Cyberpunk 2077: No Coincidence - Part 1

Transcript

Speaker: Right, right.

Speaker: This hardly seems worth it.

Speaker: This seems worth it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: You know what else is worth it?

Speaker: What's that?

Speaker: Hey there, everybody.

Speaker: Welcome back to Pixlet.

Speaker: My name is Kevin.

Speaker: With me, as always, is Phil.

Speaker: Today on the show, we got a brand new book.

Speaker: Yes, we do.

Speaker: Cyberpunk 2027, no coincidence, by Rafał Kuczyk.

Speaker: bright and shiny and colorful.

Speaker: Look, it's got a bright yellow, you know, cover.

Speaker: I got the hardback because sometimes I treat myself.

Speaker: Should have gotten the hardback.

Speaker: It's so beautiful.

Speaker: It is.

Speaker: It's a nice looking book.

Speaker: And what's funny is that on the cover, the cover, this is not representative.

Speaker: I don't think of any of the characters.

Speaker: No, I don't think so either.

Speaker: It's a great cover, but I don't know.

Speaker: It's a great cover.

Speaker: It doesn't really have anything to do with what we're talking about here.

Speaker: It doesn't actually fit the description of any of the characters so far.

Speaker: So far.

Speaker: Nope.

Speaker: But it is, and it's also a long book.

Speaker: We're still going to get this done in three episodes, but this bad boy is, this bad boy is dense.

Speaker: Yes, it is a dense story.

Speaker: It has a lot of moments, a lot of little character moments, too.

Speaker: I've noticed is there's a lot of scenes with character beats and all that.

Speaker: But before we get into into all that, Phil, can you tell me a little bit about who Rafael Cossack is?

Speaker: Well, this is first and foremost, I got a lot of this information from Polish Wikipedia, and I had to Google Translate.

Speaker: So if something is screwy in there, forgive me.

Speaker: But basically, everything I'm finding is that Rafał Kosik might be the most influential sci-fi writer of Poland alive today.

Speaker: The guy has won like a billionaire

Speaker: awards.

Speaker: He has a very popular kind of teenager sci-fi series called Felix, Net, and Nika.

Speaker: He has lots of different series that he's worked on.

Speaker: He's written for film and television including a cyberpunk TV show that I guess... Yeah, it was on Netflix last year.

Speaker: Yeah, I didn't know about that until I looked that up, which tells you how well that did.

Speaker: But...

Speaker: And people liked it.

Speaker: Oh, did they like it?

Speaker: Okay, that's good.

Speaker: I just didn't hear about that one at all.

Speaker: But he's very prolific, has done a lot of stuff.

Speaker: His books have been made into films, and obviously they have been translated.

Speaker: Now, this is actually, as far as I can tell, the only time that one of his books has been translated into English or was written in English, because I couldn't find...

Speaker: There is a translator.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Stefan Kielkiewicz.

Speaker: Okay, I'm not even going to do that.

Speaker: I'm not even going to do that to the Polish people because they seem like nice folks.

Speaker: They are nice folks and we are not here to butcher their language.

Speaker: No.

Speaker: Poor names.

Speaker: But generally his work tends to get translated into Ukrainian, Hungarian, Czech, Russian, Lithuanian, that sort of thing.

Speaker: So he is well known over on the eastern side of Europe.

Speaker: And this might be

Speaker: most Americans introduction to his style and based on his writing and based on what you and I have gotten into so far without giving too much away.

Speaker: I hope it isn't the last.

Speaker: Yeah, no, I'm really hoping.

Speaker: Yeah, I think hopefully if there's a good enough reception about with this book and this book, honest, it just came out.

Speaker: Yeah, just released a little bit ago.

Speaker: If there's a good reception to this book, hopefully we see some of his previous work going and getting translated.

Speaker: I noticed that's that happens sometimes.

Speaker: Yeah, that would be very cool.

Speaker: That would be cool.

Speaker: So if you don't know what Cyberpunk 2077 is, that's the game this is based on.

Speaker: And Cyberpunk 2077 was a 2020 action role playing game

Speaker: developed by CD project red and it was released, uh, to, uh, much anticipation, but was a kind of a critical flop upon release.

Speaker: It, it was buggy.

Speaker: It was a mess.

Speaker: It didn't have, there was so much, uh, made of this game during development.

Speaker: And when it finally came out, it was, uh,

Speaker: It just had issue after issue.

Speaker: That being said, so a lot of mixed responses.

Speaker: That being said, it got better.

Speaker: So to quote, it was a new got better.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: There's been a lot of patches and updates and bug fixes and coming out.

Speaker: I got to look it up because I'm not sure.

Speaker: This episode we're recording.

Speaker: It's towards the end of August and I got to check out.

Speaker: This one should be coming out September 6th.

Speaker: September 6th.

Speaker: When does Phantom Liberty come out?

Speaker: I think it's out.

Speaker: Phantom Liberty comes out September 26th.

Speaker: Okay, so at the end of the, so yeah, right before, right after you, the series ends, Phantom Liberty comes out and that's the DLC that's pretty much

Speaker: gonna be a huge expansion of the game, and it also will change a bunch of the systems in the base game itself.

Speaker: And it's gonna star Idris Elba as the main NPC that you're dealing with.

Speaker: So, you know, I can't argue against more Idris Elba.

Speaker: Absolutely not.

Speaker: By the way, in Cyberpunk, Giancarlo Esposito was in Cyberpunk Edgerunners.

Speaker: Oh, well, there's a good reason for me to go check that out.

Speaker: Awesome.

Speaker: I love that man.

Speaker: He's the best.

Speaker: So, yeah, I've played, I've beaten Cyberpunk 2077.

Speaker: You know, it's honestly a fun game.

Speaker: I can't say much else, but I really had a blast playing it.

Speaker: It takes like 50 to 60 hours to beat Cyberpunk 2077.

Speaker: And I'm probably going to replay it once Phantom Liberty comes out with the new expansion.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So that should do it for the introduction to this stuff.

Speaker: What do you say we put the body in the marsh?

Speaker: Let's put that wacky body in that crazy old marsh.

Speaker: It's not reality TV.

Speaker: Don't laugh!

Speaker: This ain't reality TV!

Speaker: Uh, chapter one.

Speaker: Chapter one, we are introduced to Zor, who is one of our protagonists as he waits for something to take place, but we don't know what that is yet.

Speaker: He's squeezed in between a dumpster and the wall of a building, and it's raining outside.

Speaker: And Zor thinks about how he's been living on the razor's edge for seven years, and while he's thinking about this, he's futzing with the magazine of his machine gun, and it doesn't seem to be cooperating.

Speaker: And...

Speaker: He has this line.

Speaker: He couldn't imagine any other place he ought to be.

Speaker: Couldn't picture any other time or place where he'd fit rain, a dumpster and a gun and no choice.

Speaker: And it's it's just like, fuck, this is hard boiled.

Speaker: Yeah, here we go.

Speaker: I think one of the things that cyberpunk stuff most often can be synthesized with is like Raymond Chandler stuff.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Like detective noir.

Speaker: Because it's.

Speaker: It's similar vibes because the noir stuff also had some punk elements of like, yeah, the fucking system sucks, man.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: That's why you see private investigators a lot in noir.

Speaker: And not cops.

Speaker: Not cops.

Speaker: You don't see cops.

Speaker: You see private investigators because the cops have already failed a lot of times in these noir settings.

Speaker: And also in cyberpunk settings, it's the system...

Speaker: it's a system that's fucked.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's, it is, it's, it's, it's, it's really interesting.

Speaker: And it goes all the way back to Blade Runner and beyond.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: Uh, it, but that's certainly the one that kind of,

Speaker: did the real, really got its hooks into us mentally, I think.

Speaker: Yeah, cyberpunk.

Speaker: And good.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Because it works.

Speaker: And who's the main cyberpunk author?

Speaker: Oh, William Gibson.

Speaker: William Gibson is like the main dude.

Speaker: With Neuromancer and everything.

Speaker: Neuromancer and all that stuff.

Speaker: So check out some William Gibson.

Speaker: Oh, please do.

Speaker: If this tickles your butt.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I read Neuromancer years ago and really liked it.

Speaker: And reading this has just made me want to... I have an old beat-up paperback of it somewhere around here that I really ought to dip into that again.

Speaker: Crack it open.

Speaker: Yeah!

Speaker: Crack it open.

Speaker: So in 30 seconds, the target is going to arrive and Zor continues to wait until he's cued by a voice to open fire on a security truck that has rounded the corner.

Speaker: His gun is a SMG that is super cheap and will fall apart soon, but it'll do the job just fine for now.

Speaker: The security truck stops after the gunfire and reverses, but it reverses into a sports car and it's it's stuck.

Speaker: And a corporate woman gets out of the car and starts screaming at the security crew.

Speaker: And I believe from somebody's point of view, it says she's like an Italian diva.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Uh, nearby a man named warden is monitoring the entire situation.

Speaker: Uh, it's a heist of some Militech gear.

Speaker: Um, so we'll back up a little bit and you kind of get this through the course of the story, but there's a few big corporations that run everything.

Speaker: Militech is one of them.

Speaker: Arasaka is another one of them.

Speaker: I think there's a few others, but those are like, those are it.

Speaker: Those and those run the city.

Speaker: So they're stealing something from Militech, which is one of the biggest.

Speaker: So sitting by Warden in an icy bath is the netrunner who is running the heist.

Speaker: Warden is considering killing the netrunner at the end of the heist, and Warden orders a man named Ron to open fire.

Speaker: But Ron hesitates because the corporal, Molina, is still out in the road in line of sight.

Speaker: Zora decides to take initiative and fires at the cab of the truck, which causes the soldiers in the truck to pile out.

Speaker: Aya, an Asian woman, is cued to fire a grenade, and she fumbles with the grenade launcher for a little bit and then shoots a smoke grenade perfectly into the cab of the truck.

Speaker: And then a man named Borg comes out and begins firing his gun as well.

Speaker: And it just turns out to an all out gunfight with Militech.

Speaker: The Militech guys are behind their truck firing, but they can't see anything because of all the smoke from the smoke grenade.

