That night, after finishing his work for the day at Vik's shop, he ate dinner with Misty and then made his way to Lizzie's.
This ti, his intentions were pure. Judy needed sothing in her rig patched, and he offered so minor upgrades.
By now, Judy had beco Night City's best BD editor thanks to the upgrades Cypher had made to her personal rig.
"Fourth Wall Studios tried to scout you?" Cypher repeated what she'd said.
"Heh, not just them. Masala Studios too, choom."
Honestly, Cypher didn't fully understand the significance of those two companies. He did know about Fourth Wall Studios, however.
"Judy, what if we kinda started our own studio?" Cypher asked, a random idea that rose from all the lost dia Atlas was gathering from Old Net. So of it was BD, so were movies and shows, and he believed most of them could be converted into BDs with Atlas' capabilities to simulate things realistically. In the end, it was just code, after all.
Judy laughed at that. "And what are we gonna sell? Recycled porn?"
Cypher humd and quickly pulled a nearby office chair and sat beside Judy's chair by her desk.
"Okay, hear out. What if I can get us lost dia, like pre-DataKrash stuff? BDs, porn, movies, music, the whole dusty attic. I'm serious. We hire joytoys built like the top-selling lost dia pornstars, then I slap the old pornstar faces on in post and boom, fresh BDs. And movies, I think I can rig a system that converts old films into full-length braindances."
"You serious, choom?"
"Damn serious."
He watched Judy shift in her chair and then stare at the screen. For more than a minute, she said nothing. But then she slapped her hand on the table.
"Fuck it, I'm still too young to stop trying new stuff. Saw your company site on the net, you're gonked out. That is why I think this might actually work. If you can pull lost dia for us, I can slice so preem BDs, easy big eddies, they will sell like hotcakes."
Cypher grinned and extended a hand. "Deal. I'll go prep a sample for you."
"And I'll be ready anyti, Cyph."
Cypher didn't waste ti and got up. "See you later."
He left Judy alone since it was still just evening, and she had plenty of work to do. He grabbed two drinks on the way and handed one to Rita at the gate. Sure, he was in the mood, but he wasn't an animal who had to fuck just because his brain felt horny.
After a small chat with his favorite Mox solo, he walked over to his car parked right outside. A few more cars were there, so of them were expensive. Lizzie's wasn't a place that struggled to attract the rich crowd.
Whistling to himself, he grabbed the car door to open.
[Behind you!]
He jumped sideways and got out of the way at Atlas' sudden warning. He looked behind, ready to quick-draw his gun and shoot the attacker. But he didn't even bother when he saw the supposed enemy.
"What do you want?"
"Are you… Are you a techie?"
Cypher sized up the kid, who couldn't be older than nine. Blonde ssy hair, dirty face with marks of ripped cyberware, short. What stood out was the left arm and left leg that were cyberware.
[Cypher, I conclude the child is in pain. His body language presents discomfort. He places no weight on the alloy leg. It is likely compromised.]
Cypher looked and noticed sothing else. The cyberware, both the leg and the arm, were mismatched. They were the wrong size for the boy's body. And if he rembered correctly, the boy had been missing during his past few visits.
"I am a techie. What do you need?"
The boy licked his dried lips, a clear sign of nervousness, fear mixed. The eyes hinted at that, never looking directly at Cypher's face.
"I... It hurts. The leg and the arm hurt. Can you take the chro off? I'll pay! I got eddies. Not much. I'll pay, please."
Cypher stared at the joints where the arm connected with the shoulder. He knew the issue right away. The cyberware was likely old, but the boy was young, hence his body was growing. That was one of the biggest reasons why children weren't given cyberware in most cases. It required constant maintenance and replacent.
He watched the boy's face for a little while. He knew Atlas must be waiting to see his response. Atlas had ethics. But Cypher, as well, wasn't much different in this case.
The kid was in clear pain. How much courage it must have taken to even approach him, a total stranger, especially in Night City.
"Alright, I'll patch it up."
"Patch? N-no, sir. I don't have the eddies for that. Just take the chro off. I'll manage."
"Manage, how? You gonna belly crawl like a snake? You lost an arm and a leg on the sa side; that's a rough setup. Don't sweat it, upgrade's on the house. Hop in, we'll roll to my shop."
"No!" the boy jumped back, alard, scared, horror on his face. "I… I'm sorry, I'll go. I… I'm not good at it, sir, I… I swear. You should find a pretty joytoy."
"..."
Cypher just froze there in shock at what the boy said. As those words settled in his mind, a strange, untraceable surge of anger rose in him. He knew he had no reason to, but it was there. That little frightful statent told so much.
In silence, he watched the boy's face freeze in absolute terror. Cypher couldn't help imagine the horrors the kid must have seen on the streets. Or worse, experienced.
"Hey, relax. We're not going anywhere, alright?" Cypher crouched to seem less threatening. "Trust , I only go for pretty won anyway. But yeah, you kinda need new chro to stay alive, right? You know how this city treats folks who can't throw hands. I got a little secondhand cyberware shop right around the corner. Easy now, I ain't taking you. You sit tight, I'll grab the parts and co back. We good?"
For so ti, the boy didn't reply. But then he nodded strongly, non-stop. Clearly, the boy wasn't used to kindness.
As rare as a fresh breath of air in this damn city.
Cypher stood up and looked around. The parking lot wasn't safe either, especially for a bar tied to a gang.
"You see that pretty lady over there?" he asked.
"I know her. That's Rita."
"That's right. Let's roll. Go wait inside." Cyphere started walking away, keeping a distance from the kid. "What's your na?"
"Lucas, sir. And… I-I'm not allowed inside the bar."
"I'm Cypher Blackwell. And you are today." Cypher waves at Rita. "Rita, mind if this kid waits inside for ? His chro's undersized, and it's glitching. I'm gonna snag so spare parts and patch him up real quick. Won't take long."
Rita only looked at the kid once and then smiled at Cypher. "Sure, my handso doll."
Cypher laughed, nodding at the kid. "Go on, Lucas, follow her inside. Grab yourself so juice. It's on ."
After that, Cypher quickly walked back to his car and drove back to Vik's shop. It was closed for the night, but he had spare keys. From inside, he grabbed so spare parts and a whole arm and leg cyberware. They were sized for adults, so he was going to need to tweak them for a kid's size.
Soon, he shoved it all in his car's trunk and drove back. It was barely a short ride away.
From Rita, he learned that the kid was down at Judy's spot. It wasn't a place for a kid to be, but the boy had already seen plenty that this was nothing.
And sure enough, he found Lucas sitting on a chair on the opposite side of Judy's table, drinking so juice through a straw.
"Hey Jude, sorry for bugging you. Won't take long."
Judy only passed him a pretty smile, busy with her work. "Take your ti, Cyph, no rush. The kid needs it."
It was probably Lucas's luck that he not only stumbled on him, but also soone like Judy, who was inherently a kind person despite her emotionally impulsive personality.
Cypher focused on the task at hand. "Alright, Lucas, hop on the BD bench. We'll peel the chro off you first and get your asurents."
"Understood, sir."
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Check out Cypher X Panam, Cypher X Misty, Cypher X Gloria NSFW ART, and advance chapters at [email protected]/MrPlotThickens Or Subscribestar.adult/mrplotthickens
Advance chapters on [PATREON] are in long-form format. I have 6 long chapters of this story on P@treon. That's equal to 24-26 Webnovel chapters.
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