Sewers

  December 16th

  2069

  Sophie was close. She could tell. She pulled up her status page, taking a good look at all the progress she’d made recently.

  Name: Sophie Morrin

  Age: 15

  Class: Huntress [44/100]

  Passives

  Iron Will [41/100], Flexibility [49/100], Parkour [42/100], Ambidextrous [30/100]

  Skills

  Stealth [42/100], Basic Gun Combat [79/100], Investigation [37/100], Basic Bladed Combat [49/100], Basic Unarmed Combat [32/100], Engineering [25/100], Basic Netrunning [13/100]

  Cyberware

  Kiroshi MK.1 Cyberoptics (Rare)

  Basic Subdermal Armour (Common)

  Basic Wrist Reinforcement (Common)

  MoorE Basic Cyberarm (Common)

  Militech Basic Syn-Lungs (Common)

  Basic Connective Tissue Reinforcement (Common)

  Store: Available

  L-Coins: 27,000

  Eurodollars: 95,000

  Inventory: 2m x 2m x 2m

  While she’d made plenty of progress in all of her skills, it was Basic Bladed Combat she was most interested in.

  It stood on the brink of the halfway milestone, where she would once again experience the absolute joy of muscle memory being corrected and ‘downloaded’ into her body.

  Alright. Time to put gigs and stuff on hold for a while. I’m not gonna stop grinding until I get that upgrade, even if it takes a week or something ridiculous. Her eyes caught on another skill. And maybe I’ll finally get that fucking Flexibility skill to 50 as well. It’s been stuck at 49 for ages.

  Despite wanting to get stuck into bladework immediately, Sophie still had some other training she needed to do.

  She started with flexibility training.

  Sitting on the floor, she spread her legs wide into a full straddle, slowly lowering her chest toward the ground. Her muscles and tendons burned slightly as she exhaled, pressing a little further. She held the position for a full minute before shifting, bringing her feet together in a butterfly stretch. She leaned forward, elbows pressing against her knees to push them closer to the ground.

  Once her hips felt loose, she transitioned to backbends. She pushed up into a bridge, her spine arching as she balanced on her hands and feet. Holding it steady, she lifted one leg, straightening it toward the ceiling before switching to the other. This exercise not only kept her flexible but also helped with balance; something she relied on heavily when navigating rooftops or making sudden movements in combat.

  She shifted into splits next, first with her right leg forward, then the left, sinking as low as possible. To finish, she stood up and executed a series of slow, controlled high kicks, stretching her hamstrings and testing her range of motion.

  Nearly half an hour of the most extreme stretches she could think of, there was still no system message for Flexibility. Unfortunately, if she pushed too much at once it was possible she may over-stretch. Hence, she moved on to calisthenics.

  After her conversation with Vik when she got her new lungs, calisthenics had become part of her daily training. She had no interest in going to the gym for strength training, especially not doing it with the Animals.

  She started with push-ups, though not the standard variety. Instead, she performed archer push-ups, shifting her weight from one arm to the other with each rep, training unilateral strength. After twenty reps, she moved to a more explosive variant, launching herself off the ground and clapping mid-air before landing.

  After a few sets of different push-up variations, she moved onto core work. Sets of crunches were followed by a few different plank variations; standard, side planks, and dynamic planks where she shifted from her elbows to her hands repeatedly.

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  Pull-ups and muscle-ups came next. She’d set up a frame and bar in one of the emptier spots of her hideout, fully aware that pull-ups were one of the closest movements to many of the things she did for her parkour.

  She started with regular pull-ups, pulling her chin above the bar with slow, steady control. Then, she switched to muscle-ups, hauling herself up the bar until her arms locked out. She finished with dead hangs, simply holding herself in place to build endurance.

  By the time she was done, sweat had begun to bead on her skin. That was a sign she was ready to move on.

  Sophie grabbed a spare katana she’d taken from a Tyger and an assortment of knives. She hesitated for a moment before grabbing a machete she’d recently acquired. Maybe it’ll help, she thought to herself.

  She started slowly, practicing all the basic strikes in front of a mirror to check her form. Horizontal slashes, diagonal cuts and thrusts. She moved through everything. But she quickly realised it wasn’t what she needed. She needed to find new ways to use her weapons.

  Thinking back to how she typically used her katana when on a gig, she tried to do some movement drills. Holding the blade in one hand, she maneuvered through her apartment as if it were an active battlefield. She ducked behind furniture, rolled across the floor and practiced quickdraw techniques from different angles. But it still wasn’t enough.

  She put the katana down, swapping over to the knives.

  She practiced drawing them swiftly from her belt and throwing them at makeshift targets she had set up around the room. Sadly, her throws were clumsy. Basic Bladed Combat didn’t detail how to throw bladed weapons. She’d previously searched the system store and found the relevant skill. Aptly named, Basic Throwing Weapons was the skill she wanted if she desired the ability to properly throw her knives.

