[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-protagonist-system":3,"chapter-the-protagonist-system-the-protagonist-system-chapter-540":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","The Protagonist System",{"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},1824148,2426,"533 A Night Out","the-protagonist-system-chapter-540",540,"\u003Cp>I was not surprised to find out that Tank lived in a megabuilding. I escorted him inside, just because of what he carried. He gained a lot of looks because of it and then they looked away when they saw me beside him in a corpo suit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What was a surprise was when he brought me into his tiny apartment and met his squeeze. She was a really short and pretty little woman, barely four feet tall, and her breasts were massive when compared to the rest of her. The right half of her head was shaved bare, revealing cheap cyberware that replaced half of her skull, and the other half of her head was a mass of bright purple hair that looked like a paintbrush had exploded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I looked from her short four feet to Tank's seven foot tall muscular frame, back to her, then back to Tank. “Jesus H. Christ, choom! You lucky fucking gonk!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The woman's face flushed to a bright red and Tank looked really proud.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don't I know it.” Tank said and handed her the bottle of alcohol, then the bowl of cherries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her eyes widened at seeing the both of them, then he pulled the banana out of his pocket. She let out a cute little squeal and ran over to a small table, put the bottle and bowl down, and carried a chair back over to us. She climbed on top of it and wrapped her arms around his bulging neck and kissed the hell out of him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When she let his neck go and reached down to unzip his pants, I took that as my cue to leave. Since I now knew her favorite fruit was a banana, I left a few scattered around the small kitchen for her to find and enjoy later. If she was smart, she could use the cherries for something else, like sharing with her friends or bribing the landlord or something.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I went back down to where I parked and was glad I had cast a notice-me-not on the thing, because a few punks wearing gang colors were loitering around. As soon as one of them saw me, he made a whistle sound and seven of them came together to stand in a group.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You done fucked up, corpo kid.” The teenager in front with a shaved head and a black skull tattoo covering the entire left side of his face. “This here's Void Skull territory and no one comes onto our turf without our permission!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Or paying the toll!” A half-decent looking girl shouted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I couldn't remember any gangs called that in the limited research I had done, so I lightly poked him with telepathy and found out that he was just a poser. He wanted his made up gang to be relevant, and he was charismatic enough to convince his friends to join his gang to have some fun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I followed that thought deeper into his mind and saw they had been active for a few months, rolling lone people for cash, beating up other neighborhood kids and taking their things, and they even murdered an old homeless guy down by the docks. That he was already dying of cancer only urged them on to put him out of his misery.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You don't want to do this.” I cautioned him and a few of them laughed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What're you gonna do? Tell your daddy on us?” Another guy said and they all laughed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since I didn't want to repeat the mistake I had made with the doll that attacked me, I felt out with Overhaul's power and saw who was chromed and where. Just like Tank's woman, it was cheap stuff and wouldn't last long without some major maintenance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I'm an orphan, jackass.” I said and I punched out with my fist, quick as a flash, and dented his chestplate. He dropped to the ground and started wheezing, his artificial lung temporarily shut down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“GET HIM!” The guy in charge yelled and jumped at me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I caught his punch and he looked shocked, because his fist had been reinforced titanium. I smiled and flipped him around and flung him at the girl. She squeaked in fright and tried to catch him, only for her sharpened metal nails to dig into his back and blood spurted out and covered her face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One of them hefted a pipe and swung it at me, so I sidestepped and hit his arm to add more force to it, which let the swing follow through and he whacked the next guy in the head and dropped him. I elbowed the guy with the pipe in the gut, dropping him, and slid the pipe out of his grip and into my hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I stood up straight, my suit still immaculate, and I slapped the pipe into my bare hand. “Who's next?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two guys still standing exchanged looks and then ran in opposite directions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don't leave me here!” The girl shouted and tried to pull her fingers out of the leader's back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Owww! OW! Stop! STOP!” The leader yelled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Allow me.” I said and lifted the pipe over my head as if to smash her head in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“AHHH!” She screamed, showed surprising strength as she yanked her hands out in one motion, then she ran for it, yelling about a crazy corpo suffering from cyber-psychosis.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The leader groaned in pain and dropped to the ground. I could see the back of his shirt had ten jagged bloody holes in it. I poked the back of his neck and checked him with Panacea's power and found out he was really lucky. Her metal nails had missed all the major nerves and his spine, so he was in no real danger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You might want to get that looked at.” I said and crushed the pipe. The guys on the ground that were still conscious gave me terrified looks. I just smiled and walked around them to my car. A bit of magic cleaned up my hands and I tossed the mangled pipe into a pile of garbage in the closest alley.