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>>5508809
Nhon gives her a nod once she is looking at the windowsill and the customers sitting next to it.

Their eyes meet.
Her glossy cobalt blue irises against his old midnight blue ones. It was inevitable that her augmentations would be surpass than his.

They both have the same emotionless expression, much like before he was disowned.

He nods.
She nods back.

Clair walks towards him.

〈Hey〉
….Hey.

〈…〉
〈You using this seat?〉
No.

Once Clair puts her messenger bag on the chair next to Nhon’s, she leaves to go buy a slice of cake at the counter.

..

When she came back with a strawberry cream cake, Nhon has already finished his cup of hot chocolate.

Conversations were rarely more than a few more sentences long, and aside from the occasional glance, the two doesn’t really interact with each other.

Neither of them pried into each others’ personal lives much, but from Nhon what can gather…


Clair became an supervising engineer in the exoskeleton division. The mass firing that happened after the report caused a severe power vacuum — she played her cards right and got into a relatively high ranking position.

Their parents are beginning to wan in power. Without the help of more powerful colleagues, fundings were transferred elsewhere. They’re still decently wealthy, but
they have a lot less presence in Clair’s life nowadays.

Even when things are unsaid, Nhon can see that navigating the new Masanaga Corporation was difficult. The synthetic skin on her hands has been dulled and filled with several minor cuts.


..
It has been several minutes now.
Nhon could stay longer, but it is not necessary. They’ve talked enough.


Gotta go.
Bye.
〈..bye.〉

〈.. good luck on the hotel stuff. News years is gonna be tough.〉
.. yeah. Thanks.

>>5508812
..
….
……

After January, the customers became less frequent and Nhon finally has time to slack off once again.

While scrolling through social media sites, he notices an upcoming event from Masanaga Corporation — an exhibition of the new exoskeletons and robots, designed to accommodate carrying heavy objects.

It will be set in a particular large mall that is about an hour away from where he usually works.

This will be first time that Clair takes part in an event of this size. If it goes well, her division could get more funding and new investors.


The final choice before the epilogue and behind the scenes stuff.

Nhon wants to..

>Observe (Try to reconnect with his sister)
He’s not gonna miss his sister’s big event. The days of working in a black company have taught him that having someone supporting him, even from a distance, can help. He doesn’t want her to go through the same things he did.

>Not be there (Fully separate himself from his old life)
They have their own lives to live — Nhon doesn’t want to go there and potentially cause problems. Besides, the past two years have shown that he doesn’t need family or friends to be happy.

>>5508815
>>Observe (Try to reconnect with his sister)
>He’s not gonna miss his sister’s big event. The days of working in a black company have taught him that having someone supporting him, even from a distance, can help. He doesn’t want her to go through the same things he did.

One does not simply forget about the bloood

>>5508913
https://youtu.be/ojx8dyes__8

>>5508815
>Observe (Try to reconnect with his sister)
Hard choices.

>>5508815
>Observe (Try to reconnect with his sister)

>>5508913
>>5509051
>>5509039
Voting closed.
Writing!

>>5509353
Almost done writing.

Captcha: SWAGGG

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>>5509784

He isn’t going to miss his sister’s big day.

..
…
….

It was a day long event, with cars constantly entering and leaving the mall. Rather than contending with the obnoxious, overpriced taxi drivers, Nhon takes the skytrain.

The elegant glass construction of the spiral malls stands in stark contrast to the dilapidated pavement and streets.

As Nhon walks across the corridors which connect the buildings, the people on the streets became nothing more than mere dots that barely moved. The drifters, homeless people, workers.. they all became nothing.


As Nhon stares downward while the glass elevator moves ever higher up, he thinks about the past few years.

His meaningless years in high school.

Nauseating hours of learning languages he didn’t care about.

Being part of a workforce build upon lies.
Standing up for someone.

Becoming the bad guy because of his intervention.

The silence.

His parents’ words.

The friends he lost.

Long nights of unpaid overtime.
Blackmail.

Harassment.

Death threats.

Finding a new family.

Proving himself to be an operator.

The night when he took back the bike.

The evening when he meet Na.

Realizing his new dream.

The months of preparation.

The day when his name was cleared.

.. perhaps he could’ve done better, or worse, but it doesn’t matter right now.

The distance between him and Clair may never shrink, but he’ll try to be there, trying to support her if she needs someone to talk to.

>>5509834
The elevator finally stops.
After showing the barcode on his phone to security, Nhon is let in.

Freezing cold air from dozens of AC units. Countless booths with bright colors, all vying for the attentions of the visitors. Exoskeletons. Chemical concoctions. Newly made Implants. Augmentations. Weapon systems. Endless speeches about the superiority of the products. Conversations between prospective investors. The expressions of uneducated civilians being lured into trusting in the brands.

