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I woke up, not in our apartment with Panam, but Panam was lying beside me, and that told me everything was fine…
Uff…
The smell of Panam's hair was comforting, and a few moments later, I remembered that yesterday I had agreed to take a break from the solo life and live with Panam's clan. Judy had also come with us, curious about what it was like to live in nature.
I wasn't as curious as I just wanted to get a little closer to Panam. This world was very sparse when it came to nature, at least in the part of the country we were in, and in most of the rest of the world, outside of the cities, it was a desert. And surviving in a desert is a pleasure all its own.
I carefully climbed out of bed, quickly put on my tracksuit, and left the tent. Looking around, I didn't see anyone outside. I didn't care, though, since I hadn't come out of the tent to admire the scenery. I had come out to test the synthetic muscles that Vik had installed in me, so far, only in my arms and legs.
The operations were serious, of course, but with the current level of technology, I could easily run around the nomad camp and do a couple of dozen push-ups today. Just to check how the muscles were working.
No, I could have gone the way of the Animals and started taking chemicals. I could have even asked Vik to find me the right drugs so it wouldn't mess with my head. They wouldn't have given me the same results as the Animals, of course, but in a year of training, I would have reached almost the limit of human capabilities. That would have been a good decision if I weren't living the solo life.
And the last job showed me how lucky I had been before…
If I had run into someone with a Sandevistan earlier, I could have been flatlined! Because when I started, even though I was trained, I wasn't trained enough to be able to do what I had done with acceleration recently. My body just wasn't ready for it.
With those thoughts, I started running out of the camp at a not-so-fast pace.
On the other hand, synthetic muscles are very limited in the sense that they can't be developed through training, so the only way to exceed their limit would be to replace them with new ones. But their bonuses are very, very impressive!
The first one is stamina… It's many times higher than regular muscles, as is the strength. My arms and legs haven't gotten that much bigger, maybe half a centimeter, but the strength in my arms and legs should have increased by almost four times! Although I won't have access to all of that strength yet. I'll still have to take medicine for a couple of months to strengthen my skeleton and ligaments so they can handle such a load. But even with a two-fold increase in my capabilities, I'll be much calmer, as work will become, in a way, safer.
Of course, I'll still have to visit Vik and have him replace the muscles he couldn't replace yet because it would have been too much of an intervention at once. But the next operation will only be in two days… for now…
For now, I can speed up a little.
And I picked up my running pace, ran seven laps, and when I got back to the tent, I went to the car standing next to it. I took a mat out of it, laid it on the sand, and continued to exercise. Slowly, people started to appear outside and give me strange looks. But I didn't care, as I was focused on my physical development… And yes, I remember that I would soon have synthetic muscles that don't require training and don't degrade, but I would just switch from regular workouts to practicing my reflexes then. And right now, my concern was figuring out the limits of my new muscles.
I already had some of the reflexes a solo needs.
"What's all this for?"
Panam looked out of the tent and looked at me intently.
"Well, for starters, to check the capabilities of my new muscles. And also…"
I looked at Panam with a laughing gaze.
"…to make you and Judy jealous."
"Huh?"
"He's been working out for two hours…"
Judy looked out of the tent and gave me and Panam a look.
"…and you should've seen the way the girls in your clan were looking at him… they were just eating him up with their eyes…"
"Huh?"
Panam blinked in confusion.
"So we're guaranteed to have a couple of private 'girl talk' conversations."
Panam swallowed and shook her head.
"David, you didn't do this on purpose, did you?"
"Of course not…"
I finished another exercise and, getting to my feet, shrugged.
"I'm just checking what my new arm and leg muscles are capable of. And I also need to get used to the fact that after the installation, my abilities have greatly increased. So…"
"Got it…"
Just then, Mitch walked up to us and clapped me on the back approvingly.
"Good on you, kid! I saw that you looked a little shaky during some of the exercises. Need any help?"
"Thanks, but no. I'm just testing my new synthetic arm and leg muscles…"
"Oh…"
He looked at me in a completely different way.
"You wanna say something?"
"Why are you so scrawny, then?"
"Because I'm not planning on becoming a boxer. My job is to work with the Sandevistan, but my own muscles weren't good enough for that, and training them, even with some conditionally safe drugs, would have taken at least a year. And the last job showed that I might not have that much time."
"Hmm?"
"An urgent job from a fixer… I ran into a Sandevistan user who was waiting for me. And while my kung fu was better, I almost lost my arm. Vik managed to fix it by some miracle… In short, I decided to lose a couple of weeks and install synthetic muscles that will be superior to my own in every way, so that in the future, I can react to threats in time."
"Hmm… so why not chrome?"
"Mitch?"
Panam walked up to the man and glared at him.
"Don't teach my boyfriend bad things! I don't want a borg boyfriend! I'm already barely holding back the fact that he wants to replace all his muscles. But at least it's not chrome! At least not in the way other people use that word!"
"Got it, got it!"
