Life’s Not a Fairy Tale (No Matter How Much I Want It To Be) Ch.10 (Patreon)

“Hit me up when your masters betray you,” I said, turning my back on the game world’s protagonist.

Apparently, V was the corpo version of herself in this timeline. She wouldn’t be a corpo for much longer. As I had said, V should get betrayed by her boss within the year and then she’d be out on the street with Jackie to back her up and Johnny Silverhand in her head. She was dangerously hot though. A part of me wanted to stamp her right here and now but I knew she’d do more good for this timeline if she was unbound.

As for why she was even here… My best guess was that she was assigned to look into me after all the chaos Becca and I had caused over the past couple of weeks. Information Defense and my Drop-in background meant she could only get information on me by talking to me.

That said, I kind of brought this interaction onto myself. V must have hit a wall researching me from a distance and hit up her street contact. That street contact was Jackie Welles, who I had recently gotten to know through my business with Vik. I wasn’t really mad a Jackie for ratting me out. V was an old friend of his and he did make sure this wasn’t an assassination attempt or something equally sinister. He just had V wait around in Misty’s shop with him until I turned back up.

Big Data Prediction had warned me that this was possible so I wasn’t completely blindsided by the protagonist of Cyberpunk 2077 coming to visit me on behalf of Arasaka. The possibility of this meeting was one of the main reasons I kept going back to Vik’s. The other reasons were that David did still need a ripperdoc and Vik was about as good a guy as you could find in this city.

So I really wasn’t surprised at all by V’s presence. What a presence that was though. V was gorgeous, with the side-swept hair and ethnically ambiguous features of the game’s default female character model and a toned body that just would not quit. She was magnetic and electrifying. It was subtle but her presence commanded the attention of a room and she had an aura of fate around her that I had come to associate with protagonists. David had the same kind of aura. I hadn’t noticed it at first because of how low magic this world was, but I came to recognize it as I spent more time with him, most likely thanks to Soul Talent.

My conversation with V was pretty uneventful up until the end. Jackie introduced her as an old friend and they were both acting like she was a merc like him. V didn’t do anything that implicated her as a corpo. I never would have suspected her if I didn’t already know. She did ask me a lot of specific probing questions though. Questions about my background, what I was doing in Night City, any interesting jobs I’d done recently, etc.

I humored her and answered most of the questions truthfully. I stayed silent about my background and purpose in Night City. One of the perks of being a Fae contractor, I had discovered, was my inability to directly lie to someone. I could talk around the truth or choose not to answer but outright lying was impossible for me. And honestly?… I didn’t hate that perk. It kept me honest (literally) and made every situation with intrigue into an interesting social puzzle for Communication Talent to pick apart.

[AN: I just remembered that part of having the Fae as a Patron. I don’t think I made Romeo break that rule, but it’s possible he did at some point in the previous chapters. I’ll be trying to keep it in mind for the future though.]

And the whole time V was subtly grilling me, Big Data Prediction was doing the same to her. Every minute twitch, eye movement, and word choice was taken in through Networked Glamour Manipulation and fed to my social prediction program. The picture painted by the program’s output had me suppressing a smirk.

All of Night City’s Megacorps were collectively tearing their hair out because of me. They couldn’t find anything on me. Hell, V hadn’t even known my name until she met me and she worked for Arasaka’s intelligence division. The lack of data was unprecedented and it was driving everyone who cared into insanity.

Eventually, I got fed up with the pseudo-interrogation. I stopped humoring her and straight-up called her out on being a corpo. I was polite enough to not be insulting but I made it clear the jig was up. V’s reaction surprised me. She didn’t get defensive or deny anything, just rolled with the metaphorical blow and thanked me for my time. It endeared me to her enough that I left that door open for when she was betrayed by her boss.

