I peered over the edge of the skylight down into the warehouse. A duo of guards passed just below me, rifles slung loosely from their shoulders. They were both silent with exhausted looks from the perspective of my Dragonfly.

Honestly? Not at all worried. Getting up to the roof was the hardest part, and even then, it wasn’t too bad. I straight up avoided the heavily guarded warehouse and came in the complete opposite side. My escape was already set in stone, too, thanks to Spectral Flock. With a simple tug, I’d be back up on the lighthouse, and no one here would be any the wiser.

I shifted from foot to foot, causing electricity to well up within me. It was a constant, gentle tingle underneath my skin. Just to make sure I didn’t lose control of it while I was inside, I went ahead and took care of the built-up charge. It was a bit of a struggle, but I directed it into the converters all along my Neural Link. From there, it was locked away into the several additional batteries throughout my chrome.

I checked my HUD, focusing on the perspectives of my Dragonflies to track the other guards. A small gap in their rotation was coming up quickly. I kept a mental count, lining myself up with their movements.

The gap came, and I threw myself over the edge, landing silently at the bottom. The Drop Chutes kicked in slowing me slightly. With a use of Burst Step, I ducked behind a series of boxes sticking out from a rack. Illusive pulled me into the shadows, obscuring my form completely from observers.

A forklift rolled by, safety lights flashing brightly. The driver carted a box of weapon parts toward the fabrication section seemingly without a care in the world. I waited for him to pass and then headed to the front.

The Dragonflies placed strategically around the warehouse gave me ample time to dodge and hide every single time someone passed by, making it a breeze to get into cover. Add in my Blinder? Nobody even knew I was there.

I darted across an aisle, holding perfectly still while two guards slowly ambled by. “… think of the election, bro?”

”Rigged, as it usually is. Does it even matter?” The other guy replied.

”Don’t be such a pessimist… besides, did you see the new ranking? Cinder is blowing the others out of the water.” He tapped his buddy on the elbow playfully. “I guess the phoenix rises after all.”

His buddy sighed deeply, rubbing at his face. “Last time someone was winning over Dollup, they wound up dead, and the entire election was delayed. I’ll believe it once I see it.”

”What did I say about pessimism? Cheer up, bro.” They walked further and further away from me. “Things will look up…

I slipped out of my spot and headed for a door into the office. A camera posted over the door kept it ‘secure’, but that didn’t really matter. I slunk forward and picked the lock in seconds with a quick pulse of Technical Expertise.

I wasn’t sure to begin with, but as I moved through the office I couldn’t quite help but notice how new everything was. The fabrication parts and everything out in the warehouse looked scavenged, so it was a bit hard to tell. In here, though? Everything still had that certain new smell. The carpet was clean, and the furniture looked as if it'd just been bought.

Did the tie-dye gang pop up in the last month or so? It’d make sense. There was literally no better time to start selling guns than after a great disaster like the AEZ. Even corpo drones would want to have a little something for protection, just in case.

The office was pretty basic, all things considered. There were a few new walls that weren’t on the Crusade’s blueprint, but nothing too crazy. The security was pretty high-level, though. Cameras, automated robot patrols, and turrets kept the place on lock.

I ducked into an alcove just as two robots turned the corner marching down toward me. Neither saw me thanks to my Blinder. They continued on like I wasn’t even there. I looked a little closer while they passed. They were both Knight Security bots. A bit messed up they were using stuff from a child company of the Blue Crusade to guard their illegal activities.

I moved along the hall, arriving before the boss’s office. It was a pretty standard lock, with the addition of a fingerprint scanner. I tapped on the side of it, sending a pulse through the tech. Ultrasonic and thermal—the old tape trick wouldn’t work. Not connected to anything external, nor a transceiver within… Could I just short it?

I mentally looked over the blueprint a few more times before tapping the fingerprint scanner again. This time, I pulled the ambient electricity from my body out, sending it through the tech. It glitched, flashing red for a moment. I carefully controlled the electricity to zap the part holding the bolt in. It fried, the bolt clicking as the entire panel flickered off.

When I get back, I should start working on stuff to spoof fingerprints. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have something like that with me, and it shouldn’t be all that hard to set up. Hell, while I was at it, I should preemptively make some stuff to get around all the usual security systems.

I slipped into the office right before the bots reset their route. It was a nice place, albeit with a clinical vibe. Everything was perfectly clean like no one had even been in here. I rooted around the room, checking for traps or hidden alarms. Nothing. Pretty straightforward.

Hopping into the boss’s leather chair, I tapped on the terminal, booting it up. Password. I looked around, hoping for a nice neat post it note. Unfortunately, nothing. It seemed this guy didn’t have any problems with his memory.

