Yukama, no…. Now Ayuna that is, kneeled on the floor with her hands on her head, with the pain receding now that their persona’s were starting to be merged albeit slowly, Yukama would have to accept that he was, well pretty much a girl now and he and Ayuna were now one and the same, and with the integration of memories and the consciousnesses of them both being triggered and slowly being sorted and merging, the reality of the situation finally dawned on them..
“Shit, I'm royally fucked, without eddies I'm done for right now, I have no income…” I said to myself quietly.
‘Shit, I'm short of 15 thou eddies to pay for the lease package and it expires at the end of next week, almost all of my savings are gone, I sold almost all of my personal arsenal and items that didn't matter to pull myself from the clutches of imminent death in addition to all of my savings too, and even then it's not guaranteed that later on down the line someone will get curious and investigate me, maybe even send a Tactical Response and Abduction Corpo Team after me.’ I thought to myself.
Tactical Response and Abduction Teams [T.R.A] were basically the Corporate Intelligence lingo of Corporate black ops teams meant to kidnap high-value targets who may have valuable information or other types of value to the company, and are required to tactically be able to do it quietly, discreetly, and most importantly deploy in a few minutes notice of their targets whereabouts being known..
Most Corporations had black ops teams like this..
Honestly they were terrifying, but they paled in comparison to the hit squads sent to simply just wipe out the populations of areas and ensure there were no survivors or witnesses as if you encountered one at least they would probably let you live at first.
‘I should be fine, I'm not too high up I know all of the big secrets, but not too low I know jack shit, people like me on the executive ladder are a dime a dozen, although my reputation is one of the few within the company that wasn't heavily biased and one of the more efficient managers in the machine, it was nepotism that had me terminated, not a fuckup or me being a rat so at least Arasaka won't send Deathsquads or Ninja Commandos After me.’ I thought to myself.
‘I can simply just make a new identity for myself and flee to Europe if need be, once I have the money of course somehow..’ I thought to myself.
‘But first, I need to turn the Guidance software off, go into my condo and sort my current belongings and liquidity, figure out a way to re-enable or jailbreak most of my military grade CID cyberware that has been shut off with me being kicked off of the Arasaka private net system, and figure out what I can do to secure myself some eddies..’ I thought.
Yes you heard that right, when Arasaka Terminated Ayuna, they cut her off from the Arasaka System, forcing most of her cyberware which is reliant on its integration to become redundant along with enabling their kill switches, it's standard procedure actually..
‘Right now all I really have working is my Necessary Cyberware and my Cyberdeck, and although all that works is only its primary functions and none of my Infiltration and Counter Intel Custom Sub Routines, I can still work with this, I didn't spend years working myself up the ladder from the status of lower level management my parents had in this life and learning and taking all that i could from the company for nothing..’ I thought to myself.
‘Not to mention it could be worse, they could have disabled my Necessary Cyberware, the Biomonitor, Bioconductor, Detoxifier, hell even my Metabolic Editor could have been disabled although the suit behind the control panel would have to really try in order to do so…’ I thought.
And then another wave of mind-ripping pain hit my brain as more memories hit me, close to a decade more of memories of me working as an Arasaka Executive in their Counter Intelligence Division and my childhood came to my mind, albeit garbled and out of order..
It felt like it took almost three whole minutes for my relapse to subside, and right then and there I decided to hurry out of this public lobby as soon as it did and sort out more of my new memories and everything else inside my Condo as soon as I can.
I picked myself up off the ground and headed for the elevator, luckily in the time I was spazzing out on the floor due to the lockdown no one was here to see this.
I hit the button on the touchpad for the 7th floor, my room should be #23, I just need to walk up to the door and do a quick scan and then I should be fine..
As I wait, crappy elevator music ensues, I'm honestly surprised with all of the spoiled corpos here that the elevator tunes havent been changed yet to something more classy, like an orchestral arrangement or something.
