Sitting in her Shion, Sophie focused her eyes on a group of Tyger Claws across the street. Apparently there was supposed to be a prototype weapon handoff between them and an Arasaka agent and Sophie was interested in swiping it.
The corpo squad pulled up in an unmarked car, terribly cliche yet surprisingly effective at hiding illegal activities. Considering Arasaka remained unwelcome in Night City until 2070 when Lucius Rhyne personally invites them back, the deal must have been important enough for the megacorp to risk their agents being caught.
Sophie continued watching, her Kiroshi Optics tracking the movement of the weapon prototype. The whole deal was going smoothly until a heavily armoured group of combatants pulled up in an armoured truck. The Arasaka agents were immediately neutralised, having been targeted first. The Tyger Claws managed to organise a defence, the scene quickly devolving into a shootout between the two parties.
In the chaos, Sophie watched as a Claw slipped away, the prototype tucked under his arm. He sped off on a bike and the thief immediately began trailing him. She chased him for over five minutes before he pulled into an industrial area in East Watson. Giving her car a mental nudge, she was pushed back in her seat as the car roared.
When she was close, the car braked and Sophie threw herself out the door before the Tyger could react. She lunged at him, immediately utilising her most powerful move. Her lack of combat skill and small stature had turned low blows into her go-to attack when needed and it worked just as well as always. The man immediately collapsed and she snagged the valuable weapon. She stood above him, debating whether or not she should kick the man in the head to knock him out. Ultimately, the heavy-duty helmet he wore discouraged her and she settled for his guts and balls, kicking him until he stopped moving.
She slipped back into the car and sped off, leaving behind a Tyger that would be crippled in bed unless he could get a nice, high quality implant. She wasn’t worried about the gang coming for revenge. She always had Ghost active when she was working after all.
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Thief has reached level 100!
Class: Thief has reached maximum level.
Thief Trait: Thief’s Instinct has been unlocked
New Class available!
Sophie smiled as she received the notifications. Over the last six months she had been stealing nearly everything that she could get hands on in an attempt to level her Thief class as quickly as possible. Now, with her most recent robbery, she had accomplished her goal, unlocked a new class and finished a mission she received when she started her grinding.
Mission Complete
First Class: Successfully max out your first class within a year of arriving in Night City.
Difficulty: Medium
Rewards: 1000 M-Coins, 5000 Eurodollars, Custom Weapon Token (Legendary)
The currency rewards were great, but Sophie was far more invested in the token.
Custom Weapon Token (Legendary): A token that allows the host to design any weapon they desire. Some materials and abilities will not be available due to the grade of the token.
It was an incredible item and Sophie already had an idea in mind for what she would create with it. The legendary grade attached to the token allowed her to access Vibranium from the Marvel Universe. The grading system was something she had questioned the system on extensively over the past months. She was, after all, keen on understanding the extent of the system’s power.
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The grading system for items was quite simple, which Sophie was glad for. The rarities were:
Common → Uncommon → Rare → Epic → Legendary → Mythic → God
The material she had used to create her Chronos Sandevistan was known as Kraetis, one of very few materials that reached god tier. The metal itself was named after Kratos, the God Slayer and was the strongest metal in existence, above Adamantium, Enchanted Uru and Element X which all sat at Mythic tier. It also didn’t occur naturally, having been synthesised millenia ago by a divine blacksmith. Sophie had inwardly thanked her past self for her smart decisions when using it to create her sandevistan, even if it remained unusable.
Ultimately however, she resisted the temptation to use the token immediately. Considering her lack of experience with weaponry, she didn’t want to make a mistake in her design. Thus, she wanted to hold off using the token until she took a weapon focused class like Gunner.
“That reminds me,” Sophie mused, “What’s with that trait I got for finishing my Thief class?”
Trait: Thief’s Instinct - Instinctively pick out valuable items and targets. Instinctively know whether a plan/situation is good or bad.
