Chapter 69
It took the entire day to finally break the server's system from within. Literally sneaking past all the ICE and security.
It was awesome.
And I am glad that I waited, because as I looked through the security, if I had tried to break through it definitely would have deleted everything.
Instead, since I had gone slow, careful, I had access to all of the files. His netrunning information. His programs!
He wasnt a programmer himself, but he had bought plenty of stuff. An array of daemons, and netrunning hacks were all there collected on the server for me to play with.
So I went to work, first copying everything over to drives, and then doing a complete wipe of all the data on the server.
I even went over the hardware itself just to make sure there wasnt a physical trap involved. Only once I was sure it was all clear did I move on. Checking his chair, and the setups there. I couldnt use most of the Biosystems he had installed as they were made for a borg.
A borg blood injector wasnt going to do much for me after all.
But the actual monitoring systems were great, and I happily reconfigured them to fit me instead. Then I went through the hardware that was laying around, it had basically everything I would need, I already pulled out the Netrunner suit and hooked it into the chairs systems, it would draw power and keep me cool as I ran.
But as much as I wanted to jump in and get started, the basement still had plenty of other things I needed to go through.
I dug into the security system, taking it over, checking the ICE and using a bit of knowledge I had seen from systems that gave me trouble, actually separated out each camera into its own partition. It took hours of work, but if someone pinged the network, it would only show the camera they pinged, and the security terminal, instead of everything connected to the system.
Unless they were extremely skilled, or their Ping was far superior to my own.
Specifically I wanted to cut off the rear hatch from the network entirely as well.
I didnt exactly want someone sneaking in from the back door and killing me as I was netrunning, but it was also too useful to close off entirely.
So instead I had removed it from the security hub, setting up my spare laptop across the room near the tunnel and setting it up.
It would act as the security hub for just that door, cutting it completely off from the system.
No one would be able to ping the system and find out about it. V3L0CITY for all of his skill had been kinda dumb about actual physical security. He was probably a terror on the net, but in real life his skills didnt quite equal out.
I went through the elevator security protocols as well completely coopting them and even setting up some ways to activate the elevator if I wasnt around.
I wasnt a shut in like V3L had been, and my chooms might need to come down here for some reason. So I had sent them a security key that would send the elevator down to the basement.
I wasnt going to give it to Richard though.
It wasnt that I thought he would kill me or something, but he could come down here to steal something.
Its not like we were chooms or anything, despite the agreement he had made with Hiromi.
Then finally after going over all the equipment. I was ready to netrun!
Which is when a beep distracted me. I had just gotten a text.
Well
I would be ready if Jun hadnt just asked where I was.
So I locked everything down, headed upstairs and drove home.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I would netrun.
--
Jun had listened to my story about what I had been up to with wide eyes.
Motoko. You took over a gang?!
No! I just beat a gang, and then Hiromi made a deal so they dont mess with my stuff And Ill give them some gigs if I find anything while netrunning. Not the same thing.
Motoko you took over a gang.
I really didnt! I denied but to my surprise Jun reached over and pulled me into a hug.
Look at you! Leading a gang and everything! Oh! You should talk to Fujimura-sama, he might be able to help keep the gang in business, maybe set them up as a TC offshoot. It happens sometimes.
I dont want to! I denied almost yowling but Jun just laughed and swung me around.
I was gonna claw his fucking eyes out!
Jun must have sensed my irritation as he put me back down and patted me on the head which I took a swipe at his arm that he pulled back hurriedly.
Its preem Motoko. You should be proud. That doesnt happen a lot you know? Itll be a good experience, and with so many people working for you, youll be able to do some really big gigs.
I dont want to. Its annoying, and I dont want to be responsible for a bunch of kids getting flatlined.
Kids get flatlined everyday Toko, you cant do anything about it. Just-
I absolutely can do something about it. Not be responsible. I cant help every street kid in the city, but I can certainly help a few around me sometimes, but Im not taking on responsibility for forty gonk kids that want to get themselves killed to make a few eddies. I grumbled and Jun just shook his head.
