Braindance

Chapter 21 21. Braindance

"Braindance, what's that?"

After dinner, on the way to check out the apartment, Karl was curious about the word Oliver and Jack kept mentioning.

"Is it like PokéXmon or something?"

"What are you talking about? What PokéXmon? Braindance is Braindance."

Oliver knew Karl didn't understand a lot of things, so he simply explained it to him. After Oliver's explanation, Karl roughly understood what Braindance was.

Simply put, it's a VR-like experience that transcribes the video recorder's personal experiences into a digital format. After special amplification, it's played directly into the viewer's nervous system, allowing them to experience everything the recorder experienced, whether it's pain or pleasure. All sensations are fully stimulated in the nerves, ensuring the recorder's and viewer's experiences are identical.

It's the most popular form of entertainment in this era, and Braindance Headsets are in every household, similar to the status of cell phones in Karl's old world.

"Sounds interesting, I want to try it."

That was Karl's attitude towards Braindance.

"Alright, let's find a store that sells 'Braindance Headsets' on the way and get you one to try."

Jack and Oliver were already used to Karl's sheltered-young-lady-like ignorance. Seeing that he was interested in this, they immediately changed direction and drove to the Braindance store.

A Braindance Headset wasn't expensive. A brand new, personal-use one only cost a thousand eddies, and it came with several of the latest popular Braindance chips on the market.

"Make My Heart Beat, Soul of Light, Sword Coast Gate... Why are they all game-related?"

Oliver wanted to help Karl pick out something good, but after searching through everything, he found that all the popular ones that came with it were game-related.

"I bet it's because the game ones can't sell, so they're giving them away. They might be popular, but in Night City, they're probably not as exciting as taking a stroll down the street."

Jack was looking at other Braindances on the shelves. "I think The Old Man and the Sea is pretty good."

"Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea?"

Karl's question made Jack a little excited. "You read Hemingway too?"

"Isn't that a classic?"

"Classic?"

Oliver scratched his head. He seemed to be the only one of the three who didn't know what The Old Man and the Sea was about. "What's it about?"

"Simply put, it's the story of an old man fishing."

Karl's summary was concise.

"Fishing? The sea around Night City is pretty polluted, I can't feel any connection to that."

Oliver originally wanted to see what the Braindance version of the classic that Karl and Jack both knew was like, but when he heard it was about fishing, he gave up.

"Actually, the theme isn't just fishing."

Karl took down the fifty-euro The Old Man and the Sea Braindance. He really wanted to see what a Braindance based on a classic was like.

Then...

"What are those?"

Karl pointed to the Braindances in the corner, on shelves with a color like black blood splattered on them.

"Those Braindances?"

Oliver looked at those things and explained, "Those are the ones that involve gore and pornography."

"How gory?"

"The ones sold openly in this kind of store probably aren't black market Braindances. The level is probably around a bullet piercing through someone's chest and abdomen?"

"Piercing through the chest and abdomen?"

Karl walked over and saw that one of the chips was titled My Years in Trauma Team. Looking at the description, it was a series, telling the story of the recorder's experiences on a Trauma Team mission, with keywords like emergency, gunfight, and gang members.

Interesting.

Looking at the price, these chips were a bit more expensive than the others, but only seventy euros, about the price of twenty meals for an average person in Watson District.

Karl currently had over forty thousand euros, so he could definitely afford Braindances at this price. He looked at it and simply bought the entire My Years in Trauma Team series, episodes one, two, and three. Buying the entire series at once only cost two hundred euros, saving him ten euros.

In addition to that, Karl also picked out A Mercenary's Combat Log, Path of the Boxing King, and Samurai's End. These weren't bundled, but they were cheaper than the previous series, totaling one hundred and eighty euros.

"Karl, are you buying that many at once?"

Watching Karl blink and spend one thousand four hundred and thirty euros in one go, including the Braindance Headset, Oliver felt that Karl was spending money really easily. In the past, he had to hesitate for a long time before buying a pornographic Braindance, but Karl was buying six exciting ones in one go.

"You guys said that Braindance can completely experience the recorder's senses, right? I want to verify something."

Besides being curious about the latest entertainment facilities in 2075, Karl mainly wanted to test whether the sensations in Braindance could be remembered by him. If so, then this pile of Braindances would be equivalent to one-on-one instruction. With this idea in mind, he bought Braindances covering medicine, firearms, boxing, and swordsmanship.

"Verify?"

Jack blinked, not quite understanding what Karl was talking about, but he didn't care. It was rare to make a fortune, so he also picked out a few Braindances he had been interested in before, and prepared to check out as well.

Karl bought some, Jack bought some, and Oliver also bought a few. Today was a rare good day for the Braindance store owner, with a surge in sales. But his joy didn't last long. The door of the Braindance store was kicked open, and three men wearing black balaclavas covering their faces rushed in with three Lexingtones, immediately raising their pistols and pointing them at the people in the store.

"Don't move, robbery!"

Wow, this is what Night City is all about.

Even though Karl was being pointed at with guns and was confident he could headshot all three people in front of him in an instant, it was still a bit risky. Besides, if they only intended to rob him, he wouldn't lose anything, so he raised his hands, signaling that he didn't plan to do anything.

Oliver and Jack exchanged glances, and also raised their hands in cooperation, seemingly not planning to get involved in this all-too-common robbery.

The robbery went quickly. The three robbers didn't seem intent on hurting anyone; their target was just money. So, with a tearful expression, the Braindance store owner obediently handed over all the money from the counter, about seven hundred eddies.

The owner was just glad he hadn't made a deal with Karl and the others yet, and that there wasn't much cash in the store, or he would have lost a lot today.

Besides the money, the robbers also grabbed a few game Braindances. They didn't take anything expensive like Braindance Headsets, because those had encodings and required professionals to remove them, something these thugs weren't capable of.

Perhaps worried about the NCPD arriving, the whole robbery process was very fast, taking no more than two minutes. After getting what they wanted, the robbers hurriedly smashed through the door and left, much to the store owner's distress.

"Those bastards, I have to call the NCPD and have them all thrown in jail."

After cursing, the owner sighed and was about to continue attending to Karl and his two companions when gunshots rang out from outside. From the sound, it was the all-too-familiar Lexington. The next second, the door that had just been closed was smashed open again, and a mangled corpse rolled in. Judging by the broken mask, it was one of the robbers from earlier.

"Looks like something happened."

Night City, huh?

Karl sighed, and he, Oliver, and Jack drew their guns with perfect understanding.