Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

“So this is it, huh?” I stood inside the depths of the weapons lab. I passed quite a few abandoned and already looted rooms to get this deep.

To be honest, most of the weaponry here wasn’t that interesting. This place had been abandoned ages ago, so it was a bit dated. Not to mention most of their research was over larger weapons designed for vehicles. Quite frankly, I had no way of using most.

That was when Luna found this place in the files, and I immediately skipped past everything to come check it out. How could I not? It involved gravitic. Considering my most recent efforts to produce a gravitic superalloy, ‘course it stoked my interest.

There, sitting pretty and sealed behind several layers of gravity, say a sniper rifle unlike anything I’d seen before. Its design was ancient… almost like a flintlock? Only it had the sleek body and parts of a modern firearm.

”Roger. Hang out for a minute.” The door in front of me flashed blue and slid open. Security systems all around the room were pinged and disabled in a similar way until it was just me and the beautiful weapon sitting in front of me.

The security systems totally collapsed, and I headed inward to collect my prize. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get from the depths of the labs, but this thing was more than enough to make me happy.

[Graviton Bolt - Rustek SRX-3 Gravity Rifle Platform ]

It was another one of the… legendaries? Iconics? I wasn’t sure what to call this type of thing. Regardless, it was the third I’d collected next to the Warhost’s Unstoppable Saber and the ThunderGod Greaves.

I ran my hands along the sleek body of the rifle. It wasn’t normal at all. Even without Technical Expertise giving me a rundown, I could see that. Its strike plate was made of gravitic, and the entire bullet chamber was likewise made of the dark purple chamber. The barrel too, for that matter, though it was mostly covered up by a metal frame and wires.

Did it use gravity to shoot? Sentinel also had gravity weapons in their prints, but they still used normal gunpowder to run everything. This just seemed like it wouldn’t work very well. The mechanisms themselves seemed barely connected.

Granted, just because they were researching it didn't mean they finished their research. The DNBR was also just a game, so they could hand wave the fact it wouldn’t actually work and code it to fire anyway.

I ran a hand along the body of the weapon as an idea occurred to me. The way they were trying to get gravity to shoot was kind of stupid, but it did give me an idea I’d been overlooking for my superalloy.

The issue I had with it was getting the gravitic to compress and bind into the titanium alloy I was using. I made specialized hydraulic presses and everything for it. Nothing worked. What if I just used gravity itself instead? I could create a miniature blackhole type machine, and it’d compress everything and force it to merge into a single point.

Hmm… I’d have to workshop that idea later, but it might be just what I was looking for. I looked at the Graviton Bolt with renewed appreciation. “What’s this thing shoot, anyway?”

”Graviton Bolts.” She lit up a small crate of purple, bullet-shaped crystals. “It’s a unique ammo, so you only have so many shots.”

”Can you hack more for me?” I held up one of the bullets. It was literally just gravitic that they’d ground down into bullet shape. I pulled the bolt of the rifle back and slid one into place. It was a single-shot type bolt-action, which was incredibly annoying.

Honestly, maybe I should just leave this here? Wait, no, it was the same class of item as the Warhost’s Unstoppable Saber. I should give it a chance at the very least. It could be some crazy powerful weapon.

“It’ll be a point per, so I could.” Luna flashed my point indicator at me. After looting around, I was up to 68 points. “Should we do it now?”

“How many people are left?” I asked back.

”87 Operators still remaining. There’s only 34 other Netrunners left.” She sighed heavily. “It’s been brutal, Shiro. Black ICE and instant death protocols are flying all across the Node.”

“Hang in there.” I sure was glad I didn’t have to deal with anything like that. Going out that kind of thing would fry me in real life too. There were at least 53 real world deaths as a result of this game, if not more. “It’s slowing down.”

”A bit,” she said. “Even more of a reason to hurry.”

There were probably all sorts of reasons for that, but it boiled down to better equipment and people playing it safer. By this point, most of the Operators should be to the level that they were in real life when it came to chrome, if not better.

Honestly, I’d gotten super unlucky in my hunt for chrome. I needed upgrade chips or a Neuroprocessor to get a better Neural Load, and I hadn’t found either throughout this entire time. Just a bunch of useless weapons.

I loaded up, and backed toward the way I came from. There was still something I needed to do in the research base. It was half the point I even came in here. “Mark the ring console for me again?”

“Here.” A spot in my vision flashed blue. It was several stories above me, which meant finding stairs. Luna got the entire blueprint when she took over the security though, so it wasn’t too bad. “So?”

