Chapter 15
Sitting back in my apartment that Lizzy had kindly helped me get into, I was sitting on the couch and looking at the contents of the large rectangular guitar case she’d purchased for me. The interior of the case was some kind of automold foam that held the guitar snugly in place.from the look of the foam you could place pretty much anything you wanted in it and it would hold it securely in place, my mind immediately went to concealing weapons within it. But that could wait, I wanted to check out my new guitar.
Pulling the guitar from the case, I gave it a look over. The Fender branding was prominently displayed in between the top of the guitar’s neck and the first fret, below the strings. The guitar’s body was a bright fire engine red. I stroked my fingers across the strings…and barely heard an out of tune plunking noise from it. A closer examination of the guitar showed me a symbol on the back of its body that I was coming to despise. It was the temporary app symbol. I sighed to myself as I placed the guitar back in the case, I’d have to wait to try it out. I noticed a shard near the corner of the case and plucked it out, presumably this was what was going to teach me to play the instrument. At least I could check that out. I slotted the shard…and nothing happened. Stupid fucking IA!
I sighed to myself as I closed and latched the guitar case on the coffee table. I got up and grabbed a can of the berry tea stuff out of the fridge, the beer and the black labeled beverages were all gone, and then dropped back onto the couch to watch whatever was on TV. At least it’s better than sitting on the floor in the hall. I told myself.
I was treated to my first Noir City cartoon, a show about a street samurai doing jobs for a mysterious corpo that they’d never actually met. It wasn’t the most intellectual program I’d ever watched, but the gore as he used a sword to cut down dozens of rivals was pretty impressive from a technical standpoint. The guys that made this show sure knew their anatomy.
Following the cartoon came a show about some idol type singer navigating life as a famous singer. Kidnapping attempts seemed to be a given, along with rabid fans trying to murder her, or make sure she saw them kill themselves, or deliver screen plays, or bombs. It was pretty out there, and definitely made me questions why people would want to be super famous if this was considered standard fare.
As I settled in to just wait out my IA’s initializing I started to truly feel as though bad TV was indeed melting my brain. Right up until Ray came on.
Ray was both the name of a talk show as well as the name of the show’s host. The titular, blue pompadoured, eye searing suit jacketed Ray had an undeniable charisma and worked his audience like a puppet. They were eating out of his hand, laughing when he wanted them to laugh, gasping when he wanted them to gasp, and giving consolation groans practically on cue. His first guest, after a hilarious monologue about the evil forces that seemed to be convincing women to dress more modestly and show less skin, was a scantily dressed high end VR porn star. He spent a considerable amount of time outrageously flirting with her, and she certainly seemed to be responding to it as she flirted right back. Eventually Ray told his audience that it was time to let her go and to bring out the next guests, a band called Blood Pool, but Ray told the audience that he was having far too much fun with his first guest, a buxom gal named Alli Lucky, and told everyone that he’d have them on tomorrow night as he was going to spend the rest of the show on Alli. He actually left his spot behind his host desk and sat on the guest couch next to Alli as he ‘interviewed’ her. Mostly it just consisted of witty flirting and absurd jokes, but it seemed like she really was into him, and by the end of the show she was all but curled around him as she sat on his lap. And the very moment before their lips touched for their first kiss, his head spun towards the camera that was getting the close up and he loudly declared, “That’s all for tonight folks! We’ll see you tomorrow evening! Same time, same place, same Ray!” The show instantly cut to commercial, and that was it.
For the first time I’d seen a show I think I’d actually be willing to watch another episode of. That Ray guy was pretty damn hilarious.
I’d quite lost track of time there as show after show had played, until Ray had actually gotten me to pay attention. I checked my display.
Internal Agent Initializing…99%
Yes, almost done! Finally!
I was barely paying attention as the next show came on. It seemed to be rather obviously sponsored by UberWater. Something about a guy and a swimming pool? It didn’t make much sense to me and the fact that I could barely pay attention to anything other than that 99% on my display didn’t help.
Just as I was starting to worry there might actually be something wrong, my IA hit 100%. A moment later the message faded off my display and my normal heads up display populated my vision. It was literally the difference between night and day. I hadn’t realized that my Kobayashi eyes’ night vision hadn’t been functioning in the dark room, but the moment my IA started working I could suddenly see perfectly. The clock in the corner of my vision showed it was just past midnight and the numbers were much higher definition looking than they had previously.
