Having dragged herself out of her car and up the elevator to bed, Sophie woke up the next morning still feeling like she’d been run over by a train, then had said train reverse over her again and again.

  “Fuck me, this sandevistan is no joke. I can barely walk, let alone go out and start levelling up my new class.”

  She checked her system messages, finding her mission completed.

  Mission Completed

  You have lived in Night City for nearly a year, spending much of that time sneaking around in the shadows. That is an achievement itself. Now however, you have the means to confront your enemies head on. Extinguish someone’s life for the first time.

  Difficulty: Easy

  Rewards: Custom Weapon Token (Mythic), 1 Gunner level

  She focused on the weapon token. She had previously received a Custom Weapon Token (Legendary) and she’d already had a plan for it. Fortunately, the arrival of this token would allow her to implement her plan even more effectively. She quickly used it and arrived in the same space she had used to create her sandevistan, around two entire years ago.

  Sophie had had plenty of time to figure out what kind of gun she wanted over the past year and quickly got to work. As she designed it, she decided to try her luck and push the boundaries of the token.

  “System, I’d like to create a set of Dual Pistols. Is that allowed?”

  Yes. As long as both are identical and designated as ‘Dual Pistols’, you can use this token to create both.

  Internally jumping for joy, Sophie was able to finalise her designs within half an hour.

  Two sleek, black and silver pistols floated in front of her. Unfortunately the token was only of Mythic quality, meaning she couldn’t access anything like Kraetis. Thus, she had settled for a combination of Adamantium, Enchanted Uru and Vibranium. The outer shell was made using Adamantium, preventing the weapons from being damaged externally. Internally, the guns were made from Enchanted Uru. The Uru parts each carried enchantments that allowed the pistols to reach a level significantly higher than any modern gun, increasing the speed and power of the bullets.

  The barrel of each pistol was laced with Vibranium. The energy absorbent properties of the super metal meant that the energy stored from each shot would be used to boost the following bullet. If Sophie fired the entire magazine, the final round would be over 20x more powerful than the first. However, she also had to consider when she would use these weapons. Thus, she added sound dampening enchantments to each pistol, rendering them completely silent.

  Finally, her masterpiece was the way the magazine worked. Each pistol had a set of 20 bullets, all of which were made of similar materials to the guns themselves. Inscribed on each bullet were runes that would transport them back into the magazine after they stopped flying. This meant she had an essentially infinite magazine for both weapons. Finally, she had added an ability that meant they would be bound to her soul, unable to be used by anyone else.

  Congratulations! Your weapons have a 100% chance of being constructed and utilised.

  Sophie returned to reality, pistols in hand. A description of them appeared in front of her, showing her the attributes of her new weapons.

  Talons

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Item Type: Dual Pistols

  Effects

  Infinite Magazine

  Silent

  Power Increase

  Unbreakable

  Sophie held them in her hands, staring at them lovingly. She still wasn’t over the feeling of taking a life the previous night. Yet she adored her new weapons and she wouldn’t let her feelings get in the way of her progress. She couldn’t. She stared at the pistols and finally firmed her resolve. She would climb a mountain of corpses to reach the top. Yet she would do her best to avoid involving innocents in her path to power.

  -----------------------

  Sophie set up a small firing range in her apartment, wanting to test out her beautiful guns. The empty rooms she still hadn’t filled, even after all these years, were the perfect place to test out her shooting. She let her basic knowledge of shooting correct her posture and held one of her Talons, aiming at the can of NiCola. Subconsciously, she felt something was wrong but she ignored it. She wanted to put her new babies to the test.

  She pulled the trigger and multiple things happened. First, the can exploded. Good. Second, the wall gained a new hole. Good? Third, her arm exploded. Bad. Fourth, she dropped to the ground in pain. Very bad.

  Sophie had not at all accounted for the immense recoil such powerful weapons would have. Thus, her right arm was entirely shattered and bleeding heavily. It was by far the worst injury she had ever received and she started to panic. She managed to get a few rags around it, unable to find proper bandages, then called Vik as she hurried to her car.

