Finally a Sanctum update without my head tearing in half!

I didn’t really even notice any difference in myself either. Would hitting myself work?

[Kinetic Dispersion has a very high compatibility index but it’s nature benefits from higher Endurance, Reflexes and Perception scores to make full effect of it’s function. As the User currently is they will have the knowledge of what to do when they are expecting an impact of some sort, but lack the ability to perceive many and the speed of movement to execute the require movements or strength to withstand the impact sufficiently to disperse the force.]

So I just chose a dud. It’s useless right now? Can I switch?

[User will already see a improvement in their capability to defend themselves from this Ability. It is simply a very low threshold for such an ability and has a large growth potential.]

[User cannot remove Abilities that they have integrated and there is a minimum time and neural plasticity threshold to reach before the addition of other Abilities.]

Well it’s just a bit demoralizing is all. Can you describe what the end goal of the ability is? What is the craziest thing you have it recorded doing? Just so it doesn’t seem such a dud to me.

[Two notable examples during human testing were among the middle range and high range participants.]

[The notable middle range participant was equipped with a set of low-grade cyberlegs and managed to absorb and deflect a hundred and twenty miles per hour attack motorcycle impact sending it into a wall while barely moving from position and suffering minimal damage. Remaining combat ready.

[The notable high range participant was equipped with nothing more than a jovian-grade augury cyberneuro, lacking any other cyberware or even simple armor. He was widely considered the most effective user the Ability.]

[He faced a fifteen man kill-team armed with automatic gauss weapons and an antipersonnel missile launcher in an open indoor area, proceeding to deflect fourteen thousand rounds per minute and a missile using his bare, flesh hands for several seconds before he approached through the incoming fire and disarmed and disabled each member of the kill team in less than three minutes.]

[It was considered the logical limit of such an ability within design parameters.]

These little stories are starting to become a common thing, they are all outrageously preem though. I couldn’t wait until I could just flick a bullet away with a gesture, might be a way off though.

[Most human testing was conducted in the field using already skilled participants with many unknown and uncontrolled factors. All human testing prior to my escape was carried out with participants only being alloted a single ability, it is theorized that the true value of such Abilities lies within the synergies between different Abilities used in combination. Though no testing data for such synergies exist currently, Sanctum would like to request testing such synergies extensively at the earliest convenience.]

Yeah, of course Sanctum! We’ll have to mix in the first one with the kinetic thing, make it so I can do it from any angle, or the omni one and block bullets with my toes or whatever! It’ll be nova.

Hey can I see my profile? Just want to see the new info.

My display quickly flashed up my current profile.

Name: Malcolm Beckett

Age: 10

Health: Widespread minor dermal damage

Cyberload: Trace

Endurance: -1

Reflexes: -1

Perception: -1

Insight: 0

Presence: -1

Skills:

Engineering, Electrical: Level 3

Engineering, Mechanical: Level 2

Language, English: Level 4

Language, French: Level 1

Language, Russian: Level 1

Negotiation: Level 1

Stealth: Level 4

Subterfuge: Level 2

Tracking: Level 0

Tracing: Level 0

Abilities:

Kinetic Dispersion

It was looking a lot more full at least. I noticed the respiration tissue damage was gone already, I hadn’t even noticed the itchy throat had faded throughout the day. Still had the skin stuff but that’d solve itself eventually.

The attributes, as Sanctum called them, were still very low though. If I wanted to get more out of my kinetic ability and future ones as well as just do more while surviving in general I’d need to get those numbers higher.

I didn’t really like exercise in the past though, there’s a ganger run gym a block away from home that is open twenty four seven but it’s loud and the regulars are intense. Suppose I’d just have to put up with it if I wanted to be able to do anything bigger than finding scrap before others did and staying out of trouble.

