33 Vigilante: Hotel California

"1162 McGomell St. 3am. About 8 guys. The Underboss will be there. It's his personal time. Take care of him. Should be easy. Once this is done, it's D-day", read the text message.

"Quest: The Strip Club. "

"George Lombardi is dead. Mr. X's plan is reaching its climax. The last man standing in his way is the only remaining Underboss who rivals him in influence. With him gone, the others will fall into line. Take him out, and Mr. X will be in prime position to become the next Boss."

"Quest conditions: Incapacitate the Underboss."

"Quest rewards: +1 'Vigilante' Class Point. 150 EXP"

"Alright, let's do this."

Glancing at his phone's clock, he saw that it was still early.

"But first, gotta study for the test and finish my homework."

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It was 2:30 am and the streets were quiet; the moonlight shining brightly over the dimly-lit streets. Riley was walking slowly towards the target location, navigating his way through the streets with his handy <Minimap>. As he got closer to the target location, the somber environment was quickly replaced by the sound of drunken men shouting and hurling by the side of the road. Glancing again at the <Minimap>, he noticed that the objective was just to his right, around a street corner. Instead of turning the corner and going straight in, Riley instead stood next to the wall and tried peeking around it.

He could see several clearly intoxicated men sprawled on the floor outside a dilapidated building. Suddenly, the door to the building opened and two burley men in black brought out another drunk.

"Get your hands off of me! I paid for those girls!"

The men paid no attention to his protests, and instead tossed him out like a garbage bag. The drunk landed flat on his face but he stood back up, the inebriation caused by the alcohol clearly inhibiting his judgement.

"You motherfuckers! I'll show you!"

The man charged towards the two men, flailing his hands wildly as he did so. One of the guards grabbed both of the man's arms before shoving him back to the ground.

"So what if you paid? Now scram before the boss blacklists you from this place."

As he was watching the scene unfold Riley started thinking to himself, rubbing his chin as he did so.

'Hmm, so the Brotherhood owns this place? The mission details said he would be intoxicated so it's probably okay, and Mr. X said it would be easy. Plus the mission rewards are pretty low compared to previous Main Quests. Still, I better do some more surveying.'

"<Incognito>!"

Riley started strutting towards the building, his equipment materializing around him. He knew that his Level 3 Vigilante's Mask would render him completely inconspicuous to the drunks and their dulled senses. Walking up to the front door, Riley tried opening it, but it was locked. Smiling to himself, Riley cast <Thieves Gloves - Lockpick> and accepted the prompt notifying him that it would only take one minute.

The usual set of picking tools — a pick and a wedge — appeared in Riley's hands and his body started moving on its own, a slave to the magic of the automated lock picking process. He had gotten so used to it that, before he even realized, the pins had all been pushed into place and the wedge had turned the lock. As the tools disappeared, Riley dismissed the successful notification and put on his earbuds.

'Well, Mr. X must be pretty old, judging by his playlists of "favorites". Let's test out one of the few songs in here that I actually know.'

Riley pulled out the iPod Mr. X had given him and started shuffling through the music library before hitting 'Play' on the song that he had been looking for.

A slow guitar intro started playing, and Riley started nodding his head and tapping his foot to the beat. After about 30 seconds of listening, however, he remembered that the intro to the song was naturally long, and skipped forward a bit. Just before the vocals started, Riley smiled to himself and muttered, "Alright, let's rock and roll."

~On a dark desert highway.~

Riley swung the door open and noticed nobody around. He summoned his gun and started walking slowly and cautiously so as to not make any noise that would alert the guards that there was an intruder in the building.

As he made his way past the counter, he knew that the thugs were close, as he could sell the scent of freshly-lit cigarettes and alcohol wafting through the air.

~Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air.~

As he continued making his way forward Riley heard some chattering, and he turned down his music volume a little.

"It's crazy how this new gang started tearing through us like that."

"I heard it wasn't a gang, but just two people."

"Really? I heard it was just one."

"Pfft, you think one or two people could survive a full on assault from our soldiers, let alone take them all out? I doubt even the other members of the Council could pull that off.

"It's so crazy how Mr. Lombardi is dead. That deal would've made him Boss for sure! Fuck man, Mr. Rodriguez was really banking on him becoming the Boss. That would've really helped our squad."

"Well, what's done is done. HQ has ordered a full-scale investigation, and I heard they've even sent in Mr. X."

"Really? That's crazy, but you know what's crazier? Mr. Rodriguez fucking around when the whole organization is going tits up!"

