Outrun - Chapter 457 - Benny 3.0 (Patreon)

The next morning, I typed in the code to the speakeasy’s door and shuffled in. I got back to my apartment absolutely exhausted last night. After the party, I spent way too long prototyping my new Gravitite and the projected barrier I originally made the material for. If it wasn’t for a counseling session early this morning, I probably would’ve just crashed down in my workshop again.

”Hey, Benny.” I stretched out, and shuffled past my robot bartender. After I put him together, I hadn’t done anything with—

“Mornin’, boss.” Benny tipped his robotic head to me while running a rag across the polished surface of the bar. His voice was undeniably robotic, but he sounded like a delinquent punk. “You’re lookin’ mighty fly today.”

I froze, and just stared dumbly at the bot for a moment. “Uh… Benny?”

”Somethin’ on my face?” The robot put down the glass, and turned back toward the mirrored surface behind the bar. The servos in his hand whirled, and he reached up to touch his metal face.

“When, uh, when’d you learn to talk?” My hand dropped down to the coil-pistol I kept hidden at my hip. Hidden Hands and Hidden Weapons ensured even his advanced optics would struggle to pick up on my motions.

”This morning, boss. Miss Luna updated my precepts, and installed three SAI subroutine cores.” The bot turned back to me, and leaned forward over the bar. His original design had been bulky, and I only improved on that to make him look like a heavyweight boxer. Figured he’d make a good bouncer. “Somethin’ wrong?”

”Ah, no. Nice to officially meet you, I guess.” I pulled my hand away and relaxed a bit. So this wasn’t some crazy AI taking over my bartender. 

I could feel Luna down somewhere in my workshop. She probably got bored and came up here to rig Benny up. She’d been saying I needed to do something with the bot rather than just leaving the robot standing blankly behind the counter. Benny had been a spur of the moment decision to make after the Tornado job, though, and it was only recently that I even named him.

“Right, boss.” Benny went back to polishing the surface of the bar. “Couldn’t exactly speak back then.”

“Luna?” I called for my runner. She didn’t reply. Probably sleeping, if I had to guess. I pulled out my phone, and swapped over to one of my Dragonflies that I left permanently watching over the workshop. A moment later I found her passed out on her Netrunning chair.

“Oh, right! The shipment came in while you were gone.” Benny whipped the rag up onto his shoulder. “Permission to start stocking the shelves?”

”Shipment?” What the hell was going on? I was only gone for, like, twelve hours at most. “Uh, sure.”

”We got ten boxes of varied alcohols, a ton of food supplies, and high-dollar liquors.” Benny shuffled back to the kitchen. “I retrieved them from the apartment door an hour ago.”

“You left the basement?” What the hell had Luna programmed my bartender with? I followed after the robot and moved around him into the back kitchen. “Anyone see you?”

”Nah, boss.” One of my Blinder modules pushed up out of his shoulder. “There weren’t any humans around, and your tech’s good stuff.”

”She give you a suckup subroutine too?” I asked, though I couldn't help but feel a little pleased. Not about the compliment, but that my tech was working so well. It never worked this good.

”Miss Luna called it a Customer Service subroutine.” Benny held the door open for me, and only slid past me once I entered the kitchen.

I immediately spotted the shipment the bot was talking about. A dozen wooden crates sat around the kitchen. It was a little weird to actually see stuff back here, to be honest. Once I fixed this place up, I’d barely even used it. There weren’t even cooking utensils set up. I always figured I’d get around to that once I hired a chef.

“You got all of this without any issue?” I tapped on the robot’s arms, and got a full breakdown of his situation thanks to Technical Expertise. Everything looked to be in order. “No, wait, before that, where’d the shipment come from?”

“Here, boss.” Benny picked up a shipping manifest from one of the counters and handed it to me. “Saint sent his regards.”

I hesitantly took the shipping manifest from the robot bartender and looked it over. There was some surprisingly high-rayn items on the list. It was the kinda stuff that I thought about buying, but never really invested in since the speakeasy became more of an afterthought for me. “Saint?”

The Packheart Ring around my finger warmed, and I heard his voice a moment later. “What’s up, Shiro?”

”What’s with all the supplies you sent me?” I tossed the manifest to the side, and hopped up onto one of the counters.

”It finally arrived?” The man laughed lightly. “I’ll swing by sometime tonight to help get everything unpacked.”

”Benny’s got it handled.” I nodded to the bot, and the bartender started to shuffle around the crates and unpack the various items. “Why’d you send it, though?”

”Partially as an apology gift for the Battle Royale. Screwed you and Luna over a bit,” he said sheepishly. “And because every time I’ve come over there, it’s been totally barren. Who’s Benny? New hire?”

“My bartender.” I watched the robot work for a moment before sliding off the counter to help. I didn’t really need to, but it felt kind of weird having him do it all now that he could actually talk. Having a voice gave a totally different feeling to the robots compared to my industrial stuff down in the workshop. 

“Sweet! He know how to make a martini?” 

”I’m not sure?” I pushed a box full of frozen food into the freezer. Most of the food was frozen stuff, actually. Getting anything else would be a bit of a waste considering no one actually ate here. Maybe that’d start changing? “You know how to mix drinks, Benny?”

”Miss Luna gave me a full mixology guide. Anything that I don’t know, I can pull off the net.” His voice was oddly expressive. It was a bit off putting hearing it, and then seeing a totally blank sheet of metal for a face. I should update his body and give him a proper head. “Want a drink, boss?”