  Moving away from her poor attempts at throwing the smaller blades, she moved through a number of different close-quarter sequences, mostly testing ways to use her knives in unexpected ways. Slashes were paired with kicks and stabs with sudden feints. She practiced using them in tandem, switching between hands mid-movement to chain them together in unpredictable attack patterns.

  As frustration began to gnaw at her, her gaze landed on the machete. Before she could pick it up though, a sharp beep filled the room.

  She immediately turned toward her 3D printer, a rush of excitement shooting through her chest.

  She walked over, carefully removing the newly printed components from the machine. These were the last few pieces she needed for her latest project. It was an idea she’d been obsessing over for weeks and she was eager to see it finally come to fruition.

  She grabbed the pair of bracers she had crafted weeks ago before settling down at her workbench, carefully laying out the components. The concept was relatively simple though actually executing it had proved difficult. There were a number of parts too; spring-loaded rails, a locking system, and a manual trigger that would allow her to use the weapon properly.

  She took the first bracer and attached the primary rail system along its underside. The small steel track would allow the weapon to deploy smoothly and without resistance. She secured it with micro-screws, testing the movement with her fingers.

  Next, she installed the locking mechanism. It was a small, almost invisible clasp that had to be strong enough to prevent accidental deployment but light enough that a deliberate wrist movement could trigger it.

  Finally, she fitted the weapon itself. It was designed purely for assassination, stealth and unexpected counterattacks.

  She double-checked the assembly, running a finger along the smooth edges of the mechanism before strapping the bracer onto her left forearm. It felt snug, almost like a natural extension of her body.

  Then, the moment of truth.

  She flicked her wrist.

  Shhkt.

  A blade snapped forward from under her wrist, extending past her hand and locking into place with a small click.

  A grin spread across her face.

  She retracted it, then activated it again. It was fast and almost silent. For a prototype, it was perfect.

  Sophie stood up, still grinning. “My own pair of hidden blades. Fuck, that’s so cool.”

  She quickly assembled the second one before slipping it on. She ran a few tests with both of them, ensuring they worked the way she wanted. Once satisfied, she moved to the center of her home.

  She flicked her left wrist. Shhkt. The blade snapped forward, locking into place. She repeated the motion with her right wrist, watching as the second blade extended just as smoothly. Retracting them, she tested the activation again. They were quick and very responsive which was good.

  But that wasn't the real challenge. She needed to figure out how to actually use them.

  She stepped into her fighting stance, weight balanced, hands loose but ready. She lunged at one of the targets she’d set up earlier, throwing out a punch with her right fist before triggering the blade mid-strike. The blade slid out just as she connected, but the force of impact sent a jarring shock through her wrist.

  Sophie hissed in frustration. Glad that was my chrome arm. I don’t think that’ll work.

  She tried again, slower this time. A controlled strike, letting the blade extend just before impact rather than during. It helped, but something still felt off.

  Her more traditional knife-fighting techniques didn’t fully translate to the hidden blades. At least at her current level. Regular knives required a firm grip, allowing for slashes, quick thrusts, and precise control. The hidden blades, however, were extensions of her arms. They changed how she needed to move.

  She tested a series of slashes, stepping in and out, cutting at angles. The blades responded well and having her hands open made things a little better but the movements felt unnatural. They were too rigid. She was still thinking about them as weapons rather than as part of her.

  Sophie paused, breathing deep, shifting her mindset.

  The hidden blades weren’t knives she held. They were knives she wore. In some way, they were part of her body.

  That meant she needed to integrate them into her unarmed combat.

  She took a step back, rolling her shoulders before flowing into a series of open-hand strikes. What if she used the blades the same way?

  She struck the target with the palm of her hand, triggering the blade as her blow landed. It sank into the target smoothly. Instead of pulling back, she surged forwards with her other hand, slamming the second blade into the place where her pretend opponent’s kidney would be.

  It worked. Not perfectly, but it worked.

  She felt a spark of excitement in her chest.

  She kept going, refining the technique. Open-hand strikes were combined with rapid, retractable blade work. She didn’t just stick to traditional stabbing motions though. She started to mix in slashes along her natural movement lines, adjusting the angles to keep the blades moving as fluidly as possible.

  Within an hour, the hidden blades no longer felt foreign.

  Another hour later, she was feeling more comfortable with them. But they hadn’t quite passed the final test.

  She looked at the pair of weapons. “Yeah. I need some real practice with these. It’s been a while since I’ve gone hunting for a Tyger. As long as I’m careful, there shouldn’t be any issues using them to test my new blades.”

  With that, she grabbed some extra gear in case there was an issue with the hidden blades before setting off on her bike.