Megabuilding 4 was a bustling hub of life, even at this time of night.
The edifice itself still disturbed me, as parts of it seemed to defy my understanding of structural support. I was going to be high up in this concrete and steel tower, and it looked like parts of it might fall off as any moment. I parked in a marked spot in a private section of the megabuilding's parking structure. It required a certain type of apartment fob to get access to these areas.
Leaving the SUV behind, I walked over to the single elevator. Once again access was regulated to certain fobs. The ride up was shorter than I would have thought for heading up to the 88th floor. Even the advertisements from the monitors were less intrusive and more cultured.
The path from the elevator to my suite was a change of pace. Everything was well maintained and looked clean. Cleaning or repair bots and drones were everywhere. There were even actual plants here and there. Ferns and Ficus, mostly.
Wood paneling on the walls, I couldn't tell if it was real or not. Lots of uncomfy looking couches and loveseats lining the walls. Odd light fixtures both in the ceiling and on the walls. Even strip lighting in the corners and creases. I felt both interested and repulsed by the décor, some kind of minimalist Corpo bullshit.
The little manual for the suite said that there was shopping on the 80th and 90th floors. It had a list of the restaurants and shops I would find there. Probably with vastly overinflated prices.
If there was any obvious problem, it was the stares from the other residents of these top floors. Mostly mid level management at the various corporations in Night City, they instantly saw that I was out of place and reacted by ignoring me with extreme prejudice. I didn't exist, which was fine by me.
My suite was 88A - 100. 88th Floor, Section A, Suite 100. Ah, there it was. Of course, it was as far from the Elevator as it could get.
As I stepped through the door, which appeared to be made of a light colored wood, I got a shock.
Fifteen foot tall floor to ceiling windows with a beautiful nighttime view of the City Center. Everything lit up in neon lights. The holographic ad banners clearly visible even from this far away.
Once I managed to tear my eyes away from the stunning sight, I saw I was in an open concept living room, dinning room, kitchen area. It was quite large for a place in the city.
The living area had recessed seating with plush leather couches, a completely alien to me entertainment center, and a glass coffee table. The dinning area had a glass table for six, the chairs a combination of metal and fabric of some kind. The kitchen was small although well appointed, especially for a place where almost no one cooked for themselves.
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I wasted no time transferring the goods in my backpack and pockets into the modest fridge.
Between the kitchen and living area, on the left hand side of the suite was a doorway leading into the laundry room and bathroom combo.
Between the dinning area and living room, on the right hand side of the suite was a doorway leading a hallway with two more doors. One was the snazzy bedroom, done up in black silk, and the other was a den with bookshelves full of knickknacks and a large desk.
I hadn't turned on a single light, I didn't need to. Once I had finished looking around I found myself back looking out at the city again. I hated that I loved the view as much as I did.
Later I turned on the holoscreen, for some background noise. Made myself a sandwich and ate while thinking about how I wanted to deal with using a Joytoy for experimentation.
It felt wrong, though I had no intention of doing anything damaging to them. Part of me cringed.
I'd have to explain what I was doing at least to some extent. It was the proper thing to do. I tried to shake my head clear of the doubt.
Well some research was called for. I pulled out the cellphone like glass Agent. I spent the next half hour learning it's functions and how to interact with the Net on it. Most features were intuitive. Once I got use to the iconography of 2075.
I first looked up the laws surrounding Joytoys, to find there was a lack of them. In fact by the standards of my upbringing this really was a lawless place, except when it came to corporate law. Thousand of business regulations, making it difficult if not impossible for new businesses to get started. However I was sure that most of them could be bypassed by greasing the right palms. I'd have to trust Rogue to point me in the right direction there.
After my brief tangent into the law, I turned my attention back to Joytoys. Prostitution was mostly legal and unregulated. Where it became illegal was in the area of gross bodily harm and or alteration, or matters of age.
So gang run toys were fair game for some of the darker and dangerous fantasies some perverts might have. While it might be expedient to get a subject from them, the gangs had a history of using any information gained from their toys against clients. Unless we were talking about the Mox, who were all about saving the Toys that had gotten tangled up with the other gangs.
There were self run Joytoys, they were a mixed bag. Some were desperate, some were canny go-getters. Some were from the poorest places, some were from the highest rungs of society. If I went that route I'd have to carefully vet my subject.
The last options was both the best and worst one. There were Corp run brothels for high end clientele. Highly regulated, excellent health and extremely discrete. However, they tended to be Dolls with full recording abilities wired in. I really didn't like that idea.
No, I was making this harder than it had to be. I had a perfect source of information, with people that I could at least partially trust. Well, once I convinced them I was still Ryan under my new purple skin. I was avoiding thinking about them, though I wasn't sure why. I finally talked myself into at least a visit.
I was going to see the Mox.