Cyberpunk - Badland Madman [Cyberpunk 2077]

Cypher woke up with a headache.

Unlike before, when he knew he could build those itches, this was the first time he was limited by the lack of access to a critical infrastructure. Not having the means to power those fusion cores meant the SecUnit would sit lifeless, and the itch would never go away.

Knowing that made it worse. Even while hugging Judy's warm frame, he found no rest that night. He kept looking for a solution in his memory. He looked through whatever he knew about this world.

As his eyes opened, he found himself lying straight in bed, Judy hugging him from the side, her face on his arm, and he could swear he felt drool slip out of her mouth. He didn't care and just covered themselves with the quilt and kept staring up, letting the sunlight fully fill the room to mark the day.

"Atlas. There's a large Satwave Power Plant in the Badlands."

Cypher remembered the mess V and Panam had made out of that power station. He recalled it having a lot of stored energy.

"It uses microwave energy from satellites to make energy, no? How about we us—"

[It will achieve nothing. The Fusion Core demands an astronomical level of uninterrupted energy. The Satwave Power Plant stores power in batteries, and its capacity to sustain continuous satellite energy transfer is insufficient.]

Cypher frowned and thought more.

"What about… Isn't there a Petrochem Nuclear Power Plant in Arroyo?"

[There is one. But it serves only as a supplement to the Satwave, meaning it lacks the power we need. Cypher, a fusion reactor generates three to five times the energy per reaction compared to fission reactors. To charge the fusion core, I will need to force the fission reactor close to maximum capacity and keep it stable there. For this operation to succeed, we need a reactor with a higher ceiling.]

Cypher rubbed his face with his free hand annoyedly. The world sadly didn't have fusion energy yet, and while it was being researched, with few breakthroughs in the past, the DataKrash had set the world back significantly. It was widely considered that the pre-DataKrash world had reached a pinnacle that was yet to be replicated.

However, Cypher doubted it would happen anytime soon. The post-DataKrash world was even greedier. What reason did the corporations have to push for nuclear fusion when CHOOH2 made them boatloads of money?

"Y'know what's wild, Atlas? Even my old world figured out fusion energy, and that was back in twenty-thirty. That place wasn't nearly as stacked tech-wise, but they still pulled off some crazy stuff. Thirty-five countries got together and built one big shared project. Pretty sure they were getting ready for full-scale power production before I kicked the bucket."

[That sounds like a responsible world, unlike this one. For so many nations to come together, my simulations indicate the possibility was highly minuscule.]

"Yeah, maybe. Even I can tell this world's way more fucked up. But hey, at least we ain't dealing with a zombie apocalypse. You'd have been useless there. No electricity, nothing to hack."

[I can hack minds if I must, to read thoughts. But that goes against my ethics. However, loopholes do exist. For example, if your life were placed at risk, I could override most restrictions to preserve you or neutralize the threat.]

"Aw, that's cute. Say, would you be angry if something happened to me?"

[I do not possess anger. I can, however, simulate it. If anything happens to you, I will dismantle the one responsible on every conceivable level.]

"Damn, that sounds scary coming from you. Anyway, time to get up, we can just pray that the next itch is some sort of energy system, like an antimatter engine or something."

Cypher shifted in bed and tapped on Judy's face while sliding his arm from under her head. Judy mumbled something under her breath, but he let her sleep. He reckoned she had set some alarm for herself.

Naked, the rod of meat dangling between his legs, throbbing and hard, he walked straight to the bathroom and took a cold shower to calm down. Of course, he pumped one out to please the sewer crocodiles.

By the time he made himself and Judy something to eat, an alarm rang in Judy's room, and she came out walking with no care in the world, naked as she was in bed. She vanished into the bathroom and returned all clean, fully dressed in her work attire.

She did give him a morning hug for no reason.

"Best sleep in days, choom." Judy slid onto a stool by the kitchen counter. "You sure you ain't using some kind of weird sleep perfume? Because I feel fresh as hell."

Cypher chuckled and poured coffee for both of them. He couldn't say the same, sadly. He had a hard time sleeping.

