Within my ever-present Ki Range, I was detecting hundreds of thousands of people. It would have been worth investigating, if not for the fact that only a couple hundred or so were within the same altitude as the room I’d appeared in for the Scav Raid Scenario.

I got out of the ice bath, used a Kiai to flash-dry myself and made use of my Stealth Skills to navigate around the building I was in undetected. After a bit of roaming around, I discovered that I was in yet another technologically advanced world. Damn near everyone I dodged while looking around for anything I could use to find out more about what was going on was half-man half-robot.

I must have roamed around the megacomplex for half an hour before giving up on finding any details from the environment. Half the computers I found in abandoned apartments were broken and the other half were locked behind security measures I couldn’t overcome; yes, I’m talking about basic passwords — I didn’t have the skills or knowledge to hack even contemporary computers, nevermind whatever advanced tech I might be working with.

I decided to give up the complete stealth route when I did run into an unprotected, still working, computer and found that the internet in this world didn’t work how I expected it to. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t find a search engine to do a bit of background research into the world, so I decided to quit wasting time and just force the answers out of any of the psychos on the floor with me.

I called them psychos because they were all definitely affiliated with one another and I’d run into several who were in the middle of butchering up corpses or surgically removing the dead from their cybernetics. Anyone who was okay with that probably wasn’t a normal well-functioning human. Well, maybe a case could be made for doctors or a coroner, but we were in an abandoned apartment megacomplex, not anything like the sanitized settings I imagined would fit such people.

I found one of the non-butchering psychos stray from his group and followed him until he was isolated enough to snatch and restrain.

“Hey, I was wondering if you could answer some of my questions,” I said, hoping he would make it easy for me.

“Fuck you!” His orange eyes glowed a bright blue as he said, “You brain-dead gonk, in the next minute everyone on this floor will come here to make sure you realize how badly you fucked up!”

Sure enough, Ki Signatures were already converging on my position. But, that still gave me time to maybe get some more answers out of this guy.

“Who are you guys anyway? I mean, it’d be nice to know who it was that I pissed off.”

“Shit-for-brain gonk, doesn’t even know he’s triggered the alarm in the biggest Scav Operation in Night City? Did you wake up after we stole your brain too?” He scoffed.

“Scav Operation… I think I get it,” I muttered to myself before addressing my captee with one final question, “I guess the only thing else I need to know is how you guys pick out your targets. What, is this like some loan-shark type of deal where you need to recoup your losses or something?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled, “We go after gonks who can’t repay their debts, and men, women, children, oldies, corpos, street rats and everyone stupid enough to get caught with chrome that’s worth a damn. You have any other common sense questions you want answered before my chooms blow your head off?”

“Nah,” I snapped his neck. “I think I’m good.” His death gave me a Rare Locked Gacha Coin.

Moving past his corpse, I walked out into the alleyway where several people started open firing at me. It was kind of sad how easily I could deflect the combined thousands of rounds that were aimed at me with Katayoki’s knife. For as advanced as the technology of this world was, its weapons definitely weren’t powerful enough to make me break my stride.

A grenade was lobbed at me and I sped up to catch it and toss it back. It bounced once on the floor before exploding into a shower of shrapnel that killed off three of the men in the hallway.

“Shit! He’s got a Sandy!” A man shouted.

He was right, I did in fact have a Sandevistan. Unfortunately for him and every one of his affiliates, I just so happened to be this fast without it. At least, he managed to clue me into the fact that this world was the one where that piece of tech originated from. Maybe if I killed enough of these people I’d get more cybernetic enhancements I’d probably never need to use. That would be a shame.

Suddenly disappointed with the likely outcome of this Scenario, I decided to end it as soon as possible. I picked up the pace and began to flicker to and from the “Scavs,” killing each with a fatal stab to the heart or by decapitating them. I stuck to decapitations only, after presumably killing off three different guys only for them to completely ignore the fact that their hearts had been destroyed.

In a matter of minutes, I killed hundreds of the Scavs on the ridiculously large building floor. Unfortunately, before I could kill them all, the remnants of the bunch began to scatter and flee; probably through the same communication method that the first guy I captured used to get them all to fight me.

I took a second to memorize all of their Ki Signatures before employing the Afterimage Technique and copious uses of Sonido to hunt them down one by one.

Fifteen managed to reach cars and leave the building before I could stop them. This led me out of the megabuilding complex and into the cityscape of Night City, where I methodically teleported all over the place to resolve the Scenario. I killed thirteen more before the police — or maybe it was the military? — got involved.

