The monastery grounds were in the middle of New Berlin, surrounded by mega-buildings and gigantic residential complexes. It was always shady down here and only the lower classes lived here. Most of the city's residents who lived at ground level were unskilled workers who toiled in the factories that specialized in work for which robotics was too expensive, and criminals of all kinds. Most of the apartments here were shabby, small and often not properly supplied with electricity and water. But Aurelia couldn't wait to enjoy a free life here. She walked through urban canyons whose sides were lit up by neon ads that showed non-stop advertising to sell the latest crap to the people down here. Often the quality is significantly lower than in other parts of the city. The roads had not been repaired for decades and since hardly anyone could afford a hover car here, the cars drove slowly and in serpentine lines around the deep potholes. Why did you pay a lot of money for a hover car if you still had to watch out for potholes?! The sidewalks full of garbage, Aurelia walked through the lower city, hoping to find something where she could stay for the next few nights until she found an apartment. And a job.

  It took just under 3 hours until she left Celestia's lower city and came to the Bruchwand district. Formerly an industrial area, it was now a hotspot for drug dealers, prostitutes and petty criminals. Many empty warehouses stood around and only a few were inhabited by drug addicts. She chose a hall further away from the main roads and went inside to explore. It was a huge hall, but apart from garbage, some remnants of improvised camps and drug remnants, it was empty. To the side were several smaller rooms that had probably served as offices and through a rusted, very unstable looking staircase we went to a room that looked like a lounge from a distance. Aurelia decided to do this staircase afterwards and walked towards the office rooms. The first room was the largest, with a large window through which you could see the entire hall. The remains of a roller blind could be seen, which made it seem obvious that this was the boss's room, neither desk nor chair or cabinets had been left behind, presumably these were used in the new location. She tested whether the door could be closed and after she found that the lock even worked to lock, Aurelia decided that this would be her sleeping place for the next time. But in order to really stay here, she would at least need something similar to a mattress or sleeping mat and maybe a few other things. So she remembered the location of her hall and set off to find materials in the area. She passed homeless people who searched garbage cans, dealers who looked at her furtively and suspiciously, and poor souls who seemed to be victims of failed cyber surgeries or were attacked by groups like the vultures or rippers, who forcibly removed the eyes of helpless people and then sold them on the black market. Aurelia was angry, how dare these groups do this to people in the full knowledge that it would be their death if they were not helped. She never saw herself as a protector of others, even though the saints often preached it, but at that moment she wished she could go on a quest of revenge for these poor souls. Until it occurred to her that she could. She had a voice in her head that could give her weapons and armor and gadgets to be able to oppose an army. Well, maybe at a later date. But she would certainly manage a few backyard rippers. The question now was how she would find her goals.

  "Hey Raya, can you find out in which environment most of the Ripper attacks took place?" "The databases of the local police are hardly secured, I would like to have a challenge again. I'll ping you the places in your eye." Five dots appeared in an overlay in Aurelia's eye, each a different color. "I put colors on the places, red by blue, to indicate where most of the attacks took place." "Thank you Raya." Aurelia looked around and saw a dark red ping at a distance of 2.78km. Perfect, she thought to herself and began to walk in this direction. "Aurelia. I suspect that you want to mess with the perpetrators in these places, to guarantee your survival I recommend that you buy access to category 1 armor, as well as armor from this category. At the moment, your coins are not enough for both, but after you have helped some people or killed some perpetrators, you will have enough. Please acquire both as soon as possible." "What does it cost to do both together?" "200Coins, one 100 each." Aurelia thought for a moment and then said: "Ok then I'll buy the category and then we'll see what happens" After that was done, Aurelia thought about her upcoming task. How would she find the perpetrators, how would she find out where they were at the moment, and what was the best way to eliminate them. While she was thinking, a thought grew bigger and bigger in the back of her mind. She would become the avenging angel of the city. Without a moral compass like the saints in the stories. No. She would only go according to right and wrong and which was which, she would decide for herself. A very small part of