Night slowly passed, and the sun just as slowly rose up. It didn't light up their inn room, however, as with no window, no light could pass. Groggily, Leonard woke up. "East Marshall... " he slowly muttered the name to himself as he woke up, afraid he would forget it.
'East Marshall… East Marshall… my dreams were flooded by all the different ways the investigation could go today. East Marshall. This is my time to think!'
He sat cross-legged on the bed and put his arms together as if he was trying to meditate.
'To begin with, East Marshall is just a warehouse by the pier. It's pretty far away from the rest of the pier locations, and it's surrounded by colorful shipping containers. Warehouses spend the vast majority of their time locked, so if it's locked, it would be difficult to get in! If it's open, it must be crawling with gangsters. Chances are, this place is probably one of the Silver Night's bases.'
He made his way out of bed and stretched his aching muscles. He noticed the pains from the night before were almost completely gone. He raised his shirt to look at the bruises and they were almost completely faded away. "The ointment did work! I'll have to continue using this stuff if I ever get hurt like that again." He said as he put down his shirt and made his way to exit the building. On his way to the entrance, the lady at the front called out to him once again.
"Enjoyed your stay? Here take a coupon for the next time you come!" as she said this, she reached out her hand with a paper in her hand. Leonard grabbed the paper and read it back to her, "Next stay 30% off? Sheesh, I'll make sure to stop back here soon!" He said with a smile on his face. As soon as he was back on the streets he got back to thinking.
'That being said, the dead gangster easily could have lied about the location. The three most likely options are that he named a random place, told the truth, or gave the location of one of their gang locations, except it doesn't keep prisoners. If I could afford to purchase the [Lesser Lie Detector] from the System, I would have, but it was too expensive! I'd probably need to save up the daily mission rewards for a few days to afford it!'
He decided to scout the location first. He left the inn, and headed towards a local clothing store. It wasn't that dangerous for him to just scout out the outside of the area, he's even seen a small bit of the outside just from his regular work commute. Leonards main worry was making sure he didn't get recognized. If he was seen, what would the gangsters think if they saw the brother of a girl they kidnapped looking at their hideout. Otherwise, if he just dressed up a bit, hiding most of his features, they would just assume that he was some random guy looking for trouble, exploring around in the restricted area, and would just scare or chase him out.
.....
He had come to Henry's Ship, a local store. He had gone there because of the prices of regular items in the system. They were very expensive, and if he could spend a bit of time and buy them normally, he would save money. Leonard looked down at the items he had just bought. There was a fisherman's raincoat, sunglasses, and a mask. At some point, he had decided that a raincoat was better because it would hide his body shape more, and it was completely normal for people to wear such a thing near the eastern sea. He could easily be disguised as a lost fisherman.
He paid the store clerk for the items. Surprisingly, the items were tagged with fair prices. He had always hated the haggling culture that had developed recently. It felt like the world was regressing. People were trying to scam each other left and right, and forcing others into unfair deals and prices using the slightest hint of status they had.
'Status…' that was something he once wanted. A respectable status so that he could avoid getting extorted, and even extort others in exchange!
But now, with the system, he has seen a glimpse of something superior to status. Power. Leonard grinned as he thought about his plans for the future, he would start by walking into East Marshal as a fisherman...
Actually, a fisherman?
Leonard suddenly came up with a plan, and rushed back into Henry's Ship. He bought the cheapest fishing rod and bait box he could. Why did he have to go wander so close to East Marshall's Warehouse? It wasn't like he could go inside to check, it was fine as long as he could see it!
He looked around the place. Eventually, he found the perfect location.
...
"Hyup" Leonard gasped as he climbed up a shipping container. At the top of these stacks of shipping containers, there was the perfect vantage point into East Marshall's Warehouse.
It would be very suspicious if he just sat there, looking straight at the warehouse. However, he was facing the water. He was just fishing. His location was strange, but why would they bother with a random eccentric fisherman? He wasn't that close, just his height gave him vantage. Finding trouble with him would only draw suspicion towards themselves, especially when you consider the fact that it would be difficult for people to climb up to his location. The time it would take to climb up was more than enough to draw a crowd of confused bystanders as long as he made a scene.
Therefore, he fished. He already had a view. The warehouse was closed. However, this was the perfect excuse to remain able to see East Marshall's while staying safe. He would be able to see if anyone comes into the area. From there, he would get plenty of important information.
How many people came in? When did they come in? What did the people who came in look like? Did they look like gangsters? Did they bring any suspicious bags or people in?
While the area wasn't the quietest, not by a long shot, he might be able to make out a few words, should he get lucky.
The combination of all the information he could gather would likely be enough to infer whether this place belonged to gangsters, which gangsters, and what this place most likely was used for.
...
As such, Leonard sat there, fishing rod in hand. Up ahead was a real spot people use to fish, so here, he could naturally catch fish as well. Except, this wasn't about the fish.
...And so he waited… patiently…
Occasionally, bystanders would give him strange glances. They weren't suspicious, just mostly questioning why he would choose such a troublesome location to fish.
"Ah!" Leonard was bored out of his mind, but suddenly felt a tug on his line! "I'm actually ending up with a fish?" He quickly started to reel in...
Leonard hadn't actually fished before, so all he did was furiously reel his line in. As he yanked his rod up, the fish slammed into the side of the shipping container and Leonard eventually got the fish up to him and grabbed it.
"..." The fish hook had pierced the fish's skull, and its head looked like someone had just finished brutalizing the fish.
Like this, he waited… some more...a few hours had gone by, and Leonard had realized a problem.
It was fine in the early morning. However, the more time the sun spent up, the metal shipping containers would heat up! It wasn't that hot out, and the fresh sea breeze helped, It was barely fine near his buttocks due to his thick rubber raincoat, but if he ever put his bare hand on the bare metal?
'Mistake.'
"Ahh, ahh" Leonard could barely stand the heat! He didn't even bring water with him! Was he dumb? He was suddenly doubting his intelligence. He would have to switch locations, and this time not be so stupid.
Suddenly, he saw something! There was movement near East Marshall. Even forgetting the heat, he began to pay close attention. A small group was gathering around the shipping containers surrounding East Marshall. The way they were dressed… the way they look… they obviously weren't upstanding members of society. Right now, there were just four. They made themselves comfortable and pulled out drinks as they discussed with each other.
'It seems like they are waiting for more people…'
Leonard kept up his fishing act as he waited, suffering in the heat. Eventually, Leonard decided he had enough. He couldn't leave his spot for fear of missing something, but at least he could buy some water from the system!
'I didn't plan sufficiently ahead, and now I suffer…' He grit his teeth and was frustrated with himself as he bought a water bottle from the system. He wasn't going to get dehydrated and die today, and neither would he risk missing out on information!
"Huh?" Leonard suddenly saw something wrong. Two cars were driving slightly recklessly and were heading towards East Marshall's Warehouse.
'This must be who the others are waiting for!'