The assholes didn’t even bother to question me, they just shot their hypersonic missiles at me from their fleet of helicopters or VTOL airships. Oh well, this wasn’t my world to deal with so, I didn’t stop myself from lowering to the impulse of waging an eye for an eye. These fools were trying to kill me, so it was justified that I’d “try” to kill them.

First though, I’d get out of the way where civilians would be affected — Unlike some people! It was annoying to dodge everything while flying in the air to prevent as much collateral damage as possible from the interlopers’ reckless attacks. By the time I found a suitable place in a ramshackle part of the city, even more helicopters, airships and now armored vehicles had followed.

I tried to give them a chance, but when I stopped to speak, they didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger on their countless weapons. It irked me more than it probably should, but then again I was self-aware enough to recognize my pettiness. I stood in defiance of their combined assault and their futuristic weapons couldn’t even scratch my Hierro.

When they finally stopped, either from having run out of bullets or otherwise, I held my hand up at them and cast a Cero. The beam swept through all of their vehicles and the ones that didn’t detonate into a series of electrical fires were cut wherever the mass of energy passed.

“What are you?” A mechanized voice called out to me.

It managed to surprise me as there was no discernable Ki Signature from its direction. When I turned to face the voice, I realized why as I came face to face with a robot.

“I’m a guy who’s done with being shot by these idiots. Are you with them?” I asked tepidly, more than done with the Scenario even as I was rewarded with a couple dozen Rare Gachas and a pair of Unique Gacha for having dealt with the “Arasaka Task Force.”

“You could say that. What, don’t you recognize me? Or am I just beneath your notice,” the robot let out what I assumed was a laugh. It sounded like crunching gravel.

“I’m not from around here, so don’t take it personally.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I’d say I don’t believe you, but the fact that you’ve managed to do all this—” the robot gestured at the destruction around us, “—while being full ganic changes things. Still, I have a job to do so you’re coming with me whether you want to or not.”

“Yeah?” I laughed. “Or what? You’re going to make me?”

“I was hoping you’d choose this. It’s been a while since I had some fun,” the robot said.

It took off with enough speed to surprise me. Not enough to actually bypass my ability to react in time and block it, but more than I would have believed possible given its terribly bulky frame and distinct lack of detectable energy — Aura, Ki, Spiritual Power, etc.

“Curious,” it said, while I held its fist, “That blow would have blown through ten feet of solid steel.” A warping sound began to emanate from its body before I was blown away by an unseen force.

I used a Kiai to stop myself before I hit the building I had been set to crash against and threw my knife at the robot. It managed to dodge as it moved even faster than before, but like most people unfamiliar with Katayoki’s Song, it was surprised when I followed up after teleporting over to the blade and stabbed it.

The shoulder-mounted missiles on the robot’s frame began to move without a sign that they would do so and from how close I was, I could not dodge them. Neither could the robot for that matter and we were both consumed by an explosion of flames. While blinded by the smoke of the explosion another burst of unseen force descended on me, compacting the ground and smoke around me even a foot deeper into the earth.

This amount of force couldn’t hold a candle to Grimmjow’s Spiritual Pressure, so I ignored the gravitational stress on my body, reached out to the robot and ripped its arm off. As the force around me dissipated, I destroyed the robot’s legs before punching a hole clean through where its chest would be had it been a man.

“Careful now,” the robot sounded rather amused as it said, “if you keep on the path you’ve chosen, Arasaka might just decide to cut their losses and nuke you.”

“We’re in the middle of the city and I don’t even want to fight them,” I gave the robot and look of disbelief. Still, heeding its words the caution they were due, I activated my Aura and maintained an invisible layer of Hierro. These people might just be deranged enough to actually commit to such an act if they were willing to leverage the amount of collateral damage against the city they already had while chasing me around.

“That… that might just have saved you from their scorched earth tactics.” It remained quiet for a second before its humanoid facade of a face twisted eerily into a malicious grin, “Then again, maybe not. You’re too much of a threat to be let alive,” the robot said and under my enhanced senses, I felt the explosion just a fraction of a second before it blasted me.

“Dodging” away from the nuclear explosion bought me precious few microseconds with my Invulnerability Frames which I used to complete the Hollowfication process. Still, the blast broke my Aura, cut through my Hierro, and left me charred completely, to say nothing about the environment around me.

[Congratulations! For defeating Night City Legend: Adam Smasher, you have earned a Locked Epic Gacha Coin!]

