Seras
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Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 218
🕑 Added 2025-03-20 17:00:19 +0000 UTCHiromi as usual haggled fiercely, but even her best wasn’t enough to really give us much, if any, sort of discount.
It was fine. I’d been making a lot of eddies, and never really spending it. Buying new Cyberware was basically my main cost anyways.
Hiromi and I were leaving the stadium, she was holding the gear keeping my hands free as I kept my eyes on everyone and everything.
“Relax Motoko.” She whispered to me voice teasing, but I just smiled at her, and then ignored her anyway.
We made it back out to the setting sun and I had a moment of realization that despite how dangerous this place was, and it was, no doubt about that. It still had its own kind of life. I watched people camping out all along the sort of valley that Dog Town was built into. Campfires, and parties.
Stupid to do it here, but I guess some people preferred Barghest to NCPD.
Just as we were about to hit the top of the stairs I heard it, and stilled.
The noise was familiar, perfectly tuned Quadra Super 640 Hyper engine.
My engine.
“Fuck.” I whispered as I raced forward for a moment ignoring Hiromi as I jumped up, getting as high as I could to watch as my Quadra, my baby, with it’s pretty black paint raced out of the parking area, slamming into a bit of abandoned junk along the sidewalk and then roared forward down the main boulevard away from the stadium.
“Motoko!” Hiromi called out from below me, but I waited, eyes locked, as I went to work. It was already almost too far. I sent a Ping and activation code to the trackers that littered the car.
I watched as golden spider webs stretched out as the trackers reached out for open network nodes to transmit to me, and then just a bit more the car was too far and my Kiroshi stopped tracking the access lines.
But I watched on anyways, come on.
Come on.
I waited. There were only a few streets in Dog Town, and the biggest issue was my car was heading right towards the turn off towards the exit.
If my car turned off into Night City proper…
It would take less than ten hours for my car to be turned into scrap and disappear. My network tracking method would be too slow.
I saw brake lights as they came up to the turn and felt my stomach drop, but a Barghest truck drove in front of them, and the Quadra’s lights turned off and rushed forward.
Driving right past the entrance to Dog Town, and farther in.
I breathed a sigh of relief, even if the air passing my lips came out feeling like arctic cold.
Turning back I jumped down from the top of the kiosk I’d leapt onto. “C’mon Hiromi. We need to move.” I told her, and reached over to help push her forward.
“Motoko? Was that your car!?”
“Yeah.” I confirmed and she had a look of real anger spreading across her face.
“Those bastards! Hey you!” Hiromi called out to a Barghest guard that was leaning against the concrete wall of the stadium. “Someone stole my chooms car!” She called out and I watched as the guy just looked at her blankly before shrugging just once. Then ignoring her.
“Yeah. That’s what I thought would happen.” I confirmed, still moving her down the steps of the stadium. I needed….
“Fucker! Aren’t you- Motoko!”
“There, let’s go.” I said pushing her along away from the Barghest guard that would more than likely just shoot her than listen to her.
“What? Motoko? I should call everyone! We need a ride-”
“We have a ride. I need to get you somewhere secure, and then I need to go get it.” I told her back and pushed her forward, right towards the Heavy Hearts.
It would be safer inside there, a booth and time would keep Hiromi safe while I took care of things.
Hiromi looked like she was going to argue with me, but instead she simply nodded and put some effort into hurrying up. Good, that gave me time to think.
I had my weapons. Lexington with two spare mags on the back rig, my Burya with two replacement mags, and my Katana at my hip.
It would be enough, and if it wasn’t, I’m sure whoever was stupid enough to steal my car would have some more weapons. We crossed the street and then ran up to the Pyramid entrance. The Barghest guards looked like he was going to stop us, but thought better of it, as we slowed and I walked Hiromi inside. “Just find a quiet place, let everyone know there might be trouble.”
“Shouldn’t you wait for backup? Isn’t that what you always tell us?” Hiromi reminded me as I was already half turned away.
“Yeah probably, but if I don’t hurry they might start taking apart my car. I’ll keep you updated with my location just in case.”
“Alright. You’ll have backup soon, but be safe.”
I nodded and hurried out the door, breaking into a light jog as I started moving across Dog Town. I didn’t know this area at all. I had no idea the safe places if you could call it that, or the gang territory. The only thing I knew was that at least one person was about to die. When I found out who stole my car I was going to make it painful.
I paced myself perfectly, and wasn’t bothered by a light jog. Across broken sidewalks and over old graffitied benches I crossed the area as quickly as I could on foot. Luckily Dog Town wasn’t that large.
I made good headway, ignoring the looks I was receiving from the natives. I raced along the street until it ended, which was annoying, but I was still getting a few stray pings from my trackers. Further forward.
