Wisen Sigde frowned as he looked through the report again and again. He was Artoras’s Troubleshooter—one of them, at least. He was an old merc that got tired of the life and wanted something a bit more… legal? His body still held the scars and chrome from ages of fighting, though.

Sigde rubbed at his chin. The cool metal of his lower jaw felt calming against his skin. “Do we know what she stole?”

”N-no, sir.” A Netrunner weakly shook his head. “Manager Kim spotted the feather earlier when he came in to check the servers.”

Sigde frown deepened, and he looked at the source of Artoras’s alarm—the very reason he’d been called in so early in the morning. There, trapped under a large see-through vase to protect it from the elements, was a small black feather. It had a faint purple shimmer across its surface like it was dipped in oil.

Nightshade—the master thief. It was her calling card. Although her heists weren’t exactly common, who she hit made a name for herself. Not just anyone could get into a Raijin facility, kill dozens of employees, and get out without even a hint as to her identity. She had a certain level of infamy, especially after she was linked to several bloodbaths in Oldtown.

”Does the Crusade know?” Sigde’s eye glowed softly, and a rush of heat flowed up into the circuits scattered across his half-shaved head. He crouched down next to the encapsulated feather to get a better look. His chemical analyzer tried and failed to get a read on what the feather was made of.

”Yes, sir.” The runner rubbed his hands together nervously. “T-they’re sending the Special Crimes Unit.”

“Fuck.” Sigde’s metal jaw tensed and he pushed himself back to his feet. “The boss won’t be happy about the Crusade digging around here two days in a row.”

Especially the Special Crimes Unit. Blue Crusade Inc was already heavy handed in their approach—the SCU was even more so. They were tasked with hunting down exceptionally dangerous criminals by any means necessary.

”They found the assassin hanging from his ceiling fan.” The runner rubbed the crook of his elbow. “His chrome was burned out.”

“Well, that’s some good news, at least.” It sounded like Artoras moved a step ahead and took care of the killer. That was one less thing he had to worry about. The Squire snooping around the crime scene last night had already been stressful enough.

The Netrunner flinched and looked away. “Um… they’ll be here in ten minutes.”

“So they tagged her as a supervillain?” Sigde’s voice dripped with sarcasm. The Blue Crusade’s SCU was one of the most mocked organizations in the entire city.

”Her kill count is over five hundred alone.” The Netrunner’s throat bobbed, though he didn’t deny the Troubleshooter’s words. “That’s just confirmed kills.”

”Heh, that’s nothing.” Sigde shook his head and looked around. “Do we have her on any cams or sensors?”

”No… she was like a ghost. A guard’s chrome glitched out last night, and another group thought they heard growling. Nothing other than that.” The runner’s eyes dipped with depression. “S-she’s either the best runner I’ve ever seen to bypass all our security, or she has some magic bullshittery.”

Was their thief a Magus, then? It’d fit with the feather she left behind each time. Or maybe the feather was just to throw them off her trail even further, and she had no actual relation to bird eidolons.

A ghost, huh? Wouldn’t be the first time he hunted one of those down… he doubted Artoras would invest enough to hunt this Nightshade woman down, though. Not when the SCU was already on her, and Raijin likely wasn’t far behind. If neither of them could find her, it’d cost way too much for Artoras to join in.

And, in the field of mercs, today’s enemy may very well be tomorrow's ally if their interests aligned. Instead, they’d focus their efforts on the one who hired the thief to break in. It was always better to chop off the hand than the tool.

”We have a suspect list?” Off the top of his head, he could think of a dozen corporations who might be interested in some of Artoras Construction’s data.

The Netrunner shook his head. ”We don’t even know what she stole…”

“Useless,” he grumbled under his breath and backed out of the server room. She left no traces, so sticking around longer wasn’t going to reveal anything.

— — —

“So it’s done?” It’d been a day since the heist, and the team had scattered to the wind shortly after. It was just Luna and I still hanging around, though that had more to do with fixing up Vox than anything.

Speaking of, I could feel her through my Packheart Ring. She was still off in my workshop working away on the little fox. I couldn’t wait to get back to her. I had so many adjustments and upgrades I wanted to do.

”It’s done.” Feras passed me a packet of papers. “He was very appreciative of Nightshade’s quick work.”

“Me too. I thought she’d be out of town longer.” I grabbed the papers and shuffled through them. Alongside the actual physical copies of the deeds, there were a bunch of data chips with all the other stuff I’d need.

I now owned three buildings in Aythryn City. I was back to being poor, though. It totally wiped me of almost all my rayn to buy out just these three. I had a little over five thousand rayn in my account left after spending it all to acquire these assets.

