Zoey
Mustachu
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2019
- Messages
- 133
- Points
- 133
Evaluation
Points: 150 EXP
Money: 14 G
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That's interesting I'll note it down.unevaluated> > >
Infiltrating the Criminal Network
Sponsor: Adventurer's Guild
Location: Scribel City
Required Level: 3
Objectives:
Prerequisite: Missing Children
Infiltrate a criminal network while undercover.Gather intelligence about criminal activities.Networks of criminals, thieves, and street gangs are known to operate in Scribel.
In order to stay one step ahead of crime, we need to know what they're planning.
Please infiltrate a criminal organization. Do not get caught.
Rewards:
Points: 150 EXP
Money: 14 G
Other: n/a
> > >
Infiltrate a criminal group?
How she would go doing that, she wondered. She did not even know that there was a criminal group before in the city. Though, she never paid attention on such things. From the quest form, though, she inferred that the guild also knew of their existence. therefore, she asked the receptionist for anything that could identify them.
"Hmm... The most well-known gang is EEE. It stood for Eliminate Exoplanet Entities. They are a gang of youth who did not like the existence of adventurers from another world, though there is nothing bad about them so far. They are more like activists, trying to protect their culture and identity."
"Eh?" She tilted her head.
"Well. From my observation, adventurers on general grow more quickly than the residents, so it was easy to actually overpower them. That's why there was no conflict between us. We still have to observe them, though other than flyers and mass gatherings campaigning their cause, they are harmless. Well... that's what I know, to be honest. Maybe you can ask the guards instead?"
"Thank you." Mei bowed, and left.
+++
How suspicious was she? It was not the first time she pretended to be a cat. Would they think that she was a cat, when they saw her? She tried to emulate cat behavior, like licking her fur. But other than that, she did not know what to do.
As she was in the market, observing the ground below, she wondered. Should she try to steal a fish? She thought it would be more convincing for her disguise. First, she would steal a fish from one of the barrel on that corner, then she would run, and she would eat the fish somewhere. Setting that plan in motion, she ran.
ten meters...
seven meters...
five... four... three... two...
She leaped, snatching a fish with her mouth.
"Hey! My fish!"
She could hear the man shouting and cursing. Her first priority was to evade detection though. With that, she took the alleyway in the corner.
It was safe, she thought. She would be safer if she went above, obviously, but she had to behave like a cat. Cat couldn't climb walls after all.
"Running a little light in the pockets, lad?" She heard someone said that. She turned her head at the origin of the voice. It was a man with red hair, wearing some kind of leather armor. In front of him, there was a young boy who was panting.
"I'm sorry, what?" The boy said.
"I'm saying you've got the coin but you didn't earn a gee of it honestly. I can tell."
"How could you possibly know that?" The boy said, his posture defensive.
"It's all about sizing up your mark, lad." The man said. He explained with exaggerated motion, "It's the way they walk, what they're wearing. It's a dead giveaway."
The boy held the pouch on his hand tighter, "My wealth is none of your business."
"Oh, but that's where your wrong lad." He grinned. "Wealth is my business. Maybe you'd like a taste?"
The boy seemed to hestitate, then he relaxed his hold. "What do you have in mind?"
"I've got a bit of an errand to perform, but I need an extra pair of hands. And in my line of work, extra hands are well-paid."
"What do I have to do?" The boy seemed fully interested at the man's offer.
"Simple... I'm going to cause a distraction and you're going to steal Ulfric's silver ring from a strongbox under his stand. Once you have it, I want you to place it in Torygg's pocket without him noticing."
She got her mark.
+++
In the end, the man was unable to do anything. The boy declined, saying that he couldn't do that. The man let the boy go, then went to stand on the alleyway once again.
Another kid passed her, running through the alleyway. The boy was panting as he caught his breath. His left hand gripped the pouch. As she was licking the last of the fish, the man approached the boy.
"Running a little light in the pockets, lad?" The man said.
She could say that the man was dedicated. His response to the boy seemed nearly the same, ending on the same request to steal the ring.
"Lockpicking? I couldn't do that."
"I'll teach you if you agree, don't worry." The man said.
She didn't know if the man had some kind of organization behind him. Nevertheless, she probably had to follow him on the off chance he had. As the man and the boy stopped talking, they began to move.
After they were out of her sight, she took off to the rooftop, intending to follow the man from there. Though, when she arrived at the rooftop, she couldn't find them. Missing her mark, she set off to the market once again.
How should she do this? She did not understand how the criminals of the scribel city worked. Should she do some petty crime, she wondered. Though, she did not know if that would be good enough to draw a notice from the criminal elements. Using this thought, would murder be sufficient? Or child trafficking? With the quest missing child being posted perpetually, one of the criminal elements should be targeting them.
Arriving near the market, she perched herself on the rooftop, looking at the market. Pehaps, she thought, she went about this in the wrong way. She thought about the missing children. Some of them were returned as a corpse... why? Why that entity needed to murder the children, she wondered.
"Those EEE kids are doing public speech again?"