As I ran I ended up running right into what looked like a little shopping district. A large tree of all things, a real tree stood in the center. I looked around for a moment, but the ping which was coming from what looked like a netrunner center in a cargo container kept pointing me forward.
I jogged through and finally I found it. Turning a corner I heard it first. Russian voices. There was a chair set into an old container that was looking out over the gap in between two containers and a Scav was sitting there keeping watch… Mostly on his TV.
Okay. My breath was good, but I had exerted myself. Calm. Cool.
I sent a ping to Hiromi giving my location and a brief description of what I’d found. I activated the BD recorder, opening my eyes to a world recorded. Then I peaked out from around the container and pinged the Scav.
Lights splashed across my vision. More and more as the stealthiest Ping I could do stretched its web between all the Scavs connected to it.
I added onto the message to Hiromi that I was looking at fifty plus Scavs…
I reached up and realized I was smiling, my heart hammering in my chest in a completely different way from exertion.
An excuse to murder an entire Scav den, and a big one? Oh I was going to really enjoy this. I took a moment to upload another hack into the gonk.
[Onryo]
I installed it at a very low setting, basically it would slowly propagate along the network for now, but not actually do anything. Just enough that when I needed I could start really fucking with everyone.
Then I moved. Stepping back I took two leaps, once against the wall and then over the container. Getting above the guard they had posted. I hunkered down already cataloging the moving pieces all around me.
Okay, the first target was clear. I leapt across the gap, landing without a sound, and slipping in through the back of the container behind the Scav.
My knife came up and I muffled his mouth as steel slipped into his jugular, ending his life.
500 XP Gained.
I dragged him out of the plastic chair and tucked him into a corner out of sight. No one would even notice he was gone until long after I was done here.
This gave me an open view down a ramp and into a broken construction area. The large towers that I was shadowed by were skeletal things, incomplete and this was where the Scavs had set up their home.
There she was. Right down in the open my Quadra sitting at the base of the ramp and people were looking her over.
She was still complete. They hadn’t started ripping her apart yet.
I moved. Leaping off the container, and slipping into a crouched position on an old rickety walk way. Using the covered railings to hide myself as I got closer and closer, until I could hear them.
“I said six kay, that’s all I’ll do.”
“It’s a fucking modded to fuck Quadra! She’s worth more than that!”
“She’s also klepped. Six Kay.” I watched as the guy who obviously stole my ride haggled with a full faced Scav.
The kid… No I shouldn’t call him that, he was older than me, probably late teens, and he was a target anyways.
He would die.
He looked like he wanted to argue even more but eventually just tsk’ed and nodded, holding out a hand. He shook with the Scav, and the deal was done.
Six thousand eddies… For my car? My baby?
The shit in her trunk was worth more than six thousand eddies!
I watched as the thief handed over a shard… He’d already copied the shard? That was… Actually impressive. I could do it… Probably. Never had before, but that was impressive considering it hadn’t even… Well he probably started stealing my car the moment we went into the stadium.
The little thief turned and walked up the ramp, six thousand eddies richer.
I followed him.
—--
Tony Gonzalez
Tony walked calmly out of The Scrapers yard and only when he was sure that he was out of sight did he hurry a bit more to get away, finding a quiet corner to duck into and catch his breath.
Selling to Scavs was always a danger. Tony kept his Lexington visible in his waistband just in case.
He checked his account, six kay… That was a lot of eddies, not as much as the car was worth, but it was good eddies, more than he’d make in a couple of months working some scop job or worse.
Easy eddies. He’d go buy Melissa that skirt she’d been looking at. He wouldn’t mind seeing her in it.
He patted his jacket, the car cracker was still there. It was his key to a good life. He’d klepped it from a dead runner. Old Etienne was a VDB, Tony did some work for him, moved things and the like, but he’d gone to pick up a new package only to find the old runner fried.
So Tony had helped himself, getting the fuck out of there hopefully without anyone noticing. He hadn’t gone for any of the gear. Nah, that was shit that the other Boys would notice missing. No he klepped the little things that Etienne made. A car cracker, a runner stunner, and all the eddies he knew the old man kept around as he didn’t trust virtual eddies.
It worked out for Tony. Months of living real quiet, letting old Etienne’s death blow over until no one would ever think Tony had anything to do with it, or that he had klepped something from the old man.
Then when his eddies were running out, he’d gone out to keep an eye on the stadium lot.
He couldn’t klep a ride from locals, or anyone too important. There was a way of things, and pissing off Barghest would end with him dead in a ditch, but some outsiders coming to use the blackmarket? Outsider kids even?
Just a couple girls, corpo and street rat, coming to the black market to feel the thrill probably. Buy something illegal, get into some trouble. Now they’d have a story to tell about their stolen suped up car. Probably daddy’s or something.
Tony nodded as he made to move on, only he couldn’t. His legs dropped as quickly as his blood pressure, as his throat was opened up.
