"Heh, I wish I could see the huntress's reactions to me disappearing in the explosion. But I have other shit to deal with." I muttered as I got myself back in order while taking a breath.
So with aura now in my grasp, I had a much better feeling for... Magical energy of a sort even if Aura was supposed to be pure soul energy. Well either way, if people could be depressed or angsty enough to figure out Cursed Energy on their own. I could figure it out while having the crutch that was aura to go off of.
"Now how do I get myself angsty enough to unlock cursed energy." I muttered to myself before pausing as I had a most wonderful idea. As seeing Jujutsu Kaisen before in my last life did give me some idea's on how Cursed Energy worked, even if the setting didn't go into exhaustive detail like some others did for their power sources.
'I gotta feel the inner Megatron/Shadow the hedgehog of edgy cringe inside my gut, in my stomach specifically.' I mused as I pulled up the Net and went to the local Youtube equilvalent using my Cyberdeck.
And what did I think would encourage the most emotional feedback in myself? I went to the videos of dogs crying, huffing, and whimpering on the tombs of their past owners to get the water works going.
If you saw a big fluffy husky all but sobbing and crying as they laid on the tombstone of their owner who had loved and cared for them for a decade and didn't tear up... Then there was something wrong with you.
So even as I embraced the tears as I was using my cyberdeck. The videos were being literally directly beamed into my brain so it was like I was there and could feel the dogs cries in my very soul.
I could feel the dark tightness in my gut which could have been misconstrued as like butterflies in my stomach from the emotional moment I was having. But I knew it was actually Cursed Energy being produced from my negative emotions.
And just the realization that I had to make myself emo as fuck to get the Cursed Energy pumping was annoying as although I could tell the depth of my emotions changed the quality and quantity of cursed energy being produced.
I was well aware that at least in this universe that Cyberpyschos and Jujutsu Sorcerers went hand in hand due to how having too much Cursed Energy would fuck with a person's psyche.
"Well I got the cursed energy going... I wonder if lust counts as a negative emotion though?" I mused to myself with a smile coming up that pushed my cursed energy down as I imagined killing curses with the power of 'Horny'.
Maybe that was my path in life... To save this world from curses! I had to embrace the horny by fucking all the rizzless hopeless girlfailure huntresses of that RWBY world!
Ok maybe that was an exaggeration. Though... It would be a funny as fuck method of gaining power though. Just becoming mini Slaanesh via fucking all the hopeless huntresses.
I took a deep breath as I realized that I was basically set now, I had access to my aura which was instinctive, and Cursed Energy was very much a rather instinctive thing though I was curious as to when I would learn my Semblance and Cursed Technique.
"Well, I might as well look into getting some gigs. Though the question is where in the hell am I going to get a gig without any form of a reputation?" I muttered to myself as I also considered what kind of gig's I wanted/needed to take.
Because I had a very powerful cyberdeck and I had several powerful daemons I had cooked up to fuck people up with while on the Net, while on the other end, I was also pushing myself in the physical department with my aura and cursed energy.
So I was torn between being a netrunner or edgerunner in reality. But either way I took a breath as I decided to just get started now. I had literally nothing better to do so I got onto the Net and did a quick search for Fixer's who could put jobs my way.
Though there was obviously some complications, as for one. I didn't want a Fixer who was tied to heavily to the gangs. That would just draw me into the gang's bullshit which was not my goal in the slightest.
And also I was a fucking nobody right now. So even if I could get the details for a decent fixer, I had zero reputation fall back on to get me those jobs. So that pushed me towards some other thoughts.
Like for example, I didn't need to have my own reputation if I joined up with a crew. As that crew would become my reputation and shield though that also fell into the same issue of the fixer's.
I still had no rep, no connections, and no way to join a decent crew.
"If I don't have a reputation... I just need to make one I guess." I muttered as I pivoted to the NCPD's bounty system for mercs who had gone too far, or likewise gang goons who had gone fucking nuts and hadn't earned Max-Tech and the Jujutsu equilvalent of a kill squad to come fuck them up.
'My best bet is to go after the scavs and maelstrom criminals, they don't have real backing in the government or mega-corporations. And the scavs will ironically be both easier and more profitable pickings.' I mused as I remembered the last den of Scav's I tore into via the Net.
