Westbrook

February 9th

2069

Sophie stumbled into her hideout, clutching her stomach. Her fingers were slick with blood from the shallow cut across her belly. She headed straight for her small stash of medical supplies, fumbling around until she was able to get a roll of bandages and a medical stapler out. With a wince, she stapled the wound closed, then wrapped the gauze bandage around the wound until there was a thick layer covering it.

She breathed out a sign of relief once there was no more blood spilling out of her body.

“Fuck me…I was so lucky today’s hunt was close by. I’m not sure I would have made it if I had to cross Westbrook to get here. I think I need some time off, at least until I’m almost healed.” She paused as she looked at the system notifications she’d received.

Mission Complete

Hunt a Tyger Claw grunt.

Difficulty: Hard

Rewards: 500 L-Coins, 500 Eurodollars

Basic Gun Combat Proficiency +1

Basic Gun Combat [6/100]

Huntress Level +1

Huntress [2/100]

The L-Coin reward and level increases made her grin, despite the pain. “Hunting every night for the past two weeks has been fantastic for my growth though.” She pulled up her status page.

Name: Sophie Morrin

Age: 14

Class: Huntress [2/100]

Passives

Iron Resolve [Max]

Skills

Stealth [4/100], Basic Gun Combat [6/100], Investigation [4/100], Basic Bladed Combat [3/100]

Cyberware

Basic Cyberoptics (Common)

Store: Available

L-Coins: 5000

Eurodollars: 5000

“Finally, I’ve got enough. System, buy me the inventory please.” Her voice wavered slightly as all her L-Coins disappeared but her sorrow was quickly replaced by happiness. During her time exploring the system and its store, Sophie had lamented the lack of an inventory. She’d then been stumped by the fact she was required to purchase it for 5000 L-Coins. Even then, it wasn’t a massive, infinite storage space. It was only 1m x 1m x 1m in size. The next upgrade, 2m x 2m x 2m cost a whopping 50,000 L-Coins and Sophie could only despair at the tenfold increase.

Regardless of her complaints, having access to an inventory, even a small one, was a big boon for her. Retrieving her Nue, she mentally activated the inventory function and stored the gun. It disappeared from her hands as if it was never there. With a thought, it reappeared, as if it had never left.

“Oh yeah, now we’re talking.” It would be an immensely valuable addition to her skills, especially for jobs that needed a disguise. Who would suspect that she could instantly swap clothes after all or retrieve a weapon whenever she needed to?

Though she now had an inventory, the real reward for her efforts was actually the increase in the Basic Gun Combat proficiency. Her theory had come true. Every level was harder to obtain than the last. She’d spent hours over the weeks trying her best to be sneaky or investigate tracks but the proficiency levels simply refused to appear.

Sophie had a suspicion that actually using the knowledge in real scenarios, rather than training, was a far more effective way to increase her proficiency. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to confirm it because all of her skills were too low level and still prone to benefiting from the training that she did, no matter how ineffective it may be.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

She rested her head against the wall and started complaining about her recent hunt. “Seriously, who on earth decided that mantis blades were a good idea? That fucking bitch! Surprising me at the end with that desperate swipe…” her words trailed off. “I guess it was always gonna happen, huh. I’ve been pretty lucky that I haven’t fought anyone with chrome like that.”

Sophie had spotted the woman she had just hunted a few days prior and immediately decided that she had to die. Most of her behaviour was simply vicious. She attacked random people, no matter who they were, and did it as cruelly as possible. It was a stroke of luck that she had separated from her normal group of lackeys briefly, giving Sophie the perfect opportunity. Obviously, the woman had been smarter than normal, hiding the existence of her mantis blades as a trump card.

Sophie took a brief look at the amount of eddies she had. Thank you system, both for providing me with plenty of cash and for tallying up everything I have. The teen was happy because she finally had enough money to chip in a basic set of Subdermal Armour. Hoohhh. I guess that means I’ll have to make a trip over to Little China soon. She was excited because she’d hopefully be able to meet some of her favourite Cyberpunk characters, but reluctant because she didn’t want to get attached to any of them.

“Emotions really are difficult, huh. But making friends with them just means they’ll get hurt. Gotta keep it transactional.” She shifted a bit, then winced when it pulled on her stomach wound. “I think it’s time for a nap. I’ll take it easy tomorrow, maybe head down to that place I found and do some renovations now that I have my inventory.”

-----------------------

When Sophie woke up the next morning, she immediately got herself ready. Her current hideout had served her well but it was small and it was difficult to access. She’d distinctly felt the lack of mobility over the past couple of weeks, which created a desire for some kind of vehicle. Sadly, her current home was inaccessible for any kind of car or bike.

By a stroke of good fortune however, her adventures to map out the sewer system had allowed her to stumble upon something special: a much better location, but it was uninhabitable. She wanted to collect some materials to make it liveable before moving in.

She left the sewers and began the hunt for materials to do her renovations. With her inventory, she had a much higher capacity to move scraps around, though she still lamented the lack of a car.