Speaker: And it's kind of like a stalemate until Aya is like, just says, cover me.

Speaker: And she does some like backflip flipping gymnastics across the top of the truck and cuts through the smoke and shoots one of the guys up close and then clears out.

Speaker: And then finally, Ron, who is on the second floor of the building that they're at, that they're by, opens fire with a heavy machine gun.

Speaker: Then we see everything from the Netrunner's point of view, and to him, everything is happening in slow motion because things happen faster in cyberspace.

Speaker: So he's looking at the CCTVs, and from his point of view, in real space, everything is happening like it's going through molasses, which I think is a really neat detail.

Speaker: I think that's super cool.

Speaker: That's a neat detail, yeah.

Speaker: That like the processing like, oh yeah, it's pure brain processing this information.

Speaker: So it just seems slower.

Speaker: So the EMPs, he detonates some EMPs that they had placed, and Aya twitches, and Zora's like, yeah, it shouldn't affect us, don't worry about it.

Speaker: The truck is finally open, and Borg is ordered to go get the tow truck, but instead he goes off script and he shoots one of the guards and he's mouthing off at the other ones, and then he fucking kisses his bicep,

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It gets very, um, yeah, it gets very eighties there, which I guess is appropriate.

Speaker: It's appropriate.

Speaker: He is probably the most, he is like a pro wrestling heel.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: Exactly.

Speaker: It's great.

Speaker: He's such an asshole.

Speaker: He's such an asshole.

Speaker: The police are on their way.

Speaker: And so Molina goes and grabs the truck because Borg is being a slow piece of shit.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: They load the gear out of the Militech convoy truck and into their truck, which is garbage truck and take off.

Speaker: The warden watches them drive away and the cops on one TV.

Speaker: Now, the TV, he notices that the cops are going off in the wrong direction because the net runner is like confusing the signals and all that stuff.

Speaker: So and then warden is like thinking about the job itself.

Speaker: And he's like, this is a great idea.

Speaker: I forced a bunch of amateurs to do the job.

Speaker: If they died, then I'm out nothing.

Speaker: And then he's like, but I fucked up by letting them see my face and know my name.

Speaker: And next time that won't be a problem.

Speaker: They continue driving with Molina at the wheel.

Speaker: Ron looks at Ava's wound and he is a Ripper Doc.

Speaker: So in this world, in the cyberpunk world, Cyberpunk 2077 world, Ripper Docs are basically like,

Speaker: They're the ones that are responsible for installing any chrome or mods that you would wanna put into your body, but they can also just do regular stuff too.

Speaker: Chop shop guys.

Speaker: Chop shop guys, yeah.

Speaker: And so he looks at Ava's wound and stitches it up.

Speaker: they follow a route that the Netrunner lays out for them, and Zor notices that Ava has no visible Chrome installed on her.

Speaker: Borg, on the other hand, has a lot of Chrome, but most of it seems to be just for Flash.

Speaker: Zor then has a thought and instructs Melina, wait a minute, pull over, everyone switch off your phones.

Speaker: And then he's like,

Speaker: So let's all be clear, we just have to be careful because there's a chance that the warden might just kill us when we get back there.

Speaker: The warden notices that they have stopped moving and is really pissed off, and he takes this moment to try to kill the netrunner.

Speaker: But the netrunner is like, ah, ah, ah.

Speaker: The Netrunner has been recording this and recording Warden this entire operation via drone.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And is like, hey, if I flatline, this goes public and you're fucked, buddy.

Speaker: I mean, if you're that vulnerable during these kind of missions.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: I better cover your ass.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I forget to mention the Netrunner is sitting in a bathtub filled with ice.

Speaker: I love that detail.

Speaker: I guess to keep from overheating because of all of the fucking wear.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Oh, that's cool as shit.

Speaker: That's such a great detail.

Speaker: Like that if you're going to, because in Shadowrun, that's a Decker and, you know, and all that.

Speaker: And it's like, it's like that, that's such a great detail of like, of the, you are so filled.

Speaker: It's like you're a computer.

Speaker: You're a computer, so you need a cooling system, and so an ice bath is going to have to do.

Speaker: I love that detail.

Speaker: I think one of the differences between Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2077 would be that the runners are never...

Speaker: I don't think they're ever necessarily there, like on location because they have to be like all plug.

Speaker: Like they, they, they're basically just a brain hooked up to the system at a certain point.

Speaker: Um, so in the, uh,

Speaker: So and this is the one of the first.

Speaker: This is not really spoilers in the first mission of Cyberpunk 2077.

Speaker: The first main mission.

Speaker: Your Netrunner is off site plugged into the system of the building you're infiltrating.

Speaker: And there's a moment in which the security team.

Speaker: like neutralizes her and it just like sends a signal back and kills her.

Speaker: Like, because it, it gets, it goes into her brain and she's done.

Speaker: She's fried.

Speaker: Oh, wow.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: So yeah, back in the truck, the gang goes over Zor's theory and that everyone in the van has something to lose, something that the warden is holding over them.

Speaker: They get to the drop off and the warden's like, all right, put all your guns in here.

Speaker: And he speaks with them and then he's like, all right, yeah, you can go.

Speaker: And they leave.

Speaker: And I have a feeling it's not explicitly stated that the reason he lets them go is because of the Netrunner's threat.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Like he was planning on just killing everybody.

Speaker: But now it's the net runner has like a leverage on him.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's just absolutely not worth it at this point.

Speaker: It's not worth it at this point.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Chapter two starts with a guy named Liam, who is a police detective investigating the crime scene that our main characters have just created.

Speaker: And the street cleaner.

Speaker: And this is this is a good scene in showing like where the priorities are for everybody, because he's he's the detective.

Speaker: He's there to investigate.

Speaker: And the streets cleaners are like, hey, cop, get the fuck out of the way.

Speaker: We got to clean up this mess.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I love it.

Speaker: And Liam is like looking around.

Speaker: He's doing his detective thing, his Sherlock thing.

Speaker: He's like, all right.

Speaker: He's like, what's the deal with this machine gun that missed all of its shots?

Speaker: And he's like, and then like a Militech van pulls up and takes over the crime scene.

Speaker: And Liam's like, wait a minute.

Speaker: Like, this is my crime scene.

Speaker: And Militech's like, no civilians were hurt.

Speaker: It was Militech property that was stolen.

Speaker: Get the fuck out of here.

Speaker: And Liam's like, OK, well, it happened on a public street.

Speaker: And Militech's like, OK, fuck off.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: Fuck off.

Speaker: Good point.

Speaker: Thanks.

Speaker: Gotcha.

Speaker: The corp is basically just able to roll in there.

Speaker: I'm like, nah, no investigation.

Speaker: It's our investigation.

Speaker: Nope, Cyrus now.

Speaker: Oh, well, I guess I'll go have lunch.

Speaker: I guess.

Speaker: He texts his wife saying, yeah, I can pick up our daughter early.

Speaker: I've got nothing else to do.

Speaker: Change of plans.

Speaker: Meanwhile, Zor is back at his apartment thinking about the job they just pulled while listening to a barrage of advertisements on the TV.

Speaker: And it is a barrage.

Speaker: It's so good.

Speaker: This part is so good.

Speaker: Like this, this sets the tone.

Speaker: Because now we're going to get into this more.

Speaker: But, Kevin, you've pointed out to me that one of the big differences here between this novel based in this world and the video game is that and anybody who's familiar with cyberpunk and has read more than just your average shit.

Speaker: knows that cyberpunk is an intensely anti-corpo, anti-capitalist genre.

Speaker: That's the whole idea.

Speaker: These corporations have taken over our lives, and it's about the subversion of that and dealing with this kind of fucked up

Speaker: too bright, too overwrought, too neon world now.

Speaker: And one of the big criticisms, apparently, and I haven't played it, but apparently one of the big criticisms of the video game Cyberpunk 2077 was that it really doesn't touch on that at all.

Speaker: Yeah, it doesn't really.

Speaker: It's not necessarily like it feels like

Speaker: It's there, but it's almost superficial in service to other plots in the game where it couldn't.

Speaker: It's like, oh, no, it's, yeah, sure, the corporations suck.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: But, like, it's not.

Speaker: And it's given all that.

Speaker: Basically, that's the muster.

Speaker: It's given that.

Speaker: It's about as punk as an anarchy in the UK sticker that you got at the Hot Topic or something.

Speaker: But this is the beginning of some seriously... It's about as punk as Green Day.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: Exactly.

Speaker: But this is the beginning of some seriously fuck capitalism themes and tones that are impossible to ignore with this.

Speaker: This just the disgust at all of the advertising.

Speaker: Because like you said, it is a barrage and it's crazy.

Speaker: And Zora is...

Speaker: He makes sure that we don't know everything about Zor's background, and we won't, even by the time this episode is done, we won't know everything about Zor's background.

Speaker: That's probably just going to be a through line through the entire book.

Speaker: But Zora is trying to keep a relatively low profile.

Speaker: Like he he's trying not to he's trying to keep his watching habits to be that of like an average Night City resident.

Speaker: So he watches like the most popular shows or at least he has them playing on his TV.

Speaker: All this nothing that stands out.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: One of the most disturbing moments is he is watching the news and

Speaker: And it's a segment on the Militech convoy being ambushed, the crime that he did.

Speaker: And then there is a part where the truck doors open and a guy comes out looking directly into the camera and starts talking to him.

Speaker: And it's an ad that has been spliced and grafted into the footage of the crime scene.

Speaker: It's so, but it's bizarre and horrible, but you can't tell me they haven't thought of that.

Speaker: It's like the news doesn't stop or anything.

Speaker: It's just like an ad starts in the middle of the footage.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: About the crime.

Speaker: And I'm just reading about this.

Speaker: I'm not in this.

Speaker: It's not a visual medium.

Speaker: This is not a video game or a movie or something.

Speaker: But just the description set my ADHD aflame for me.

Speaker: Like, like having to concentrate on like both of those things at once and like, Oh my gosh.

Speaker: Like that was really effective and bleak.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: So he finishes the night by going through the net.

Speaker: He's just like clicking on websites like, yeah, whatever.

Speaker: Okay, that's fine.

Speaker: And he lays down and he thinks about Aya.

