Author's note: Just a quick shoutout to thank devlincross, Captfred007, and Alorik for their gifts and ssj3gohan007 for consistently giving us the most power stones! Also we noticed that our views (somehow) exploded! We were literally only on 100k views two weeks ago and now we're at 455k! We can't thank you guys, our readers, enough!
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Having tested all his new abilities, Riley was ready to make sense of the information that he had acquired from the nightclub. One thing he was surprised to learn was how everything was seemingly interconnected; his first main quest as a Vigilante took place in the warehouse that the People's Brotherhood had used to store their contraband when The Thorn was raided.
Furthermore, his abilities seemed to transcend beyond just an "overarching power". It was as if his abilities were bending the seams of fate, intertwining all of his missions into events that had, or should have, happened. Every single Vigilante main quest and skill he received seemed to be building up towards a climax; taking down this gang. And if so, the information that he had gathered from the nightclub would definitely be useful. After this epiphany, Riley realized that he needed to use the information that he had gathered to understand the dark forces that his "Gift of the Roleplayer" had pitted him against ��� The People's Brotherhood.
RIley plugged his phone into his PC and started copying the files containing the documents from his device to his computer. While the pictures were being transferred, Riley browsed the web, trying to find more news regarding the nightclub. He had informed the police of the whereabouts of the secret room, and had hoped that they were able to utilise the documents as proof to incriminate the People's Brotherhood.
Riley once again plugged in "the thorn nightclub" into Google and selected "News". This time, there was a fresh article, released just the night before by the same news station, titled "Second raid on local nightclub proves successful".
"Last night, local police conducted a raid on local nightclub "The Thorn", resulting in the arrest of four individuals and the seizure of over a kilogram of pure cocaine, worth an estimated $200,000.
This is not the first time that the police have expressed interest in the operations of "The Thorn". A police raid had already been attempted earlier this week, which we also covered. The raid, which was ultimately a fruitless endeavor, received public backlash, and even a legal threat from nightclub owner George Lombardi.
At a press conference held by the police, Robert Parker, chief of the local police department, stated that they had received a tip from an anonymous source with concrete evidence of foul play. Acting swiftly, they were able to seize the contraband before they were destroyed. However, Chief Parker lamented that although there was enough evidence to convict the arrested parties, some of the evidence was destroyed before the police were able to reach the premises.
Our news reporters have reached out to George Lombardi for a statement, but he has yet to respond."
'Damn, so they were able to destroy some of the evidence before the police arrived. I should've taken them instead of leaving them there for the police to mess up. Luckily I took pictures of everything. Let's check them out.'
Minimizing his browser, Riley opened the file explorer and checked through the files that he had copied. He had originally tried to take pictures of almost every single piece of paper that was there, but he had had a better idea; to take a video of all the documents. That way, he would be able to scan through the mountain of documents quickly, rather than taking the time to photograph them one by one. With the video, he could simply play it frame by frame, or even take a screenshot whenever he wanted.
He launched his favorite media player, VLC. While scanning through the video, his mom texted him:
"Hey Riles, the doctor said I'm good to discharge tomorrow."
"Thats great! Wat time tmr?"
"10 A.M."
"Oh, I'll be at school. C u in the evening! Love u!"
"Love you too. See you tomorrow."
After replying to his mom, he spent the entire day scanning through all the documents, typing his findings in a separate word processor. Throughout the whole process, Riley managed to gain 3 points in Intelligence.
Finally, after going through the last few documents, Riley leaned back into his chair and sighed.
He realized that everything at play was on a much larger scale. Having analyzed the documents and categorizing them, he concluded that there were 3 types of documents. One of the types were ledgers that recorded their transactions: what they bought and sold, the customer or supplier, and the allocation of the purchased goods. The ledgers indicated that the organisation was much larger than he had originally thought; weekly transactions commonly reached 6-figure digits. In fact, some of the drugs and weapons being exchanged were so obscure that Riley could barely find any information about them even from Google.
The next type of document was what gave Riley the most context; a journal written by George Lombardi. From here, Riley could infer that George Lombardi was a meticulous, and detailed man. His handwriting was very neat, something he would not expect from a mafioso. Though many of the keywords here were cyphers and codewords, George Lombardi was diligent in recording any action he performed.
