Sewers
February 20th
2069
After a few days of continual renovations in her hideout, Sophie finally felt as though her new subdermal armour had settled in fairly well. The slight stiffness in her skin was annoying, especially when sleeping, but her new mattress, scavenged from an abandoned homeless person’s shelter, reduced the difficulties.
The reinforcement in her wrists she had gotten Vik to implant had also properly settled. She’d gotten them after Ricky had pointed out her difficulties with recoil control, considering her lack of muscle.
Obviously, she was keen to get back into her hunting. Her current goal was simply to hunt someone without getting hit at all, considering she still hadn’t made any progress with her mission.
Mission
Hunt 100 targets without taking any damage. [0/100]
Difficulty: Very Hard
Rewards: ???
However, her hunting would be left for later. During her recent casual browsing of the system store, she’d just come across a section dedicated to passive skills. As she read through them though, the girl realised that many of them seemed like things she should be able to obtain with practice.
“Hey system, if I practise something like my flexibility, would I be able to unlock the passive skill Flexibility?”
That’s correct. Purchasing a passive skill provides the basis of the skill freely, whereas practicing it takes time to even unlock it. It’s like taking 10 steps to go somewhere 5 steps away. Thus, the system recommends purchasing passive skills.
“Why didn’t you mention that when you explained how passive skills worked!? I’ve lost so much time!”
The system recommends purchasing passive skills, thus the explanation was withheld.
Sophie grumbled at that answer. “Some of these look pretty trainable though…” Considering she had no L-Coins after purchasing her inventory and she’d been recovering from her stomach injury, training some of the passive skills that she could see felt like a fantastic idea.
“Ambidextrous is absolutely necessary. Being able to use both my hands to the same degree will give me a massive advantage. Flexibility looks pretty good as well but how would it work with cyberware? System?”
Some passive skills, such as Flexibility, have small elements of ‘magic’ included. You would be able to contort a cyberarm the same way you would a biological arm without causing damage to the artificial limb.
“Huh, that’s pretty neat. I’ll probably need to train that one quickly, cause it’d probably be harder once I have more chrome. Hmm, what else…Parkour? What’s that?”
Parkour
The ability to navigate cleanly through a city, whether it’s via the rooftops or through crowded streets. Some aspects of this skill are applicable to non-urban landscapes.
“So it’s a parkour skill? Yeah, I need that. Three passive skills to try and unlock, plus working on all of my other skills. I’ll have to come up with some kind of workout plan to make sure I’m constantly training everything. It’ll give me something to do during the day at least.”
Sophie thought back to her old world and the training methods she could remember. Flexibility would be easy to train. Yoga poses and the hundreds of different stretches that existed in her original life would be the perfect way to improve her flexibility. Being a girl also helped, considering most girls were more flexible than their male counterparts.
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“I might as well start doing some of those stretches now, actually.”
She got into a split position, and returned to her thoughts. Ambidextrous should just require me to practice using my left hand. There’s plenty of stuff I can do for that. Parkour is the hard one. I think most of my training for that will have to be at night, during my hunts. Although…Her thoughts trailed off as a lightbulb went off.
“What if I make myself an obstacle course or something down here? Somewhere that I can practice the parkour stuff, at least until the skill unlocks. And it’d be a pretty good physical workout too, which will build my muscles. Yeah, that sounds good.” While she was envisioning the parkour course she’d build, a notification appeared.
Passive Skill: Flexibility has been unlocked!
Note: Previous flexibility skills being integrated…Skills integrated.
Flexibility [1/100] → [5/100]
Sophie grunted as her body went taut and she toppled from her split position. All across her frame, small, wriggling sensations appeared. Once they were finished, the girl marveled at the changes in her body.
The stiffness that had been present from the Subdermal Armour installation had almost completely disappeared. At the same time, she could feel that her previous limits regarding the flexibility of her body had increased. She entered back into a split position, noting that she was able to get much deeper than previously.
“Wow. That was fast. Is it because I was already pretty flexible? It must be. I’m gonna end up as a proper contortionist if I max this skill out. Oh! System, will I ever lose my flexibility, like if I don’t stretch regularly enough?”
No. Changes from a passive skill are permanent, with very few exceptions.
“Hah! Fantastic! Let’s keep going then. Oohh, I can try and use my knife with my left hand while I stretch. That might help with the Ambidextrous skill. This is fun!”