Speaker: He was kind of smitten with her a little bit.

Speaker: A little bit?

Speaker: Yeah, he's like, ooh, that's interesting.

Speaker: She seems nice.

Speaker: She seems fun.

Speaker: She seems fun.

Speaker: And he's like, I'll never see her again.

Speaker: And he falls asleep.

Speaker: We switch scenes over to a strip club where Aya works.

Speaker: She's dancing on stage and she's finishing her set and she heads backstage and she sends a message to someone named M that she'll be home soon.

Speaker: Her boss, Crisp, or Crispy, approaches her and begins to pressure Aya about how there is a want out there for organic women, or organic.

Speaker: So basically, organic people are people who don't have any chrome or mods on them.

Speaker: For organic women to sleep with.

Speaker: People like that sort of thing.

Speaker: And Aya's like, no, I don't want to.

Speaker: And Crispy's like, what, you think you're some kind of fucking saint?

Speaker: LAUGHTER

Speaker: I didn't say that.

Speaker: I didn't say that.

Speaker: Uh, meanwhile, Ron is at a bar and he's flipping ice cubes, one on top of each other and he never misses.

Speaker: And there's a bartender's like, you better never play dice in a casino.

Speaker: They'll, they'll, they'll kill you for, for that.

Speaker: And he's like, I, I wouldn't, I'm a, I'm a doc.

Speaker: I'm a ripper doc.

Speaker: Um, because he, he has like precise hands so he can repeat the same motion over and over again without a mistake.

Speaker: Um, and then Ron says something like, uh,

Speaker: you know what it's like to do something that's beneath you, but you have no choice?

Speaker: And the bartender's like, I got a drink for that.

Speaker: And he pours him another drink.

Speaker: It's good.

Speaker: It's good.

Speaker: It's good writing.

Speaker: It's good writing.

Speaker: Good dialogue.

Speaker: Yeah, it's very snappy.

Speaker: At Melina's apartment, she is sitting in post-coital ennui while her too eager compatriot is trying to talk to her.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: She dismisses him with a speech about the pointlessness of life.

Speaker: And then he says, OK, see you tomorrow.

Speaker: See you at work tomorrow and leaves.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker: Oh, honey.

Speaker: Oh, boy.

Speaker: Oh, no.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So she dials up some anti-stress chemicals, drinks some whiskey and looks at herself.

Speaker: And she's damn fine looking for 52, synthetically young in the face, has all the mods to make her look as hot as possible.

Speaker: And then she lights a cigarette and throws her whiskey glass at the window.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: I think we've all been there.

Speaker: I think we've all had that day.

Speaker: Yeah, she's a... Melina, I find, is a really interesting character because she is just constantly...

Speaker: She's in a state.

Speaker: She's in a she's in a funk.

Speaker: And we don't really know where what it is yet.

Speaker: I know she was there is a mention that she was in a car accident and a few weeks prior.

Speaker: And she saw like there was a child trapped in a car.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And the the rescue workers like it was it was already too late.

Speaker: And one of the rescue workers was trying to like break free of.

Speaker: of the grass, but like everybody's holding him back and he's like, no, I got to rescue the kid.

Speaker: And then it's like, that's what Molina is thinking about while her, her, her, uh, coworkers like, yeah, so I gave you three orgasms, right?

Speaker: That's right.

Speaker: That's right.

Speaker: Motherfuckers keep count.

Speaker: I don't care how good in bed he is.

Speaker: If he's, if he's literally counting the orgasms he's given you, uh, that, that did you, you, it's, that's, that's like a factory that manufactures nothing but red flags.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Just welcome to the red flag factory.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker: Please enjoy our tour.

Speaker: So we have all these little vignettes with our characters that were just on the heist.

Speaker: And Borg is not left out.

Speaker: Borg is at a strip club trying to pick up women.

Speaker: He gets too drunk and falls down.

Speaker: That's it.

Speaker: That's it.

Speaker: It's just one vignette of like bleak, sad sack shit after another.

Speaker: And it's great.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It is great.

Speaker: It is your Shadowrun game with your fresh-out-of-the-box characters spending their income, their new yen from their first big heist and just failing on every role and making asses of themselves in the meantime.

Speaker: It's great.

Speaker: It's wonderful.

Speaker: It's great.

Speaker: Speaker 3 001 001 001

Speaker: These are fun little bits.

Speaker: He's like, what's up, fuckers?

Speaker: It's your boy Freak Speak.

Speaker: Yeah, it's truly like, it's this very believable thing where you're like, yeah, I got an impression influencers aren't going to change that much in another 50 years.

Speaker: I think it'll be...

Speaker: This is an influencer in 50 years.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: There's no, yeah, that's not changing.

Speaker: I feel like that's pretty, yeah.

Speaker: On the money.

Speaker: I think we can look forward to that for a long, long time.

Speaker: Hooray.

Speaker: So we finally meet our net runner, Arthur.

Speaker: He is a teenager living at home with his verbally abusive mother who keeps pushing him to go get a job and stop sitting at home all day watching brain dances.

Speaker: Um, so brain dance is basically like, uh,

Speaker: You put on this like halo thing and the brain dance is like it's like porn, but it's it's like a 3D holographic thing, like spatial.

Speaker: So it's it's it's super immersive.

Speaker: And it's like it's like a lap dance with all that without all that pesky human interaction without that pesky human interaction.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Get rid of that.

Speaker: Fuck it.

Speaker: Yeah, this is the shit you don't get in Ready Player One, which is the most anti-cyberpunk.

Speaker: It's like the corporations aren't bad, actually.

Speaker: Yeah, no.

Speaker: This actually is a terrific companion piece to Ready Player One if you must read that book, and you mustn't.

Speaker: But if you must, this is a great kind of like rebuttal.

Speaker: Yeah, it serves as an excellent rebuttal.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Ready Player One is baby's first cyberpunk.

Speaker: Like, it's OK.

Speaker: I read I read Ready Player One when it when it came out.

Speaker: I was like, oh, this is so cool.

Speaker: Geeks, geek culture.

Speaker: And then the more I thought about it, I was like, oh, that's terrible.

Speaker: This is a bad book.

Speaker: That was also my take on it.

Speaker: Because there just wasn't a lot like that at that point.

Speaker: Nothing so overt that had gained that level of popularity.

Speaker: So it was kind of charming at first.

Speaker: And then you, like a lot of things like that, you look back at it later and go, oh, that actually wasn't terrific.

Speaker: That actually wasn't a good thing.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So, yeah.

Speaker: So what his mother doesn't realize.

Speaker: And this is an amazing scene because she is just like yelling and spouting off like there.

Speaker: You could be out getting this job that pays this much, this many any's or this job.

Speaker: It pays this.

Speaker: And like it.

Speaker: In between each of those, it's Arthur is like, so I made this game and I've earned 12 and I posted it yesterday and I've made 12,000 any's from that in the past in the past 24 hours.

Speaker: And she's like, yeah, you could get this job.

Speaker: Would you give you like 20 a day?

Speaker: He's like, he's like making a lot more cash just sitting in his room doing his net runner stuff.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Than than anything else, because he's actually not a net runner by like that was his first time actually doing it.

Speaker: He's a game designer.

Speaker: Like he makes games and he posts them out onto the net and, you know, people buy them for like 50 cents or whatever.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: He's basically an indie Steam game developer.

Speaker: Like that's his whole thing.

Speaker: That's what he does.

Speaker: And he's very particular about his coding.

Speaker: He's basically like a John Carmack type.

Speaker: Very much so.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: In that he's super particular about his coding.

Speaker: He always uses raw code as opposed to WYSIWYG editors.

Speaker: Because like a lot of people just make programs apparently in this universe where it's like, oh yeah, I just slap it together with the WYSIWYG.

Speaker: which is an acronym for what you see is what you get, by the way.

Speaker: With a WYSIWYG editor, he's like, nope, I must program it directly with the raw code.

Speaker: He doesn't want to use templates and shit like that.

Speaker: He doesn't want to use templates.

Speaker: He wants bespoke, a true experience.

Speaker: Yes, exactly.

Speaker: And we also get some history in this segment about Racha.

Speaker: All I could think of was the name from the word from that first episode of Sherlock.

Speaker: R-A-C-H-E.

Speaker: I never watched Sherlock.

Speaker: It's good until you realize it's terrible.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's one of those things where it, it, it, it really fools you into thinking that it's good.

Speaker: And then you're like, but it's, it's like good at this level.

Speaker: And then it is bad at this level.

Speaker: Once you realize it's bad, it's like, Oh my God, this is so bad.

Speaker: That's good to know.

Speaker: Anyway, Rasha Bartmoss is the person who caused the collapse of the old net or like the internet we would know today and led construction to the construction of the Black Wall, which is a cyber wall that surrounds basically Night City.

Speaker: It prevents people from leaving the Corpo-controlled network.

Speaker: So that they don't run into well, the story is so they don't run into rogue AIs outside of the black wall.

Speaker: The only person who has ever made it out is Alt Cunningham, who was Johnny Silverhand's girlfriend.

Speaker: And rumor is she is still out there.

Speaker: Backstory.

Speaker: Rewind a little bit.

Speaker: Alt Cunningham.

Speaker: Finding out what happened to Alt Cunningham is one of the main plots of the game.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Cyberpunk 2077.

Speaker: So the game takes place in 2077.

Speaker: She went missing into the space beyond the black wall in 2013 in this universe.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Oh, wow.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: This universe, it's like an alternate, definitely an alternate history with things moved a little bit faster.

Speaker: We're going to have to catch up.

Speaker: Yeah, no, she, so she disappeared in, uh, in 2013 and, uh, has been rumored to be kind of like a ghost in the machine, uh, since then.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: The warden, oh wait, no, that's a, I skipped a hit.

Speaker: So as the chapter ends, Arthur is considering getting a C-link, which would allow for a better connection to the net.

Speaker: We move to another section with the warden.

Speaker: He's getting chewed out by a man named Renner, who he works with.

Speaker: Renner is not impressed with whatever the fuck warden just did.

Speaker: Because Miltec, A, Miltec is their most frequent customer for whatever they do.

