World Runner: A Merc's Trial in a Spiritual Dystopia Ch.17 (Patreon)

“I’m not gonna repeat myself! You all can fuck off, I’m out!” Dorio shouted before throwing herself on my bed face first.

“You know they aren’t just gonna let you walk.” I looked at her from my place on the bed. I was sitting cross-legged while meditating. I was trying to gain better control over my Nen.

“I know, but I’m tired of them.” Dorio let out an annoyed sigh. Turning her body so she was laying on her back. “Plus, I’m with you now, who cares about a few dogs running around?”

I didn’t answer her question, instead continuing my meditation. Dorio had quit the Animals and called Sasquatch right now to get the message across. Of course, gangs will always be gangs, and no gang is just gonna let one of theirs leave without a little bit of humbling.

Especially the Animals.

I didn’t have any problem with the Animals sending people. Having Dorio in my gang would be a massive help. It would allow me to take on harder jobs, especially if I train her up in Nen and help her reach her full potential.

And speaking of potential, Dorio has a lot.

She’s without a shadow of a doubt one of those special cases. I don’t know even understand why the Animals had her doing carrier jobs. My guess is they were trying to stunt her growth so she didn’t eventually become the Alpha, but that kinda goes against their whole schtick.

So, I’m left in the dark. Honestly though? I don’t care, and I’m sure she doesn’t either. We’ll just kill the fuckers they send, and continue marking our names in Night City legend.

That sounded like an amazing future to me.

“So, ‘Beard’, you wanna do something, or are you just gonna sit there doing nothing all day.”

“I’m feeling my Nen, if you want to grow stronger, you should as well.”

“Meditation isn’t my thing.” She shrugged, sitting back up. A grin formed on her face as she hugged me from behind, rubbing my chest. “But I’m sure you could help me relax~. I could feel her naked breasts pressing against my back, which turned me on, but I wasn’t being led on this time.

“Hard pass, I’ve fucked you enough today, you insatiable woman.” I pulsed my Nen which gave her a small push. “If you’re going to be apart of my gang, you need to train.”

Dorio let out a defeated sigh, although I knew her enough to know that she wasn’t going to relent, but she would put it aside for now. “Alright, why don’t you show me what you’re doing.”

“Do you know about Aura Nodes?” I asked, hoping for a yes, and I smiled when she nodded. “Good. All I’m doing is opening and closing my Aura Nodes in different areas of my body. It refines control over your Aura, and may end up saving your life one day.”

“How the hell would it do that?” She blinked.

“Well, by being able to freely control your Aura, you could lessen the amount of Nen Aura slipping out of your nodes, but the opposite could also apply.” I closed my eyes and Dorio watched intently. I gathered my aura back into my body, basically entering Zetsu, then-

I let my aura explode out of me.

More Nen Aura then Ren would generate flowed out and danced around my body. Dorio watched, completely overwhelmed by the amount of aura I was emitting. Her breathing grew faster, and I could tell I was overwhelming her, so I pulled the aura back in.

One moment, my aura was running rampant, the next, it was back securely in my body.

“T-That… what the fuck was that?!” Dorio asked after taking a moment to reclaim her bearings. I frowned at her response to my aura. She didn’t instinctively activate her own Ten to shield herself from my powerful aura, which means even though Nen comes naturally to her, she hasn’t trained herself to use Nen instinctively.

“The ability I used doesn’t actually have a name.” I stroked my beard in thought. “Basically, it requires an incredible control over one’s Nen. Lessening it can allow the user to build a bunch of aura which remains clogged up in the aura nodes, before letting the aura explode. This is sort of like the more defense oriented version of Ten and Ren: Ken.”

“Then it would be Ken?” Dorio asked, her eyes scanning my body. I could see the aura in her eyes, she was Gyo in her eyes, albeit to a lesser extent then anything that would prove useful.

“No.” I shook my head. “Ken is different. Ken is the product of a prolonged state of Ren that acts in the form of Ten. The ability I just used is sort of an instant charge to Ken, but in an offensive state. Such a thing can save your life and help you finish a fight, but it comes at a cost.”

“A cost?” Dorio questioned, leaning over my shoulder.

