Chrome Syndrome

"S-sorry, I got carried away."

Lucia awkwardly gestured and pulled out of the hug.

She could have kept going, honestly.

What a shame.

"You just don't see immunosuppressants this good down in the Lower District."

Her eyes sparkled as she asked, "You really made this yourself?"

"I did."

"How?"

"Using your tools, Lucia."

Her gaze drifted to the workbench.

"With that ancient junk?! You're a genius!"

"Is this immunosuppressant really that impressive?"

I know it's a dumb question, but right now, information directly translates to survival.

I needed to understand this world's rules.

"Down here, it is."

Lucia studied the immunosuppressant in its syringe before answering.

"The Upper District has plenty of better stuff, but for this place? This is something to be grateful for."

"Supplies must be hard to come by."

"Exactly. That's the point—you're impressive because of it."

Huh. So that's how it works.

I'd just followed the system's guidance. Honestly, it was simple enough that Lucia could learn to do it herself in no time if I taught her.

"The purity is unreal. That's it! Jinwoo! Work with me! Keep making this stuff!"

"That's a lot of excitement over one syringe."

"That's fine. I have a way to cover it."

"You saved my life. It's the least I can do."

"Hehe, good. The stew's done—let's eat."

I followed her to the kitchen. Cans of beans and tomatoes sat untouched on the counter.

"Careful! It's hot."

Gloves on, Lucia set a pot down in the middle of the table.

"It's my favorite stew. The taste is out of this world."

"Thank you for the meal."

"Eat up."

Lucia kindly ladled the stew into a small dish for me. The smell wasn't bad.

But beans and tomatoes, together?

First time for everything.

"Lucia."

I called her name to ask about the immunosuppressant, but she crossed her arms like something bothered her.

"Just call me Lucia. All this '-ssi' business makes me feel like some ahjumma."

"Oh... really?"

Is she trying to sort out how we address each other?

"I'm twenty-six, by the way."

"Ew—! You're a total ahjussi!"

Lucia exclaimed in shock.

Twenty-six makes me an ahjussi? Great. Just great.

Twenty-six was the age I'd come home from the army, finished university, and gone straight into a job. The prime of my corporate-drone life.

"And how old are you, Lucia?"

"Uh, hmm. Twenty-three..."

Her voice shrank into a mumble.

"Feel free to speak casually with me too."

"Hmph! You start first."

"Fine. Lucia."

"Just so you know—I'm never calling you 'oppa.' Understood?"

She said it with a glare.

She seemed to have some serious resistance to the whole oppa thing.

"You can just call me Jinwoo, then."

"Okay."

With the naming conventions settled, I ladled some stew and took a bite.

It was better than I expected.

This came out of a can?

"It's good. Thanks for the meal."

She started quietly eating her stew as well.

"Immunosuppressants relieve Chrome Syndrome, right?"

Back to my original question.

"That's right."

"Then... what exactly is Chrome Syndrome?"

"Oh. Did you lose your memories when you got abandoned?"

"Looks like it. I can't remember anything except my name."

I'd decided to go with the amnesia angle. It was a pretty convenient cover story, turns out.

"Finish eating first, then I'll give you a full examination."

"I'd appreciate that. So—Chrome Syndrome. What is it?"

"You do know what chrome is, right?"

Did she mean chromium? Atomic number twenty-four, the silvery-white transition metal?

"You mean, like, cyber parts?"

I relayed the word I'd overheard on the street ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠when I first arrived up here.

Lucia nodded.

"Yes, exactly. Chrome is slang for cyber parts, cyber sockets, all that gear. It's short and convenient, you know?"

"Then Chrome Syndrome is... something that happens when you install a lot of cyber parts?"

"Right again. Smart cookie."

Then Lucia's voice dropped into something chilling.

"Use enough cyberware, and it takes a toll—different for everyone. It eats away at your mind. Until there's nothing left."

She shaped her hand into a gun and mimed blowing her own brains out.

Well. I never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thought I'd see an American TV drama gesture performed in real life.

"So do immunosuppressants cure Chrome Syndrome?"

"It's called a suppressor for a reason. It's a stopgap, nothing more."

She let out a short sigh and continued.

"If you push past your limit, you become a cyberpsycho."

