As he was contemplating what to do, a window appeared.
"Main Quest - QUEST NAME PLACEHOLDER: The People's Brotherhood is stockpiling weapons for something big. Hamper their plans by interrupting the next gun deal."
"Quest reward: 500 EXP,
'Huh, I didn't think
Along with the quest notification was a countdown timer that showed three hours.
'That's not a lot of time left, considering I don't know how far away the objective is. Better head out immediately.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After about two hours, the blip on the minimap neared. Riley noticed that he was headed towards the port.
'Plenty of warehouses around here, plus low travel time between incoming shipments to storage. Makes sense.'
Riley hit the stop button.
Bing bong.
The bus slowed to a stop. He thanked the driver and hopped off, then set off at a jog toward his objective.
'Man,
Upon reaching the harbor, Riley slowed his pace to a walk. Looking up, he realized that the moon was completely covered in clouds, and he realized that the only reason he could see clearly was thanks to [Night Vision]. In fact, he could barely tell the difference between day and night at this point. Putting his Mask's ability to good use, he surveyed the area.
'Hm. Nothing but rows and rows of warehouses. This should be a walk in the park then.'
Feeling confident, Riley made his way towards the warehouse marked by his minimap.
It was just like every other warehouse in the area — a large rectangular building about 1,500 square meters. There were two loading bays: one facing the docks and the other facing the opposite direction, and a door to the side. These were all the entrances as far as Riley could see. Making his way around the side, Riley checked the door.
'No light coming from underneath. Unless they're conducting the deal in total darkness, I'd wager that they aren't here yet.'
Double checking the timer confirmed his suspicions; there was 30 minutes left on the clock.
'Oh well. Nothing to do but wait.'
Riley stepped into the shadow of the neighboring warehouse and let [Shadow Blend] do its thing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After 20 minutes of waiting, a box truck pulled up to the loading bay that was facing the road. Only the driver's cabin was visible, but Riley could hear people climbing out of the container. Soon, the loading bay door rattled open and the warehouse lights flickered on.
Riley slowly made his way towards the open loading bay, carefully sticking to the wall of the neighboring warehouse so he could continue hiding in the shadows. [Shadow Blend] had deactivated the moment he moved, so Riley needed to be extra careful to avoid being spotted too quickly. While this was happening, he heard the loading bay being shut.
After a few minutes of shuffling, Riley reached the edge of the neighboring warehouse. Carefully, he snuck up to the truck. So far, he hadn't spotted any guards patrolling the outside of the objective. He peeked through the driver seat window and found what he was looking for. Trying not to make any noise, he opened the door, pulled the keys out of the ignition, and placed them into his inventory.
'Just in case any of them try to escape.'
Having neutralized the escape route, Riley decided he needed to gather more intel. He had no idea how many enemies he was about to face, and that was critical information. However, there was no way for him to gain that information — the warehouse did not have ground floor windows.
'Just listening through the door isn't going to be enough to gauge their numbers. It's important that I gain vision of the inside. And I think I know just how to do that.'
Riley began making his way back to the warehouse's side door. Once he had reached, he stood opposite of the door, in the shadows of the neighboring warehouse. Once he was ready, he tossed a rock that he had picked up on the way at the door. As soon as he had thrown it, he froze, letting [Shadow Blend] do its thing.
A few seconds later, the door opened just enough for a person to pass, letting a narrow slit of light shine through. A man stepped out, closing the door behind him. He looked around, obviously searching for the cause of the disturbance.
'Damn it! He didn't open the door wide enough. I couldn't see anything at all!'
A voice came from behind the door.
"You see anything?"
"Nope, it's clear", the man replied.
"Alright. Get back in here, the boss wants to get this over with."
"Nah, I'm gonna have a smoke. Keep an eye out just in case. Tell the boss he can go ahead with the deal."
"Gotcha."
The man stepped forward a few paces and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. Plucking one out, he put the cigarette in his mouth and lit it up. As the cigarette burned, he took a long drag. Pausing for a few seconds to let the nicotine do its job, he then let out a deep sigh, exhaling the smoke.
'Great. I haven't gained any new information and now there's a guard outside. Now what am I gonna do?'
At that moment, the door opened again and another man stepped out.
"I told the boss, they're going ahead with the deal now. Thought I'd might as well join you out here, since it's so quiet out."
The first man nodded as the second put a cigarette in his mouth.
"Ah shit. You got a light? Left mine at home."
Wordlessly, the first man brought out his lighter and tossed it to the second.
"Thanks."
While all of this was happening, Riley was considering his options.
'There's no two ways about it, I have to take these guys out. I can't risk being spotted and having them alerting the people in the warehouse. So the question is, can I do it without raising the alarm?'
After a few seconds of thought, Riley smiled to himself.
'What am I even worried about? I just need to use that skill and there'll be no problems.'
With his mind made up, Riley sprang into action. There were about ten meters of distance between him and his targets. Using
"
Immediately the grey sphere shimmered into existence. The radius of the ability was just barely enough to encapsulate the two guards. At this point, he had covered seven meters and the guards had just noticed him.
"Hey! Who the f-"
Using
'Phew, can't believe that worked. I was right,
Having taken care of the guards, Riley dragged their bodies some distance away just in case anyone else happened to come out. Afterwards, he waited a few minutes for his mana to fully replenish and for his skills to go off cooldown.
'Right, time to move in. And if my guess is right…'
Riley walked up to the side door and rested his ear on it to listen for any noises. After a few seconds of intent listening, he had heard nothing.
'Here goes nothing.'
He opened the door and jumped in and, just as he suspected, it was all clear.
'Thought so. Those two must've been the only guards on standby for this entrance.'
He was standing in a small office. It was fairly ordinary: desks, computers, and filing cabinets occupied a majority of the space. Looking around, he spotted a door to his left.
'That has to lead out to the main warehouse.'
Seeing no other exits, Riley casually strode over to the door to pull his favorite move: listening through doors. However, just as he reached the door, he heard footsteps rapidly approaching it.
'Shit!'
Acting quickly, Riley hugged the wall next to the door. Just as [Shadow Blend] activated, the door opened and a woman passed through. Riley noticed that she had a karambit knife strapped to each leg.
'Same as that tough lady from the other day. Are they the lieutenants that those guys from the nightclub were talking about? If so, I can't take her lightly. The other one actually managed to land a hit on me, although that was partly due to my carelessness.'
As the lieutenant walked away toward the exit, Riley carefully trailed after her, putting [Shadow Walk] to good use. Just as she was opening the exit door, Riley activated
"What the f-"
Without hesitation, the thug whipped her head backwards, hitting Riley directly in the nose. Feeling his grip loosen, she seized the opportunity and elbowed him in the stomach. The strike caused him to let go. Turning around, the thug leapt into the air at Riley, legs retracted and body spinning backwards. When her torso was about parallel to the ground, she extended both her legs and unleashed a devastating flying double kick on Riley. The blow hit Riley in the chest, causing him to stagger backwards. Using the momentum from the kick she completed her backflip and landed gracefully on both feet like an Olympic-class gymnast. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the combo had dropped his health to about half.
'Oh good job, Riley. I said I wouldn't underestimate her and yet I still did. Why the hell did I go for the grapple? I should've just hit her with my bat!'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Patch 21.0
- Regular biweekly update
Name: Riley Petesgeralt
Age: 16
Job: The Roleplayer
Class: Vigilante
Level: 14
HP: 250
MP: 220
EXP: 78/328
Strength: 27
Dexterity: 23
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 32
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