—--
250 XP Gained.
I took a moment to look through the gonks pockets, a stun stick, nasty fucker too, and a Car Cracker. It’d sync up to a vehicles on board computer override the key system, and with just a press of a button most cars would flash a new key and you’d be off.
The only problem was, my Quadra had good security, it probably took a while to crack. When I got out of here, I was going to update the security even more. Fucking hell.
With that cleared up I headed back to the tower that was basically a massive scav den. I looked over the numbers from back on top of the storage containers hidden among the refuse.
There were netrunners around, but not good ones.
These weren’t security runners, but thugs. People with Quick Hacks meant to try and disable their targets, and while normally I’d be a lot more wary, with my Stealth Quick Hacking Perk that I’d just picked up, I felt like a Ghost as I uploaded more hacks through the gonks I could see standing around my Quadra.
There were a lot of people just inside this construction area, and it was a surprise just how many more of them lived inside the half finished skyscraper.
This was a nest. Maybe even a distribution center for a massive Scav Gang.
I’d never heard anything about this place, but then again if the data I’d gathered led to DogTown I’d also ignored it and moved on, thinking it was insane to follow it.
Good thing I was feeling particularly insane at the moment. Onryo had spread to everyone. Time to initiate level 1, I sent out the code that would cause her to start getting a bit more aggressive.
I needed to clear out the stragglers first. There was a Sniper along the side, he’d be my first target, just to be safe.
I moved, jumped up and onto the rooftop, only taking a moment to look up, to make sure I’d be out of sight of anyone on the upper levels of the scraper.
Then I moved, sticking to the shadows cast by the setting sun, and moving across the construction site unseen.
I heard it as I approached, one of the guys around my Quadra yelped and started yelling at his buddies.
Onryo was doing her job.
I slipped down from the Containers that surrounded the area, landing without a sound right behind the sniper Scav. He had good gear even walking around with a Grad of all things. Not really beating those Russian connections there pal.
It’s fine. He was hidden up above the rest of the construction site, and so when I slipped behind him, and l ran my sword through his heart from behind, grabbing his mouth to quiet his startled gasp he died easily.
750 XP Gained.
Nice. Extra XP.
With him dead, I had superiority over the entire area. No one else was really on overwatch.
It was time to wipe out some Scavs.
I heard the first real scream as I was making my way through the shadows, unable to hide my grin as Onryo was working.
Sure, going completely stealth would probably have been better, but… I wanted to see how Onryo did. I still needed to do more updates to it, but a little field test was a good idea.
That and I didn’t want them to focus on my car.
I’d already tried to call for it to come to me, but the car cracker that little shit had used, had overwritten the key shard I still had.
I’d have to override whatever bullshit this thing had done. But first I needed to clear out some assholes.
I slipped down among the shadows even as the cries of panic grew louder.
Onryo was working hard. Grabbing at hands, or legs, or running fingers over cheeks from behind. Which the poor bastards agents all made them feel.
The network integration was working too, as I started hearing the gonks scream at each other when the Ghostly form of the Onryo would slip out from behind someones back with her claw-like hands.
Of course there were a few working to fix the issue.
The Netrunners were already trying to hunt down the Daemon in their network, but like I said they were thugs.
I pulled out my knife readying myself as I took over the Daemon and set up a vector.
The Netrunner had a moment to see Onryo slide up from below his sight, climbing out of his shadow and then clambering up onto his chest. Each time she touched him as she climbed he’d feel it and then it was revealed the massive knife in her hands.
“Oh fuck off! Whoever is doing this! I know it’s just a fucking trick!” He yelled out, trying to act tough, trying to act like this was nothing so his chooms would calm down.
Which is why when Onryo thrust a knife into his throat. I made my throw.
There was a moment, I could tell a dichotomy where what was happening to him didn’t make sense and he tried to deny it.
But the blood flowing out of his mouth as the blade stuck through his throat stopped all of that.
The Onryo laughed, warm and sinister and disappeared.
Which revealed the truth to all of his chooms.
The screams… Well, I had to admit it gave me warm feelings inside as the Scavs went from reacting to some weird shit, to realizing they were in a horror movie.
750 XP Gained.
I had one more knife, and then I’d have to start collecting more.
I grinned.
The shock, the fear, it already affected their ability to try and pin me down. Instead of sticking together, or sending out groups, the Scavs were splintering, some were running in fear back into the building, some some together, and some started firing randomly.
One Scav actually shot one of his chooms when the Onryo was sliding along that guy's face.
500 XP Gained.
I guess if I got some idiots to kill each other it still counted? That was nice.
There were about sixteen Scavs in the area at the start, two down, fourteen more to go, and then however many were in this building.
Time to get to work.