I got up and I took an automatic taxi towards the last recorded position of the wanted 'DEAD' Scav- Andre the Cannibal who had a fifteen thousand Eddie bounty on his ass for filming himself eating some poor woman he and his crew kidnapped off the street.
While the rest of his crew of noted four members had a combined bounty of only two thousand eddies as they were just followers even if they were wanted strictly dead and not captured or anything.
And I got the location so easily because the NCPD's wanted servers was heavily connected to the exhaustive number of high-tech camera's installed fucking everywhere in the city. So when a wanted person walks into view of the endless camera's filling the city...
Their ass's location got updated on the Night City Police Department's public servers.
Which was why most of the time, most criminals stayed in the poorest section of Night City where they and others would remove the camera's whenever the government tried to put them back up.
But this particular dumbass cannibal thought that 'industrial' and empty meant that there wouldn't be the camera's in the charnel house he was trying to make in a long-abandoned chemical factory that got closed down due to, too many deaths from poor safety standards.
The automatic taxi, dropped me off down the road from the factory and taking in the other buildings I went to a small alcove in what used to a furniture outlet of some sort and with my form out of the way basically. I took a deep breath and re-entered the Net with my cyberdeck.
My eyes took in the dark pixelated form of Night City around me as the Net's systems here weren't too strong and I made my way quickly towards the factory where my target was supposed to be.
And seeing as the camera's in the other factory had recorded him entering the factory with his crew a little less than an hour ago. It wasn't suprising he was still there. And low and behold he had seemingly grabbed some merchandice/produce for himself.
As I quickly picked out a woman on the chopping block who had several implants in here that were trying to ping out for help or just to get onto the Net. But she was clearly covered up in what looked like a giant magnetic net or something as even with my Cyberdeck I could barely look through the net.
"Whelp time to get to work." I said taking a deep breath and I went over to the leader, my target Andre the Cannibal. And with a grunt of effort I shoved my hands into his synthetic eye's Net connection that synched into his neural connectors in his brain and nervous system.
With that I first downloaded a Deamon that would make his synthetic eyes overheat their internal structures. Which would boil his brain from his overheating synthetic eye batteries evantually becoming a warm balmy two hundred degrees celsius.
Then with that, with the benefit of what was basically time dilation due to the effect of being on the Net and my time processing being so much better than in reality, I went over and did the same to the other four scav goons.
With that I cut my connection to the Net with my cyberdeck and my eyes opened back up taking in the small alcove I had hidden myself in and I muttered. "No wonder Netrunner's hide themselves or have a crew to watch themselves while they are in the Net."
Having no one to watch my back while I was 'working' was a terrible feeling when I had left my physical body all but defenseless basically.
I quickly made my way toward the factory of my target as the sounds of screams hit my ears and I carefully stepped over the trip wire and made sure to disable the laser trap that would send off a couple of land mines and grenades that were attached to doors and hidden under some tables.
'They even had plans to put up a small turret as well.' I mused with some interest as it was clear that this dumbass was thinking about setting up shop here as I saw the turret that wasn't set up as the cannibal and goons obviously had no idea 'HOW' to set up the complicated shit.
But as the screams cut out from their brains boiling as the tiny batteries and systems inside their eyes overheated. I made my way into the room with my own Kiroshi Eye's active in recording mode recording bodies and faces as I listed off the targets before putting a bullet in their brains while recording it so show their death was assured.
I then packaged up the video and sent it to the NCPD and with a sigh I turned to the complication. With my eyes now being in reality I saw how the woman was wrapped up in a giant faraday cage blanket that was smothering all electrical signals coming off of her.
I walked over to the woman who had given up on struggling and I called out. "Yo, I am an edgerunner and picked up these bounties. You good for me to pull that Faraday Cage off you?"
A sigh rang out and a female voice spoke out in annoyance. "Yes go ahead. I thought I could get the bounty myself... But the leader had an EMP launcher in his Projectile Launcher."
I raised an eyebrow and said with amusement. "Wow, no shit huh. No wonder he was so cocky and wasn't hiding in the zones without Net access."
I pulled the heavy as fuck metal filled sheet off the woman and blinked as she was one of the women with animal mods. And no the Animals gang mods that made her into a muscular freak.
