World Runner: A Merc's Trial in a Spiritual Dystopia Ch.13 (Patreon)

— Later —

I placed my hands on my hips and looked at the broken car in my second safehouse’s small garage.

Sure, it looked like shit right now, but give me a few days, weeks at most, and I’d have this whip looking like a beauty once more.

It was time to resurrect a car from the dead, and though I had no fundamental knowledge of working on vehicles besides what my dad taught me in my past life, I knew someone who could teach me-

Or, more specifically, something.

I dragged out a chair and sat down, pushing a data shard into my neck, and boom!

All the information on cars of various sorts and the parts needed to run them played in my mind.

The only problem was that I needed to retain and later use this information.

I spent a few hours absorbing the data on the shard; all the while, I had the hood open to look at the various parts that should be surrounding the engine.

Some were missing, but I was glad to say some parts were still there!

Likely not working, but still there!

It’s about the positives in life.

It was time to learn more and fix this bad boy up as I went!

— 3 Days Later —

I had made a decent amount of progress. Mostly, I had practically stripped the car of anything and everything to get a better look at things. Once that was done, I went to a shady yet reliable automobile parts store. I purchased several things that would help me make this car more…2074 reliable.

Such as parts that would make the car run on CHOOH2 instead of gasoline.

The environment already sucked, and though I could definitely get this running with fossil fuels, did I really want to be worse than everyone else by using something so harmful to the environment while they used eco-friendly tech?

No, no, I did not.

I was not a good guy, but to be worse than scavs… That was just a step too low for me ever to go down.

I sighed, looking at the car again and the parts laid aside. If I worked hard, I could finish this today, if not tomorrow! Just gotta make sure I stay focused-

*RING*

I blinked, then frowned.

[Caller: Jackie Welles]

Of course, it was him. I wondered if I should pick up the call or not. It wasn’t like it was 2020 anymore. If someone received a call in 2074, it was certain the person being called was either ignoring the caller, dead, or in a life-threatening situation.

There were usually no exceptions.

I didn’t want to put a dent in my relationship with Jackie… considering he’s one of my only relationships.

I let out a sigh as I picked up the call.

“Talk to me, Jackie.”

“[Maliketh, how’re you doin’?]”

“Livin’, I was a bit busy ‘fore you called. Need something?”

“[What, I can’t call just to check up on mi amigo?]”

I remained silent on the call while I stared at my car in the deepest deadpan I could manage.

“A social call, in Night City, with someone you barely know? Jackie, you’d better convince me that aliens will attack the planet tomorrow.”

“[Hey, not unlikely! I hear tension is rising in some of the space colonies. The moon is especially bad right now.]”

“The point of the call, Jackie.” I rubbed my temples tiredly. I really didn’t give a fuck about what was going on in space. Lucyna might care, but I don’t know her, and to this day, I’ve never met her, so respectfully, I couldn’t give less of a fuck.

“[Right…I got a job.]”

“A job? You should have led with that. What’s the pay?”

“[...]”

“Jackie…”

“[...]”

“Goodbye, Jackie.”

“[Wait!]”

“You have 30 seconds to convince me why I should ever go on a job for free in Night City. Your time starts now.”

“[Alright, listen. I have an Arasaka Corpo friend named V. Her higher-ups gave her a job that needs doing, but she has no money to do it. Help me out, and I’m sure she can get you some favors done.]”

“Favors?” I asked, my interest peaked, especially by his little friend.

V, looks like I finally found you, and to think she’s a lady too. More than that, the Corpo pathway. Honestly, I gotta say, that might be the most useful pathway she could have been.

There’s so much shit I could get if she keeps her job.

“[She’s a corpo. Do you know how much cyberware she’ll see in the future if she rises through the ranks? Help her out, and I’m sure she’ll pay you back in the future.]”

So a steep investment. I’m almost certain if I help her today, I’ll be someone she falls to when she needs one of her corpo jobs done, which would be annoying and useless to me besides the later investment.

Damn it. The thought of having some High-Grade Arasaka cyberware is too damn good to pass up.

“Right, you got me. I’m in. When are we doing this?”

“[Now if you have time. I’m outside your place.]”