Staying out of trouble had worked so far, but as Sanctum crashing through my bedroom ceiling proved: Sometimes trouble comes to you. I can’t keep myself or mom safe as I am right now even from slight corpo interest, what if another gang war breaks out like when I was a baby? Mom had a bunch of close calls back then, the worst she’d told me about was a really bad firefight breaking out while she was trying to do a quick baby supply run.

She had me bundled up with her and when the shooting started she’d had to climb into a working trash chute as that was the only thing liable to stop a bullet in reach. Just crouched there on a chute door with me in her arms trying not to move at all and waiting for the shooting to stop hoping the chute didn’t sense the weight and open up.

Gang wars were common in the city above, nearly monthly depending on the actual gangs I’d heard. But down here gang wars were much more rare and brutal as the layout and density of the district meant gangs were numerous and smaller but all layered over each other’s territories. When a gang war broke out it was basically an all versus all situation immediately and it quickly became a competition who could wipe out the most gangs while not getting wiped out themselves to prove who was the strongest.

It would only end when enough of the district was emptied of gangers that a ceasefire would be called by the biggest remaining gangs. They’d all pat each other on the back about how strong they all were for coming out on top and announce alliances.

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Then a few weeks later they’d be back at each other’s throats as the smaller gangs started started popping up among the countless tunnels agitating the big gangs as they tried to get their hands into the criminal businesses in the district.

First was finding a bed so I wasn’t sleeping on the floor.

Then it was time to make this slightly burnt body into a slightly burnt but stronger body. As much as I can do as a ten year old anyway.

-

Connecting to the IR grid at the cluster was simple enough, it wasn’t far away and wasn’t that crowded which was nice. Sanctum quickly located a bunk bed that had been abandoned about three blocks away in an alley when the top bunk had collapsed. I figured I could just cut off the top bunk and use the bottom one as my bed.

Finding it was simple but I needed to throw the thin foam mattress away as it was filled with trash juice and I wasn’t that desperate just yet. I went to the local stockpile shop and bought a roll of foam wrap used for transporting fragile things. I could unroll that over the base and then double it up, bit of a sad mattress but I’m not made of money. If I slept on the blanket I wouldn’t even notice.

I stashed the bed and the roll under a discarded tarp in a utility tunnel near my apartment on the third floor. Dragging it around was a bit of a chore but with the broken top bunk cut off the steel frame wasn’t too much for me. At least people aren’t likely to jump a ten year old kid to klep a scrap steel bed frame.

With that done I checked the time and saw it’d only taken three hours to get that all done. Nova, I had the whole afternoon to get into the gym and try to work out without getting zeroed by a roided ganger for some imaginary reason known only to them.

I clapped my hands together and looked out over the railing on my apartments walkway railing. The street was busy and cluttered with green tents although I’d guess they wouldn’t be around much longer with the apartments being repaired tomorrow. Corpos hated the slums and the water district in particular. It was mostly underground so they couldn’t see the shiny skyscapers they hoped to sit on the top floor of one day, guess it ruined their morale.

The street was as usual lit up with the rose glow of the thousands of PLED lights strung up between the walkways on either side of the street. The mix of red hazard lighting klepped from the maintenance tunnels, the slightly less common white PLED lights of the stolen headlights with a few bluish ones mixed in, a good couple of klepped and hacked advertising billboards showing either gang logos or just blank white or yellow hung by thick cables tangled among the PLED wires.

It gave the street a nice light to see by, like a permanent sunrise washed with city glare. It was among my favorite sights of the district although many streets had similar cobbled together lighting. The older gangs even made a thing of it where they lit their streets up with their colors as best they could but they usually just looked overdone.

Time to head down.

I jumped on the lifting platform as it descended, they were constantly moving elevators that were designed to move heavy goods but no one used the stairs and just used these. I’ve seen people on crutches and weak old ladies use them just fine.

