Xenowars | Defense, Dungeon, And Dung
Cyberpunk 2077 | Invited Into The Afterlife Bar
The Afterlife bar in Cyberpunk 2077 is something of a legend. I could not wait to get an opportunity to go there, and it just so happens I did. It was like a small fish getting to play in a bigger pond.
After waking up and doing some of the basic things like changing the outfit I had on, storing some spare guns, and going out and getting some more ammo. I was off to have breakfast with Jackie. He informed me he got us a life-changing gig and at the time we both had no idea how life-changing it would end up being.
The gig would require us to go to the Afterlife for a meeting at some point. This place is a famous bar in Cyberpunk 2077 for some of the best mercs and fixers (those who issue contracts) tend to hang out. Besides serving drinks they also serve a bit of history.
Those who go out at the top and have made a name for themselves to become a legend get to have a drink named after them at the bar itself. Jackie, who could not wait to be famous, told the bartender the moment we were in there what his drink would be.
I on the other hand had no idea what drink would be named after me let alone what it would be called. Since you had to be dead to have a drink named after you. I was in no rush to reach the levels required to even think about such things. Let alone be doing the getting-killed part.
Before going over to the bar, however. First, I went off to the ripperdoc. This game allows you to install cybernetic upgrades into your body. Everything from full-on body parts being replaced to something a bit more basic to help you have a better grip on a gun. There were a lot of things you did.
I can’t believe I'm calling it getting basic work done. I ended up just getting a Basic Kiroshi Optics eye implant. Crazy I know to even think of such things. Since I'm quite broke and don’t have many levels or skill points invested in things. I could not get much else done.
I could afford the work I was getting done by my ripperdoc Viktor. I would end up owing him 21k for services rendered. I would quickly repay this debt to him since he seemed to hint this was not the first time.
I often get the feeling in this game there are things I'm not fully clued in on. I’m sure certain remarks like I've owed Viktor in the past for heaps of money were trying to add a layer to the game. It just makes me wonder even more how that came to be and if I ever paid off such a debt in a timely matter. There was, however, little time to think about such things as I was now ready to take on the job.
The guy Jackie claimed was giving us our big break is a fixer by the name of Dexter. There was, however, a bit of a catch. Dexter did not want to meet with the rest of the team. He wanted to just meet with me.
This guy covered in gold, smokes heavily and is driven around the town from time to time. I was picked up at a certain location and given further details. I was not quite certain if this was more of an interview for something big or just me getting dumped into someone's trash that no one wanted to deal with. I get the feeling it was the ladder.
He is supposed to be some top-tier hotshot of a fixer. I did not care too much for him. I was rather fine working with a few other fixers over him as time went on. Since I was, however, looking for work one cannot be that picky about who ends up giving it to you. Even more so my street credit and hopefully one day invited into the Afterlife bar for some better work.
There were a couple of things he needed me to do. One was working out an issue with a group called the Maelstorm Boys. It appears they stole a Flathead robot from a Militech convoy. As someone who does not care about a corporation getting stolen from. All I cared about was getting paid.
Dexter’s issue was he paid for the Flathead, but the gang's leader had a hostile takeover by another member. There was now a new leader of that gang. Let’s just say they did not care if something was already paid for under the old leadership. They would want to get paid again for that robot.
I decided to take a more direct route and see if I could have a meeting with some Militech agents regarding their stolen goods. Turns out that was not the right way to go about things. Instead of doing any kind of help at the start they jumped me and almost blew my brain out.
Despite how stupid it might have been to reach out to them. It ended up working out in my favor in the end. They wanted me to pay for the stolen Flathead robot using a modified payment shard. What it would do I had no idea. It, however, meant the payment was now covered and I'd not need to come up with it out of pocket myself.
The gang's new leader looked like quite a freak. I have no idea why someone would need so many eyes. Let alone who was willing to do that to him. All I do know is he was not willing to honor the former deal that was set with the gang.
That is where the modified shard I had for payment came into play. Instead of just bringing up the robot was already paid for and was ours. I gave him the shard. What I did not know at the time was that it would infect the mainframe of their computers. It was also not on any kind of delay. So, they knew instantly I tried to screw them over.
I would not be shocked if the chick from Militech expected this to get me killed. I was however quite glad negotiations now have moved into the direction and language I speak – bullets.
I took out the gang and their leader. It required a little more effort than I was expecting on my part. The gang leader had way too many implants of things to keep him going well after a more normal person would have been taken out multiple times.
I however was not walking out of the dump of a gang hideout dead and without the drone. I did get a bit concerned I might run out of bullets at some point. Thankfully I found some corpses on one of their former gang members to help me along. I don’t think he will be missing it any time soon.
Once that was resolved I was off to find someone else to join our gang that Dexter wanted. She went by the name of Evelyn. Quite a troubled chick who wanted to steal from Dextor and cause all sorts of issues for the mission we were supposed to be taking up.
She was, however, more than useful. It turns out she uses her “skills” with the men to get invited into places. Where she records everything. Those recordings get called into braindances.
Braindance is quite insane technology. They let you go in after the fact in a virtual environment and pick up what you might not have noticed.
Evelyn and her friend who goes by the name of Judy who edits Braindance gave me some training first before putting me into Braindance I needed to see the apartment I was tasked with robbing.
This thing allowed me to walk around the apartment as if I was there for the most part. It allowed me to spot security systems, where what I was looking to steal was. Hear conversions that were going on that Evelyn did not fully hear when she was there and so on.
It took a little while to go back and forth and scan the different bands of information from sound to the interred to get all the details I needed. This information would be almost priceless in the actual heist itself.
Once that was all done Evelyn kept trying to talk me into betraying Dextor and cutting me in on a bigger cut of the pie if bring back what we were stealing to her instead. I was not about to cross a fixer like Dextor even if I did not care for him much. He after all took the risk of hiring me in the first place. The last thing I want is for the word to get out that I was stealing from clients instead of doing the jobs they asked me to do.
Final Thoughts
Then as fate would have it. I found myself in the afterlife bar. Dextor wanted an update on how things were going. I never thought he be using this place as a hangout for meetings when it seemed he rather just pick people up and drive around with them in the car.
I’ll however take any way I can to get into the Afterlife bar. Now I've been invited in once. The bouncer at the front door should be letting me in any time I want. Who knows what, if any, opportunities I'll end up getting up to in this place.
This also would not be the last time I found myself at the Afterlife bar. This ended up being quite a fun little place to hang out and order some drinks now. I was no longer just a nobody. Well, I was still a nobody but at least now I could go in here.
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Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Cyberpunk 2077.