Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 208

Down in the depths of the Underground, I stood at the crossroads to the stash. I’d already done a lot of security work with the place, opting for simple boobytraps, sensors, and hidden doors. I’d like to get some sentries and the like, but that’ll have to wait till I can get some proper auto-targeting arrays and programs.

The Nightmarket would probably have what I needed. On top of finally getting a scrambler and a few other devices that I'd been thinking about, that is. The Night Market wasn't for another couple days though.

I’d carefully worked on the crossroads, covering up every door with fake rubble. Of course, they were hidden doors. Anyone coming through here would have a choice of six semi-hidden doors to go through, none of which actually lead to my stash. 

Instead, the route was hidden behind a false wall that was much, much harder to detect. A bit of misdirection at work. Like I'm always saying, out of sight, out of mind. Much easier to protect something if no one knows it's there.

I wasn’t down here for the vault though. I checked my pistol, carefully making sure everything was ready to go. The magazine had a strip of red tape around the base of it, denoting it as my flame rounds. While I was testing the imbued bullets, shooting them from a pistol would work well enough.

I didn’t want to use the fire rounds in any old firing range either, so down here was my best bet. I headed for the crossroads, carting along a small box of scrap chrome to use as target practice. 

I got everything set up and then checked the mag one more time. Four fire-imbued bullets sat, ready to be fired off. They alternated with four normal point twenty-twos so I could compare the results.

Actually making them wasn’t all that difficult. I took what were essentially hollow points, and then filled the hollow side with a small combo of crushed Crystalized Fire and Aetheria as a catalyst and put a cap on it. As soon as the hollow point compressed upon impact, the heat would trigger the powder. 

And yeah, that was basically as far as Aether Imbuement went. Like I said, it was closer to old-age alchemy. There wasn’t much magic involved outside of the crystallization process. At least for now. The bigger, badder types of imbuements were more involved. They went beyond just powder, but those were far off in the future. Maybe if I got a full lab set up someday I could make them.

I wasn’t a hundred percent sure how powerful the bullets would be. I mean, I had a rough idea from when I’d been taught Aether Imbuement, but I’d never actually shot an imbued bullet. The Perk had been much more focused on making them.

It should cause a small explosion and a bit of fire at the base, though I wasn’t entirely sure how much adding Aetheria as a catalyst would change that. Could be a weak gout of flame, or it could be akin to a small grenade.

I set up a target of more durable stacked chrome plates and then backed away quite far. I raised the pistol and slowly lined up the shot. I really

The round impacted the chrome, bouncing off to the side with little force. About as I expected. Even chrome from back then was strong enough to take a weak caliber. I checked the damage, seeing the impact spot slightly dinked by the bullet. Against modern chrome? Probably wouldn’t do a thing.

I backed up, lined up my shot, and fired again. This time with a fire-imbued bullet. The chrome target flashed as the bullet impacted, creating a light pop as the powder reacted. Flames flashed brightly, pushing back the darkness of the Underground as the metal caught fire. For a few moments, it looked as though thermite had been lit inside of it.

The metal continued to burn as I approached and checked the damage. The first bullet hadn’t punctured, but this one had. A hole, bigger than the diameter of the bullet, punched through the metal plating. It went about halfway through the second piece of chrome, though all around the impact spot glowed brightly as flames flickered.

I ran the test a few more times against a variety of chrome, carefully checking the results each time and comparing them. After using up all four of my rounds, I came to a consensus on the power of the fire-imbued bullets.

Simply put- they were much stronger than normal bullets. That much was evident. Even for being the weakest of the imbued bullets, they were strong. Against modern-day chrome? It’d do some damage. Assuming I didn’t hit anywhere double or triple-reinforced, the flame bullets—let’s call them Blaze rounds from now on—would be able to puncture through and do some damage.

The real draw of the Blaze rounds wasn’t even the puncturing though. In my opinion, the fire and heat output was much more useful. Chrome was sensitive. If, say, something akin to thermite got dumped into an arm? It could easily mess up the wiring, mechanisms, and synthetic nerves. It could cause some serious damage, let alone pain. Very impressive for such a weak caliber. And that wasn’t even considering chrome that was weak to overheating, of which there were plenty.

My real draw for it was against subdermal armor. It was a common enough chrome that most people even remotely involved in fighting or danger had it. Against said chrome, the results were promising. It could probably punch through most low to mid-level subdermal armor, catching synthskin and internal organs ablaze as it passed.

I had yet to feel a fire inside of my organs, but I imagine it would be quite debilitating without some kind of pain inhibitor. Even with a pain inhibitor, they had their limits. I still remember Iris overloading that poor gonk's inhibitor way back when. It didn't have the massive explosive power I was hoping it would, but it was still useful.

I went back up to the Speakeasy happy with my results. It looked like the Blaze rounds would be worth it after all. No clue if they'd be effective against Corvin, but I had hope. He had plants all over him that might catch fire. As I got to work making more bullets, I made a call to a certain Jade Fang Enforcer.

— — —

“Thanks for meeting up with me on such short notice,” I said to Shinobu as I slid into the booth. We were at some fancy noodle hole in the wall in Bukicho. His choice.

Shinobu nodded his head to me. “Shiro. You look well... Although, a bit... wild?”

Probably my eye. Hmm… I could probably use that to intimidate someone. Wild though, huh? I hadn't gotten that feeling when I looked in the mirror. “Just exhausted.”