I started running, rushing through the maze like stacks of containers, and trash that was built up all around the area.
I knew where they were, but they had no idea where I was.
The first Scav I ran into was hiding. Shotgun pointed towards the only area where he’d jammed himself. The Pozhar was shaking and wavering.
Unfortunately I had just leapt above him and was looking down on him now.
I pushed up the Onryo’s effects on him. Suddenly, hands were crawling up his face, scratching, and clawing at his eyes. Agents weren’t meant to cause pain, but well…
His scream was pretty horrible, and while he was blind and scrabbling at his eyes I leapt down, kicking the pozhar as I landed, knocking it up and out of his hands, until I grabbed it out of the air and pointed it.
The blast echoed in the little cubby between two containers he’d tucked himself, and then I just dropped the Pozhar and leapt back out.
500 XP Gained.
Gone like a ghost. I decided to wait and see, laying down on top of the container and just letting the chaos continue.
Three Scavs came to check on the noise, and when they found their choom, or what was left of him. I adjusted their own affect.
The feeling of the Onryo scratching at their eyes, gave me all the time I needed to leap in between all three of them.
My Katana was shifted, and in a single move I drew my blade, three bodies and three heads fell.
500 XP Gained.
500 XP Gained.
500 XP Gained.
I once more disappeared, slow and steady, lure them away. Get them into smaller numbers, and then blind and remove them.
Honestly when I’d originally come up with Onryo, I hadn’t thought of its effect of being able to cover some poor gonk's eyes.
Adding in the pain mechanism, and using that like an Optical Reboot? I had to admit, this was much more powerful of a hack than I’d expected.
—-
Daniil Antonov
The screams as the setting sun was coming through the open spaces in the half built skyscraper were not something he wanted to hear.
“Fucking hell. What is going on now?” He grunted as he left his own little room. Being the boss of the place had its benefits and a bit of privacy was one of them.
“What’s going on?” He called out, looking around as more than a few others were coming out of rooms to find out what the hell was going on.
He hurried down when no response came.
Shit.
“Grab your weapons!” He roared to everyone grabbing his own Pozhar and hurrying towards the elevator.
When he arrived he slowed down so he could process what he was seeing.
One of his men was shaking and disturbed, scratches ran across his face, and they looked self-inflicted.
Cyberpsycho? He gripped his gun tight, just in case.
“What the hell is going on?”
“We’re under attack!” The man checking on him called out. “Some Runner is fucking with our boys! They’re seeing ghosts, and more and more are showing up dead!”
Daniil considered this. There were two paths forward for him. Send more men downstairs, maybe even start ordering everyone down to kill this scop sucker.
The other was to wait it out. Netrunners had to see you to hack you out. He didn’t have security cameras up here, and his boys had every route up, locked down. Some one dangerous enough to start slaughtering his men was dangerous enough to just let them do what they wanted.
But that would make him look weak.
“Dmitri. Take your squad, clean up this mess.” Daniil ordered, and looked up at the man.
Dmitri was his group's heavy hitter. The most borged out fuckers in the group. Ex-SovOil special forces. They were what Daniil used when shit got bad. The guards he used when he had to deal with Barghest, or any of the other players here in Dogtown.
“You heard him!” Dmitri didn’t wait, roaring out and holding that massive HMG of his.
His squad of killers clambered into the elevator. There whoever was stupid enough to fuck with him was dead. Now to deal with these idiots getting scared of some piece of trash causing trouble.
Comments
pat
Love it. I like to think that if Motoko had been privy to the gonk kid’s inner monologue she’d be pissed that the guy with some level of intelligence and common sense was only worth half a regular gonk in xp. And that would probably be the beginning and end of her thoughts on it ^^
Suls
Thanks for the new chapter!
Garrett Cannon
So its easier for scavs to have a contact with sovoil due to nationality. makes sense
Seras
Sorry I didn't see this question for a while. SovOil has some connection to NC just like all big corps tend to do. But this guy isn't currently a member of Sov Oil. He's someone that was either retired, and joined the Scavs, or actively was pulled from normal work to do work with the scavs because Scavs make a lot of money for the soviet area. Think of it like modern drug cartels. They sent people to other countries to extract wealth and so they send well armed, and experienced killers to make sure things go smoothly.
WillCaulder
I can see Seras's braindance for the fight in my head, and for some reason, it's set to Andrew W.K.'s "Ready to Die."
