Author's note: Thanks for all the suggestions! We will definitely take the feasible ones into consideration! Once again, thank you guys for 1 million!
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Mr. X was currently working through his fourth wave of enemies. Sure, he was leagues beyond any of the rabble that the Brotherhood had bothered to send thus far, but it would be lying to say that they were unskilled. Perhaps the first wave had been, but with each wave came a new layer of difficulty: numbers, equipment, and experience.
It didn't help that Mr. X had been fighting these thugs almost nonstop for two hours. Each wave arrived every 30 minutes, which gave him some breathing room each time, but fighting was extremely tiring work and his stamina had never been great. This was the reason why he usually left most of the fighting for his thugs; not because of pride, but his innate lack of stamina.
This time, the Brotherhood had sent eight soldiers — five of which had already been defeated by Mr. X — and four ordinary thugs, all of whom were on the floor, dead or dying. However, his speed, strength, and reaction time had been greatly dulled by his fatigue. His breathing had grown noticeably louder, but he was still able to keep his composure and stance.
The last three soldiers were on the offensive, constantly throwing attacks so as not to give Mr. X any breathing room. Two of them had weapons — one was swinging a bo staff and the other was slashing with a knife — while the last one was going at it barehanded. Doing his best to dodge each attack, Mr. X caught one of the punches. But before he could execute any combos, the other two soldiers attacked him, forcing him to release his grip.
'Fuck, this trio is impenetrable. The moment I find an opportunity to take advantage of, the other two come in to cover his ass. I need to end this quickly, before I become too tired to fight properly.'
The soldier with the bo staff lunged forward with a stab, forcing Mr. X to dodge to his side, where the man with the knife was coming in with a slash. The second Mr. X landed on the floor, he leaped backwards, which left him off-balance and vulnerable. This allowed the last soldier to push forward, tackling Mr. X to the ground.
"Urgh."
Mr. X was now on the ground, with the wind knocked out of him, the world around him spinning. Everyone had their own weaknesses, and Mr. X's was his vitality. He was naturally fragile, and had an innately low stamina, but his strength and speed made up for that weakness. In video game terms, he would be considered a "glass cannon"; fragile, but deadly.
The brawling soldier straddled Mr. X, pinning both of his arms to the ground. The remaining soldiers gathered behind him, big smiles on their faces.
"Oops, guess the rat has finally been caught in the trap. Now how about we peel that hideous mask off your face before beating it to a pulp?"
Mr. X tried struggling, but it was a futile effort, as the thug's strength exceeded his, especially with his exhaustion.
'Fuck.'
"Hey, how're you gonna pummel him without any free hands? Lemme help you. Bring both of his hands together, and we can pin them with my knife."
"Oooh, you're gonna pierce his hands like Jesus? I'll help out too. He's a slippery one, and sure to try and squirm away in a last ditch effort to escape."
The soldier with the bo staff placed his rod vertically on top of Mr. X's hands and pressed down with all of his body weight, sending extreme pain through Mr. X's hands. Despite the pain, Mr. X tried his best to suppress his emotions, not wanting to give the soldiers the satisfaction.
"Alright, brace yourself. This is gonna hur-"
"
Before the knife soldier could pierce the blade into Mr. X's hands, black tentacles appeared below him and started wrapping around the soldier. In a desperate attempt to free himself, he started cutting the bindings, but his knife proved ineffective.
"What the fuck?"
The other two soldiers stepped back as they could not believe what was going on.
Riley charged forward, using
"Who the fuck are y-"
Before the soldier could finish his sentence, Riley used
After punching the thug, Riley reached out towards Mr. X with his good hand and said, "Sorry for the wait!"
Mr. X took Riley's outstretched hand and pulled himself up.
"So...?"
"So what? I told you I'd open the safe, and I did. Let's take these guys out and head back up there."
".. Pfft. You're impressing me on the daily, kid. First with that weird tentacle skill, and now by opening a safe that's supposed to be impenetrable."
The two remaining soldiers snapped out of their daze and started charging towards the duo.
Mr. X massaged his hands before giving directions.
"You take the lanky dude. I'll take the brawler."
