Ravensdagger_Kittypunk_Cyberpunk_Kitrpg

Chapter Thirty-Six — Picking Perks

Chapter Thirty-Six — Picking Perks "Are you sure you don't want to take the Cheezeburger perk?" Sharp asked."I'm positive," I said.We were currently both making our way across the city. Fenway was relatively safe now that we both knew it better, and most of the north-western parts of Boston Two were... are not secure, then at least not actively dangerous.The gangs and police forces in these areas only tended to target minorities and people who looked like they might be up to no good. While Sharp's courier jacket didn't make her the most popular person around, it did give her a valid reason to be crossing the city.We had packed up our things and hit up a bank first thing in the morning. It was relatively uneventful. We walked in, made for a counter, and then made a deposit in Sharp's freshly opened Solonet-linked bank account.When the automated teller detected the amount we were depositing, a flesh and blood bank worker came out to greet us and helped Sharp through the deposit within the safer confines of the bank.We didn't deposit everything. Just seventy-thousand. Even with modern inflation, that was still a hefty amount. More than the average corporate worker made in a year, and far more than they could save up in five. The seventy-K now sat safe and secure in a digital form, and Sharp had the remainder of the additional five thousand stuffed into her pockets.We'd spent a lot of that already on essentials over the last few days. And for breakfast this morning. But that was in the past, and in our digestive systems, now. Our current goal was getting across the city, and that meant sitting at a bus stop after having spent eighty dollars on a one-day ticket that would bring us to the far end of the city.From there, we'd be able to get a ride on one of the few passenger train lines out of Boston, this one in Central."We don't know if Cheezeburger gives you a summon, or if it allows you to summon infinite cheeseburgers," Sharp said."And why would I want either of those?" I asked.Sharp smiled. "Because can has."Asking Sharp for her opinion was a mistake. "No," I said.Sharp giggled, then resettled me on her lap. We were at a bus stop, though the bus was already five minutes behind schedule. "Okay then," she said, pitching her voice low enough not to be heard by the few business men and students loitering nearby. Most of them were listening to something anyway. "Which option did you want?""I've narrowed it down to a few. They're not the most potent or powerful, but they are mostly perks that would lend me a great deal of survivability. I prize utility above all else.""What an old lady way of thinking," she muttered.I lightly bit her hand and then shifted to the side to avoid a retaliatory swipe. "See if I let you call me that again. In any case, I have five options I'm interested in. Some I might just ear-mark as future choices."Sharp nodded. "Go on, then?"I had already listed off the full list of perks, along with their descriptions. Sharp indicated that her own list for Anima had been quite a bit longer. Overwhelmingly so, even. "Cat Nap Resurrection is a great option as a self-healing ability. Paw of Infinite Mischief might be one of the best utility abilities on the list, as is Voidstep Blink. Then there are the two major contenders for choices that I place above all the others.""What are those?" Sharp asked. "Oh."The last was because a bus was pulling up. It was a lightly armoured vehicle, with a small turret emplacement on the top. Passengers shuffled out of it, then we took our place in line to get in under the watchful glare of the bus's automated defences. By the few scrapes and dents in the armour, those defences had been tested before.We showed our ticket at the door, then Sharp quickly found a seat within. She was almost immediately pushed against the window as a... rather corpulent fellow sat next to her.I climbed up to her shoulder to have some room, then continued where I'd left off. "Nine Lives is an 'I win' button in so many situations. It regenerates as well, which is incredible. Though we'll have to experiment a little to see how it functions in practice. Does it just bring one back from the brink, or would I be returned to full health? Either case is useful, but one is more broken than the other. Also, would I regain a life as in... be reborn, or regenerated in a fixed location, or just where I died? If I died in a fire pit, would I just be returned to an unburned state only to cook again?"Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings."That's morbid," Sharp muttered."It's important to think about," I said.If the perk did send me back to a fixed location, then... then I could just strap a grenade to myself and take out targets with impossible ease. That would be ideal."What's the other?" Sharp whispered."The other is Purr of Tranquility. It's essentially a method to counteract a number of mental effects from spells, and if I'm reading it correctly, from other sources as well. Regeneration might only be mental, but I suspect that there's a weak physical aspect to it. Perhaps even magical?"Mages tended to use themselves up when casting, becoming tired and lethargic. If I could counteract that as well... it would make for a powerful combination with any future magical abilities.The bus took off, and I held myself in place as it rode through the city. There were a few screens on the inside linked to exterior cameras, but no windows, obviously. The ride wasn't going to be too long. We could have walked it. But... well, I wanted to make it home earlier rather than later."I think hesitating over the choice is foolish," I said. "I'm going to pick Nine Lives. Purr of Tranquility can be my next pick, and past that I'll make another choice when the time comes.""Good choice," Sharp said as she gave me a scratch. "But wait a bit. My last perk was... very anime."What did that even mean?The rest of the bus ride was dedicated to me dressing Sharp down for having terrible tastes in TV shows. I didn't care that the orphanage didn't have any real subscriptions to anything, that just meant that they ought to have pirated better shows.Eventually we made it to the stop nearest the train station. It was in Central, one district away from South Boston, and on stepping out of the bus, I could make out the mega-building where we'd fought the cult just a couple of days prior. It was smoking."Let's see if we can't find a newspaper with information on the cult," I said. It would be good to know, just in case. Some cultists might be out for retribution, and it wouldn't take the world's best to narrow down a search all the way to Sharp and myself. She hadn't worn a mask, and was a somewhat known associate of Jenny and Alyssa.We walked over to the station, buying a newspaper from a kiosk along the way. Once there, we had to sit and wait, which was as good a time as any to catch up to the news.It wasn't on the front page, but it wasn't far from it."Whoa," Sharp said.There were images of some people stepping out of the ruined mega building, most covered in blood, but looking damned heroic about it. Men and women, some magic-users, others halfway to cyborgs, all armed well enough to take on an army.Edgerunners.The big damned heroes that Sharp foolishly looked up to. The news was light on details, but the overall story was simple enough. The cult had pissed off enough people that the bounty on their heads rose to the level where it caught the attention of some mercenaries.The next day, the cult was gutted.It looked like we'd gotten Alyssa out of there just in time. Another day and she might have been caught in the crossfire. Assuming the cult didn't kill her in the meantime."We can probably put them aside for now," I said. "If they wanted revenge, we're far down the list. And they'll be low on resources after this."It made me wonder what the longer term plan even was.The train arrived, and we boarded. Another hundred dollars gone.At this rate, I might have to splurge and buy Sharp some driving lessons. I had a little car-just for groceries and the like-but I sure couldn't drive it in my current state.The train took off, and I found myself nervously pacing on Sharp's lap.Home.Soon, I'd be home.

