Corpo Age

Chapter 7: Night Owl

The first thing that hit me when I woke up was the dull throbbing pain in my head and how dry my eye sockets felt.

I guess that’s what happens when you plug a chip into the brain and replace your eyes…

Thankfully, I could see and my vision was much better than before, as if I had switched a video from 480p to 1440p. There was also something else in my vision, a HUD. Off in the corner was ‘Settings’, and when I focused on it, a new menu appeared.

“Mr. Halls, I am glad to see you awake. Please wait here while I notify Dr. Keyes,” I glanced over at the woman who had addressed me. She was well-dressed impeccably in a light grey suit, complemented by a skirt in matching colors. Before I could reply to her, she exited the room.

I massaged my temples in an attempt to treat my headache and looked around. I realized they had moved me to a smaller room, similar in size to the one where I did my eye exams.

After five minutes, Dr. Keyes returned holding a small paper bag.

“Mr. Halls, how are you feeling?”

“Like a hangover, and could also really use some eyedrops.”

“No need to worry, Mr. Halls. This is normal for your first time installing optics. You should make a full recovery in a week. Here are some painkillers while you recover, I included the dosage instructions inside.”

Dr. Keyes handed me the paper bag. Inside was a small container with some green pills. I immediately took one, desperate to relieve the pain while I listened to him.

“Now let us test your new cybernetic vision enhancement and secretarial assistant implant device.” The doctor gestured me over to a screen that had various symbols on it, exactly like an eye exam.

“Focus on the glyphs there and see if you have any issues zooming in and out.”

The doctor made me do various exercises where I tried out the features of my new eyes, including night vision and thermal vision.

Some better models would have better definitions from greater distances. Some could highlight hostiles and potential weapon systems as well.

“Good, now open up your secretarial assistant program. You should be able to see your Nova Tech Stars Mk.4 and Zenitech Hoth Mk.3 itself listed there. It will be where you can find the status of all the cybernetics you have installed.”

I verified what the doctor showed me, which didn’t take too long because the SAID allowed me to navigate its menus with just a thought.

It was quite strange having my intentions read and being able to text with my mind.

After the doctor completed the diagnostics, I was finally free to leave, after I had made my payment, of course.

Once I got home, I stuffed myself with food and jumped into my bed before I opened my status screen.

Status

Level:

1

EXP:

90/100

Musculoskeletal:

11

Neural Reflex:

15

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Visuomotor Coordination:

12

Endurance:

8

Sensory Perception:

37

Upgrade Points:

0

Upgrades:

• Stealth +3
• Hacking +3

Enhancements:

SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3

Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4

Hmm… my sensory perception went up and my new cybernetics are listed under enhancements now. I guess it makes sense that getting better eyes meant better perception.

I couldn’t dwell on my status screen much longer. The pain and fatigue prevented me from focusing and my eyelids struggled to stay open.

Hopefully, I could sleep this off.

---

I spent the next five days mostly just resting at home and taking walks around the neighborhood. I also tried out the milkshakes throughout the area, as it was one of the few things that tasted like it was meant for human consumption. The soothing coldness also helped numb my dull headache.

On the sixth day, I took public transit and headed to the south end of the city.

“Good evening everybodyyyyy! Tonight, we are going to go crazy! It will soon be five hundred years since we restarted civilization, from living in the toxic wastelands to building a space elevator, twice! Out in space, we—”

The sound from the radio died as the subway doors opened and I exited. I followed along the GPS route displayed in the corner of my vision.

The roads grew more and more crowded as I got closer to the seaside. In the background, the enormous space elevator lit up the middle of the ocean as it loomed far above. It was like a giant glow stick.

There was a festive mood as people drank and partied out on the streets throughout the waterfront.

I arrived a little early, so I found a cafe and killed some time by going over how businesses were started here. I had gradually grown accustomed to my new implants and, with it, the convenience of a computer on standby in my head.

The SAID was super useful even when not considering the communication aspects of it, as I could use it as a digital wallet, allowing me to pay like some of my previous customers had done when I worked at the convenience stores.

When it was almost midnight, I headed out of the coffee shop and patrolled around the area.

I made my way into the alley of a building I picked, where I found a suitable place to jack into the security system with my worn-out terminal. I really needed to look into getting a specialized hacking terminal or a cybernetic version of one once I could afford it.

Within a minute, I could tell the building’s security wasn’t something I could breach with my current skills, not in a short time at least, so I did the sensible thing and gave up. I repeated the same thing with several other buildings until I found one that had an older security system, something that was manageable for me to bypass.

Once I had access to the building, I made my way to the roof.

With my new optics, there was no need for binoculars, as I could directly zoom in on my surroundings, though they didn’t have the best clarity once it was too far away.

A stark contrast existed between the waterfront, where a boisterous crowd gathered, and the other streets in the opposite direction, where it was deserted and quiet.

