Struggles of A Genius <0>_L.A.G

I always considered myself to be quite slow.

Not slow as in stupid, much the opposite actually, just in reaction times in... all things really. I’d call myself slow smart, unlike all those fucking gonks chipping in just to be stupid faster. Really though, their skulls are already thick enough, swapping it all for chrome really isn’t doing anything.

Sure, everyone wants the nova shit over being ganic any day, but I was never able to afford any of that nonsense. Saved my life though, as it really was the only thing stopping me from going solo and gettin flatlined in my teen angst. I mean I’m still an dumb kid, just one that can think for himself, and sure, many (most) of them get a start with little to nothing, but I am way to smart to run out without some preparation.

That, and trying to make some eddies to cover the bills was taking up too much of my time, and that time was running short I’m sure. So it was even more infuriating that my limited downtime was being thrown away because THIS FUCKING PROGRAM REFUSES TO RUN!!

I took sick days for this project but nooo I just cant have anything easy in life can I?

I’m talking big for someone who’s barely holding down a one room, but who knew inventing an entirely new field of hacks alone in hour sections before bed with no formal education would be a bit of a challenge? It isn’t a question of if but when I figure it out but I don’t have that sort of time man! I’m living alone in a shitty part of town In Night fucking City. I am priority No. 1 for any kid trying to make his way up in the underworld here.

Which again, NIGHT CITY, is the entire fucking thing so I really want to get this done by tomorrow as there’s no chance I’m making it to next year or my next ‘vacation’.

Indeed, flashing before me in my optics was a message from the corpo shit that calls himself my boss.

‘@jack7thcrockett054

You’re request for remaining mandate time off will be prosseced in 4-5 business days.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

[email protected]’

I swear, he can't even figure out that email’s haven’t been used in like a decade, but still knows to delay the mandated leave until after New Years so it becomes void. We don’t even have an automated reply system, he just typed it out himself. Your, not ‘you are’ concatenated-!

Ugh... I need some sleep-

*BEEP*

...or some fresh air works too.

I disconnect my terminal from both the Net and the mains, no way it’s standing up to any netrunner past 12, hell, any random daemon could take the thing down without constant vigilance. The best defence is to not be there at all.

Grabbing one of the duller jackets to match my current mood, I make my way down to the streets, joining the crowds as we idly shuffle forwards as corporate zombies just waiting to have the life sucked out of us once again. For me though, it helps me think, and there isn’t nearly enough space in the apartment to pace in circles comfortably. There’s just so much to get right for this to go well, trying to edit the data in someone’s visual systems doesn’t seem all to hard until you really break it down.

First, if you’re not hopping through their cyberdeck itself, then you need to find a vulnerability in the optics themselves that is self similar across all brands and makes of cyberware. I didn’t, but something close enough showed up that its good enough for now, hell, you’d need MK4 Kiroshi at least to be safe.

Next was the specialisation needed of a quick hack to achieve any of the many effects I’m looking for, I ended up attempting to train a VI to handle the whole thing... which meant buying something a little more premium to run the whole thing but even then it would be way too bulky, so that was good chunk of eddies I wasn’t getting back anytime soon.

Then, there was the other sides to it, such as smart weapons and thermal/sonar visions which also needed to be handled, and how all this worked in regards to sandevistans... fuck, this was getting to levels of convoluted that I had not anticipated at all.

“HEY!!”

Thunmp

I tasted blood as cold fist connected with the side of my head, knocking me to my knees.

“WHAT did we tell you about comin’ down these parts again Gonk!”

Ahh shit, my feet had followed my old path down to the hidden basketball court. The offending gonk was unwillingly an old choom of mine, though I think it’s obvious that all that had fallen through over the years.

“Carefull honey~, the poor lead head might become slow!” and of course, laughing on the back of that gonks Nazaré was my... well, ex Input...

“This is your last warning. I find you again and I’ll flatline you, pathetic fuck, and drag your body out to the scavs. Maybe there’s enough chrome on you to repair my gorilla arms.” he rambled, “Now... Ghost off!”

“Got That?”

“...crystal.”

“See you at the firework show!” Hinata giggled out as I stumbled away, “Oh, wait!”

Her laughs followed me as I made my way home.

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Struggles of A Genius <0>

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