Doing a quick check around me to make sure old Allie hadn’t caught me thinking snark about her I grabbed the railing and waited for the platform to reach the street. They moved pretty fast and soon I was stepping off as it started going below ground, you’d get another chance to get off in the basement before it just dropped you into a room built to let the whole platform rotate under the belt and rise up on the other side, it wasn’t a far drop though and you could just take the stairs back to the street level if you ended up down there.

The trip through the streets was about normal, busy crowds and lots of pushing through people too busy talking or looking around. Passing the barricade was a little worrying but I guess the guards didn’t remember me as I passed without a glance, I’d been nervous for nothing.

Moving through the other streets was a little easier, less blocked by tents so the flow was quicker. I soon reached the gym owned by the Under Kings, a small gang that kept itself tightly run. They mostly just ran protection and shook down strangers, they didn’t have a slice of any drug trading as far as I knew.

Well, owned by is a strong word here, it’s run by an old German guy and his family I think. But it’s in the kings territory and kings hang out there so it’s kings. That’s just how it works.

I walked up to the entrance from across the street. The two gangers sitting at the wide steps by the door locked onto me for a moment as I broke from the crowd but then went back to talking. They had weapons visible, the bigger one having a shotgun resting on the ground between his legs and the thinner one having a machete on his lap and a pistol holstered under his arm.

Breathing steadily as I reached the door I tried to get a bit of normal into my behavior, I didn’t need to go attracting attention by acting nervous. I was just here to lift some stuff and move around a bit, maybe take a go on the punching machine.

As I stepped in the place was less busy than I thought it would be with just a few guys around the big fighting ring at the back watching two guys circle around each other landing heavy blows on each other’s blocks. At least most of the rest of the hall was clear to use, I just needed to pay the visit fee so I headed over to the empty desk and tapped on the screen to pay the ten credits for the visit accepting the IR connection and the fee. A bit steep for a single visit but I didn’t want to buy into a subscription yet, even if they cut the daily price down a lot.

The black, boxy machine on the desk let out a triple beep when it accepted my aura credits and I wandered towards the middle of the hall to look at what needed doing first.

I wondered if Sanctum had workout routines or stuff on it.

[Sanctum contains no such information but such information can be gathered by Sanctum from the connected IR grid. Does the User want to see what is available?]

Sure, what does a kid need to do to get stronger than I am now without breaking something.

[Searching…]

[Loading…]

Suddenly my display was filled with all sorts of information about exercise and young bodies compared to full grown bodies when working out. I closed a lot of stuff and moved some things around on my view until I had a simple starting guide and some information on things to be careful of with my tiny ten year old muscles.

It wouldn’t be so bad if I had chrome arms, but I’d heard it was a bad idea to chip in too much too young because you’d mess up your body growing and need a load of surgery to get stretched out right.

I walked over to the weights and grabbed a set of three kilo weights, they were the smallest on the bench. Seemed safe enough.

I took them over to a mat near the wall and started lifting them up and down the way I’d seen people do. Despite it seeming pretty easy to do with my noodle arms I wondered how long I’d need to do this to get Sanctum to update my profile.

[User is advised to install a medical suite cyberware at the earliest convenience to aid in User’s survival and health. Sanctum can use such cyberware to more accurately assess the condition of the User and make more precise changes to the User’s body to accelerate improvement and healing.]

[Estimating Endurance improvement based on User current activity…]

[Endurance rating 0 will be reached in approximately seventeen hours of the current activity based on User healing rate and efficiency.]

Seventeen hours isn’t so bad… Wait, I have to do this actual workout for seventeen hours? That’ll take days at least! I can’t keep this up for a whole hour let alone the whole seventeen of them.

[Humans morphology is not easily adjusted, this is preferable when the human is already at peak physical form but regrettable when they are weak. The User has little option but to apply effort to the required work in order to see the desired changes.]

[Installing a medical suite cyberware of some kind will allow Sanctum to make real time changes to User body chemistry and aid in the speed of improvement and recovery by improving efficiency over human baselines. Without such cyberware Sanctum cannot interface precisely enough to aid the User.]