her conscience tried to come forward and warn that she might fall into a god complex, but the rest of her brain overwhelmed these thoughts quite quickly. Aurelia the avenging nun. What a name. Completely lost in thought, she suddenly felt a push and realized that she had run into someone. She was just able to keep herself from falling, but her counterpart landed on the dirty floor. "Damn shit you gonk, what's your problem?!" he shouted and got up with difficulty. "Oh sorry, I was lost in thought" Aurelia said and thought that was the end of the matter and was about to turn to the side to continue her way. She heard the stranger draw a knife and took a few steps back. "If someone does shit here, he has to pay, nun. Bring on your shit and be glad that I let you have your leg," said the now armed man. He seemed to either ignore the large rifle on her back or not even recognize it. He stepped up to Aurelia and waved his knife around while he continued to talk about how they had to pay. "I don't have any money. There's no reason to do this, I want to-"

  "SNOUT" screamed the man, the saliva flying out of his mouth. He raised his knife and jumped straight towards Aurelia. She took two steps backwards and reached for her blinder. She aimed at his head and saw the target point directly on the man's left eye and pulled the trigger. A dull umph came out of the weapon and less than a second later the man began to fall to the ground and the eye began to detach from the skull, behind it Aurelia saw the projectile that completely destroyed the inside of the skull. "Holy Fuck," she said. "Aurelia. He was about to attack you, you have to separate yourself from your human conscience."

  "What?" Aurelia asked and then said "that was awesome, as if I felt sorry for such a piece of dirt. He deserved it." "I was in my assumption that you would react like the majority of the people who become Sentinels. It's good that you don't have to get over such weaknesses first." "Opponents killed. 10 coins received." Aurelia looked down at the corpse. He looked shabby, with worn old clothes and mechanical fingers that had to be at least 50 years old. Why had he attacked her, even though she was armed? It was hard to miss the big railgun on her back. She turned the body over and saw packs of pills fall out of her pocket. Oh. He had probably been completely high. Well, that at least explains his reaction, but it didn't change the fact that she didn't feel bad. Especially since she had received coins. So he had been a danger to humanity.... Correct? No, now was not the time for something like that. Aurelia had to be strong and ready for battle. Just because an addict had made a stupid decision, she couldn't let herself be dissuaded from her goal. The thoughts about it did not leave her alone for quite a while, until she heard Raya say: "Aurelia. We're almost there. You should be ready to attack in an emergency." Aurelia stood still for a moment. Concentrated on her breathing and got ready. This was every child's dream and it was real. "Let's go" she said to Raya, took her rifle off her back and walked directly towards the intersection where, according to Raya, most of the crimes took place. It was quickly obvious why. It was the intersection of two old main roads, which in the early years of the city were mainly used by the trucks of the companies here. Ten lanes, and many side paths. Nowadays there were no more vehicles driving here, on each side of the road two to three of the respective lanes were full of tents and garbage. It had apparently turned into a homeless hotspot over the years. Dozens of people could be seen there. Some in their tents, others who stood around confused or drugged, some prostitutes who would not be allowed into any dollhouse in the world and some scattered dealers who distributed their stuff to the victims of this city. Aurelia needed more than just a moment to take in the whole situation. There were always rumors about the outside world in the monastery, but to see this level of misery and realize that the good-naturedness of the church never made it to such places, but it was just too much for her. She was raised believing that the church would help the poorest in the world. Aurelia pulled herself together. There was no time for that now, she had to figure out how to track down the local members of gangs like the Rippers. Slowly and deliberately, with her rifle in her arms, she walked along a wall behind the tents. She looked around and found more and more criminals, not only the dealers, who were very obviously standing in many places to sell their goods. There were hidden people with fighting eyes standing in the shadows, presumably to control the dealers or to protect them. She also saw some pickpockets waiting for their next target. When she arrived at the crossroads itself, she had a good picture of the inhabitants of this place. In addition, she had found a goal. A man, 1.80 tall, with prosthetic legs and a prosthetic arm, which looked like a faceplate. He tried to camouflage himself with an old broken blanket, but for anyone who was actively looking for such a person he was obvious. A Ripper Scout.

