vision. Apparently, he could scan items and people, and if they were connected to a public network, he could gain information about them.

He decided he would give the optical scanner a try. Looking for an appropriate target, he spotted a monorail cart zooming above, barely audible from the fifty or so feet distance between them. He stared intently at the cart as he walked, hoping some kind of scan would occur. A brief moment later, an overlay of information appeared in his vision next to the cart.

Monorail Line 4: King - Torisaka Line

Additional details appeared underneath, including departure and arrival times as well as ticket prices.

Wow, Damien thought. It actually works.

Beyond the monorail line, he noticed cars gliding casually through the air, defying gravity. The buildings which seemed to stretch to infinity acted like obstacles as the vehicles swerved around them in a choreographed dance.

Kat stopped at an intersection and turned to him, noticing his curiosity. “You’ve never seen that before, huh?”

Damien shook his head as they waited for the cars on the road to pass before crossing the street. “If you don’t mind me asking,” he said, “what exactly are you guys?”

“We’re pirates.” Kat said bluntly.

Damien looked at her, expecting her to be joking, but the straight expression on her face told him she was serious.

“Well,” Kat said, “technically the Doc isn’t. He’s an official Doctor who sometimes meddles in less official things. But the rest of us, we’re pirates.”

The casual way in which she used the term made it seem like it was common knowledge. It would likely be a dumb question to her, but he decided to ask the thing that was on his mind. “What exactly is a pirate?”

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“Pirates are people who make a living outside the law in Neopolis. We’re not aligned to corporations or gangs, only our crew. And like mercenaries, we only work for the right price.” She pointed down the street. “The car’s just up there.”

“I’m guessing this job you mentioned is for pay.”

“You guessed right.” She said. “You’re learning quick.”

“Then why am I tagging along?”

She looked straight at him. “That’s obvious: to pay your debt.”

Damien didn’t say anything until she elaborated further.

“There’s no charity work in this city; everything comes with a price. The Doc saved your life back there, and he used up precious resources removing malicious cyberware from your body. It’s expensive to get that kind of work done, especially from someone of his skill.”

“How much is the debt?” he asked.

“Eight thousand funds. In reality, it costs more than that, but the Doc’s a nice guy and he’s letting you off easy.”

“Funds?”

Kat sighed. “Yeah, funds. Slang for our current currency. When the government broke down-” She paused. “Ah, forget it. You can learn the history on your own. Just know you owe eight thousand funds. By helping me with this job, you’ll make four thousand. Of course, it’ll all go towards your debt. Once your debt is cleared, you’re free to do as you please.”

Damien thought about what she was saying. Did he really have to pay? What if they were pulling a fast one on him? He had no way to be sure. He could try and run, but where would he go? He didn’t know anyone, or anything.

Best to stick with them and pay off the debt, He thought.

A notification appeared abruptly in his vision.

New Quest Unlocked!     Repay your debt

Damien froze in his tracks. Kat stopped a few steps ahead and turned back to face him. “What’s wrong?”

“A quest…”

“A quest? What do you mean?”

The notification slid outside of his sight.

“Something popped into my vision.” Damien said. “It says it’s a quest. Did you get one too?”

“No?” A look of confusion sprawled across Kat’s face. “What are you talking about?”

Damien searched his field of vision, hoping to bring the notification up once again, but it was no use. Questions raced through his mind. Where did it come from? Would it come back? Was it his optical scanner? There was no way to know, and in frustration, he gave up. “Never mind.” He said. “Forget about it.”

They finally reached the parked car that Kat had pointed out earlier. It had a slick, sporty design with a shiny deep-purple paint job.

“Hop in.” Kat said, as she made her way into the driver’s seat.

Damien moved toward the passenger side and entered the vehicle. The inside was like a spaceship, featuring a sleek design with countless knobs on the control panel. It was far more spacious than it appeared from the outside.

Kat pressed the ignition button and the car woke up with a roar. A few seconds later, they were driving through the busy streets that they’d just walked through.

“The spot’s not too far away.” Kat said, as she steered through traffic. “Shouldn’t take long.”

Damien fiddled with knobs until he finally managed to turn on the radio. Synth-heavy techno music filled the cabin of the car. He stared out the window at the strange city as Kat made her way from a local road on to an entrance ramp which rose in elevation until it connected with a highway far above the city streets.

The car picked up speed to match the highway traffic. From this height, Damien could see a busy skyline filled with countless buildings with bright, glowing signs showing various product advertisements and company logos. None of them looked familiar.

He searched back in his memory once again, desperately looking for something from his past. But there was nothing. No childhood. No life milestones. Just a deep, dense fog that irritated him every time he tried to recollect something.

“So,” Kat said, “are you gonna go after TrillTech once you’ve paid off your debt?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Don’t you want to recover your memories? Or at the very least, you might be able to find out what happened to you. I’m sure that T-Deck interface module has some answers. You should try accessing it.”

“How do I access it?” Damien asked, annoyed at his lack of knowledge.

“I dunno.” Kat said. “Focus on it or something. It’s linked to your neural network after all.”

I guess it can’t hurt to try, Damien thought.

He closed his eyes and turned his focus inward. He thought about his cyberware; the sub-dermal armor first, then the optical scanner. As he shifted his attention toward the T-Deck, he felt a curious pull from it, an invitation to open it. It was a strange sensation, unknown yet somehow familiar. He mentally picked at it, until finally, it opened.

In a flash, a new interface completely different from the previous ones appeared before his eyes. He poured over it eagerly, when a realization quickly hit him like a truck, and his jaw dropped.

It was all starting to make sense.