Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

It was done. I stared at the finished product as the Gravitonator shut off. A shiny metal with a dark purplish finish to it hovered in the air just inside the anti-gravity arms of the Gravitonator. It was finally done. It’d take way too much effort, money, and EF to get here.

I carefully grabbed the metal out of the device. I only managed to make enough for a baseball-sized lump. Contrary to what I was expecting, the metal was incredibly light. The super-alloy was made primarily from a specific Titanium alloy so it shouldn’t have been super heavy, but I had to mix in a ton of stuff to bind everything together properly.

The alloy had been obscenely expensive to make. Most of my money was spent transmuting Gravitic, and the final price tag lay somewhere in the millions of rayn. I didn’t even want to think about how much I invested in this project.

I put the ball back down, and shook my head. It was done, but that didn’t mean I was done. I still needed to test it, see if it worked properly for what I intended, and run it through the full gauntlet before actually deciding I was done.

First came the durability test. I moved around my workshop and worked the ball into a square plate. The stuff was supposed to be used in armor, so it was extremely important that it didn’t instantly fracture. I used a bit of tungsten in the superalloy. It was a real worry that the thing looked strong but was actually fragile.

I took it down the lift to my tucked away shooting range in the Underground, and set up the superalloy plate. I grabbed one of my pistols, and carefully lined up a shot while barely able to breathe.

Bang!

The bullet slammed into the plate. I half expected it to ricochet off the metal, but it just slammed forward and flattened against the plate. From there, it plinked harmlessly to the ground. The spot it hit pulsed with a soft purple light like some kind of piezoelectric material, though otherwise remained completely fine and stable.

I shifted up a step, and swapped out my little pistol for a Sentinel DMR. I carefully loaded a round into the chamber, and fired away. Once more, the bullet plinked against the ground. I tested it again and again, but it held up to even .50 cals with only a slight deformation.

It was only once I tested my coil rifle at max power against the metal that it was finally punctured. Purely as a kinetic force absorber, though, the stuff was incredibly impressive. I ran through the tests with another small piece once more, though this time I actually used scanners and cameras.

I rewatched through the recordings of the tests, and checked the scanners I’d set up around the plate. It shouldn’t have been so resilient. I expected it to be fine up to rifle calibers, but this was a little absurd. The metal hadn’t even been treated for anything yet, so why…

The metal was damn impressive. That was my final conclusion as I headed up to my workshop and worked at a notepad. By my calculations, it seemed to have some kind of innate absorption of kinetic forces. I wasn’t totally sure, but it looked like it cleanly dispersed the force through the gravitational fields innately generated by the alloy’s structure.

Basically, it was absurdly good armor. A bigger plate of the stuff would theoretically have even better resilience with more space to distribute the force, and that would only spike once I further treated and enhanced the metal.

Just as I was about to launch into testing the metal’s effects, I got a message on my phone. After a moment, it popped up into my HUD. I pulled my legs up onto the chair and leaned over my knees with my phone.

Brunhilde The Bitch: We’re having a party in your honor today.

Me: Not interested.

As if I’d go to some shitty little party Sentinel was throwing. The less I had to do with that corporation, the better.

Brunhilde The Bitch: Fine, fine. Guess I’ll just have to rip up your check since you aren’t coming.

Me: Where and when?

She sent an attachment with a Sentinel smiley face emoji. I glared at the stupid emoji, and shook my head. I wasn’t selling out—I just needed the money. My bank account was looking a little dry at the moment. Gravitic really wasn’t cheap. Every Transmutation for it set me back by tens of thousands for just a small piece, and I blew through a ton of the stuff in the creation of my superalloy.

I tossed my phone to the side, and dropped my head onto my arms. I should probably clean up and dress nice for this kind of thing, no? Or maybe I could embarrass Brunhilde and show up in street rat attire. The more I thought about that idea, the more I liked it. It might even take the cocky woman down a peg or two.

Before that, though, there was more testing and more planning with my gravitic superalloy. That, and the most important question of all—what was I going to name it?

I stared at the dark purple plated for a long time until a name slowly started to come together. How about Gravitite? Tsukuyomi Gravitite. I was the creator of my superalloy, so I had total freedom in naming it. Attaching my last name to the stuff was totally within my rights.

I hesitated a moment longer, and then cut off a tiny square of the stuff with my Nightshade armor’s plasma claws. Brunhilde might be interested in the stuff, and Daddy Sentinel might just give me some more money as an investment. Not that I’d share how to make the Gravitite. That’d be kept strictly in my mind and nowhere else.

The plasma claws shut off, and I tossed the gauntlet to the side. My workshop really was a mess… maybe a little spring cleaning session before meeting up with Brunhilde wouldn’t hurt. Oh, and I could go up some finishing touches on the bartender bot… what should I even name it?

— — —

The party I was invited to was held inside of Sentinel’s tower in the middle of the Corporate Quarter. To even approach the flyer bay without getting strongly told off, I had to transmit landing permissions to the

“Yo, is that a Tsukuyomi?” A man in a messy suit called as I flicked the vehicle off. He stood in between two heavily borged out bodyguards, and looked like he just woke up from a wild bender.

”You know me?” I tilted my head to the side, and slid off my bike.

