Part 9: Ten Ways to Move Up in the World

Part 09 - Ten Ways to Move Up in the World










This place has seen better days. Or maybe this is just how they design their apartment buildings in Seattle, I've never been.

Incidentally, the couch over in the corner there has a bad case of reference infestation.






A hellhole full of junkies. Looks like Stevie-J's gets their rent money AND their drug money.

If Coyote's here, we have to hurry. She's good but... well... these BTL guys pay to stay well informed. They may have known she was coming.


Soon after we enter, one of the female residents beckons us to talk with her.



You look like you could use a break. All you need is a few nuyen for a Better-Than-Life chip, right?

Yes, yes! I just need another BTL to get through the day. Something pretty. Something... soft...

Sure, I get it. Have you seen a woman come through here today? Armed and looking for trouble? Maybe I can cred you.

And saying "you" doesn't count, that'd be cheating.

Yes... no! Hell, what do you want me to say? I'll tell you anything. Everything... Pleeaaase?

[She drops to her knees, pleading.]

Ah, man.

I'm sorry, but I can't help you. You should leave this place if you can.



Well that was depressing. Moving a little further in, we see an old but more lucid-looking man eyeing us and mumbling something to himself.



You have quite the vantage point here. Bet you don't miss much. Seen anything special today?

Yeah, everything in this body has gone to rust, 'cept my eyes and ears. Bit of a commotion upstairs, earlier. Stevie's men are twitchy. This young thing came through earlier, snooping around like you two are. I could tell she weren't here for BTLs. Don't know how she got upstairs... but there was a lot more gunfire than there usually is this time of day.

I hate it when my neighbors exceed the standard amount of daily gunfire, no respect at all for their fellow tenants.

That's not good. Did you see her come back down again?

Nope. Couple of Stevie's men came round, asking what anyone saw. Kept my mouth shut, I did.

Where's Stevie holed up?

He's got the whole top floor all to himself. Fancies he's the king around here.

Figures, it's always the top floor or the dungeon's deepest chamber or whichever place is the biggest pain in the ass to get to.

Sounds like Coyote's run went sideways for her.

Hey old man, you know how to get upstairs?

You've been right friendly... but I can't get on the wrong side of Stevie J. I'm sure you understand.

There are actually quite a few different ways to gain access to the upper floors. Here are our first two, either threatening to snap the old man's bones with a Strength check of 4 or guilt tripping him with a Charisma check of 4, which we happen to have.

Look, we're here to save her. Do you really want that girl's fate on your conscience?



Easy enough.




Alternatively, walking past the old man leads us to an old dresser concealing a small hole in the wall. He'll tell you to stop snooping around but won't actually do anything.

Moving the dresser out of the way (no check involved) and looking through the hole reveals the stairs and presents us with the third method, namely sending a drone through the hole. This obviously requires that you have one with you.







The fourth method and my personal favorite is also related to this spot: With a point in Spirit Summoning, you can see a summon spot on the other side of the hole. Using it summons a spooky spirit to scare the hell out of the resident on the other side of the door, causing her to rush out.



The fifth method is to talk to the old man after having seen the stairs through the hole. This allows for an easier Charisma check of 3 which has you tell him that such a clever man should be working at a corporation instead of being here.




Having said all that, there's still more to be done on the first floor so we won't be taking the stairs just yet.



Going further in, we come across two men having some kind of a disagreement.





The thuggish man lands a hard punch on the pleading guy. 4 damage, in case you were curious.

Get your ass back in your squat before I break something else. I'll send him upstairs instead. You want me to give him to Stevie? Maybe after he kills that girl we caught...

You pig! Give Zipper back now or...

Who the hell names their son "Zipper"? Or "Symp" for that matter?

...or you'll bleed on me? Zipper's gone. Get yourself a new kid.

[He covers his face with his hands.] Oh God, no. Please no.

This place is really something else. Ryker walks off to a room in the south while Symp stumbles to the apartment in the north.



We follow him in, maybe he'll tell us what's going on.



What was that all about?

Why do you care? ...it... it's my son. That bastard took my son!

Who took your son?

One of Stevie J's goons, Ryker. He runs that filthy BTL squat across the hall. My son, Zipper... he's not a strong boy. And Ryker knows it. Lured him in with those damn chips. "Better Than Life"? HA! What life?!?

"HA! What life?!?" happens to be our motto over at Death and Bleach, it works on multiple levels and everything. Did I mention that we're pretty cool?

And now they're TORTURING him in there!

Why would they do that?



He's being literal by the way, a Simsense recording allows one to fully experience something from the standpoint of the person who was originally recorded as if they were really there, sharing all of their sensations. Amazing for porn and what have you, and the ones in commercial use have limiters in place to make them safe to use and to stop them from being dangerously intense.

Of course when the aforementioned person is being tortured to death instead and we're talking illegal recordings with no such limiters or other safety measures, well...