The office building I bought out was largely abandoned, and didn’t have anything running out of it. Bit of a shame I wouldn’t be able to instantly start earning passive income, but it worked out. Dunno what I’d do with it since they’d be transferred under Kuro Amaterasu, my newest fake identity. Luna got it all set up and assured me it’d be full proof.

The warehouse—I’d have to go check it out. From what it looked like, Mickey might’ve been using it for private storage? Might be something good there, or maybe it’d be full of trash. I was kinda excited to go see? It was like a massive loot box just waiting to be pried open.

Then there was the apartment building that I wanted so desperately. It had fifty units spread across five floors. Only about twenty of the units were occupied from the reports I was given. It was right under the highway, so it wasn’t that popular of a place to live. Not to mention Mickey originally charged 2,500 per unit. Downright robbery.

That being said, location wise? It was actually a pretty nice area if there was some more infrastructure. It was on the south side of Sabyt, which actually wasn’t that far from the Corporate Quarter. Highway access could mean it was a great space for corpos if I just updated it and charged a whole lot more. The biggest issue was the lack of vendors in the area, but some people wouldn’t care about that.

I did some rough calculations in my head. If nothing else, I’d be earning 50,000 rayn a month off the inhabitants with the apartment in its current state. Not too bad—until I factored in everything else. With all the things I’d have to pay for, including the ‘runner’ that was active as a security guard, I’d probably only see ten thousand of that. The building was in disrepair too, so maybe even less with all the things I’d have to fix.

Was this a good idea? I held Artoras’s report on the building, and a frown wormed its way onto my lips. This seems like it’ll be more trouble than its worth to take care of. Maybe I can just kick everyone out, total the building, and make something better? The Jade Fang could easily take care of that.

“So?” Feras asked, drawing my attention away from the documents. “What do you think?”

”Thanks, Feras.” I shuffled the documents together and shoved them into my bag. I’d have to get Luna’s help to transfer everything as Cold Moon’s corporate assets shortly. “You did a great job.”

”I know.” He smirked and crossed his arms. “I was a bit worried, but this went off without a hitch. It’ll look great on my portfolio. This is my first big league job.”

“I’ll keep you in mind if I have something like this again.” He was a hell of a lot cheaper to go to than Athena would be. Although—if I actually needed a fighting force of mercs, she was still the best bet. From the way he talked, it seemed like Feras had the dregs of the merc world working for him.

“I’d appreciate it.” He stood up from the table and nodded to me. “Well, it was a pleasure as always. See you around?”

”Yeah… see you around.” I gathered my stuff up and left to head back to my workshop. I had so much I needed to think about.

The ride over was a long one. I took my time and enjoyed the cool air flowing through my hair while I thought about various things. The most pressing matter was the speakeasy itself. I’d finally achieved my goal, and now I felt a little lost once more. The feeling wasn’t as pressing as when I sold all my Roughriders, but it was still there nonetheless.

I shifted my direction and instead flowed out toward the outskirts. My bike zoomed over the sand, churning up clouds of dim yellow under the setting sun far to the west of Aythryn City. It accelerated to a speed I usually never went in the city, and I arrived on my outlook in no time.

I turned off my bike and laid down on it. Compared to my original tiny bike, there was more than enough room to make myself comfortable perched across the flyer. I crossed my hands under my head. Heh, maybe I should add a bed mode to this thing…

The city tossed and turned so far away from me. Still, my thoughts were inevitably linked to it. I had the deeds now, so I was officially an upper-class citizen now. The office building and warehouse would be great assets for me, but my mind inevitably strayed toward the speakeasy.

Is making it a public bar even something I really want to do in the first place? I wasn’t the most social person, and it seemed like operating a bar would need me to be social. Not to mention I’d be removing the veil of secrecy over the place. Anyone could just come in. If I didn’t hide the entrance down to the Underground well enough, anyone could likewise find my secret workshop too…

It was a nice place to just have as a secret meetup spot for the people I trusted. Did I really want to destroy that? I didn’t even drink in the first place. It seemed a little short-sighted now that I thought about it.

Hiring staff, too, would be something else. I didn’t really have anyone I could trust to work the bar, and I definitely didn’t want some stranger moving around the place. What if they betrayed me? What if they dug too deep and found stuff they weren’t supposed to? At least I wouldn’t be linking Shiro to mercs since it was owned by Kuro.

Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea… and yet I still kinda wanted to do it. If I had my own merc dive, I wouldn’t have to worry about finding mercenaries to help me out with stuff in the future. Not to mention I’d likely be able to get jobs from it if I kept my face hidden.

I just needed to establish it as a classy place, where the high-ups would feel comfortable coming to see things done similar to the Frost Peak Lounge. Not to that extent, ‘course. They were an internationally renowned lounge, where people from all over the world could find and hire people to take care of issues. I was thinking something a little more Aythryn local.

