Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System

It was a fair deal as far as Dante was concerned. The stronger he got, the more things he would be able to do, and more importantly the jobs he could take on.

"I need to schedule the surgery right away." He said. "Larry probably needs time to prepare as well."

"You sure about that?" Viktor asked. "I thought you were busy."

"Yeah, I'll do what I can for the next week and let it cook for a while." Dante gave the implant one more look before closing the box. "The plan has always been to drop some wood and wait for it to burn."

Thinking for a moment, Dante placed his hand on the box and waited, watching as the neon green lines wove a net on its surface. A notification soon appeared in front of him, asking whether he wanted to store the item or not. He hesitated, but not for long. The box disappeared the instant he chose the YES option, and once it was gone, he turned to look at his fixer.

Viktor's eyes were a little wide. His surprise seemed genuine, which led Dante to be taken aback. For some reason, he had expected the fixer to only show mild interest before making some witty remark. Instead, he was left stunned still.

Not saying anything, Dante waited for him to take it in, knowing questions would follow. Questions he has to answer. Viktor likely noticed his nervousness and forced himself to snap out of his daze.

"Should I assume that you are ready to discuss your other… plans?"

Giving the matter a second thought, Dante nodded.

"Yeah." He turned to the fixer and grinned. "Just to be clear, this isn't something you can get out of once you know about it."

"Is that a threat?" Viktor raised an eyebrow.

"Let's just say our opponent likes to bury everything under the ground."

~[ ]~

"... seriously, kid, you've thought this out more than I had expected," Victor said, his elbows on the desk, his finger interlocked in front of his face.

"Did you think I would just rush in without preparations?" Dante said.

"Isn't that what you almost did the other day?"

Dante made the difficult decision of telling the fixer about his future plans. Up till now, he had kept everything to himself, only ever discussing things with his resident AI. Nevertheless, he was always aware that he would need to get someone's opinion on everything, if only to discover the flaws he was too blind to see himself.

"I… don't have anything to say." Dante hung his head. "Even now, I… I have to keep myself distracted, or I would be rushing to the City Center…"

"Patience has never been your strong suit." Said Viktor. "But I know you aren't stupid. You wouldn't have rushed over there if you had no chance of winning, right?"

"Yeah…" Dante clicked his tongue. "It's just… If I do it as I am now, I might not get a second chance."

"And that's why you're gathering bionics?"

"Well, this whole flesh-and-bone thing isn't working for me. Can't fight that monster if it's going to break in less than a minute."

"That monster, huh…" Viktor leaned back into his chair. "Still can't believe they brought him here just for you."

"I…" Dante was about to say something, but then paused, squinting at his fixer. "I don't remember saying anything about that…"

"Oh, c'mon, you think I wouldn't have figured it out by now?" Viktor waved a tired, dismissive hand. "I already know it started with that last gig you took with Gaspard, so connecting the dots wasn't that difficult."

Dante's mouth was left hanging open for a while before he pressed it into a line, shaking his head.

"Nothing gets past you, huh?"

"Not when you are being so sloppy."

"Damn…"

There was no arguing that he hadn't been as careful as he should have been as someone hunted by the most powerful people in the world, especially in the past few days. Still, his powers greatly expanded his options, and holding back on using them would only make things more difficult for him, if not impossible.

"Let's put that aside for now," Viktor said. "You said you've hit a roadblock when it came to replicating Catalyst, right?"

"Yeah, turns out there is more to that drug than just… drugs," Dante said. "We need a good geneticist just to get started. Even then, there is no guarantee that we would make any progress."

"A geneticist, huh?… You have some names, right?"

"The best one I can think of… is dead. There are his assistants and acquaintances, but… Well, I never got along with any of them."

"So they all work for Eidolon." Viktor grimaced. "I can look outside the Union, but… trust is going to be a problem."

"Been thinking the same." Considering his words carefully, he then added. "I've also been thinking… I might need to work around trust."

"... Guess that's the most realistic approach." Said Viktor. "You're going to need a good place first. And equipment."

"I want to say I'm working on that, but it keeps slipping out of my mind."

Finding a place to set his hideout was progressing much more slowly than he had anticipated. Well, a couple of weeks without progress wasn't much to fret about, but the clock was ticking, and there was no way to know how much time they had left.

"The Pit is no good?" Viktor asked.

"A new guy setting shop there? The bastards won't leave me alone until they find out what I'm up to." Dante said. "I was thinking… maybe some old bomb shelter?"

Both Lev and Suzuka had their hideouts built inside some old shelters, so he thought he might find one he could make use of.

"That's going to be difficult," said Viktor. "They are still government assets, you know? Even if they're abandoned, there is still a high risk of someone catching on."

"Well, do we have any other options? It's not like I can…" Out of nowhere, an idea popped up in Dante's head. "Just build one…"

"... Seems like you figured something out." Viktor said.

"Yeah…" pursing his lips, Dante responded. "I think I did."