Sewers

April 15th

2069

Sophie slowly drove down the hidden maintenance road into the small underground loading bay-turned garage. She parked and gathered up everything she was carrying before bringing it into the main chamber of her sewer home.

Inside, the air was warm and slightly damp, a smell that she had become accustomed to over time. Inside, the space looked almost exactly as she had left it; scattered materials and random weapons covering the area. However, a thin layer of dust had settled over everything in her absence.

She dropped the duffel bag she was carrying and with a tired sigh, lowered herself onto her dingy mattress. She ran her fingers over the cybernetic arm that now replaced her lost limb. She was able to avoid falling back into thought though, as she remembered the significant amount of system notifications she’d gotten during her near-death experience.

Mentally preparing herself, she opened them up and was immediately inundated with messages. She took a moment to filter them so that all the level ups came first.

Huntress Level +5

Basic Gun Combat Proficiency +5

Basic Gun Combat [20/100]

Basic Bladed Combat Proficiency +3

Basic Bladed Combat [13/100]

Flexibility Proficiency +3

Flexibility [30/100]

Ambidextrous Proficiency +4

Ambidextrous [5/100]

Stealth Proficiency +2

Stealth [12/100]

Investigation Proficiency +2

Investigation [11/100]

“Jesus…” Sophie let out a breath in complete disbelief. Her theory that more risk would equal more reward had significantly paid off, proven by the rush of information that entered her mind and the small changes that occurred across her body as she became slightly more flexible. Interestingly enough, she noted that moving her new arm felt easier, as though it had become a more natural part of her body.

Making a mental note to investigate that at a later time, she examined the next set of messages.

Significant demonstration of willpower detected…Passive Skill ‘Iron Resolve’ has already reached maximum level…Initiating Skill Evolution…Skill ‘Iron Resolve’ is evolving…Skill ‘Iron Resolve’ has evolved into Skill ‘Iron Will’.

Following that notification was a flood of messages stating that her new passive skill had evolved. Sophie condensed all of them into a final statement.

Iron Will Proficiency +35

Iron Will [35/100]

“System, can you explain this willpower stuff? And give me a description of the new skill.”

Passive: Iron Will - Massively boosts willpower and pain tolerance. Your mind can sustain significantly more trauma, even if your body cannot. External negative mental effects are significantly less likely to affect you. If they do, the effects are reduced.

As Sophie tried to understand what the description was telling her, the willpower explanation arrived.

A basic explanation and example of willpower is as follows: With low to average willpower, being shot hurts. The pain is significant and it activates certain functions in the brain, like a fight or flight response. With higher levels of willpower, the ability to push through the pain and ignore the biological functions increases. At your current stage for example, being shot with a lower caliber bullet would hurt but you would still find it fairly easy to function normally for a time.

“So does that mean I would feel less pain? The skill description says it boosts pain tolerance.”

No, willpower has no effect on how much pain you experience, only your response. ‘Iron Will’ increases both how much pain you can tolerate before it becomes too much, and the ease with which you can deal with that feeling (willpower).

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Right…I assume then, that increasing my willpower would require me to experience things that challenge it, like losing my arm.”

That’s correct.

“Well, I’m not sure I’m keen on leveling that kind of skill deliberately. Then again, I’m sure it’ll happen regardless of what I do.” She certainly wouldn’t be going out of her way to increase her willpower but considering her line of work, it was almost guaranteed she’d be injured again at some point.

“I guess I’ll move on from that then. I’m quite excited to see what these other notifications are about.”

The first one that popped up was a notice that she’d hunted six people without taking damage, increasing her progress of that particular mission to [7/100].

The next messages however, were all mission related. Throughout that night, she’d completely forgotten to check whether or not any missions had appeared. The first completed mission referred to the small group of scavs she’d massacred in her rage.

Mission Complete

You’ve discovered a group of scavs, the group of scum you hate with your entire being. Eliminate them.

Difficulty: Hard

Rewards: 1,500 L-Coins, 2,500 Eurodollars

She gave a cold laugh, “I don’t need a fucking reward to kill scavs. I just need them dead.” Despite her words, the reward was good and exactly what she needed. She moved on to the next notification.

Mission Complete

You’ve received information from the Mox about a group of Tyger Claws harassing a night market. Eliminate them or drive them off.

Difficulty: Very Hard

Rewards: 2,500 L-Coins, 10,000 Eurodollars, Common Skill Voucher

It was a good reward in general, though Sophie was clearly aware it wasn’t worth the price she’d paid. The currencies would hopefully go a long way however, to ensure the experience didn’t repeat itself again. Finally, she reached the last and most recent of the messages.

Mission Complete

Suko Rei and his subordinates have arrived, hunting for you. Survive.

Bonus Objective: Eliminate Suko Rei and his subordinates.

Difficulty: Very Hard

Rewards: 5000 L-Coins, 5,000 Eurodollars

Bonus Reward: Weapon Tailoring Voucher

“I feel like I’ve gotten a decent amount of eddies from this, but at the same time I’m fully aware that I haven’t really. It’s the same thing with the L-Coins. What I’m really interested in however, is that weapon voucher. Can I get an explanation for that?”