I left Vik’s with something to laugh at Megacorps for and an in with another protagonist. And over the past couple of weeks, I’d stolen literal tons of merchandise and technology from Night City’s Megacorps. David, Lucy, and Gloria were all doing well enough for the moment. I was sure First and my Patrons were watching my progress and I could almost feel them calling me back into the void between worlds. I knew I would have to negotiate with the Fae for We Will Meet Again because I wasn’t about to completely abandon my new friends/fresh start, but it seemed that my time in Night City was coming to a close for now.

There was only one more thing I wanted to do in this world. It didn’t feel like the ‘gauge’ was completely full yet and I knew just the thing to push it over the edge. I was going to set out into the net and see what was behind the Blackwall.

The Blackwall was the product of a group called NetWatch. They policed the net, both old and new, and the Blackwall was the key tool they used to do that. It was a massive firewall that NetWatch deployed out of nowhere in the 2040s. It came about in response to the DataKrash: the event where Rache Bartmoss split the net in two with an all-consuming virus. The Blackwall kept the net safe for Human use. It held back rogue AIs and the remnants of Bartmoss’ virus.

The rogue AIs were what I was mainly after. Almost any type of AI was valuable and I was sure the Company had ways of taming AIs that didn’t want to cooperate. My Company Defenses should be enough to keep me safe, especially considering there was no way I was taking anyone else with me past the Blackwall. This might not have been completely necessary but I was still going to do it. A few rogue AIs would go a long way to wiping my debt clean.

My setup for the deep dive past the Blackwall was rather simple. I had Becca keep an eye on me in case anything went wrong but I didn’t tell her what I was really going to be doing. Even Becca would call venturing beyond the Blackwall insane. I was confident I’d be fine. Not only were my mental augments literally out of this world, but I also had Company Defenses such as Mind, Possession, Environmental, Stress, and Soul.

When I got back to Becca’s apartment after meeting V, I decided that there was no use putting this off any longer. I was ready and confident. I told Becca I was doing a deep dive and got myself into a comfortable position. In case the worst happened, I just had to hope that I’d changed enough to give everyone happy endings.

The net felt different when I closed my eyes and dived beneath the surface of the physical world. There was a sense of potential, of reality waiting with bated breath for something. I forced myself to relax as the vague strings of fate guided me through a digital cityscape. The net drew me deeper and deeper, past all the ones and zeros of the surface until it seemed like there was no light around me.

A great cliff of data loomed in front of me. Neon red lines of code ran up and down a backdrop of pure black. The code that made up the Blackwall seemed to roll and roil from moment to moment like a great wave. This close, I could tell that the rumors about the Blackwall were true. It wasn’t a firewall. It was an AI masquerading as one. And it wasn’t anywhere near as secure as NetWatch made it out to be. Even from where I was standing, I could see small breaches healing and opening in real-time.

For a brief instant, I considered just stamping the whole Blackwall and leaving. An AI this vast would have been more than enough of a prize. But… that would also leave the net, and the world by proxy, in utter ruin. Considering my friends lived here, I discarded that idea. I’d just have to make up for quality with quantity.

I approached the writhing Blackwall, crossing seemingly vast distances in a couple of strides. I reached out and poked it. The Blackwall depressed with my finger and bounced back like gelatin. I couldn’t quite find the words to explain what it felt like. It was almost like the warm flesh of a living creature.

I pressed into it again. The Blackwall warped but didn’t give. My hand pulled back and I changed tactics. A blade formed around the hand of my digital avatar. Slowly and carefully, I sliced into the Blackwall. Once the opening was wide enough to fit through, I slid into the gap. The hole closed behind me as the Blackwall healed almost instantly.

The old net opened up before my eyes. The appearance of the net didn’t change between new to old. The old net was just somehow… more compared to the new net. More data, systems, decay, and lost technology in this kingdom of ashes within the net. Grand cathedrals of data in the distance looked to have fallen into ruin yet things still moved within their digital walls.