"A cyberpsycho?"

"Your cyber parts overload and drive you into abnormal, violent behavior. Your physical abilities spike too, which makes it all the more dangerous."

"There's no cure?"

"If one existed, do you think the corporations would be sweating like they do?"

Lucia swirled her spoon around her empty bowl.

"The Lower District's actually the safe side, for what it's worth. It's up there—up in the Upper District—where you find mercenaries packed to the brim with chrome. Down here, it's just the abandoned, scraping by together."

At the word abandoned, something in Lucia's expression dimmed.

It felt wrong to pry further into her past, so I quickly changed the subject.

"Still, if immunosuppressants sell around here, that means plenty of people are chromed up, right?"

The mohawked guy who'd tossed me a rag on the street crossed my mind. The one whose entire face was machinery.

"You mean the Nemesis Gang. A washed-up syndicate that got run out of the Upper District—they rule the roost down here now."

She said it with visible disgust.

"Most of the ones hunting for immunosuppressants are their people."

"Do they give you trouble?"

"Not exactly. They just take whatever they want—protection fees in credits, free surgeries. That's the problem."

"That is trouble. Absolute bastards."

"Pfft. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠True. Bastards through and through. But unless you're heading topside, you just have to live with it."

"So just go up top."

"What, planning some revenge?"

Revenge?

Where would that feeling even come from?

Thanks to the mod conflict, no one's body had been stolen—I had been transmigrated into this game, just as myself.

Revenge against the developer, then? The mod creators?

No. Maybe the past me who'd installed way too many mods at once.

Absurd thoughts, but they made it feel real. I really had fallen into this world.

"Can't exactly rot down here forever, right? Everyone's got to climb to the Upper District eventually and breathe clean air."

"Haha. 'I wanna play in the upstairs water.' Where's that coming from? That's Nemesis Gang talk, you know."

Lucia stood and gathered the empty pot and dishes.

I'd cleaned mine out too, so I helped her carry everything to the sink.

"Should I do the dishes?"

"The machine does it. Just lie down on the exam table and wait a moment—I'll do your checkup."

I settled into a chair that looked like a dentist's unit and waited for Lucia.

"Did I keep you long?"

"Not really?"

"But seriously—it's wild that you've got zero cyberization. No cyber socket either. Are you even human?"

Lucia muttered to herself as she prepped her equipment.

"This might sting a little."

She injected a device into the back of my neck, then connected it to the cyber socket at the base of her own.

Nobody had explained cyber sockets to me, but instinct told me exactly what that charging-port-like implant in her neck was.

"Hmm. Mm-hm."

Her eyes flickered blue.

So those aren't her real eyes either. Cyber parts.

"No organ abnormalities... bones are clean. You're in perfect health. But seriously, you've never been cyberized?"

She tilted her head and removed the connector.

"Is it really that strange?"

"It is. Most people get their cyber socket installed at birth."

Figures. So that's how it works.

By this world's standards, I was more than strange. I was an outright anomaly.

"It's unusual, sure, but there's nothing bad about it. Chrome just wears your body down, after all."

Lucia said as she put her equipment away.

"Oh, and by the way—you'll be sleeping in my bed. With me."

"Excuse me?"

"What, am I a burden?"

"No, that's not it. Aren't you uncomfortable?"

Honestly? Yes. Very.

Me, Yoo Jinwoo, twenty-six years old. A virgin bachelor living alone his whole life.

And I'm supposed to share a bed with a beauty like Lucia?

"It can't be helped for now."

With the equipment all put away, Lucia led me to her room.

It was gloomy for a young woman's room, but respectable enough. Not messy in a chaotic way—more like... organized. Everything had its place.

"Lie down."

Lucia, already settled in, patted the mattress with her fingertips.

"It's spacious."

"I like big beds. I have serious sleeping habits."

"Sleeping habits?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

When I lay down beside her, Lucia switched on every single light in the room.

Thump, thump.

My heart was pounding.

I'm in bed with a woman.

A younger woman!

I was trembling, sure—but I had neither the intention nor the courage to try anything. My honest wish was simply that I'd wake up tomorrow back in my own one-room apartment.

Soft, even breathing.

With Lucia's breath as my lullaby, I drifted deep into sleep.