I hung up the call and let out a tired sigh. Of course, he is.

I walked over to the garage door and lifted it. Jackie was there, grinning like a madman, and I considered closing the door back in his face, but he walked inside before I could decide.

“Nice garage you got here.” He looked around, his eyes locking on the stripped car before falling to the parts.

“Thanks, I stole it.” I shrugged. He didn’t even react to that information. Killing others and taking what they had was how people went up the hierarchy in Night City.

“You workin’ on that?” Jackie asked, pointing at the car.

“Yeah, I got it a few days ago. This is my first time working on one, so it’s taking me some time to understand everything.” I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall as Jackie walked over and started inspecting the car.

“Y’know, I got a guy who can do all this for you; he’s cheap.”

“Nah.” I waved him off. “I like learning new skills. Learning how to fix up a car is one I deem essential.”

It would suck if I was on a job sometime and my car broke down, and I had to fix said car while people covered me.

Imagine trying to guess what goes with what without any knowledge.

Yeah, I wouldn’t be taking that chance, ever.

“Well, whatever makes you happy.” Jackie shrugged. “Here.” The man walked over to me and handed me a data shard. I took it and inspected it briefly before pushing it into my neck.

Scavs, around twenty of them, hoarded up in one of their safehouses with a bunch of Arasaka tech. The tech was useless, but they needed a good Net-runner to remove Arasaka’s defense and make the cyberware accessible.

I could see why V was stressing. This tech seems like some high-grade shit. Her higher-up sticking clean up on her was a dick move, but understandable in the world of corps.

“Yeah, easy enough.” I nodded, handing the data shard back to him. “You got anyone else?”

He shook his head, and I pushed myself off the wall.

“It’s fine. This shouldn’t be too hard. I’m sure we’ll manage just fine.”

“Bueno!” Jackie threw his arm around my shoulder. “I can tell this will start a beautiful friendship.”

I snorted at his words, and shrugged his shoulder off of me.

“Yeah, we’ll see.”

— Later —

Jackie and I overlooked the scavs' safehouse from a nearby rooftop. I looked toward him to see that he focused on the task. I wondered if I could get away with asking him a rather important question.

Eh, who gives a fuck. The worst that could happen is he doesn’t answer.

“So, are you a Hunter, Haki-man…or both?”

I asked, generally curious. I couldn’t sense his aura nodes being opened, but at the same time, they weren’t closed to the extent of Zetsu. And I had never seen him use either Nen or Haki.

He looked at me for a long moment before returning to the scavs hideout.

“Haki-man.”

I nodded and returned my attention to the task at hand.

That was good to know. I didn’t want to have to do all the heavy lifting for us. Plus, if even one of the scavs were somewhat useful and possessed either Haki or Nen, then Jackie would be borderline useless had he not possessed either.

“How do you wanna do this?” Jackie questioned.

“Loud?” I shrugged. I really didn’t care. Loud would be the fastest; it almost always was.

“Eh, fuck it.” Jackie pulled out his AR from his back and aimed down. “I got a suppressor; it should keep us quiet. Go in, I’ll cover you.”

“Ah, you know about my abilities?” I asked curiously.

“Your arms were covered in Haki during the last mission, ese. How would I not know?”

“And the Nen?”

“You’re a Hunter?!” He asked, eyes wide. “You have both?! Wait, how do you use Haki so well if you also have Nen?”

“I’ll answer those questions later.” I grinned. Flexing both abilities was pretty cool, especially when I had the highest potential for both of them in the world. Hell, with Nen, I had a higher potential for it than people in Hunter x Hunter.

“Right, be careful; I got your back.”

I gave Jackie a nod and jumped down, activating Zetsu and the Haki on my forearms.

It was time to get this done and return to my car!

With Haki covering my forearms and Inverted Spear of Heaven and my Nen calm in Zetsu, I rushed the nearest patrolling and shoved my blade through his neck. Quickly, I ran after the next, cutting him down, which alerted another.

A bullet pierced the scavs head before he could make any noise. I looked up at Jackie and gave him a grin.

That was the last of the patrolling scavs, which means the rest were inside. I took a deep breath and rubbed my Haki-covered forearms together, causing them to ignite and spark orange. I did the same with my blade.