And then, after a minute of easy listening hell, finally I reached the 7th floor, the elevator doors automatically opened and as soon as I step out I am greeted with the smell of artificially flower-scented chemical disinfectants, lovely.
I look around and take in the sights of lavish red carpet, futuristic wall panels and lighting that are in the neo-militaristic style, plant beds that may or may not be real and an empty hallway, so with all of these things that are starting to feel a bit familiar around me I step forward and turn right to walk along the carpeted hallway and look for the doorway marked #23.
After a bit of walking later while looking through the surrealness of this all from the perspective of someone who has been here through these halls but at the same time not I finally reach my Condo door, I go up to the touchpad and put my hand on the high-security imprint scanner, opening it.
‘Here goes nothing.’ I thought
I walk in and take a look around, the lights were all off for a second, but in the next I think the motion sensor or something tripped because the lights were suddenly on, the beverage machine at the bar in front of me that was marked largely on the front 'Infuzion' started making me a drink by itself, and Franz Liszt - Liebestraum no 3 Abruptly started playing over some speakers.
'Very Cool Ayuna, very cool!' I thought to myself.
The door automatically closes behind me and I go up to the tiki bar kitchen-set combination (which was a luxury as I could actually cook my own food and have to rely on takeout) and grabbed the drink, if I remember correctly from the automatic settings that were in place this should be some Actual Real Coffee, not synthetic crap meant to taste the same and spiked with Caffeine, a real luxury honestly..
‘If I don't get myself some real money soon though, all of this will soon be gone…’ I thought to myself in concern and alarm, how would I survive without real coffee?
“Fucking hell..” I said to myself while thinking about that cruel reality while downing the hot cuppa.
I walked across the room to the couch and TV setup and sat down on the couch, I needed to sort out my thoughts and come up with some plans if I were to survive after the next two weeks, I had only around 35500 Eddies left and the lease on this place was around 50000, which is actually moderately discounted thanks to me being in Arasaka at the position I was.
But now that my status has changed things are different, luckily the fuckers here didn't realize my past self in this world as Ayuna Yaekoyama had contingencies in case one day I would be fucked over within the company other than the connections I used to keep myself alive right now, that discount I have thanks to my previous lawyer's efforts are permanent in the contract so long as I never actually get to the point where I am vacated due to not being able to pay on time, so only if I were to move out and then try to come back and secure my condo it would be back at a ludicrous price.
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‘So I'm not completely fucked..’ I thought as the memories from this life are all slowly being sorted out and are coming back to me..
Just then I was distracted because all of a sudden I got a blaring notification along with an alarm on my cyberware HUD interface.
DYNAMIC LIMIT BREAK SYSTEM UPLOADING 10% 40% 54% 78% 88%
‘What the fuck, isn't this part of the stuff I spent all damn day downloading off terrible satellite internet speeds to modify Cyberpunk 2077 for my next playthrough? I mean before everything went to hell and I died of course?’ I thought to myself in both confusion and excitement.
100%
DYNAMIC LIMIT BREAK SYSTEM INSTALLATION COMPLETE
COMPLETE TASKS ISSUED BY PEOPLE WITHIN THE WORLD, GAIN ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE FROM COMPLETING THEM AND BY KILLING HIGH VALUE TARGETS, USE SAID EXPERIENCE TO DISTRIBUTE POINTS TO YOUR CHARACTER PROFILE, ALL HUMAN AND TRANSHUMAN LIMITS ARE BROKEN!
Then a Status window with a sub-window of the attribute point tree from cyberpunk 2077 appeared within my field of vision..