“Hmm, it's a bit vague.” Her eyes wandered to the case containing the Arasaka weapon prototype she had just stolen. Part of her mind seemed to light up, screaming at her that the weapon was bad news. She clicked open the case, finding it to be a small, unfamiliar device. Realising that she had absolutely no clue what it was, she cracked her window and decisively threw it out of the car. As she drove away from the discarded case, she watched it light up in a fiery explosion.
“Right. So that’s what Thief’s Instinct does. I think I’m gonna go to bed now.” Despite her calm words, Sophie’s heart was beating rapidly. It was the closest she had come to death since arriving in Night City and if not for her brand new trait, she’d be in a million pieces. Setting her car’s autopilot navigation for a quiet place, Sophie got ready to turn in. She’d finish her system business the next day.
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Nestled in her car’s seat, Sophie pulled up the system and checked over her class decision. She confirmed her choice and was inundated with system messages.
Class selected: Master Thief
Skills Unlocked: Sleight of Hand, Parkour (Intermediate), Stealth (Intermediate), Thievery (Intermediate)
Quick Hands: Lvl.10 → Sleight of Hand: Lvl.1
Sleight of Hand: Lvl.1
Unless directly focusing on them, people will struggle to keep track of your hands and will be deceived more easily. Retains all previous effects from Quick Hands Lvl.10.
Parkour (Basic): Lvl.10 → Parkour (Intermediate): Lvl.1
Parkour (Intermediate): Lvl.1
Grants intermediate knowledge of Parkour.
Stealth (Basic): Lvl.10 → Stealth (Intermediate): Lvl.1
Stealth (Intermediate): Lvl.1
Grants intermediate knowledge of Stealth.
Thievery (Basic): Lvl.10 → Thievery (Intermediate): Lvl.1
Thievery (Intermediate): Lvl.1
Grants intermediate knowledge of Thievery.
Then the knowledge appeared. Like a flood, the gates opened and Sophie discovered how big the gap was between basic knowledge and intermediate knowledge. First of all, the influx of knowledge was extremely painful, as though someone had hammered a bunch of nails into her brain, then scrubbed it clean with a metal brush. Secondly, her previous self now seemed like a complete amateur when it came to thief related activities.
Comparing them, the basic knowledge had already given her a significant edge over most street rats and even many older kids. Now however, she possessed knowledge on par with most adult thieves. And the gap would only increase further as she levelled her new intermediate skills. After her near death experience the previous night, Sophie was eager to go out and test herself. She had new techniques to try out after all. Ultimately however, she had one last bit of system business to take care of.
Pulling up her status, she quickly confirmed how many M-Coins she had.
Name: Sophie Mortimer
Age: 6
Class: Master Thief - Lvl.1
Profession: Available
Traits
Ghost, Thief’s Instinct
Skill
Sleight of Hand: Lvl.1
Parkour (Intermediate): Lvl.1
Stealth (Intermediate): Lvl.1
Thievery (Intermediate): Lvl.1
Cyberware
Chronos Sandevistan: Unavailable (Reach eight years old or install more cyberware) (God)
Kiroshi Mk.1 Optics (Common)
Store: Available
M-Coins: 5000
“System, make the purchase.” Her voice wavered slightly as her M-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 had then been stumped by the fact she was required to purchase it for 5000 M-Coins. Even then, it wasn’t a massive, infinite storage space. It was only 1m x 1m x 1m in size. The next upgrade, 5m x 5m x 5m cost a whopping 50,000 M-Coins and Sophie could only despair at the massive increase.
Regardless of her complaints, having access to an inventory, even a small one, was a big boon for her. Retrieving her katana, the reward for visiting each of the districts in Night City, she stored it. It disappeared from her hands as if it was never there. With a thought, it reappeared, as if it had never left. She spent some time testing it and was very satisfied. She could make an item appear anywhere she wanted, as long as it was touching her body. It would be immensely valuable, especially for jobs that needed a disguise. Who would suspect that she could instantly swap clothes after all?
“Well, now that all of that lovely business is over, I’ll go ask Rita if the Mox have any work for me. I want to put my new knowledge to the test after all.”