Speaker: It's not specified.

Speaker: B, he left a bunch of people alive who know his face and his name.

Speaker: And Renner's like, we have talented people who we do, who we can rely on when we want to do things like this.

Speaker: We use them.

Speaker: We don't use amateurs.

Speaker: And, and the warden's like, don't worry.

Speaker: They, they won't flip on me.

Speaker: And he, it's like, it's going to be fine.

Speaker: There's going to be the runners.

Speaker: Like, there's no recordings of you doing this.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: And Warren's like, no, Ron Howard pokes in and he was lying.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Why are you being so weird about this?

Speaker: Oh, God.

Speaker: Next time on Arrested Development.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: I made a terrible mistake.

Speaker: I made a terrible mistake.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's one of those things where you're looking and go, he has an excellent point.

Speaker: It's like this guy, Renner, pretty much spot on on all of his points.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Can't argue with any of them.

Speaker: Not effectively.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Not even going to try.

Speaker: Um, Melina sits at home and she's annoyed with the commercials that she's being served up that profiles her as an aging nympho.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: I love that kind of shit.

Speaker: And then she, but then she throws on a brain dance called the 12 gigolos.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: It's like, it's this really short scene of Melina.

Speaker: Like, fuck, what do they think I am?

Speaker: An old nympho?

Speaker: I love it.

Speaker: I guess I should watch.

Speaker: I'm just going to watch the 12 gigolos and fall asleep.

Speaker: Better check the batteries on my vibrator.

Speaker: I hate this bullshit.

Speaker: It's fantastic.

Speaker: There's a brief interlude with some operators chatting about some sort of test they are running, that they should pump up some of the variables, and I have no idea what that's about yet.

Speaker: I'm assuming that's going to play out more later, but these three operators are like, well, we're trying to watch something.

Speaker: We're trying to test this out, and they're like, well, hey,

Speaker: we're not going to have a test if nobody does anything.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: And I'm like, I don't know what this is about.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And who could blame you for being a little confused because this is what the 500,000th scene in this chapter.

Speaker: This book changes scenes rapidly.

Speaker: Very rapidly.

Speaker: It is like this character is doing this.

Speaker: We're moving on.

Speaker: Here's a moment.

Speaker: Here's a moment.

Speaker: Here's a moment.

Speaker: It made me think I was just as a writer, just like, like reading this and thinking like, how would I do this?

Speaker: Is this, this must be that he like wrote all of this person's stuff out in one column, another column, another, and just kind of broke them up into pieces.

Speaker: And you took the cards and you shuffled them.

Speaker: Yeah, just bridge.

Speaker: And there we go.

Speaker: Yeah, because they're all good scenes and they're all well written, but you also just, there is a moment where you're just kind of like, stop!

Speaker: I can't.

Speaker: Please, please, slow down.

Speaker: I'm out of breath.

Speaker: Yeah, please.

Speaker: I'm out of reading breath.

Speaker: My brain is tired.

Speaker: This book has winded me.

Speaker: My brain is out of breath.

Speaker: Oh, gosh.

Speaker: We cut over to Aya, and she is waiting for her sister, Juliana, to get out of the shower.

Speaker: And Juliana is, she's a kid.

Speaker: She has some sort of special needs, some sort of disability.

Speaker: And it's kind of, she has the body of an eight-year-old, but the mind of a two-year-old, I think, is what she...

Speaker: and she just has no emotional input or reaction to anything.

Speaker: And like, I is like, takes care.

Speaker: So, you know, she's like, she drives her off.

Speaker: She hugs her.

Speaker: There's nothing.

Speaker: She like sees her off to school in this.

Speaker: She like gives her a kiss on the forehead.

Speaker: Juliana has no reaction.

Speaker: And that just like sends her off into the school.

Speaker: And it's like one of those really like,

Speaker: And then after Juliana gets off the subway car to go off to the school, Aya gets a message that tuition is overdue.

Speaker: Of course.

Speaker: It's like, oh, hey, characters, you think you were going to get up?

Speaker: No, no, no.

Speaker: Says the man in Washington.

Speaker: Yeah, no, it is.

Speaker: It is truly.

Speaker: This is this is all just a Reba McIntyre song played in cyberpunks. 2077.

Speaker: She has the help of someone called M, but that's barely enough to cover it.

Speaker: And then she gets a job offer from an anonymous source, and they come in every few months.

Speaker: And this one is to act as an escort to a man named Geronimo Mendez.

Speaker: She puts off reading the notes, though, for now, because she needs to go to sleep.

Speaker: Oh, did I skip something?

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: Oh, I skipped a scene.

Speaker: Yeah, I just skipped a scene with Zor.

Speaker: Zor is at his day job working for an extermination service named Byers and Sons.

Speaker: And Byers is just a big man who sits at his desk all day and sends Zor out on runs.

Speaker: And he's telling about his next gig at a warehouse.

Speaker: And Zor mentions, hey, it's Morris's birthday.

Speaker: And Byers is like, yeah, take him out for a beer.

Speaker: Then the Iocene.

Speaker: And then we get back to Zor.

Speaker: Zor and Morris are doing the job and decide to call it early.

Speaker: And Zor has to convince Morris that, yeah, they're in the wrong place.

Speaker: Don't worry about it.

Speaker: No one cares.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Buyers won't be mad at you.

Speaker: We also learned that Morris has Down syndrome.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So he's just like, you know.

Speaker: you've probably met folks with Down syndrome.

Speaker: They're sweethearts.

Speaker: They're sweethearts.

Speaker: Not really fast on the uptake when it comes to being sarcastic or insincere or something like that.

Speaker: So he's trying to... Very sincere, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, he's trying to lie and basically... He's trying to lie to Morris and be like, yeah, let's just get out of here and go...

Speaker: somewhere else.

Speaker: But then he's like, no, it's my bad.

Speaker: I got the wrong address.

Speaker: So he has to just make up a lie for more.

Speaker: Exactly.

Speaker: Just because any excuse, he's just going to see right through.

Speaker: So, yeah.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: So meanwhile, at the strip club, Aya is performing.

Speaker: She's nailing it, too, until something happens.

Speaker: She slips and falls off the pole, hits her shoulder against the stage, and then she looks up and she notices that she's having trouble making a fist with her hand.

Speaker: It's like...

Speaker: It's like not functioning correctly.

Speaker: She snaps out of it, notices that there's a creep in the back of the room drinking out of a flask.

Speaker: And she's not like she's not sure why she noticed that.

Speaker: But normally it's just like a sea of faceless people.

Speaker: But she like hones in on this guy.

Speaker: He's just like being in the back of the room.

Speaker: He's like, yeah, she's like, all right.

Speaker: Bye.

Speaker: And she can wear this like there's like an applause and she goes backstage.

Speaker: Zork calls into buyers to tell him about how the job is pointless.

Speaker: Sometimes they're like that.

Speaker: You know, sometimes they'll get calls to fumigate a building that's going to be demolished in a week.

Speaker: And buyers like, all right, I got another job for you.

Speaker: You'll like this place.

Speaker: I is in backstage and her hand is backstage and her hand seems to be better.

Speaker: Another worker, Dora talks to her about how good implants are because there's no need for warmup and she's only making life harder for herself with not having Chrome and mods.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Meanwhile, outside Zor and Mars are sitting in traffic while Mars talks about his dream about demons and how today is his birthday.

Speaker: Yeah, kind of really insistent on it too.

Speaker: Really insistent.

Speaker: You know, today's my birthday, right?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And Zora's like, uh-huh.

Speaker: And he's like, you know, my mom always used to buy me a cake for my birthday.

Speaker: And Zora's like.

Speaker: Uh-huh.

Speaker: Well, why isn't she buying it today?

Speaker: And Mars goes, because she's dead.

Speaker: And you just feel it's like, great.

Speaker: Just way to suck the air out of the room, pal.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So they get to their destination, which is a strip club.

Speaker: And Zora tells Mars to stay close to him because the neighborhood isn't safe.

Speaker: Back inside the club, Aya is in the dressing room when one of the kids who works there comes in.

Speaker: He's exceedingly shy and he's like, uh, uh, uh, and he like hands her like something.

Speaker: And he's like, she doesn't even realize that she's just standing there topless.

Speaker: And it's like the kid is, the kid's like, uh, I gotta go.

Speaker: Not aware of the effect she's having.

Speaker: Not aware of the effect that she's having.

Speaker: The kid drops off a token, which means a customer is requesting her personally for a personal dance.

Speaker: Which I'm sure is always something you're looking forward to.

Speaker: Always something you're looking forward to.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Zor and Morris are looking at the basement of the strip club, which seems to be massive.

Speaker: They're like, all right, well, we can fumigate it, but there's no need to rush because it's going to take too long to do anyway.

Speaker: Zor's telling Morris, don't worry about it.

Speaker: Because Morris is like, this will take three days, not three hours.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Back upstairs, Aya is working her way towards the private dance rooms and sees another worker, Yuki, who's trying to sell her brain dance hollows.

Speaker: And while they're talking, a huge cockroach scurries past them.

Speaker: Downstairs, Zor throws a gas grenade that will kill the cockroaches, and he throws it deep into the basement.

Speaker: And he's supposed to warn people in the building that he's using one of these, but he doesn't really think much of it.

Speaker: No, no, it's fine.

Speaker: It's fine.

Speaker: It's a gas grenade.

Speaker: It's fine.

Speaker: It's fine.

Speaker: It's just kill the bugs.

Speaker: It kills bugs, not people, right?

Speaker: That's how that works.

Speaker: That's fine.

Speaker: It's got the whole skull and crossbones on it.

Speaker: We're fine.

Speaker: It's fine.

Speaker: Aya heads to booth eight and begins her dance for the guy.

Speaker: And she's creeped out by him for some reason, but she doesn't know why and just works higher up on the pole than normal, even though he doesn't try anything.

Speaker: And I think that connection is this is the guy that she saw sitting in the back.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Of the room.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: So Morris, they go upstairs and Morris is begging Zor to stay at the bar since it's his birthday.

Speaker: That's so sad.

Speaker: And then Morris is startled by a Maelstrom guy that he sees.

