Operation: Goon Week Two, Electric Goon-aloo was interrupted three days in when I got a knock at the door on Wednesday morning.
I broke the cardinal rule of the operation and jumped into so sweatpants, then opened the door with my revolver in hand only to blanche at what I saw.
It was Dharti and Terry, and they were here to see if I was okay.
The next twenty minutes as I set so very firm boundaries about workplace relationships and pretended not to notice Terry sniffing at the air were so of the single most awkward minutes in my entire damned life and I was impossibly happy that I didn't have to actually live with this in anything but my mories.
It was sweet of them to break HR rules to discover my ho address, but like... it wasn't a good ti.
"What's that buzzing noise?" Terry asked a mont before I slamd the door shut on her.
The rest of the week passed in blissful loneliness. The nearest thing to human interaction was a shouting match I had with a custor support AI from the food delivery service I used when they didn't deliver my lunch on ti.
I gained four pounds that week.
I also gained a lot of info. I had it all laid out on a paper in front of by the next Sunday. Also, I decided to 'stay' an extra day.
It was better to start the week-long loops on Saturdays and end them one Sunday later, that way if soone planned sothing terrible, I'd always have one day's foresight. I an, if sothing happened in the span of a week because of my own actions, then that was a different story, but I felt like I wouldn't have great insight on that in any case.
I worried about it, but in the end decided that I was being paranoid enough.
Anyway, the list sat in front of and I read through each day's events. I'd cut out a lot, to keep it simple to morize.
Sunday 22nd of September.
- Big concert in City Centre, The Punk Pop Lady Killers. The CEO of SynthCorp LLC was seen hugging his HR rep.
- One of the kidnappers associated with Miss Ojou's case was found and arrested.
Sunday wasn't too busy. I'd almost missed that second story except it ca up again later in the week. The CEO thing was a huge for... the entire week, really.
Man, I was going to see every twice now. Ti looping could really suck sotis.
Monday 23rd of September.
- A small portal breach occurs in the Inner City, west-end. Starting at around two in the morning. Seven casualties.
- Big power cut that lasted three hours. Brightbarrow Interlink blad for it and apologized, said they wouldn't do it again.
Turns out a small gang in the west-end area was 'guarding' a portal and charging people to stand nearby to beco E-rankers. It was a small portal, a small D-rank portal. Goblins, apparently, which were usually E-rank monsters, only this portal had a lot of them, and so were pretty big.
When it breached, it did so in the worst way. Lots of imdiate dead, so injured, then the goblins ran amok.
If I wanted to solidify myself as a 'hero' then stopping that ss might be a good way to do it. Plus, weak D-rank portals were worth tackling.
The power bit was mysterious, and my half-assed attempts to figure out what was going didn't amount to anything. Maybe just nothing, but I made note of it anyway.
Tuesday 24th of September
- Two Luna Corp E-rankers died in an E-rank portal.
That was all for Tuesday. I an, there was more stuff. So feel-good stories on the news, but that's the one that caught my eye, for obvious reasons. An E-rank portal shouldn't have killed people, not even E-rankers. I tried to dig for info and got nothing.
I guess everyone in Squad B got a day off the next day, which would explain Terry and Dharti showing up when they did.
Wednesday 25th of September
- Black-market chro clinic raided. One dead.
- Protest near city hall about sothing or other.
The black-market thing was a ss. One guy died mid-op, and the cops blad the surgeon who had a friend post the raid video online. It showed the cops rushing in and beating people up, then shoving a patient mid-op off the bed to cuff them. That's the one who died.
This book was originally published on . Check it out there for the real experience.
I was mostly looking into that because... well, there was so top-shelf stuff grabbed in that raid. Second-hand, sure, but still.
Thursday 26th of September
- > The Kidnappers associated with Miss Ojou escape jail.
- > Nice little Slowbane 850 Dual Sport for sale
That was on a lot of news channels. Even had a street-side interview with Fran about it where she said nothing important.
Five of them got out. Two guards incapacitated but not killed. One prison wall was blown up. It was a... surprisingly competent operation, really.
The bike was... a neat little 250cc thing that was a little worn, but not too badly so. Going for a cool $7,500, but it ca with bags and the odoter only had like, 12,000 on it. Five years old, but like, barely used.
Friday 27th of September
-> Synth at recall.
Boring, quiet day. Turns out so brand of at that was ant to have E-rank levels of magic in it had a lot more. C-rank, at least. Soone found out and started trying to buy it up. I took note of the na and brand and range of the lot numbers on the cases.
That kind of at paste tasted like... well, at paste. But hey, it was high in magic, so screw it. Might stock up a few cans. Give so to Mister Couchtop, maybe? E-rank pets weren't that uncommon for the ultra rich who wanted their pups and cats to live longer.
Saturday the 28th of September
-> Large breach so two hours out of the city.
Yeah, I didn't have much on that one. Teams were sent out. Storm Catchers were on it too. Saw Mizu on the news. Otherwise, not much.
And finally today...
Sunday the 29th of September
-> Huge glitch in the city-wide tro. Its AI went on the fritz.
Eh, it wasn't much, but the story was interesting. Might be able to do sothing about it, but probably wouldn't. They didn't serve my part of the city, so fuck it.
I carefully re-read the list two more tis, nodded, then let out a long sigh.
The week had otherwise been spent practicing so small amount of magic. I kept up my skills with the three cantrips I did know, and shopped around for sothing new.
There was a neat spell triggered by boredom that I wanted to learn. Exhaust Senses.
It was a touch-based First Level attack spell that... well, made a person's senses go dull. It could be relayed through any sufficiently well-made artefact though, and I think my sword counted. Mostly it did stuff like decrease visual acuity by up to a whopping ten percent... if cast perfectly.
Still, it hit multiple senses, and wasn't a terribly expensive debuff to cast.
Spell cost a couple of grand to buy the license for, so I planned on buying it a few tis over the week to train it at ho while learning Restore Stamina at work, maybe with Dharti's help.
Other than that, I didn't get much done during the week.
So I Reloaded.
The first thing I noticed was the faint, lingering taste of steak in my mouth. Damn... that had been good. I checked the ti. Nine-sothing in the evening, Saturday the twenty-first.
Then I hurried to copy my list over before I forgot anything.
Since there was nothing pressing the next day I figured it might be as good a ti as any to poke at Miss Ojou. I had to figure out a way to tell her that I knew about the prison break, and to figure out a way to get her to give that cash.
I really wanted that bike, and so new cyberware.
But first... well, I had so magic left in the tank. More, thanks to that steak. Be a waste not to waste it.
Urgh... a week of doing nothing was hard to co back from. Laziness was so easy to ingrain into the psyche.
But being lazy wouldn't save the world, would it?
I finished up my list, then started to work. Restore Stamina was going to be a bitch and a half to carve, but I could see about practicing it a few tis tonight, then maybe pick up the guitar again. I was going to get rusty.
Heh, maybe that's the last thing I'd do tonight? Finally work on those callouses.
***
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