I shut off the terminal and popped open the tower, rooting around for the hard drive. I pulled it out and connected it to my deck. Encrypted. Wasn’t going to get access this way… I could probably figure it out, but my knowledge was for coding, not hacking into stuff. No telling how long it’d take.

Plan B. I had a look around his office, checking for hidden panels and places. To no surprise whatsoever, there was indeed one. I wouldn’t say a hundred percent, but a good ninety percent of higher-ups seemed to have one. Hell, I

even had several in the speakeasy to store Crystallized Elements and other valuables.

It was pretty well hidden under a sofa, but whoever set it up outsmarted themselves. The sofa was supposed to slide in and out and be super stealthy, but they failed to account for the fact that it’d be weird for a sofa to be bolted into the ground.

I found a hidden catch with Technical Expertise and moved the sofa aside to reveal a large safe. It had a basic combo lock on it, about what I’d expect from a vault. I pulsed the lock. It had all the tricks, bells, and whistles that were usually there. All the were directly bypassed by my Perk. With practiced ease, I popped the vault open.

The heavy door groaned softly and revealed the contents within the vault. Before doing anything, I popped my Transporter out of my bag and activated it. Slowly but surely, the projector started opening a way to the Aether.

First and foremost, the chips. There were three of them, each marked with five thousand Rayn. An easy payday if I’d ever seen one. I’d have to go by a fixer to get them extracted safely, but that shouldn’t be a problem. There were also some biometric chips that any fixer would be interested in.

A little black book sat shoved off to the side. I flipped through it briefly. A ledger, maybe? Encrypted. It was relatively empty, which solidified my theory that this gang hadn’t been in town for long. Should be easy enough to decrypt with the right know-how…. Or just cheat and use a tool of the Net.

A few data shards lay scattered around inside. I pocketed all of them. No telling what was on them. I wasn’t brave enough to look through them myself, but I could use the Crusade’s Netrunners to take a peek. Whatever was on here would surely be of interest to them, too.

And then there were the bigger items. Several guns lay scattered around, looking like prototypes. Nothing too crazy. Pretty basic designs, all things considered. I could probably use them for scrap, or maybe even just have them in case I needed some extra guns.

There were several bricks of Dark Ether under the weapons. No way would I risk using it or selling it. Still, I snagged them just in case. Never knew when I might need to plant them somewhere or on someone.

Outside of that, there wasn’t much else of interest. A gene splicing kit, which wasn’t all that useful to me. Some lower-quality chrome, which wouldn’t be all that helpful for anything aside from parts. And a couple of schematics for weapons, which looked like knock-off Raijin prints.

It took ten minutes for the projector to wind up and open a path to the Aether. Not exactly short, but I wasn’t in much of a rush. I lounged back in the boss’s chair, reading one of his many, many books on leadership. Some interesting stuff in there.

Insight pulsed and I felt the path finally open. I tossed the book to the side and then shoved absolutely everything from the vault that would weigh me down into my hidden storage bunker. Never know if I might need something one day.

Was that everything- Ah! I should take the tower with me. I couldn’t access it, but the BC Netrunners probably could. The boss would already know I was here anyway once he checked his vault. No point leaving it behind.

Hmm… I’d been needing a new desk and chair too… It took a bit of finagling, but I managed to slide both through the portal. No point buying something when I could just get it for free. While I was at it, I grabbed his coffee table too. And all the books. Reading material or kindling, they’d probably be helpful at some point.

With that taken care of, I deactivated the portal and stuffed the Transporter back into my bag. That was everything, no? I looked around the picked-clean office, feeling a bit of satisfaction.

Klepping stuff was so rewarding and easy with the Aether Jumping tech. I’d never have to leave something behind again! Gone were my days of worrying over what to grab—at least, as long as I had ten minutes for my Transporter to wind up.

I lightly tugged on my connection to the Spectral Flock. Just as easily as I arrived, I vanished several thousand Rayn richer.

「Bounty - Kleptoid - Complete

* Steal valuables

* Reward: 3 EF」

— — —

Back at my temporary Blue Crusade apartment, I took a quick shower and hopped onto my bed. After a brief hesitation, I pulled the interface up. I was tempted to get a Perk, but I couldn’t risk being out for two days at the moment. Not when two days might make or break Saint.

Instead, I looked through the EF shop. It’d been weighing on the back of my mind for a while now, but I was trying to be careful about spending EF. That, and I didn’t know what to get.

