{Apartment 0923, Megabuilding H10, Little China, Watson}
...
I don't know what I expected, maybe violent crime, people openly carrying guns with huge mechanical arms and hacksaws instead of limbs, but to come face to face with another door wasn't one of them. I stepped out while surveying my surroundings. Someone was lying face-first against a vending machine that was placed in the hallway; a warning in yellow lights was flashing on the opposite door.
'''Rent Overdue: 3 Days'''
I turned back to look at my door, and it showed a green message with a Rent Paid message. The whole hallway was a mess, with litter consisting of empty bottles, crushed cans, and pizza boxes littering everywhere. The apartment opposite mine was numbered 0927; the walls were covered with some form of graffiti or some shit doodles. A couple of posters of movies or BDs, dunno which one, were stuck to the wall beside my door.
'Samir Wallace in Black Hawk: Rise of the army. It's tacky, but maybe I'll look into the movie business. I need some references that people of this world would understand after all,' I thought as I looked at the corners further down the hallway. With no way to go, my focus immediately shifted to the mini-map. There were a couple of icons on the minimap, but the one that was interesting to me was Dropbox.
It was across the hallway further down the right corner, and with my way decided, I moved. The first few steps were filled with nervousness, but when nobody jumped at me, I started to calm down. The smell was bad, but it was expected; with no scented air circumambulating the place, it was bound to be bad.
'It's alright, just because this is night city doesn't mean everyone's a psycho. No need to be nervous; I just nee-'
...
I froze.
The zoom function of my eyes, which I had praised several times in my mind, had already decided to stiffen me as it zoomed right into the hole. I could see the sludge of white liquid dripping out of his head. The bullet had ripped through his temple, leaving a chuck of flesh missing as he lay there. Broken.
...
[Warning! Adrenaline spiking]
[Warning! Heartrate spiking]
...
I backed away from where I came and leaned against the wall. Red warnings flashed at the top of my HUD, so I closed my eyes. My palms came up to my face as I tried to block the image out of my head. I could feel my heart hammering against my chest as the urge to vomit came back.
"...Fuck" I cursed. The words allowed me to process my fear as my fingers trembled against my face.
"Fuck Fuck fuck fuck fuck..." I kept cursing like a retard as I dropped my hands. My eyes opened, the warnings still present, but I ignored them for now as I looked at the dingy tube light that was hanging above my head. I know I wasn't ready for it, but somehow I forced myself to stand straight.
The difficult part was next as I turned around and went back toward the body. My eyes went straight back to the missing part of the man's skull, but I managed my emotions better this time. The urge to bolt once again came, but I suppressed it as I forced myself to look.
...
'This is night city. I would have to deal with looking and smelling dead corpses every day. Can't freeze and collapse every day...' I know thinking like this was moronic, almost psychotic, but I think I don't have a choice. So I stood there, staring, glaring at a dead corpse as it decomposed right before my eyes.
...
I didn't know how long I had stood there, and I didn't have enough strength to check. With my heart now under control, I took a step over its fallen legs and forced myself to move forward. A couple of dumpsters specially marked for cyber waste were just around the corner as I moved forward. My eyes continued to move around, looking at the status of the megabuilding's tenants.
'Almost half of them are overdue, and a ton of them are already on eviction notice. The state of the economy might be terrible for this to be the case. I shouldn't spend all of my money unless I find a way to make it back someway soon.' I thought as I arrived at the open space to my left, which had a Dropbox. I walked over to it; it was like a vending machine, but I stopped when I read its address.
'''KB004 Drop Point'''
'Wait, it's the wrong one. Right, I forgot when I saw the icon that I needed to go two floors down. Though, why didn't the academy send my package to this one?' The question would once again remain unanswered as I looked around. There was a flight of stairs going upward, but nothing looked like it was going down. I walked back and looked around the hallway before I heard it.
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The clang of an elevator moving was coming from my left. I rushed to the end of the hallway and looked at the descending elevator. I rushed over and looked at the panel to the left. It had a call button, which I quickly pressed.
'No, up or down thing? What if someone is coming up, and I want to go down?' The whole system seemed primitive as I waited. Thankfully, the hallways were deserted this late into the night, so I wasn't on edge. The elevator took its sweet time when I arrived, and I jumped at the moaning noise that was coming from it. 4 TVs were on full blast, showing a woman panting and moaning as she ground herself against a car's hood.
'Is this an ad for a fucking car or fucking a car?' I thought as I punched in the 07: Apartments option into the panel.
The whole elevator jerked as it moved. Considering that the world has a walking-talking cyborg, I ought to file a complaint with the Megabuilding Corp of Night City.