That must be Coyote. They've got her up there!

Keep it together Paco. She's still alive. Stay frosty.

Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I'll be okay.

What about MY SON?!

I'll see if I can save your son while we're saving our friend.

Thank-you, thank-you.




First things first though, we find and liberate some Jazz (the drug, not a music CD) from a shelf inside the apartment.



While Kamikaze and Nitro are decent but not particularly amazing, Jazz is arguably the best item in the game. The Quickness boost is already pretty nice but +1 AP for five full rounds with no drawback is an incredibly powerful effect in a game where you'll usually have 2 or 3 AP total.

Back to the hallway.



The elevator here is our other and more obvious route upwards. If you've ever played Final Fantasy VII you know the deal, the stairs are the quiet way and the elevator's the loud way. This thing's locked with a keypad however, and it also comes with an intercom.

The sixth way to get upstairs is simply to use the intercom here and say that you're coming to fuck everybody's shit up.



This'll bring both the elevator and an angry guy down to the ground floor, leading to a fight against him and Ryker. We however head back and through the door Ryker went through earlier.



There we come across a computer set of some kind, but Ryker stops us from fiddling with it.



Behind him is where his "customers" hang out, deep in their brain-frying escapism. And we're not talking World of Warcraft here.



[A scream echoes through the pipes of the rotten walls. Hard to tell where it came from.]

What was that sound?

[He smiles with his mouth but his eyes say "predator".] Who knows? Could be anything. Probably someone riding the wrong end of a Yakuza execution BTL. We get all kinds. I can hook you up, if you're interested.

Once again we have several different options pertaining to both getting access to the elevator and rescuing Zipper. The seventh and eighth ways to get upstairs are available with an Intelligence check of 3 or the Street etiquette (they give identical options), and involve either telling him that you're going to kill Stevie-J but promising to let Ryker himself live in exchange for the elevator code and Zipper...



...or alternatively tricking him by pretending that you want to get in with Stevie-J and offering to deliver a BTL to him. This lets you deceive the person on the other side of the elevator intercom by acting as a delivery person.



We'll take a different approach though.


I heard you're in the middle of a recording session...

Sure am. My gear is state of the art if you can believe it.

Charisma check of 3 here.

I'm looking for something very... special. Something... violent.

Look around... clearly, I'm not going to be offended by ANY idea you can come up with.

I want to kill someone... and record it.

[The thug looks like he's thinking hard for a moment.]

Wow, you're one sick bastard. I like it. Perfect timing too, I could use a trigger man for a little project I've got going. Come with me!

Show me the way.


Ryker walks on ahead to the recording room, which gives us the opportunity to take a look at the computer.



Here's yet another way to progress, a Decking check to access the elevator controls which also includes the passcode. The Recording Studio option allows you to reboot the studio software to reach Zipper in case you couldn't fool Ryker, or to download the BTL currently being recorded with a Decking check of 2 which again lets you deceive the intercom guy by telling him you're delivering it to Stevie-J.

Finally, the BTL library option allows you to change the BTL the junkies in the adjacent room are experiencing, either to "Happy"



"Sad"



Or "Violent" which causes them all to take some damage.




Anyhow, let's not be late from our recording session.



The final way to get hold of the BLT recording is to simply grab it from the machine on the wall next to Zipper.



This lady here has... exotic tastes. She wants to help us out and is willing to pay for the privilege. That, and a copy of the recording.

Well... as long as Mr. J gets what he needs, I see no reason we can't make a little extra at the same time.

I should've known The Joker is up to his old tricks again.

I think young Zipper here is just about spent. Now... just give me a moment to hook up a recording rig to our friend here and she'll have quite the BTL for her personal collection.

Alright, this has gone on long enough.

Y'know what would make a great BTL?

What?

What I'm gonna do to you.






(This isn't even a real fight and we're almost at the end of this part, but it's been a while since the last combat theme so I'll throw it in here anyway.)


I usually go for the diplomatic non-combat method when given the choice, which in this case would've been making a deal with Ryker, but fuck these people. Our double drones combined with the fact that Tickler is pretty much a non-combatant with 10 HP practically makes this fight a 3v1 so there's little for me to cover.

In fact, not even Paco gets the chance to act because Hello World and Murphy instantly wipe the floor with these assfaces.

Observe our beautiful babies in action:






They grow up so fast.




You got lucky today, kid. If I were you, I'd play it safe from now on. You don't get lucky twice.

Oof. I don't think I can move... can you at least tell my dad?

We do so, informing Symp that Zipper is alive but pretty messed up.



The grateful man runs off to reunite with his son. He doesn't even pretend to consider giving us a reward of any kind, but I guess we never thought to ask for one either.

Of course we also have our own reunion to attend, and so we head for the stairs behind the old man's apartment. Hopefully we'll finally get to meet this elusive Coyote person, next time.