Speaker: So you kind of probably just have to Google what one of the Maelstrom guys looks like.

Speaker: Because Maelstrom, cyberpunk.

Speaker: Oh, yes, I see.

Speaker: Yeah, that's... They are a lot.

Speaker: That is upsetting.

Speaker: They are.

Speaker: upsetting to look at.

Speaker: That is deeply upsetting.

Speaker: He sees one of them and he goes, ah, a demon.

Speaker: And let's be honest, I probably would say the same thing.

Speaker: Fair, yeah.

Speaker: Fair.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Out of context, I would, yeah, I'd probably find myself having a bit of a moment of a religious crisis.

Speaker: What can I say?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I get it.

Speaker: I get it.

Speaker: Zor considers staying there with Morris and thinks back to the last day he spent in a bar, which he does once a month.

Speaker: He goes to a bar, he orders a drink, and he doesn't drink it.

Speaker: And the last time he did that was the day he met Warden.

Speaker: Aya finishes her dance in Booth 8, but the customer slaps another token on the table.

Speaker: But this time, it's a red token, which means something more intimate than a dance in a private setting.

Speaker: I refuses because she is just a dancer and doesn't do that sort of thing.

Speaker: He wants her because she is 100% organic.

Speaker: Um, she looks around for the bouncers and catches doors.

Speaker: I, uh, cause doors on stage and Dora just tells her to grow the fuck up princess.

Speaker: Um, and then I, and suck that dick.

Speaker: And then, yeah, basically.

Speaker: And then I, instead of doing any of the, of, of the above punches, one of the bodyguards in the stomach.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: He's like, not doing it.

Speaker: Zora and Morris are drinking at the bar and Morris is hitting the beer a little faster than Zora's hoping he would.

Speaker: Zora isn't drinking and then Morris prods Zora to like, hey, you were telling me about how you met your wife.

Speaker: Like, keep telling that story.

Speaker: And Zora, you know, he's telling the story and he's like, you know what?

Speaker: This is actually isn't bad.

Speaker: Would this be the worst thing in the world?

Speaker: You know, just having a little thing, you know, going out with Morris every once in a while, just hanging out.

Speaker: But that's when the chaos that Aya has caused, because, yes, they're in the same strip club.

Speaker: Of course, it's out into the main room.

Speaker: He sees a dancer fighting with a square jawed hustle and hustle spelled H U S C L E is the slang term for like a bodyguard or like a muscle, you know, muscle, um, uh, in a suit.

Speaker: Uh, Morris is like, we got to help her.

Speaker: And Zora's like, no, uh,

Speaker: Uh, we're not doing that.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: We so don't have to get involved in any of this.

Speaker: No.

Speaker: And then the hustle has like, has like her arms pulled back and is like the other hustles coming in to, to take a swing at her.

Speaker: Um, and he recognizes that it's Aya.

Speaker: Um, and then, uh, Zora, that's when Zora gets up and he gets in, in between them in the middle of it.

Speaker: He tells the man that she danced for who in his head, he just calls Mr. Slick.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: He's like, listen, let's just all let's all walk away from this.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And that doesn't happen.

Speaker: They go to fight.

Speaker: Zor punches one of the guys and knocks him down.

Speaker: The other takes out his gun and draws on him, but Morris tries to tackle the guy.

Speaker: The guy takes Morris and shoves him into the floor, and this really pisses Zor off because nobody hits Morris.

Speaker: There's a lot of back and forth, just punching, swinging, all that stuff, and finally the bouncers get involved.

Speaker: Are the bouncers big, muscly, burly men?

Speaker: No, they are basically Harley Quinn.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: A bunch of Harley Quinns with baseball bats.

Speaker: Which look terrifying and effective.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: You took a chance on an unorthodox bouncing set up and let's see how it goes.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Great.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So the bouncers are now attacking.

Speaker: They're attacking everybody.

Speaker: They're attacking the hustle.

Speaker: They're attacking Zor.

Speaker: And finally they square off and Zor is fighting the hustle and Aya is fighting the bouncers.

Speaker: And then the chapter ends with what seems to be a flashback for Zor from some sort of bombing run he did during the war where it was like a firebombing he did during some sort of war.

Speaker: That's how chapter three ends.

Speaker: These people got problems.

Speaker: These people got serious problems.

Speaker: Serious problems, just bags of trauma everywhere.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: It's just, just undealt with everywhere you look.

Speaker: Chapter four starts with freak seek again.

Speaker: And he's talking about the cockroaches at Mary's bar and how the cockroaches will go right up on your feet.

Speaker: If you come in some low kicks, um,

Speaker: Zor wakes up on a beach.

Speaker: He's with Aya and she stitched him up after the fight.

Speaker: Morris, meanwhile, is rocking back and forth 20 yards away.

Speaker: Aya's like, yeah, Morris drove us there.

Speaker: And Zor's like, Morris doesn't drive.

Speaker: And Aya's like, yeah, well, the car's fucked up.

Speaker: That explains a lot.

Speaker: Good.

Speaker: And Zor's like, great, I hated that job anyway.

Speaker: And Aya's like, yeah, I'm pretty sure I can't go back either.

Speaker: So Zor goes back to his apartment.

Speaker: He, the, he has, he does the toothpick trick where he has a toothpick in the door to see if anybody has broken in with.

Speaker: So basically if the toothpick is not in the door anymore, that means somebody opened the door.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: No one's entered the apartment.

Speaker: He goes in, he takes a shower, and he gets a bunch of, while he's in the shower, he gets a bunch of messages from buyers.

Speaker: The first two are expletive-laden, and the third one is just a bill for the damages to the truck.

Speaker: And Zor says basically it was 700 eddies for a beer, which is a very expensive beer.

Speaker: Then he also gets a text from Ron, the Ripper doc.

Speaker: He's like, hey, you want to go get a beer?

Speaker: And Zor's like, okay, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Aya gets home, and as soon as she gets in... So here's the wild thing, is as soon as she gets into her apartment, the TV turns on automatically to start showing her advertisements.

Speaker: Yeah, immediately.

Speaker: Immediately.

Speaker: That is dystopia, right?

Speaker: That is...

Speaker: It's so funny.

Speaker: And I knew you would bring this up because I felt the same way.

Speaker: And it's so funny to me that in a world, it's like all of this fucked up shit that they're describing.

Speaker: And there's something so viscerally unpleasant about walking into the home and immediately being assaulted with advertising.

Speaker: And I knew you'd feel the same way that that would be the thing.

Speaker: She can't turn the TV off.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: It's built in.

Speaker: It's probably part of your rent.

Speaker: It's like you have to pay an extra premium to not have that.

Speaker: it's crazy.

Speaker: And, and it's just very upsetting, just upsetting visceral level.

Speaker: I, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And then I goes and she checks in on Juliana who's asleep and she's considering her future and, uh, how the only way to, and I appreciate that in the book that it like fix is in quotation marks.

Speaker: Um, it's like, cause it's not about fixing disabled people.

Speaker: It's like,

Speaker: You know, she's like the only way to fix her is some sort of brute surgery, brain surgery that there's no way she could afford it.

Speaker: And she's worrying about Julianna's prospects.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: Going into like going into the future.

Speaker: And Aya is just bumming herself out at this point.

Speaker: She goes to get a drink of water.

Speaker: She runs the tap and it's like, I guess that's water.

Speaker: That's it.

Speaker: It's it's it's.

Speaker: That'll be fine.

Speaker: I guess.

Speaker: And she goes to try to drink it, but her hand freezes up again, and she drops the glass out of her hand.

Speaker: And so basically, we are learning is she does have Chrome, and one of her hands is fake.

Speaker: It's just not the kind that she could go anywhere and get fixed.

Speaker: She can't just go to a random RipperDoc and get fixed.

Speaker: So then she opens up the job file that she got.

Speaker: Basically...

Speaker: She does these jobs that they send her when she does the jobs, then she can go get her hand fixed.

Speaker: And this happens every every once in a while.

Speaker: And she opens up the job file and she reads all the details and she starts looking, looking through the photos.

Speaker: And she's like, oh, fuck.

Speaker: It's the guy that she just got into a fight with.

Speaker: Yes, of course.

Speaker: Because of course it is.

Speaker: Because of course it is.

Speaker: Because things couldn't get any easier for Aya.

Speaker: And why would they?

Speaker: That's silly.

Speaker: Why would they?

Speaker: I like that Rafal so far has done a good job in like, like setting like the stakes for all of these characters could not be any clearer.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: They are like, they're about to do some stuff in the rest of this book that maybe you could judge them for, but here's their life.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Judge them after this.

Speaker: We dare you.

Speaker: We dare you.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So at the bar, Zor and Ron are sitting mostly in awkward silence while Ron talks about how cool his arm chrome used to be.

Speaker: And he wants to get new arms, a combat SRG-78 from Militech, but it's too expensive.

Speaker: So, you know, it's a catch-22.

Speaker: Like, it's too expensive to buy.

Speaker: And doing the deal, a job that would be like...

Speaker: uh worth it would be make him not need them etc etc and he's like i also owe two minute too much money to the wrong types of people and uh then he's like unless um and zor's like yes and ron's like what if we steal it

Speaker: And Zora's like, all right, I'm out.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: Snow.

Speaker: Snow.

Speaker: Absolutely not.

Speaker: And Ron's like, just listen.

Speaker: We steal like three of them.

Speaker: I install one of them on myself.

Speaker: We sell the other two.

Speaker: More money than you would have seen at any other job in like a year.

Speaker: And Zora's like.

Speaker: No.

Speaker: And he gets up and he starts walking away and Ron goes, hey, Aya is already interested.

Speaker: And Zora's like, okay, you have my attention.

Speaker: Yeah, pretty much.

Speaker: Meanwhile, after or before this, not really clear, Aya visits Ron.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Not sure if that last thing was bullshit or not, but okay.

Speaker: He bullshitted one of them regardless.

Speaker: Right, yeah, one of them.

Speaker: That's the way it plays out.

Speaker: It's bullshit to one of them regardless.

Speaker: We get through the description of the, we get a thorough description of the Ripper Doc's office, which is like a mess with cables and all that.

Speaker: Aya describes it as a dentist's office, but with a stronger stench of rotting meat.