The screens flickered as the elevator doors opened, in bright hot pink 'WET DREAMS' text was splashed onto the screens as a man started moaning in the background.
'Nope, fuck no...' I shook my head as I rushed out of the elevator as soon as its doors opened. Questioning the sanity of the man who approved that bullshit ad, I looked at the 4 brightly colored vending machines in front of me; my attention turned to my HUD, which showed that the drop box was to my left. As soon as I turned the corner, I could see the blue light in the dropbox.
I walked through the open atrium doors, and the noise of some people milling about spooked me as I turned to my right. The blaring red sign of the Second Amendment greeted me as a staircase was descending down what was clearly an in-house market. I stood there frozen. The scene aroused a sense of Deja Vu as I turned back and looked at the unmarked apartment through the open doors.
'This was it, wasn't it? This was our apartment in the game.' I walked a couple of steps toward the door but stepped. The red light on the door handle indicated that I didn't have access to the place, and I didn't want to bulldoze through and add more problems to my plate. I turned to the red sign again. Buying a gun would be a good choice, but that involved mixing in within a crowd, which I'm not comfortable with considering what I saw a few stories above.
'I'll come back for the gun tomorrow. I can take a day or two to adjust.' I consoled myself, I knew I was being a pussy, but I didn't want to rush into anything. Four quick steps took me to the Dropbox; I read the words displayed on the blue screen.
...
[OPEN]
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: INSERT PERSONAL LINK]
...
'Right, a personal link. That's what this wire is called.' I thought as I pulled it out and jacked it in. The screen changed to list all the deliveries in my name.
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[Delivery ID#132796843168]
[Delivery ID#890543216789]
[Delivery ID#543107894124]
[Delivery ID#347841681389]
...
I clicked on each of them one time as four packages were ejected from the bottom section. I grabbed onto them, my eyes scanning my surroundings as I swiftly made my way back toward the elevator. Aware of the end product of what greed can do, I swiftly jumped into the waiting elevator and punched in the option to go to 09: Apartments.
The short ride was filled with anxiousness and a hint of paranoia, but it seemed that whatever god was looking over me decided to be merciful as the elevator arrived, with no one waiting on the other end. My pace was brisk as I rushed through the empty hallway, kind of glad that I decided to go through with this in the night.
I hopped over the rotting corpse and, after rushing the last few yards, dashed into my apartment. The door closed behind me with a soft beep, and I almost collapsed. I took a few more steps, threw the packages onto the bed, and collapsed on it not soon after.
...
I didn't break down and cry. I just closed my eyes and lay there, staring into the holographic ads. The sound of rushing cars and the hustle and bustle of the city was somewhat calming.
After a while of reminiscing and wasting precious time that I couldn't debate against, I rolled over onto my side and grabbed the package closest to me. They all seemed to be the same, with the Militech logo stamped onto a cardboard box that was a couple of feet all around.
'Couldn't they have sent it in something more conspicuous so that I wouldn't be slashed to pieces by some idiot who might think that I had some military-grade cyberware in here...' I grumbled as I grabbed onto the rim and opened it.
A plain black BD wreath fell out of the box, along with a shard with the words 'Cooking: The art of culinary craft' etched into its side. I looked around for a more detailed guide, but there was nothing there.
'Now what, how do I fire this thing up?' I thought, and as I twirled the wreath around, I quickly found the two ports. One had the place where I could inject the shard, and another wire that I could plug in the right into my port, I think.
'Well, if I'm going to experiment, might as well do it with the cheaper course in case I mess something up.' I thought as I sat up and plugged the data shard into the wreath. Then came the harder part. I placed the wreath on my head. The two shining bulbs that would blind me soon, no doubt, hovered in front of my face as I leaned against the wall and got comfortable.
After getting ready, I grabbed the wire and carefully guided it to the port at the back of my ear. As soon as I plugged it in, a loading screen appeared in front of my face, which quickly turned into an option menu.
...
[Loading######...]
[Militech Techno Wreath loading complete.]
[Caliberating connection.]
[Multi lesson course detected.]
[Please select Lesson.]
[1. Starting with the basics]
[2. Noodles]
[...]
...
Well, that was easy; it seems like they do come in noob-friendly packages, which I'm thankful for because there is no Google in this world to save my hide. With a mental command, I selected the first option, and the only warning before two bright lights blinded me was the slow yet fast windup sound emanating from the wreath.
'God fucking-' I stopped as my senses dulled. The feeling of cold metal pressing into my back was gone, and now I was sitting on a stool. There was a very familiar selection of pots and pans in front of me as I looked at a middle-aged man standing in front of me.
"Welcome to your first lesson in Cooking. First, we'll start with the basics..."
...