Free Web NovelChapter 308: 308 Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 19
When the next day came, Yorinobu sent a person to Maine’s shop, sending the gun ’Kongou’ that he had used during his ’Steel Dragons’ gang activities. The request was simple: customize it while keeping this exact appearance. It was an easy request for me, since I could just duplicate it with [Material Copy] and then trim it a bit with [Material Manipulation] and [Material Creation].
Yorinobu, perhaps because this gun held memories for him, asked for the custom gun to be returned to him when it was finished — an ironic gun that, in the original game, gets stolen by V right away. Moreover, for a weapon obtainable in the early part of the game, its performance was quite good, so it could be considered a gun meant entirely for V.
A month passed like that, and I decided to personally deliver this custom gun. Because V was still before the start of the original Cyberpunk 2077, so sending it to Arasaka Tower was a bit much. And if I contacted him in advance and went by AV, it would be quick.
When I arrived at Arasaka Tower, security guards came out in advance and were waiting, then guided me to Yorinobu. In the original game, V and Jackie had moved through the escape route, but I was moving the opposite way, proudly, so the feeling was a bit strange.
Guided like that, I entered the room where Yorinobu was. Not only Yorinobu was there, but also a woman with a slender figure — from her short blue hair, it was clearly ’Evelyn Parker’. This woman was a very important figure in the event that becomes the starting point of Cyberpunk 2077.
Evelyn is a ’doll’ working at an establishment called Clouds, a high‑class prostitute who can use an implant called a ’doll chip’ to temporarily set aside her own ego and download a personality tailored to the customer’s preferences, allowing her to provide service. Yorinobu occasionally called such an Evelyn to enjoy her company.
Evelyn seemed surprised, perhaps because it was her first time seeing me, but Yorinobu was extremely pleased.
"Oh~ it’s finally finished."
"Try loading it and aiming it as well. I customized it to be easier to shoot by moving the center of gravity a bit more inward." ƒгeewёbnovel.com
When I handed over the finished custom gun, Yorinobu, with a bright face like a child who had received a new toy, took the gun, fiddled with it here and there, and even aimed it.
"Excellent! The feeling is good. As expected of a work made by Jin. And I never expected you to make it so perfectly to order, you know. Amazing."
It was natural for Yorinobu to say that. Because I just duplicated the original and made it.
"I’m glad you’re satisfied."
"Receiving a new gun makes me itchy. How about going to the shooting range with me to relieve some stress?"
Yorinobu immediately paid and asked me to go to the shooting range with him.
"Well, I have nothing to do, so I suppose it’s fine."
"Good! It’s settled. Evelyn, it was fun today. See you next time."
Yorinobu signaled to a security guard to send Evelyn off, and moved to the shooting range with me.
"This place is different from ordinary shooting ranges, you see. Targets appear randomly from various places by difficulty level. No matter how much you’re a living legend in the mercenary world, it won’t be easy, will it? Then, I’ll go first, so watch carefully."
Yorinobu said that to me, then stood in the center of the shooting range and took a shooting stance. Then, human‑shaped targets suddenly popped up in his 180‑degree front and began to move. Yorinobu shot down those targets one by one.
Bang bang bang!
[Difficulty 5, 80 points — New record for Yorinobu Arasaka.]
"Good!!! As expected, perhaps because the gun fits my hand, I’m accurate! You get the general idea, right? You do it like this. Want to try?"
From watching Yorinobu, it seemed the shooting range was designed like a game.
"This looks fun. First, since I need to get a feel for it, let’s go with difficulty 2."
[Difficulty 2 starts.]
Bang bang bang!
[Difficulty 2, 100 points — perfect score.]
"To difficulty 3."
Bang bang bang!
[Difficulty 3, 100 points — perfect score.]
Bang bang bang!
[Difficulty 4, 100 points — perfect score.]
[Difficulty 5, 100 points — perfect score.]
[Difficulty 6, 100 points — perfect score.]
[Difficulty 7, 100 points — perfect score.]
[Difficulty 8, 100 points — perfect score.]
[Difficulty 9, 100 points — perfect score.]
[Difficulty 10, 100 points — perfect score.]
"Is there a difficulty 11?"
[Difficulty 10 is the highest difficulty.]