  “What’s up kid? You don’t often call, you normally just swing by.”

  “Hahh, I fucked up a little Vik. Are you available right now?” Sophie was breathing heavily. Her Shion sped off into the city as she spoke.

  “I’m free. What do you need?” His voice had turned serious.

  “Need an arm doc. Current one’s fucked.”

  “Alright, I’ve got something in stock. It’s nothing high end but it should hold up until you can get something better. Will that do?”

  “Yeah Vik, that’s fine. I’ll work on getting something better later.”

  “Alright, get here as fast as possible. Also, come through the side. Don’t let Misty see you hurt. I’m gonna set up.” The call cut off and Sophie breathed a sigh of relief. Vik would definitely chew her out, especially when she told him how it happened. But Sophie knew it was just his way of caring. She glanced at her arm, relieved that it didn’t seem to be getting worse, even if she was getting woozy from the bloodloss.

  -----------------------

  Sophie sat in Vik’s chair, an abashed look on her face. The surgery had gone fine but unsurprisingly, Vik was not happy.

  “Promise me you won’t do anything so reckless again?”

  “You know I can’t promise that. But I’ll do my best. Now, I think it’s a good idea to test whether the new arm will be able to handle the recoil,” Sophie flexed her new, metal fingers. “Can I do that?”

  Vik stared at her disapprovingly, then sighed. “You’ll do it anyway. Better you do it here so that I can check for damage. And see what kind of gun shatters someone’s arm like that, even if it was noodly.” He smirked at her as he said the last bit and Sophie pouted.

  She feigned going to her car to grab the gun, instead just ducking out and retrieving it from her inventory before waiting a moment. She walked back in and Vik appraised the pistol. He shot her a look, eyebrow raised as if to say ‘really? Is that it?’. She pointed it at the wall, one that Vik said was solid concrete for a good 10 metres. She pulled the trigger and luckily, her new chrome arm didn’t explode into pieces of shrapnel. When Sophie looked back at Vik, he nodded, understanding what had happened.

  “That kind of kick reminds me of a Burya. Let me run some diagnostics.” While Vik did his thing, Sophie played around with her new arm. It wasn’t ideal. Unfortunately, it was the only appropriate thing Vik had available on short notice. There were some squeaks which Sophie cringed at, dreading trying to be stealthy until she could replace it. She decided to check out the system store and see if it had any better options. Everything in her price range was something that could likely be replicated by the technology of this world.

  She eventually found a basic cyberarm costing 100,000 M-Coins. It was similar to the arm of Bucky Barnes, Marvel’s Winter Soldier. Made out of Adamantium, it had no extra features other than being indestructible. It was mostly a beautiful silver colour with thin lines of black running across it. Still, it would suffice until she had the ability to make something better. Sophie was a little grumpy however, that she would have to spend 200,000 M-Coins to get a pair of arms.

  While she was there, she checked the store for cyberlegs. A similar pair of legs would cost 300,000 M-Coins, 150,000 each. Clearly, she needed to start taking some harder jobs to earn more coins.

  “Alright, I’ve had a look. I’m gonna be honest. Don’t use that gun until we can get you something better. A single shot has done some damage to the internals of that new arm. It’ll fall apart entirely if you fire it a few more times. There’s also some really deep damage across your whole body, although I’m not sure where from”

  The girl grimaced at the last part, realising he must have found evidence of her using her sandevistan. Additionally, the news she couldn’t use her new guns made Sophie incredibly sad. She should have expected it. After all, her Talons were incredibly powerful, so it was no surprise that using it would be hard, just like using her sandevistan.

  “Alright. Thanks Vik. I’ve got an idea of where I can get a new arm, it’ll just take me a while to get access.” Sophie made to leave, already brainstorming how to quickly collect funds.

  “Be careful out there Soph. None of us want to see you in an early grave.” She looked back at him and smiled.

  “Don’t worry Vik, you won’t get rid of me that easily.”