* * *

Chapter Thirty-Seven — Nine Lives

Chapter Thirty-Seven — Nine Lives I got my Nine Lives before we made it to my place. Mostly, that came about because we had to switch from riding the train to taking a bus, and the bus was not going to show up for a solid half hour, and only if it was on time... which it wasn't going to be.We were out of Boston Two, however, some smaller city to the north, mostly run by a triumvirate of corporations that kept the peace in this area and ensured a certain level of homogeneity. A middle-class city, with few opportunities and a massive 'burg all around. It was hardly worth notice.Sharp and I found an alley behind a gas station, one with access to a rather dodgy washroom, and we slipped inside.It wasn't the most glamorous place, but that didn't matter too much to me. I cared more about being out of the way and unnoticed."Alright," I said. "Let's see how this works out."I focused, and the list of available perks popped back into being before me. I scrolled through it with my eyes until I picked out Nine Lives and selected it.Nine LivesYou have nine lives. Regain one every month.Select this perk?I nodded while thinking 'yes.' Previously dismissing the prompt would have it fade away. This time the prompt shuddered and it almost felt like it was asking me if I was certain.I wasn't liking this whole system thing. It was far too wishy-washy. Who had even designed this? It sure wasn't natural.A more serious confirmation had the prompt disappear, and then I glowed.It started at my paws, all four of them sparking with small motes of rainbowish light, and then the prismatic particulate swept upwards like a magician pulling a cloth off of a tricky device. The swelling lights grew stronger for a moment, then faded away, the last of the motes winking out soundlessly."Whoa," Sharp said.I looked around. "Is that it?""I mean, it's magical light," Sharp said."It looked like mid 2000s particle effects," I said. I shifted around, then looked down at my paws and finally I turned over on myself to look at the rest of my body. "I can't see any noticeable differences.""Maybe think about it real hard?" Sharp asked.I frowned and did just that.Anima 2Body 2Cat 5 Nine LivesLives: 9/9Combat 3Cool 1Magic 2Reflex 2Tech 2Well, that was something. It wasn't terribly specific, but it was present. "I feel like I ought to experiment to see how powerful this perk is, but seeing as how it should only activate on my death, I feel like the risks there are perhaps too elevated for that to be worth the trouble.""Yeah, I don't want to kill you just to see if you come back," Sharp said with a serious nod.We left the washroom, and I felt rather... anticlimactic about the perk. Perhaps if I'd chosen something more immediately powerful I wouldn't feel this way, but then I wouldn't allow myself to regret this choice.I was looking forward to bringing my other skills up to five as well, however. If every skill gave perks as potent as Cat's had been, then... I'd be a fool not to work to raise them.We arrived at the bus stop in time to sit around for twenty more minutes. I did allow Sharp to spend some of her hard-earned money on vending machine snacks, though I insisted that she buy something that at least pretended to be healthy.We got on the bus when it decided to show up, and then it was another half hour's ride across the city and out into the countryside before finally, we made it to my hometown.It wasn't anything to write home about. A small rural town that had continued to expand until now it was almost a city in its own right, though one without much of an identity.There weren't any mega buildings here. A few large apartment blocks on the edges, but that was all.We stepped off the bus and I pointed Sharp in the right direction. It wasn't a very long walk. My home was on a quieter street, behind an old clinic and only a block away from a smaller grocery store. Two miles out and we'd be at the town's main road where a dozen franchises had settled in over the years."Is that it?" Sharp asked as she paused on the sidewalk. We were across the street from my place.This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon."See