Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG-Chapter 326

Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG-Chapter 326

Content warning: Suicide
Woah, this is the second content warning this arc. Considering I’ve only ever written three of them, including this one, I dunno how I feel about that.
— — —
”Mira, you there?” I called lightly into the Packheart Ring and worked my way down the building. With everything taken care of, there was no reason to keep sticking around this place.
She didn’t reply. An uneasy sensation filled me. The gunfire had cut off at some point too. The building steeped in an uncomfortable silence, and the shadows seemed to push and pull fiercely around me. This place hadn’t been much of an issue to climb up through, but it was horribly creepy now that it was just me moving through the dark.
Out of habit, I activated my Perks and slunk into the shadows. Illusive wrapped around me, making me one with the dark and hiding my form. Something just didn’t feel right. “You guys see her?”
”Sorry, Shiro, the last Dragonfly was shot down. I’m trying to fly another one over, but it’ll take a couple minutes.” Saint replied while I mentally flicked through the cams I was connected to. Nothing nearby.
“Your sentries are dead.” Luna popped up a small map of the heights on my map and showed me a dark splotch. ”P-powers out in that area, too. No cams unless they’re b-battery, and most of those are l-local. I’ll try to get access.”
“Hurry. Mira, come in. Please.” A hint of desperation leaked into my voice. I didn’t like that she was still silent. She wasn’t dead—I was sure of that much. I could feel her through the Packheart Ring still.
Was this too soon to include her? I knew I should’ve side-lined her a little longer. Hell, did I ever really need to let her roam with me? I was perfectly capable of doing stuff by myself. Ugh—this sucked.
After a few moments, I heard her voice through the ring. “…friend upstairs. She’ll probably be coming down any second now.”
It wasn’t directed at me. That much was obvious. Then who—oh… oh no. Did she get controlled by Mind Freak? What happened to being careful?! Wait—if she could actively use the ring like that, then she wasn’t fully controlled right? Yes, this must all be part of that plan she was hatching.
Did she really have to expose me like that. An uncomfortable mixture of frustration and disappointment welled up inside of me. If—when we got out of this, I needed to have a long conversation with her. I clenched my fist tightly. Even if this was part of the plan, she could’ve discussed it with me—woah, so that’s how this felt.
I took a breath and continued through the dark building, putting my trust in my mikata once more. It was the only thing I
could
do given the situation. She asked me to trust her, and I’d do just that. At least, until I got more intel. That didn’t stop me from making dozens of countermeasures and backup plans just in case anything went wrong though.
As if to reaffirm my decision to put my faith in her, Mira spoke up again, “of course you can trust me.”
After several floors, I made my way back down to the lobby. Not through the stairs that we took to get up, but through a hole in the ceiling from where a previous mutant tried to jump down and ambush us in the first fight. The shadowed room above the lobby gave me a perfect view of the people below.
In the dim light of the still glowing chem lights that Mira tossed out, a group of people had taken up residence. Flashlights flicked and panned across the area from a group of heavily armed and armored mercenaries. About half of them, fifteen, had advanced combat armor that offered full body protection. Getting through one of them looked like it would be difficult, let along cutting through all fifteen.
The rest were in random clothes and had a random assortment of weapons. It looked like gangers, civilians, and mercenaries at random were plucked out and pushed into this group. Most were bloodied like they’d been used as meat shields, though none reacted to their injuries. One guy was even disemboweled, and yet he stood perfectly still without even a whimper of pain. One of them lay dead just outside of the group. Looked like suicide.
Interestingly, among the massive group, none of them were women. In fact, most of them were rather handsome young men. It didn’t take much of a genius to figure out what was going on. A sick sensation filled me once more, and the phantom sensation of vines caressing my limbs caused a shiver to go down my spine.
”I’m glad I never ran into this wacko.” The last Dragonfly that I’d been carrying around like a body cam moved across my shoulder to get a better look into the room. “That’s Mind Freak in the middle.”