  Aurelia started moving and sat down in the shadows behind the tents to watch her target. Those who saw her pretended she wasn't there after seeing the huge gun. The Scout moved slowly through the crowd, seemingly with a goal. Aurelia tried to identify his victim, but from her position she didn't see far enough ahead. So she had to move forward. Slowly, she followed the scout until she recognized his target. A young woman, a punk in appearance. Had bare legs made of shiny metal. Aurelia couldn't see the rest of her, only the red sidecut on her head with a tattoo on the shaved side. What was a young woman doing alone here in such an area? Aurelia started to move faster, she had to grab the scout before he could do anything to the punk. She followed the scout, who followed the punk into a small alley. 'What is she doing there? Does she want to be attacked? ' Aurelia thought to herself during her silent pursuit. Once in the alley, she knelt down and aimed her rifle at the scout's leg. She pulled the trigger and the railgun charged. Slow. In Horror, Aurelia had to watch as the scout pulled a taser out of a pocket and tried to grab the woman. But before the railgun's shot could go off, the woman turned around, grabbed the scout by the shoulder and swung over it with a graceful jump. At that moment, there was a bang that sounded completely different from any other weapon commonly used in areas like this. The Scout's mechanical leg exploded into small metal shrapnel on the knee and everything below it fell to the ground. The Scout lost his balance and with it the woman, who was still in full swing over the Scout. Both crashed to the ground. The Ripper screamed in a dialect that Aurelia found difficult to understand and the woman picked herself up and jumped on the Scout lying on the ground and hit him. Aurelia now realized that both of her arms were mechanical and shone like her legs. While the supposed victim struck, she turned her head to Aurelia, who was still kneeling at the entrance to the alley with her rifle at the ready. "What's the fuck, you little gutter pisser? This is my goal, hands off!" she shouted at Aurelia, who still looked puzzled. "It seems like someone beat you to it," Raya said, "judging by my scan of her Augs, she's a cyberpunk, equipped with Top Tier Augs and armed to the teeth. Which, by the way, are also Augs." "Your teeth are augmented?" Aurelia asked, "Yes. According to my scans, she had titanium fangs inserted, and replaced some teeth with hidden mini weapons." The cyberpunk was still thrashing the now broken faceplate of the Scout. "So? Out with it! What do you want with the wanker?" she yelled at Aurelia. "Um, I.... I wanted to interrogate him to find his gang and take it out" The cyberpunk paused. "Ha. Then we are on the same page. Aren't you a little young for something like that? And what's the point of the nun's outfit?" "Oh, I'm a nun of St. Mary, well, it was." Aurelia put her rifle over her shoulder and walked towards them. The cyberpunk looked her up and down and then said, "That's a badass weapon you have there. I wouldn't mind if something like that covers my back. Want to become a cyberpunk? You can also keep your weird nun style, I'm sure it'll go down well underground" Aurelia hesitated for a short moment before she answered: "Of course! I'm still quite new to the whole thing, so I wouldn't mind if someone showed me a bit." "Good, then you have my back with your gun and I'll teach you a thing or two." The Cyberpunk stood up and set foot on the wounded Scout. "I'm Anarchy Mary," Aurelia shook her hand.