And then the differences began to pile up. While my original basic IA had been extremely intuitive, my new Sakura tier 3 IA almost seemed to be predicting my desires ahead of time. A quick glance at the blackened window and it instantly accessed the temp app and selected the option to make the window clear again. I found myself looking out over the blinking lights of skyscrapers against the black night’s sky.
Looking around the apartment, the moment I glanced at the apartment’s front door, it quickly opened and shut itself, just to reassure me that I could. I noticed a small alcove next to the fridge that was completely done in a black plastic that I now knew was a coffee dispenser. As I watched a plastic cup dropped into the alcove and hot liquid began spewing loudly into it. I knew even before the smell hit me that it was a triple espresso that had cost me 12 creds. A glance at my sister’s bedroom door let me know that I could in fact unlock it if I wanted to. Not sure what’s up with that. I mean if it’s locked I shouldn’t be able to open it just by wanting to right? Is my IA autohacking stuff or something? This was going to take some getting used to.
Then my eyes fell to the coffee table in front of me and I couldn’t help but smile. I’m gonna play the shit out of that guitar. I felt it as my IA accessed the guitar’s temp app and opened the guitar shard in my head simultaneously.
No, hold up, man. Prioritize. I still need to check my stats and make sure my GEMA app is working properly. Practically the moment I thought about it, the music app and shard info closed out of my vision, and not only did my IA open up my GEMA app, it also populated a comprehensive list of my stats along with other relevant info that I’d barely even considered. I spent a few minutes reacquainting myself with the info therein and noticed there were indeed some changes.
Level 2 500/3000XP
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55,360c
Body 2 200/3000XP
Reflex 1 1300/2000XP
Tech 1 0/2000XP
Net 1 0/2000XP
Cool 1 0/2000XP
Skills:
Handgun 2 200/3000XP
Acrobatics 0 900/1000XP
Kung-fu 1 0/2000XP
Athletics 1 100/2000XP
Danger Sense 1 0/2000XP
Perks:
Suck it up (Level 2)
Quickdraw (Handgun 2)
Slippery (Level 1)
0 Skill points
0 Perk points
Cyberware:
Aerotech Mk II synth lungs
Kobayashi Mk I eyes
Sakura CherryBlossom Alloy tier 3 nanomachine production organ
Sakura CherryBlossom Alloy skeleton
Sakura CherryBlossom Alloy tier 3 internal agent
I’d been correct in my earlier assessment of my musculature and had indeed gotten Body up to level 2, which was now my highest stat. I’d also managed to get Athletics up to level 1. I noticed that getting Body up to the second level hadn’t awarded any Body specific perk points the way Handgun had given me one when I’d gotten it up to level 2 back at Gary’s gun range. Dang, that would have been useful. Guess I’m back to needing to kill a bunch of people. I wondered absently if I could practice kung-fu by myself in order to get it to level up or if I’d actively need to fight someone, or join a dojo or something.
But first things first, my attention dropped back to the guitar in front of me and I opened up the case. Time to pick up an instrument. I pulled the guitar from the case as my IA opened it’s app and brought up the info from the guitar shard in my slot. This was going to be fun.
==
+100 Rockerboy XP
Booya! Halfway to level 1! I smiled as I let the last chord I’d strummed ring through the apartment. While I wasn’t going crazy with the volume the way Abby apparently did, my IA had accessed the apartment’s sound system and was letting me use it as an ersatz amp. I hadn’t quite figured out what the trick was to getting XP, beyond just playing a lot. It didn’t seem to correspond to playing a complete song as far as I could tell, though I did get two XP alerts when I finished playing something. It almost seemed to be more dependent on my understanding of what I was doing. But I honestly wasn’t sure. The shard in my skull was coming in extremely handy and I got the impression I was learning at an accelerated rate compared to how I’d fare with just a teacher. Abby’s such a little scammer.
The biggest surprise was that I had learned the Rockerboy skill and not the Guitar skill, which I had to assume was a thing. There was a skill for fucking everything after all. Maybe if I pick up that skill it gives me the opportunity to level up two skills at the same time? Or maybe it’d just have different perks available that I could double dip in? And if it is its own separate skill then what would be the unlock conditions for guitar, if not just learning it the way I have been? Stupid GEMA app needs a damn manual.
