{6th Floor, Megabuilding H10, Little China, Watson}

{45 Minutes later}

...

I stepped back from the shooting platform and looked at the gun in my hand. All in all, the gun wasn't bad. I bought a silencer and a scope to equip the gun better and get comfortable with the full setup. The experience, as expected, had slowed down to a crawl. When it took me just 5 bullets to gain 100 Exp earlier, I had to go through 50 now to get the same notification.

Still, at least stamina wasn't an issue. I had been shooting constantly for a while now, and my hands felt much better than they should have. I had burned through four stacks of ammo as I walked over to the vending machine and bought another stack. Storing this in my inventory, I clicked open on the door panel and walked out of the firing range.

"You know that piece of iron is fully auto, right?" Wilson questioned as soon as I walked out of the door. There was no one else in the shop beside us.

"Yeah, but I feel more in control of the weapon with taps. Plus, with a silencer, it should be used like that anyway. Even with all the sound reduction, it does make some noise, and continuous use, like during full auto mode, would make it more noticeable." I admitted. Thinking of the gym that was just outside, I thought about asking Wilson for some info.

"About the gym area outside, what's the situation there?" I asked.

"What's the sitch? Well, our building is not under any gang's control, so you are free to roll in. However, avoid tangling with the big gonks, Nathan, and Timur. Also, it would be better to slip some eddies to the guy working on the boxing bot. He'll make sure no one tries to push you around." Wilson replied. I nodded my head in thanks and walked out of his store.

There was another elevator right in front of his store through which people were strolling. My eyes were stuck on a girl who was walking around. She was wearing a black crop top, but more interestingly, her entire visible body was shining gold.

'How does that even feel to have metal as skin?' I thought as I turned to my left and walked over to the boxing ring. A man in a red tank top, blue shorts, and red sneakers was working on a half-disassembled bot.

"Hey, haven't seen you around here before?" the guy replied. He likely noticed that I was coming toward him with the intention of talking.

"Yeah, I just moved in a couple of days ago. I'm getting a feel for this place," I said, looking around. The area was quite noisy, with plenty of people milling about, some sitting on benches that were placed around the guy-type area.

"Well, well, well... welcome to the building then. How can I help?" He said, apparently done with the pleasantries.

"Talked to Wilson and said you might be the guy who would be willing to dish out some lessons and help bulk up a little, thinking about getting in the ring," I replied. From his questline, I knew he was pretty involved in the boxing scene.

At the mention of the ring, his eyes lit up. He started appraising my body as he stood up and looked me in the eyes. Seeing that I wasn't messing around, he nodded, his face serious, and his voice getting a touch deeper.

"Well, you have the build for it, choom, and you're quite young too—18 or 19, I'm guessing..." he thought aloud. After a brief pause, he asked, "Ever boxed before?"

"Nah," I shook my head, "But I'm a quick learner, won't take long for me to get used to the basics."

His interest diminished a little as I noticed him nod, "Alright, I can give you some lessons on the basics and see if you have what it takes; gonna cost you, though."

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"How much we taking about?" I asked. My eyes looked at the bot he was working on, likely the same one V fought during the opening sequence.

'Even someone like him knows how to build a bot, either knowledge of this shit is available to all, or you can buy it from a corp.'

"A grand for everything. It will get you started on the basics, and you'll be free to come to the gym and work out whenever you want." the guy replied.

"Seems fair," I nodded; although he might be ripping me off by quoting a high price, to me, the skill was worth it, especially since I could bug him for a fight to level it up. Plus, I get to use the gym. I looked into his eyes and focused on my cybernetics. His entire body turned green as I entered scanning mode. Since I had no quickhacks available, there was no option to establish a link and hack into his OS. There was an option to contact his holo, which I did.

His eyes glowed blue, and he likely started looking at his interface as well. Transferring funds wasn't hard; it was one of the options that I could access straight away, granted that the person was added to my contact list.

...

[Transferring funds]

[-€$1000]

...

The notification appeared, and so did a smile on the coach's face, "You can call me Coach Fred. You ready to begin?"

"Sure, I got time for a quick lesson. Need to deal with something after that, though," I replied as I accepted the proposal. There were several things I needed to do, and while I could do them in a different order, I had a shard waiting for me back home, and to make actual use of that shard, I needed to talk to Vik and have some hand to hand combat experience before leaving the building would help.

"That's the spirit; now, for your next session, I would recommend more loose clothes, but they would do for now," Coach Fred said as he picked up the bot and put it aside. He walked over to a bag sitting beside the bench and threw something at me.

I caught it. It looked like gauge tape.

"Bind your knucks; you don't want them bleeding on your first day of biz," the coach said as he pulled out a couple of pads from his bags.

I started bandaging my hands while he came over to me. He looked at the covering of tape on my right hand before he took over and did the one on the left. After that, he stood in front of me, in a primary defensive status, with the pad hovering in front of me, saying, "Punch it, choom. Let me see what I'm working with."

I nodded to him before I pulled my fingers into a fist. My thumb was outside my grip as I had seen a little too many movies. I hopped on my feet a couple of times to get my blood flowing before I took a step forward and punched.

Surprisingly, I did okay. Although my muscle memories of how to use a knife weren't tailor-made for punching, my footwork on how to move forward and close the distance was the same. I saw the surprise on Fred's face as he evaluated me before nodding toward my other hand, "Now with the left."

I repeated the motion; this time, the power was a little weaker as I saw Fred nod, "Alright, you're a righty, alright. Let's see now: your footwork was quite impressive, the shuffle forward was good, and the distance was right. There was a confidence in your gait that wasn't reflected in your punch... Did someone only teach you half of how to throw a punch or what?" He asked jokingly as he put his hands down.

"Well... I have some skills with a blade. I guess my body followed my instincts?" I shrugged.

"Ah..." his eyes lit up, understanding the situation, "Well, that's surprising. You must be handy with a blade guessing based on your footwork proficiency. It's a decent foundation that I could work with, and your strength isn't half bad, too, considering you didn't move your core one bit into the punch. That was impressive...."

Fred continued to talk some more before he nodded. He smacked his pads together and replied, "Alright, I was basically going to run you around before buzzing you off, but I changed my mind. You are going to be the next big thing."

'Uhh...don't tell me I'm going to be roped into something I won't like...'

...

[Gained mentor: Coach Fred {Tier-3}]

[+50% Experience gain in Skill {Boxing}]

...

[Mentor system unlocked]

[Gain recognition from mentors to gain bonus experience and leveling speed in their respective skills.]

[The higher the Mentor's Proficiency in their skillset, the greater experience boost they provide.]

...