"Yeah... I don't know what is in their mind, antagonizing adventurers like that. They were lucky so far, that the adventurers did not take offense at those speeches."
"I mean, I get what they think. But, seeing our city being so intertwined with the adventurers, it is a futile cause, I say."
"Me too..."
An EEE speech. They were the harmless group previously mentioned if she remembered right. Since she had no better idea, she went there.
+++
"... I say, we need to stand up for ourselves! How many of you couldn't kill slime? Even my little brother could kill it! Last day, someone demanded my mother to pay the taxes to the adventurer guild. They did it so rudely, yet, I never feel one benefit at all. Where did our money go? We have our city guard, so why do they work to protect us for free, while we pay the adventurer who is just there doing nothing. So I ask you all. Why should we? I never need the help from the guild. I repaired my own house myself, and I am no carpenter or mason. No need to wait for the adventurer guild to move its engineering department, I say. If the city lord say that our taxes are for the growth of the city, I agree. But why did we always have the adventurer to do that?
I say, in seven of ten, if we citizen here are pitted against the adventurers, we would be defeated. Their bread and butter are combat, combat, combat. So is it a wonder, if we are defeated? Not to mention the monsters they called A-rank. But, have you never thought that you are oppressed? Like a rope that tightening slowly on our neck, our economy become more intertwined with the adventurers. The alchemist had to serve more potions, the blacksmith had to serve more weapons and armors. So, the last time this happens, it is because we had a war. The question is, are we gearing to war? No. We are not gearing to war. It is because the adventurer. Most of them are people from another world. So, are they our king's army? Our lord's army? No. They're not beholden to our king, to our lord, or to anyone. They are no different than a sellsword, I say. Why should we arm them then? Why should we arm a foreign army in our land?
We are more helpless day by day, because they hold our weapon, they hold our armor, they hold our shield. If they all left, we will be left with no one to protect us, because most of us forget to do that. If we oppose them, we will be the ones dying. In my grandpa's days, the pharmacist could just go to the forest together to gather herbs. Now, we had to borrow their strength just to do that.
So, I don't say to oppose them. I say that we don't need to rely on them as we are right now. We need to stand up for ourselves, instead. Don't give up your freedom because of convenience! If we all have to learn how to fight, then we learn! Because the alternative is that they always held our hand with sword in our neck! If we continue in this course, our next generation will be relying on them more and more! More helpless! I ask you, Are you sure you want that?"
A smattering of applauses echoed.
She could see how troubled the receptionist was, if the movement of EEE was like this. When she grew stronger, she probably would leave scribel region altogether. The amount of newly arrived adventurer was also not consistent. Would there be a day someday, where it stopped altogether? What would happen to this place then? Would they be helpless, as they said?
After that, the woman moved down from the stool she she was on. Some people began to approach the woman, talking with her. With nothing more to do, she left.
+++
She waited and waited, but she found nothing. A purse snatcher here and there, sure. But she did not find anyone that looked suspicious. She wondered what she could do right then. Sometimes after, she saw the girl on the podium walking. Somehow, she felt drawn to the girl. Therefore, she followed the girl.
The girl arrived on a house. She knocked on the door and announced, "Mom! I'm home!"
The door opened, and a woman came out, hugging the girl.
She left them.
+++
Morning arrived. Once again, she arrived at the market. That day, she wanted to find the red haired man. Another purse snatching occurs, and the boy ducked into an alleyway.
How? how did it occur? Of all the alleyway they could pick, they picked the same alleyway. Why did they pick the same alleyway? Did the man knew of this, thus waited there?
Perhaps there was something in that alleyway, she thought. If the kids knew to use the alleyway instead of other places, perhaps she stumbled onto something.
Observing the place did not give her any hint. She saw nothing different about them compared to the other alleyway. The man was not there when she arrived. Perhaps she could just watch the place? She moved to the rooftop, waiting for another purse snatchers to come.
Once more, a kid went inside the alleyway. She pursued the kid from above. The kid took a breath, then moved a crate on the wall. It revealed a hole, which the kid entered. Clever, she thought. After that, the kid left the hole open.
A woman then entered the alleyway. She put the trash inside of a trashcan, then moved the crate to its original position. The woman then went out. When she followed her, she entered a shop.
Was the shop a front of something? Since it was a shop, she entered it. It was a weapon shop, in which the woman was the shopkeeper.
"Welcome to Mark weapon shop, can I help you?"
She wondered what she should say. She did not need a weapon, per se. Though, she probably could bluff her way.
"Looking for weapon."
"Oh... what kind of weapon?" The woman said.
"Don't know. don't have human's hand. Usually uses claw." She showed the receptionist her hand, flexing and curling her fingers.
"Ah... I'm sorry, then. We don't really accept a special order. If I may recommend, you should focus on magical arts instead. We have an introductory book for them if you want, for only 1200G. We could give you discount of 25G too."
She wondered, how could any adventurer purchase that, when she only get 10-15G per quest. Doing a quest for more than one day was also costly. Declining that, she said her thanks to the woman.
She guessed that this would be the end.
With that she wrote her report.
Points: 150 EXP
Money: 14 G
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