"I hope nothing that would draw the wrong sort of attention." I said and he nodded.
"Vik's been keeping me on the low low about it all. Small stuff easy to pass as "salvage". You know, ware and guns, nothing game changing or secret." he said honestly.
"That's good. Think you could pass all that information my way? I myself am not really interested in the stuff but with the right world and buyer it could be a great asset to trade." I said calmly.
"Yeah choom, way ahead of you. Vik thought it best if we copied all the data to an external source in case the ware ever gets messed up since we couldn't fix it if it did. Got a few chips with a copy on them as a result." he said.
He then got up from the flaking chair he had been sitting on and walked over to a poster on the wall and carefully peeled it back to reveal a crack in the wall that he fingered at and pried a chip out of. It was about an inch long and almost the thickness of a Knut with a black and blue coloration.-
He stared at the screen for a few moment before finally caving in and asking how to trade it my way. I chuckled and told him how and I soon got the message about the trade coming through.
{Trading partner: David Martinez wishes to give the user item: Treasure: World data chip, Accept items Y/N?}
I accepted the trade and immediately put the deceptively small thing away for now.
"You are at a crossroads now my friend." I said seriously.
"What do you mean?" he asked confused.
"The way I see it you have three paths really. The first is to drop the idea of becoming an edgerunner. This path will have you focus on creation instead, building a fortune and corporation all your own with all those blueprints. It will have different challenges than simply shooting someone in the face or stealing something for someone else." I paused to let that sink in.
"The second path is to forget about that data and focus on merc work. This is standard stuff that everyone in that city understands to some degree. Don't step on the wrong toes or be careful if you do and stay alive. My initial plan was for you to be a stealth specialist in this field." I said letting it sink in again.
"Finally is the middle path. You can mix both paths to first build a rep as a stealth and gear merc. Someone who does stealth work in the field but otherwise provides gear to other mercs. Eventually you'd upgrade into a legit privatized military company that did the same thing but on a larger scale. The challenges here are a mix of both the other paths making it the hardest one to accomplish." I finished sternly.
"Shit man, that's..... not an easy choice is it?" he asked with a groan.
I shook my head "No it's not. Take your time thinking about it though, best not to have any regrets after you really start on these paths. I'll check in a few days from now, later." I said before cutting the contact.
I went about my day as per normal after that like nothing changed. As I said I did end up checking on David a few days later and got his decision. Apparently he'd talked it over with Vik who had sort of taken on the role of a father figure in David's life(not that I said that) and was the guys rock at the moment.-
Vik apparently crunched some data and laid out the paths I mentioned in much better detail than I did which was fair since I didn't actually live in that world. The middle aged man was blunt when he said he which path he preferred David take. Ironically it was the same one David's mother, Gloria, had tried to set him on by having him attend Arasaka academy. That is to say the full corporate path without any of the merc stuff in it. -
Barring that Vik suggested the third path as it would in the long run be the best outside the first path. David like most non-corporate parented people born in Night city had this romanticized idea of being a legend. Also a distinct dislike of people who worked for corporations. Still thanks to his mother he wasn't totally opposed to the idea of having his own company but he refused to give up on the merc side of things entirely. He chose the third path in the end as a result and I couldn't say I was surprised.-
In the anime he took to merc work like a fish to water and eventually did make a name for himself as a legend but like most night city legends death was his end. His chances were better now as he had me to back him so with my otherworldly items and skills he might survive. If it wasn't for his cyberware and the fact it would absolutely get the corporations on his back I'd be tempted to try and get him a logia fruit. Still if I could get a tech world like Fallout for my next customer I had other options to keep him alive, also magic was not totally off the table.-
It couldn't be my worlds magic though as there was too much effort involved in learning it and it would hard counter all his worlds tech in large amounts. Potions were fine and MAYBE alchemy items as well but any spells or the like probably wouldn't be a good fit.
Over 20 chapters more on my PAT if you want to throw some support my way, just saying.
pat reon.com/pat reon_loskro just remove the spaces between the T and R