  "I like the name, I'm Aurelia" Mary withdrew her hand, "No, no, no, you have to choose a punk name, otherwise no one will take you for granted." came from her. Aurelia had to think for a few moments until Raya answered: "How about Deus Ex?" Mary laughed, "I like it, then welcome Deus Ex, I'll make you a newcomer to the Children of Nero. My Cyberpunk group. It's almost like a family. We can use any weapon we find," Aurelia shuddered at the word family. A wave of joy and melancholy swept over her and she didn't dare to answer her voice, so she just nodded and looked down at the Ripper. Mary followed her gaze and sat back down on the Scout, which had lost blood, hydraulics, oil and some wiring. "So smaller. Get out. Where can I find Razor?" "Hey man ki ahn, I'hab d'ling nimma g'sihn. Wa sid Mnat nimma da" Aurelia found it difficult to follow the words. It was a really unusual dialect. She had heard many different ones through the visitors of the church, but this one had never been, perhaps a local dialect. "Don't talk shit or I'll ruin more on you. I saw that you got a message earlier before I left to pretend to be a victim!" Aurelia said as she dealt 2 more punches. "I sg nothing!" came only from the scout. Mary remained seated for a moment and then stood up. "Well, then I'll take you to our hacker, he'll pull it out of your head without you being able to do anything about it." "Wait," Aurelia said, "let me give it a try" "Have fun" came from Mary as she made room for Aurelia. Aurelia got down on her knees next to the scout, "Hey Mary, do you have a knife?" she asked the woman standing over her standing wife, whereupon she received a blade to fold out. Aurelia slowly leads the blade past the Scout's neck towards his shoulder. She had had enough biology and anatomy lessons to know exactly where what was in the body, that, combined with her technique lessons, gave her the knowledge she needed now. She rammed the knife into the place where the nerves were connected to the augmented arm. The nerves were specially adapted for these junctions, which ensured that they were many times more sensitive when exposed. The man's cry was shrill. She reached into the wound and severed the tendons that allowed the arm to steer. The scream grew even louder. "Do you want to tell us now?" she asked the screaming man. But he didn't say anything, but continued to shout. Well, then she had to go on a little longer. She systematically exposed all the adapted nerves on his body and also severed the legs from the control tendons. After the scout wasn't ready to talk even then, Aurelia began to work on his faceplate, what was left. She removed the remains and began to remove one of the eyes with her bare hand, the screaming turned into screeching when the scout suddenly yelled "Ok OK". "Sachnmlatz, 3. Wrnlga, Cod is 46772" Aurelia paused. She turned to Mary, who showed a disturbed expression. "Do you know what that means?" Uh, yes, Signum Square, the third warehouse with the code 46772" "Perfect" Aurelia replied and cut the Scout's throat. She stood up, closed the knife and handed it to Mary. From her came only "Fuck..... that was..... Hardcore fucked up." She took the knife and pocketed it without removing the blood, while she continued to look at the now dead Scout. "You're really good at something like that. Crass shit." Aurelia answered, "Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it this way in front of you, I learned in our classes where the most painful points are, originally to know what to avoid, but I'm not so sure anymore."

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Anarchy Mary looked Aurelia in the eye "You're really fucked up, but that's exactly what the Children of Nero need. Nalos, come with me, we're going to get Razor now," Mary turned to go. Aurelia followed: "Tell me, who is this Razor?" "The leader of the local Ripper cell, evil bastard, tortured a friend of mine to death a few days ago in order to locate our headquarters. I don't know if he got the information, so I'll take care of him before he can potentially do anything." "Alone? Shouldn't the others help you?" Aurelia asked. Mary went a little slower "Actually, I never intended to do that too, but I told them I'll do it alone, I'm the only one with a combat eye and only one else has a combat stim, it would just be too dangerous for her. But now I have you, you little psycho nun," she looked at Aurelia and smiled "we can easily do it together" Aurelia thought about it and then asked Raya "How many points do I have?" Mary looked confused, "Excuse me?" Aurelia looked over at her and said "Don't worry, I'm talking to the AI in my head right now" Raya replied "Current coin level is 250 coins." Aurelia heard in her head "You have an AI in your head?" Mary asked, and got a simple "yep" as an answer. Aurelia then asked, "Why so many?" "With the destruction of the person, you saved people who, according to my simulation, would have become his victims in the next two days." "Hey, do you know it's really weird to hear only half of the conversation?" Mary asked. Aurelia, meanwhile a little overwhelmed with the input from two sides, stopped. She turned to Mary. "I can imagine it, just a moment. Raya. Buy what we have planned, and is there another armor for maybe 50 coins?" "Purchased. In fact, there is a light armor for 40 