“It’s fucking go time,” Jackie said in our comms. My blood boiled, and my adrenaline pumped.

Hopefully, someone would be worth testing this ability of mine!

I blasted through the door with a punch of my gorilla arms and quickly killed the first person I saw with a stab through the head. Once the initial surprise was over, bullets started to rain down on me, and I activated my Sandevistan, moving around them, slicing through their bodies like a hot knife through butter.

Ten of them were down within moments, and I still had time remaining on my Sandevistan.

The remaining seven or so raised their guns to combat me, and by a glance, I could tell only two of them had powers. One had Haki, and one had Nen. But both were weak. So weak that I’m certain they recently unlocked it.

They weren’t worth my time, not now, not ever. They’d never give me a good fight. A good test of my abilities.

I cut through them with ease, and as my Sandevistan ran out, I pierced the last fuckers head with my blade.

As their bodies dropped, I heard footsteps running toward me. I didn’t even need to turn around to know it was Jackie.

“Holy shit!” He shouted, looking at the carnage I had committed. All of the bodies had cauterized wounds where I cut them.

I looked at my blade and arms covered in burning orange and grinned. This… it would do nicely.

“Let’s get what we came for and get out of here.” I walked forward, Jackie stepping into line right behind me.

It didn’t take us long to find the Arasaka tech. It was still in a box and didn’t seem tampered with yet.

They were smarter than I gave them credit for. Not touching the tech until they got a good Net-runner to hack it.

I grabbed some other trinkets that I found interesting or useful. Some tech I could see or parts I may need in the future, and once we finished looting the place, we grabbed the box and made our way out.

“This job… it was much easier than I expected.”

“Mhm.” I hummed in agreement. I think we just came at a good time. Those two idiots had Nen and Haki, which means-

Someone helped them unlock it.

There was no way someone with such little potential would naturally unlock Nen or Haki without training. It was nearly impossible.

Someone fucked up a guy until he could manifest basic Armament, and someone must have forced their Nen aura into the other bastard.

Now, who leads them is something I’m curious about.

Could they give me a good fight? A good test?

No, I’d likely never learn who led this operation.

In all honesty, not knowing bothered me.

— Later —

Jackie called V the moment we finished the job, and she said she’d meet us at the Coyote Cojo, which I found incredibly hilarious.

A corpo wanted to meet at a place that held mostly mercs. Not the wisest idea, but hey, if she knew Jackie and was cool with him, it was likely that she was at least somewhat cool with the others.

We entered the bar, and I followed Jackie to the main bar. There sat a woman; the side of her head was shaved while the other side had her hand swung over it. Black hair and brown eyes.

Honestly, she looked like a mature, rough-looking goth woman.

Not something I minded at all.

“V!” Jackie cheered, sliding into a seat beside her.

“Jackie.” She said, much more reserved, but she couldn’t hide the smile on her face. “Is the job done?”

“Yeah, just finished.” Jackie smiled back, gesturing to me.

V’s eyes met mine and stayed there for a while. I had enough skills from the R.O.B. to read someone more or less just by looking at them. And I wanted to be sure that V and I wouldn’t be having problems, especially since she’s perhaps my biggest investment in this world.

“Thanks for the help, you are?” V asked me, and I sat down beside Jackie.

“Maliketh Aeneas.”

“You got ‘The Beard’ to work with you?” V asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ah yes, ‘The Beard.’ How I loved my little nickname. I picked that shit for the memes, but it was quickly becoming my identity in the streets, and killing Maine only boosted my cred.

“I did.” Jackie nodded, sounding way too proud of himself.

“I didn’t do it for free.” I locked eyes with her. “I expect to be paid back later.”

“Yeah, whatever, let’s not talk about that here.” She frowned, throwing back her drink. “Truly, though, thanks for the help, Jackie.”

V got up, gave me and Jackie one last look and exited the door.

“Nice friend you got there.” I smiled, taking a sip of the drink Pepe brought me.

Jackie let out a sigh and smiled softly.

“The best.”

— Chapter End —

Author’s Note: The endless grind of stockpiling chapters is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Endless writing and deleting. Rinse repeat.