Chapter 23 - Vigilante: Gun Deal 2

Author's note: Hi guys! As thanks for the exponential growth we've been experiencing this past week, please enjoy this extra-long chapter!

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While he was thinking this, the thug had whipped out her blades and was now charging at him. Riley narrowed his eyes. Using , he materialized his bat. Eyes widening with shock, the thug stopped her charge.

"What kind of black magic bullshit is this? Where did that bat come from?"

Riley smirked and said: "Trade secret. Why? Not so cocky now that I actually have a weapon?"

A window popped up.

" failed to trigger."

"Bold words coming from someone who failed their little sneak attack."

Riley felt his anger rise a little before quickly subsiding.

'Must be the work of [Roleplayer's Mind]. It would probably be a good idea to not engage her in trash talk. She seems to be a cut above the other gangsters I've fought so far — lieutenants included. Plus I need to hurry; isn't going to last forever.'

With haste in mind, Riley advanced forward at a cautious pace. The gangster, unphased, held her ground, arms held low in a defensive stance. Upon reaching striking distance, Riley used with all his might. Just before he swung, he could see the expression on her face change; from a complete poker face to a huge smirk plastered all over her mouth. With one swift movement, she leapt backwards, in an attempt to dodge the attack.

If it had been a regular person attacking, the bat would have swung wide and hit nothing but air. However, Riley was most definitely not a normal person — far from it, in fact. Of course he had anticipated that she would try to dodge or parry the attack; it would take a madman to stand still and tank a hit from a baseball bat. So, as soon as he had noticed the change in her facial expression, he activated . This, coupled with the speed boosts from and , placed his exit velocity at around 90 meters per second — more than double of what the top major league baseball players could ever accomplish with a lifetime of training.

While jumping back, the thug had straightened and lowered her arms in an attempt to avoid getting clipped by the bat. This meant that, by her defensive instincts, she was saved from being hit in the ribs. Instead, the bat slammed into the thug's upper arm at breakneck speeds. Upon making contact, Riley heard the sickening crack of fractured bone.

"fffUUCKKK!"

The thug, unable to maintain her grip, dropped the knife that her left arm had been holding, which had now gone limp. She grit her teeth and glared at Riley.

"I'm done playing games. I don't know who you are but this ends now."

Having said that, she lunged forward with surprising speed, knife aimed directly at Riley's neck. At such a close range, trying to use the bat would be much too difficult and awkward. As such, Riley elected to dodge backwards. However, the lieutenant didn't let up, continuously pushing forward and trying to slash Riley whenever she had the chance. This cat and mouse game continued until Riley backed into a table whilst trying to dodge. The thug, seeing her chance, went in for the kill.

"You're mine!"

However, just as her knife was about to puncture into Riley's neck, he used to teleport behind her.

"Wha-"

"Nothing personal, kiddo."

Not giving her a change to react, Riley used and, during the split second while she was suspended in the air, swung downwards with his bat. The move hit her directly in the stomach, sending her smashing into the ground. The combo left her, understandably, very knocked out. Having barely won the fight, Riley took a deep breath.

'That was much harder than it needed to be.'

Riley winced as he looked at his health bar.

'200/250. I can't sit around waiting for my health to regenerate, I've wasted too much time already. I wonder if I have anything in my inventory that can restore health?'

Pulling up his inventory, Riley scanned through it. After a few seconds of looking, he found what he was looking for. Smiling to himself, he pulled out the Bepsi and Doka-Cola that he had stored in his Inventory just earlier that week.

'God, that feels like such a long time ago. It was just before I caught those robbers outside Mr. Rodriguez's shop. I kinda miss those simpler times, when all I had to worry about was homework and raid night.'

After downing both drinks, Riley noticed two things. The first was that his health bar was replenishing at about three times the regular rate, which was what he had intended in the first place. The second was that he had gained two buffs represented by two small squares below his mana bar: "Sugar Rush: Bepsi" and "Sugar Rush: Doka-Cola". The effects were +1 Strength and +2 Dexterity for 30 minutes, and +2 Dexterity for 30 minutes, respectively.

'Oh yeah, I completely forgot that some foods and beverages will give a stat buff. The amount given seems negligible though. Can't be too disappointed I guess, soda is pretty cheap.'

While he was monologuing and waiting for his health to replenish, the door to the main warehouse opened, and two men stepped through.

"Hey! Who the fuck are you!"

"Look! On the floor! It's the lieutenant! Raise the alarm!"

'Tsk. All that effort of trying to be stealthy, gone to waste. At least I took out a lieutenant though. Nothing to it, guess it's time for an all-out brawl. Would be a waste if I didn't make use of these buffs, marginal as they may be.'

With his mind made up, Riley charged forward. In truth, Riley was slightly hesitant about fighting again so soon. and still weren't off cooldown, and his health was still replenishing. However, every other skill was ready to be used, and his discovery by the two men had left him with no choice. It was either attack while he still somewhat had the element of surprise, or stand around and wait for the entire gang to beat him to death.

"Woah! Stay back!"

'These guys look like complete chumps. Best to save my for an actual emergency, like if they have more lieutenants back there.'

However, there was too much distance to cover. By the time Riley had closed in, both men had already pulled out daggers and were prepared for his attack. Upon reaching close combat distance, both men lunged at the same time, in a surprising display of synchronization.

To the, at this point fairly experienced — and more importantly Dexterous — Riley, however, the synchrony of such an attack meant nothing to him. Turning his body, he dodged into the gap between the arms of his attackers. Using the momentum left over from running, he smashed his elbow into the face of the left thug. This sent the man staggering backwards, clutching his nose.

"Ah, fuck!"