”I didn’t realize they were already being shipped out.” The man totally ignored me for a moment, and approached my Roughrider. He pulled away just shy of touching it, and his eyes focused on me. “Oh, sorry. She’s beautiful. The Sentinel-Tsukuyomi 2090 Roughrider’s a real masterpiece.”

My lips pressed into a thin line, and my hand tightened on the strap of my bag. “Sentinel-Tsukuyomi?”

”Yeah? Did I get the name wrong?” He frowned, and looked around the hangar. After a moment, he pointed to a holographic advertisement banner flicking through Sentinel ads. It just so happened to be showing an ad of my Roughrider zooming through the sky.

Explosions went off behind the Roughrider as it flew smoothly through a cityscape and agilely zipped between buildings. The ad froze, and words popped up. Sentinel-Tsukuyomi Roughrider. Preorder now, and enjoy lifetime service.

Fuck, why’d they have to slap my name on there? A wave of complaints rose up in the back of my mind. I really needed to talk to Brunhilde. Her making these kinds of moves behind my back was going to piss me off.

I focused on the man as he continued to yap about the flyer. After a moment, I put on my best polite smile and patted the Roughrider. “I’m sorry. I have an appointment I need to keep.”

“Oh, yeah, totally. Someone who can get a Tsukuyomi already isn’t someone I should be stalling.” He rubbed at the back of his head, and looked a little embarrassed. “Sorry about that.”

”It’s fine.” Though he was just stalling me more.

“Nah man, it really isn’t. Hey, how’s ‘bout I buy you a drink sometime?” He offered lightly. “We could talk about the craftsmanship of the Roughrider or something.”

“I…” Being praised for my genius actually didn’t sound that bad. I laughed softly, and shook my head. “Maybe next time. I really have to be going.”

”Me too.” The man shrugged like it couldn’t be helped, and moved off with his bodyguards toward a large flyer settled on a pad.

I brushed past the man, and pulled out my phone. After a moment, a Dragonfly crawled out of the saddlebag to watch the bike. I didn’t let it fly freely since it’d probably trip Sentinel’s security, but no way was I going to just leave the bike totally undefended.

A reception room blocked the way further into the building. A Warmachine, a bipedal bot strapped with a deadly amount of weaponry like a micro tank, watched over a group of security guards blocking the way deeper into Sentinel’s Aythryn City HQ.

I directly avoided that and instead approached a reception desk. A woman looked up, and smiled politely at me. Despite the professionalism she tried to show, her nose still twitched when she took in my clothes. “Name?”

“Tsukuyomi?” I tried to hold in a laugh. I looked like a slum rat, so it probably should’ve been expected. I put on my most banged up jacket, pants, and t-shirt before coming out here.

“Right. Executive access is restricted.” The attendant at the desk immediately lost interest, and waved her hand. “I think you’re a little lost, dear. If you have a delivery, I’d be happy to take it from you.”

”I said Tsukuyomi? I should be expected.” Maybe this was a bad idea. I couldn’t exactly embarrass Brunhilde if they wouldn’t even let me in the door. I adjusted my beaten up slasher’s hat, and sighed softly to myself.

“I heard you.” She picked proudly at her own perfectly fitted suit jacket that hugged her body. ”I’m afraid—”

“Is there a problem here?” A man in a fine jacket just like the woman approached. Red neon threads pulsed through his jacket.

“Ah, this girl—“

”Tsukuyomi. Shiro Tsukuyomi.” I rolled my eyes. “I have a name. And you can personally tell it to Brunhilde when you explain the reason I didn’t come was because the idiotic help didn’t let me through the door.”

“Ms. Tsukuyomi?” The man’s expression froze. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

”I did. Twice now, actually.” I didn't have time to bother with all this corporate politeness. I was pulled away from my workshop for this? Really? Why did everyone around me have their heads so far crammed up their ass that they couldn’t see? I was just about to start working on my Gravitite too.

“Melissa…” The man turned on the woman instantly. “Why are you bothering Miss Tsukuyomi?”

“What? She failed the facial recs?” The woman pointed at a monitor. I didn’t even see the camera that tried to read me, but that was just another reminder that security here was on another level.

“Apologies, miss. We were told they’d fail for you, but it appears not everyone read the memo.” His words had some bite to them as he glared subtly at his coworker. “I’ll have you through in just a moment.”

“You were told they’d fail?” Had my tricks already been seen through by Sentinel? I shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.

”Ah yes…” He looked up from where he’d been distracted tapping around on a computer. “Actually, we were told failure to get a facial recognition would be authentication itself. Not many people in the world can get through our system unflagged.”

That… that made a lot of sense, actually. It was just like Sentinel to make special authentication procedures and failsafes for me. I might not even be able to hide in a crowd anymore without getting immediately pointed out as Shiro. That was… uncomfortable. I needed to think this through later.

The man grabbed a badge saying VVIP Guest from the side, and waved his hand. A security guard approached, and the man passed me the badge. “Please escort Miss Tsukuyomi here to Executive Lounge 137-Zeta.”

”Got it.” The guard glanced at me, and then shrugged. “If you’d please follow me.”

”Chek chek.” I followed the guard deeper into the building. If I knew things were going to be this bothersome, I would’ve dressed up nicer. Last time I did this kind of thing.