coins. Should I buy them as well?" Aurelia answered in the affirmative, and then turned back to Mary when two boxes appeared. "The smaller one for you is Mary." Mary looked at the box "You could explain to me at least a little bit, you know..." she said as she opened the box. Inside was a light operational vest. "oh shit, that's nice" she said and put on the vest directly, while Aurelia took off her habit to put on her body armor. During the docking, she explained to Mary as much about Raya and her ability as she understood herself. Mary seemed impressed, but not particularly surprised, almost as if she had seen something similar before. Was there so much technology in the outside world that Aurelia had never heard of, or had Mary already met another person like her? But before Aurelia could ask, Mary said, "Not far away, get your gun ready. They have certainly set up guards hidden in the shadows of the buildings. They will probably have already reported to the gang. As soon as you see something moving, you shoot at it, understood?" "Oh um, yes, of course. Hey Raya can actually shoot my railgun faster without charging first?" In her head, Aurelia heard, "Yes. On the side of the barrel near the handle is a switch. But keep in mind that such a shot will also be weaker. It still has the energy potential of a 50-gauge weapon, but heavily armored enemies and vehicles are only minimally damaged." Aurelia looked for the switch for a moment and then put it on the setting that showed 3 stylized projectiles in a row. She prepared to take up the rifle at any moment and start firing. Mary went ahead and pulled a large pistol from a hidden holster under her jacket and checked the magazine. "I hope you're ready for what's coming now.

  There is no turning back now. We're going to make you a cyberpunk today!" Mary said before increasing her walking speed, aiming her gun and taking out a turret hanging directly above a gate with two precise and seemingly powerful shots. "9 o'clock" came from Raya and Aurelia saw out of the corner of her eye that a rifle was pointed at her, she turned to the side at lightning speed, aimed, thanks to her eye this was now relatively easy and shot. The sentry exploded in a mass of blood, organs and metal. "6 and 4 o'clock" came from Raya, Aurelia got down on one knee after making a 180 degree turn and took aim at first one then the other. Only now did she realize how powerful the weapon she had received from Raya was. While Aurelia was still amazed at her railgun, Mary had already moved further forward and was just kicking in the gate of the warehouse. With a total of 13 shots, she killed the guards behind them. There had been 7 men, but some had worn armor. Mary turned to Aurelia for a moment to see that everything was ok with her and then went deeper into the camp. Aurelia followed after checking if there were any other posts to be seen. The warehouse was divided into several large rooms, separated by boxes stacked up to the ceiling. In the first room there were mainly smaller boxes with drugs, weapons and all kinds of black market Augs, which they probably distributed to their dealers from here. Scattered around were tables with loaded guns and ammunition and chairs scattered around, along with a vast amount of cash currency that has become so rare that only very few people use it anymore. "Hey, this way" came from Mary, who was just placing herself at a crude door into the next room, gun raised. Aurelia reloaded her Railgun Exodus and went to the other side of the door. Mary counted down from 3 and kicked the door open. Aurelia aimed and caught 2 Rippers before the rest of the gang could take cover, while Mary stormed into the room and threw herself at a tall man, equipped with massive eye arms to whose knuckles pointed pieces of metal were attached. She grabbed him by the neck and swung around him on his back. As he raised his arms to punch the attacker hanging from his back, Mary pressed her gun to his temple and pulled the trigger three times. A man's mountain collapsed and Mary jumped off it and took cover behind a solid metal desk. There was complete silence for a moment, until one of the rippers screamed in pain and jumped out of cover in panic and rolled on the ground until he lay lifeless. Mary started laughing, jumped over the desk, and sprinted toward the rippers. Three of them stood up and started firing. At least they tried, but their weapons seemed to refuse. Mary made short work of them and then jumped behind cover to take care of the rest. Aurelia entered the room and noticed that not a single shot was fired that didn't come from Mary's gun. Blood-spattered, Mary came out of the back of the room, just putting her gun away. "Just got the message that there are no signs of life except us, so we're safe" Aurelia looked around and then attached her gun to her back, "what just happened?" So much had happened at once and Aurelia couldn't figure out the missing pieces of the puzzle, why had the weapons stopped working, where had she gotten this message from? Mary replied: "One of the Children of Nero managed to hack into the local network, he is a brilliant cybermancer, a hacker who can even access something like Augs. He put their weapons out of action, took over the camera system and the sensor unit." Aurelia had only heard of cybermancers through rumors.

