Cyber Harem 2200

by Logan Link

  But along the wall of the shopfront, the graffiti was quite clearly Japanese, or Japanese-like. Was this a general cyberpunk decor thing or was it a hint that this building belonged to the Yakuza?

  I had to be careful. Nobody had explained the reputation system to me, and as I flicked through various windows and menus to find my reputation score page, I saw that I had +20 with Liana’s stripper organization, and -10 with the Yakuza.

  That didn’t seem too bad. In fact, when I lingered my gaze on that -10 number, a tooltip appeared.

  WARNING: At -50 or worse, you will be automatically attacked by any members of this faction if found in their territory, or caught in any Alert State higher than 1.

  There were two guys sitting outside the weapon store, big black guys who wore large, expansive tracksuits. I could tell they were packing serious heat, even from this distance.

  But they didn’t seem to notice me, so I had to be good… I thought.

  I decided to put my hands in my pockets and scout a five-block radius of the strip club. As I passed various characters, both player and non-player, I realized that I had to get within a certain range for the tooltip detailing their name, level and faction to appear.

  Eventually I got to the end of my scouting area, having mapped a few different shops — what looked like a sketchy pharmacy-like med shop selling enhancement pills, another weapon shop (this time marked with Russian script), and a couple of restaurants with barely any patrons.

  The Yakuza weapon store looked a lot more interesting than the Russian one. From across the street I had seen through the store window that it was better stocked. So if I was going to get weapons from anywhere, it would be better to get it from there.

  And maybe if I bought from the Yakuza, I could work on improving my reputation with them.

  All of a sudden, I began to smirk. I had an idea. A way better idea than buying from the Yakuza.

  Fuck those guys anyway. Sure it was just an opening cutscene I was railroaded into, but I found myself really disliking them by default, after I had an EMP grenade detonate practically inches from my face.

  Although that was at least meant to save my life — the huge, metal Desert Eagle I was smacked around with was not.

  With my instinctive dislike of the Yakuza, I was already formulating an idea.

  I could rip them off. Steal from their shop. Get my weapons without spending a single cent.

  Hell, this way I could spare the cash to get some fun time with Ruby…

  Then, backing into an alley so I had privacy to think, I actually started grinning like a maniac.

  Why pay Ruby for sex… when I could pay her to be a temporary squad mate? I was sure she could be persuaded. That was just how NPCs of her class worked.

  With her at my side, I’d actually have backup, be able to hit the Yakuza weapon store.

  Of course, those guards needed dealing with first. Not to mention there were probably more inside. I had no illusions that a level one character could take on that many enemies, even in a noob zone.

  But with Ruby, I might stand a chance.

  There was only one way to find out. I had to cross the street and nonchalantly walk past the guards sitting outside the gun shop, so I could glance at their levels. If they were low enough, I could probably do it.

  It might hurt like a bitch, but I think I could make it work…

  My heart was pounding as I lingered long enough to look their way. The tooltips only showed up after I started focusing my gaze their way.

  Yakuza Henchman, Level 2. Yakuza Henchman, Level 4.

  Oh shit. One level above me I could probably tank my way into killing. Three levels? That might be too ambitious.

  What was the worst that could happen, anyway? I could die and respawn. It would hurt like a bitch but this wasn’t going to be the kind of game where I had to worry about a permadeath mode… at least, I thought.

  I should probably check that.

  Feeling unnaturally excited bout the prospect of doing this, I practically sprinted back into the strip club.

  The usual motley crew of fresh noobs and perverts were ogling the girls. I glanced around to see either Liana or Ruby. I spotted Liana getting ready to go onstage, still wearing the flashy lingerie she had been wearing when I first met her. The lighting in the room started to dim, signaling a new show.

  Ruby was nowhere to be seen on the club floor. I retraced my steps to the room with the booths she had offered to, ahem, service me. For a hefty price, of course.

