I am reborn in Cyberpunk

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***

I woke up not in Panam's and my flat, except that Panam was lying on my side and that told me that everything was fine....

Inhale...

The smell of Panam's hair soothed me, and after a couple of moments I remembered that yesterday I had agreed to take a break from my solo life by living in Panam's clan. Judy had also come with us, curious to try what it was like to live outdoors?

I wasn't so much interested as I just wanted to bond with the Panam some more. This world was sparse on nature, at least in the part of the country we were in, and most of the rest of the world outside of the cities was desert. And surviving in the desert was a lot of fun.

Carefully getting out of bed I quickly got dressed in a tracksuit and left the tent. Looking around, I didn't see anyone outside. I didn't care about that, because I didn't leave the tent to admire the people around me, but to check the synthetic muscles that Vic had fitted me with, so far only on my arms and legs.

The surgeries are serious, of course, but in general, with the current level of technology today I can safely run around the nomads' camp and do a couple of dozen push-ups. Just to check how the muscles work.

No, I could go the way of the Animals, start eating chemistry, I could even ask Vic to choose the right drugs for me, so that my brains wouldn't react. They wouldn't give the results that the animals have, but in a year of training I'd reach almost the limit of human capabilities. It would be a good solution if I wasn't living life solo.

And the last mission showed how lucky I'd been before...

If I'd had someone with a sandi earlier, I could have died! Because when I started out, I was trained, but not to the point where I could produce my recent acceleration figures. My body just wasn't ready for something like this.

With that in mind, I took a pace that wasn't the fastest and ran out of the camp.

On the other hand, synthetic muscles are very limited, in the sense that they can't be developed through training, so the limit that they have, I will be able to go over only after I replace them with new ones. But their bonuses are quite impressive!

The first one is endurance... It's many times higher than normal muscle, as well as strength. I became not so much more in volume in arms and legs, maybe half a centimetre added, but in strength arms and legs should have added almost four times! Although not all the strength of these muscles would be available to me now, I would still have to take medication for a couple of months to strengthen my skeleton and ligaments so that they could withstand such a load. But even with the doubling of my abilities, I will be much more calm, as the work will be partly safer.

Of course it will be necessary to visit Vic and replace the muscles that he could not replace because it would be too much intervention at once. But the next operation wouldn't be until two days later... and in the meantime.....

In the meantime, we can speed up a little bit.

And I increased the speed of running, and then ran seven laps, and returning to the tent, went to the car, standing next to it and took out of it a mat, laid it on the sand and began to do further exercise. Gradually people began to appear in the street and looked at me with a strange look. But I didn't care about that, because I care about my physical development... And yes, I remember that I will soon have synthetic muscles that don't require training and don't degenerate, but then I will only switch from regular training to reflexes, but now my concern is to find out the limits of the new muscles.

I've already partially developed the reflexes I need for solo.

- And why?

Panam peeked out of the tent and looked at me carefully.

- Well, for starters, to test the capabilities of the new muscles, well, and also....

I looked at Panam with a laughing look.

- ...to make you and Judy jealous.

- А?

- He's been doing that for two hours.

Judy looked out of the tent and glared at Panam and me.

- ...and you should have seen the looks the girls of your clan were throwing at him...how they were devouring him with their eyes....

- А?

Panam blinked confusedly.

- So a couple of private conversations about 'our girlie stuff' is assured for you and me.

Panam swallowed and shook her head.

- David, you didn't do this on purpose, did you?

- Of course not...

I finished with another exercise and got to my feet and shrugged my shoulders.

- I'm just testing what my new arm and leg muscles can do. And I myself have to get used to the fact that after their installation my abilities have increased a lot. So...

- Okay.

Just at that moment Mitch came up to us and clapped me on the back approvingly.

- Well done, lad! Although I could see that you felt a little insecure during some of the exercises. Need any help?

- No, thanks. Just testing the synthetic muscles in my legs and arms....

- Oh.

I got a completely different look.

- Are you trying to say something?

- Why are you so frail?

- Because I'm not going to go to boxing, my business is to work with the help of sandi, but only native muscles were not enough for that, and their training even under conditionally safe chemistry would take at least a year. The last job showed me that that time might not even be there.

- Hmm?

- An urgent assignment from the fixer... meet the sandi wielder. And even though my kung-fu was better, but I almost lost my arm, Vic miraculously managed to fix it... in short, I decided to lose a couple of weeks and install synthetic muscles, which will be superior to mine in all respects, in order to react in time to threats in the future.

- Hmm... why not chrome?

- Mitch?

Panam walked up to the man and gave him a menacing stare.

- Don't teach my boy no wrong! I don't need a borg boy! I'm already barely holding back from the fact that he wants to change all his muscles. But at least it's not chrome! At least not in the sense that other people use the word!

- Got it, got it, got it!