“Fair, fair. Busy these days? Ishimaru mentioned you hadn’t been by recently." That old drunkard still thinks about me, huh? I really should stop by sometime. "Work going well?” 

”Chek. Got a couple of jobs from Athena.” My eyes snagged on a small band around his ring finger. “Get married?”

”Almost!” Shinobu brought his hand up, waggling his finger happily. “Engagement ring… but enough of that, mikata, it didn’t sound like you wanted to just talk pleasantries on the phone.”

”Unfortunately not.” I looked around the area. Most of the people I saw were Jade Fangs. Hell, the surrounding booths were taken up by bodyguards. Shinobu looked to be moving up in the world of crime. “Our conversation safe?”

He raised a finger and pulled out a device before turning it on. I recognized it from the first time he used it. Scrambler. I really needed to get one. The Night Market couldn't come quick enough.

“Just in case. This place is the Fangs’. Don’t worry about them.” He waved a hand to the rest of the place.

I nodded to the man. “Where to start? First off, I guess, a warning. Something big is going down in the city. Ran across a massive human sacrifice down south. The group behind it? Well, it ain’t looking good.”

Shinobu sighed deeply, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He offered it to me, lighting one up as I refused. He took a slow, deep drag before focusing back in. “That’s some shit.”

”You’re telling me. I’m caught in it like a fly.” I pulled out one of the amulets I snatched and handed it to him. “Here. They use these to mark friend from foe.”

The Jade Fang Enforcer grabbed the offered amulet, his chrome eyes twisting as they most likely took several pictures. “Seen this symbol around. Large group arming lower gangs recently. Testing the waters. Their gonks that got too close to our operations had these on them. Been evangelizing on the streets, claiming the end is coming. A bunch of wackos if you ask me.”

Arming the lower gangs? That didn’t bode well in the slightest. Why though? What would they get out of such a thing? Yet another clue to add to the drawing board. At least it answered why they had so many armories around the city.

“Plant Adepts?” I took the amulet back.

”Just the same… how big of a threat do you think they are?” Shinobu tapped the ashes of his cigarette out onto an ashtray, leaning forward with a frown on his face.

I paused for a moment, choosing my words carefully. “I’m not sure. Gut says big, very big. Potentially city-wide. They’ve got people in some high places.” 

I can’t forget how easily they assassinated their own who’d been captured. He was in the middle of the Blue Crusade lockup. Nor that the principal of one of Sentinel’s private schools was a Circle Adept. No telling what other positions of power they held, which was disconcerting.

”It gets worse though. You heard of New Tress City?” I asked the Enforcer who looked increasingly grim as I talked.

He started to shake his head, pausing for a moment. “That the abandoned city not too far from here? Nomads like to take pit stops there?”

”Should be. The entire city was taken over by plants. I don’t mean garden ones. Vicious, malevolent plants walk around and try to kill you with bullet-like thorns. Connected to this group I’m warning you of.” I sighed, resisting a cough as the smoke started to get to me.

“Course it would be.” He muttered. “I’ll put in word up the chain… you think we should get some of our guys on it?”

”Definitely not. Crusade is all over this. Wouldn’t want the Jade Fangs to get caught in it… which brings me to the next point I wanted to talk to you about.” It was really about time I started getting paid for my ‘charitable’ services with the Crusade.

He laughed, a deep belly-full laugh that lifted the grim mood of our conversation slightly. His entire massive frame shook with laughter. “Let me guess, still working with them? You know that was supposed to be a one-time thing right?”

”I wish it were that simple.” I rubbed at the back of my neck, trying to keep the embarrassment off my face. “Can you put me in contact with your shoemaker?”

”Hmm…” Shinobu took another long drag of his cigarette. “They don’t like face-to-face meetings much.”

”That’s fine. I- just- I really want to start earning some money if I’m going to be forced to work as a cop. It’s basically slave labor at the moment.” I put on a pitiful expression, hopefully pulling at the large Enforcer’s heartstrings. 

It seemed to work somewhat as his expression softened slightly. “I’ll talk to them. See if they’re willing to work something out or contact you.”

”Shinobu-san,” A chromed man in a fancy suit walked over, bowing slightly as he interrupted our conversation. “Elder Usagi-sama awaits you.”

“I’ll be up momentarily.” Shinobu put the cigarette out, dismissing the man. “Thanks for bringing this to me, Shiro.”

”Least I could do.” While I didn’t want to be too involved in Jade Fangs' business, there was no doubt that I owed them a lot. Hell, I owed Ishimaru, that old drunkard, my life. And that wasn’t even considering familial relations from the past generations. As far as gangs went, the Jade Fangs weren't entirely evil either.

”Anything else? I'd like to hang around a little longer, but the Elder awaits.” The Enforcer moved to get out of the booth.

I thought for a moment before saying one last thing to him. “Beware She Who Grows and Mother. It's the… entity that the Circle… worships? Follows? Regardless, strong. Eidolon level.” She could hijack the interface to send me messages, so at least on an eidolon's level. 

That got Shinobu’s attention, causing his frown to deepen. “This is serious then... I’ll pass the warning along. Want me to keep your name out of it?”

"That'd be nice."

"Right. Don't be a stranger." The man laughed lightly and then headed off to his next meeting.

I got up to delta. It was nearing nighttime of my first day off, and I had a lot I still needed to do. Too much to sit around and relax, unfortunately.