The crowd grew louder when party boats came into view, along with several flying vehicles hovering above.

Not long after, midnight arrived. Everyone had counted down together for the last ten seconds. Once it was over, fireworks shot up around the space elevator, in the shape of a giant 500.

For a few seconds, I took some comfort in how similar the celebrations were to my old world before I shook off the sentimental thoughts and turned on the night vision mode on my optics.

---

I had looked around for hours from the roof of the building. If I still had my organic eyes, I’m sure I would have felt the strain by now. While I did not miss them, I wonder if I would feel the same when I started replacing other parts of the body.

I planned to get an implant to address my weak stamina, especially when I worked alone, where I had to do everything myself.

My thoughts were interrupted when I finally spotted what I was looking for. I watched as two figures exited their car and approached a drunk couple who were making out in a dark alleyway.

As it was now a race against time, I sprinted down the building and made my way toward the van the two people had got off.

I quietly followed them while I tried to control my breathing at the same time. I spotted one of the two figures crouched over the couple, who was now unconscious. One of the suspicious individuals had a cable connecting them with the couple. Meanwhile, their partner, who I made out to be a rough-looking woman, stood guard nearby with a metal baton in hand as she leaned against the wall.

“---longer til the damn jammer is up? We can probably snatch half a dozen more tonight if you could hurry your ass up.” The woman turned in my direction and spat on the ground.

I got closer by hiding behind a nearby dumpster, moving as her field of view turned the other way. Once I got close enough for me to feel confident in my aim, I double-checked the safety of my new pistol.

“Yeah yeah, easy for you to say. Our clients this time want healthy adults, and these two have some decent corpo hardware. It’ll just take a little longer to jam the signal.” A man’s voice resounded in response to his partner.

With a clear view of both my targets in the alleyway, I took my time aiming and pulled the trigger. Before the first bullet reached her, I gently squeezed the trigger again. Two soft electric buzzes hissed out.

+10 EXP

Immediately, I aimed at the crouched figure and shot out another two bullets from my coilgun as he tried to turn around. I rushed down the alley, carefully keeping the Suri trained on the prone man.

Once I was right above him, I carefully placed another shot at the back of his head.

+10 EXP

After examining the bodies, I found that the couple was still breathing, so I disconnected the cables that were attached to their necks.

I looted any guns and valuables off of my kills and found the unconscious couple’s wallets with their corpo IDs in them. They were low-level employees who worked at Amazing Corp, one of the largest corp that dealt in military equipment.

I confirmed how my aim was with the first target, noting the woman had two gunshot wounds in the chest.

The guy I had shot also had a Nova Tech-branded cyberarm, but appeared to be a really old model. I thought about taking it so I could sell it, but it sounded like a lot of work, lugging around an arm and finding someone to buy it when the returns on it weren’t that great. I decided to leave it and continued on.

I found four pistols and the baton, so I left two of them with the couple assuming they were theirs, and enough credits for them to get home, just in case they couldn’t access their SAIDs.

Once I was done, I calmly walked out of the area and returned to the roof.

Although Elevate City had a great concentration of wealth with the support of the space elevator, it also brought along its own issues with crime and wealth disparity.

There were a ton of kidnappers looking to make some quick cash through ransoming, harvesting organs and cybernetics, or selling people for corporate experiments, which was probably what happened earlier.

I settled in my spot on the rooftop and opened up my status while I continued to keep a lookout over the surrounding area.

Status

Level:

2

EXP:

10/200

Musculoskeletal:

11

Neural Reflex:

15

Visuomotor Coordination:

12

Endurance:

8

Sensory Perception:

37

Upgrade Points:

2

Upgrades:

• Stealth +3
• Hacking +3

Enhancements:

SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3

Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4

It was reassuring to see that I had finally leveled up, and I got two upgrade points from it as well. I thought I would only get one, which made it a pleasant surprise. It also confirmed that none of my other stats went up from leveling up, which was a shame. Good thing I wasn’t planning on becoming a superman, anyway.

As much as I wanted to invest my new points into something that would help me safely make money, I knew that increasingly my ability to level up as safely as possible came first. Taking that into consideration, I dumped both points into stealth.

Once again, a wealth of knowledge entered my mind, as if someone uploaded textbooks directly into my brain. The strange part was that it felt like the new knowledge came with the muscle reflexes as well, which made my body feel like a puppet on strings, though that uneasiness went away as fast as it came.

Not long after I returned to the rooftop, I noticed a police cruiser and an armored vehicle marked with Amazing Corp’s logo pulling up by the alley where the couple were. It seemed like the jammer thing the guy was talking about was undone. Lucky them.

With the presence of the police vehicle nearby, I decided to roam around the other desolate parts of town to try my luck elsewhere.

Not even fifteen minutes had passed since I was strolling around aimlessly when I spotted some guy stun-gunning a drunk who was puking his guts out.

Hopefully, it will stay this easy to find them for the rest of the night.