NABC Chapter 147
Chapter 147
Chapter 147I popped my back, rubbing at my sore body as I walked back into my apartment. I ended up fighting about a dozen more times before I left. After the first two fights, the arena’s systems placed my skill level a lot better so that I was fighting people slightly better than me, but not too much better than me that it was a slaughter. I won four of my thirteen other fights.
Before heading home, I also went out and copied all of the audio files from my deck over to my phone to listen in on. Hopefully, there was something good there. I took a quick shower, washing the sweat and grime from spending so long at the holographic battle arena down the drain. I still had mixed feelings about it, but- well, there was no denying its effects.
「Melee Weapons - 3>5」
「Evasion - 3>4」
「Brawling - 1>3」
「Name: Shiro Tsukuyomi
Traits: Fox’s Grace, Quick Healing, Insight
Free Perk Points: 1
Tracking - 7
Stalk
Tech - 8
Eidetic Schematic
Corvid
Stealth - 9
Fox’s Paw
Cold-Blooded
Sleight of Hand - 9
Hidden Hands
Ambidextrous
Perception - 8
Aetherial Perception
Technical Expertise
Net - 3
Melee Weapons - 5
1 Pek Point
Local Novice (Little Yukoto)
Intimidation - 3
Firearm - 4
Dexterity
First Aid - 4
Calming
Evasion - 4
1 Perk Point
Driving - 7
Land Vehicles
Deception - 7
Honest Face
Criminology - 7
Cues
Concealment - 8
Lethargic Presence
Hidden Weapon
Cleaning - 3
Brawling - 3
Accounting - 1
Request Board」
Not too bad. I was technically in the middle of a job, so not quite sure why I leveled in this case. Not that I was complaining. Maybe since the holo arena was entirely unrelated to the actual job? Still so much about the whole interface thing I need to figure out.
Two new Perk Points to spend on top of the Free Perk Point. As for the Free Perk Point, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to use it on. There were so many options I was still looking through in my free time. I was leaning towards another Stealth Perk, but throwing it into one of my combat-related Perks would round out my skill set. I was still looking through the list.
There was a Perk in Concealment I had my eyes on though: Master of Disguise. From the way its description sounded, no one would be able to recognize my face unless I allowed them to. Seemed a little too good to be true, especially considering being recognized was one of my biggest issues in some cases. It required Deception and Concealment to level eight though.
Still, I was carefully pruning through all the Perks to get the best Perk. I was only about halfway through. There might be a hidden Perk somewhere that was better, so I was holding off on spending the Free Perk Point till I looked through the entire archive.
I could spend my Perks later though. I moved over to my cluttered table and once more started to work on the various mechanisms I wanted to implant into the Underground. While I worked, I played the audio recordings back at ten times the speed, idly listening in and slowing it down when I heard something of interest.
Most of it was boring office politics or gossip. For instance, I now knew way too much about a manager named John and how big of a bastard he was. Or how Scar got his scars. Surprisingly tragic story. Or how Stacy got thirteen stab wounds the other week.
That being said, I did get a few fragments of information. Most of it came from the bug in the elevator, and the best I could tell based on the elevator’s beeps, the people were some kind of scientists working in a deep sublevel. Or maybe just assistants to scientists. Hard to tell.
Since the conversation was only a fragment, I didn’t learn much outside of a name: Methuze. The man and woman talking about it sounded incredibly fearful even mentioning the project's name.
I heard a few other conversations from down there, and as best I could tell, there was an entire secret lab underneath Cold Moon Solutions. They definitely couldn’t afford one with CMS’s measly income. It was really beginning to look like some kind of Savant Lab. The thought of CMS turning into a Savant Lab coverup was enough to send a spike of rage through the back of my head.
I’d have to get down there to be sure. And I’d have to get down there to complete the gig. If I broke the projects and deleted their re
Hibisen plants would be hard to get, but I could just go steal one from the Circle. Unfortunately, with the mysterious fire wiping out the base Hope and I hit, there was little chance of me easily obtaining one. I guess I could maybe go and track down a Circle hideout on my own? Might earn me some brownie points with the Inquisitor if I found one, at least.
I went around and picked up all the useless clutter and skeletons, tossing them down the chute into the Underground. I’d dispose of most of them better down there. It’d be way easier to get rid of a couple dozen skeletons in the Underground than to sneak them back through the apartment.
I kept a few of the tables that were in better shape, namely the two that were made of metal, as well as the bar itself. It wasn’t in the best shape, but it was still good enough to use for my purposes. That, and it would be a pain in the ass to get it cleared out.
The speakeasy looked… well, I wouldn’t say nice, per se. Ash still covered plenty of surfaces and would be a pain to clean up fully. Other than that though, I got rid of all the clutter around, allowing a fairly large area for me to fill up with my tools.
With all the clutter cleaned up and my safety secured, I was all too happy to finally start looking for the several secret stashes hidden all over the place.