Speaker: Stronger.

Speaker: Stronger stench.

Speaker: lying that we all know that at the dentist's office, you're going to get a little rotting meat.

Speaker: A little touch of rotting meat.

Speaker: Just a little.

Speaker: Otherwise, how do you know you're at a dentist's office?

Speaker: How do you know you're at a dentist's office?

Speaker: Let's be real.

Speaker: Let's be real.

Speaker: Uh, yeah.

Speaker: So, um,

Speaker: Where was I?

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: I as Ron checking on her fingers and Ron's like, I knew right away, by the way, that your hand wasn't organic because I saw the way the fingers were moving.

Speaker: And you have like he's like, see this to a lay person, it seems natural.

Speaker: But to like a ripper doc, they'll see that like your pinky finger is programmed to like hitch in three repeating ways to seem normal.

Speaker: like a normal movement, but it's always repeating these three movements.

Speaker: And he's like, he goes into a full detail of like, it's brilliant technology, but I could tell that it wasn't organic.

Speaker: And he goes, all right, so let me just like open it up and take a look.

Speaker: And she's like, well, it's not real skin trademark, which is like the skin that they put over the like the metal Terminator like chrome that you get.

Speaker: It's real space skin.

Speaker: over top of, of her, her fake hands.

Speaker: And he's like, Oh, uh, this is Scandinavian then.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: And I just love the idea that like fucking Ikea is the best.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: I love that detail so much.

Speaker: He's like, this is Scandinavian.

Speaker: And he's like, well, I guess I still have to open your skin up to look at it.

Speaker: So he's like, it's just gonna be a small incision.

Speaker: It'll be a scar.

Speaker: And she thinks about it and she's like, yeah, whatever.

Speaker: So he opens it up, opens up her, I guess, part of her wrist or whatever.

Speaker: And he starts looking, dealing with it.

Speaker: He's like, well, there's nothing mechanically wrong.

Speaker: I gotta look at your config file for the hand.

Speaker: And she's like, what's that?

Speaker: And he's like, your config file.

Speaker: And she's like, all right, I'll try to give you access to that with a thought command.

Speaker: And she's like, I don't have access to that.

Speaker: And he's like, you don't have access to the... Okay.

Speaker: All right.

Speaker: The plot thickens.

Speaker: The plot thickens.

Speaker: Basically, his theory is like, there's a planned obsolescence happening with her hand to keep her on the hook for these jobs that she keeps having to do.

Speaker: Right?

Speaker: So it's like...

Speaker: Because he's like, this hand shouldn't need this much maintenance.

Speaker: It is too good of a hand.

Speaker: Like, there's nothing wrong with the mechanics of the hand.

Speaker: So you shouldn't be needing to go in for anything.

Speaker: Turns out it was made by Apple.

Speaker: Yes, there we go.

Speaker: Um, so he's like, well, I can't do it with these hands, but I could fix it with a brand new set of Militech combat SRG-78s.

Speaker: We just gotta go, we just gotta do a little bit of a job.

Speaker: And she's like, I don't know.

Speaker: And he's like, hey, Zora's already in.

Speaker: It's great.

Speaker: It's great.

Speaker: I love it.

Speaker: I love it.

Speaker: Zor is at his apartment and he's considering the offer and he realizes that the incident at Mary's bar was a blessing in disguise because he was on a road to nowhere.

Speaker: He was just living out his days.

Speaker: So he's like, all right, fuck it, I'll do it.

Speaker: So Aya and Zor meet Ron at his office and Zor begins asking questions about the job.

Speaker: Like, what are we doing?

Speaker: We're hitting a Militech warehouse and all that.

Speaker: Uh, Melina shows up, uh, Melina, the corpo shows up and she's like that.

Speaker: None of what you just said will fucking work.

Speaker: Um, because of the security at the warehouse and she knows the systems because she works for Militech.

Speaker: Um, and, uh,

Speaker: There's a great moment here.

Speaker: So she's like, she like lights a cigarette and there's like a no smoking sign.

Speaker: And she's like, okay, whatever.

Speaker: Too bad.

Speaker: And she's sitting on the couch and she's looking for an ashtray.

Speaker: So there's no ashtray because Ron doesn't want people smoking where he does operating.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker: And so she gets up and she goes over to the trash can and she flips the lid up.

Speaker: And she, like, freezes, and she's staring into the trash can, and she's like, there's a hand.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I love it.

Speaker: There's a hand?

Speaker: She says she just goes hand or something like that, and he misunderstands her.

Speaker: No, there's a hand in this trash can.

Speaker: And he's like, ah, yeah, you know, I mean, they got to go somewhere, right?

Speaker: You know, when you do a place.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: So they all agree that they'll need a net runner, but they need to find the one that they had on the first job.

Speaker: So Ron says I'll make some calls.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So we get to our net runner again.

Speaker: Did I write down the right name?

Speaker: Arthur, yeah, it's Arthur.

Speaker: Yeah, I wrote Albert for some reason.

Speaker: Arthur, the net runner, is hiding.

Speaker: When Arthur gets the message, he's hiding in a pair of trash bags out in public so he can hack into a library system to find more information to store into like a little data cache that he keeps.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: We get a little bit more information.

Speaker: Dedication.

Speaker: That's dedication, Holmes.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: We get a little bit more information in this section about what the net is like and the black wall and all that jazz.

Speaker: And then Albert gets the message from Ron while he's doing this.

Speaker: Zora and Aya take the subway together discussing the job and Zora is crushing on her.

Speaker: And he's like, hey, how about we go out for a drink?

Speaker: And Aya's like, no.

Speaker: Absolutely not.

Speaker: Absolutely not.

Speaker: No, she declines because she has to get home to her sister.

Speaker: Yeah, she actually says she might be interested.

Speaker: Yeah, but she has people she needs to take care of.

Speaker: Chapter five starts with a message from presumably Aya to the number who texts her the jobs asking for another chance because she needs maintenance.

Speaker: But she's like, whatever, this is a bounce back anyway.

Speaker: Meanwhile, Ron is performing surgery on Arthur to install the C-Link in the base of his skull in exchange for working on the job.

Speaker: Arthur asks for the, like, hey, do we have any of that tier two tech that we had in Arroyo?

Speaker: And Ron is like...

Speaker: Oh, I thought you were providing it.

Speaker: And then Ron is like, all right, well, fine.

Speaker: We'll need you at least to get some codes and flip the traffic lights.

Speaker: And Arthur's like, oh, well, yeah, Borg was the one who provided the codes.

Speaker: Um, so Arthur does a net run looking for codes, but it seems like the only way they're going to be able to do the job is using Borg's codes.

Speaker: Um, and he's working on some simulations for the job.

Speaker: And then suddenly the scene is punctuated by his mom yelling at him to take out the trash.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: It just, I love that.

Speaker: It's just, it's just, it's so great where this, this, this, you know, remarkable kid is just constantly getting interrupted by it.

Speaker: It's just waiting for him to literally scream, mom, get out of my room.

Speaker: It's...

Speaker: Mom, it's an online game.

Speaker: I can't do that.

Speaker: I can't pause.

Speaker: I can't pause.

Speaker: Meanwhile, Borg shows up at Ron's office and Ron's like, fuck.

Speaker: Arthur let it slip that Ron was putting a crew together and Borg wants in for the exchange for the codes.

Speaker: And the codes are good until 6 a.m.

Speaker: the next day.

Speaker: And they can't wait any longer because Borg quit his job.

Speaker: They say kill your darlings when it comes to writing.

Speaker: Just put your main characters through hell.

Speaker: And it just... Rafaal Kosick really took that one to heart.

Speaker: Just everybody's just fucking up.

Speaker: Zor and Aya are... So...

Speaker: It's later that night and Zora and I are sneaking into Harris's auto repair, looking for a car.

Speaker: The car that they're actually looking for is the exterminator van that, that, that Morris wrecked earlier.

Speaker: As they're sneaking through, one of the guards seems to notice something going on.

Speaker: I goes up onto a catwalk, walks over to the other side, climbs back down, knocks on the door,

Speaker: to get the guards' attention.

Speaker: And then all Zora sees is the guards standing there, and then the door is closed, and then the door opens, and Aya comes out, and she's like, he won't be bothering us anymore.

Speaker: And Zora's like, what did you do?

Speaker: What happened?

Speaker: And Aya's like, feminine wiles.

Speaker: And they move on.

Speaker: And they're just like, you know what?

Speaker: The less said about that, the better.

Speaker: The less said about that, the better.

Speaker: Zor is smitten, though, with this girl.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: How could he not go for that?

Speaker: He is crushing so hard on Aya.

Speaker: Arthur is looking over all the details on the job, and he's super suspicious of Borg quitting his job so suddenly.

Speaker: Like, why couldn't he wait three more days until they had more information to do this job?

Speaker: So the group is sitting in the van waiting about 200 feet from the gate while they talk the gate to the warehouse while they talk of the plan.

Speaker: Borg is getting all worked up and he just wants to get in there and smash and grab.

Speaker: He's swinging his gun around and Molina then lights a cigarette, which only pisses Borg off more.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: They ask Arthur what the plan is.

Speaker: He gives them a driving route in which they drive around in circles for a bit while Arthur records it and loads it into the CCTV layer.

Speaker: So it just seems like this car is just driving around these streets.

Speaker: It's for later.

Speaker: They end the route by pulling up to a building near their target.

Speaker: And Arthur's like, okay, now get out of the van and light this building on fire.

Speaker: And they're like...

Speaker: What?

Speaker: Beg your pardon?

Speaker: Beg your pardon?

Speaker: He's like, yeah, you're going to light it on fire, drive through the gate of the Militech warehouse, and then you have three minutes to get the gear and get out.

Speaker: We cut over to Arthur's place, and we can hear his mother complaining about him in the other room about how he's just talking to himself.

Speaker: And he sometimes wishes that she was just not around anymore.

Speaker: And he also assumes that most of his personality comes from his dad, even though he's never met him.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I don't know.

Speaker: A kid who is permanently online idly fantasizing about his mother suddenly not existing.

Speaker: Definitely has some incel vibes.

Speaker: Woo!