USER: Ayuna Yaekoyama
INHERENT SKILLS:
* Perfect Memorization (Still needs memory categorization)
* Indomitable Will
STATUS:
* 100% Healthy
* Caffeinated
CYBERWARE SYSTEMS:
* Partially Offline
* Cyberdeck Quickhacks and Specialist Subroutines disabled
* ARASAKA CID Suite for Optics disabled
LISTING OF CYBERWARE:
* ARASAKA CID PERPETRATOR MODEL 5 CYBERDECK *
* ARASAKA CID CHOCHINIBI MODEL 4 OPTICAL CAMO AND PHYSICAL COUNTERMEASURES SUITE *
* KIROSHI GROUP OPTICS MODEL 3 WITH CID SUITE *
* ARASAKA CID CUSTOM ORDER KERENZIKOV *
* FUYUTSUKI ELECTRONICS CORPORATION EX DISK 2.0.1
* ARASAKA CID INKA MODEL SELF I.C.E 5.0 *
* RAVEN MICROCYBERNETICS METABOLIC EDITOR
* RAVEN MICROCYBERNETICS DETOXIFIER
* ZETATECH BIOMONITOR
* ZETATECH BIOCONDUCTOR
* FUYUTSUKI ELECTRONICS CORPORATION MICROGENERATOR
* FUYUTSUKI ELECTRONICS CORPORATION SMARTLINK
ATTRIBUTES[UNOPENED]:
‘This is unreal, I think I may just have found my ticket out of poverty and perhaps even death in the future, that is if this is even real and effects me. I should first once looking everything over focus on trying to jailbreak my ICE lockout and re-enabling it, which should be outside of maybe enabling my Cyberdeck subroutines the hardest as i don't wanna fry my brain.’ I thought
I opened the ATTRIBUTES Panel and had a pleasant surprise at my own skills determined by the system, although it says I'm at level zero my current stat distribution based on the skills of both of my lives is pretty good, I have no Points to pick perks though, I'm curious if dump points into a stat like before I'll just get a rush of painful memories and muscle memory that ill need to sort through like what I should be doing right now..
ATTRIBUTES[OPENED]:
LEVEL: 0
AVAILABLE POINTS: 0
* 16 Intelligence [Open Subcategory]
* 20 Cool [Open Subcategory]
* 15 Body [Open Subcategory]
* 5 Reflexes [Open Subcategory]
* 5 Technical Ability [Open Subcategory]
‘In this life i was quite good at netrunning, and all of that knowledge and experience is at my fingertips so it makes sense for me to have a high intelligence, Cool should be from Both of our experiences in Ninjutsu and Stealth among other things Pertaining to being a Intelligence officer or Shinobi.. Err Kunoichi in today's world, not like how Ninja were back in the pre modern ages where Mass Surveillance didn't exist yet.’ I thought to myself.
‘Body should be at this level because of how relatively fit my body is along with how relatively accommodating it is to all of my current cyberware, Ayuna also known as me had a pretty good cyberware affinity if I recall correctly. I'm just not David level I don't think, alot of the stuff like the Metabolic Editor, Detoxifier, Bioconductor and Microgenerator are more or less to keep me alive and support my body with all of the Military Grade Arasaka Counter Intelligence Division Exclusive Cybernetics inside me.’ I thought to myself..
‘Reflexes should be at this level because around half of our- no my career I was sitting at a desk or netrunning and not training properly on the physical side of things, I rarely went to the shooting range too, all I really did was go to the Gym and Spa in the building just to keep my body in shape and that's about it… I was stupid..’ I thought to myself while sitting on the couch.
‘Technical level is only really this high because I know how to make basic IEDS and all sorts of grenades from scrap components I bet though, that and do basic spy stuff like make directional microphones and other gadgets that have been around since Pre Datakrash honestly, I'm pretty much a pleb at techie work…’ I thought
Overall the Levels seemed fair and accurate, and other than my own mental instability by never being put in such a situation before this my body really was feeling healthy as the Status said, I mean that and yes I just drank coffee so of course I am Caffeinated.
I closed the System Tab and then decided to sort my thoughts before moving on, I need to plan a bit more in-depth before doing the basics like trying to jailbreak and fix my chipped in cyberware…
‘I need to find myself a reliable source of income, and with my current skills of General Management and both Business and Black Ops Administration i could go to any Arasaka Competitor, thing is that is basically signing my death warrant and asking for the company to flatline me..' I thought.