"Hey hey, watch it. He's still our boss. He's probably just trying to drown his sorrows in drinks and tits. He really went all in on Mr. Lombardi. He bet everything on him."

"Well, that leaves us with jack all, since we're all in the same boat."

~Plenty of room in the Hotel California~

'Shit! I missed the beat drop because I was listening to the conversation.'

Increasing the volume of the song again, Riley cast his new ability, <Virtuoso>, and walked out into the bar. Taking aim with his pistol, he cast <Bullet Time>. With his now-heightened senses, Riley could make out six people in the room, all of whom were sitting around a table smoking, drinking, and playing cards.

~Her mind is Tiffany twisted.~

After taking in the environment, he fired his first bullet before any of the thugs could even react. Just as the thugs noticed Riley, the bullet reached his intended target — the center of the table around which the thugs were sitting — and exploded. Riley saw a brief explosion and flash of light, but it must have been much worse for the thugs, as they all immediately closed their eyes and covered their ears with their hands. Unsummoning his gun, Riley ran forward, casting <Shadow World> as he sped towards the guards.

~She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys~

Getting close, Riley materialized his shiny new bat with <Quick Draw> and used it to attack the two thugs closest to him, taking them out easily.

[Sense Danger] triggered, and with the heightened senses from <Virtuoso> Riley easily avoided the attack with [Dodge Step]. Riley turned to see one of the thugs who was still recovering wildly swinging around a knife.

~How they danced in the courtyard~

Chuckling at the sight of desperation, Riley played along, easily dodging each of the man's wishful swings, before quickly getting bored.

~Some dance to remember, some dance to forget~

Riley teleported behind the thug using <Shadow Move>, taking him out with a swing to the head.

'That's half of them down already. Man, this is too easy. '

Tossing his bat back into his Inventory, Riley grabbed one of the wine bottles that was sitting on the counter and threw it at a thug who was running towards him.

~So I called up the Captain, Please bring me my wine~

Upon making contact with the thug's face, the bottle did not shatter, like Riley had expected it too.

'Huh. I really thought the bottle was going to break. Guess you really can't believe movies.'

As the thug was reeling backwards from the hit, a window popped up.

"<Virtuoso> has toggled off due to lack of mana."

Looking at his mana bar, Riley realized that <Virtuoso> had eaten up all of his mana before the song had even ended.

'Wow, cool spell, but mana-hungry. I managed to dance through them with ease without even using many skills.'

For the last two remaining thugs, Riley had something different prepared for them. Pulling out his gun, he smiled and pulled the trigger.

"Hasta la vista, baby."

The two thugs were covered in the shower of pellets that exited the chamber, and were both quickly knocked out.

'That was easy. Time to take out the boss.'

Riley paused the song, removing the earphones and putting them into a pocket.

Riley picked up a bucket of ice from the counter and walked towards the thug whom he had thrown the wine bottle at. Unlike the other thugs that had received the nasty end of his bat and gun, the bottle would have done significantly less damage. Standing over the thug, he emptied the bucket onto the thug's face. The sudden cold jolted him back into consciousness. Seeing Riley stand over him, he immediately started screaming for help. Riley could see that <Shadow World> was still active, so his screams wouldn't reach any ears, but the loudness was giving him a headache, so he covered the thug's mouth with his hand.

"Shhhh, no one can hear your screaming. Now, tell me where your boss is. Pretty please?"

The thug's eyes shifted from wide open panic to that of anger as he started struggling and shouting through Riley's hands. Riley punched the thug in the gut, careful not to apply too much force in case he puked onto Riley's hand.

"So, are you gonna cooperate now? I can do this all day."

The thug nodded frantically before gesturing to the stairs above.

"That wasn't so hard now, was it? Thanks! <Bind>!"

Before releasing his hands from the thug's mouth, Riley allowed the spell to take effect, wrapping itself around the man before also gagging his mouth.

"Alright, let's wrap this up!"

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Patch 32.0

- Regular biweekly update

Name: Riley Petesgeralt

Age: 16

Job: The Roleplayer

Class: Vigilante

Level: 19

HP: 250

MP: 220

EXP: 35/538

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)

Virtuoso (Level 1)

Equipment:

Vigilante's Mask (Level 3/5)

Vigilante's Cloak (Level 1/5)

Vigilante's Pants (Level 2/5)

Vigilante's Gloves (Level 1/5)

Vigilante's Shoes (Level 1/5)

Vigilante's Gun (Level 3/5)

Full set bonus unlocked: Shadow World