Speaker: Yeah, I don't feel so good.

Speaker: I think I'm going to have me lay down.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: In the van, they all look at Ron as the one to go in and set the fire.

Speaker: Ron begrudgedly goes in after Melina gives him a lighter and a flask of her alcohol.

Speaker: Once inside, he asks, hey, is anybody in here?

Speaker: No one gets no response.

Speaker: So he sets some, like, you know, newspapers up on a mattress and he lights it on, you know, pours the alcohol out, lights it on fire.

Speaker: And only then some kids pop their heads out from one of the corners.

Speaker: And it's like an eight-year-old, a five-year-old, and like a three-year-old or something like that.

Speaker: And Ron's like, what the fuck?

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I asked if there was anybody in here and the smoke is getting out of hand.

Speaker: He's trying to blow on the fire.

Speaker: Like the fire is too big.

Speaker: He's like trying to blow on it.

Speaker: That's not doing anything.

Speaker: No, that's not working.

Speaker: He can't see it.

Speaker: Like it's, it's so fast that like you, that he can't see anything and he's trying to like, he's shouting for his job too.

Speaker: Well, he said his job way too well.

Speaker: The building's going up way faster than he thought it would.

Speaker: Oh yeah.

Speaker: He's shouting for the kids to get out.

Speaker: He's taking too long.

Speaker: So Zor and Aya actually run into the building and they help, they help him get the kids out of the building and they all get out of the sidewalk.

Speaker: And yeah.

Speaker: So Ron calls Arthur and he's like, what the fuck?

Speaker: You said the building was abandoned.

Speaker: It wasn't abandoned.

Speaker: And Arthur's like, well, the plant city said it was abandoned.

Speaker: Borg then's like, all right, Arthur, give us more info on the layout of the building.

Speaker: And Arthur's like, I don't have a fucking layout of the building.

Speaker: I thought you were supposed to bring that.

Speaker: Well, it makes sense because Arthur earlier was like, if I had three days, I could have gotten all this.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: But instead, he had three hours.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: to get it all together.

Speaker: The team figures out who's doing what I, Ron and Zora going in while Molina and Borg handle the security guard outside.

Speaker: And there's a good moment.

Speaker: There's a really good moment about Zor yelling at board for putting the safety on, on his gun.

Speaker: So the drive through the front gate,

Speaker: And and Borg and Malena hop out and they the rest of them continue driving.

Speaker: Borg and Malena go into the guardhouse.

Speaker: Borg points his gun at the guard and Lane is like, just chill.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Meanwhile, Arthur is working on CCTV footage while his mother is haranguing him about taking the trash out.

Speaker: There's gotta be a better way, dude.

Speaker: Like at a certain point, this is kind of your fault.

Speaker: Just take the fucking trash out, man.

Speaker: Take the fucking trash out.

Speaker: Like make sure that she can't, there can't be anything that she could interrupt you for.

Speaker: Like, yeah, it's just like a little bit of, you know, a little bit of honey would have, would have helped you out here.

Speaker: Just a little, just a little, just a little.

Speaker: Um, the warehouse team stops in front of warehouse four, which is where the gear is stashed.

Speaker: Uh, the doors locked.

Speaker: So Zor just shoots it open.

Speaker: Arthur's like who fired and this scene like Rashomon's a few times because it's like it's Arthur asked who fires and they're like it was just just opening the door we have two and a half minutes left and so they go in and they start going through the crates

Speaker: Back up.

Speaker: Meanwhile, in the guardhouse, Melina is trying to keep Borg from acting like an absolute asshole.

Speaker: Just a fucking nutcase.

Speaker: He keeps yelling at the guard about how he should give his money back to Militech and how he's just an old, worthless old man who deserves to die.

Speaker: It's just like...

Speaker: What are we doing?

Speaker: What are we doing here?

Speaker: And Melina's like, please stop Borg.

Speaker: And the old man, old guard is like shaking.

Speaker: He like at one point drops his hat and Borg's like, pick up your hat.

Speaker: And the man's like, can't even grab his hat.

Speaker: Completely cracked.

Speaker: It's so weird.

Speaker: And then they hear the gunshots outside.

Speaker: And this was the gunshots from Zor shooting door open.

Speaker: Borg turns to look and Molina sees that the guard takes his gun out and has Borg dead to rights.

Speaker: We cut to Arthur and he's damning Borg's incompetence and his mother is still bugging him about the trash.

Speaker: And he hears the gunshots from Arthur and he's like, what's that?

Speaker: And then he hears a fourth gunshot.

Speaker: And now we're back in the guard house and Melina has shot and killed the guard.

Speaker: She saved Borg from being shot, even though he was the one who caused it.

Speaker: And she talks about how the brain dances don't really prepare you for the act of murder when you're doing it up close.

Speaker: So she's just like, well, I didn't like that.

Speaker: I don't like the sound.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I don't like this feeling.

Speaker: I'm going to have to revisit that later.

Speaker: And then she just like dials up her like anti-stress drugs.

Speaker: Which I can't tell you how jealous I was.

Speaker: Anytime they mentioned shit like that, I'm like, oh, that sounds nice.

Speaker: You know, lovely.

Speaker: You know, if you've got to live in this universe, you know, you know, pump on demand, you know, anti-stress drugs is really the way to go.

Speaker: That's pretty solid.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Love that.

Speaker: Meanwhile, Arthur is getting into an argument with his mother while all of this is happening.

Speaker: And his mother pulls the plug on his helmet.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: The last thing he says is like the GPS is jammed, right?

Speaker: So the team is driving around.

Speaker: They get to get the stuff.

Speaker: They get the things that get it onto the truck.

Speaker: They pick up Bolina and Borg and they get out of there to drive around with the GPS jammed, but they can't get in touch with Arthur because Arthur is they're like, what the fuck is Morgan?

Speaker: Borg is like, ah, the kid's probably fucking jerking off.

Speaker: He got bored and he's going, yeah,

Speaker: Ah, he left us, he's doing something else.

Speaker: They're driving around, there's a couple of cops, there's like a team of cops who is like kind of on them because Arthur isn't really there to do all the stuff that he was supposed to do.

Speaker: So they're just driving, they're driving south.

Speaker: They need to get out of there.

Speaker: The cops are on them and they see the cops in the back.

Speaker: And soon there's like a message that the cops get and like end pursuit.

Speaker: And they're like, ah, fuck, there goes our bonus.

Speaker: And then we get a message that there is a Militech drone inbound.

Speaker: Meanwhile, the car is not in great shape and they run into a neighborhood that is controlled by Maelstrom.

Speaker: And all these Maelstrom goons basically come out and they're like, what you got in the van?

Speaker: Easy way or hard way, man?

Speaker: The easy way.

Speaker: The easy way.

Speaker: So Melina gets out of the truck and she's like all doped up on her anti-stress drugs.

Speaker: And she just starts like talking to the Maelstrom guy.

Speaker: And she's like, oh, yeah, we got the stuff right here.

Speaker: Let's take a look at it.

Speaker: She like walks into the back and like she has like she's like opens the back to show him the stuff and.

Speaker: You know, they're like just wasting time.

Speaker: They don't like there's no plan.

Speaker: There's really no plan to actually get out of there.

Speaker: Molina is just trying to like kill time.

Speaker: Maybe they'll lose interest.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And then days ex Militech, the drone shows up and it's like everybody flee.

Speaker: Everybody like stop what you're doing.

Speaker: And the maelstrom guys just like fucking book it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: The Militech drone shows up.

Speaker: Oh, they're out.

Speaker: They're out.

Speaker: Um,

Speaker: The Militech drone shows up.

Speaker: There's like a gunshot somewhere.

Speaker: Somebody, they're like, what happened there?

Speaker: Ron accidentally shot himself in the leg when he was startled by the Militech drone.

Speaker: Good old Ron.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And then there's like all these little interstitials of like someone trying to get into the Militech drone system.

Speaker: And it's like new operator confirmed pursuit ended and the Militech drone flies away.

Speaker: And they're like, which I assume might be Arthur.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I'm not entirely sure if it's Arthur related.

Speaker: That was my guess as well, because somebody gets to the to the drone, takes control of it and tells it to to go punt.

Speaker: So they all get back into the van and drive off the drive.

Speaker: They take Ron back to the Ripper dock office and Ron performs leg surgery on himself.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: For his bullet wound that he inflicted upon himself accidentally.

Speaker: Which, yeah, you know what?

Speaker: Fair.

Speaker: Like, you did this, so you do the... Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And then as the chapter ends, as chapter five ends, Aya gets a new message that she gets from that number that is always sending her messages for jobs.

Speaker: And she doesn't like what it says.

Speaker: We don't know what it says, but that's how the chapter ends.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: this fucking book.

Speaker: This fucking book, man.

Speaker: Are you guys still there?

Speaker: Are you still there?

Speaker: Are you still there?

Speaker: Look, we've talked a lot on this show about, like, we recap these books and...

Speaker: Now, that's no substitute for reading the book itself.

Speaker: Read the books.

Speaker: Read the books.

Speaker: Read the books.

Speaker: Always read the books.

Speaker: Reading Rainbow.

Speaker: Reading Rainbow.

Speaker: But I think that rule goes double for this particular book.

Speaker: Because there is so much going on that it's impossible to fully appreciate it without reading the book.

Speaker: It is a poor substitute because this is a solid book.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: It's a very solid book.

Speaker: It is a very solid book.

Speaker: And I mean, I feel like I did my best to summarize that first book.

Speaker: 30%, 36% of the book.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Uh, I, I tried to keep as much detail in there because there was a lot of stuff that was in the details that seemed important.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Um, so we'll see.

Speaker: Uh, but how are you liking it so far?

Speaker: I love it.

Speaker: I, I just, this is, this is, it, it's, it, it doesn't matter.

Speaker: That this is an adaptation from a video game world.

Speaker: We get some references to the game, obviously.

Speaker: It's obviously built within the game's world.

Speaker: But this is just overall.

Speaker: Anyone can pick this up and enjoy this.

Speaker: It doesn't matter if you have any experience of Cyberpunk 2077 or not.

Speaker: And that to me is the sign of a really good adaptation that you can just pick it up and enjoy it.

