[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-love-exe-surviving-a-cyberpunk-death-game":3,"chapter-love-exe-surviving-a-cyberpunk-death-game-love-exe-surviving-a-cyberpunk-death-game-chapter-39":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Love.exe: Surviving a Cyberpunk Death Game",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1878912,2492,"Chapter 39: Under The Hood","love-exe-surviving-a-cyberpunk-death-game-chapter-39",39,"\u003Cp>The champagne glasses were still on the table when the table ceased to be available as a table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Athena’s voice arrived in the narrow space between one moment and the next, carrying the sarcasm it had carried all along. \"Good luck to everyone,\" she said. \"And happy racing.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then the platform was gone, the ellipse was gone, and the light that had been coming from nowhere was replaced by fluorescent tubes poorly installed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Proxy was standing in a parking bay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Concrete underfoot, and a metal shelf unit against the far wall holding tools with optimistic neatness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Overhead, the fluorescent tube buzzed at a frequency that suggested everything was fine while politely reserving the right to be wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ahead, through the open bay frame, a long floor of identical bays extended in both directions, each one holding a vehicle, the far end of the building disappearing into darkness where the lights had not bothered to continue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked left. He looked right. Nyx was not in the nearest bays on either side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He put his hands in his pockets and stood where he was, because it would take her no time to find him herself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She came from two bays to his right, walking as if she already knew where he was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She reached him and set her hand on the back of his sleeve without ceremony, which was where it ended up within a few seconds of her having any say in the matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She looked up at the fluorescent tube.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Is this a garage?\" she said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"One directly from the 80s, yes.\" he said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She looked at the bay ahead of them, which had a truck that communicated, in color, proportion, and general attitude, that it had been working for a long time and intended to keep doing so.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Large frame. Weathered paint.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She tilted her head at it, chin dropping toward her left shoulder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It’s not very interesting,\" she said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stepped closer bay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A floating window appeared at the front of the vehicle, stat fields in clean white text against a dark background.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Speed: Moderate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Endurance: High.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Acceleration: Low.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Three ability slots: Ram, Reinforce, Flag Carrier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He read them and moved on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next bay had the opposite idea.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A truck designed by someone with a strong opinion about what a truck should be, and that opinion was everything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chrome body panels caught the fluorescent light and scattered it in directions it had not intended to go. The wheel rims were scaled to a size that suggested philosophy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Along the front intake, LED strips cycled through a rhythm that seemed to mean something without ever committing to a single meaning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nyx looked at it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Someone was compensating for something...\" she said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It’s a glass cannon build,\" he said, reading the window.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Speed: High.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Endurance: Low.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Acceleration: High.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Abilities: Burst, Flashbang, Override.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Burst was straightforward enough. The others were situational.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You’re not choosing this tacky thing, right.\" She bopped her head at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They moved on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next bay had a vehicle built with the simple idea that copper was everything it needed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Piping spread along the exterior in exposed configurations A row of pressure gauges mounted along the dashboard each pointed to a position that suggested theatherics.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The overall effect was of a truck that had arrived from another world and was not embarrassed about it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nyx stopped walking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The look she gave it was warm, interested for no reasonable reason.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That one has style to it,\" she said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He read the window.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Speed: Moderate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Endurance: Moderate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Acceleration: Moderate-High.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Abilities: Speed Pulse, Smokescreen, Repair Vent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Speed Pulse was plainly interesting. The other two depended on details he did not yet have, which moved them mildly curious, where they could sit and wait.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clippy drifted past the rear wheel well of the copper vehicle, moving at the unhurried pace it had kept since they were brought to the net.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The external pipe configuration presents a potential vulnerability at the left flank above wheel height.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I would note this for consideration before committing to a selection. I have noted this observation and it is available on request. This service is complimentary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Thank you,\" Nyx said, pleasantly, the way she always thanked it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You’re very welcome.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It went on ahead of them down the row of bays, and they followed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next vehicle was low and wide, the machine sitting close to the ground of something engineered for terrain that had stopped pretending to be roads.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was a roll cage visible above the cab. Fuel tanks bolted to the outer flanks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The paint had either been chosen not to show damage or was damaged enough to become a color of its own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then the bay after that, a vehicle that had been given extra metal by someone that very clearly, loved metal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Welded plate along the sides in sections that did not quite fit. A winch on the front installed with more care than the rest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then a truck whose design implied a different century without quite saying which one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was three bays past that when Nyx let go of his sleeve.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He turned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had stopped in front of a bay he had passed without stopping, which he had done because the vehicle was a joke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had apparently not arrived at that opinion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The truck in the bay was smaller than the others, and its window was not optimistic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Speed: High\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Endurance: Low\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Acceleration: Very high.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Abilities: Boost, Slip, Feint.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boost was a speed surge. Slip was to hinder opponents. Feint was a way to escape targetting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The stats turned out to be more interesting than he had originally judged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What had made him pass it the first time was the design.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The proportions were round in the way that suggested the designer had wanted every corner to become family friendly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The paint was pale, somewhere between cream and the color of something that had decided to be cheerful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The headlights were disproportionately large for the frame, which gave the vehicle the impression of having two very large eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nyx was staring at it with a starry-eyed gaze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yeees~\" she said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You can’t be serious,\" he said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It’s very cute,\" she said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Cute? You think that’s cute?\" he sighed. \"I’m glad you never called me cute then.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hmph. Of course not. You are handsome. The brooding, lazy mysterious sort.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was still looking at the truck. Nothing in her expression suggested she was changing the decision.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Proxy opted to ignore her description of him and walk back toward another bay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A dieselpunk truck waited there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dark frame, low-slung, no surface material that was not earning its weight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The design philosophy was simple, in that efficiency justified every decision, and appearance had been considered exactly as much as necessary and no more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He checked the window.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Speed: Moderate-High.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Endurance: High.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Acceleration: Moderate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Abilities: Overdrive, EMP Pulse, Brace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was, all things considered, pretty damn good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yours?\" she called from her bay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes,\" he said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She made the small, satisfied sound that meant a confirmation. Then she appeared in his bay entrance a moment later, leaning against the frame with ease.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She looked at his truck with very obvious curiosity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Brooding. It suits you.\" she said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked at the stat window, again, in a way to ignore her words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She smiled cutely at the side of his face, watching something he didn’t quite caught what.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, in a tone that made it clear she wanted to edge him into it, she said, \"If I come in ahead of you, you have to do something for me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If,\" he said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Mm,\" she said, pleasantly, with no sign that she was treating the word as relevant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And if you somehow come in ahead of me, I’ll do something for you. It’s fair game.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He considered the proposal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A bet with open terms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He very much knew how dangerous that was, specially with what Nyx could request. But that was only if he lost. And he would not lose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Fine,\" he said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She looked at him for a moment in a way that nearly made he regret, then she turned and went back toward her bay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He watched her go.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The energy of her walking was not something he could name precisely, but it covered a great deal of ground very quickly in a way that somehow felt like skipping and walking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Proxy looked at the truck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only then, he realized, he never had seen Nyx drive a car before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or any sort of vehicle, if that mattered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He briefly wondered if that would be a problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, he got in.\u003C\u002Fp>",1441,"2026-06-10T06:21:48.780Z",1,"novelbin.me","bba918f2a9673f64d10b0970ce4ae94d36d67865e4abbdfac1d83c4ace7ffa84","love-exe-surviving-a-cyberpunk-death-game-chapter-40","love-exe-surviving-a-cyberpunk-death-game-chapter-38",77,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Flove-exe-surviving-a-cyberpunk-death-game-cover.jpg"]