On The Edge Of Legality (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)

Internal Wonder

Night City.
What a city.
What a fucking city. 

Even the mornings and afternoons couldn't keep quiet as you walked along its streets. NCPD blaring their sirens as they speed on by, People walking past looking so glum, deranged screaming around every corner and every now and again you'd hear a gun go off in the distance, its pop bouncing off every wall until the soundwaves reach you. 

The new day had come after a late night's sleep took over my conscience. This morning I found my clothes extra comforting as I let them spin around in the dryer once more to warm them up. My breakfast of champions was another burrito I purchased on my way out of the apartment before subsequently stuffing it down my throat after finding myself starving upon waking up. Though the sleep certainly did help, I still had anger left over from last night and rather than feed wood into the fire, I decided by myself I'd take the day off and do some day drinking, what could go wrong?

Despite it only being noon, Rubys was open all hours of the day and all throughout the night every day of the week allowing its customers and Jantex's crew to shove a mixed drink down their gullet whenever they feel the need. 

And that's precisely what I felt. With a drink in one hand and my finger furiously tapping against the counter in the other I reserved the rest of the day for thoughts and recuperation as I sat on a stool in front of the bar. So long as Jantex didn't have another flatline job he wanted to chuck at my face I would have the opportunity to calm myself and forget about the sketchy biz before moving on. 

So far this morning had been relatively silent surprisingly, normally I'd get a call in the morning from Adrian or another Choom telling me about the previous day before telling me a time to meet them at Ruby's for the next job. Perhaps it was a result of my failure to acquire what was asked of me but if that were the case wouldn't Someone still contact me and start talking to me about the next job? Maybe they were just being nice to me and giving me a day off as a result of last night. I couldn't really care about that though, even if they had a new job for me today they were shit out of luck cause I wasn't moving a fucking muscle from this barstool. 

They were probably talking over the whole situation today. Like I keep saying if a job like that was so important, then whatever I couldn't snatch was severe enough to warrant a meeting about it. Why? Who the fuck knows, If I did I wouldn't keep talking about it. 

I finished the last sip of my drink and called for another that could allow my thoughts to numb further into the night and eventually end altogether. That was my laid-out plan for the night, get a day off and drink away the confusion until I woke up the next morning in one of the booths. 

Boy if my mother saw me now I couldn't imagine what she would say. 

She'd surely be disappointed in me that there is no doubt about it. The last thing she would want is her own sun passing out drunk in the bar. Not even that, if I became a Cyberpunk when she was still alive her heart would have been crushed into a fine dust. 

Fuck sake what was I to do about this situation? When you live in Night City you learn never to ask questions of any sort, yet this abnormal behaviour has truly flared my curiosity to its limits. It feels like I'm an actor being forced on stage with little preparation and only a brief rundown of my role before getting shoved into the spotlight as they tell me to fill in the blanks.

It was highly unusual for Jantex to want something so big with such a risk involved. Normally it's just small raids, stolen data and jacked rides. And yet when he does want something like that done he chooses me without a second thought, someone with no experience in such jobs. Sure I have the tech and training data to do it but none of that means jack shit when you've never done something like that before.