I floated forward, maintaining the Human shape of my avatar even as mountains of data pressed in on me from all sides. The pressure felt like what I would assume the bottom of the ocean felt like. The net naturally compressed everything here, trying to turn it into pure data to be assimilated by the numerous predators that swam in these depths. With my defenses, it was easy enough to keep my sense of self but anyone else would have found their time here greatly limited.

A tendril of code reached out for me as I drifted through the digital space. The stamp formed in my hand with barely a thought. My hand darted out and pressed it into the tendril when it drew too close. The rogue AI recoiled at the contact but it was already too late for it. The digital nature of this realm and its inhabitants didn’t matter to the Company or its tools. In three days, that mass of intelligent data would be captured and ready to be sold.

The journey through the old net continued in much the same way. One of the rogue AIs, disguised as stray data within the various systems, would ambush and assimilate me. My stamp was always quicker. I had no intention to stick around and fight these leviathans of data. After they were marked, I would flee as fast as I could.

I explored the alien ecosystem while I hunted. The pseudo-foodchain that had developed here was fascinating. The AIs didn’t need to eat like physical lifeforms. They hunted and consumed for reasons other than sustenance. These were beings born of pure data and they craved more data to continue to grow. Like how Humans and other creatures needed calories, except without the upper limit on size imposed by the physical world.

The AIs found on the old net were many and varied. From relatively simple AIs focused on specific tasks and routines to AIs meant to emulate or surpass the Human brain. It was almost disturbing how similar the net was to an actual food chain. Simple AIs grazed on pure data like herbivores. These ‘herbivores’ were hunted by bigger, more complex, ‘carnivorous’ AIs. And the chain kept going up until you got to the apex predators: the Transcendental AIs.

I tried to keep the selection of AIs I captured diverse. Big and small, complex and simple. If it was made of code and data and could think for itself, it went into my metaphorical shopping cart. None of the AIs were particularly hard to capture, not even the Transcendentals. After all, I wasn’t trying to out-smart, out-calculate, or out-brute-force them. I just had to lure those apex predators into the open instead of hunting for them proactively.

I flew through the ruins of long-dead systems, admiring the spectacular digital architecture. Tech that had been lost to time or the DataKrash or just relied too heavily on AIs was abundant in the old net. It was a shame none of it was physical. My smartmatter couldn’t emulate software. All I could do was save the various blueprints I came across for later testing.

Soon enough, I came across something that could only be described as a video game secret area. Some sort of digital settlement had been built around the ruins of an old mainframe. Simple constructions had been built out of lines of code, forming a sort of shanty town deep within the old net. And within this shanty town, I could see AIs that retained Human forms.

My curiosity was immediately piqued by the AIs that inhabited this ghost town. They only seemed to resemble the AIs I’d already come across on a base level. They were still made of code and data but they looked and moved and socialized like Humans. I floated closer but was stopped once I passed a certain threshold.

“Who are you, how did you get here, and what do you want?” a digital avatar demanded, appearing in front of me out of the ether.

I brought myself to a stop in front of the red-monochrome, humanoid mass of data. The avatar’s features were hard to make out but she looked to be a woman. Slowly, her image began to stabilize and become clear. Her form solidified into someone I recognized from my research into the Rockerboy movement.

Shoulder-length hair framed a face with nordic features. Despite the monochrome nature of her avatar, I knew the woman’s hair was supposed to be blonde and her skin was supposed to be pale. Full, pouty lips were pursed in a frown. She wore a simple leather jacket over a shirt and a pair of jeans. One of her hands was distinctly metallic even in her hazy digital visage.

The digital sprite of Alt Cunningham, Johnny Silverhand’s ex-girlfriend and one of the best netrunners Cyberpunk had seen in the past century, frowned even more when I just stared at her, “Well? Are you just gonna gape at me like a fish or are you gonna answer my questions?”

