My sponsor was eating a bag of crunchy chips rather obnoxiously as I stared at him with a deadpan expression. And with no shame he held out a chip and said. "My guy... You traveled across the states to get to Florida for a vacation. Only to just die at the airport via a random ass spider biting your ass while sitting on the toilet."
I sighed with a groan escaping me as I grumbled. "I just got some free time from my work and hobbies too... And after such a terrible in-flight meal, of course, I had to blow up a toilet when I landed. It's not like I was going to wait an extra hour to get to a hotel."
My sponsor shrugged and then said. "Whelp, at least you get a chance to reincarnate with all your memories and such. No express trip to hell, heaven, purgatory, the void, or any other place. You are here and getting a second chance in either case."
I nodded as that was fair enough, already I had calmed down after my abrupt cardiac arrest via the spider's venom after relaxing for a good while with my body having been fixed of any issues. "So what happens now? Where am I going then?"
My sponsor hummed as he went through a file and said. "Well, as per usual for Jake's sent it to me. You have a soul bent for technology, not technomancy. But actual innovation and pioneering of technology."
My lips twitched as I said dryly. "I somehow doubt that... I recall very vividly breaking the connectors of a stick of RAM when I was failing to stick it in my PC for an upgrade."
"You never went to technical school, nor actually bothered to get into the nitty gritty of technological evolution. In either case, this cheat will be the perfect enhancement along the typical general body adaptivity for any chrome you decide to get installed along with one final thing.
My sponsor folded his hands together and spoke more seriously. "So you are going to the universe of Cyberpunk 2077, but that's not all it is. It actually crossed over with Mass Effect. So along with your adaption and slight regeneration to compensate for the implants you are inevitably going to take in. You will have one more thing. You will be a natural biotic."
I tilted my head to the side as I processed that information. Then I had to rub my eyes as so much didn't make sense. "Uhh so its a fiat cheat that I am a natural Biotic right?" At my sponsors nod I continued.
"So how is this going to work, Mass Effect is like literally a century away from Cyberpunk with how humanity finds the relay and Prothean data storage on Mars?" I asked curiously.
My sponsor coughed and then with a wry smile he said. "Actually... A large Batarian fleet of slavers are going to find at one end of a relay gate the path to the one orbiting Pluto. Soooo Humanity will be entering the galactic stage much, much sooner then you expect."
I brushed my hand across my face hearing that and I groaned before I said. "Alright fair enough... I just got to fill the cities with anti-air lasers or something."
My sponsor shrugged and said. "Along with that, the universe will also have two minor crossovers of note to keep things stabilized though their events aren't going to reflect on the universe or earth itself beyond some dangerous elements."
He took a deep breath and said. "The biological elements of Resident Evil will be there with Umbrella being the super pharmaceutical/bioweapon company. Along with Vault Tech from Fallout having scientists from basically Big Mountain that have given the company all the advanced technology that can be found in the Fallout Universe."
My lips twitched and I drawled out. "No zombie or nuclear apocalypse?"
My sponsor chuckled and said with a wry smile. "Well... Seeing Deathclaw's and Super Mutant Behemoths fighting an Umbrella Tyrant armed with Gorilla Arms and a Sandevistan is pretty cool."
I was silent for a long moment before my sponsor said frankly. "So yeah, no apocalypses. But the world of Cyberpunk doesn't give two shits about human lives, so expect to see zombies bioweapons, radiation and FEV-twisted monsters around the world to say nothing of other issues."
With that, my sponsor reached into his desk and after a moment of clear thought he grabbed two orbs of light and then he flicked them at me with the balls of light shooting into my body with a grunt exiting. "There ya go. Throwing the essence of Inspired Inventor into your soul to give you the knowledge of technology and how to use it. While other orb is a special something I yoinked from another Jake's way of doing things."
"Satisfactory factories that can pull trace mineral atoms and magnify them to larger amounts to have damn near endless ore and shit? What do you want me to make a super mining corporation or something?" I asked as I held my head as unfiltered knowledge slammed into my consciousness.
My sponsor hummed and shrugged before saying dryly. "I don't give a shit. Make a factory that only mass produces the highest quality cocaine to pay for the gang you decide to make. It's up to you in your new life, I am just giving you a method to reasonably be able to make a difference when the Batarians do come."
Before I could respond, maybe even ask when the hell said Batarians would be there. My sponsor snapped his fingers and I was sucked into a portal with my body getting locked up as I was sucked away.
-
A loud thump rang out as I was thrown out of the portal into a patch of hard concrete. "Ughhh... Couldn't give me a softer landing?" I demanded with a groan as I sat up and realized my outfit of jeans and a jacket plus a t-shirt had been switched around to fit the techno life of Night City.
And already I could see the bright lights of Night City surrounding me, and then as I stood up in the alley I quickly made my way the fuck out of the alleyway as I didn't want to change some rat the size of a tiger that was the experiment of some deranged company getting their nibblers on me.
But just as I began moving I froze as a small bag fell to my feet and leaning down to look into the bag I saw a sticky note on it. [Here is a bag containing. A, 1 card which acts as your identification which is needed for living in this world. Along with another card containing some Eurodollars, and in another envelope is a spatial ring which you can use to store stuff as everyone who reincarnates needs an inventory.]
After reading the list of what the bag had, the note actually vibrated with the note in bold lettering stating. [Stay the fuck off the streets during nighttime! Get an apartment at a hab-block with the money I gave you, ASAP!]
Walking into the actual main streets of Night City I was taken aback by how vibrant it was. Lights were everywhere, and holograms filled the air that showed off company products. It was truly an overwhelming sight, to say the least.
I brought a hand to my chest as I took a deep breath. "Ok, Jake... Take stock in what you are, what you have, and what you will do." I muttered as I began thinking.