"So, how were my sleeping habits?"

"Turns out you flail around quite a bit."

She'd thrown her legs over me multiple times during the night—nearly gave me a heart attack. And every so often, her hand smacked me right in the face.

"I'll find my own bed soon. I promise."

"Appreciate it. But I'm the grateful one here—those immunosuppressants! They're going to sell like crazy. If we play this right, the Nemesis Gang might actually leave the Lower District entirely."

"Leave?"

"They keep talking about climbing back up to the Upper District."

"That's good news."

"Anyway, they're visiting today, so it's time to give them a taste of the product."

After that, we had breakfast and watched TV, piecing together how this world worked.

It wasn't exactly cheerful viewing. I lost count of how many news reports I watched about politicians being assassinated.

BOOM BOOM BOOM—!

"Lucia! Doomdoom-nim has arrived!"

"Fine, let him in."

She activated a mechanism, and the bulkhead entrance rose open.

The moment Doomdoom—who insisted on honorifics for himself—spotted me, he shoved a pistol straight in my face.

With his entire face replaced by machinery, the red glow blazing from his optics made him genuinely terrifying.

"Who's this guy?! Since when do you take in strays?!"

"He's got his circumstances. We're staying together. Got a problem with that?"

"Ha! Look at this bastard!"

I'm not so easygoing that I'll just roll over when someone picks a fight.

"Calm down, Doomdoom."

Lucia tried to intervene, but that only set him off more.

"Not Doomdoom—Doomdoom-nim!"

"Yes, yes, Doomdoom-nim. He's my business partner."

"Business partner? Ha! A partner just fell out of the sky, did he?!"

Lucia sighed, then thrust the immunosuppressant I'd made right under Doomdoom's nose.

"Look at this. If you secure the materials properly, he can make even better stuff than this."

"Immunosuppressants? Ha, even our gang's got some that perform decently after a little modding—"

Doomdoom's words cut off mid-sentence as he inspected the syringe.

"Holy shit! I've never seen suppressants this pure! This looks better than the Upper District stuff!"

He lowered the gun barrel as he spoke.

"And this insane piece of work is his doing?"

"That's right. I made it."

"Ha! Hard to believe. It's true though, right, Lucia?"

"Have you ever known me to lie?"

"Mind if I test it right now?!"

"Go ahead."

Fwoosh—! Hiss—!

The immunosuppressant injected into his forearm flooded into Doomdoom's body in an instant.

"This is fucking incredible?! It's better than our own product!"

Doomdoom exclaimed, buzzing with excitement.

"And you can make more? You?"

"As long as I have enough materials."

"Deal! I'll talk to the boss. She says to wait right here."

Ding—!

As Doomdoom turned to leave, a system window popped up.

Right—perk points!

I'd forgotten about those. Yesterday, when I'd manufactured the immunosuppressant, I'd earned one Attribute Point and one Perk Point each.

Let's take a look, shall we?

Status window.

Every single Attribute sat at 6.

What about perks?

I selected the Engineering Attribute.

A list of engineering-related perks scrolled down before me.

So perks are basically Attributes broken down into finer categories.

Perk Points let you unlock specific skills under each Attribute, it seemed.

What should I pick?

Anything that would help with crafting right now?

There it is.

This one first, obviously.

Spending one of my two Perk Points, I unlocked Component Disassembly.

Should I browse the rest? Actually—what Attribute should I invest in?

Honestly, this part had me stumped.

In this world, I was a bottom-feeder with no cyber socket. Pouring points into Body or Reflexes didn't seem like it would pay off much for an unaugmented body like mine.

Rather than investing there, I'd probably get further by asking Lucia to install some cyber parts in me.

So that leaves Intelligence and Engineering.

Then my eye caught on the Reason Attribute.

Reason... did that mean the stat for judging things coldly and rationally, without letting emotions cloud you?

Would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it turn me into some kind of psychopath, or what?

I clicked on the Reason Attribute, and its related perks came into view.

Among them, one perk was blinking in blue light.

What's this one?

A mod?!

Judging by the perk's name, this had to be one of the mods installed from the Ghost of Cyberpunk mod pack.

Read NPCs' dependence and affection levels?

And even their physical condition?

Exactly the perk I needed right now.