Alley
I think comparing a someone stealing a car in a hyper capitalist setting filled with dire poverty, with a nazi, even say a nazi foot soldier who didn't do anything more horrific than the war crimes that all nazis were involved in, is a bit of a false equivalency. I am well aware of the dehumanization that occurs in every day life under techno-feudalism. But the thing is; Motoko wasn't born in the cyberpunk world, her memories are hazy, as a result of the system, but she was still born in the west, and has ingrained morality from that time, unless it turns out the Motoko was a killer in her previous life? In case which her first murder wouldn't make much sense. Literary analysis, not pop psychology. but I will give that my comment may come off as pretentious.
lizard King
Theories for potential upgrade paths. Pain simulations simulates pain through tricking the implant to slightly over sense signals to the connection point of cyberware. Terrifying auditory sounds from simple step steps to Erie music or a simple Melody. Or just places in general from Eldritch Sunny leases to perfectly understandable English or other languages. Forcibly activating certain implants such as a mister stud or some other uncomfortable and very shameful and embarrassing and plans. These are my theories and upgrade paths. Please be the lizards and towards the horrors of creativity.
Joyeus
Tftc slipping other hacks in under the onryo hack would be devastating, hijack one of them and make it look like they transformed into onryo, make their guns misfire, blinding them as you just showed, and the discharge for when you want onryo to take someone out without actually killing them.
Seras
It's the hack Motoko used on Ichi and Malcolm as a test. Basically it forces an image of a ghostly Motoko into an enemies view, and paired with her upgrading it after testing it on the boys it uses everyones agent. (Basically their internal phone. What lets everyone make calls in their head and stuff.) To trick their brain into feeling it when the Onryo 'touches' them. Making a very psychological effect as people can see, hear, and feel the ghost, but can't actually do anything to it. This is honestly the first time Motoko has used it offensively, and is sort of working out what it can do, and what it needs for upgrades etc.
AirSak2000
What exaxtly does Onryo do again? From the chapter I can tell that it makes you see something and pairs that with phantom sensations of it touching you, but is there more that I'm not remembering?
Garrett Cannon
its going to be a good mission or story arc when it happens. im hoping they use her to put down cyberpsycho they dont want to deal with
runedead56
MaxTac will show up? With what a recruitment offer?
Cliff246
It's true about the nusa post. That could have a huge consequence for v. however It just seems like the edge runner story is what we are moving towards rather than looking at the start of cyberpunk 2077 as well. Both are important and there has been radio silence about v's start. Unless mokoto forgot about it which is not unprecedented
Duke of Coffee
Actually, I find the analysis of a fictional character Motoko quite funny. 😆 🤣 I do appreciate it, but I do remember fictional characters are still fiction, as long you can separate facts from fiction.
Austin Thomas Burney
for real.
Kara Nina
I suspect this will show how much help her new quickhaks and netrunning can be in a fight - a fight she can't win physically.
Robert Apgar
Well the thing about stealth Motoko is he might not realise anything at all before she is done.
Robert Apgar
Or the deep unsettling noises of paranormal activity.
David Hoyt
She gets the legendary car jack tool.
David Hoyt
If James Bond has taught me anything, it's that evil monologues always end badly.
David Hoyt
I always hated word problems. Just give me the lead pipe already.
Einar Strandberg
Man, Mokoto has gotten so much scarier.
Owlfurret
*drags murphy behind the woodshed*
Z H
Damn, could you not post a bunch of dumb revenge porn BS and give the other twit here trying to psychoanalyze everyone ammunition for their own fantasies?
Z H
Oh no, you sweet summer child. That was a whole lot of pretentious hot air just to tell everyone that you don't remotely understand how people, people. Do you even know what the setting here is? What's next, are you going to go find a WW2 story and complain about the readers cheering on Nazis getting killed? Because that's the equivalent of what you're doing here, in what I will charitably assume is ignorance of the setting. Just take your amateur pop-psychology routine somewhere else yeah?
Derek Palm
Goddamn cliffhanger
Duke of Coffee
Night City housed one of their offices there, since they want to keep on eye on their competitors, and hopefully steal things for themselves. Motoko Night City is bigger than what the in-game city showed.
Duke of Coffee
Welcome to Cyberpunk 2077~
Kayden High
Pls Miss seras can we have some more?
Alley
People in the comments that are cheering on MK murdering the guy that stole the Quadra, perhaps should read deeper into her psyche, she's progressively been pushing the Overton Window on her murder justification. A system that rewards you for excessive violence is terrifying, she didn't just wake up one day and choose to become a murder hobo. She has experienced obscene levels of trauma, and only spoken to Misty about it a tiny bit. In response to that trauma, and a system of rewards that encourages her to keep killing, she has been continually losing any vision of right/wrong from her previous life. I love the writing Sara's, not glazing. I have no idea if you're doing it on purpose, but the story has progressively gotten darker and darker in terms of MK's slaughter. The humanizing of Tony was nice to see in a world as morally black as Cyberpunk. Keep it up, and don't be afraid take breaks when you are noticing burnout. The new chapters have been great. In regards to having trouble stopping killing, I find it similar to Roland in Robert Evans "After the Revolution". The mechanism of reward is different, but I find the result similar. Killing desensitizes killing, slaughter desensitizes slaughter to the point of "why not?". I'm open to feedback on my analysis, just please be civil.