Then, not only Yorinobu watching from behind, but even the security guards guarding him were extremely surprised, staring with their mouths open.
"No, how can that be possible? You were even shooting without aiming."
"Aiming and shooting is certainly the best. But in real combat, aiming and shooting is often a luxury. Especially in a city, even more so."
I asked the shooting range AI to bring out one target. I approached that target and said to Yorinobu.
"See, at this close distance, you can hit it even without aiming, right?"
"Well, that’s true."
I stepped back a bit from that target and spoke.
"How about here?"
"Well, it’s a bit far, but I could hit that too."
I stepped back a bit further and spoke.
"How about here?"
"Hmm... from now on, it would probably be difficult, wouldn’t it?"
From that distance, stepping back even further, without aiming, I fired one shot at the target.
BANG!
Then, the bullet I fired hit the target precisely.
"How can this be, how did you do it?"
When Yorinobu asked, impressed, I smirked and answered.
"If you use a single gun for a long time, you get a rough feel for where you’re aiming just from the grip. Then, for close targets, you can shoot them without aiming. I wonder if the distance between me and the target now is a distance where you can know how familiar you are with your own gun? So, for close distances, you can omit aiming to some extent. You’ll understand if you shoot a gun for a long time. That’s why people like me don’t change their guns often."
"Oh~ I see."
"But you shouldn’t push yourself too far. If you don’t hit accurately and the enemy survives and counterattacks, a very difficult situation could arise. Above all, it’s important to know your own ability."
"As expected of the best mercenary. I feel like I’ve discovered a new world, don’t you? Good! Then I will also..."
Yorinobu began practicing again from difficulty 2, step by step. He was a bit disappointed to learn that the distance he could hit without aiming, just by feel, was very short, but he found what I had shown him interesting and enjoyed shooting like that for a long time.
"Phew~ this is fun. Let’s stop here for today. I’ll probably be visiting the shooting range often after today. I happen to have some good liquor today — how about going to the room and having a drink?"
"I don’t mind."
Yorinobu and I went back up to the room, had a drink, and talked.
"It feels good — it feels like I’ve gone back to my gang days. Come visit once in a while when you’re bored. We can enjoy shooting together and have a drink."
"Spending leisurely time like this is not bad when I’m not busy, so I suppose it’s fine. Alright."
I had a drink with Yorinobu and returned home like that. Then, I sent 25% of the amount I had received from Yorinobu to Maine. Originally, I was going to charge 3 times the price of a regular custom gun for a custom order, but since Yorinobu liked it so much, he paid me 5 times.
I spent a few more days like that without anything special happening.
Then, an unfamiliar person came to the front of our apartment building. So I went out, and after greeting me, he handed me a shard and left without a word. I checked the shard with [Spectral Vision], and there were no backdoors or strange programs planted in it. So I inserted it into my helmet’s socket. Then a video appeared, in which Yorinobu came out and gave me a request.
– Long time no see, Jin. You were right. I looked into various things as well, and there was a successful case of transferring a digitalized soul between parent and child. The moment I confirmed that fact, I received a shock as if the sky was falling. I can’t even see the people around me the same way as before... I feel like I’m trapped in a prison.
As soon as I heard Yorinobu’s words, I began to feel that the poison I had spread was finally taking effect.
– So, what I’m saying is, bring me the ’Relic’ — that special biochip for consciousness uploading. And if possible, I’d like you to also deal a heavy blow to the research facility. That would not only set back the research, but if used well, it could also improve my position within Arasaka. All the necessary data is on the shard. This might be a difficult request for you, but I’d like you to do it. Don’t worry about the payment — I have plenty of funds hidden away from others.
In the original, Yorinobu had entered the laboratory himself and stolen the Relic. But, whether due to the influence of the poison I had spread, he had become more cautious. This time, instead of moving himself, he entrusted the job to me. Not only to bring him the Relic, but also to damage the laboratory itself.
’Attack Arasaka with Arasaka’s money... well, for me, it’s good because I can relieve stress, but... surely this won’t change the original too much, right?’
I was a bit worried, but I decided to just take this request. And I decided to hide this job from Lucy. Because she always shuddered at anything related to Arasaka, and it was obvious she would strongly oppose and get angry.