「EF Shop

EF: 106

* Trait: 5,000

* Free Perk Point: 1,000

* Skill Point: 500

* Echidna’s Modification Service: 50

* Owl’s Repository of Knowledge: 50

* Crow’s Wheel of Wares: 100

* Fox’s Hollow Access: 25

* Wolf’s Smite: 100

* Bear’s All You Can Eat Bar & Grill: 25

* Shark’s Protection: 50

* Echidna’s Ammo Armory: 1

* Viper’s Scheme: 75

* Rabbits Warren: 25」

Of course, I could always save. The promise of a Trait point at five thousand was incredibly tempting. It’d take decades to get that much, though. So far, I'd managed to get three a week… If I assumed that rate continued, it’d take, what, thirty-two years? There was some stuff on the list that would be incredibly helpful right now.

I looked through the list before selecting Echidna’s Modification Service for fifty EF. A box popped into my view, similar to when I gave the Revenant box to Fox. Did I just put it in there?

I had a bunch of stuff that I wanted to upgrade, but the most important two were Crow’s Canteen of Chaos, which I used every day, and the Jade Dagger, which had saved my hide several times now. Which one… which one…

I tossed the Jade Dagger into the box. My strongest life-saving weapon getting a buff would probably be for the best. Okay… how did this work? Could I just pick any kind of upgrade? Were there limitations?

As the interface-generated box closed, three options popped up.

「Jade Sword - Change the weapon type to a sword」

「Greater Venom Regeneration - Plus two charges per day. (Total: 3)」

「Mechanized Virus - Paralysis works on machines.」

That… was it? Although Jade Sword was intriguing, it was probably the worst option of the three. It’d be cool if I actually wanted to use the Jade Dagger as a weapon, but that wasn’t really its purpose. That, and only an idiot or a Crusader brought a sword to a gunfight. Same thing really.

My biggest issue with the Jade Dagger was that I always wanted to save it for a bigger threat. That being said, both of the other two were extremely, extremely tempting. Greater Venom Regeneration would take care of my saving issue.

Mechanized Virus though… I wouldn’t have to worry about spider tanks anymore. Besides, the dagger didn’t seem to have a size limit. It worked on Corvin without much of an issue. Could I kill an entire city’s infrastructure with just one thrust? Or paralyze an entire supercarrier? Ugh temptation…

Mechanized Virus it was. I could always just upgrade it again, right? With my decision locked in, I selected the third option. The box vanished, and a timer popped up.

「11:59:59」

Twelve hours… by the time I woke up, it should be close to done, then? I closed the interface and lay back in bed.

Before I upgraded the Canteen, I should really stock up on some food and drinks. No- I should do that anyway. Also, it wouldn't be a horrible idea to store a bunch of water and rations in the Aether just in case. Maybe I’d run across a pack of starving people at some point and need them.

Ugh- I had a lot to do tomorrow. There were a lot of people I needed to see and things I needed to drop off. I sank back into bed, trying to sleep as my restless mind conjured up thought after thought.

— — —

AN: Hello! First off, plug. Patreon.com/lostrain

Secondly! My new story, Myth//OS, is finally going to drop tomorrow probably. Around the time Outrun normally comes out? I’ve been meaning to say something about it the past couple chapters, but completely forgot to be honest.

I’m super excited for it! Like, seriously. Every time I see the cover art I just want to go write more for it. I’ve been told it’s zany, fun, and suprisingly entertaining. Wait- suprisingly? Now that I think about it, that was definitely a back hand insult…

If you like Cyberpunk, FMC, mystery, and systems, then you hopefully might like Myth//OS at least a teensy-tiny little bit? It’s like Outrun, except not at all… kinda… maybe? It’s so good it doesn’t even have a chapter out yet, and already has 30 followers on RR. Check it out tomorrow? Oh, and tell me how good the cover art is. It took me a seriously long time to draw all those windows.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/118846/mythos

https://www.NovelBin.com/series/1690091/mythos/ 

Description

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Bastion, the last hope of civilization. It's bright. It’s flashy. It’s dangerous. There's nowhere else in the world, or any world, like it. With heroic Wardens protecting the city from monsters, rifts, and villainous Anarchs, there’s always something happening within the walls of Bastion. There’s always some gap to exploit, some underdog to cheer for, and some corporation lurking in the shadows.

Billions, bound across species and homeworld, go about their daily lives here. And the Wardens? With their system-granted powers? They fight off the existential threats that seek the destruction of the last city. Forged from broken myths, shattered stars, and fractured hope, they're the only thing between us and total devastation. They were just out of reach for me.

They were. One rift, job, and monster at a time, I'll claw my way back to the top... just as soon as I find the drive to actually get out there.

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