Everyone is willing to get themselves killed for a few eddies Motoko. Its why there is always a need for more gonks. He said, shrugging. Which only made me more irritated.
The lack of respect for life everyone in Night CIty had was super annoying, and doubly annoying because usually Im worse than the average person.
But I dont like the idea of killing kids, especially just being blase about it.
Yeah I guess. I grumbled, but the argument was over. Jun obviously did not want to argue with me about it. He instead raised up the remote and turned on the TV.
Another one of his annoying shows was put on, but I decided to sit with him for a while and watch it. Sure I didnt really like it, but Jun was family, and sometimes you have to do stupid boring things with family so they knew that you loved them.
--
I considered waiting until morning to head out, but honestly, it wasnt like I needed to sleep, so I ended up just tinkering with some of the program data I had pulled from V3Ls server loading a few of the quickhacks, and Netrunning programs and daemons into my Cyberdeck after thoroughly checking them out.
I looked through my Cyberdecks status to make sure I was set up.
[ICE Shield. Matt Mk.3]
[HELL FLAME Anh. 2.132]
[Ping]
[Barrier Dataload Militech 9.4.2.111.2]
And then that night I left the apartment and drove over to the new complex.
The basement was just how I left it. I took a moment to strip and suit up into the full Netrunner suit, turning it on and shivering as the cooling unit kicked on and balanced out. Then I sat in the Netrunner chair and clipped everything in. The biomonitor activated and I sighed as I closed my eyes, and then when I opened them?
I wasnt in reality anymore.
It was dark.
I was on a spire with a small flat area to stand on. And nothing else.
This was my lobby. The starting zone. Basically I was on my web browser's home page, only it was just a blank page, because I had never set it up.
Another netrunner was on a floor above me, standing sideways on the wall as he had his arms crossed over his chest.
I looked around wondering what he meant before wincing.
The effects of our little fight still remained. The ice and fire seemingly laying around melted and still burning nothing respectively.
I get it. If a Netrunner ran around bashing shit down, it would damage the servers.
Ah yeah sure. Ill do that. I muttered, looking around at the code, it wasnt too hard, the fire was mine, so I simply put a stop to the program, causing the fire to end. The ICE was more interesting, as I had to think about it from two perspectives. On one hand, it was just the remains of an ICE program on some computer that I had broken through.
On the other it was digital clutter.
In the end, I just sent the remains of the program to my own recycle bin.
The reason I had been able to break it so easily was because it was an old ICE version, so I didnt really need to look into it, but it was interesting that I had basically stolen the program.
Well Copied it Sorta. I had technically caused the original program to eat itself which had broken it but I could still copy data from the net into my own system.
Actually I could do that a lot. The server that V3L had was exactly that. A repository for data I found while netrunning.
Thanks. Now unless you are here to do something, can you get out. You are claiming a lot of server resources with how active your connection is. The netrunner said to my surprise as he sort of pointed at the exit.
Ah. Ill lower my bandwidth, Im just looking around. I told him, as I did just that. Reducing my upload to the megabuilding server. Sure everything got a bit laggier, but in exchange, I wasnt using up much on the server anymore.
Sure do what ya want. He mumbled and then started walking sideways along the wall.
Weird place.
---
I left not long after. The Megabuilding server had a lot of pretty boring data. Although I did check in on David Martinez, this was his apartment building after all.
Their rent was a bit past due, but otherwise they were good as far as their data said the management didnt have any issues with them. Davids position as an Arasaka student actually gave the family a good bit of leeway.
No apartment manager wanted to piss off a future Arasaka officer.
Then I was out in the wilds and there was only one more place I could think of to go see.
It took a few moments to handshake through a few servers before I reached the Kabuki Roundabout server.
As I entered, I couldnt help but smile because it looked almost identical to the real life place. As I looked around I noticed it was actually really busy on the net, and not just through normal traffic.
Netrunners were hanging around.