Mitch took a couple of steps back with her arms raised, and I turned around and went into the tent to wipe off the sweat. Of course I would like to take a shower, but not in this environment, here a shower is the limit of dreams, we will have to think of something with it... and that wiping myself with wet towels is not very comfortable....

Panam went into the tent, followed by Judy, who apparently decided not to continue the conversation with Mitch. I wasn't embarrassed to be naked in the tent, though Judy looked at me with some interest.

- Shut your eyes! Not yours!

- Pfft!

Judy just turned away from me, and Panam gave her an indignant look, then shook her head.

- You do fall under his spell after all... and you said you were a girlie girl.

- Well... it's hard not to... gallant, caring, not ugly, not going to turn into a Borg, and he works quietly and mostly carefully, so there's a chance he'll live to be old. In general good and reliable, and such a beautiful mulatto next to him....

- And if you think about it a little longer, you might find that you'll have to fight for his attention, right?

Judy sighed.

- Yeah...

- Okay, girls, these topics, please, without me....

- Really?

Panam grinned as I finished drying myself off and got dressed.

- You were the one who led to all this! So now suffer...

I took two steps forward and put my arm around Panam's waist and kissed her gently. The kiss was not passionate and greedy, but tender and loving, and it lasted for about three minutes, after which I took a step back from the girl and looked into her eyes carefully.

- Don't be jealous...

- Pfft!

I let go of her and took a step towards Judy, who averted her gaze to the side, but still returned it to us time after time.

- And this is for you...

The short, almost childish kiss I gave her lips made Judy hang back a little, but I just stepped out of the tent and breathed in the slightly dusty but much cleaner air than in the city. Still, there's a certain... beauty to it.....

Just have to think of something to do with the shower...

I glanced around the camp and noticed Mitch already walking around some car.

- Hi again.

- It's been a while...

He chuckled at my greeting.

- Need any help?

- Yeah, it won't start. I was thinking about doing it today, but now I'm wondering where to start...

- Why don't I scan it first?

- Hmm?

But despite his questioning hum, he nodded after a bit of thought and I activated my eyes.

- And open the bonnet...

Mitch complied, and I scanned the engine as well, then switched off the scanner and looked at him.

- Well...I see what the problem is.....

With these words I started the epic repair of Scorpion's car, which turned out to be this small, but sharp and well armoured car.

The repair took a couple of hours, first we had to drive the car into a large tent, just and designed for transport repair, then remove some parts, change sensors ...

Mitch and I worked four-handed, which is why we did it so quickly...

- Okay.

A faintly familiar voice sounded behind us and I turned round and recognised its owner. OWLs.

- OWLs...

- David... what are you doing here?

- Here specifically?

I arched an eyebrow questioningly.

- I'm here helping Mitch fix his car.

- I meant, what are you doing at Camp Aldecaldo?

I shrugged.

- I'm taking some time off and recovering from my last surgery on the Reaper and the one that's coming up. Panam suggested it, so I wouldn't be tempted to do any 'easy' work. So I agreed to stay with you. But I won't be a freeloader, don't worry. I not only know how to work with guns, but I'm also good with technology....

Saul looked at me glumly.

- It's just the two of you?

- There's five of us. Four girls and me. Two of the girls might go to Knight City since they haven't gone on holiday, and their main team might request their help.

- Just stay out of the way. I've got a good deal coming up and I don't want it to be derailed by the presence of people like you....

OWLs turned and walked away, and I looked at Mitch in surprise.

- A good deal? Stay out of the way?

- OWLs has been dreaming about getting involved with biotech lately... wants us to guard their fields. A steady job.

Mitch said that last part with a face that a dumbass would know how he felt about the idea. And I can understand him, but working with a corporation is always a game of Russian roulette. Whether they want to screw you or not.

And the odds of winning aren't that high.

To put it simply, if you take a six-shot revolver and load four cartridges into it, then the game will be comparable to co-operation with a corporation. And everyone knows this very well, but everyone still thinks that they will not make the mistakes of those losers who got burnt on such cooperation.

- Biotech? Nomads guarding the fields?

I looked at Mitch in surprise. Even though I knew from the canon of the game that something like that was supposed to be in this world, but to encounter it in reality....

- You heard me, right? My tone is beaming with pride at the job OWLs has found for us. Except I'm not going to go against him....

I shrugged.

- I wasn't suggesting that... let's get back to the car. There's a couple of things we can do to make it faster and more manoeuvrable. I think Scorpio would appreciate it.

- Come on.

Mitch hummed and he and I walked over to the car, back to work.

A couple more hours of work and we walked away from the car.

Were we satisfied?

Without a doubt...

- Call Scorpio and have him check the car.

- Yeah... I'm calling... listen, can you help me look at the other cars in the clan?

- No problem.

I shrugged, realising that now I'd have something to do on this holiday....