Chapter 52
It took a while to get everything sorted with Saul. First I got my Uragan of course, but I also got dragged around to talk to Mitch, and a few other Nomads regarding some of the stuff I wanted to know.
Mitch had been a bit grumpy about having to give away the knowledge of how to craft his baby, the Overwatch. Which really just meant the Suppressor. Turns out the reason it worked was a little trick with some crazy nanite goop that he had come across and fiddled with during the war. The inside of the Suppressor was literally a nanite swarm.
Fucking cool.
He did relent to give me the blueprints for how to make the stuff myself in a shard, but only after I promised to never tell anyone else.
Works for me. Its not like I wanted someone else to have a silenced AT rifle.
With that done, and everything packed up in the trunk of the Quadra I went looking for my Choom.
Hey Hiromi. I greeted as I settled down onto the wooden stump beside her.
I had found her sitting around a firepit where all the nomads were hanging out, a few were even singing along to songs a cowboy was strumming out.
It was homey, and Hiromi was obviously having fun.
Motoko! Done doing business?
For now! Saul finally pushed enough stuff at me, that he isnt feeling bad about a debt anymore. But we are welcome to hang around. Whats this? I asked as I took the seat next to her.
Oh Daniel over here isnt bad with a guitar and nomad karaoke is hilarious. She tells me, the last part in a whisper. Grinning in delight as the singing continues, some weird country sounding tune that was very Cyberpunk being belted out at the top of the group of singers lungs. They were obviously drunk, and having the time of their life.
Preem. I said with a laugh as the voice cracks were making me giggle along with Hiromi.
Hey dont poke fun, unless you are willing to do it too. Scorpion said, over Hiromis head. He was sitting on Hiromi's other side, laying back and seemingly enjoying the atmosphere.
No way. I dont sing. I denied instantly crossing my arms in an X.
But this of course only threw blood into the water.
Scorpion and Hiromi both turned to me with a sinister grin.
Dont even think about it. I grumbled. But that only made it worse. A few moments later I was being pushed into the singing spot and watched over by my betraying chooms.
Cmon! I dont even know the lyrics to these songs! I grumbled, but that only made Hiromi giggle all the louder.
But you know the Samurai songs! Hey hey! Mark play Chippin In! Motoko knows the lyrics! Hiromi called out, but I was trying to smother her.
No I dont! I hissed, but then cheers went up around the fire as the intro to Chippin in started up.
Fuck.
Thats not the lyrics! Scorpion cheered and I felt myself flush a bit. Fine! I went cold, which thankfully cleared out the embarrassment. Mostly.
C-can you feel it! I belted out the first words to the song only stumbling a little on the words as the drunk Nomads cheered. Mark the guitar player wasnt perfect, but he did a pretty good job of keeping up with the tempo of the song, and I had listened to the songs pretty often while driving around Night City. Or just on the radio while I was tinkering, or grinding.
So fine. Yeah I know the lyrics! What of it!?
When the song finally came to an end everyone was cheering Hiromi laughing in delight as she hugged my side and the Nomads were just having a great time. I blew out a heavy breath making Hiromi giggle even more.
Youre so bad its great!
So embarrassing. I uttered now that I let go of the cold blood.
Now now kids, be nice. Relax kid this is just meant to be fun, you should hear Saul trying to sing to his favorites, man is completely tone deaf too Anyway you a Samurai fan? Mark asked from his stump.
I mean I guess?
Well hell lets do another then, not often I get to play the classics. You arent Silverhand, but Im not Eurodyne. Just have fun with it. Mark the guitar player said, strumming a few notes and smiling up at me.
No, no I think Im done playing Rockerboy right now. I grumbled which had Hiromi pouting. But the nomads laughed along and soon another song was playing.
Which gave me a bit of time to check on my menu. I had gotten a beep of an alert coming in while I sang, and that was
Weird.
What the hell was leveling up?
Then I opened it and nearly choked on my tongue.
The Uragan needed to be brought inside After successfully. Mostly. Bringing the crate with the launcher and ammunition into the apartment and hiding it under my bed.
I mean not hiding it. Because hiding it meant I was embarrassed I now had a Rocket Launcher. I was just Saving it. For later. Along with a few of the other goodies that Saul had sent me off with. Honestly I was just glad the Quadra had a big trunk because it had all barely fit.
Once that was done I settled down on the couch.
Okay Motoko, just Play the Guitar. I told myself as I picked it up, and strummed a chord Well tried too.
I winced at the tone in my head. The noise was Well.
It wasnt any musical note I had ever heard. Realizing how loud it could be as well, I grabbed my cord out of the back of my neck and pushed it into the access port of the guitar. One of the reasons I bought this guitar specifically. I could jack into it, and instead of playing the sound aloud, it would play in my head.
I also grabbed the How to Guitar shard and clicked that in. Following along as it walked me through playing baby chords.
The problem was, it wasnt giving me any experience. I stopped after about twenty minutes with nothing to show for it.
What am I missing? I wondered, grumbling as I rested back and closed my eyes. It wasnt just singing or something, because I sang along to the radio plenty of times.
Was it the people? With no one to hear, did I not get Rockerboy XP?
That seemed Annoying. I guess I could go outside and play on the street?
The flutter in my stomach at that thought told me that wasnt going to happen. Instead I decided to try a few other things. I turned on the radio until I found a song I actually knew the lyrics for, and started singing along, strumming the Guitar as best I could following along.
When the song finished I flushed in pleasure.
*100 Rockerboy XP Gained.*
Okay! So I could gain XP without people watching What was it exactly though? I continued working on it, a few hours of grinding and I had some basic answers.
I had to actually complete the song to get XP. From start to finish. If I stopped halfway I got nothing.
I guess my system agreed that the show must go on.
Each completed song seemed to get me an alert, so completing a full song was the way to grind. Which meant I spent a lot of time on Morro Rock, for the Samurai songs.
But it worked. As I played along song after song, singing and trying to strum the guitar to the right chord.
It wasnt the right chord ever. It was an attempt. Completing a song, right or wrong was where the XP came from.
But it didnt matter. Alerts came in, and eventually? Eventually I got it.
*Rockerboy skill level up!*
And suddenly I knew the basic chords. I couldnt perfectly pick out the right chord to a song, but I now at least knew when I was on the right track. I adjusted my fingers, actually holding the damn thing correctly now, and with a movement played my first real chord.
My playing along actually started to sound Okay.
Just okay.
So I needed more levels. As I worked on it, I was trying to memorize more songs as well.
I wasnt very good at it, never could remember lyrics to songs perfectly well. Thankfully as long as I kept trying, the system didnt seem to care if I butchered some lyrics, which I did. A lot.
Which is why I was forced to change radio stations at times. Some of the songs were things I had never heard before. Couldnt exactly sing along to a song youve never heard before. But it was taking a lot of concentration to get right.
Which is why I didnt hear the door. I was half way through Resist and Disorder by the Cartesian Duelists, one of my favorite songs in this world so far, when Jun suddenly walked in.
I could feel my throat close as my soul died. I had been audibly singing
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
His lips twitched.
Mine quivered.
I could feel the heat shooting up my neck. My neck, my cheeks, my ears were all growing red. I just knew it!
He turned and walked into his room without a word, and honestly? I wasnt sure if that was better or worse than if he had actually said something.
I turned the radio off. I was done grinding. Instead I pushed my face into a pillow and pretended nothing existed for a while.
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