After a bit of indecision, I decided to return home for the night. Sure, I could just bust into the place and confiscate the camera feeds using my Blue Crusade identity, but that would also probably shorten my lifespan to a few hours if I was lucky. An alternate method was required.

I slept on it, worked on some stuff, and in the morning I was more than ready to enact my newest hare-brained scheme. I packed my bag full of stuff I would need, including a tapper and my deck and headed for the restaurant.

I looked up the building in the city’s directory and plucked the blueprints. Ruby’s BBQ basically had two components to it. A massive-looking warehouse, one that looked far too big for a simple BBQ place to have, and the actual restaurant slash bar area.

Although my knowledge was quite limited, I would hazard a guess that the warehouse was some kind of Neo-Joker operation, especially considering the sheer number of gangers camped out front the other day. The warehouse connected directly to the restaurant, and the airlock hallway led right past the manager’s office.

Between the two - a potentially heavily guarded warehouse and a highly populated restaurant - it was a hard decision on the safest path. The warehouse offered less population, but I’d probably be shot on sight. The restaurant offered far reduced danger, yet would require sneaking past at least a couple dozen gangers and various people.

At least, that had been my thoughts until my scheming brain started to come up with a strategy to get into the manager’s office.

And that’s how I found myself here, just outside of the warehouse in an alley. It took a bit to line myself up and find it, but now I stood before a fire escape headed straight for the roof of the building. I climbed up the rusted iron stairs, each step shaking rust-free into dust as the aged metal creaked with misuse.

I half feared for my life until I hit the top and dismounted the rusty metal onto the warehouse roof. From there, it took a bit of searching to find what I wanted. A small shed on top of the building ‘securely’ locked tight with a deadbolt.

That ‘security’ fell within a minute to my lockpicking kit, allowing me easy access into the shed. The electrical system for the entire warehouse's lights sat here in all its splendor. I popped the door closed with my hip and got to work.

After removing the panel face covering the intricacies of the several breakers and switches, I carefully cut and pried out the master switch, replacing it with a modified variant of my tapper. It had barely taken me an hour to jury rig the thing together.

It took a bit to get everything set up, but I messed with the wires and replaced the master switch with my tapper. I set it up in such a way that it would be incredibly easy to remove, though still effective at what I wanted.

It was time.

I swiftly worked my way around the various ventilation units on the roof of the building, lightly jogging over to one of the pyramid skylights scattered across the roof. The rain had kept the window mostly clean, allowing my first view into the warehouse.

Shelves sat in rows all around the place, reaching almost all the way up to the roof. Most of them were caked with dust, showing the long time that they had been abandoned. Boxes and debris cluttered the shelves, their original intent lost to the annals of history.

Just from here, I spotted several guards moving about the place. All had the signature fiery hair of the Neo-Jokers and toted assault rifles of some kind as they moved around the place. Definitely a heavily guarded position.

I went to work, undoing the several screws holding the skylight’s panels in place, and carefully eased it off its mount, resting it on the floor. I checked my perks - active. Now or never. I tied a rope to one of the bulky ventilation unit’s braces and lowered myself over the edge of the skylight.

As soon as my feet tapped the tall shelf under the skylight, I ducked down. The shelves were thick enough that nobody should be able to see the rope and me standing on top of it, but it never hurt to be careful.

I slowly slunk my way down the middle of the shelf, keeping low as I moved down to the far end of the warehouse. My entry point let me in several aisles to the side of the door leading into the hallway to Ruby’s BBQ.

To make up for this deficiency, I needed to hop from one shelf to the next. I switched my tapper on, giving it a five-second countdown till it would flip the switch. A deep breath filled my lungs. You got this Shiro. Just don’t look down.

Before I could second guess myself, I got a running start and lept freely towards the other shelf. At that moment, the entire warehouse turned dark as the lights shut off. I felt the true freedom of flight as my small frame sailed through the air like it had been launched by a cannon. My heart pounded ferociously in my chest, sending pure exhilaration through my system like a caffeine bomb had just exploded into my bloodstream.

My eye adjusted quickly to the sudden darkness as I smoothly adjusted my angle. My foot caught on the next shelf, the force of my leap jolting up through my legs. I lightly controlled my momentum and balance to make no noise. The momentum carried me a few steps, though I returned to the center just as the lights flickered back to life, casting away the darkness.

I took several breaths, forcibly calming down the pure exhilaration I felt from the maneuver. My pounding heart in my ears slowly faded, allowing me to faintly catch concerned voices. They were too faint to hear entirely, but I barely caught something like ‘must’ve been a power outage’.

I repeated the process several times, shortly arriving before the shelf closest to the door. I peeked over the edge, spotting my target. My heart hammered in my chest as I peeked up and down the aisle. No guards were around. I slowly crawled down the side of the massive shelf, moving from one shelf to the other until hitting the ground.

Just as I about peeked at the corner, the ice-cold caress of Insight teased my skin. Immediately, without so much as questioning it, I ducked back under the shelf and hid behind a small box. Clicking a button on my deck, the lights instantly went dark.

An aggravated sigh came from the mouth of the aisle as a dark shape moved into where I just stood. The skylight’s streaming neon illuminated half the man’s face as he idly gazed around.

His eyes made contact with mine right as he yawned. For a moment, my brain froze as I fought the desire to yawn and give my position away. It was a brief, but brutal fight. Damn you Lethargic Presence!

His gaze stayed connected for what felt like an eternity. I could’ve sworn he saw me as my heart hammered several times faster than it had the right to. Maybe it was thanks to Stalk? Or is Lethargic Presence showing its dual consequence usefulness once more? He continued on without pausing a step as he stalked down the aisle.