'No wonder the documents were hidden in a secret room and guarded by six men. Even the fact that it was stored in the nightclub and not Lombardi's home made a lot of sense. If a surprise raid were to happen, the chaos of the dance floor would severely impede the mobility of the police, giving the thugs plenty of time to destroy the evidence and escape. And that wasn't even including the fact that they had a mole planted within the police force.'
From what he could deduce, the people that had tried to mug him — the very same thugs that had broken into his home and attacked his mom — to the gangsters in the warehouse, diner, and nightclub, were all part of a larger crime syndicate called the "People's Brotherhood". This same organization held dominion over several districts, including the neighborhood he lived in. The rest of the city was split between the influences of six other criminal syndicates. Together with the People's Brotherhood, these six groups formed a large coalition, calling themselves "The Council".
'That is the most cliche thing I've ever heard in my life.'
The final type of document that Riley was lucky to have found was a folder of "meeting minutes": recordings of official meetings of the underbosses. While reading through these minutes, Riley found something extremely intriguing. In one of their formal meetings, George Lombardi discussed what he called the People's Brotherhood's "perk": their ability to rapidly expand their operations and recruitment.
Unlike other gangs where new recruits would undergo strenuous tests of loyalty and grit, the People's Brotherhood tackled it differently. Similar to multi-level marketing, anyone could join the People's Brotherhood. You started off as a thug, and were assigned to a crew. There, you could take specific roles: racketeering, drug pusher, drug mule, mugger, or recruiter. With each subsequent successful task, you slowly earned the trust of the organisation and climbed up the organisational hierarchy. Surprisingly, the organisation, including the Council-affiliated bodies, though mostly void of any italian influence, utilised the organisational structure of the Italian mob. The man he was after, George Lombardi, was the Head Underboss of the mafia, second only to the Boss and his advisor, the Consigliere.
Reading on, he noticed some discrepancies in the ledgers — in the recent months, the People's Brotherhood sold off a vast majority of their drugs while purchasing very little. Instead, they've started stockpiling guns and ammunition, without selling them. Though Riley's successful bust of the previous warehouse assisted in the police's confiscation of a lot of weapons, from what he could gather, the raid barely took out 10% of their total armaments.
From Lombardi's journal, he gathered that they were conducting weekly deals regularly with another council-member, the Arbitrares. These meetings involved a lot of weapons and millions of dollars, and sure enough, there was another meeting this week — tonight, in fact.
Riley knew for a fact that the police were unaware of this, seeing that most of the documents had been destroyed. From the journal and ledgers, Riley saw that the Brotherhood spent a huge sum of money bribing officials every month, keeping them under their payroll. Because of this, Riley knew that he had to take things into his own hands, utilizing the information that he had to disrupt their operations and take them down quickly and efficiently.
Riley concluded that with the amount of weapons being traded and hoarded by the People's Brotherhood, they would be able to wage war against a small nation. And no one hoarded this many guns just for laughs. He knew that he had to do something, and fast.
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Patch 20.0
- Regular biweekly update
Name: Riley Petesgeralt
Age: 16
Job: The Roleplayer
Class: Vigilante
Level: 13
HP: 250
MP: 220
EXP: 295/297
Strength: 27
Dexterity: 23
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 32 (+3)
Wisdom: 22
Charisma: 26
Luck: 20
Skills:
Roleplayer's Mind
Virtual Body
Analyze (Level 5)
Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4)
Physical Endurance (Level 3)
The Cinderella Effect (Level 1)
Dodge Step (Level 2)
Counter Flip (Level 1)
Leg Sweep (Level 2)
Power Punch (Level 2)
Extreme Agility (Level 2)
Sense Danger (Level 2)
Trash Talk (Level 1)
Power Swing (Level 4)
Quick Draw (Level 1)
Minimap (Level 1)
Incognito (Level 3)
Equipment:
Vigilante's Mask (Level 3/5)
Vigilante's Cloak (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Pants (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Gloves (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Shoes (Level 1/5)
Full set bonus unlocked: Shadow World