The Weapon Tailoring Voucher allows you to slightly modify a weapon in your possession to better suit yourself.

It was a basic explanation, but Sophie immediately knew what she’d use it on. She was short. Not tiny but trying to wield the katana’s that existed in Night City? They were unfeasible for combat. However, she suspected that the voucher would allow her to modify a katana to better suit her smaller size.

Her face lit up when she remembered one of the things she’d done before leaving the night market. A quick mental command and a katana appeared in her hand. Specifically, the thermal katana she’d looted from Suko Rei. It was long and unwieldy, unsuitable for her current situation.

With no hesitation, she used the voucher on the blade and watched in wonder as it shrunk in her grip. The whole weapon became smaller, the hilt fit her hand better and after a quick test, it didn’t scrap along the ground if she held it by her side.

“This is perfect! I’ll have to figure out a good way to keep it on my body though. I don’t want to be pulling it in and out of my inventory when I’m using it. That’d be a fantastic way of ending up in a research facility.”

After a few minutes though, the excitement brought about by all of her progress faded and she began to think about what, exactly, had happened that night.

She lay on her mattress, staring at the ceiling as she thought about the series of events and bad decisions that nearly got her killed.

Her initial goal that night had simply been to test whether or not increased danger would help improve her skills faster, thus she wanted to find a small group of Tygers to hunt. In the end she found a group of scavs instead.

What she didn’t expect was the severity of her reaction to their presence. Just seeing their masks had brought about an immense rage and by the time it began to dissipate, her opponents were dead. As she thought about it, Sophie realised she really should have ended the night at that moment. Her initial desire to test herself against multiple foes had been accomplished.

Unfortunately, her anger had still been simmering and she wanted to spill more blood. Her main mistake was the way she dealt with Rita, along with her subsequent handling of the situation. The Mox woman had given her the information on the group she attacked.

However, Rita had advised her not to do it, at least by herself. In the end, she’d ignored the offer to bring help, charging headfirst into a situation that almost ended her life. It was a mistake she couldn’t afford to repeat. Rita deserved better than to be ignored, and Sophie made a mental note to visit her, to apologise, and to let her know she was still alive.

Regardless of the situation, Sophie realised she should have taken a moment to actually think about what she was doing. At least ten Tygers. That was the number suggested by Rita’s intel. As she thought back to it, the teen couldn’t figure out what her past self had been thinking.

Her hand clenched into a fist. The truth was clear as day: she had been reckless and arrogant. While her anger, stoked by the encounter with the scavs, the poor decision making fell on her shoulders.

Every moment of the fight played back in her mind. The initial success when she took down the first two Tygers then to the battle for survival and the relentless desperation that had driven her forward. She had won, sure, but at what cost? She’d lost an arm and almost died. What made things worse was that she believed it could have all gone differently if she had just thought things through and taken the time to make a proper plan. For example, if she hadn’t stuck around to loot the place, she wouldn’t have fought Rei.

Sophie realised however, that it was an important learning experience. She needed to shift her approach if she wanted to be better. She needed to spend a bit of time fully dissecting the experience to figure out what lessons could be learned, and she would.

Her thoughts shifted to the Tygers she had fought. One of them in particular, the boy in his late teens, came to mind. His face had been filled with terror as he begged for mercy before she ended him. Sophie’s stomach churned. Many of the Tygers she’d killed that night were young, new recruits trying to prove themselves.

Did they even participate in the gang's darker deeds? Or had they simply been swept up in something they didn’t fully understand? The realisation stung, especially as she thought about her actions prior to that night. She had been hunting the Tygers indiscriminately, assuming that every Claw was guilty. But was that true? Could she justify killing them all when some might not have committed a crime?

Her fingers brushed against the faint scars on her side, and she sighed deeply. She had to do better. If she kept going like this, it wouldn’t just be her body that paid the price. It would be her soul. She was more than willing to become a monster but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have her own morals. The faces of those young Tygers haunted her, and she knew she couldn’t keep pretending that her actions didn’t have consequences.

Hunting Tygers blindly wasn’t something she was keen on continuing. She suspected doing so would push her closer to becoming like those that she hated. If she was going to continue hunting, she needed to be smarter, more deliberate. She needed to target those who were truly guilty, the ones at the heart of the gang’s atrocities rather than the rookies who were little more than kids.

And if they did grow to become the kind of scum she hated? She’d be there to remove them. If they attacked her though, that was a different matter. She wouldn’t turn the other cheek, even if their deaths would make her feel a bit bad.

Sophie shifted, wincing as her side protested the movement. Her injuries remained a stark reminder of her mistakes. Vik and Misty’s words echoed in her mind. They were right; she couldn’t keep charging into fights unprepared. She’d been lucky once, but she had no desire to count on it again.

She knew exactly where she could make an improvement too, and it just so happened to be somewhere she already planned on going. She sighed. First though, I want to relax a bit.