“The usage of this Nen technique will put stress on the entire body. You aren’t enhancing your body or protecting it when using it. You’re taking all the aura out of your body forcefully and using it to fight. Using such an ability will ruin your aura nodes and cripple those nodes forever if used for an extended periods of time.”

“So it’ll save your life, but at a cost.” Dorio hummed and I nodded. I was glad she understood that. “Then why did you just use it?”

Ah, yes, that’s a fair question. “I didn’t use all my aura.”

She blinked, then blinked again, before her jaw dropped. “The fuck do you mean you “didn’t use all your aura?!””

“Exactly what I said.” I straightened my legs and stood up. “I didn’t use all of my aura.” I made my way into the bathroom because I needed to take a leak and I left the muscle mommy on my bed, speechless.

— Dorio —

Dorio blinked again as the door to the bathroom closed. Maliketh Aeneas… he was something else.

She always knew he was special, ever since she first saw his aura flowing during their first meeting. It was so… dense.

But she thought with aura that dense, it would have to come with some trade-off. Like his capacity being less than others.

How wrong she was.

The man was a beast! He proved that to her the night before while besting her, and all this morning, but she hasn’t expected him to be such a combat beast.

Dorio thought back to the hot blade that nearly pressed against her neck when Maliketh got the jump on her the previous night. He could have killed her in that moment, and she wouldn’t even have known. One second she’d be alive, the next she’d be dancing with the Grim Reaper.

It was… terrifying-

And arousing!

Dorio pushed herself off the bed. She considered going into the bathroom and joining him again, but she had to admit. Maliketh was right. They needed to focus on training instead of fucking all the time.

No matter how much it hurt to agree with him.

Sex with the man was just that amazing. It completely threw off her reason.

Dorio ran her hand over her bare thighs before looking at her clothes thrown all over the floor. She needed to move all her shit Mali’s the apartment, in hindsight, she probably should have done that before telling the Animals to fuck off.

They’re probably on their way to her place right now to trash it as a message.

Eh, not like she had much there anyway.

Dorio picked up her clothes and started getting dressed. Mali had said he wanted to go on a job today, and of course she’d be tagging along. After learning all those new things about Nen, she wanted to try them out, and there’s no better target than a live one!

The door to the bathroom opened and once again Dorio’s focus wavered when she was the tight black shirt the bearded man was wearing. It looked way too good on him. She could feel her arousal dripping through her compression shorts, and she considered ripping them off again to go another-

“Like I said, hard pass.” Maliketh said, seemingly reading her mind and walking past her. “We’ll have plenty of time for that later. Right now, it’s time to work.”

“You’re the boss.” Dorio forced a grin on her face as she fell behind Maliketh, walking with him out of the room and down the stairs.

She didn’t know where life would take her now that she had decided to follow this man who had bested and claimed her in a single night, but she knew one thing-

She’d have a hell of a time finding out.

— Jackie —

*BANG*

Jackie blew the smoke away from the barrel of his gun after bullseying the last of the men they were contracted to handle.

“We put em down, eh?” Jackie asked enthusiastically to his temporary partner. The man ignored him and kept it pushing. “Tough crowd.”

They hopped back into his partners car and made their way back to the Coyote Cojo to collect their pay from Padre. The entire ride, Jackie would crack jokes and his partner in crime would remain silent, or in the worse cases tell Jackie to shut up.

These were the kinds of fuckers that would never survive in Night City. Cold and rude for no reason! One of these days some random guy would come along and blast them in the back of their head!

The only thing that gave Jackie slight hope for this man’s future was the chrome he had installed. The dude was rocking some serious cyberware, Jackie had to admit.

Mantis Claw, some leg implants that Jackie couldn’t pinpoint, and the guy even had a Sandevisan. Only thing is Jackie didn’t see the man use Haki during the job, could be a Nen user maybe?

Bah! Doesn’t matter. He’s a puto.

His partner pulled up at the Coyote Cojo and hopped out. “Fucking finally, It’s over. I don’t have to listen to you say another godamn word, you annoying fuck!”

“That’s just hurtful.” Jackie grinned, his hand itching to reach for his pistol. Fuck, it was times like these where he wished someone would just come along and put a bullet in the fuckers-

*BANG*

The body of his partner dropped. Jackie pulled his gun out to shoot the fucker who snuck up on him, but he paused upon seeing the man’s face.