  The low pink lights forced me to squint to make any detail out. I could hear the murmur of voices in that room, but everything was obfuscated by frosted glass and privacy screens.

  “Finally back, Dan?”

  I spun around, seeing Ruby just inches away from me. She was wearing a silk robe now, but it was translucent and suggestive enough that I could see exactly what she was hiding under it.

  The shape of her body, those perfect breasts that were just a size larger than a normal girl would have — thus instantly attracting my eyes — made me bite my lip before I blurted out anything offensive.

  “Hey, Ruby,” I said, my throat suddenly dry. “Um, I actually have a proposition for you.”

  “Nothing too kinky, okay?” she smiled.

  I chuckled a little at her flirty joke. “I know most guys just want the girls for sex, but I was thinking you and I could do something a bit more adventurous.”

  “Oh God, this is going to be too kinky, isn’t it?”

  “No, no. I just want you to be my companion for a while. How long would you follow me for eight hundred credits?” I asked.

  I couldn’t help but be amused by the very real look of relief that registered on her face. “I thought you wanted to dress up like a donkey and smack me around with a double-ended dildo or something. That’s happened here before, you know… Well, escort stuff, I can do that. Do you just want to show me off to your friends, take me to a party? We can do that for a few hours then come back here for some fun. For a tip, of course.”

  “You know, I was actually thinking… I could take you shopping,” I said, wondering if this AI-run character would be as into shopping as women in the real world I knew might.

  “Shopping! Gosh, you’re really treating me here. I’m intrigued, Dan…”

  “I just need some backup,” I clarified.

  “For shopping?”

  “Yes, for shopping.”

  “Why am I starting to think you’re not taking me to a clothes shop? And no, body armor shops don’t count,” Ruby said, instantly suspicious.

  I laughed nervously. “It’s all good, I promise. But you know how this district is. We just need to, you know, be extra careful about where we go, who we spend our time around. I was thinking since I’m a newbie here, I might as well have a beautiful woman come with me while I, uh, orientate my way around this district.”

  Ruby’s frown only increased. “This doesn’t sound like shopping.”

  “There’ll be a lot of shopping,” I countered. “Anyway, are you in or out? I’m sure I can find another girl here who’d be interested… but, to tell you the truth, I really like you.”

  A moment passed as Ruby appeared to hesitate, trying to process my proposal. She had no way of knowing I wanted her help to rob a mob-owned gun shop, but hey, once she was locked into my squad I figured she couldn’t leave until our time ran out.

  “Okay, I’m game. Eight hundred though.”

  “Deal.”

  I didn’t even have to deal with a prompt. As soon as I said it, I heard a swoosh sound in the background, and the number -800cr flew up from my wallet icon, fading quickly.

  Well, if everything went well, I was going to get it back immediately.

  I led her out of the strip club, walked towards the gun shop, and to her credit, she didn’t question me. She was behaving like a companion in single-player RPGs I had played before: her default disposition was to follow whatever I do, and while we could stop and talk, I wa
s the one who had to initiate the conversation.

  This was exactly what I wanted.

  I had a theory in my head, from watching all the NPCs move around in what seemed like pre-set routines. There was no instant travel system in this game, not for players at least.

  It seemed to me that the same rule applied for NPCs. I never saw anyone randomly pop in or out, but the game had to have some sort of internal logic — it didn’t just spawn new generic characters, every character probably had its own actor ID.

  My theory, as I eyed every NPC I passed in the overworld, was that nobody could just teleport in or out.

  The clear implication here was that if I decided to attack the people in the gun shop, I wouldn’t have to worry about enemies automatically popping in to attack me in retaliation — they would have to come from somewhere.

  Hence the guards sitting outside. They’d rush in and attack me, and return to their posts once I was dispatched.

  I glanced back at Ruby. “Hey, are you a good shot?”

  She made a horrified look, and I quickly smiled to defuse the tension. “I can see your stats, don’t worry. For a level three character, one with a mostly Charisma-centered build, I’d say having Pistol 10 and Shotgun 5 was pretty decent. Way better than me, I think…”

  “Why are we entering a gun shop, Dan?”

