Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

I pulled uncomfortably at the skintight bodysuit I’d put on. It was supposed to help isolate my body from the refrigerant so I wouldn’t suffer hypothermia, while still allowing my head to be fully exposed to the cooling fluid. Honestly, overheating wasn’t as much as an issue for me. My tech had an external blood chilling pump to ensure my temperature was regulated. My blood would be cycled through a cooling system and then pumped back in colder.

“You ready?” Luna sat up on her chair, and yawned lightly. Heavy bags filled under her eyes.

“Are you? Look like you haven’t slept.” Though I couldn’t exactly blame her. I had to force myself to sleep last night with Lethargic Pressence. Today was the day, after all. The competition was here.

”I-I was busy setting things up.” She rubbed at the crook of her elbow, and her head dipped down. Her long silver hair flowed down her shoulders, accentuating her frail frame. “I’ll be fine. I got into your stash of stims.”

”That—“ How’d she find those? No, wait, my Dragonflies were basically omnipresent down here. ‘Course she’d know about those. “Don’t tell Mira.”

”Who do you think I am?” Luna nodded to the other chair. “We have three hours left. I want to run through the plan a few more times.”

”Right—“

Ding! Ding! Ding!

My phone buzzed in my pocket. The caller ID flashed on my HUD: Nael. I pulled out my phone, and backed toward the workshop. “Go on ahead, Luna. I gotta take this.”

”Be quick.” She settled back and closed her eyes. The chair shifted around under her, and the deep-dive jack plugged directly into the back of her neck.

I watched her for a moment before hitting answer and heading toward the foundries to check on them one last time. “Hey, Nael.”

”How you holding up, kid?” Nael asked.

”Alright, I guess.” I idly picked at flaking paint on the front of the foundry. “Calling just to check up?”

”I wish…” The old medek sighed heavily. “Your blood analysis results came back. I’m going to be honest, kid, things don’t look good.”

I winced, and moved toward the nuclear reactor instead. The noise drowned out my voice enough that I shouldn’t have to worry about Luna overhearing. “Lay it on me.”

Nael hesitated for a moment like he was trying to think of a way to say it kindly. ”The blood was a bust.”

“I expected as much.” I rubbed gently at my scalp. An elite team like the ones that nabbed Kaynis wouldn’t just let themselves be found that easily. I was really hoping, though…

”The dirt, however, was another matter.”

I blinked, and my hand paused. ”Dirt?”

“Yeah, kid. You picked up trace amounts of dirt, likely from the shoes of whoever the blood belonged to. It was baked into the stuff.” Nael’s voice softened. “I’m no good with that kind of thing, but my buddy is. He managed to narrow down a region.”

”You can do that?” My eyes widened in surprise. Isn’t dirt just, like, dirt?

“It’s got something do with geology and soil analysis. Not too sure myself, kid.” My phone buzzed, and an attachement came across. “He highlighted probable locations.”

I pulled up the attachment. The southern country of North Arkhanika, Lathvin, was highlighted. Specifically, the areas relight around Lathvin City, the capital city of the country. Several mountain ranges in the area were shaded with different intensity based on the likelihood of where the dirt came from.

”My friend would’ve liked to get it more accurate, but there was too little untainted soil. It was the best he could do,” Nael said.

“It’s more than enough already.” I eyed the map. That amount of area—it was way too large to realistically search… it did explain why Commander Strumgard couldn’t pinpoint his location, though. Kaynis wasn’t even in the country to begin with.

Should I tell Luna? I glanced back toward the net den, and slowly shook my head. We may have a general location, but the wish could eliminate months of hard work narrowing him down. Telling her now could impact her mental state. With the competition so close, that was a terrible idea.

Right, after the battle-royale was over, I’d tell her we had a general location. “Thanks, Nael. Hey, I’ll pop by later and talk to you, Kay?”

”Sure, kid. Just be careful. Moving between countries isn’t easy these days. Whatever you’re caught up in isn’t simple.” Nael sighed one last time, and hung up.

I dropped my phone into my lap. Lathvin, huh? Not only would I have to leave the city, I’d have to leave the country to pursue Kaynis’ kidnappers. I wasn’t anywhere prepared for that kind of thing. I’d need at least a month to get myself ready… should probably start with upgrading my chrome and getting an auto-translator.

My head dropped back against the wall, and I stared up at the roof of my workshop. Felt like I just got this place up and running, and I’d have to leave it behind. No—that wasn’t quite right. I wasn’t leaving Aythryn City permanently. Just taking a small trip before coming back.

It wasn’t like it was guaranteed he was in Lathvin. The people that nabbed him could just be Lathvin mercs, and Kaynis was actually still in the FSA somewhere. Right, the wish was a must no matter what.

I pushed off from the wall, and slowly walked toward the net den while clearing out my mind. I could think about it all later. For now, I had a competition to win.

— — —

Three hours later, Luna and I slid into a Monarch private server. It was like instant teleportation, almost. Except our bodies were still back in the workshop, and just our minds were somewhere entirely else. Still had a hard time wrapping my head around that issue.

Luna had decided to take the form of a black wolf. Honestly, she looked a bit like Kaynis if Kaynis was a full wolf instead of a weird werewolf mix. She looked up at me, and her eyes glowed with a familiar pale blue. “We’re here, Shiro.”

“Chek.” I stretched my arms over my head. She’d changed my avatar to that of my Nightshade armor, though a completed version of it. Purely cosmetic, ‘course. I swayed my hips lightly, and got into character.