First, obviously, I needed to skedaddle and get some secure housing. Second, I need to make myself a weapon to defend myself. Third, begin making more money to begin working on taking in some implants into my body.
So with that plan of action made, I quickly made my way over to a small grocery store and after questioning a worker while pretending I was new to Night City, I got some directions to the nearest hab-tower.
Which in hindsight wasn't exactly that great of an idea to live in. As it was only when I was being ram-roaded into paying for the admittedly seemingly cheap rent that I realized that a hundred fucking thousand people living inside a megastructure in a world of zombies and bioweapons was probably a terrible idea.
But at this point, I already paid and I got lucky enough to get an apartment on the outer side of the hab-tower so my apartment had a window view of Nightcity's other giant office buildings and towers.
'Place is a shithole... Kinda looks familiar though.' I thought as I quickly went down the hallway from the elevator past other people and even stores on the thirty-fifth floor of the tower I was living at.
I used the card I had for the apartment to unlock it and with a loud click I heard the door unlock making me exhale in relief as I went into the apartment with myself slamming the door closed and taking joy in the solid metal door locking shut with it being closed automatically.
Taking in the admittedly rather large single bedroom, I walked over to the glass wall and mused whether I could see any of the bioweapons I feared running around when night fell... Monsters running around at night within Night City, it was honestly just too poetic.
But I shut those thoughts aside as I took in my bare-bones apartment that only had a bathroom, a tv projector, and a bed that I didn't exactly trust to be clean built into one of the walls. Oh and a large walk-in closet that was damn near perfectly sized to be a walk-in armory in all reality.
I turned around and I blinked as low and behold I saw something that made me blink as I recalled that the office worker who sold the apartment to me told me the apartment had been empty for a good four months the last tenants had gotten home late and gotten attacked by a 'pyscho' outside of the hab-tower.
A really... Really shitty laptop that wasn't even seemingly worth the effort to throw away when the apartment was cleaned out of its personal effects was laying atop the table that was obviously meant for someone to have their PC or workstation.
Already as I came up to the shit-top I grimaced as I realized this laptop was held together by electric duct tape, hopes and shattered dreams. So I got to work as things just fell into mind as all the technological knowledge I previously knew in my previous life just slid in along with the new information to tell me what to do.
'Battery is utterly trashed... The back says it was literally made twenty years ago, so only material components are worth anything.' I muttered to myself as I began disassembling the laptop and then the projector tv that the apartment came with... That I also wasn't meant to fuck with as well.
But fuck it, I was going to live here a good while and I wanted to make sure it was safe, so I mono-focused the holographic lens and lasers from the projector tv to create a laser cutter and then began cutting apart the laptop to pull all its parts out and allow me to begin working on something far better.
After an hour, I melted, and soldiered together the shit-top with the parts from the projector tv and other electronics I scavenged from the apartment into the most important thing from Mass-Effect that would allow me to begin the process of doing everything else.
A full arm-sized Omni-Tool. Which was rather fucking heavy on my right arm, but I had it hooked up to the dimensional frequency of my spatial ring that I figured out due to the Satisfactory cheat I got so that I could convert certain matter into Omni-Gel that could then store said Omni-Gel in large quantities into my spatial ring and then take it out to be used by the Omni-Tool.
'Ok... I got a few hours before night falls supposedly. I need to go raid the trashcans or something to get all the extra matter for the Omni-Gel, from there. I can make some armor, simpler guns, and from there try to make some money so I can get access to an Auto-Doc to yoink its programming.' I thought as I made my next game plan which would be a more long-term plan.
And whats what I did, using some sheets to make a breathing mask to cover up my mouth and nose as I had no idea what diseases and germs were around the hab towers dump, I quickly gathered up some trash that was injected into my Omni-Tool and began filling up my spatial ring with Omni-Gel on the edges of the massive trash compressor.
Though as I was coming back up the elevator I left the elevator with another person and as we came down the same hallway on our floor I paused as we came to the same area and I took in the person's appearance more.
A bit darker of skin, probably Latino or something and rather vibrant red hair. 'Looks familiar sorta.' I thought as we silently reached our apartments and as I reached my apartment she paused and turned around hearing my door unlock behind her.
"Oh, you got that apartment? Thought you looked new." She spoke and I blinked as she unlocked the next door meaning we were actually neighbors.
"Uhh yeah, just moved in today. Name's Jake Bariss, I just got to Night City in fact."
The woman raised an eyebrow and after a moment she said. "Well Jake, my name is Gloria Martinez, I hope you got your feet under yourself here in Night City as it has a habit of chewing people alive quite literally in fact."
I shrugged and after a moment of thought, I asked. "Uhh, any advice for someone new to Night City? Who and where to avoid?"
Gloria stood at the entrance of her door, and as I inspected her more I realized she had a fat revolver hanging at her waist under her Biotechnica jacket.
After a moment of thought Gloria shrugged and said. "Stay the fuck away from the Coons, they are a gang working for Umbrella that snatches up people to deliver them to be experimented on. Also, stay away from the Dwellers, they are the gang that works for Vault Tech and does the same shit but has a theme of hiding underground most of the time."
With that warning said Gloria had one last thing to say as she spoke firmly. "And unless you want to be an Edgerunner, or have no sense of security for yourself... Stay inside when the sun goes down in Night City, freaks and abominations hunt in the dark corners of the city."
The door to her apartment closed behind her as she entered her apartment and as her apartment closed I blinked as I briefly saw into it and saw another person as they got up to greet their mother.
'Ah, shit. That's Gloria Martinez and David from Edgerunners, fucking aye that can't be a coincidence.' I thought with a sigh as I went into my own apartment.