Speaker: And that it's done its homework that way so that anybody can hop in like that.

Speaker: And I it's it's one of our denser reads and I have no problem with that.

Speaker: I have no issue with that.

Speaker: I feel like this is probably one of our longest episodes ever.

Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Speaker: It would have to be.

Speaker: We're going to try.

Speaker: I mean, we'll see.

Speaker: We'll see how parts two and three go.

Speaker: I might be able to skim down some of the summarizing depending on if it seems like it's...

Speaker: not repetitive, but information that we have already established or have a shorthand for.

Speaker: But yeah, it's a beefy boy.

Speaker: It sure is.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But yeah, I agree.

Speaker: I agree with everything you said.

Speaker: And we're getting started.

Speaker: Looking forward to parts two and three.

Speaker: Phil, with all that being said,

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: What are you playing?

Speaker: Oh, I, you know, I'd love to be able to make the comment where it's just, just Baldur's Gate 3, man.

Speaker: And it is mostly that.

Speaker: But we spoke not long ago about Vampire Survivors.

Speaker: And I got a wild hair up my ass.

Speaker: And I'm currently at 189 out of 190 achievements on that game.

Speaker: I am catching right the shit back up.

Speaker: That's amazing.

Speaker: I'm so pleased with myself.

Speaker: I've been like, just like, just it's, it's because it's a different feel.

Speaker: It's a lovely little interstitial game for anything really, but especially a big plot heavy game like Baldur's Gate three, which I am just wrapping up act two on and I'm 40 hours into.

Speaker: So yeah, that's, that one's going to be that that's, it's probably going to,

Speaker: Baldur's Gate 3 remains a wonderful game.

Speaker: I think what's fascinating about this, and I'm sure you'd agree, is that some of the discourse you see from people is they like using those terms like game changer and stuff like that.

Speaker: It's like, no, this is what classic role-playing game computer games.

Speaker: This is what CRPGs are.

Speaker: This is what they are.

Speaker: This is just like a modern one done.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Well, I mean, it just happens.

Speaker: Yeah, it's just done very, very well.

Speaker: Yeah, that's that's literally it.

Speaker: You know, you guys, if you if you if you're enjoying this, there are a wealth of of classic role playing games out there, like the first couple of Baldur's Gates, Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment.

Speaker: And there's so much out there.

Speaker: that has this same flavor.

Speaker: I mean, even the first two Fallout games are going to be similar, you know, big old CRPGs.

Speaker: I mean, if you're interested in this, also take a look at, I've, I never, well, I never really tried to get into it, but like, if you're interested in like an overwhelming big CRPG, I think Wasteland 3 is even longer than Baldur's Gate 3.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: It's huge.

Speaker: And it, so these things, they're out there and that's why the CRPG genre is so fantastic because it lasts, it really lasts, it,

Speaker: It's really versatile and it doesn't age badly.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Because it just is what it is.

Speaker: A lot of them are very much like a good cut of steak with a nice marbling on it.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: And it's like you really want to, the steak is great, but then you're also like, oh, I really want to just chew the fat.

Speaker: I want to chew on this gristle a little bit.

Speaker: There's still flavor in here.

Speaker: Just really tuck in.

Speaker: Just really tuck in and play it.

Speaker: And I think that's the thing about, there is a lot of discourse about the length of games.

Speaker: And I totally agree.

Speaker: I like myself a short game.

Speaker: I'm 100% there.

Speaker: But when you have a CRPG that is more like,

Speaker: a campaign that you'd play in a tabletop setting where it's like, okay, yeah, there is one overarching plot, but the individual quests are well thought out.

Speaker: It's not a collect-a-thon.

Speaker: It's not, you know, and this is kind of like the issues that I had with like God of War 3 or a lot of these more high profile, like Sony exclusive games.

Speaker: Absolutely.

Speaker: Where it's like the individual moments didn't feel as strong as the whole.

Speaker: And I feel like one of the things I love about Baldur's Gate 3 is that you have these individual quests and each of these individual quests could play out in a number of different ways that kind of ripple through the entire game.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I mean, I just...

Speaker: I'm in Act Three and I just stumbled.

Speaker: It's amazing.

Speaker: I saw a poster for something that referenced something I did in Act One.

Speaker: Not that I did, but that it was an issue I ran into in Act One.

Speaker: It was like, go to this survivor's group.

Speaker: Say, go to the survivor's group and the house is a wreck.

Speaker: And then you go to the next house that they moved to and like,

Speaker: You hear their story.

Speaker: And it was a fucking poster I randomly examined on the wall.

Speaker: Turned out to be its own seven hour quest.

Speaker: I love that.

Speaker: Yeah, that's great.

Speaker: And that's the thing.

Speaker: It's it's not there's a lot of content.

Speaker: Yes, there is a ton of content, but it isn't.

Speaker: you know, vapid open world bullshit.

Speaker: There's a lot to do and it's worth doing.

Speaker: And it's, it's, it's impressive.

Speaker: Uh, the level of, uh, of, uh, uh, just right.

Speaker: And you get out of this thing.

Speaker: And I think one of the other things that I'll say in favor of it is that there's a lot of games where you make decisions and there might be like a morality system, like your Mass Effects or your Star Wars, your Knights of the Old Republic, things like that.

Speaker: And it was actually like, there's like a slider and you're like, good, bad.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And that's more, it's a little bit more nuanced in Baldur's Gate 3 because it's more like on the character level.

Speaker: And each character has their own approval and disapproval of your actions individually.

Speaker: Some characters will be fine with what you do.

Speaker: Some characters won't be.

Speaker: Sometimes it'll be like, oh, this is a good thing.

Speaker: And a character who mostly sides with you on good things dislikes it for some other reason that is personal to them.

Speaker: So I think and where I am in Act 3, Act 3 is, it's weird because there's a bunch of people that are like, yeah, I didn't like Act 3 as much as Act 1 and 2.

Speaker: I love Act 3 so far because it throws, it has been throwing at me some of the most difficult decisions I've had to make in like a gaming playthrough of an RPG.

Speaker: Whereas in like Mass Effect,

Speaker: for example, and I know it seems like I'm dumping on Mass Effect.

Speaker: I enjoyed Mass Effect.

Speaker: It's just like some of the stuff was trite, you know?

Speaker: And Mass Effect is like, do you do the very good thing or do you do the bad thing?

Speaker: Are you a saint or a demon?

Speaker: Or a demon.

Speaker: And some of the decisions are like,

Speaker: Do you do this one morally gray thing or do you have to do this other morally gray thing?

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: And you don't know which one's better until you make the choice.

Speaker: But you haven't made a choice yet.

Speaker: You can't see the future.

Speaker: Make the choice, fucker.

Speaker: And that's Baldur's Gate 3.

Speaker: It's like...

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And you got to just live with the decision or you save scum.

Speaker: But I mean, the only the only person you have who has to live with it is you pretty much because that's I'm the only I'm the only person who feels bad that I kicked a squirrel so hard I reduced him to a find red mist.

Speaker: It had no consequence on my game.

Speaker: Gale did not like that.

Speaker: Well, I don't have Gale in my party at the time.

Speaker: I just, I just, I have no room for Gale.

Speaker: I need to get him into the party more often because I need more area of effect stuff, but God, he gets on my nerves.

Speaker: But yeah, no, I mean, this has just been it for me.

Speaker: Baldur's Gate 3.

Speaker: That's, that's.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: There's no way it doesn't end up in my game of the year.

Speaker: list at this point, if not at number one.

Speaker: Right.

Speaker: It's crazy.

Speaker: It's just the level is insane.

Speaker: Yeah, no, I totally agree with everything you're saying.

Speaker: And same for me.

Speaker: I mean, Baldur's Gate 3 is the only thing I've been playing, so.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's it.

Speaker: I mean, that was the thing.

Speaker: I was starting to feel weird.

Speaker: I was just like, God, are we really going to do a What Are You Playing after this long-ass episode?

Speaker: It's like, well, all we've done is play Baldur's Gate 3.

Speaker: All we've done is play Baldur's Gate 3, so that's... We don't need a beat on that drum too much.

Speaker: Yeah, not a huge update there.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So with that all being said, after this beast of an episode, thanks for listening, everybody.

Speaker: Oh, thanks for sticking around.

Speaker: If you want to follow us, go on the Blue Skies or the Threads or the...

Speaker: the the facebooks or the twitters or the the instagrams i don't know fucking whatever just search us up at pixelit pod uh or go to our website pixelitpod.com there you can get uh links to our discord um and be part of the conversation there uh otherwise uh we have a patreon we we do have a patreon phil why don't you tell us a little bit about what what that patreon is what is patreon

Speaker: Well, Patreon is this magical land where it's it's a Patreon dot com slash Pixel It Pod.

Speaker: It's it's fantastic because what you can do is you can come in and if you want to give us a little money and join one of our tiers and get some exclusive bonus content and that sort of thing, you're welcome to do that.

Speaker: We love it when you do that.

Speaker: It helps us a lot.

Speaker: But also, if you just want to get in there and be a part of the community, there's a free tier.

Speaker: And there's no reason you can't do that.

Speaker: And we love it.

Speaker: And we just we just wrapped up our first four episodes of The Legend of Zelda cartoon show, which we will be coming back to, I'm sure.

Speaker: And we started in on the best games of 1997.

Speaker: which is going to be a multi-part series.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: Y'all voted on the year, which was a super fun assignment, because 1997 especially was such a big year.

Speaker: Big year.

Speaker: So this has been a lot of fun to do, in addition to just it coming directly from y'all's feedback.

Speaker: And that's something that's exclusive to people at the $5 a month tier and higher.

Speaker: Uh, so get in there, join us or don't, you know, if you, if you don't, if you don't have any money, that that's fine.

Speaker: Neither do we, uh, you know, just come there along, you know, follow along, be a part of the community.

Speaker: Uh, check us out there.

Speaker: And, uh, and just, we, we just like knowing that people are there paying attention.

Speaker: It means a lot to us.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Um, yeah.

Speaker: And, uh, so until next time,

Speaker: Have a good night, city, everybody.

Speaker: I'll play Baldur's Gate 3.