Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 154

Chapter 154I downloaded all the files from the various projects I could access while I waited for the AI’s response. I took a particular interest in the ones missing Cold Moon Solution’s label.

Definitely a Savant Lab. Couldn’t tell which corp was behind it, but that wasn’t a surprise. Hard to cut ties if their name were in bold all over the re

“What happened to them?”

The skull tilted its head toward me. “Willst thou activate Firestorm?”

”’Course.” I pushed honesty onto my face and voice, carefully wiping away the slight shake in it. “Just need to know this one last thing.”

“They were found deceased during a suspected Jade Fang operation. Their killer, one Timothy McLare, shot and killed both before succumbing to wounds inflicted by the couple shortly after.” Methuze’s voice carelessly talking about their deaths nearly made me snap back at it. I suppressed the urge with a momentary flicker of Cold-Blooded. 

“Anything else?” That was the story the Blue Crusade and Jade Fangs gave too, but there was no way it actually went down like that. Mom was a badass. No way some low-level thug iced her. And my dad was an amazing runner. Dad dying without even putting up a fight was simply incomprehensible. “You’ve gotta have something. Otherwise- otherwise I’m running out of time to leave.”

The metal skull twitched sharply. “Shortly before his entire department was fired, Ryan Tresh, the Head of Investigations for Cold Moon Solutions, filed a special report to Kuzo Tsukuyomi. That is all I know.”

Ryan Tresh, huh? A foggy memory of a man with a big, bushy red beard came to the forefront of my mind. My heart couldn’t help but beat faster at hearing his name. Maybe- maybe this was my chance to finally find out what exactly happened back then? 

I was too young to get any clues back then, something I beat myself up over, but maybe now? Maybe now I’d finally find out. Maybe now I’d finally be able to avenge them. I just need to find Ryan.

A new plan formed in the back of my head as I suppressed my emotions with Cold-Blooded. I had no doubt there would be a catalog of Methuze’s interactions hidden somewhere. Kuzo was too paranoid to not have one. My best bet would be to make the entire Sublevels go. Especially considering the Projects worked on down here. I’d make the eidolons and myself happy with such a move. The Crusade? Hmm… too much could go wrong. Athena might not like that either.

“Now, thine word?” The AI’s voice twisted, sounding softer and taking on a familiar tone. The same tone that the Leper-Khan monster took when imitating my mother. I mentally hit myself over the head. My show of emotion must’ve been enough for the bot to put together who I was.

My hand shook slightly as my blood pumped viscously. How dare- how dare this abomination of technology go there? Sorrow bubbled up at hearing a voice so similar to my mom’s. I allowed myself to sink further and further into Cold-Blooded effects, drowning the colors out as I got my mind back on track. 

“You know,” I started as I coolly typed in a series of commands, “Humans are such stupid creatures. Why, I almost accidentally kept you from fulfilling your death wish!” 

“W-what are you talking about?” The AI changed its voice once more, shifting even closer to my mother’s voice. It sent a bolt of rage through me strong enough to temporarily overcome Cold-Blooded’s suppression.

Firestorm was a mutually assured destruction-type command my dumbass uncle made. It released Methuze out onto the Node, ensuring everyone loses. I didn’t type it in. Instead, I typed in the command line for Code Red. It seems uncle wasn’t a complete idiot. Code Red was a failsafe to wipe absolutely everything from the servers. As I clicked enter, the lights in the room flickered.

“No! What have you done-“ The now mechanical voice cut off entirely as the skull sagged down. The precise mechanisms controlling it sparked as the entire circuit overloaded. Frozen air jetted up in white plumes, shrouding the entire room in a cloud, though the flashes of lights from hundreds of sparking circuits illuminated the place.

I watched every file in the sever banks permanently delete themselves, even the ones operated by Mystech’s Savants. It was the type of damage that was irreparable and would cost the corporation the millions if not billions they spent on all their research here.

And I wasn’t done yet. 

The eidolons had spoken. And I agree fully with getting rid of the projects. More than that, no Savant Lab should ever be left untouched.

I collected the Sonic Suppressor and dropped Listeners all around the room. I then headed for the nearest chemical lab. I rapidly disassembled large chunks of my gear and components I snatched for parts as I went. I had about an hour to get things done.

-- -- --

Athena Alexandria had been having a good night. It started with a party thrown together by some of her mercs to celebrate a massive haul from the Outlands. Then she got a call from one of her new mercs, a girl named Zuku Ichima. 