So, at night, I put Lucy into a deep sleep with sleeping magic so she could sleep well, and this time as well, disguised as ’Genji’ from Overwatch, I proudly walked into Arasaka Tower.
"Fuck!! It’s Ryu Seung‑ryong! Sound the alarm!!!"
WHIR—!!! WHIR—!!!
As expected, when I went in, they recognized me, and Arasaka Tower went into an uproar. Soldiers poured out from all directions and sprayed bullets.
Bang bang bang!!! Ratatatat!!! freewebnσvel.cѳm
I moved quickly, cutting down those soldiers with my sword as I advanced. There was clearly a condition. Because I must not let even Yorinobu know that I am the same person as Genji. So I had no intention of using throwing stars.
Ting ting—! Swoosh swoosh swoosh—!
"Gah!!!" "Ugh!!!"
Moving quickly, I deflected the incoming bullets and cut down the Arasaka soldiers. Then, I picked up and used the guns that the Arasaka soldiers had dropped.
Ratatatat—!!!
Popopopop—!!!
But the problem was the ’Minotaur’ blocking the elevator to the laboratory. The Minotaur is a bipedal security robot made by Militech, over 3 meters in size with a heavy body. It was quite ironic that Arasaka was using a competitor’s security robot to protect their own company. But it also proved that its performance was that excellent.
Ratatatat—!!!
Ting ting ting ting!!
The reason the Minotaur was annoying was that it used a smart heavy machine gun, where multiple bullets are guided and fly toward you, which was quite annoying.
’I should take one of these. If I go to the underground logistics warehouse, there should be a new one there.’
If I found it annoying, the enemy would also find it annoying, so I thought about taking a new one. It would also be fun to take this and heavily modify it.
I quickly approached the Minotaur, cut off the heavy machine gun attached to it in one stroke, then jammed the machine gun inside the Minotaur and fired it.
Ratatatatat—!!!
Papapapap—!!! BOOM—!!!
In an instant, the Minotaur sputtered thick smoke and stopped functioning, and its massive body completely stopped in its tracks.
"Fuck!!! Is that guy a monster??!!!"
"If you have time to shout, just shoot!!!"
Schlick!! Schlick!!
Thud! Thud!
’Yeah, instead of shouting, just shoot.’
When the soldiers had been thinned out to some extent, I began searching the soldiers’ pockets for an access key to go down underground.
’Here it is.’
With the access key I found like that, I boarded the elevator. For some reason, I wanted to go to the logistics warehouse more than to find the Relic. But with this commotion, I didn’t know where they might move the important item, the Relic, so I needed to secure it first.
So I moved directly to the laboratory. As soon as I got off the elevator, the path to the laboratory was blocked by various drones and soldiers, but I cut them down as well and kept moving.
Arriving at the laboratory like that, the laboratory staff were seen panicking and running away in a hurry.
"Waaah!!! It’s Ryu Seung‑ryong!!!"
"I don’t want to die!!!"
I let them just leave. After that, I hacked the surrounding CCTVs so they wouldn’t know what I was taking, and began searching for the Relic. It was just placed visibly at the back of the laboratory, so it didn’t take long to find. It even had a temperature‑controlled carrying case, kindly enough.
’Hello, Johnny.’
I put the Relic inside the case and stored the whole thing in my inventory, then took out metal balls, turned them into bombs with [Energy Bomb], and as I left the laboratory, I threw them inside.
KABOOOM!!!
Then, from the laboratory, together with a tremendous explosion sound, it began to spew out flames and debris. At this level, the research would be delayed as Yorinobu wanted.
The entrusted work was finished like this, and now I wanted to go to Arasaka’s logistics warehouse and take some items I needed. So I boarded the elevator again and moved to the logistics warehouse on the first basement floor.
There, new drones still in their packaging, various weapons, ammunition, and even a Minotaur were stored. So, like I had done at the laboratory, I hacked the CCTVs and happily began storing them into my inventory. Anyway, since I was going to blow it up, it wouldn’t matter if the items were gone.
KABOOOM!!!
After finishing everything like that, I was about to go home now, when I saw someone coming down on the elevator. When I checked with [Spectral Vision], it was none other than ’Adam Smasher’.
’I caught this guy nicely!’
I immediately took out from my inventory a dildo that I had gotten from a previous Leisure Life draw, which was the size of a baseball bat.