I guess I had been right. With the Dewdrop Inn being in the area, obviously this would be a netrunner hangout.
I walked around enjoying the aesthetic setup. Since this was a netrunner hangout it had actually been setup for them. Places to sit, private rooms, booths selling and hawking gear, which was just data.
I realized that what I had seen of Yokos Dewdrop Inn had only been a far lesser half of the truth.
This was the real Dewdrop Inn. An entire server architecture taken over to be a Netrunner hangout.
I noticed an array of Netrunners hanging out around a table. In the real world it had been an eatery, a place to eat after buying some food, but here, it was covered in a jumble of objects representing programs and code that the Netrunners were each seemingly bartering for.
But to my surprise they were definitely more my age, maybe a few years older, but still teenagers. Their faces werent high definition. Some moved as if there were only a few points of control, meaning they were using old net goggles, and gloves to interact with the net instead of a full dive.
The fact they werent elites was perfect. It meant that it wasnt as awkward as I approached, stopping far enough away not to feel like Im intruding.
Excuse me?
Yeah? The first one that responded was a girl turning to look me over with a very awkward movement, her entire Avatar seemingly shifting along with her head, going from sitting at the table to literally turning an entire 180 to face me.
Whoa, look at the fidelity. What are you running? Another of the teens asked, but I ignored him for a moment.
Im new in the area. Was wondering what everything is. I asked and the table had a flurry of quiet messages sent between the teens.
It was funny, watching them communicate like that, was very similar to watching someone whisper between each other in the real world.
Only I could see the lines of communication opening up and connecting the group together.
Well help out, but not for free. The first girl uttered, but the boy sitting beside her suddenly sent a program that
Well it was like a nudge. He even made a motion with his avatar just to stop her.
First rule of the Kabuki Round Server. We offer advice, for free, but help costs info. He offered, cutting off the girl who huffed but nodded at his words.
Oh great. Im just wondering where everything is I guess. Im mostly just looking around.
Well, that I can do. He said and I got a quick file offer. After checking it over, I opened it to see basically a list of different IP addresses each with a name right next to it. Thats everything public here on the server. There are hidden areas, but that isnt an offer to try and find them, if someone wants you to access the sub servers, they will invite you. Otherwise be respectful, no attacking other runners here, and youll be fine. That is a real warning by the way. Yoko keeps a horde of Security Daemons hanging around. He mentioned pointing up, and I noticed them.
Daemons. Monsters, mostly looking like demons, hung around the roof of the Roundabout, like gargoyles, waiting to protect the server, and I suppose anyone that was attacked.
Cool.
Cool? Jeez, are you like some grandma running a kiddy avatar? The girl asked and I couldnt help but pout at that.
No. Cool is just cool. Im bringing it back. I argued only to be instantly laughed at.
Sure ya are.
Anyways, hey I appreciate the help. I told the boy who just nodded, and I hurried away. Not wanting to talk to the bunch of teenagers anymore.
Now that I had the IP and description of what everything was, I could look over the building and see what rooms attached to what IP.
Man this was so cool.
Obviously the first place I went was the one I was most familiar with in the real world.
The Dewdrop Inn.
I didnt use the IP to sort of travel to the Inn, instead I wandered the Roundabout walking up the stairs and around until I reached the door.
As I touched the door it accepted my handshake protocol, and I was in.
But it wasnt the Dewdrop Inn that I knew from the real world.
A technological Rave of music sound and netrunners was everywhere.
The Dewdrop Inn, was a fucking Netrunner Club!
I stepped down the steps leading to the dance floor and noticed that a few netrunners were actually dancing together, a few were even connected bridging their avatars together into a private connection.
Oh my.
I looked away, even if the Avatars were simply dancing to the music together, more than likely going through an automated dance routine as their actual consciousness did Other things.
The place wasnt packed, but it was full. A few of the booths around the edge had small groups, or even a few solo netrunners just hanging around.
This whole place was so surreal. A mixture of the normal and the digital mixed together. I slipped onto a table to just take it all in for a while.
