Chereads / The Great Aurora / Chapter 38 - Money.

Chapter 38 - Money.

As Ralph planned, he spent the afternoon of that day at work and during the night he went to a nearby district, to a famous drug store. The place was quite busy, while at the same time it lacked lighting.

Ralph didn't care about his safety and just covered his face with an illusory mask.

He didn't want to become invisible this time.

After approaching a man who was in an alley and selling drugs to two young men, he waited.

After the man broke up with the youth, he looked at Ralph with a solemn expression.

"What you want?" The man asked watchfully.

It is not uncommon for people to wear masks in that place, but he was still on the alert.

Ralph took some yen out of his pocket and said:

"Information."

The man's vigilance doubled and he took a gun from his waist while saying:

"I don't know what you want, but get out if you don't want to lose your life."

Ralph narrowed his eyes and activated his ability.

It disappeared in the eyes of the man, who was terrified.

Looking around, the man saw no signs of Ralph and started to panic.

Suddenly, he felt something and looked back, Ralph was aiming a gun at his head. Of course, the weapon was just another illusion.

"Don't move, or else your brains will get on the floor." Ralph spoke in a light tone.

The man swallowed his own saliva and looked at Ralph with sweat running on his forehead.

"Put the gun down, slowly." Ralph spoke again.

The man obeyed.

"Kick the gun lightly in my direction." Ralph ordered.

The man kicked the gun.

Ralph picked up the gun from the floor, smiled slightly.

"Okay, now I want you to answer a few questions." Ralph said as he lowered his fake gun and put it on his waist.

The man let out a sigh of relief and said:

"What you want to know?"

Ralph was excited and said:

"Everything you know about the Tokyo underworld."

"Cough Cough" The man coughed in surprise and thought he heard wrong.

"Come on, this is not a suitable place for a conversation." Ralph pointed in one direction with the gun he had stolen.

After the two arrived on an abandoned lot, Ralph looked at the man coldly and said:

"You can start."

The man looked scared and confused at Ralph, but started to say everything he knew.

He was just a small drug dealer who resold drugs bought from a cartel called 'Blue Sky', they were one of the three great forces in the Tokyo underworld, and specialize in selling all types of drugs and also stolen products.

In addition to Blue Sky, there are two other major forces: 'Great Desolate', a force specializing in assassinations and sabotage missions. And also 'Bloody Roses', a force that has weak military power compared to the other two, but has the greatest economic power, dominating almost all of Tokyo's illegal casinos and prostitution houses, as well as having great political connections.

The three forces are not direct enemies, as they do not compete against each other.

There are numerous small gangs scattered throughout Tokyo, but none are noteworthy, according to the man.

After hearing the explanation from the man, who was just a small dealer, Ralph nodded and asked:

"Do you know where these forces are based?"

The man shook his head and replied:

"I buy drugs from one of the branches of Blue Sky, located in the Chōji district."

Ralph was surprised and asked:

"Where is this branche located?"

The man started to explain while sweating deeply.

After hearing the location of the branche, Ralph frowned. The branche was close to the shed where he and Mr. Akira went to fetch the pieces some time ago.

-Does Mr. Akira buy the Blue Sky pieces?

Ralph thought.

After asking a few more questions and realizing that the dealer did not know anything more useful, he released him.

"Go away." Ralph said.

The man looked reluctantly at the gun in Ralph's hand, which was his, and left.

Ralph looked at the gun in his hand. It was a silver colt revolver, with markings on the stock, the ammunition was of .45 caliber.

The the barrel was a little long, but that increased the accuracy.

-This gun is probably the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Ralph thought with a smile.

Having the information he wanted, he started to return to the Chōji district. He had time and wanted to visit the 'Blue Sky branch, there must be a lot of money in that place.

The Blue Sky branch was hidden in an abandoned industrial area, inside an old shed.

There was some movement in the vicinity, and Ralph had to become invisible to avoid attention.

Many trucks were parked while being loaded with drugs.

He walked calmly into the shed, where many men were doing drugs.

Everyone was armed, but Ralph was not afraid. Unless there was an experienced Aura master there, he was out of danger.

A novice Aura master can only see clues to his Aura, without being able to do anything, only a few more experienced can accurately locate him despite the illusion.

Proof of this is that Aoi did not notice him while he followed her.

And Ainz only noticed his presence because of his glasses.

After observing the area for a period of time, Ralph thought he had found the boss of the place.

He was a Japanese man of medium height, with a fierce expression and a suit.

Ralph didn't want to kill anyone, and just looked for the money that was supposed to be somewhere, since all business was done in cash.

Ralph looked at some suitcases that were under the protection of the supposed boss, he took care of them a little too much to be just suitcases.

Ralph licked his lips as he thought about the amount of money in the suitcases.

Still, he waited. He wanted to confirm.

After a period of time, having received a large sum of money, the big man opened an empty suitcase and started organizing the money in it.

Ralph smiled at that, but he was also alert, he didn't know which suitcase was full and which one was empty.

The safest way is to wait for the suitcase the boss was putting money on to get full.

After an hour, the suitcase was finally full, and the big boss put it in a corner, along with other suitcases.

Ralph started to act, with the greatest care.

He didn't want to attract attention while he stole the suitcase.

He approached slowly, as he scanned the surroundings to make sure there were no Aura masters at the scene.

After arriving next to the suitcases, he activated his ability with three synchronized factors, to make sure that nothing went wrong.

He took the briefcase with money from before and opened it, the money was there. He opened another, but it was empty. After opening several suitcases, he found only two with money, totaling two suitcases full of money.

He smiled and arranged the empty suitcases back, so as not to get immediate attention when he canceled the illusion.