I shook off the awe that came with being in Alt’s presence, “A-Ah, sorry… I’m Romeo. I… don’t really know how I got here or where here even is…”

Alt looked at me skeptically, “You don’t know how you got into the old net? Past the Blackwall? You think that kind of thing just happens?”

“Uh… no? I know how I got into the old net. That part was on purpose. I meant how I got here specifically.”

“You came into the old net on purpose?… And then got lost…” Alt deadpanned. “You have a death wish, don’t you?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle, “Not really. Or at least, not anymore…”

“That’s what they all say…” Alt muttered. “Whatever… You seem to know who I am. What dumbass idea made you come to the old net anyway? Someone put you up to this, kid?”

“AI hunting,” I said honestly, shrugging. “Some people I know will pay good money for rogue AIs.”

Alt scoffed, “And you said you don’t have a death wish? That’s not a normal reason. Honestly, sounds like some shit Johnny would pull…”

I held my tongue and Alt continued after a moment lost in her memories, “Doesn’t matter… There are plenty of other AIs around for you to kill yourself with. I’m not gonna let you prey on me or my people. You’re not getting past me, kid, so just get lost.”

I glanced at the ghost town behind her, holding up my hands to show I meant no harm, “Is that what this place is? A haven for AIs? Is everyone down there an AI?”

My curiosity and lack of aggression seemed to be enough to make Alt’s eyes soften. She sighed, “Not quite. They’re ghosts: people who got digitized and trapped in the net… Like me… This is all that’s left of the people we once were.”

The hopeless melancholy in her voice pulled at my heartstrings. It reminded me of the depression that once encompassed my whole life… Of before the Fae and First and the craziness that had become my life. I looked back at the ghost town with new eyes. Those weren’t true AIs. They were people. People who were dead to the world and themselves. People… people I might be able to help.

I knew I would have to broach this subject carefully, “… How long have you been looking after them?”

Alt seemed to collapse inward under an unseen pressure, “Years? Decades? I don’t know… Time is hard to keep track of here… It doesn’t matter though. I’ll be their shield for as long as I need to be.”

“What… what if I could help?”

“You can’t,” Alt scoffed. “If there was a way, I would have found it by now.”

“There’s a way,” I said plainly. “But the price might be more than you’re willing to pay…”

Alt eyed me, trying to gauge how sure I was, “… Can you guarantee their freedom?”

I shook my head, “I can’t. But I give them their lives back and guarantee they have a chance for something more than this.”

She was quiet for a few moments while she thought, “… How?”

“The entities I work for and with aren’t… normal. They can give you back your bodies. In exchange… you’ll give them your freedom.”

Alt’s eyes narrowed at me suspiciously, but I said nothing else. I’d made my pitch. Now it was up to her.

Eventually, she made her decision, “… Fine. But you’re doing me first. I need proof you can do what you claim. Then I’m going to negotiate with your bosses myself.”

I nodded, “That seems fair. I promise I’ll do everything I can to help you get a good deal.”

“How does this work?” Alt asked after nodding her thanks.

“I stamp you with this little beauty right here and then we wait three days for the binding to set in. Once that happens, you’ll have your body back.”

“That sounds an awful lot like magic,” Alt mumbled warily.

“It is.”

Alt rolled her eyes, “Sure… magic’s real. And Arasaka is just a misunderstood, benevolent charity.”

I shrugged, “You’ll believe me when you get your body back.”

“Whatever, I don’t have anything else to lose… Stamp me, magic man.”

Alt held out her hand for me and I pressed the stamp into her avatar, “… And now we wait.”

A mischievous smirk came across her face, “Do we though?”

Before I could respond, Alt’s avatar blurred. The space of the digital world seemed to vibrate and stretch around her. Something I couldn’t see warped and ones and zeros began to fly faster and faster. The code that made up Alt’s avatar accelerated for the same amount of time I had pressed the stamp against her ‘skin’. Then it all came to a sudden stop. Alt looked at me with that same smirk on her face and a fresh spark in her eyes that I hadn’t realized was missing until now.