Alexander Jonsson
Maybe some kind of Netrunner knock off of that Naruto Uchiha mind fuck, tell he exactly what he did, then torture him for hours, days, but it only lasts a few minutes IRL, or some shit. Personally I always lean towards a nice clean 12g rocksalt kneecapping for revenge fantasies, not like that gonk would have the scrap for new legs that good... Then again a shattered pelvis is pretty popular nowadays, kneecapping is kinda old school, and it's probably more expensive to replace a pelvis than an appendage in cyberpunk. Just killing folk, doesn't send the right message, people are still gonna fuck with you, maiming makes people think twice, death is relatively quick, years of pain however? But go too far and you'll make enemies which negates the whole sending a message thing. Gotta balance shit out. Feather vs soul on a scale type shit. Too far? Just kinda working with what I know about the criminal element. ADD' Motko still going for that whole incognito shtick, so she isn't targeted, but again, that leaves you open to randos... Gotta weigh the risks there. A lot more randos out there willing to fuck with her, than there are enemies that would target her and hers.
B Oakley
And we ignore the gore unless it is a unusually large amount.
B Oakley
10/10 would do the same.
RandySalacious
Except this V got the Militech listening post, making it likely either Jenkins gets the promotion he felt Abernathy stole from him or he picks a less useful pawn to put a hit on Abernathy, saving V from getting fired by Abernathy's security.
Garrett Cannon
interesting but why is SovOil even in night city?
Duke of Coffee
Final Destination vibes.
Duke of Coffee
Russia Corporation: https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/SovOil
Duke of Coffee
Doubtful but we have to wait and see what the author will do in the next chapter.
zandercp
That's assuming it still happens. Jenkins may have gotten the promotion after V got the NUSA listening post, making it so she doesn't get ordered to assassinate her boss's boss
Alulim Eridug
"There were about sixteen Scavs in the area at the start, two down, fourteen more to go, and then however many were in this building." Should this be three down? Sniper, Runner, Gonk who got shot by his choom
John Sanders
I kinda hope she gets the jump on him. Motorola is getting scary and it would be good to see her truly start being on the elite level
Gilgamesh Archer
Probably distracted by the fact that the new targets were her old friend the scavs too. I imagine she still has some triggers associated with them.
Cliff246
Oh and v is kicked out of arasaka in a few months. Starting the main story line
Cliff246
I hope they really push mokoto like the nusa vet. Someone that can help remind her that there is always a bigger fish
Sup3r J4k3
I was listening to 'Burn MF' by five finger death Punch
Beau Bryant
That's gonna make an awesome BD
Akel
John Wick was on to something.
TheOne320
Nice. Looking forward to the next chapter.
Beau Bryant
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAmAkMIHIFGXjP6nZRJFd28RPPAUX54w2&si=1vfyZgrqe2hAW-WF
Dopplerdee
I would have made sure the kid knew what he did before he died, but I'm a petty bitch.
Seras
Motoko can see the Onryo if she's looking at someone interacting with it, but she can't see it if it's away from her.
Heidao
If she wipes out this den, it's an opportunity on the clean up to have Section 9 and the SLS to roll up en mass to start clearing the place down to their foundations, only for Barghest and the locals to show up to an empty place, ripped stripped and cleaned out. A target rich environment, with plenty of candidates to test everything out on, we give thanks for this EXP buffet
Beau Bryant
I was listening to "Bodies" by Drowning Pool, then "Die MF Die" by Dope while reading this. "Red" by Chavelle might be good for the BD soundtrack too.
THE SAVAGE KITTY
Unfornatly not Motoko's style
Beau Bryant
I hope that she can see Oneyo so that the BD records it.
Alzhan
Hah! Deserved.
Duke of Coffee
Barghest might get in the way? But nevertheless hopefully they can loot and it will pay off the eddies spent on Motoko cyberware. 😜
Seras
"It's not just any car! It's not just any drone! PEOPLE KEEP ASKING ME IF I'M SERIOUS, AND YEAH I'D SAY I'M SERIOUS!"
Scholar of Endless Knowledge
Yea go get em girl
Fortunis
Holy shit. She hit them with ALL the nasty. I knew Onryo was dirty but god damn. This BD is going to be ridiculously popular.
Sweetlaxer
Love the Motoko ninja chapters
Nick
This chapter is giving me John Wick vibes. Chop shops all around NC are going to end up flagging anyone who stole Motokos car as dead men. Edit: btw Overkill much Seras? Poor kid just stole a car.
Seras
Well she was in a rush to make sure they didn't start tearing her car apart.
Robert Apgar
Seras you legend.
