Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 17

Chapter 17Poring over the evidence was about as fun as sticking my hand in a blender. Even with the Image Enhancer in my chrome eye, spotting the tiny scratches on every bullet was a pain in the ass. That pain was only made the worse by Iris uproariously laughing ever so often as she watched some show with the granny below me. At least I was by myself, allowing me to better use View2™ to understand how all this forensics stuff worked. Not necessarily hard, just complicated and very time-consuming.

It was about an hour by the time I separated every bullet from the gun that fired it based on their ballistic rifling marks, showing at least five different guns. Mostly small caliber, though the amount of bullets suggested a submachine gun or automatic pistol. Not too long after, I matched the bullets to records in the Blue Crusade from other crimes. After pinning each crime onto a map, I centralized the crooks to the Scath Heights.

The bat symbol also proved fruitful. It was from a gang that moved around the East End called the Wings. ‘Course, I didn’t find that out through

I could see the tattered remains of my morality screaming at me now. ‘Great job Shiro! You led a psychopathic Edgerunner to a bunch of civs and let her loose!’

Iris popped her knuckles and cracked her neck with her fist. “‘Course! I ain’t no barbarian. I can be… ” And yet the disgust she showed for the word didn’t comfort me in the slightest.

I opened the door, hearing a bell ring somewhere near the back. This wasn’t like Absolom Clinic where the entire thing was one room. This place had a front waiting area like a barber shop and supposedly a surgery room back behind. The entire place was filthy, and hair clippings were everywhere as if Larry hadn’t cleaned in years, only brushed it to the side. I get it right, we live in a trashy city. But that doesn’t mean your shop has to be nasty!

A rather thin guy walked in from the back. I really, really hoped he wasn’t Larry. For other people’s sake. The guy was obviously high on Dark Ether, the black veins protruding from his skin all but proved it. Though, his eyes weren’t dilated… either way, a Medech on Dark Ether wasn't exactly comforting. “What do you want?”

That wasn’t a good way to keep customers coming back. “We’re here for Jonas. Boss sent us.” Yep, lying was the grand strategy I came up with to see if this was the place.

His eyes narrowed in on me. “I don't know-”

Iris shifted behind me, making the guy’s eyes widen. She lightly tapped her right hand to her leg, the sharp blade of a Tickler poking out of the knuckle ‘accidentally’. “So, where are they?”

His face blanched, even the black veins significantly fading. “Um- uh, t-they’re in the back. I, uh, I have a dentist appointment.”

Larry tried to run past us, but Iris stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, her massive hand dwarfing his frail bony form. “Oh, and clean this place up sometime. This place looks like a dog park’s dumping ground.”

“Y-yes ma’am. R-right after my hospital visit.” Iris seemed satisfied, and the man sprinted out of the room.

“Well… that was easy?” Not quite what I was expecting. Maybe I should put skill points into Intimidation? Or maybe Larry was just smart enough to get out when the wine turned sour.

Iris laughed cheerfully and patted me on the shoulder, her massive paw almost knocking me to the nasty floor. “See!  Now then, Jonas is one of the attackers?”

“Yes. Should be four others ‘round here too.” I shared all this with her already! Twice! She must have an audio suite specifically designed to cut out things she didn’t want to hear.

“Nova!” She cracked her knuckles and walked towards the back of the store.

I’m almost afraid to ask. “Do you… do you need help?”

She waved me off gleefully. “Against two guys? Nah! I doubt it’ll take a minute, skinny!”

I still followed behind her though with my pistol out. I didn’t intend to shoot, but I would help out if she needed me to. The gonks had it coming for attacking an inquisitor.

The back room was a cube-like room. Surprisingly, it was fairly clean. It seemed Larry actually cared about this side of his business. Four guys were hanging out covered in bandages, one guy even holding onto his gut. They were smoking - Tosta from the scent - and playing a game of cards around the guy on the Medech’s chair. The guy, Jonas by the looks of his bandaged torso, was strapped down still. It wasn’t too surprising. Medechs tended to strap people down during surgery so they didn’t move about.

“Who was it-” The guy on the chair froze, causing his buddies to turn towards us. Silence only diluted by the chaotic city in the background ensued.

“So,” Iris said, “the easy way or har-”

As if they were waiting for her voice, everyone except Jonas reached for their weapons- two SMGs of some kind and a shotgun by the look of it. I ducked behind cover, but Iris didn’t seem to care as she casually stretched out her chrome arm. In the time it took for them to draw, a shield unfolded from her arm.

They unloaded onto the shield, causing the entire thing to glow red - magitech maybe - and her body began to simmer thanks to the Light Tattoos. Iris didn’t even flinch at the oncoming fire and lunged toward the guy with a shotgun while blocking the other two with her shield.

I thought she was going for a non-lethal attack. In hindsight, I should’ve known better. As soon as she reached the guy, a eerily flowed through the room as her Ticklers popped out of her knuckles. The three dagger-length claws caught the light menacingly as she moved. Iris immediately slammed it into the shotgun guy's head, causing him to drop as the blades punched through his face.

The gunfire stopped as both had to reload. Iris took advantage, jumping towards them with a flying kick to one of the guy’s chest. By the awful sound of crumpling bones, the kick had some power as he flew into the wall hard enough to shake it. He crumpled to the ground like tissue paper.

The third guy managed to reload just in time for Iris to move towards him. He began to shoot, but Iris knocked the gun away with the shield. In one smooth motion, she stretched out with her fangs and tore out the guy's throat. He collapsed backward as he gasped for air one final time. It was thankfully over before I could even shoot. Iris  was an Edgerunner after all.

I glanced around at the three fresh corpses, feeling a surge of pity. Maybe I disliked killing so much because I could understand? We all suffered in this damned city, I had just been lucky enough not to piss off anyone. I could’ve just as easily been any one of these three gonks if things had gone even slightly different when my parents died. I still could. All it would take is being in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Or accepting a gig that goes south.

At the end of the day, it was better to feel at least some pity at the loss of life than nothing at all. ‘Course, I wouldn’t let my pity and desire to not kill someone stop me if it needed to be done. Dog eat dog world and all that.

“Damn, over already?” Iris sighed as she looked over to Jonas, who was struggling to move thanks to the restraints. Even her hair was flashing in such a way so as to make her look as if she was simmering with rage. “What do we have here?”