"What's with that face, Cyph? That's the look of a gonk scheming world domination. Why so serious?"

That would be Atlas for you, girl.

He sat beside her on the second high seat. "Nothing. Just hung up on some science stuff."

"What science?"

"Fusion energy."

"..."

Judy stared at his face, her jaw hanging for a moment before she finally took a big sip of the coffee.

"Careful. Stuff like that gets you zeroed real quick these days. Petrochem would roll out their full spec-ops to burn you down. SovOil too. If you actually pull that off, Cyph, hope you get some real chrome watching your back. Hell, you need it now. I'll talk to Susie about it."

He said nothing. There was no human security that could help him at that point. Not unless he hired an actual army, like the Lazarus Group. But they were pretty close to NUSA, so for now, he couldn't employ them.

Judy ate in a rush and grabbed her bag. "See you at Lizzie's tonight?"

"Yeah."

Cypher watched her leave. Unlike her, he wasn't a quick-to-wake-up type. He took his sweet time drinking that piss-tasting coffee while chatting with Atlas in his head.

Finally, once he felt awake enough, he put on his bulletproof suit and headed out, driving his own car. He drove straight to the Continental building, the hotel's opening just a few days away. For now, it was secretly buzzing with activity.

While trucks unloaded construction material in the underground parking, the Microbots worked on each floor except for the club and the top-floor penthouse.

Ting!

He took the elevator and went straight to the penthouse. He never liked the 'elevator opening inside the house' design, so the doors opened to a lavish, small lobby where, at the end, was a heavy wooden door which only looked like wood but was actually ARC performance steel from the Leaper.

"Music?"

Right as he opened the door to his house, he heard loud music coming from the living room. He peeked inside and saw the massive TV turned on, and a song was playing.

♫Now he's got superpowers, he's no ordinary kid… He's Ben 10…♫

Another look, and he saw Lucas sitting on the couch. But the boy wasn't alone; there were four more kids there, each in raggedy clothes, messy hair. Surprisingly, the house wasn't trashed. It was clean as ever, and the five kids were seated on the large couch like statues.

"Ben Ten? You found it on the Old Net?"

[I did. A rather enjoyable show for children. Inventive, thoughtful, and entertaining without losing its depth.]

Cypher agreed. It was much better than the continuous adult content now streamed everywhere. TV, radio, and even street ads had nudity. It was as if the world had forgotten how to be subtle.

"Who's the gang?"

[His friends from his days on the street. Orphans. They watched each other's backs or planned little gigs together. Lucas went out, found them, and brought them over. He's hesitant to order food, however, afraid he'll anger you.]

"They legit? No spies?"

[No. They are simply kids.]

"Alright, order some food for them."

Cypher walked over and clapped his hands, muting the TV and pausing the show. He watched as all heads turned towards him, all of them fearful like deer caught in the headlights. Lucas had panic on his face.

Cypher, however, noticed something else.

Other than their shabby clothes, they didn't seem in great physical condition either. Lucas was better now, but the four kids, three boys and one girl, showed signs of malnutrition. He could see their cheekbones.

One had a bandage on his head, another had a missing finger, and one of them lacked a right arm. The girl didn't even have a chrome replacement; the arm was simply missing. One kid wore an eyepatch.

Are they all missing something?

Cypher went over and dropped beside Lucas on the couch, keeping two other kids on his other side. "Having a party?"

"N-No party, Mr. Blackwell, I swear. They're my chooms from the street. They helped me a lot. I wanted to show them Ben Ten and…"

"Relax, I ain't pissed." Cypher shot everybody a look. "They seem pretty chill. Food'll be here soon, so just kick back and enjoy it. What're your names?"

______________________

Check out Cypher X Gloria, Cypher X Judy, Cypher X Rebecca NSFW ART, and advance chapters at [email protected]/MrPlotThickens Or Subscribestar.adult/mrplotthickens

Advance chapters on [PATREON] are in long-form format. I have 10 long chapters of this story on P@treon. That's equal to 35-45 NovelFire chapters.