those three quadruplexes that all look the same?" I asked."Uh-huh," she said."Those are mine. That's twelve homes, each one just over five thousand square feet. I could go on the usual spiel, how we're close to a decently well-graded elementary school, and how we're only an hour's commute from Boston Two, but I think I can spare you."I was a little proud of my home here. This was a lifetime's worth of work taking away other's lives, all culminating in three... rather cookie-cutter buildings, but they were mine.They were all three covered in dull grey siding, with some faux-wood panelling on the fronts. A couple of yards of grass out front and some pavement leading to a row of single-car garages built into the front. A few cars were sitting on the sides of the road as well.My place was in the middlemost house of the middlemost building. Sharp walked up to the door, one right out in the open, and then she stared at my security panel. I muttered the numbers for her to punch in, then she stared into the little eye scanner.The door unlocked. "Is that... safe?" she asked."No, of course not. That was the guest code, which also primes the home's self-destruct mechanism and the turrets."Sharp blinked. "The what?""Just step in and head over to the closet on your left, there's a panel behind some coats, I'll instruct you from there."I hardly needed my house going up in flames right after making it back. In any case, there were things in place to allow maintenance people to step in. I had access to some very good security, the best money could buy which didn't seem too suspicious for a house out in this area.There was a nice middle ground between seeming like a single lady who was very security conscious and seeming like someone who had something valuable to hide. I endeavoured to make my place too annoying to rob and to make myself too frustrating a target to assassinate discreetly.We stepped in. My house had a small corridor as its entrance, with the stairs to the second floor to our right.Sharp eyed the space, no doubt looking for those turrets. She wasn't going to find them, of course, the ceiling was actually a solid two feet taller than they looked, and the guns were hidden up there. They'd just shoot through the ceiling.She rushed to the closet, even though she had plenty of time, and I instructed her through adding herself as a guest. More than that would need more permissions and a bit of finagling on my part.Finagling that would have to wait, because we had been noticed, and three curious people had come out to greet us.I swallowed as I looked down from Sharp's shoulder."Oh, kitties!" Sharp said. She knelt down and moved a hand towards the nearest cat."Do not presume to touch my most majestic form, strange-smelling servant," he said.I blinked. Wait, I could understand cats? I supposed that it wasn't too strange but... well, I never expected to actually comprehend them."Mercury, Cyanide, Arsenic," I said as I greeted the three.All of the cats looked up and eyed me, but it was Arsenic, my oldest and most vocal cat, who spoke first. "How do you know our lesser names, small one?" he demanded.Cyanide, my beautiful siamese, stepped closer and sniffed. "Its voice is that of Mother," she said."Nonsense!" Arsenic said. "That little thing looks nothing like greater servant Mother. It smells nothing like her either."I considered what to do for a moment before deciding to just jump down. I landed before the cats and suddenly felt rather small. Strange, I didn't feel small before Sharp and other humans, but maybe that was expectation. "Hello," I said. "It's me. Caroline. Mommy? I'm back?"Arsenic's eyes narrowed. "Trickery... unless. What is my favourite food?""Tricky Whiskers brand wet food, chicken specifically," I said."And why can I not have that delicacy every night?"I blinked. Did... did Arsenic understand that it would make him fat, or that the chicken type wasn't always available?"Move aside, Lord Arsenic," Cyanide said as she came closer. She sniffed, then walked over to me and booped my nose with her own. "I have questions of my own!"I felt like this might take a while.

* * *