The two of us stood in front of a wide set of double doors leading into a gargantuan palace. All around us was a sprawling galaxy like we’d been dropped off in front of a heavenly palace without realizing it.

Luna stepped forward, and grimaced. “Give me a sec. The doors are locked… one final test, it seems.”

”Take your time.” I walked away from her, and leaned over a balcony railing looking out of the galaxy.

Despite knowing this was all just in my head, everything felt incredibly real. I could feel my armor pressing in on my body, the wood underneath my arms, and the air being drawn through my lungs. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it’d slipped into an alternate reality. In a way, I guess it was.

Stars blinked out in the distance, and Insight tingled through my digital body. Something malicious was watching us from beyond the false stars. “Luna?”

”Got it.” The door clicked open, and the icy sensation faded. “C’mon, Shiro. We’re almost late.”

I took a breath, and turned back to face her. Although we were calling each other by name, Luna had assured me others wouldn’t hear. She’d done some kind of interception code in the net chairs that made it so only we could hear each other. Everyone else heard modulated voices calling each other Nightshade and Moonfall. Similarly, she’d set up a filter to scrub any sensitive words from being overheard.

The two of us slipped into a grand hall filled with people of all shapes and kinds—no, not people. Avatars. I was reminded of that when I locked eyes with a six-eyed demon on the other side of the vast hall. Voices chattered, and a grand feast was set up around the place.

Around the great feast hall. People ate to their heart’s content. It wasn't like they could get fat off of code, but I had no doubt the taste was unmatched. It smelled unmatched, anyway.

”Announcing Nightshade, the phantom thief. Announcing Moonfall, net’s bane.” A voice called from the heavens, and eyes snapped toward us.

”… did you give us those epitaphs?” And why the hell had she given herself such a cool one compared to me?

”Monarch’s doing. We’re in it now, huh?” Luna’s voice bounced into my head similar to the Packheart Rings. “I set up a private channel for us.”

”Good thinking… so these are all our competitors, huh?” I eyed the masses. There were maybe… five hundred people here? People loosely, ‘course. Some people had truly weird avatars.

”This is the… pregame lobby, I guess?” Luna moved up beside me, and tapped my shoulder. Nametages popped up over each and every person’s name. “Got access to the guest list.”

So she could hack here as well? The games had already begun, then. Most people just didn’t seem to realize it yet. “Think you could get access to the map information beforehand?”

”Maybe. The ICE around that side of the database is much more complex—“

”Nightshade, huh?” A man dressed like an ancient berserker approached, and laughed hauntingly. “Never heard of you.”

”Obviously. I wouldn’t be called a phantom otherwise.” I lifted my head slightly, and stared down my nose at the man. “What kind of name is Red Furry-13, anyway? Let me guess—your mom picked your gamer tag?”

”Red Fury-13, bitch.” He spat off to the side. A glob of code dissipated into particles a moment later. No way he went through the effort to have that coded in, chek? “Remember my name. I’ll be the one to claim that cocky head of yours.”

”I don’t remember nobodies.” I turned away, and moved with Luna toward a distant table instead of lowering myself to his level.

Red Furry tried to follow, but a table suddenly spawned in front of him, causing him to trip and hit the ground hard. An enraged shout erupted form behind us. “I’ll get you!”

”Sure, sure.” I shook my head, and spoke in the private channel. “I thought you said this was the best of the best?”

”… that guy has a kill count in the thousands, Shiro.” Luna sighed, and new articles popped into my HUD featuring him. “He’s one of the Northern Sovet’s super soldiers.”

”Oh…” So what? They only succeeded on the thirteenth try? That was certainly unfortunate.

I took a breath, and looked around the place. For the most part, people were back to what they were doing before without paying any mind to us. Every single person here had a legend or tale, though. It’d be stupid of me to forget that. The only saving grace was that this was in the DarkNet. Their real life powers and abilities meant nothing here unless their runners coded it in mid contest.

Alternatively, Luna and I could both use almost the full extent of our abilities. Luna was an no brainer, and most of my stuff was still usable. Anything that wasn’t reliant on a mutation of my body, basically. That meant things like Fear the Reaper, a mental skill, Dexterity, Burst Step, and even learned ones like Fox’s Paw were fully usable.

Basically, while the people here may be terrifying, Luna and I started at 100 while they were back at 3. It was our game to win as long as we played our cards right and stuck to the plan.

”Announcing Quicksilver, legendary samurai. Announcing Trust, ICE melter.” The announcer came again. My attention, however, was drawn to the interface which had somehow managed to pop up even here.

| Request - Winner winner - Received

-Win the battle-royale (0/1)

-Place high in the competition

-Kill contestants (0/250)

-Kill Red Furry-13 (0/1)

-Complete side-objectives

-Steal kills

-Pull off successful ambushes

-Kill with a sniper rifle |

Woah… that was a lot of objectives. I blinked a few times, and memorized everything. Most of that was stuff that I could pull off passively. Stealing kills might need a bit of work, as would killing with a sniper rifle. Never much got into sniping. There were a few aces up Luna and I’s sleeves to help with that, though.

The lights throughout the hall suddenly dimmed. “All the contestants are gathered! Monarch wishes you all luck! May the fittest survive till the end.”

My vision darkened, and in an instant I was transported elsewhere. It was fine, though. Luna had long prepared me for how this would go down. The game was finally about to start.