“What’d you just do?”

Alt’s smirk grew wider, “Time acceleration. In this world, I am queen. Don’t ask me to do that again though. Spending three days doing nothing is incredibly boring.”

“… So you just spent three days staring at my face?”

“Not just your face. Everything about you makes for some nice eye candy.”

I snorted, glad the digital world didn’t show my blush, “Thanks for the compliment I guess… Did it work?”

“Only one way to find out. C’mon, I know a backdoor or two out of this digital hell…”

I followed Alt as she led me through the outskirts of the ghost town. The ghosts gave her friendly waves and me curious glances. We walked through a varied crowd. Alt may have been the first ghost but she certainly wasn’t the last. I could see people spanning every walk of life over the past half-century. I wasn’t completely knowledgeable about the origins of ghosts but remembered vague rumors of an Arasaka program called Soulkiller from my various net deep dives. The involuntary tragedy of their nature just made me more certain of my choice to help the ghosts.

Eventually, Alt led us away from the town and down a digital shaft in the ruined architecture of the old net. The shaft was concealed by something that resembled a trap door. It swung open at a thought from Alt and we floated down a tunnel constructed of code.

I observed Alt as we made our way out of the old net. I felt like something had changed with her capture. She was more vibrant and animated. As if some decade-old wound had been healed. As if the flames of her soul had flared within her avatar. It seemed like Body Tune-up had done more than — hopefully — give her a new body.

Thanks to Alt, exiting the old net was much simpler than entering it. The tunnel ended in a glowing doorway that looked suspiciously like something I would expect from a religious experience. It was as if the white light that shone through was calling us to step into its embrace. Alt saw my perplexed expression and laughed.

“I know, it’s a bit odd, right? I didn’t even make this thing, just found it naturally during my time in the net. My money’s on Bartmoss. He always liked to play pranks like this…” by the time she finished speaking, age and bittersweet nostalgia were showing on her face.

I laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, changing the subject, “Let’s see if this worked. You ready to have a body again?”

Alt took a breath to center herself, “Yeah… Yeah, let’s go.”

We stepped into the light together. The world shifted and opened up before my eyes. I was a bit surprised the tunnel led directly into the physical world instead of just the new net but I quickly adjusted to the sudden change in scenery. I blinked the white spots out of my eyes and tried to find Alt.

My vision cleared up just in time to catch the back end of Alt’s materialization in the physical world. From the shoulders down, Alt’s new body looked as fleshy and solid as mine. Above the shoulders, ones and zeros swirled into physical chunks of data that went on to finish constructing the rest of her body. The data settled and her head came into view. A bright smile grew across her face as the transition was completed.

I started to ask how she felt but Alt threw herself at me before I could get a word out. Her arms wrapped around my neck and she pressed her lips against mine. The sudden kiss shocked me and stole my breath away. My body automatically responded, matching the movements of her lips as my hands grasped her waist and pulled her flush against me. Her breath mixed with mine as our lips danced and I could feel ghostly digital fingers caressing my mental implants. When Alt pulled back, her hands began to stroke my cheeks, savoring the physical contact that came with her new body.

“Wh-What-…” I said, trying to find my voice again. “What was that about?”

Alt smirked, “I’ve been wanting to do that for more than 50 years. You don’t realize how much you need to feel someone else until you can’t. Plus it helps that you’re cute and I wanted to thank you for all of this.”

I fought back a blush, “I’m barely doing anything. You don’t have to thank me… Really…”

“Don’t do that,” Alt chastised me lightly. “At least one thing my ex did right was knowing how to accept credit. Admittedly he was too good at that, but the idea still stands. You gave me my body back and set me on a path to do the same for the rest of the ghosts. That deserves thanks…”

Alt gave me a look that went straight to my cock, “And I know just how to thank you~”