Mitch took a couple of steps back, raising his hands. I, meanwhile, turned around and went into the tent. I needed to wipe myself down and get rid of the sweat. Of course, I would have liked to take a shower, but not in this environment. A shower here is a pipe dream. I'll have to come up with something for that… because wiping yourself down with wet towels isn't very comfortable…
Panam came into the tent, and Judy followed her, apparently deciding not to continue talking with Mitch. I wasn't embarrassed by the fact that I was naked in the tent, although Judy was looking at me with some interest.
"Close your eyes! He's not yours!"
Pff!
Judy just turned away from me. Panam shot her an indignant look and then shook her head.
"You've still fallen for his charms… and you said you were into girls."
"Well… it's hard not to fall… he's gallant, caring, not a complete asshole, not planning to turn into a borg, and he works quietly and mostly carefully, which means there's a chance he'll live to a ripe old age. In short, he's good and reliable, and there's such a beautiful mulatto girl next to him…"
"And if you think a little more, you might realize you'll have to fight for his attention, huh?"
Judy sighed.
"Yeah…"
"Alright, girls, please have these conversations without me…"
"Oh, really?"
Panam smirked, watching me finish wiping myself down and start getting dressed.
"You led us to all this yourself! So suffer now…"
I took two steps forward, put my arms around Panam's waist, and kissed her gently. The kiss wasn't passionate and greedy, but tender and loving, and it lasted about three minutes. Then I pulled away from her and looked into her eyes intently.
"Don't be jealous…"
Pff!
I let her go and took a step toward Judy, who was looking away but kept glancing back at us.
"And this is for you…"
A short, almost childlike kiss that I gave her on the lips made Judy freeze for a moment. I just walked out of the tent and happily breathed in the slightly dusty but much cleaner air than in the city. There was a certain… charm to it…
I just needed to figure something out about a shower…
I glanced around the camp and noticed Mitch was already walking around some kind of car.
"Hey again…"
"We just saw each other…"
He snorted at my greeting.
"Need help?"
"Yeah… it won't start. I was gonna work on it today. Now I'm just trying to figure out where to start…"
"Maybe I should scan it first?"
"Hmm?"
But despite his questioning grunt, he thought for a bit and nodded. I activated my eyes.
"Open the hood…"
Mitch did as I asked, and I scanned the engine as well. Then I deactivated the scanner and looked at him.
"Well… I know what the problem is…"
With those words, began the saga of repairing Scorpion's car, which turned out to be this small but zippy and well-armored car.
The repair took a couple of hours. First, we had to drive the car into a large tent specifically meant for vehicle repairs, then remove some parts, replace some sensors…
In short, Mitch and I worked together, and that's why we got it done so quickly…
"Alright…"
A voice I vaguely recognized came from behind us. I turned around and identified its owner. Saul…
"Saul…"
"David… and what are you doing here?"
"Here specifically?"
I tried to raise my eyebrow in a questioning and sarcastic way.
"Here specifically, I'm helping Mitch repair a car."
"I meant, what are you doing at the Aldecaldo camp?"
I shrugged.
"I needed a little vacation and some time to recover from the operation I just had at the ripper's, and the one I'm still gonna have. So Panam suggested I come here so I wouldn't be tempted to take some 'easy' job. In short, I agreed to stay with you guys. But I won't be a freeloader, you don't have to worry about that. I not only know how to work with guns, but I'm also good with tech…"
Saul looked me over grimly.
"Is it just the two of you?"
"There are five of us. Four girls and me. Two of the girls might have to go back to Night City, since they didn't take a vacation, and their main crew might need their help."
Tch… "Just don't get in the way. I have a lucrative deal coming up, and I don't want it to fall through because of people like you…"
Saul turned and walked away. I looked at Mitch in surprise.
"A lucrative deal? Don't get in the way?"
"Lately, Saul has been dreaming of getting friendly with Biotech… he wants us to guard their fields. Stable work…"
Mitch said the last phrase with a face so twisted that even a dumbass would understand how he felt about that idea. And I could understand him. After all, working with a corporation is always a game of Russian roulette. You don't know if they're going to screw you over or not…
And the chances of winning aren't that high.
In simpler terms, if you were to take a six-shooter and load it with four bullets, the game would be comparable to working with a corporation. And everyone knows this, but everyone still believes that they won't make the same mistakes as the unlucky ones who got burned by a similar partnership.
"Biotech? Nomads guarding fields?"
I looked at Mitch in surprise. I knew from the game's canon that something like this was supposed to happen in this world, but to actually encounter it in reality…
"You heard me, right? My tone is just radiating with pride over the job Saul found for us. But I'm not going to go against him…"
I shrugged.
"And I wasn't suggesting you do… let's just go back to the car. There are a couple of things we can do to make it faster and more maneuverable. I think Scorpion would appreciate that…"
"Well, alright…"
Mitch grunted, and we went back to the car, returning to work.
A couple more hours of work, and we stepped away from the car.
Were we happy?
Without a doubt…
"Call Scorpion. Tell him to check out the car."
"Uh-huh… calling now… Hey, could you help me with the other cars in the clan?"
"No problem…"
I shrugged, realizing that I would definitely have something to do on this vacation…
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