”Not for me. Saint’ll be dropping by in a bit.” I tossed a pack of frozen pasta onto the shelf. “Charge him double for everything.”

”Sure thing, boss.” The bot flashed me a thumbs up. 

“Feel free to drop by anytime, Saint,” I said across the Packheart Rings.

“I’ll have to take you up on that offer.” The man chuckled softly. “Speaking of, you have time to answer a few questions? As Nightshade. An exclusive interview with the DNBR champion would go a long way.”

“Uh, chek?” I wasn’t in much of a hurry. I picked up a box of food and carried it into the freezer. “Ask away.”

“What inspired you to commit to so many… eccentric plays?” Although he called his eccentric, I had the feeling the word he was looking for was ‘dumbass’.

“I dunno.” I hadn’t really thought about them at the time, but afterward I couldn’t help beat myself up slightly. “I guess I just approached it like playing a game?”

With Luna backing me up, there was almost no threat of actually being fried. At first I was super focused on winning, but at some point I kinda just let loose and messed around with new stuff? Probably not very smart of me, but it worked.

“Playing DNBR like a game, huh?” I could hear the gears in his head turning. “Interesting. When you guys forced the node to collapsed around you, what were you thinking?”

Saint asked several questions while Benny and I got everything packed away. The interview ended just as I finished stocking the bar. Actually having alcohol in the speakeasy made it feel all the more real, and enhanced the vibe of the entire place. It still felt like it was missing something, though customers would probably help that.

The shipment was almost enough to make me take back my petty order for Saint to pay double considering he bought everything… Then again, he did make life harder than it needed to be in the battle royale.

“Come with me, Benny.” I waved to the bot, and headed back to the lift down to my speakeasy. “What kind of look do you want?”

”Sorry, boss. I don’t have feelings or wants.” He clanked his fist against the side of his head. “Still just a robot, ya’ know?”

”Right.” Not like he was a full fledged AI. Luna may have programmed Benny to look and act sentient, but he was just a SAI at the end of the day. I tapped a button on the lift, and leaned back against the wall to think things through. 

Should I give him a more friendly face? Oh, a permanently burning cigar would be cool too. A Mohawk or something would fit the sound of his punk voice. Or maybe a mustache and fedora would fit the speakeasy better, wouldn’t they? Probably also give him some weapons. I originally gave him the bare minimum tech, but he would make for a good security guard with how bulky his body was.

The lift lurched to a stop halfway down the tunnel, and I pressed in a piece of stone on the seamless wall. It pushed in ever so slightly, and a number pad popped out just like the entrance to the speakeasy. Back when I redid the tunnel coming all the way down here, I’d taken extra care to hide the entrance of my workshop in case anyone ever got access to the shaft.

As far as anyone knew, this would just be a speakeasy with access down into the Underground. I didn’t have anything down there worth worrying about, anyway. Just my firing range, and the vault that barely had anything in it. The Aether just made for a much safer storage place.

We moved over to one of my foundries, and I cleared out its production queue. I was originally planning on finishing off the projected barrier, but getting Benny done seemed like a much more interesting project. 

— — —

“Hold still.” Several hours—and designs—later, I carefully held up my final attempt at making Benny’s faceplate. It was surprisingly difficult to get something that fit the bot. Anything too human slipped into the uncanny valley, and the stuff that was too inhuman went too far the other way.

I carefully synced up the wiring in Benny’s head, and pushed the faceplate into place. Halfway through redesigning my bartender, I swapped to a style of head with detachable faceplates instead of wasting a ton of time making full heads over and over again. It made it much easier to swap things up.

With everything looking good under Technical Expertise, I backed away from where my bartender sat on a stool. Even with him sitting down, he was big enough to reach my full height. “Try it now.”

The lights across the faceplate lit up, and his optics flickered to life. After a moment, they narrowed on me. “How’s it look, boss?”

”Good, good.” I reached forward, and adjusted the mustache. It was a beefy one made from the same material I used to make Vox’s fur. “How’s it feel?”

”All systems are operational.” He swiped a fedora off a nearby table, and smoothly slid it onto his bald head. It almost completed the look, but something was still missing.

Ah, right. The cigar. I reached across one of my tables, and flicked him a metal cigar. “Here.”

“Thanks, boss.” Benny caught it, and smoothly slid it into his metal mouth. The tip of it smoldered with dark red plasma. It took way more effort to get a working jaw put together than I wanted to admit. By comparison, the cigar had been a breeze considering it was mostly cosmetic. “Am I all done?”

”Think so.” I ran my hands across the robot and sent pulses of Technical Expertise throughout once more. Everything checked out. I’d already run his new body through Weakness Wrangler a dozen times to ensure everything was as strong as it could be. “Stand up?”

”Right, boss.” The robot popped off the chair—only to collapse back onto it. “Right, boss. Right, boss. Right, boss. Right, boss—“

I sighed, and sent a touch of electricity through his chassis with my Kinetic ability. The jolt of electricity hit a hidden kill switch, which shut Benny down entirely. The mechanical side of everything was working, which meant he was now a Luna problem once more. Saint would have to wait for his drink till she fixed him up.

I was happy with how he looked, though. I wasn’t totally sure what I was going for, but he looked like a robot mobster now. The only thing he lacked was a pair of suspenders and a Tommy gun. Instead, he had a brutal set of shock-guantlets that’d knock the socks off anyone that got in close to him. They, ‘course, looked like brass knuckles to fit the aesthetic.

I patted Benny’s shoulder, and shuffled back to the other side of my workshop. The bot offered a nice break, but it was really about time I finished up my Nightshade armor.