No she had replaced her ears with what looked like mouse-like ears on the side of her head and I instantly looked down and saw how she had a bladed whip tail cybernetic attached to her tailbone that looked rather ragged.
"So does the lonely heroine have a name?" I asked as I took in her form that had rather typical Asian features besides the cyberpunk bits and a rather curvaceous form.
And she sighed saying with some exasperation. "Quit staring at my tits and let me out. My name is Jane Doe and I am part of Muamar Reyes private crew, I will pay for you to not mention this happening to me as well."
I raised an eyebrow at the mention of the Fixer who typically held sway in the Santo Domingo district of Night City which was in the South Eastern part of Night's City downtown area.
"Alright fair enough. Not a word from me." I said as I used my enhanced Gorilla arms to break the double sets of hand cuffs that locked her organ arms down to the table as her hands was some kind of lady 'Gorilla Arms' probably the extended nails that a number of women liked to have.
With her cuffs removed, that kept her arms and neck bound down without giving her any range of motion. She leaned forward and covered her breasts with one hand while I stepped back and went to loot the bodies of the the scavs.
"So you a solo or something newbie?" She questioned with something in her voice.
Oh, I was sure she hadn't fallen in love or anything so I was a bit on edge but I just shrugged and said calmly. "You could say that. I am just picking up some easy bounties and loot." I said with a loud crack ringing out as I wracked the large shotgun the leader had over his back.
Then I picked out the pistols and a shit auto pistol that looked like it needed to be melted down for scrap metal as it liked like the guy tried to make his own pistol without any gunsmithing education and just got his information from a youtube video.
"Anyway, go ahead and call yourself a cab to your own place or have some clothes delivered here... Hell, just steal their clothes I don't know." I said seeing her looking around the room in some frustration as she tried to cover her nudity.
With my loot stuffed within my bag, I smiled seeing the NCPD accept the video as proof of my bounty collection with a crips fifteen thousand credit's falling into my account after all the taxes.
"Wait that's it? You aren't going to be a gentleman and offer me your own jacket or even flirt with me?" She said in amusement.
I raised an eyebrow and looked over at her as she tore off the jacket off one of the goon's and I said in amusement. "Nope, you got your own jacket there. And you are a big girl, you aren't a sobbing mess and are clearly in control of your self. Plus I don't know you and you still haven't paid me to keep my silence as well."
The woman with a pair of stolen pants and jacket covering up her nudity sniffed and threw her long hair back and said with amusement. "Well maybe you have some potential after all." Her eyes glowed and I accepted the wire transfer and I saw my credits go up by two thousand.
"Potential is only useful when it lives up to it. And I plan to live a good while. I wish you a good day then, mystery woman." I said holding up a hand in good bye as I stepped over the trip wires and head left the site to take another ride back home.
Which thankfully went off without any incident.
Back home with my loot stored away, I hummed in interest as I took heed of my money sitting pretty at a healthy thirty thousand eddies and I went shopping on the Net to the local Ripperdoc's I knew of.
As beyond the Projectile Launch System, the Mantis Blades, and Mono Wire being made with Dust forging bullshit back in the RWBY universe. I was going to save my money for something very special...
I wanted a Militech 'Apogee' Sandevistan that was supposed to be the best Sandevistan that was known to exist and was actually in limited production. But picking one up wasn't going to be cheap to say nothing of someone trying to kill me for having bought one from the fixer who was holding an auction for it.
"Most Sandy's go for like... Fifty thousand eddies. A hundred and fifty thousand should be enough and I can get that if I keep going doing these solo bounty hunts and be ultra-careful while using the Net as my main weapon." I muttered to myself as I considered the funds I would.
Though... There was also always the nuclear option in selling Dust to some Fixer's as a 'rare mystical' material that came from a mysterious Sorcerer. That would quickly gain me some quick money but it would also likely gain me a bunch of attention.
Likewise on the other side of things, here in the Cyberpunk universe. So long as I got the money to snag that Sandy or even a lesser one. I could go hide in the world of RWBY to let the heat die down.
Though... With the sandy, I couldn't help but wonder about my chances of beating Feixiao in melee? And of course, dealing with the thirsty huntresses that I would otherwise run into.