Greki K
Would have liked for the car thief to at least realize who he truly messed with before he died, but this was a very sweet chapter. Thanks!
jeff
She gave the kid that stole from her a quick death. I thought the plan was to make him feel pain before he die. He had the best death in the chapter. He did not even feel it until he died.
Seras
Not yet. Hands might not even be in Pacifica yet, by 2077 he was basically taking over/worming his way in to becoming the areas main fixer, after Dex.
Bable Zmith
Hmm, I think if they just keep it low key Barghest might not get involved. The Barghest cowards will wait for the shooting to die down then send a squad in to reconnoiter. Then 'Toko steps out and assures (bribes) them that everything is alright. Malcom and Ichi roll up, she directs them in, all while smiling to the Barghest. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... I know, not that realistic. Barghest aren't that smart.
David Hoyt
A nicknack or two.
Crimson Grave
I kind of really want the entire ordeal to be finishing right as her reinforcements arrive. Like, her friends show up, and they hear the sound of a window shattering, looking up to see a body fly out and splatter on the ground near them. Then they go in and just see the charnel house that Motoko left behind as she continued climbing up to all those pretty XP filled meat bags. Side note, Motoko didn't do as she said and made the car thief's death painful. Guess she saw the opportunity to Level Up and got too giddy to care about wasting time with him. Or perhaps the fact that the Skav's bought her car for 6k made her too furious to bother with the obviously idiotic thief.
Bable Zmith
Sounds like a good time to visit the Aldacaldos.
Happy
Nice.
Neric
Excellent thanks you
White Neko Knight
Ah, she won't be able to loot this nest hu. Barghest will get in the way.
Ryune
Huh, related kills count. I wonder if she shouldn’t make a few deamons and start playing RTS on the net? Or even just send out a bunch of self replicating annoyances. Not enough to do anything about by big players but enough to take out badly coded deamons.
Xegzy
I think these guys might kick tokos ass and Starr off an inciting incident
Connor Higdon
You have no idea how happy I am that this story has begun to pick back up. So glad that the break was worth it.
MrDenim
Murphy be like: https://media.vlipsy.com/vlips/KpYpZIgu/preview.jpg
MrDenim
https://imgflip.com/i/9o22wt
Duke of Coffee
Aye and hopefully Hiromi comes along when the reinforcements arrive. 😜
Kara Nina
If everyone shot everywhere stray shots would hit Motoko since heavier guns that can hurt borgs go through walls.
Duke of Coffee
But XP is XP. 😉 Wait, I'm turning into a Cyberpsycho??
Teatime42
Ahhhhh yiiiissssss
Torlek85 .
I just subscribed to the story on space battles. Then I know when to look for an update on patreon.
PlasmaticPi
Imagine if she changed it from being a ghost to something more realistic like a bunch of cyberpsychos and made them stand in front of other people so the infected person would shoot at the illusion and hit people behind them. Then let it spread across the whole city with an AI coordinating the illusions for maximum crossfire and fear. Add in a rumor a bunch of cyberpsychos had broken out and it would be carnage. Like half the city or more could end up dead. True weapon of chaos and destruction.
Byakuran
Finally some good old fashioned violence for BD. Poor Judy will have edit one more horror film. Would be interesting if Hiromi will call Jackie,Jun and Rebecca with Ichi and Malcolm. Open pretty interesting situation. Especially if Rebecca is with Maine’s team. Would be cute if Sasha freaks out and tag along with the rest of crew. Would be great way to shut up the Maine and Pilar’s opinions about Motoko’s merc company and great shock to Sasha that her little Kitten kohai is insane to kill 50+ Scavs alone without preparations. Also great way to show Jackie that Motoko is monster especially if Maine is there. Jackie : Merde, hermanita is insane Maine: definitely, can confirm it as Afterlife’s merc Jun: Typical tuesday Motoko *take burrito from the pocket and bite it*
intata
Woo! Murder!
Thrent
"All I am surrounded by is fear and dead men"
Dangit889
Or kidnap him. Tie him up. And then make him watch her kill this entire den of scav live. And then let him go home afterward traumatized so much he’d never leave his house again.
BananaBobert
Welp, it's the start of John Wick except he hadn't retired yet. Although honestly feel sorta bad for the kid who stole her car. It's not a great thing to do, but he was relatively smart and trying to keep his head down. It's just that the Motoko murder blender currently occupies the body of a teenager. The aftermath of this is gonna be interesting. Will they be allowed to loot the place like they have been? If so, they're gonna have so much gear to sell hahaha. This place looks like a pretty well off operation to be able to support 50 people.
Cormac
I am struggling to recall: has Motoko interacted with Mister Hands yet? If not, she certainly will after this display.
Straven
Oh I see blood flowing in the most horror filled ghostly screams coming now with these new targets. Thanks for the read.