"Plus fuck the corporations, although they pay great the constant distrust, possibility of being backstabbed, and lack of freedom as I'm basically my bosses dog no matter at which level repulses me now, ill be my own boss thank you very much, I already suffered so much trying to secure my freedom in my past life that even in my current situation I would never put myself under another again, doing freelance contracts are one thing if I decide to become an edgerunner but going to become apart of Militech or Kang Tao is another..’ I thought to myself.
‘So that's off the table, with my current skills and meta knowledge though I could become a Legendary Mercenary, the issue is this is the real world now and not a game so I can't just go and walk into Japantown or something and have Wakako call me up asking for my services.
I Honestly have no deets of a single fixer right now, Arasaka Counter Intel Honestly works above that sort of level, more like Rogue’s level fixers that is if we ever need to even interact with those elements of society in a situation, not to mention one of that level wouldn't take me at all because I'm such an unknown and dont have the title of ‘Arasaka Counter Intelligence Executive’ any longer, let alone Someone at the Level of Padre or Wakako, i need to come up with a plan to get into contact with one and get myself some gigs and eddies accordingly, even if it means I have to do some low-level street kid shit at the beginning like dropping off packages at dead drops and being basically a mail delivery person for BDs or Drugs.’ I thought to myself.
‘Either way, taking care of finding a fixer to get myself some gigs and income, a reputable ripper doc and retraining my reflexes and body in order to get stronger are musts.’ I set myself straight thinking that.
‘Viktor Vector in Watson is probably my best bet, and he could even probably help me with my cyberware’ I thought to myself.
‘If i recall correctly according to my new memories as Ayuna, today is August 12th 2075.' I thought
'God I hate Mondays, but anyways so if I wanted to in the next year I could save Gloria and prevent David at the same time from getting into contact with Maine so soon, although regardless because his mother is in contact with his crew to begin with David might figure things out on how his mom is paying for everything eventually.’ I thought.
‘If I could perhaps make use of Glorias skills and her high-quality Scav networking abilities to source military grade parts off cadavers as an EMT I could make my own side business as a middleman directly helping her sell them off to fixers or Ripperdocs once I have the connections, this way I could have a decent amount of relatively easy passive income, the lower end things she could give to Maine's crew, but middle to high-grade military level cyberware id pay premium in comparison if I can and take twice the profits from what the fixers and Ripperdocs may give me.’ I thought.
‘Another method is I could just simply join Maines crew of mercenaries and source Gloria through there, and while in the short term that may be good that brings up various issues that need solving, Gloria through a past connection with Maine directly sells the goods to him, so unless i somehow convince Maine to give up that business which would be next to impossible there is no way I'm getting a cut of that business.' I thought.
'Whereas on the other hand I could simply do it more anonymously and hidden away from the crew by contacting Gloria without ever meeting them after saving her life, or choose not my hide my identity from her at the very beginning when I save her which either way gives fewer chances of risk and exposure, not to mention me saving them from getting gunned down on the highway in some manner would raise questions to begin with and adding Maines crew would muddy the waters further.' I thought.
'Gloria is also one of the rare few cases of actually good people in this dystopian shithole of night city and I was saddened by her abrupt death as I watched it, yeah sure while her intentions may be a bit misguided in getting David into the Corporate Life and although me helping her may partly be for my own selfish ulterior motives I'm just trying to not give up my luxury condo and live in poverty barely being able to survive again like my early childhood..’ I thought
‘There are so many options… So many choices and paths I could choose, regardless though, it basically wraps up to one thing, offering my skillset for a price or starting my own avenues of business to make ends meet, and having my own trusted people and crew on top of that vitally, I can't trust any of the friends I had as an Arasaka for shit, it was the money that talked for me to be alive right now I bet and its best to cut myself from that life now anyways.’ I thought.
‘But first, I need to get my cyberware working..’
To be continued…