[Congratulations! For tanking the full might of a 5-Megaton Tactical Nuke, you have earned a Locked Epic Gacha Coin!]

‘Okay, so maybe I’m a little more durable than I thought,’ I thought to myself as I stood up from the glassed earth beneath me and brushed off the scorched ash on top of my skin. I was hurting, but it was not even enough to take me out of a serious fight. My poor Odogaron Armor Set however, had been annihilated by the bomb.

Once again I was naked, but there was no one around to see me, so I excused my embarrassment and drank a few Potions before topping myself off with a bit of Healing.

I really, really hoped these Scenarios were just simulated events and not alternate worlds where the consequences of my actions would have a lasting impact. If it weren’t for me — and the insanity of this Arasaka group — millions of people would not have suddenly died. I wasn’t sure it was at that number as I couldn’t quickly count fast enough nor was it really something I bothered keeping track of before I’d gotten nuked. But, it was definitely noticeable by the absolute nothingness I sensed from my Ki Senses. Even with an instance of Pesquisa, which was fueled by my much more potent Spiritual Power, signs of life did not show up for of miles away.

I groaned as I realized I still needed to kill off those last two Scavs who managed to get away before I’d be done with this Scenario. Feeding into the sunk cost facility, I decided to assume my Vasto Lorde form and make use of my amplified abilities to find and get rid of the Scavs as soon as possible. Anyone else who died due to my sudden and uncontrollable Spiritual Pressure would only add a pittance to the dead toll for today.

It only took a minute to be done with the task, though I made sure to end the transformation before killing the last Scav who had made it out of the city as was driving into the desert. When all was said and done, I appeared back in my apartment on Remnant and the first thing I did was accept some Common Rarity clothes before putting them on and filling up my Equipment Slots with backups.

The second thing I did was accept all the Gachas I’d gotten for my troubles during the Scav Raid Scenario.

[Results: Rarity — Rare 100-800 (Locked) | Cyberpunk Weapons, Cyberware and Grenade Mods x493 (Item)]

[Results: Rarity — Rare 999 (Locked) | Equipment Slot x49 (Ability)]

[Results: Rarity — Unique 2,077 (Locked) | Arasaka Shadow Cyberdeck Mk.5 (Item)]

[Results: Rarity — Unique 2,022 (Locked) | Netrunning (Skill)]

[Results: Rarity — Epic 77,002 (Locked) | Cyberware Overhaul (Perk)]

[Results: Rarity — Epic 57,002 (Locked) | Built Different (Perk)]

I will admit, this was way, way better than I was expecting. It definitely wouldn’t have been if not for the two Perks I got in the end, but because of them I suddenly had the means to make use of Cyberware without implanting them in my body. Not really useful against Salem, still, but there were a lot of nifty things I could use elsewhere.

The Equipment Slots came for every ten Scavs I killed. Alone, that gave me at least six backups for my Head, Chest, Shoulders, Legs, Waist, and Shoe slots. But, when combined with my new Cyberware Overhaul Perk, I could fill them up with Cyberware and make use of the boosts or abilities they gave without needing the surgery. Built Different eliminated a risk I hadn’t even known existed in the prevalence of Cyberpsychosis to come up the more Cyberware pieces one integrated with.

I didn’t think twice before dumping a bunch of the Cyberware pieces I’d gotten from the Scavs into all of my unoccupied Equipment Slots. The most useful pieces included the Sandevistan I’d been keeping in reserve, the new Cyberdeck which would probably hack anything on Remant with minimal additional input needed from me, a Blood Pump which I filled with restorative Potions to kick in at a moment’s notice, and all the things that would have replaced my flesh and bone with insulated, fire retardant, and corrosive-resistant synthetic materials.

It was almost enough for me to move past the heavy weight that came from internalizing the fact that millions of people had probably died because of me. They might not have, but I didn’t know for sure. The fight against Grimmjow had taken a toll that I could ignore, but causing city-wide devastation because some idiots decided I needed to get nuked left me too drained to keep going.

In a short amount of time, Beacon’s most popular combat professor would pay me a visit to pick up the captured members of Team CEM. I decided I wanted to spend every moment leading up to that by lying down on my couch. Afterward, I’d either go fight Katayoki until the sun rose over the the horizon or I’d move on to clearing the Unique Scenarios.