THE SAVAGE KITTY
Aye
Katherine
Nice! I subbed the same day as a new chapter. :D
Bat
Ah that hack is so awesome!
target
Eventually i found it more fun to just get on the roof and ping them before firing a quazar at them through the roof
Sami Hautamäki
One two, Motoko is coming for you Three Four, Better lock your door Five Six, Grab your crucifix Seven Eight, Can you stay awake? Nine Ten, Never sleep again!
target
She should have let the Thief live but put some sort of a trace on him so she could haunt his ass for BD content at will.
Gleadge
Honestly I installed the app so that I could have the notifications, even though I keep reading on web browser. The app isn't the best to read chapters in unfortunately
Garrett Cannon
horomi is a fan favorite no danger to her
Dwayne Parker
Motoko got that “Homer in New York” luck
Seras
Motoko can see the Onryo. But only if she's actually looking at the time.
Seras
MaxTac will 100% show up eventually.
Michael Olson
Oh that's the good stuff. Been a bit
michael stitcher
Gamers see enemies = bags of XP with gore effects turned on.
michael stitcher
I hope it overlays what the Onryo is appearing as rather than just guys squirming and clawing at themselves.
Paul Torres
So what I'm getting from this onryo hack field test is, eventually, once Motoko perfects this hack or rather just improve it continously, she can basically kyoka suigetso anyone who has a cyberdeck which is practically everyone. Nice
Sky
I swear when i hears her car was stolen my first thought was that tachikoma had taken it racing. Lol.
GrimV
Onryo hype!!!!
michael stitcher
Well it might give her the idea. She does want to become the laughing man, who was able to completely puppet other people without them even knowing they were being seamlessly puppeted.
Duke of Coffee
Hah the car stealer went to heaven faster than the VDB gonk that brain fried. The glorious Scav hunting begins with a scream of fear. Can't wait for the borg to realize he is facing a Solo with grudges to bear. Is Motoko going to use the Grad?
Green0Photon
It's also annoying, because some of the Patreon emails aren't coming through, like this one. And the ones that are no longer say Patreon, but show as if the author personally emailed them to me. Agh!!! I hate Patreon!
Smitty
Thank you author, may I have another.
William Johnson
Reminds me of being "stealthy" with netrunners in the game. Hey, if everyone's down before you step in the door no one sees you.
Apeljohn
The natural enemy of every borg: nine point eight one em aitch.
The GrandMage
Yes. Send someone mostly borged up after a Netrunner already in your guys' implants. No way that's going to end up giving them a mobile turret.
Apeljohn
That feeling when even your killer's System thinks you're a bit of a loser...
Apeljohn
This is evil. I love it. ...What's evil that I don't love, is Patreon getting more pushy about their app: they've removed the "View on Patreon" button from their emails in favour of a couple of links that redirect to the Google App Store. Having experienced their web dev skills - wherein you can practically hear the half-dead hamster frantically running in its rusty wheel - I'll be damned if I trust them with my phone.
THE SAVAGE KITTY
Praise be our goddess hath blessed us with another chapter
Kara Nina
I almost thought Tony Gonzalez was related to Richard Gonzales from the SLS, but then I looked up the spelling. Also: anyone else notice he only gave 250XP and the only other Person who gave 250XP was Jun's idiot choom who tried to murder a TG leader. I assume people who are really weak give 250XP, normal goons give 500XP, someone with a special skill like sniping or netrunning gives 750XP and someone with a lot of chrome or exceptional skill gives 1000XP. Therefore, someone with legend level skill like Yoko or Blackhand would give even more XP.
Garrett Cannon
SovOil huh im not familiar with them at all but a Scav den being taken out im all for it. Motoko is finally making another recording cant wait for judy or david or really anyone to give their opinion of the BD. 50 dudes at least will make this mission amazing. Do u think MaxTac will ever make an appearence in ur story seras?
michael stitcher
... drop the elevator. No breaks. Scavs step in, system pings that its full, an image of the demon cutting the cables and make it let go. Bye bye borg fucker.
Critical Hit
And this isn't even a completed version of the hack. Plus she doesn't have those upgraded bits of cyberware in yet either. So there is so much more to go.
Alex k
Love the chapter :D
Subby
Absolutely Amazing, love to see Onryo working its way into their minds and this will be a killer BD, though the Cliffhanger is pure evil like Seras own Horror Hack for her readers
Owlfurret
Please keep Hiromi safe.
heh
Forgot how much of a psycho Motoko can be sometimes. One of the best chapters yet tho!
Findell
Atleast the BD of this will sell for lots.
Skarbleface
oh damn well that's a good debut for Onryo. Thanks for the chapter
Adam
TFTC
Boohya
i thought i was EARLY WAAAA
Kim-Jong-Jesus
Holy hell I’m first! Ty for the chapter