..
Eventually, the time came.
An unveiling of the new exoskeleton units.
It started off with a generic speech about pushing boundaries and improving humanity from some executive, but when it was time to demonstrate the features, it was Clair who would be speaking directly to the public.


She spoke well.

Her words were clear and spoken with confidence. Her movement was brief and direct.

While she wasn’t the most captivating, she didn’t panic or linger on topics for too long, earning a brief applause from the audience rather than silence.

Nhon sticks to the less populated area of the halls all throughout the event — his former colleagues and family will likely be there, and seeing them again will probably cause trouble.

Her division’s model attracted quite a few customers due to the small frame of their exoskeletons. They were moderately successful at marketing it as a model for carrying heavy objects, but the main demographic were people that recently had augmentations installed and are still undergoing medication.

Nhon knows that such a niche is easily fulfilled by aftermarket exoskeleton modifications and platforms, for a fraction of the price, with less risk of Masanaga Corporation shutting it down when the customers try to mod it, but he knows that trying to convince these people isn’t worth the effort or risk.

Perhaps one day, these people will realize the truth and leave these overpriced toys behind. Until then, he’ll be content to let these people throw money at the corporation.


..
When time came for the event to end, Nhon hangs around the mall at a coffee shop and congratulates her on the performance at the event through text.

「Hey. Saw you at the show today. Heard your model did well.」

「Yeah. The higher ups were pretty happy.」

「Nice.」

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>>5509835


..
…
…..

That day became the catalyst for the reconnection of the bond between Nhon and Clair.

Over the next few years, they texted each other more frequently, joked around more often, talked more in depth about their personal and work lives, and occasionally met up a few times per year.


While Nhon can never truly know what is going on in her life (and vice versa), he is able to leave the memories of his ignorant colleagues and other family members behind while maintaining contact with someone that understands his position.

..
The life of an IT guy wasn’t as exciting as his days as an operator, but every so often there will be an incident that was worth retelling to his friends and Clair.

Nhon once again stands alone in the skytrain, on his way back to his apartment.
The very same he stood on for nearly his entire life.

The days of monotonous studying.
The days of fear and paranoia.
The days of nihilism and hatred.

It is all behind him now.

There will always be days where pain and failure enters his life, but he is prepared to deal with it now.


[ding]

Oh! Cherry has just started her exercise stream.

While she never reached the popularity as other independent idols, Nhon will always cherish her for the guidance she provided during his darker moments.

Even something as simple as teaching him how to cook some soup or the proper ways of doing push ups will no doubt save many like him.


..
Wow. Her new model is really cute. Her twintails have a new glossy jade color.

Let’s see how many push ups I can do today.
Thus concludes Future Blades.

https://youtu.be/wEA5Xuc4-a4

Thank you all players for playing my quest!
It’s been an incredible journey writing this one.


Here are my notes.

So, the first choice largely determined how this quest was going to go

>Deus ex

>Shadow Die twice (sekiro)

>Va1halla

These options were given because I wanted to emulate the vibes of one of these games.

Since the shadow die twice was chosen, swordplay and combat was the main focus.

Had deus ex been chosen instead, there would be more stealth, conspiracies, conversations and black ops.

This is the option that would potentially expose the truth of the industry to the world: the secret behind nectar.

Nectar needs stem cells, which is collected through human volunteers.

The process of extracting it from an adult requires a specialized facility where they will be put in a comatose state in the process — a one way trip for undesirable people. Thats where the USA processes prisoners or potential threats.

It was also a process where someone could be voluntarily subjected to if they needed money for their family.

One anon was right about abortions, that too was a source for stem cells — the companies are actually buying up abortion clinics to ensure that the children are used before being disposed.

For va1halla, Nhon wouldve been in a small coffee shop and the story would be more slice of life.

Personal stories of clients being shared and options would be given to what advice Nhon will give.

I envision the ending for this path to be similar to va1halla. He did nothing in the grand scale of things, but helped a few people getting their lived back together.

>>5509890


For the deus ex path, I had several choices for the ending — if Nhon discovered the truth, he could..

>expose it to the public, causing mass protests and riots and ensuring that he becomes a target

>maintain a high ranking position in the company (something similar to Clair in the ending of this quest)

>wipe the slate clean and become a director of Masanaga Crop

>Or leave it all behind, and create a new life
For the actual ending to this quest, there were several choices that could dictate what would happen


If Nhon gunned down the crew members, it would cause more attention and made exiting the gang somewhat harder

If Nhon failed to save the associate (mess up the roll if the ‘confront the two crew members alone was chosen) then he would have a really hard time leaving — his position as an IT guy would be changed and he would take on a harder job with less pay.

If Nhon dated Na, the final mission would be an assassination mission instead.

