Vik let out a low chuckle and rolled back to his rig, only his voice floating out. "Was gonna, but as Misty said, you gave off a vibe. Your face says you're carrying a story, sa as every soul scraping by in Night City. If so trash can nudge that story along, then yeah, why not?"
Cypher digested Vik's words. He was ready to beg and plead if he had to, but it never reached that point. It was a boon that he knew who he could trust in Night City. Because people like Vik were rarer than a good corpos.
"Thanks. I'll fix your expensive cyberware for almost free later." He offered, but got no response back. Nobody was going to believe a guy looking like him could tinker with high-value cyberware.
But to prove him wrong, he had to make the Sonic Screwdriver first. He quickly paid Vik the three hundred eddies and grabbed the two boxes full of broken cyberware that either had missing parts or were too damaged.
After that, he bid Misty goodbye and headed ho. Instead of the tro, he took a pre-paid cheap taxi since he had those heavy boxes.
As soon as he arrived ho, he got to work.
He laid out all the parts, all the trash, and grabbed whatever he needed to add to that screwdriver. About eighty percent of the things needed for the device had to be invented by him, as no equivalent existed.
He fused an old, broken Trauma Team diagnostic diode into the tip for scanning capability. It was no longer the sa thing, however, as he'd used the diode to make sothing new. As he progressed, he felt sothing more.
His understanding of the device and tech in general got better. As if his mind was becoming unclouded. Each hour he learned sothing more. He grabbed things and knew what they were and how they worked.
Slowly, as the Sonic Screwdriver started to take shape, it overloaded twice, sputtering out blue sparks until he rewired the power flow through a broken and reworked Kiroshi glare suppressor and patched capacitor.
Ugh, dammit, Judy.
In the end, he had to stop because the housing of the screwdriver refused to seal. The vibration motor kept throwing the alignnt off. To fix that, he needed to make a custom design with a 3D printer, and it was a part of Judy's rig.
The unsettling tingling itch in his brain was already half gone. He knew he was on the right path. On the verge of building sothing revolutionary. Sothing worth billions.
Wait a sec…
Sitting on the floor between all that cyberware trash, he realized sothing.
What if I sell scaled-down parts of the stuff I'm making?
He believed that the fire-control unit he placed in his DL-18 blaster, the cooling shroud as well, was far superior to anything out there. Even if he nerfed them significantly, they'd be better than anything out. Even for a five percent improvent from what existed, companies would line up to buy it.
The sa was the case for his Sonic Screwdriver. The scanning capabilities of the little thing exceeded anything out there by countless tis. Even a fraction of it could be worth a fortune.
But of course, the big issue was that the world of Cyberpunk no longer ran on the rule of law. It ran on the law of who had the bigger stick. Companies would rather 'take' it from him than pay for it.
I can't sell this myself. I can barely make one. Patents then?
It felt like a genuinely doable thing. As long as he allowed companies to use his patents for a reasonable price, he'd have the funds to get his life sorted. It would leave a bad taste in his mouth for sure, but beggars can't be choosers. At least not at that stage.
The risk is also low.
His blaster and Sonic Screwdriver would stay hidden. And it would also put his na out for being a techie? He didn't know if that was a good thing in the long run, but he needed people to believe in his skill for him to earn from the Sonic Screwdriver.
Selling BDs wasn't going to work in the long run. His 'donated' collection would soon beco old news. He really needed an alternate way of making money.
"Better do so research then."
So, he put everything away in boxes since he needed to ask Judy to use the printer. He sat down in front of the terminal screen and searched the net on how to register a company, how to file patents, and how to take care of all the business stuff.
####
Judy wasn't so heartless after all. So what if he had baggy eyes? She lted to his puppy eyes all the sa. She did shout a little because she couldn't contact him all day as he'd removed his neural link. But when he explained, she agreed with the decision.
Maiko didn't ss around that night either, so Cypher spent all night at Judy's gorgeous rig. The entire room was like a nerd's dream, so many screens, so many devices, and the 3D printer was big and powerful.
With ease, he printed the Sonic Screwdriver's body and put it together for good. He tightened the last screw, feeling the hum steady. The only thing he couldn't fully make was the thermal core that powered the tool. It was simply too advanced for him to make with what he had. Instead, he had tinkered a bit with what he learned from DL-18 Blaster.
Currently, his Sonic Screwdriver could work for a day or two before needing to be recharged. On heavy use, it'd last just a few hours. Sad, but he had to settle for it. At least he knew how to make the main energy core later on.
And that itch was also gone from his head. At last, he felt at ease. His hands itched, however, to go out and test the Sonic Screwdriver. But it was nightti, and Watson wasn't a good place to hang around at night.
In the morning for sure.
####
It was a busy day, sadly. As soon as he woke up, Judy dragged him along to Lizzy's. Since he didn't have his motorbike, he had to use her van to make the deliveries, and fuck, there were so many.
From morning till night, he ran across Night City, throwing BDs under the doors. A total of sixty-eight orders had been received. When he finally returned, Rita dragged him inside the bar to buy him a drink and also hear the story of his gunfight with raffens.
Honestly, it was sothing to boast about. And she looked impressed. She did curse the Trauma Team for his debt, however. The chick was real fire.
Finally, after drinking with Rita, he got so free, alone ti. Judy was busy editing BDs in the basent, and he had all the ti he needed. He went out of the bar and walked across the street to a bunch of vending machines.
Strategically, he hid his Sonic Screwdriver inside his sleeve and acted like he was pressing the buttons. But in reality, he used the screwdriver.
Clack!
Instantly, a fine Burrito XXL ca out of the machine.
F-Fuck yeah! Free food for life!
He wasn't dumb enough to do that again there and walked towards the intersection. A few people were walking by, mostly the wrong sort, as it was so late. Sneakily, he raised his hand towards a random punk-type guy not far, just two or three ters away.
"Aaaaargh! My eye! What's happening! I-It… Hurts…!"
Instantly, the punk fell down on the footpath, writhing in pain, clutching his head.
That's… sweet!
Cypher personally didn't know what he'd done to the man. He only wanted to glitch the eye a little bit. This was different from hacking, however, as he was directly interfering with systems without any software. This was a pure atomic trick.
He stopped testing on the poor guy and headed back towards the bar, wanting to try fixing so broken gadgets in Judy's workplace. That was going to be his bread-winner, after all. The ability to fix devices.
Just strolling through the big open lot, straight towards the bar's door, he eyed the holess camp just around the corner. A lot of people lived there; he'd seen many. But that night as he walked, he noticed a kid, around ten maybe, staring at him.
What stood out was the cybernetic left arm and left leg the boy had. Disheveled, dirty blonde hair, depressed eyes, and marks of lost facial cyberware were there.
Cypher stopped in his tracks, a bit speechless. He'd never seen a kid with that much chro yet.
He stayed there, exchanging glances with the boy. Then the boy turned around and disappeared, as if responding to soone's call. Cypher stayed, however, lost in his thoughts because the damn itch he'd painstakingly removed had returned.
This has got to be coming from sowhere. This ain't natural.
Just as the last ti, he got a quick glimpse. An image, a na, and what it was. A large four-legged robot, he realised, one based around combat and… jumping?
Arc? A Leaper? What's that… huh?
______________________
Check out Cypher X Panam, Cypher X Misty, Cypher X Gloria Martinez NSFW art, and advance chapters at [email protected]/MrPlotThickens Or Subsc-ribestar.adult/mrplotthickens
Advance chapters on [PATR-EON] are in long-form format. I have 6 long chapters of this story on Patr-eon. That's equal to 24-28 Webnovel chapters.
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