-----------------------
Rain spilled down from the clouds, as Sophie wandered through the back streets of Japantown. She stuck to the edges, keeping her hood up so that her face would go unseen.
It was past midnight when Sophie found her prey. The deep roar of an engine pierced the sound of rain and her gaze snapped to the source. A Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X sped down the street, its rider leaning as low as possible. With a screech, the bike came to a stop near the curb, and the rider dismounted.
It was a tall woman with long, straight hair dyed electric blue, and her outfit screamed Tyger Claw. Her jacket bore the gang’s emblem, and a sheathed katana hung at her hip. Sophie narrowed her eyes, watching as the woman secured her bike and began to walk down the sidewalk.
The street was quiet, the perfect setting for an ambush. Sophie followed behind the woman, doing her best to walk quietly, though the rain made it hard. She waited until the Tyger was near an alleyway, then raised her pistol.
The Nue barked once, the sound cutting through the silence of the street. The shot hit the Tyger square in the back, staggering her but failing to drop her. The woman snarled, spinning around and clutching at the wound before drawing her katana in one smooth motion.
“You little rat!” she spat, her voice laced with fury.
Sophie darted into the alley as the Tyger lunged, the katana slicing through the air. The blade barely missed Sophie’s chest, grazing it instead. The attack left a small, red line on her skin, with most of the blow being softened by her new subdermal armor.
Adrenaline surged through Sophie’s veins as she pivoted, firing another shot. At the same time, there was a flash of disappointment, for still being wounded. The bullet clipped the Tyger’s shoulder, forcing her to halt her attack. But it didn’t last long, for the woman was relentless, pressing forward with wild slashes. Sophie ducked around every attack, her smaller frame and new Flexibility skill giving her an edge in maneuverability.
The katana proved to be a nuisance. The length of the blade was keeping Sophie at bay, while ruining any chances at utilising her Nue.
However, when Sophie spotted an opportunity, she drew her tanto, the blade gleaming faintly. The katana flashed past the girl’s face and she stepped forward, into the Tyger’s guard. She slashed at the woman’s arm and blood sprayed. The katana clattered to the ground.
The Tyger roared in pain, throwing a punch that Sophie awkwardly dodged. She recovered quickly however and countered with a quick thrust to the woman’s side, sinking the tanto in deep. Her opponent staggered. However, she was still fighting desperately.
Sophie didn’t let up though. She stepped back a bit and aimed her pistol, squeezing off two more shots. One hit the Tyger’s leg, dropping her to her knees, while the other struck her torso again, driving the air from her lungs.
The Tyger clawed at the air, attempting to defy fate even at the end. Sophie stepped forward, slashing her tanto across the woman’s throat in a swift, decisive motion. Blood poured from the wound, and the Tyger fell still, lifeless.
Basic Bladed Combat Proficiency +1
Basic Bladed Combat [4/100]
Sophie stood over the body, her chest heaving as she caught her breath. Her chest throbbed where the katana had grazed her, but the pain was manageable. She wiped her tanto on the woman’s jacket before sheathing it, then quickly searched the body.
The Tyger carried little of value; just a few eddies. She grabbed them and snapped a pic, sending it to Rita. That wasn’t important to Sophie though. She scooped up the woman’s katana and sheath, depositing them in her inventory, then turned her attention to the Yaiba Kusanagi parked nearby.
It was the bike Sophie wanted the most and a cursory examination suggested that it was factory new. She could tell because none of the classic Tyger Claw modifications, like the swoop seat, had been made, nor had any trashy stickers been applied. She turned back to the corpse and rustled around the back of the woman’s head. She found the bike’s control chip and quickly slotted it in.
A quick mental command had the bike roaring to life, and she hopped on. It was Sophie’s first time riding a motorcycle in both lives, so she was a bit wobbly. In the end, her driving skills, at least with a bike, could be equated to a granny who was uncoordinated and nearly blind. The rain didn’t make things any easier.
As she made her way back to her hideout, Sophie replayed the encounter in her mind, analyzing her mistakes. Her ambush had been effective, as always but she desperately needed to work on her close-quarters combat. The katana’s reach had nearly overwhelmed her, and if not for her subdermal armor, the fight could have ended with another long recovery period. She was just glad that the Tyger hadn’t been particularly skilled with the blade.
“Huuhh. When will I get my first flawless hunt? I guess I need to improve my skills some more.”