Sophie stood in her personal gun range, firing a basic Unity pistol. After the disaster with her soulbound pistols, she’d decided to properly turn the empty rooms in her apartment into a shooting range. The magazine clicked as it emptied and Sophie put it down, picking up an assault rifle. She continued the process until all the guns she had were emptied, then set about trying to reload them as quickly as possible. Once she finished loading them, she took a break, checking her system messages.
Gunner has reached level 85!
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Gunner has reached level 87!
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Gunner has reached level 90!
Skill: Quick Reload has reached level 9!
Skill: Shooting (Basic) has reached level 9!
Skill: Gun Combat (Basic) has reached level 7!
Skill: Gun Knowledge (Basic) has reached level 8!
It had been six days since the accident that cost Sophie her arm and she had spent every waking moment training her Gunner skills. However, she had reached a point where being at the gun range simply wasn’t cutting it. She needed to go out and actually get into gun fights with real people to level her skills up if she wanted to reach her goal of finishing her class within a week of getting it. She had a suspicion that doing that would be incredibly beneficial.
“I’ve got plenty of targets. I’ll rest for an hour or so, then I’ll head out.”
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Her destination was Maelstrom territory, specifically up in Northside. It was an area that Sophie had mostly avoided over the years, still creeped out and slightly frightened by the psychotic gang that controlled the area. However, it was that very gang that Sophie now wanted to hunt, along with any scavs in the area.
She managed to find a group of Maelstrom gangers harassing a storefront. There was plenty of cover around, courtesy of concrete road barriers and traffic was almost non-existent. Additionally, Watson wasn’t patrolled by NCPD too often. Sophie wasn’t afraid of them giving her any trouble.
She parked a distance away from where she knew the fight would break out and began walking over. Her hands held a pair of Liberty pistols, complete with silencers while slung over her back was a Nokota D5 Copperhead. She strolled up to her targets, all of them too busy with their looting to notice her. She raised both pistols and immediately began firing. Over a quarter of their number dropped, blood blossoming from the heads and necks before someone noticed. By that time, Sophie had emptied her clips and pulled the Copperhead out.
Shouts of anger at the spontaneous deaths of their friends were interrupted when Sophie opened fire. The bark of her rifle turned their shouts into screams. Another quarter fell by the time the rest managed to organise resistance. The young girl ducked for cover and waited for the return fire to slow. When it did, she popped back out, targeting the leaders of the group. They fell just like their friends, crying out in agony. She also saw one break away from the group, dressed in all black with a mask the same colour. He cocked a shotgun as he moved closer to her position.
Using the knowledge Gun Combat (Basic) provided, Sophie backed away, finding new cover as the shotgun wielder blasted her previous position. Nothing happened for a moment, then a loud crack resounded. The man fell to the ground, half of his head missing and brain splattered across the floor while Sophie holstered an Overture revolver. She was blasted with gunfire, most of which she was able to avoid. Unfortunately, some managed to draw blood and one round slammed into her metal arm. She didn’t care.
Her mind was in a state of constant motion as she ran through the most efficient ways to eliminate all of the remaining Maelstrom members. It didn’t take her long to do so, smashing her way through them with any gun she could get her hands on, including the weapons of the fallen. By the end of her small massacre, Sophie was breathing heavily and feeling slightly nauseous by the intense scene. She’d just killed well over a dozen people. Even if they were scum, they were lives she had personally taken.
Then she saw the shop owners. Both had been beaten almost to death, groaning amongst the dead. Sophie’s heart hardened. She quickly grabbed anything of value from the corpses then left the scene. As she drove, she heard the faint sound of sirens, the NCPD clearly taking their time to reach the site of the gunfight. It didn’t matter though. She’d covered her tracks and destroyed any cameras in the area after the battle. She’d only received a few levels for her actions. She only had a day to complete her task before the week timeline was up.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
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Sophie committed a few more massacres, each time ensuring she used her skills as much as possible. She was on her way to a scav den, intent on wiping them out when she noticed a pair of vans trailing her. Grabbing her guns, she quickly changed direction to a more deserted part of Watson and set the car on autopilot. She shuffled over to the passenger seat of the Shion and watched in the mirror as the vans closed in.
Opening her window, she stuck the barrel of her gun out. As soon as the van opened its sliding door, revealing a trio of Maelstrom gangers, she fired, quickly filling them with holes. Another two quickly replaced their fallen friends and Sophie was forced to cover her head with her right arm. Still, a few rounds managed to bury themselves in her torso, puncturing the car door.
