Daoist Mystery

System Override 59 - In-Person Team Meeting

Chapter 59 — In-Person Team Meeting

Twenty-seven and a half million Eurodollars was not a sum that could be taken lightly by the vast majority of the human population. Not even Fei-Fei, whose own family’s company raked in enough money to dwarf that s...

System Override 58 - Bad Luck Jackpot (V1)

I drove away from North Oak at speeds that far exceeded the traffic limit. I was unused to riding around the highway with a full-on car at full speeds, but it was unavoidable in this case. The trunk of my car had all of my guns. I had planned to eject its contents on the final stretch of...

System Override 57 - Winnings (V3)

“So!” Jin said. “You ever hear about this vassal thing ‘Saka’s got going?”

What? What was he on about now? “Uh, yeah. Think Allister explained the concept to me some months ago. Slave corpos.”

Jin barked out a laugh. “That’s what you think? Nah, man. Think of it li...

System Override 54 – Too Fast, Too Frivolous Part 3

Lucy exhaled a thin line of smoke and stubbed her cigarette out on the ashtray balanced on the edge of the cluttered coffee table ahead. Then, she lit another.

On-screen, the television’s livestream had cut to the track staging area behind the casino—lit up in twenty different shades of...

System Override 56 - Too Fast, Too Frivolous Final Part

The Critical Progress was getting too

System Override 55: Too Fast, Too Frivolous Part 4

Judy Alvarez slammed her glass down on the counter with a groan. She didn’t know why she was feeling so down. She just was.

It was one of those days. She could point to nothing specific on why today had to be this day. It just happened sometimes. Sometimes, the ...

Chapter 53: Too Fast, Too Frivlous part 2

“So! You do much racing?”

I narrowed my eyes and gave him a sideways glance as we stepped out of the velvet-lined lounge and into a quieter hallway, the carpet soft underfoot and patterned like coiling snakes. We were on our way to get our cars, now. The races were beginning in about an...

System Override 52 - Too Fast, Too Frivolous Part 1 (v2)

Edit tl;dr at the bottom

On my lowest, darkest days being ground underneath the bootheel of Katsuo or the uncaring administration of Arasaka Academy, or experiencing the darker realities of growing up in Arroyo, I would entertain a fantasy or two about one day owning a mans...

System Override 51 (v2) - Surprises

A/N: Decided to take a different angle--instead of the Biotechnica job, the story will focus on the race and corpo stuff for now.

I'm about 36% finished with the new chapter 52 that follows this chapter (that one starts at the day of the race). I reckon that it will take at...

System Override 52 - Vendetta (rough draft)

Chapter 52 – Vendetta

[We must consider the existence of Dead Man’s Switches,] Nanny said, leaning her back against the mirror wall inside the elevator. [Killing them would be nice and easy, but preferably, we should get a run of their system before getting rid of them.]

D: That�...

System Override 51 - Metamorphosis

Nanny knocked me unconscious after I finished taking in all the metals—and finished the thermos of vinegar.

When I came to once more, I was inside my car, the outside of it surrounded by people wearing digital masks, carrying bats, crowbars, and guns.

From the link I had with...

System Override 50 - Chrysalis

Lucy chased away her hangover with a straight shot of vodka down her gullet from the bottle she had brought with her to Aldo’s warehouse. Hauling ass all the way to Rancho at twelve noon on a goddamned Sunday…

Why do I even put up with that gonk.

Said gonk in question was...

System Override 49 - Murk Man II (Version 1)

After a day of binge drinking in which nothing productive occurred at all except that we managed to conjure even more housing options out of thin air—inspired to live closer to Rancho because the Beef Suqaar turned out to taste fucking fantastic—I had a fitful sleep that Nanny could only bare...

System Override 48 - Day of the D (version 1)

The virtu’s one saving grace, in Judy’s opinion, was its brevity.

All told, including the Sandevistan bullet time, the gig took two minutes and fifteen seconds. That was, two minutes and fifteen seconds spent playing tango with the Strom while they emptied an entire cl...

System Override 47: Badlands Derby

Lucy groaned as she got off my bike while I turned it off, holding her hand up to shade her face from the sun. It was only eight in the morning, so the weather was practically chilly for NC standards, but it’d only get hotter from here on out.

I had pulled up in front of Falco, P...

System Override 46 - One-Two Combo

Edit Tl;Dr at the bottom

It took about an hour and a half to get all the blood washed out of my clothes at some random laundromat in Watson—while wearing a different outfit that I had bought. Once that was over, I gave those threads to some homeless guy who looked to be m...

System Override 45 - XB(D)

Tl;dr edit note at the bottom

The moment I was clear of the Med Center, on my way to Kabuki to get to Japantown, I called Reyes.

D: Sorry, Capitan, I was kind of busy. What’s up?

El Capitan: You free to talk now?

D: Yes, I am. Anything I can do for you?<...