Her scavenging started in a narrow alley, a place where garbage was typically thrown haphazardly until it turned into small mountains. Sophie spotted a few discarded items at the base of an overflowing dumpster. She crouched down and pulled out a scrapped metal sheet. The edges were slightly bent, but the material was still sturdy. She ran her fingers over its surface, imagining how it might work as part of a door.

"A couple more pieces like this would allow me to make a decent door," she murmured, letting it disappear into her inventory.

Not far from the metal sheet was a box of rusted hinges, their surfaces corroded but still usable with some cleaning. Sophie grabbed them without hesitation. "Perfect for a door frame," she thought, picturing how they could anchor the salvaged sheets.

Further down the alley, she came across a pile of wooden pallets stacked against the concrete wall of a loading dock. They were worn and splintered, but they were still usable. “Has someone torn down a building and dumped the materials here? This alley might just have everything I need.”

Sophie considered her options. The pallets were big. She could fit them into her inventory, part around half of it would be full at that point. “I kinda wish the inventory had individual spaces, rather than being one big cube.” Despite her complaints, she glanced around to ensure no one was watching before sliding a couple of them into her inventory.

"Raised flooring or a bed frame," she decided, imagining how they’d help keep her belongings off the damp sewer floor.

Sophie left the alley and started wandering around the district. Not too long later, she noticed an abandoned construction site up ahead. The site had been fenced off, but someone had clearly ignored the signs, leaving a gaping hole in the wire mesh. Sophie slipped through, her petite frame making it easy, though her clothes did catch slightly on the jagged edges. Inside, she found a treasure trove of discarded materials.

Propped up against a wall was a damaged light. Its metal frame was dented, and the bulb was shattered, but the wiring and connections looked salvageable. Sophie knelt to examine it more closely, running her fingers along the exposed wires. "Having some light would be really nice. Having to rely on my optics to see in the sewers is a bit of a pain," she thought, adding it to her inventory.

Nearby, a toolbox lay forgotten in the dirt. “Nice! This is exactly what I needed!” It was battered, its red paint chipped, but the contents were worth investigating. Sophie opened it to find an assortment of random tools, including a drill and a wrench. The tools had definitely seen better days but they were functional. She added them to her collection without a second thought, fully aware they’d be invaluable for her future projects.

Continuing her search, Sophie found a coil of electrical wire tangled in the remains of an old generator. She untangled the wire, inspecting it for damage. Most of it was intact, and she could faintly see how it might work with the lamp and some other components she’d collected.

"Lighting’s gonna be tricky," she thought, "but wire should help, right?" She coiled it neatly before adding it to her storage. “Hmm, I’m gonna have to find some manuals for some of this stuff huh. I don’t know anything about being an electrician.”

On her way out of the site, Sophie stumbled across a large sheet of corrugated metal leaning against a pile of concrete rubble. It was heavier than she’d like, but its potential made the effort worthwhile. With a bit of effort, she could see it becoming part of a makeshift roof or even an interior partition. Watching it disappear into her inventory was a sight she greatly enjoyed for some odd reason.

By the time she left the construction site, her inventory was almost completely filled up with materials. She felt a surge of satisfaction at her haul but knew the day wasn’t over. She wandered into the market district next, blending into the crowd and ensuring her activities weren’t seen. Sophie wasn’t here to shop, considering she had better things to spend her eddies on.

Her eyes caught sight of a vendor packing up their stall. Among the leftovers was a box of small electrical components; capacitors, switches, and a couple of LED strips. Sophie approached casually, waiting for the vendor to step away before swiping the box. "These could be handy for repairing the lamp," she thought, slipping back into the crowd before anyone noticed her movements.

She left the markets and eventually found herself near an old warehouse. There, she found another promising site: a pile of discarded industrial supplies. She dug through it and among the mess was a set of aluminum pipes, their surfaces dull but mostly unbent. She added a few to her haul, thinking they might prove useful.

The last find of the day came as Sophie passed an electronics repair shop. The place looked like it had been abandoned mid-job or ransacked, with half-finished projects scattered across the workbench visible through the open door and shelves knocked over. Sophie stepped inside cautiously but the shop was silent.

On the workbench, she spotted a battery pack connected to a broken drone. The pack seemed to be in decent condition, and she quickly detached it, hoping it would be able to power her lighting setup. As she turned to leave, her eyes landed on a cracked mirror lying against the wall. She hesitated, then added it to her inventory as well. A mirror wasn’t strictly necessary, but something about having one made the idea of her hideout feel more like a home. That ended up being the last thing she could fit into her inventory. If she didn’t know better, she’d think the subspace was on the verge of exploding with how much she’d packed into it.

By the time Sophie made her way back to the sewers, the sun was dipping low on the horizon, casting long shadows across the district.

Back in her hideout, Sophie gathered up all of her important gear in her bag before setting off through the tunnels. She wanted to get into her new hideout and start fixing it up as quickly as possible, especially with the new materials she had.