CTZ_FREEGAN_STEVEN

Steven looked around the seminar, eyeing the investors with disdain. Throwing around money like it meant nothing to them, while he, not a credit to his name, had to beg and steal to put together even the most rudimentary rig.

Laramy was there, schmoozing the risties, trying to hock his worthless computers. Steven waited until his back was turned and grabbed an armful of hardware, thinking to himself that even if it was, as he suspected, useless, he could use it as fodder for that resource-hungry icebreaker he'd been sent by the strange anonymous runner he came across while rooting around junk servers.

As Steve walked away, Laramy saw him, and shouted. 'Dude, what are you doing, that's my stuff!'.

'Property is theft, Fisk! You're supposed to be one of us, but sometimes I think you're more interested in helping corps than running against them. It's pathetic.' Laramy looked at his feet in shame. Steven smirked as he strode through the exit.

Back at his squat, Steven fired up his rig and jacked in. His new program took up all his MU, a problem that needed solving, but there weren't many solutions that he could afford. A few calls later, his friends - tired of his begging - threw him some creds and a couple of faulty MU chips. 'This'll have to do'.

That evening, throwing open the barroom door, Steven approached his dealer and handed him a memory stick. 'You can't have snagged anything I'd be interested in with that junk rig of yours', the dealer scoffed.

'Just look at it', Steven demanded.

Moments later, the dealer raised his eyebrows. 'This stuff is incredible, Steven, I'm sorry I doubted you. I don't know how you do it.'

Steven counted the money. 'Nine credits? Is that all this is worth, it wasn't easy to acquire.'

'Well it might not be easy, but it's not like you've even spent a single credit on that dumb rig of yours. Nine creds is a good profit for zero investment', the dealer argued.

'That's fair I guess, you know what they say about me..."He ain't working, that's the way he does it, money for nothing and rips for free"