  I waved a hand to silence her. “Trust me.”

  The gun shop had racks and racks of weapons, some hanging, some packed away in boxes and cases. I went to the first submachine gun I could see.

  The game instantly let me have an overview of its stats:

  Paragon Armory SMG-700:

  Level 2 — requires Level 1, DEX 3

  Type/Ammo Class: Submachine Gun/Energy

  DPS: 27

  Magazine size: 30

  I saw that the battery bar next to the trigger was at 100%, so I casually flicked the safety off, swinging around to point it at the shopkeeper.

  “Hey, what the fuck?” the shopkeeper shouted, standing up in alarm.

  I fired, with no recoil to my long burst, as the barrel turned red from heat, spitting out hot bolts of energy.

  The shopkeeper took my rounds straight to his face, barely surviving, but the big game mechanic I was gambling on proved very, very wrong: four enemies instantly teleported as soon as my screen blared [ALERT STATE: 3].

  5

  “What the hell, Dan?” Ruby screamed at me, ducking behind cover. It wasn’t very good cover — she was clinging to the back of a metal rack of guns and ammo, as bullets began to ping all around us.

  “Come here!” I called her over. I was backing into a partition that seemed as thin as the rack, but at least allowed me to hide unseen from the enemies.

  A notification had shown up on the left side of my PLEX but I was too busy trying to look. I didn’t have a weapon except the submachine gun I had picked up, and blindly firing in the direction of the counter didn’t seem to help.

  Enemies had just shown up on the shop floor, teleporting into existence, meaning my theory about fast travel was wrong. Very wrong.

  Now I was going to pay the price. Unless Ruby and I managed to make it out safely…

  I kept gesturing for her to slide over to my side, laying down covering fire. I wasn’t expecting that the recoil on the submachine gun would feel so lightweight. Then again, it was a level two weapon being used by a level one guy with no points in the appropriate skill.

  Fine, at least I passed the minimum level and Ability requirements to handle the weapon. It fired energy rounds, which at first made me think of sci-fi laser guns.

  There were powerful metal channels on the barrel and grip of the submachine gun, making whirring sounds as they rotated to emit the energy bolts, which were propelled like ball bearings at my enemies at high speed.

  Like I had in all the first-person shooters I played, I got comfortable peeking and leaning around the wall I covered behind, hoping to at least identify the number of enemies shooting at me so I could aim at them.

  “Ruby!” I called, as she crouched, frozen still. She was wielding two silver pistols, but without firing them, she was useless.

  Her character sheet hinted at her discomfort with combat. I had to help her, somehow. I knew I had to run across the room to her, hopefully dodging enemy fire. My CON was high enough that I imagined it wouldn’t be too hard to tank some damage.

  It would hurt like a bitch, but I wasn’t in real risk, so long as I played it smart.

  The problem was that this immersive VR experience made me actively, instinctively avoid putting myself at physical risk, knowing it would genuinely hurt — even if there was no real chance I would die in real life. (At least, that was my assumption.)

  My hands were shaking.

  Get it together, Dan!

  I inhaled and ran over to her Ruby, keeping my profile as low as possible while I crouch-moved. How did characters in games do this so casually? It was such an awkward motion. I couldn’t imagine wanting to do this for long stretches at a time in ventilation ducts, like some stealth games had taught me…

  “Fuck!” I shouted, as I felt the smack of a bullet hitting my side. My vision flashed red, just as I stumbled forward and slid in Ruby’s direction.

  She caught me, hugging me tight. “Do you have a plan here?”

  The message log at the bottom told me I had taken 14 damage from two hits, which was a painful way to learn that yes, I could in fact tank their damage… well, not for long, though.

  I gestured at the nook I had been positioned at, and told her to rush there while I laid covering fire.