Before doing any of that, though, I’d need to separate Nightshade even further from Shiro. I was fine with letting Zuku ‘die’. I’d done a terrible job at separation and hiding my real identity with Zuku, anyway. I still had a chance to make Nightshade someone entirely different.

That started with putting together some actual equipment that’d make Nightshade stand out. Something daring and entirely different from my usual approach… I had some ideas, but I’d have to get back to the workshop to really start work on all of that.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. So much to think about… why not go ahead and add more to it? I turned my attention to something that’d popped up a little while ago. Okay, interface, I’m ready.

| Tech - 12>13 |

| Net - 4>5 |

| Leadership - 1 > 3 |

Tech went up! I bounced around on the seat of my Roughrider. It was about time. I was worried it’d take absolutely forever to level it even one more time. Then again, I’d been busy recently making stuff. Maybe it was inevitable?

Net went up alongside it. Probably thanks to Vox, if I had to guess. I did some coding here and there for stuff in my workshop, but working on Vox was the only thing that really tested me, and I wasn’t even the main coder. If Luna had the interface, what level would her Net be? 17? 18?

And Leadership… It felt like the eidolons were mocking me. It went up twice, and this was one of the worst times I’d ever had being in charge of something like this. I thought I was pretty good, but my eyes were fully open to just how lacking I really was. Right, I needed to work harder and get better to fully live up to my levels of Leadership.

|Tracking - 11

Tech - 13

Stealth - 13

Sleight of Hand - 10

Perception - 11

Net - 5

Melee Weapons - 10

Leadership - 3

Intimidation - 9

Influence - 1

Firearms - 11

First Aid - 9

Explosives - 7

Evasion - 9

Driving - 9

Deception - 10

Criminology - 9

Concealment - 9

Cleaning - 5

Brawling - 7

Art - 2

Accounting - 3|

Not too bad… Honestly, it was a far cry from where I started. Some of my Perks got more use than others, but there wasn’t one that was entirely useles… aside from maybe Corvid. I hadn’t seen my feathery friend in a while. Crow must be keeping him busy as one of the few Greater Sprites left.

Beyond the level ups, there was the request itself.

| Request - It’s time to speak easy - Complete

-Acquire the apartment building(1/1)

-Kill Mickey Mays(1/1)

-Acquire Mickey’s other properties(2%)

-Reduce the apartment building’s price(55%)

-Complete a scheme flawlessly(0/1) |

The request this time around felt particularly sour. I completed it, yes, just not in the way I thought it’d go at all. Killing Mickey, for one, was an objective I never thought I’d pull off. I did get the building, and for relatively cheap, but that one factor alone made the entire thing feel bad. Not to mention my scheme most definitely was not flawless.

|Reward: Panther’s Fang, KO Drugs, 75 EF|

Not too bad… The Eidolon Favor was kinda low, but it was whatever. I earned 300 for that time in the Scath Heights, and that had been a way more difficult challenge. 75 by comparison wasn’t too bad.

The drugs as a reward, though—they were totally mocking me, weren’t they? Also, I wasn’t sure if this was a trend, but since they started with this new request system they’d given me an item from the actual job both times. First it was the micro nuclear reactor, and now drugs? If I, say, broke into a hyper experimental BosSpace lab, would they give me something from there? Or it could just be a coincidence and not a trend… I’d have to wait and see.

And onto the last reward. A long katana slowly formed in my hands. It was almost pitch black, though with a hungry purple aura to it that made me feel deeply uncomfortable. Traces of purple flowed along the surface of the blade, giving it a sickly vibe. Power thrummed through it, though, like a beat just waiting to pounce.

| Panther’s Fang

Panther hungers for the blood of the fallen. Will you feed him?

Extraction

-Every kill has a small chance to grant you a target’s Perk, Trait, or Skill

-On success, cost 100 EF |

My breath froze in my throat. For several minutes, I read and reread the description. That… a 100 EF Trait alone was a massive discount. They were 5000 EF otherwise. 100 EF was nothing by comparison.

My hand tightened around the grip of the blade. Did I even want to…? This kind of thing—I could already see myself losing to the hunger for more growth. For more power. I’d felt it the last time I did something and didn’t get any level ups. Getting strong was addictive, so deeply addictive.

“Hah.” A dry laugh left me. I just made a vow to try and kill less, and it felt like the entire world was spitting on me.

I swallowed dryly and dropped the katana into the sand. It stabbed blade first and stood there thrumming with hunger. The light of the city so far away seemed to gleam and dance along its edge.

— - —

AN: Today’s my b-day. Was this close to skipping an upload today.