He stacked the three briefcases in his arms, it was a little heavy, but he could handle it.

He started to walk out of place while maintaining the illusion, only after leaving the shed did he undo the illusion in the suitcases.

Nobody noticed anything at once, but it would not be long before the big boss noticed the lack of money.

Ralph started running with the suitcases out of the area.

Even though he was invisible, he didn't want to risk anything unnecessarily, this world is not normal after all.

When he finally left the industrial area, he smiled triumphantly and started walking in one direction.

He entered an abandoned building and after making sure there was no one in the area, he started checking the suitcases.

He was afraid that there would be some kind of tracker. He searched for a while but found nothing.

Still, he decided not to go straight to the apartment and found a safe place to hide his suitcases.

Either way, it's not interesting to keep so much money in his apartment.

After taking some money out of one of the suitcases, he hid them inside a small room, underneath some debris.

The place itself was completely abandoned, with no signs of human movement, and the room was very small, with nothing interesting to attract attention.

The rubble was enough to cover the suitcases, which satisfied Ralph. He also hid the gun along with the money, since it wouldn't be wise to leave it at home or take it to school.

Although a little dirty, he had a small fortune now. Not having to worry about money for a while.

Still, he didn't want to stop working. This is a basic thing, he cannot rely solely on theft.

If he later needs to justify his income, he needs to prove that he works in the workshop. One problem for example is the annual income statement.

If he just depends on the theft, how will he declare his income the other year? Although he is not legally independent, he has no legal guardians, being basically invisible to the entire Japanese system, except the tax system... This is really a paradox.

If he doesn't declare his income, it can lead to problems and unnecessary attention.

Having made so much money, the other day in the morning he went to a Tokyo shopping mall and started shopping.

He bought a new cell phone, a high-end laptop with the best hardware available, new clothes and another pair of shoes.

When he finally spent almost all the money he brought, it was full of bags.

After that, he called a taxi and went to his apartment.

After organizing all his purchases, he turned on his laptop.

Although he doesn't plan to start working as a murderer for the time being, he started creating his security system.

He considered hiring a Premium VPN service based in Romania, a country that is not a member of the fourteen-eyed alliance. And who has a good reputation and does not keep records.

The service encrypted all browsing data, so that his neighbor's internet service provider is not able to spy on his conduct.

Even so, he knew that this is not enough to make him completely invisible on the Net, he needs to deliver fake data to the VPN service.

For that, he needed to create mirrored domains on the internet.

For example, he would create a domain called zd0x01.jpk, that domain is actually a mirror that would mirror any website that Ralph wanted.

But Ralph would not access any deep web sites directly, the domain he created would.

The domain would be hosted on his cell phone, thus eliminating the need to pay for a hosting service.

He would control the domain with the new cell phone he bought, thus maintaining zero evidence on the laptop.

Even if the VPN service tried to access his domain, it could simply stop mirroring without a correct password, or simply take the domain down.

At the moment, the only possible flaw is the fact that he uses the neighbor's internet, but that is also an advantage.

If the police looked for him, they would stop at his neighbor, who would then know nothing.

Even if he ends talking about Ralph, by that point Ralph would have gotten rid of any evidence on his cell phone and laptop.

Of course, that is not all, he also needs to resolve some issues with the mobile and laptop operating system itself.

The cell phone could not have any flaws, and would only be used to control the domain.

The cell phone would not use the same VPN service, it would use another one based in Panama, just in case. This VPN does not keep records and is used by many criminals. In addition, the phone will use mobile internet with a chip that Ralph bought while maintaining a cover with an illusion.

He needed to eliminate traces that the laptop would leave, that could recognize the device. This takes a lot of time.

It will also use a browser that adds an additional layer of encryption, in addition to also masking his real IP, which would add a second layer of protection, even using a VPN service.

But in doing so, the VPN service would think that the laptop is one model and is actually another.

He also planned to buy a network filter and an external firewall, just to prevent intruders.

He would need to get more money from suitcases...

He didn't plan on shopping again that day, and decided to take a break before going to the workshop to work.

Having spent his time fiddling with the devices, he ran out of time to practice, but he was not irritated by this, he would have the entire night available, as he did not plan to go out anymore.

After going to the workshop and working all afternoon, Ralph arrived at his apartment tired and dirty.

He took a shower and did something to eat.

"Itadakimasu." Ralph spoke and started to eat.

He had fried meat with vegetables, and made rice balls ... It was delicious.

After eating, Ralph sat cross-legged on his bed and started to practice.

-Inner Vision.

Ralph started to feel heat all over his body, it was his latent energy, but he didn't know how to use it to see inside his body.

He tried to control his heat, and to his surprise, he succeeded, albeit in an awkward way.

-Maybe ... Is it because I felt it?

He remembered the cat in the box. Inside the closed box, the cat is between illusion and reality, and an observer cannot say with certainty that the cat is alive or not.

This is a quantum paradox, but one that would explain his control over latent energy.

-Without feeling it, I am certainly impossible to control it, but now that I feel it, I know that it is part of me, and it is natural that I control it.

Over time, he got the hang of it, and started to feel other things with the energy ... It was his organs!

-Very mysterious ...

He just felt it, but even with his eyes closed, it was no different than seeing.

Over time, he felt all his organs, from the brain to the genital.

Then he started feeling the bones, the bone marrow ...

After a long time, he thought he felt his whole body, but still didn't find what he was looking for ...

-I haven't felt Aura yet, I thought it would be easier with this skill.

Ralph thought and opened his eyes.

After seeing that it was almost midnight, Ralph blew out a breath, but was happy to see that the [Inner Vision] skill had leveled up, it was now lv1.