If Nhon dated Bow, the final mission would be confronting a augmented racer that wants to remove her due to her business removing profits from his.

>>5509892
The idea of Nhon being a blackpilled incel was something I came up with a while ago when I saw a post on reddit about this guy being accused of sexual assault by his sister and his parents disowning him — figured it would be a good jumping off point
References to other works…

Hololive:

Cherry is literally Ina

‘Good morning afternoon evening…’ is something she says in a stream

Deus ex:

The terms (augs, mechs)
Nhon’s eyes — ‘Vision is augmented’
The tone

Heavily inspired how this quest’s options are
(Dialogue, stealth, optional combat)

Sekiro:

Masanaga Corporation — Masanaga is a miniboss in sekiro

Hyper Light drifter:

The company, hyper light
Also the reason why they make good artificial organs (heart)


Cyberpunk edgerunners:

Nhon’s nerve aug is basically the sandevistan


References irl


I try to base Nhon on a sengoku era samurai at first (hence the pistols / rifles / shotguns being offered) but since the players wanted the musashi two swords style, I had to look at Edo period stuff for inspiration instead (less armor, more focused on sidearms)

The bikers of the first mission? Assholes like that actually exist IRL (in Thailand, at least)

The shitty pavement and infrastructure
Inefficient taxis and public transport
Stupid laws about firearm ownership and self defense

(These went mostly underused as the focus was sword fighting — it would’ve been more obvious in the deus ex path)
Alright. That is all.

If you guys have any criticisms / suggestions or questions you can reply to this post. I’ll be here for a while. Thanks for playing.

>>5509894
No marrying Cherry ending = shit quest, 0/10

Seriously though, thanks for running! I'd have liked more sword combat, but I still had fun.

>Cherry is literally Ina
There is an actual cooking vtuber?

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>>5509980
Theres not really a cooking focused vtuber but a lot of vtuber do cooking streams on the side

>>5510254
Huh, didn't know that. Are there push-up streams too?

>>5510592
Sort of. Theres this game called RingFit Adventure, basically a exercising game that a lot of vtubers play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L3ugw6yg4o&ab_channel=NinomaeIna%27nisCh.hololive-EN

>>5509894
Thanks for running, good quest.
Is it possible to install augs without Nectar? Are there alternatives without stem cells?
What are you planning to run next?

>>5510645
Nectar is only necessary for bio augs.
Without stem cells and chemical cocktails, there could be a risk of the body rejecting the augs, similar to how allergies work (the immune system going schizo over random shit)

Bio augs could be installed without it but its a gamble. Most people use nectar because bio augs are already expensive and have to be tailored to each person.

Mechanical augs don’t need it, they just take immunosuppressants for a period after installing it.

I’ll be running a skirmish quest next — Skirmish of the incel deities

A fantasy isekai about incels who were reincarnated as deities, having to break out of a re education camps from the other deities who seek to shape the world to their will. You can check the rulebook out in the skirm jam thread
After that? Not sure.

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>>5510254
>not watching the superior Choco-sen
It was an OK quest QM. You had a clear idea of what you wanted to do and what happened. I would've liked more characterization of everyone but besides that I am just nit-picking. On the other hand the description of places and buildings was top notch

>>5510773
Noted. Thanks, anon.

>choco sensei
Shes a cutie but i dont want to wait for clippers to translate stuff for me

>>5510798
I understand, I don't understand japanese and I will never study it, f*k that... It's nice that you made a thread to wrap it up, I feared you weren'tgoing to

>>5509980
Happy new years!

As a parting gift, here’s a nsfw omake about Nhon and Cherry.

It is up to you whether you consider it canon or not.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-DBlXPLId3Jp5Egd-AY8rq5YwJkhnpSwysNFOJvf6sM/edit

>>5515000
happy new year QM!!! See you soon

Just checked my overall word count — roughly 26000 words in total

Pretty insane now that I think about it. Basically half a novel’s worth of words.

Totally missed out on participateing in this qst. Shame. Woulda had a slightly different ending.

I am curious about the mission where the father killed a bunch of school kids that assaulted his daughter.

>>5539656
Oh hey there

For the
>Disposal of five corpses
An associate’s daughter was gangraped and killed by her classmates. In rage, the associate killed all five of the 5th grade students but needs someone to dispose of corpses.

I had a few endings for that mission

The mission would start with Nhon and his colleagues arriving at the house

The players would be able to choose how to dispose of the corpse (dump them in a lake / fed them to animals / acid / buried in a forest)

Depending on the location, they will have to deal with civilians or allies of those students — Nhon can either sneak around them, negotiate, threaten, or kill them.

If the associate got hurt or the bodies were found by the authorities, it would be a failure — Nhon would have a harder time leaving the life behind

>Woulda had a slightly different ending.
What ending did you have in mind?