Honestly, when she first saw Zuku, Athena didn’t think much of the girl. The girl was scrawny and looked rather weak, something at complete odds with everyone Athena worked with. She had been pleasantly surprised after the Leper-Khan gig though. Sure, it didn’t go all that well, but Zuku proved her capabilities. At least somewhat. Only meatheads and chromedomes lacking chromosomes had been on her payroll for far too long, so it was a refreshing change of pace.

Then, after noticing a certain pattern amongst a few gigs she’d been hired to fix, she called the girl in once more. It was equal parts a test as it was a gig. Athena had a long list of contacts, including other fixers who would be more than willing to pitch the job to their own mercs. If the girl couldn’t take care of it, she’d find someone else who could.

Or at least, that was what she thought at the time. Then? Bam, another pleasant surprise. In less than a week, it was done. Athena could appreciate someone who gets the job done.

What she couldn’t appreciate was the second call that came just a few hours after the first, far too early in the morning. When Zuku said she’d let her know tomorrow, this wasn’t quite what she expected. Nor was the request to meet her just outside of Bricktown.

Still, Athena decided to listen to the request. Something in the girl’s voice suggested a fun show. Maybe it was the brutal coldness that she hadn’t heard from the girl yet? Or maybe it was the suggestion of fireworks? Regardless, Athena had a squad of guards join her as she headed to the location her newest merc pointed out. Not that she needed them, but she really didn’t want to wash blood out of her hair again so soon.

As soon as Athena exited out onto the roof, she spotted the girl’s back. She stood, drenched in rain, in a T-shirt and pants. Her long, black hair was entirely drenched as if she’d been standing out in the rain for hours. An ice-cold seemed to emanate from the girl as her beautiful face stared out at the city. Her head perked slightly when the door to the roof opened, though she didn’t turn around.

Athena blinked, disabling the scanning feature of her chrome eye. Not that it worked on the girl anyway. Zuku had a rather good feature scrubber that made it rather uncomfortable to use any kind of recording or scanning feature. Really, the scanner was basically useless in this day and age. It was only really effective against corpos and civies.

“Here you go, Boss.” Johnny, one of her guards, took out an umbrella and held it for Athena to walk over. He was always quick like that. 

Athena nodded her head and took the umbrella, pausing him with a gesture as she headed up to Zuku by herself. A warning, honed by decades of experience, hit the fixer. Right now? Things could go south. Zuku had an aura of uncaring brutality around her. Not that she cared. Most of her ‘employees’ were like that. “So, what’s going on?”

“Check it out.” Zuku slid over a small, crappy deck. On it was a video feed of a building flashing with red lights and sirens blaring out. 

“Fire alarm?” Athena got the feeling there was more to it than that as she looked up. It took barely a moment for her eyes to snap onto the flashes of lights in the distance even through the blinding neon. Her vision zoomed, picking out the Cold Moon Solutions sign from over a mile away.

Zuku tapped on the screen, pointing to a man arguing with firefighters just outside of the building. The facial recognition software built into Athena’s eye instantly pointed him out as Kuzo Tsukuyomi, the current CEO of the corporation that screwed her over. Repeatedly. The fixer’s face hardened as she spotted the target of her ire.

“You wanted them to feel your wrath, right?” 

“Oh?” The fixer arced an eyebrow, one of her favorite expressions. It had a way of intimidating most people. Most. Zuku didn’t even react as rain slowly dripped down her chin. Her eyes were hyper-focused with a frigid ice buried under a disguise of human expression.

“Here.” Zuku passed over a small device with a large red button. “All yours, boss.”

The device looked hastily put together from some scrapped parts that didn’t fit quite right. Yet it was surprisingly well made. As someone who’s been in the field for decades, Athena could recognize a detonator when she saw one. The ‘Boom!’ hastily scrawled over the button reinforced the idea.

“Don’t forget to pay me.” The drenched girl packed up several bags of stuff and turned to leave, walking off to the side of the building. She jumped over, descending out of view. A story drop at that. So she wasn’t just good at sleuthing?

The woman looked down at the button. She had a feeling her newest merc had quite a few skills she still hadn’t shown outside of scouting, apparently tech, and getting around. Maybe she should-

“Boss?” Tony, one of her other guards with a fully chromed-out body, asked from the side. 

“Leave it. Wouldn’t want to irritate my newest hire.” Athena mused as she looked down at a bag left behind by the dark-haired girl. She nudged it with her foot, making the very items that she was originally hired to find spill out.

A snort left her nose as she looked down at the crappy detonator. She always did love fireworks. A perfectly shaped chrome finger tapped on the button-

Night turned to day.