A woman stood in the center of the throng. Like the others, she had full combat armor. Unlike the others, hers was a set of worn power armor covered by a duster. Getting through that wouldn’t be easy, especially with the thirty people scattered around her defensively. Hell, most of the weapons in my arsenal might not be able to punch through armor like that regardless of the situation. I’d never designed stuff to pierce thick armor.
Standing next to the woman was Mira. Mira looked no worse for wear, though her eyes were slightly glazed over like those on the outside of the group. Her glazed eyes glanced up to me, accurately piercing through the shadows. Just as I could feel her location with the Packheart Rings, she could feel mine. “She’ll be here soon.”
”I hope so.” The mechanical voice of Mind Freak churned out of her helmet. “Call her. Convince her to come down.”
Mira paused for a moment. ”I don’t have a phone—“
“Broke bitch.” The sneer in the mind controller’s voice was evident. “Strong, give her your phone.”
”Fuck, she got Mira.” Saint groaned in frustration. “I’ll try to dig out a way to break the control. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“‘Course.” As Mira started to call me, I focused more on the subtle details of the situation. For one, Mira was still conscious. She lied about not having a phone. If she was fully mind-controlled, she probably wouldn’t be able to lie like that. I imagine one of the first things a mind controller did was completely destroy paths of resistance just in case.
The real question in all of this was why go so far? Unless… Did she realize the same thing that I did? Getting through her armor wouldn’t be easy. Mira knew exactly what I had in my arsenal—she’d familiarized herself with every part of it while bored. Was she planning on getting close and stabbing the mind controller in the back?
I answered the incoming call from an unknown number, though didn’t lift it to my ear. I didn’t need to when this was all just for looks. “What’s the plan here, Mira?”
”Come down. I’m completely fine. A—a friend wants to have a chat,” Mira casually spoke. She almost stumbled for a moment there, though managed to save it at the last moment with a stutter.
“You are really you, right?” Although I was confident this was a plot to entrap Mind Freak, that unease when it came to trusting others struck again. The answer wouldn’t really matter, though. If she was mind controlled or not, she’d say the same thing.
Yes, its really me—
Mira laughed down below me. Her tone shifted to something much more accusatory. “It’s just
your
luck we ran into such strong mercs. Good thing they’re
friendly
."
“You’re blaming me for this?!” I suppressed a chuckle as I got her reference. This really was just a set up, wasn’t it? Brought back memories—woah, that made me sound old. “Why go so far? We have Iris and could’ve just left.”
Mira went silent for several moments. I looked down just in time to see her glancing at the mind controller with a pointed stare. “They’re practically giving rayn away, so just come down? Please?”
Ah, the bounty. Of course! Totally forgot about that. Someone had 500,000 rayn for Mind Freak’s head. Detached from the rest of the body, preferably. It wasn’t as fat of a bounty as what Polar Moon had on them, but it was still a hefty sum. And she wanted to make a name for herself, right? This was as good of a chance as any. Killing a known menace was a well know strategy to rocket rep.
I didn’t just drop down through the hole in the floor, though a large part of me was tempted. I worked my way back to the stairs and headed back to the lobby without any of my Stealth Perks active. I did, however, leave a Spectral Flock bird behind just in case something went horribly wrong.
As soon as I stepped into the lobby, twenty-nine guns snapped to me. None of them fired, though a cheerful voice came from behind the group. “Ah, you were right, my dear! Your friend really is pretty! Draven! Be a dear and kill yourself!”
Before I could even blink, a ganger on the edge of the group pulled up his pistol and shot himself, splattering blood across the group. No one reacted like it was perfectly normal.
No, none of them
can
react. She’s got them in a vice grip.
Although they were physically frozen, their horrified and glassy eyes suggested they were all to aware of what they were being forced to do.
”If she moves even a hair, shoot her. Oh, and kill her friend too.” She casually gave out orders to the group and then the eyes of her helmet flicked back to me. “You should know better than to move, right dear?”