I was still quite a ways away from figuring out how to play songs from my last life, but I was thoroughly enjoying myself. I began strumming chords as instructed by the shard and heard it turning into a melody in my hands. It was a heady feeling, and I couldn’t wait to introduce Noir City to some of my favorite bands from my last life. Although I would of course be taking complete credit for the writing of those songs, the timeline of this world veered pretty wildly off course from my own when World War II never really ended here and instead effectively destroyed most of the world with nuclear hellfire. Meaning that pretty much any bands and songs after 1950 had never existed in this world. So if I mentioned Mozart and Beethoven people may well know who I’m referring to, but if I start talking about Metallica and Dave Grohl people will look at me like I’m crazy. Which is good, since I’ve always preferred Grohl to Mozart anyway. After all, Mozart had a decided paucity of electric guitar solos in his music.
I’d been playing for another hour or so when I got yet another alert.
+100 Rockerboy XP
And then something rather unexpected happened. The door to Sara’s bedroom opened up. And out walked Gary, wearing a frilly pink bathrobe. “Uh…morning, Gary.” I managed after a minute.
Gary just continued to walk to the kitchen. “Mornin’,” he grunted back. He headed immediately for the coffee alcove thing next to the fridge, and finding a cold triple espresso already sitting there where I’d completely forgotten it. He drank it down in one shot. He groaned in pleasure at the delicious beverage, and a moment later he’d apparently ordered a fresh one as a new cup dropped down and began loudly filling itself. As his cup filled I noticed Sara slip out of her bedroom wrapped in a sheet and head to the bathroom. Damn…Sara and Gary? Didn’t realize the little dude had that much game.
Gary’s coffee finished filling and he walked over with his cup and took a seat on the couch, looking out at the sun rising over the city he winced. “Remind me never to drink Tequila ever again, kid,” he groaned as he leaned back against the couch and threw an arm over his red cyber optics. He then proceeded to sip his coffee blind without changing that ungainly position.
The flushing of a toilet presaged Sara’s reemergence and she came over to the couch and sat down next to Gary, throwing an arm around him, causing him to groan a bit as he moved into her embrace. I blinked at Sara’s muscular arm. “Did you get some new muscle chrome last night?” I asked as she was definitely looking bulkier than I remembered last time I saw her on the couch.
“Huh?” she queried groggily as she stole a sip of Gary’s coffee. “Oh, right, yeah. I was shopping with Gary and mentioned wanting to upgrade my muscle chrome. Gary had some sweet muscles just sitting in a fridge under his shop. He hooked me up for cheap and we got ‘em installed. Then the drinking happened. And now I may die when this hangover finishes digesting my brain.” She groaned in pain and Gary chimed in with a groan of his own, perfectly harmonizing. “Mal, if you can fix my brain I’ll love you forever,” she said plaintively.
I considered her request. “I’m your favorite brother. You’ll love me forever anyway,” I ultimately responded.
She groaned even louder at my rejoinder. “Fine. If you fix my head we’ll be even for the whole keeping you alive after you got shot in the brain thing.”
That made me hesitate. I did owe her for that. Or at least I think I did? Maybe that was old malcolm that owed her? Meh, she worked at a fast food restaurant while I recovered. That was definitely me she helped then. I pretended to dig in my pocket and pulled my last AeroMed inhaler out of my inventory. “AeroMed inhaler?” I asked.
Not even responding verbally she just groaned incoherently while making grabby motions at me. I tossed it to her and she completely missed the catch. Fortunately it landed on her lap and she immediately picked it up and sucked it down, instantly giving a groan of pure relief instead of pain.
“Oh my god, that is so much better. You are the best little brother in the history of little brothers.” She stated with absolute confidence.
“Kid…please tell me you have one of those for me? I’ll give you a thousand damned creds if you do,” croaked Gary.
I just shrugged. “Sorry, Gary, that was my last one…although for a grand I’d be willing to go buy one for you quick if ya want.”
“For the love of all that is holy, yes, please,” he replied.
I was out the door at a jog mere seconds later. While I may not have done much drinking in this new life, I was well aware of the evils of tequila and the pain of a massive hangover. Sara and Gary, huh? Did not see that coming.