“You know,” Katayoki said, “You’re probably already strong enough to deal with Salem as is. Immortal or not, what’s she going to do if you decide to turn Vasto Lorde, drag her ass to space and launch her away at several hundred times the speed of sound?”

“I don’t know, but maybe she has some other abilities to deal with that. A sentient, sapient Grimm is already unheard of. Add to that her immortality and absolute regeneration, and there’s no telling how many other bullshit powers she might have that have never needed to see the light of day,” I countered.

“In any case,” Katayoki sounded resigned, “You should probably relax— No, I mean seriously relax, dude. It’s been less than two hours in real time since you captured her people. It’ll probably take at least a couple more hours for her to suspect that there might be something wrong with them and even more hours if not days after that for that Watts guy to pull up the audio records of your ambush. Even then, it’s not like they’ll drop everything they're doing to prioritize messing with you above all their other existing plans.”

“You’re— You’re a genius!” I jumped off the couch and then out the window as I started flying back to where I fought Cinder’s group.

“Please tell me you haven’t lost your mind,” Katayoki begged. Like, with the actual tone too.

“I’m fine,” I rolled my eyes at him, knowing he would get the impression even if he couldn’t see me. “You just reminded me that everything hinges on the fact that Salem may or may not find out about me through those recordings. Now that I have a Cyberdeck, however…”

“You can just hack the Scrolls, check if they’ve been viewed through a remote bypass of their security, and if they haven’t, delete all evidence of your involvement. Holy shit!” Katayoki put the pieces together for himself.

I made it back to where I fought Cinder’s group and frowned when I saw that the entire area had been cordoned off by the police. Fortunately, even though the trash can I’d dumped their Scrolls into was within the cordoned area, it looked as untouched as I’d left it before the police had arrived. So, after taking an Invisibility Potion, I walked into the restricted area, rummaged through the trash, and found exactly what I’d been hoping for.

The three Scrolls were banged up by my rough treatment of them, but they were still functional enough for me to jack into them with a piece of Cyberware that was ubiquitous in Night City. The jack link connected my Cyberdeck directly to the Scroll’s hardware and within seconds I could remote link into anything the Scroll was connected to. This included a hidden cloud network that suspiciously sent data to and from the Dragon Continent which no one could supposedly reach.

It was all too easy to break in and begin downloading everything that had been stored in the cloud network. My Cyberdeck could handle download speeds of up to 3 Exabytes per second and sustain that for up to one minute before it started to overheat and deteriorate. I didn’t even need it active at max power for a single second to get everything and begin to implement the search algorithms in the Cyberware to find the specific recording I was looking for with my new Netrunning Skill — which was basically just Hacking but specifically through the medium of a Cyberdeck.

When I found it, I traced it back through the cloud network and verified the server logs. Recorded at 9:57 PM and backed up every hour on the hour without a single log showing that it had been called to replay.

Perfect…

I delete the recording, considered deleting more and decided, “Fuck Salem for putting me through however long it's been, where I’ve been worried sick like a dog,” and deleted everything.

Now, when I say everything, I meant everything that so much as touched the cloud network was infected with a recursive virus that moved through connections where even my ability to reroute remote takeovers was impossible. Anyone using any device connected to the cloud network probably found out right away as their devices had their operating systems and everything else in their hard drives corrupted irreparably.

Happy thoughts of Salem and her minions suddenly being without a good chunk if not all of their critical digital infrastructure left me enjoying the calm flight back to my apartment. Now, I really didn’t have anything to worry about. Not unless Ozpin screwed me over or someone connected to him in the know, like Glynda who would be arriving soon to pick up Team CEM.

I wanted to believe otherwise, but then I thought back to Raven and her reason for confronting me. She believed that because Ozpin knew she was the Spring Maiden, Salem would find out soon afterward. Everything I knew about the man suggested it would be in his best interest to not let that happen, but Raven seemed to think it was a foregone conclusion.

My mood dampened as I considered the possibilities. Regardless of my efforts, if I assumed that Cinder’s value to Salem was the same as that of the Fall Maiden for being one of the members of her Inner Circle then, logically, she would put in just as much effort into finding out what happened to Cinder as she would for finding the identities of the missing Maidens.

My involvement in her capture would eventually be made known to her if she had some divining powers or knew someone who could achieve a similar effect. Alternatively, Ozpin could have a mole in his group. There were probably a dozen or more ways I couldn’t even begin to think up for how she could learn about me and decide to mess with my life.

I sighed. I was going to have to keep working towards getting a Gacha that removed her as a threat permanently if need be.