“Y-you—!”
“None of that.” She cut me off. The woman tore off her helmet, revealing a lecherous grin. “Usually I don’t take on girls, but I’ve been wanting a maid for a while now. A combat maid? Oh! How fun!”
“You’re dreaming if you think I’ll become a maid—“ I cut myself off as I felt a sharp spear of intent slam into my mind. It failed to penetrate a dense coil of vines that suddenly seemed to churn up around me in protection. All mentally speaking, of course. There were no actual spears or vines. Could she only use her ability with direct eye contact?
”A strong will, huh?” Mind Freak smiled happily. The way she looked at me—it wasn’t how someone looked at another person. It was like I was just a disobedient dog that needed to be punished. She already thought she owned me. Fury burned in the depths of my heart. The last creature that thought it could own me didn’t live very long. “You should be proud! I don’t let just anyone into my inner circle!”
“F-fuck, this b-bitch is crazy!” Luna called. “I-I’m trying to hack her armor. J-just buy me a couple minutes.”
Sorry, Luna, I don’t think I have a couple
minutes. Even if Mira didn’t make a move soon, I would. I may not be able to get through to her with pure firepower, but I refused to believe I couldn’t short the power armor with a full burst of electricity. “Proud? Of being controlled like a doll? Dream on!”
“What a great gift! I do so
love
breaking people.” Her filthy smile grew by the second. She lifted a hand and traced the helmet of one of her guards. “Seeing them struggle knowing it’s all for naught—uhh, there’s nothing better.”
Although the guard’s expression was completely blank and neutral, his eyes were entirely repulsed by the creature wearing human skin just in front of him.
“Mira, was it? Kill yourself. Ah, and give your friend a good show.” While giving that horrible command, she didn’t look away from me for even a moment. She had the confidence of someone who
always
won. “Do it with a knife.”
“M-Mira? S-stop!” I called out anxiously. My anxiety wasn’t fake either. I was ninety eight percent sure this was all in Mira’s palm, but that two percent pulled my mind into a horribly dark future. Electricity surged through my body as I prepared to use Arc Flash.
Beside her, Mira slowly reached for a knife at her waist. She subtly winked at me just before grabbing the grip. The surging emotion through me froze and then faded away like it was never even present. Mira lifted her knife slowly—
“Argh!” Without the armor protecting her head, Mind Freak was just as vulnerable as everyone else. The psycho was so sure of herself she didn’t even stop to think for a single moment that taking off her helmet in the middle of an active area like this was an incredibly poor idea.
Mira’s knife slammed dagger first into her face, instantly dropped the woman. As the mind control shattered, chaos broke out amongst the group of people around us. The fifteen outsiders that looked like they’d just been picked off the street scattered to the wind without so much as a thank you. That was fine, though. My interest was drawn to Mind Freak’s inner circle.
Without even missing a beat as soon as the control broke, eight of them ripped off their helmets, put their guns in their mouths, and pulled the trigger. Just like that, ten people took their lives in this building.
Five of the seven survivors hollowly collapsed like broken marionettes with their strings cut. The last two of the seven rushed Mind Freak and beat at her corpse, mangling the flesh and armor with pure brutish rage driving them. There wasn’t a single speck of emotion in their Cues outside of hatred and wrath.
Mira looked around the chaotic scene with sad eyes. Her gaze lingered particularly long on the ten fresh corpses. “Well… shit.”
“Yeah.” I sighed and let the channeled electricity settle back under my skin.
— — —
AN: First and foremost, the official pub date is set to Feb 9th. I’ll be stubbing probably around the 6th. I know some of you were interested in the first book, so here’s the link. Audio book should be coming out at the same time too, I think.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2XPPZQF
Secondly, I do realize this scene was kinda abrupt. I original planned on Mind Freak and some other named mercs playing a major role in this arc, but it was getting kinda long. Sorry if this part seemed a little rushed in particular.

Chapter 326