Nodding, Riley used
'Well isn't this a problem. My gun is out of ammo, and my bat is destroyed'
Riley threw his now-exhausted gun back into his Inventory and started charging towards the soldier. As Riley got close, the soldier swung his rod downwards. [Dodge Step] activated, and Riley immediately dodged to the side. Taking advantage of the thug's forward momentum, Riley used
"Whoops, sorry for stealing your thunder, but I didn't want to wait around. After all, it must be hard fighting with that broken arm of yours. Let's head up and check out your handiwork."
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Riley kicked the doors open and shouted, "Tada!"
Sure enough, the hatch to the safe was now wide open. Mr. X's jaws were so wide that they were almost unhinged. Hearing it from Riley was one thing, but actually seeing it was a whole different matter.
"Holy shit, kiddo. I can't believe you actually pulled it off. Way to go!"
He then proceeded to slap Riley's arm.
"Ow! That's my broken arm!"
"Whoops, my bad. Anyways, what about those guys in the bunker?"
"Well, I took them out and tied em up. Pretty cool looking place down there. It's like a man cave."
"Huh, lemme take care of it."
Mr. X leaped onto the table and peered into the hatch. Sure enough, he could see two men on the floor, tied and gagged. Mr. X grabbed onto the ladder and climbed down slowly. Pulling one of the men up by the collar, Mr. X patted around his body until he found what he was looking for. He then did the same to the other man, and, after retrieving the items from both men, he walked over to the wine rack in the room and picked out a bottle that he wanted. Climbing back out of the safe, Mr. X passed the wine bottle to Riley and started putting his coat and fedora back on.
Pulling out a grenade from his jacket pocket, Mr. X pulled the pin and yelled, "Kobe!" before flinging the grenade into the safe and slamming the hatch shut.
"What the fuck?"
Riley waited a few seconds, but he couldn't hear an explosion.
"Wait, was that a fake grenade? Why wasn't there any sound?"
"It was real. The bunker is sound and shockproof. You wouldn't hear or feel anything even if I had chucked C4 in there."
"Why'd you kill them? I thought we were going to hand them over to the police?"
"That's what I thought. Until I found these."
Mr. X pulled out an envelope, and a pen drive.
"I've been hearing rumors in the Brotherhood about an Underboss who was about to close a deal with a man who has the entirety of the police force under his thumb, and from what my birdies told me, Mr. George Lombardi here was in charge to close the deal.
"Wait, the man I tied up was THE George Lombardi? The Underboss who owns The Thorn?"
"Yup, the very same. Here's how the rumors have been playing out. We, the Brotherhood, have had this man on call, and damn is he paid a pretty penny. Apparently he has dirt on every cop in the state, including the chiefs. Dirt that can get them, as you young people say, 'cancelled'. Infidelity, bribery, malpractice; you name it, he's got it. And Lombardi was about to secure every single bit of dirt from him, until you stepped in. With him now out of the picture, we'll be able to expose the Brotherhood, as I'm sure the cops are very interested in taking them down after years of blackmail.
"Oh, so if we had brought them to the cops, they-"
"Yup, they would've been let go, just like that. Great job, kiddo. Let me give you a ride home? We're pretty far from your place, and the buses don't run this late. Plus we just had a big win, and we gotta celebrate! What do ya say?"
Mr. X smiled as he gestured to the bottle of wine in Riley's hands.
"Battle ended. Experience gained: 250."
"Quest Completed! Gained 200 experience, and +1 'Vigilante' Class Point!"
"Congratulations, you have gained a new level! You are now level 17."
"EXP: 188/441"
"Yea, let's celebrate."
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Patch 30.0
- Regular biweekly update
Name: Riley Petesgeralt
Age: 16
Job: The Roleplayer
Class: Vigilante
Level: 17 (+1)
HP: 250
MP: 220
EXP: 188/441
Strength: 43
Dexterity: 46
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 32
Wisdom: 22
Charisma: 26
Luck: 31
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 2)
Incognito (Level 4)
Bullet Party (Level 1)
Bullet Time (Level 1)
Bind (Level 1)
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)
Vigilante's Gun (Level 1/5)
Full set bonus unlocked: Shadow World