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I honked the horn at them and drove away. It was past rush hour, so the streets were relatively clear. It was still pretty crowded; but, no one was in a rush to get anywhere. It was more of a leisurely drive to go to Kei's address at the more upscale part of the city. I didn't want to intrude on her or her family, so I parked a good distance away and stepped the crate over to her doorstep and stepped back to the car and sat down before I pinged the door chime.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The door opened almost immediately and a gold skinned maid was there. She saw the package and bent down to check the shipping label, then she shouted something. Kei and a woman I thought was her mother came out of the house and saw the crate. They immediately started talking and I didn't bother trying to listen or to read their lips.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mother motioned to the crate and the maid picked it up and carried it inside. The mother followed her and Kei was about to, then she stopped and turned around. Her head swivelled as she scanned around, looking for something, then she saw the car. It wasn't one she had ever seen before, and by the look on her face, she suspected that was where the crate came from.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My cyberdeck back at the apartment dinged with an incoming message, so I checked it and it was from Kei.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Veder? Is that you in the preem wheels?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instead of answering, I started the engine, which purred like all great engines should. Kei stared at it as I slowly turned the car around.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Have fun making a salad and spaghetti sauce.I sent back before I drove off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>*\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reinforced metal door to the group cell opened and the desk sergeant rapped hard on the metal door with his metallic hand. “It's checkout time, you gonks!” He said and rapped two more times, making sure that everyone was awake. “Get your asses in gear and get out! This ain't a fucking hotel!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone in the cell woke with various groans, complaints, and a few curses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Shut your holes and move it!” The man barked and banged the metal door a few more times. The sharp ringing resonance went through everyone and made them flinch, which was just how he liked it and why he did it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Come on, Mama Bears! It's time to go.” Jackie said and patted Mamma Welles on the shoulder and Gloria Martinez on the back. Both women growled at him for being so chipper after spending nearly 24 hours in a cramped cell with thirty other people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>David stood up and stretched, felt something pop, and grinned at the relief he felt. A few of the more mobile mercs hopped up and were out through the cell door before Mama Welles stood up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright, let's go. Daylight's gone and we've got a bar to get back to.” Mama Welles said and it was like hot coffee had been poured down everyone's throats. The rest of the people that had been napping all day perked up and everyone stood, checked on their fellows, and started filing out after the others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jackie barely held in his laugh at his mom being such a great motivator and clapped David on the back. The two walked ahead of their mothers and nodded at the desk sergeant when they passed him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I don't want to see your ugly faces again!” The man shouted at the crowd walking up the hallway and most of them laughed, a few even flipped him off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I assume you got the usual, Norm?” Mama Welles asked in a whisper, once everyone but her and Gloria had left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I wouldn't have sprung you all if I hadn't.” The man said and waved the two women out and shut the cell door. “I can't make the paperwork disappear again for at least a week, just so you know.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mama Welles nodded and held up a fist. He smacked it with his own and Gloria saw the small Valentinos tattoo on the inside of the man's forearm that matched Mama Welles. That meant being brought in for fighting was a semi-regular thing and Mama Welles had already arranged for the regular bribe to be sent through.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gloria walked down the hallway and out into the main precinct with the other woman, and she held her tongue until they were outside and went to a large group of vehicles that someone had dropped off for everyone to pile into.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You really do take care of them all.” Gloria asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“When I can.” Mama Welles said and waved her new friend into the backseat of a large sedan that Jackie was driving. “When they let me, anyway.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jackie gave her a thumbs up and waved in a few other people. David didn't mind having to squeeze against the passenger door as the two women he'd met at the bar climbed in and took up the last bit of space inside the car, one in the back and one in the front. The car pulled out into the street and joined the procession that went right back to the bar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gloria sat there and contemplated what she had learned after spending the night and most of the day with the older and much more experienced woman. Mama Welles had a lot of wisdom, a dry wit, and had a lot in common with Gloria, both personally and with an idiot son that just wouldn't listen to reason most times and you had to take a direct hand to them to straighten them out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two women had formed an unlikely bond over that, and it was something the both of them would soon cherish more than any other friendships they had with other people. That and the both of them were surprisingly tough when the need called for it and they could easily handle themselves in a fight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I think... I think you're right.” Gloria admitted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Course I am. I'm Mama Welles.” Mama Welles said smugly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Humble, too.” Gloria said with a smile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mama Welles barked a laugh and nudged her with her shoulder. “It ain't just David that's welcome to stop by whenever they want, you know.