I let out a breath I hadn’t known I had been holding and slid out from under the shelf. Once more, I peeked out to make sure the coast was clear. The aisles were completely clear. I slunk across the aisle and reached the door. Locked.

But what did locked doors really matter? Nothing, as long as I had time. I knelt before the door and pulled out my lockpick set. The lock was a simple kind, allowing me to easily breach it and unlock the door.

I slid through the doorway, immediately closing it behind me. I was in. And a lot more painlessly than I originally expected. Seriously, I didn’t even know I had that kind of hop in me to get between shelves so easily. I guess I am finally growing.

The hallway was more of an airlock with two doors on either side of it. Sandwiched in between was my goal- the manager’s office. I stepped up to the door and unlocked it too, allowing me access to where my treasure lay.

Inside the manager’s office wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. In some ways, it resembled my apartment. A large desk covered in parts and boxes sat in the corner with an absolutely massive 3d printer blitzing away.

I completely forgot what I was doing as I spotted the beautiful piece of tech. It was something that I had seen on the Net- a Raijin Industrial Plasticworks. Or RIP. Raijin proclaimed it to be the end of all other printers, at least those that were plastic only. And indeed, the piece of tech was so-

A loud sound came from behind me. I whipped around, missing the grip of my pistol entirely as I tried to throw myself to the side. I ducked behind the desk and finally managed to pull the pistol free to find the intruder. Why hadn’t Insight warned-

The sound repeated, this time coming from a couch off to the side of the room. I flicked towards it, finger on the edge of the trigger guard as-

A weak laugh almost bubbled out of my throat as I tilted my pistol away. A man, built like a cyborg unit, lay collapsed on the couch. Bright red hair came from seemingly every part of his body, making him seem more like a bear than a person.

I slipped the pistol back into my pocket and turned away. As long as he remained asleep, there was no point in doing something… drastic. Killing a defenseless man in his sleep was not ideal. I glanced at the printer one last time before moving to my target. The terminal.

To absolutely no one’s surprise: locked. I glanced around before picking up the keyboard. There, written down on a sticky note, were the username and password. Neo_eoN and the password was… Nobodywilleverknow123. Real creative.

I set them down and keyed them in, cringing slightly at the noise the clacking keyboard made. The stuff on the note worked, allowing me access to their system. It didn’t take long to find the camera feeds, though not before I ‘accidentally’ looked through a folder called Schematics on the home page.

The folder contained a vast array of firearms and how to make them. More specifically, how to machine and 3D print the parts before assembling them. There was also some more minor stuff in there, such as making cameras and motorcycle parts. It was an absolute treasure trove that I happily indulged in. Eidetic Schematic noted every dete down, ensuring I would be able to remember the stuff that really mattered.

I finally settled in to look through the feeds. I already had the date from Micheal Schwartz, so all I had to do was scroll back through the saved recordings. From there, I tracked Christopher Strun until I spotted a man pulling him aside. He looks exactly like how the guy had described him.

I copied the video clip onto my phone and sent it to Clarence. ‘Does Mr. Abernathy know this guy?’

I didn’t wait for a reply as I closed out all the tabs and locked the terminal back up. I cast a glance around once more, my eyes automatically drawn to the printer. It was so pretty… unfortunately, it was far too bulky to carry out with me.

Something else caught my attention. A golden statue of a fox sat on the coffee table by where the guy slept.

「New Requests!」

「Request - Precious

• Steal the precious item

• Crow’s Wheel of Wares」

Another request from Crow… I wanted to take the statue sooo bad, but I just- I just couldn’t. It was too big, and I’d have to leave behind everything in my bag to maybe carry it out. That wasn’t even including how much the thing probably weighed! But I wanted it so bad…

I forced myself away, deciding to take a couple of spools of plastic filament as a cheap consolation prize. I needed material for my own printing anyway…

One last forlorn look tracked the statue's glorious curves before I began my trek back through the warehouse. Jumping with far more weight reduced the ease with which I cleared the gaps, but I still managed to get back and up through the skylight.

I screwed everything in and fixed what I did to the breaker box. There was no point giving away the weaknesses in this place’s security, especially considering I wanted to return for the statue… I would need to be stronger though. Maybe it was really time to hit the gym?

After I retreated back out onto the neon streets, my phone buzzed as a text came across. Unfortunately, the lack of HUD meant I had to manually pull out my phone and look. ‘Sir said he looked familiar, but couldn’t place him.’

’Chek.’ That hadn’t been as informative as I hoped… maybe I could run him through facial recognition? That might take a long while to pick up the right guy.

I passed by a TV store, with several TVs on display tuned to various stations. I idly glanced over it, freezing as Insight lightly chilled along my spine. That chill drew my attention to one screen in particular.

A beautiful news anchor stood outside a massive tower. ”… reporting live from ASCorp’s Bricktown Supermarket. Aythryn City’s ASCorp Supermarket General Manager, Mr. Keratás, has agreed to an interview. Mr. Keratás?”

She waved her mic towards the man beside her. Dirty blonde hair clung to his head like a mop, and his face had the rounded shape of someone who ate well. “I assure you! Everything is under control-“

A screeching whirl cut him off as one of the robotic greeters whirled to life. It instantly twisted awkwardly, breaking several pipes and spewing black oil all over the man.

He screamed something in anger, but I was too distracted by his face. A very familiar face. I glanced down at my phone, matching it up to him. Well… this made things easier.