“Calm yourself, Jackie.” Maliketh frowned, holstering his Militech Ticon.

“M-Maliketh.” Jackie blinked. “Ey! Where you been, el companero?!”

The bearded man blinked at that before looking down at his deceased partner.

“I just offed this guy, and you’re curious about where I’ve been?”

“Yes!” Jackie nodded, holstering his pistol and crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re supposed to give me a call, esse! Can’t just go off the grid!”

“...”

“...”

Jackie turned to the woman behind Maliketh and gave her a small smile. “You didn’t tell me you had a chica with you! Ehe, good for you! Love is great!”

“...”

“...”

“N-Never change, Jackie. Never change.” Maliketh ran his hand over his face. “I know you didn’t ask, but that guy was hired by… someone, don’t know who, to kill me some time ago. Obviously he and his buddies failed, and he ran away. Never saw him again until now.”

“Ah, yeah, he seemed like a gonk.” Jackie nodded sagely. “He was chromed out though, you probably would have had to work for the kill if you hadn’t caught him off guard.”

“Yeah right.” Maliketh snorted, reaching down and picking up the body before tossing him… into nothing. “The bastard didn’t have Nen or Haki. Hell, I don’t even know if he was capable of possessing either. He died as he lived.”

“Alone?” The woman behind him asked.

“Disappointing all the people around him.” Maliketh clarified.

“Well, why don’t we head in? Drinks are on me!” Jackie laughed, stepping past them and heading into the bar.

“... You’re gonna regret saying that.” Maliketh sighed and the woman with him laughed. Just from those words, Jackie knew that this was going to be a fun night!

— Maliketh —

We entered the bar, and I had to admit, today was already going well. I woke up and went to rounds with a hot muscle mommy, got some training done, and now managed to clip off a thorn in my side.

Hell, I’m sure I ended up doing Padre a favor as well. Now he doesn’t have to pay that son of a bitch. In the name of God and all things Padre stands for, Amen.

We made our way to the bar, and Pepe already knew what was up. The man raised his head slightly and I gave him a nod. Quickly, he started preparing our drinks, although before he did, he gave me a thumbs up.

This man was seriously the best wing-man anyone could ask for.

Jackie split from us to collect his pay from Padre for a job he did. Apparently it was a pretty well paying job, hence why Jackie offered to pay for the drinks. I wish he had told me about it, but honestly, knowing how things worked around here, Jackie likely heard from someone that I brought Dorio to my place last night and didn’t want to bother me.

It is what it is.

Pepe brought Dorio and I our drinks Jackie came back to join us, having his own drink that had a purple tint to it.

I seriously need to try the other drinks. I’ve been having the same thing day in and day out when I’d come here. I should… expand my tastes.

“So what’s the story with this one?” Jackie tilted his head to Dorio who chuckled at his bluntness and looked at me, waiting for an answer. There was something in her eyes. A twinkle of sorts. I knew if I fucked around and said some shit that pissed her off, I’d get a fist to the nose.

That being said.

“She’s my fucktoy.”

She threw a punch, I weaved my head around it. Then she glared at me, but there was no real heat in her eyes. We weren’t particularly close, at least not yet. So I told Jackie exactly what she was to me for now.

My fucktoy and gang-member, nothing more, nothing less.

“Ehe! You got some balls on you, Maliketh! Seems that beard doesn’t compensate for anything!”

“...” I blinked. “What the fuck, are there rumors going around saying that my beard compensates for something?!” I asked, in genuine annoyance. Why the fuck would they come to that conclusion.

“Eh, people suspect that your beard isn’t natural. Which isn’t untrue.” Jackie took a sip before looking at me, his eyes widening slightly. “Is it?!”

“My beard is natural!” I frowned. How the fuck did these people get that shit wrong?!

“It’s… flawless, there’s no way!” Jackie shot back, pointing at my black and bushy, yet cleanly lined up beard.

I ran my hands over my face. Fuck everything else, fuck jobs, fuck training, I had one job to do today.

I had to save the reputation of my beard.

— Chapter End —

Author’s Note: Cyberpunk commissioned chapters are officially done for the time being. I’m stacking up Let There Be Light chapters as we speak. I’m gonna try to stack The Enlightened One at the same time, so it may take a little longer, but I’ll try to have the Let There Be Light chapters out by the weekend.