”Hold off for now. Save it for if we’re about to die, or final circle.” It’d have the most effect then. With all of us survivors crammed into one final spot, it was almost guaranteed to cause mass devastation.

“Got it.”

We went silent, and I moved through the base one more time while eyeing my map. Someone else had crept in at some point, and it’d be terribly inconsiderate not to welcome them in. ‘Sides, I had a new weapon that was just asking to be tested.

I moved through the halls, and lined myself up with where the Operator would be coming from. I dropped down to the floor, and rested the Graviton Bolt against my arm in preparation for the ambush.

A few minutes later, my target abruptly shifted directions instead of continuing to come toward me. I staggered to my feet and brushed myself off. “Really? They can’t do this to me.”

“Right, ‘cause the Operator should’ve passed it through you before changing directions.” Luna’s voice sarcastically echoed across our private channel.

”Exactly!” I slapped my hands together sharply. “It’d be so much more convenient that way!”

I thought through the map, and whipped out my sword. My ThunderGod Greaves kicked against the floor, and I darted through a side room. The instant I approached the wall, I slashed out with the saber and kicked through the wall in a spray of debris.

I snapped my Graviton Bolt down the hall just as my target flinched back toward me, and squeezed the trigger. A low hum erupted from the rifle, and a purple barrel flash erupted alongside a cloud of smoke like it was some old flintlock.

Twong!

The Graviton Bolt glowed a deep purple and arced across the hallway to the Operator. It was slow—horribly slow. That just made it all the more beautiful compared to a traditional weapon. It was like a waltz of death down the hall toward her.

Unfortunately, that also meant she had more than enough opportunity to shoot back. I ducked just as a barrage of bullets came down my way. One of them caught me in the thigh, and another slammed into my arm. I jerked backward into cover and slammed a Medstim into my leg.

The bolt slammed into her chest, and shattered. She froze and stared at the floating shards in confusion. It didn’t do any damage. At least, at first. The air around her distorted, and her expression shifted to shock as her bones snapped. In an instant, a sphere around her crumpled in and the air screamed violently. Everything within the range of the sphere crumpled inward in a snap.

Stunned silence filled the air as I eyed the destruction caused by the shot. It was slow, like I suspected, but its damage was unparrelled. The spot it struck was just gone in a ragged sphere. It was like a black hole opened up to devour my opponent and everything around her.

“Well…” Luna’s voice sounded horribly small. “I think a point per shot is more than fair.”

“Chek.” If it could strip the concrete from the walls, I wouldn’t have to worry about what it’d do to a person. Hell, I couldn’t even see even a fragment of the person it struck. Just a shot could probably even take care of a tank if I place it in the right spot. “Any chance you can snag the research documents for this thing?”

If I could figure out how it was supposed to work, maybe I could make an improved version of it? The projectile speed would definitely need to increase. Maybe fix the feed so it wasn’t a single shot… oh, so many ideas.

”Maybe. Focus on one thing at a time, okay? Consoles right there.” She lit up a spot just ahead of me.

I moved through the hall, and jacked into the ring console. Honestly, the only bad part of the Graviton Bolt was that it completely destroyed my opponent. It left zero opportunity to loot the woman before she was obliterated.

Luna appeared next to me, and leaned against the ring console casually. “Almost done. You’re good.”

“Nice.” I unjacked from the ring console, and brushed my hand along the Rustek Graviton Bolt. It was so much more terrifying than I thought it’d be. “You remember that red furry guy?”

”Red Fury-13? Yeah, how could I forget?” She looked up to me in curiosity. “What about him?”

”I need you to find him for me.” I shifted my gaze away from the bolt-action sniper rifle and checked on my Winner-Winner Request progress. Honestly, things were going well. Or well enough, anyway. If I could just find that guy and execute him, it’d be another check on the list.

”Sure.” The console pulsed, and the information for where the Node would close popped up. My luck had finally worn out. Instead of ending on the main mountain base, the battle royale was pushing us toward the ruined remains of Drastov City far to the south-east.

So we were ending in a city after all of this, chek? It was almost fitting, somehow. ‘Course I’d be going to a city even during something like. I may try to escape the city-life, but it’d never let me go. No, maybe this was for the best? I’d be more comfortable maneuvering around there, and there’d be plenty of spots to set up with the Graviton Bolt.

A secondary ping went off, and a red circle surrounded the city. “He’s already there somewhere. We’re too far for me to get a precise location.”

”That’s more than enough.” I wanted to head there anyway. The sooner I got posted up somewhere with my Graviton Bolt, the sooner I could start a killing streak and fulfill the Request’s conditions. But first, I really should go dig my spider tank back up.