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yeah, choomba! You gotta come by again!” Jackie said and slapped the steering wheel a couple of times, as if replaying the punches he saw. “That brawl was NOVA!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>David glanced back at his mom, gained an embarrassed look, and turned back around. “I never knew you could fight like that.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You would have asked her years ago to teach you!” Jackie said with a laugh. “That dropkick she flattened me with was preem drek!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yeah.” David said, his face slightly red. “Yeah, it was.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gloria glanced at Mama Welles, to see if she was offended, only to see the older woman nod at her with respect. Jackie pulled the car into the alleyway beside the bar and parked. The doors opened and everyone piled out as if the doors were the only things holding them inside the car. Jackie put an arm over David's shoulders and the two women followed them inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You can come in for a shot or two.” Mama Welles said. “Your shift doesn't start for another hour.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gloria looked from the now very active bar to Mama Welles, thought about refusing, then remembered enjoying her time talking with her, even though they were in jail. She smiled and nodded in agreement instead, and the two women went inside to continue their conversation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>*\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wakako Okado's informant in the municipal city offices brought her back some significantly disturbing news at the end of the day. Normally, things like that would not concern her very much and she would look at them later, except it specifically pertained to her encounter with Atlas, the new and powerful netrunner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She tried to not feel distress seeing the copy of the new business registration list and the one that stood out the most to her. It was a garbage disposal business, something he had specifically asked her about, and it was called The Garbage Pail Kids. She did not understand what that referred to nor why he would name it something stupid like that. Did he not have any naming sense?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The new fruit and vegetable business was named just as stupidly and was called The Cabbage Patch Kids. Why would he name a new company after a retro children's toy she barely remembered from nearly a century ago? It didn't make any sense to her. No one from the last two generations would ever get the reference.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The raw materials business was called Erector Set? What was that? It wasn't a hidden building company, was it? No, the business plan is only for selling cheap raw materials by the ton. There was nothing about making building materials... hold on. Did that say by the ton?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wakako checked the information over again, ensuring that it wasn't edited or that someone wasn't feeding her false information. She would have killed someone over wasting her time if that were true. It was all genuinely filed and it made her shake her head. She would hate to see what kind of quotes he was handing over to both PetroChem and the city council for garbage removal if he could sell such in demand resources for so cheap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At least the cyberware business was named appropriately, Cyberdyne Systems. That one she was looking forward to investigating as soon as it had premises. She would hold off on the electronic surveillance for now, however. He might be able to detect it if they tried to launch any information probes for it and she didn't want him thinking she was going to attack him in any way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wakako closed the file and stared at the top of her desk with a pensive expression on her face. It took her several minutes to fight down her anger, at herself and at Atlas, for springing that whole garbage thing on her without warning and for her own overreaction at being so insulted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If she had handled that better, she could have had a hand in whatever scheme he was running in City Hall. One new business would have been enough to remain under the radar and no one would have paid it any attention. Two new businesses? That was pushing things. Three and four? That gained a lot of attention from those in certain circles, because that was a lot of economic power that might be diverted from other businesses and corporations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not being included was irking her and she hated that feeling. If only... if only. If. Only. She thought with a scowl. She could not sit by and watch as a previously potential asset to her moved on and succeeded without her help or her manipulation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wakako brought up her personal contact list and looked up a number she hadn't used in years, mostly because things had been relatively calm recently and it wasn't necessary. They were still on good terms and close friends, even if neither of them had the need to share strict confidences with each other for a while.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A face she had not seen in person for far too long appeared on the vidscreen and the old woman couldn't help but give her longtime friend a welcoming smile. She spoke a traditional greeting in her native language and bowed her head slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It is nice to see you again, Michiko.” Wakako said with warmth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Michiko Arasaka, the granddaughter of Sarubo Arasaka, smiled back and bowed her head slightly in return. “It has been far too long, old friend.” She said and narrowed her eyes slightly. “You are tense, Wakako. What has you so worried?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wakako couldn't help but huff. “You haven't lost any of your skills.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Nor have you, old friend.” Michiko said. “Whatever information you have, must be important for you to call me without setting up a meeting first.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wakako nodded. “It is concerning a netrunner that appeared recently. His name is Atlas...”\u003C\u002Fp>",3044,"2026-06-09T05:52:49.484Z",1,"novelbin.me","15c369e6a91ca7cf06a78ac3451b806896dc52929d90560d3dc5860f1cc603b0","the-protagonist-system-chapter-541","the-protagonist-system-chapter-539",542,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-protagonist-system-cover.jpg"]