While this was happening, the other thug had brought his knife-arm around in an attempt to slash Riley. It almost made contact, but Riley was able to catch the arm just before it cut into his shoulder. Using all his might, he -ed the thug into the floor. Picking up the dropped knife by the blade, he chucked it at the other man. The knife firmly embedded itself into his thigh, causing him to let out a cry of pain.

"AAAARGHHH!"

'I really need a more reliable way to take enemies out at range. Clearly throwing knives is not my forte.'

With both men incapacitated, Riley hurried through the door that led towards the main warehouse. If he was fast, he could still catch the enemy while they were still disorganized. After stepping into the main warehouse, Riley looked around. It looked like a typical warehouse. Pallet racks that extended to the ceiling, arranged into neat little rows. All of a sudden, a voice called out to his far left, close to the edge of the warehouse.

"Hey! Over here! I found him!"

Riley's head snapped to the source. The first thing he saw was the glint of a gun barrel. It's owner was advancing slowly towards him.

"Don't you move. My boss wants to speak to you."

Riley turned towards him and put his hands up.

"I wouldn't dream of it."

The thug stopped once he was within 10 meters of Riley.

'Tsk. There's too much distance between us, and isn't ready yet. Guess I'll play along for now to buy some time.'

A voice boomed from behind him.

"Now, what have we here? Trying to play hero are we?"

Riley slowly turned around, and came face-to-face with a hulking giant of a man. He was at least 7 feet tall, and was so muscular that he made his suit look skin-tight. Riley smiled.

"This must just be a misunderstanding. I was just looking for my dad. He's working late tonight, and I came to pick him up so we could go get supper. I must have entered the wrong warehouse, and for that I am very sorry. If you'll tell your associate over there to put down the gun, I'll be out of your hair very soon."

The big man burst into laughter.

"HAHAHAHA. Got a joker here, do we?" He gestured towards the office. "You don't mean to tell me that that trail of bodies back there was the work of some other person, do you?"

"Yep. 100%. Absolutely not me."

By this time, more gangsters had arrived, all brandishing weapons, except for two. Including the big man, Riley counted a total of 11 people.

The muscular man stopped laughing.

"Alright, cut the bullshit. You're the one who's been disrupting our operations, aren't you."

Riley shrugged.

"Guilty as charged."

"I'm not going to bother asking you who you are or who you work for. Such questions are trivial, and any professional would never give up such information anyway. Instead, I'm going to beat it out of you."

As he said this, he started removing his suit jacket. Riley changed his expression back to a smile.

"By yourself? Are you sure you're up to the task? My body count is fairly high by now."

"HA. You've fought against nothing but grunts. Even those "lieutenants" are nothing. You see, I am a Capo. And I think you'll find a Capo to be much tougher than that rabble."

While the Capo was busy bragging, Riley noticed a few of the men behind him smirking to themselves; notably one of the three who was unarmed.

"Now then, are you ready? Bring out your weapon, I know that you use one. Weak as they may be, a Lieutenant would never lose to an unarmed person."

Riley's eyes snapped back to the Capo. He had removed his jacket and shirt and was now half naked, and had equipped bronze knuckles on both hands.

"I think I'll be fine."

The Capo shrugged.

"Suit yourself."

Putting up both hands in a stance, the Capo threw a punch. Riley dodged, and grabbed the arm in an attempt to . However, no matter how hard he tried, the arm wouldn't budge.

"Nice try."

Riley felt the sharp pain of a fist making contact with his back. Letting go of the arm, he used to make distance. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his health drop to 200/250.

'Ok, new plan. Clearly he's too heavy for me to flip. But the bigger they are, the harder they fall, right?'

The Capo charged forward. Upon reaching striking distance, he threw a left punch. Riley ducked underneath, sidestepping to the right as he did so. Seizing the opportunity, he threw two es, one aimed at the Capo's chest and the other at his waist. Both connected, but Riley's fists felt like they had taken more damage than dished out.

'Jesus christ it's like punching steel. Fists are out, I absolutely need to use my bat for this.'

The Capo spread his arms wide in an attempt to grapple Riley. Activating , Riley dodged backwards, then used the opportunity to use . The attack succeeded, and the Capo fell forwards. However, the Capo easily broke his fall with his hands. He bent his elbows as if he were doing a push-up, then pushed downward with such force that it propelled his body back up to a standing position. Riley's jaw dropped with surprise.

'This guy ain't human. Then again, neither am I.'

"Ok, I guess it's time for me to get serious", Riley said, as he materialized his bat. This understandably caused lots of murmuring amongst the audience. Ignoring the peanut gallery, the Capo laughed.

"HAHA! It's about time. I was beginning to think that you were far too weak."

"Trust me, you won't be thinking that for long."

"Oh? Interesting. Try me."

Feeling obligated to prove himself, Riley put all his strength into a . Instead of blocking or dodging, the Capo opted to retaliate head-on by using his fist to punch the bat. However, Riley's power proved to be too much, and he managed to push back the Capo, staggering him. Seizing his chance, Riley attacked with another full-strength from above, this time aimed at the Capo's head. Still reeling from the previous attack, the Capo did not have time to defend and he took the full brunt of the attack. Eyes rolling to the back of his head, the Capo crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

Clap Clap Clap.

"Well done! You certainly don't see that every day."

Riley turned towards the source of the voice. It was one of the three men who did not have a weapon on hand. He was about 6 feet tall, and was dressed in a three piece suit and fedora.

"Taking on a Capo and winning certainly isn't an easy feat. However I tire of these antics. All of you, restrain him."

On cue, two of the men that had previously been watching jumped Riley, easily restraining his arms, while several other man stood nearby on alert. The stylish gangster retrieved a pistol from his jacket and pointed it at Riley.

"You've caused a lot of trouble for us, but that ends here. Maybe in the next life, kiddo" he said, as he squeezed the trigger.

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Patch 22.0

- 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