She returned fire with little success due to the moving vehicles so she switched targets. A bullet quickly found its way into the skull of the more stationary driver. He slumped and the van immediately veered off the road, smashing into a building before exploding. Still, Sophie couldn’t relax. On the other side of her car, the second van had opened fire in a similar way, peppering her Shion with bullet holes.
She quickly searched her inventory and got her hands on a Militech Saratoga submachine gun. She emptied the clip at the van, noting with satisfaction how multiple of her attackers sported wounds. Finally, she grabbed a Unity from her inventory and pumped their heads full of lead. Firing into the driver's window, she watched the van follow in the footsteps of the previously destroyed van, crashing and exploding against a building. She grinned, then winced as the few bullets that had hit her shifted around inside her. Then she received her system notifications and suddenly it was all worth it. She turned and headed home, deciding to put the heavily damaged Shion back in the garage.
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Sophie sat at her apartment, looking at her rewards. She was glad to see her theory was indeed correct, that the system did have hidden missions.
Hidden Mission Complete
Fully complete a class within one week.
Rewards: 150,000 M-Coins, Iron Resolve (Trait), Full Body Subdermal Armour (Epic)
She also had a bunch of notifications for her class levels and the final message saying her class was complete.
Gunner has reached level 100!
Class: Gunner has reached maximum level.
Gunner Trait: Recoil Reduction has been unlocked
New Class available!
The week of intense grinding had certainly paid off, providing her enough funds to buy both arms she had been looking at, two traits, an additional piece of cyberware (that Sophie suspected was chosen after she’d been shot multiple times) and maxing out the Gunner class. Obviously however, she didn’t pick a new class immediately. She was still bleeding from the bullet wounds, though she had attempted to apply some basic bandages.
She jumped on her bike, the Yaiba Kusanagi she had stolen from the first man she killed. It was her first time driving it, which meant she drove slowly, like a granny. She didn’t want to take the Shion covered in bullet holes. Still, it gave her time to purchase the two cyberarms and look over her new traits.
Trait: Iron Resolve - Boosts willpower and pain tolerance. Negative mental effects are less likely to affect you.
Trait: Recoil Reduction - You can better handle or even outright negate recoil from your weapons.
The first would help immensely the next time she got hurt while the second was something she could have used before she shattered her arm trying to fire her custom pistols. Regardless, it would be helpful in the future.
It wasn’t too long later that she arrived at Vik’s clinic, poking her head in to see if he was available. When she saw that he was alone, she quietly walked in, waving to get his attention. Her other hand carried a case containing the cyberarms. He took one look at her, spotted the bloodied bandages around her torso and quickly rushed her to his chair.
“Honestly Sophie, you need to take better care of yourself. Stop scaring me, coming in here all bloody like that.” Sophie laughed nervously in response, then waved a hand at the cyberarm case.
“I uhh, just klepped the arms I was looking for. Unfortunately things got a little dicey at the end.” She lied through her teeth to explain where exactly she’d gotten the cyberware. “Oh! There’s also some Subdermal in there. That’ll stop me from bleeding all over your floor, won’t it?” She chirped at him. That was not the right thing to say.
“Well, I’d rather you didn’t get shot to begin with. But I guess that just means I’ll have to stick around to patch you up every time you get hurt.” He grabbed the case and opened it, looking at the cyberware Sophie had brought with her. “Hmm. I don’t recognise any of these. Well, they’ll still fit you fine.” Quickly checking them over, he confirmed they were all good
“Right then, time for you to go under. I’ll make sure all this has settled in, then I’ll let you go.”
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Sophie woke up feeling slightly drowsy. Vik noticed and rolled over on his chair, handing her an inhaler.
“Take a puff of that, it’ll wake you up.” She followed his directions and it certainly did what he said. It was like a shot of pure caffeine, only multiple times stronger. “So,” he started speaking again. “Surgery all went well. Limbs took to you like they were made for you and the subdermal is settling in well. I’d advise you not to do anything too strenuous for the next week or so. Let me run you through a few tests though, just to make sure you’re functioning properly.”
Sophie let him run her through a series of tests and by the end of it, he was looking at her strangely. “I’ve never seen anyone take so well to such a large amount of new chrome. You’re showing no signs of cyberpsychosis, which is great. Just remember to give me a call if you start feeling anything unusual, especially around your new chrome. Go home and get some rest now.”
Sophie thanked him profusely. She appreciated all of the care he gave her and decided she would do her best to get him some more clients as an appreciation gift. As she headed out the door, he called after her, “Oh! I’m gonna send Misty around tomorrow. Spend the day with her, take a break from all the chaos you seem to love throwing yourself into.” She nodded and said her goodbyes, slowly riding back to her apartment. She would take the time off like Vik said, then she’d finish her business.