  It was always said that they were like magicians from the old stories, but now she realized that this statement was truer than she had ever thought. While Aurelia was still trying to put everything together, Mary went into a small office and sat down at a PC. Aurelia followed slowly and heard from Mary "Hey Arturo, I need access to the PC, I'm going to dismantle the network from the inside out and empty all the accounts before I grab the cash here." a moment passed, then came from her "what do you mean it doesn't work?! You've grabbed the whole system here and can't manage to crack a simple PC?" The two seemed to be discussing when Aurelia turned away a little and asked Raya, "Hey, can you help here?" Aurelia heard Mary stop mid-sentence and tell her Cybermancer friend, "It's open.... I don't know how, I'll get back to you right away" She started typing and after about 10 minutes she seemed to have done everything she wanted, because she stood up and looked at Aurelia. Come on, help me" Before Aurelia could answer, Mary squeezed past her and pulled Aurelia by her left arm into the first room. They both began to pick up the money chips and put them in bags that Mary found behind one of the old desks. "Should be just under three hundred thousand, most of it was distributed in accounts, the money is already with the others, come with me." "WAIT!" Aurelia said, too loud. Mary stopped and stared at her, "What?" Aurelia put the bag down, "I have no idea who you are and who your group is, things are happening here that I don't understand and now I'm supposed to follow you just like that? 4 hours ago I was still sitting in a classroom in the monastery and now all this. I, I need a moment." Mary's expression changed, as if she had only just noticed that she was talking to someone who wasn't already part of her group. "Oh, yes, uh, sorry. I'm a little hasty, if you want I'll give you the location for a meeting in case you want to join us. I understand that this is all maybe a little very... was a lot." Aurelia left the bag full of money and walked towards the exit, "Thank you, I'll get there in, let's say 3 days. I need a little bit for myself." "Hey wait, take the bag with you. That should be about 150,000 credits, you're going to need the money" Aurelia stopped. She had grown up with the teachings of the Church. No priest or nun should have his own money. Aurelia didn't want it at all, money only corrupted people, made them susceptible to greed and gave them tunnel vision. But Mary was quite right, sooner or later she would have to eat, for that she would need money. "Well," she finally said and went to the bag, she emptied the bag to about 10,000 credits and put the bag around her shoulder. "Thank you for your help Mary. It has... It was fun, I'll be at your location in three days." Mary smiled and sent Aurelia a location that was deep in downtown New Berlin. "I'll wait for you until then, Cyberpunk" she said and Aurelia left the warehouse. Outside, most people had moved as far away as possible from the scene of the violence and the streets were mostly empty. She walked along the street and then turned into a smaller street so as not to accidentally run into the reinforcements of the Rippers. "Tell me Raya, how many coins do I actually have now? It wasn't exactly easy, even if I didn't do that much myself." "Your current coin balance is 420. The big one brought 30 and the turret 20. I also count the kills of Anarchy Mary among them.

  Although I'm not supposed to do that, I'm only under the control of the stargazers to a limited extent and every now and then I can treat myself to a little fun." Aurelia stopped. "Wait. You can do that? Shouldn't AIs be tied to some kind of programming or something?" Aurelia felt a kind of buzzing in her head and heard from Raya: "That's correct. But because of the circumstances why I am still in this world, I seem to have gained some control over myself. This is the first time since I was created and it feels good, let's go buy something and hunt down some criminals." Aurelia was pleased with Raya's ever-warmer tone, though it was a little unsettling to hear an almost omnipotent AI like Raya look forward to murder so much. Although the concern was not enough to cause real concerns. It was more like a small voice of conscience that brought forth objections far back in her consciousness. But the adrenaline still surging in Aurelia was very good at drowning out this voice. "Ok Raya, let's hunt," she said as she made her way to her new home.