  The cool thing about my gun was it had an LED bar telling me how many rounds I had left before needing to reload. And reloading with this only meant the gun expelled a lot of gas and hot air from the bottom of the grip while the gun itself recharged to fire another 30 quick rounds.

  Not bad.

  Noobs like me weren’t supposed to get into situations like these, but here I was, tempting a room full of enemies. At least six, assuming no new others would teleport in.

  If they could do that, I was seriously fucked. I’d have to deal with endless wave after wave of enemies, hoping that the best I could do would be to loot the place in the small window of time I had before new enemies showed up.

  Ruby was waving at me, now slowly getting ready to run. She had holstered her dual pistols, knowing that speed was of the essence here.

  “Go!”

  She started to run to the other end of the north end of the room just as I poked myhead out of cover and rained bursts of fire at the three enemies who were exposed.

  You hit Yakuza Soldier for 27 damage.

  You hit Yakuza Shopkeeper for 4 damage.

  You took 11 damage from Yakuza Shopkeeper!

  Just a glancing wound off of my shoulder. It hurt, yes, but it wasn’t like the opening cinematic — maybe because after character creation, my CON was higher? As I ducked down having fired a full charge of energy bolts, I flicked my inventory window open, instinctively lowering the opacity so it could run in the background.

  If this kept up I would need a medkit. Good thing Liana gave me some of those.

  Ruby called over to me. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said, although the faint red filter to my vision was starting to bother me. “Here’s what we do. Let me reload, then I count down from three, then we both open fire on these guys.”

  “Focus our fire,” Ruby advised. “There’s a tag feature that can help you identify targets to squad mates. Do you see it?”

  “Oh, shit, that’ll help a lot!” She was right. I saw the target painter icon on my PLEX, but also noticed that while looking at an enemy a small prompt popped out, offering to tag the NPC as a squad target.

  We were going to tag the first Yakuza Soldier, the one with the lowest HP right now, and methodically work through the list. This could work.

  “Ready,” Ruby murmured. I realized there was no need to shout, even — because she wa
s in my squad, her audio was bound to mine, allowing me to speak to her as if we were right next to each other.

  I committed this to memory. I wondered if this meant we could instantaneously speak to each other even from different rooms or instances. That could be a powerful feature.

  “One, two… three!” I whispered tensely, as we both emerged to fire at the tagged enemy, who even behind cover was outlined by the game with a faint golden glow.

  You hit Yakuza Soldier for 4 damage.

  Your squad mate Ruby hit Yakuza Soldier for 18 damage!

  You hit Yakuza Soldier for 20 damage. You killed Yakuza Soldier!

  Your squad mate Ruby took 10 damage from Yakuza Goon.

  As soon as Ruby took damage my PLEX automatically opened a small mini-window of her character sheet, focusing on her vitals. She had plenty of HP left, but no medkits.

  “Next one!” I said, tagging a level three enemy hiding behind the cashier.

  Your squad mate Ruby hit Yakuza Goon for 74 damage. Critical hit!

  You hit Yakuza Goon for 24 damage. You killed Yakuza Goon!

  This was satisfying. Bullets were pinging around us without doing much in the way of damage.

  After three turns of firing then ducking back into cover, I began to instinctively grok the rhythm of combat. Enemies fired in bursts as I tried to dodge, then as they reloaded I emerged and fired, as Ruby backed me up with her gunfire too.

  You hit Yakuza Shopkeeper for 3 damage.

  Your squad mate Ruby hit Yakuza Mobster for 70 damage. Critical hit! Ruby killed Yakuza Mobster!

  You took 7 damage from Yakuza Initiate.

  In the adrenaline of combat, the pain barely registered — there was a sickening, smacking thud and the reflexive red my PLEX flashed, but the actual pain felt dulled. I was getting used to this, and I was tanking fairly decently.

  When we timed things right, I was even able to keep the enemy fire focused on me, knowing that Ruby had a lower overall HP than me.