I hung up the phone with a tired hand. While my body shook with exhaustion, a content smile stood on my face.

Digging up those old memories wasn’t easy, and I didn’t want to face it, thinking they were over. But that obviously wasn’t the case. The same rage that threw me into a downward spiral back home… was about to happen again. And I stopped it. I stopped it!

Things were looking up, and I had everything I came here for. Enough levels in [Detect Cheating] and a new perk to hopefully get more dirt on the traitor, an unexpectedly new outlook on life, and… that was it. It should’ve been everything, but I had the feeling I was forgetting something.

I took a deep breath of the cool, smog-laden night-time air and began to trudge back to my car. I walked past the roller rink again, half expecting someone to jump out and heckle me, but those fears were unfounded. The other half of my expectations were for a knot to form in my stomach, be it from awkwardness or sheer tension of passing by that troublesome place again. But the sensation didn’t come either. I really did feel… free.

But to be honest, I was just caught up in the moment. A loud nearby grumble snapped me out of my inner peace, and as I turned to face the source, my eyes widened in realization.

A man who looked to be in his thirties tightly held onto a briefcase before carelessly throwing it underneath the seats of the bus stop. It slid beyond the plastic bench, past the metal poles that held up the plexiglass roof over the seating, and all the way to the beginning of the black asphalt road.

“Seriously, I can’t believe they’re making me do overtime like this, and I ain’t even getting paid extra!”

The placid waters within me experienced a ripple as I began piecing together the man’s words. As everything fell into place and I finally remembered the other reason I came here, those ripples turned into hemorrhaging rapids as red filled my eyes.

I was sure the sounds of my footsteps weren’t that loud, since I wasn’t stamping my feet, but the strange man looked my way and began running with a scream before I was even halfway towards him.

“Strength, Dexterity, do your thing,” I whispered to myself as I reached into my mind and activated the two attributes, letting them enhance my legs until they were on-par with an olympic sprinter.

It didn’t take very long before I caught up to the stranger. With a flying leap, I closed the rest of the distance and wrapped both of my arms around his waist in a grabbing tackle, bringing us both to the ground with me on top.

I was already up on my knees before he could even register what had happened. One hand around his wrist and a heavy tug was enough to turn him around so that he was facing up towards me instead of the ground.

The man’s face was contorted into a familiar look. His eyes were wide, and mouth was twitching in a mumble-shout trying to sound off something between a plea and a cry.

Plea? What the hell did he want after trying to ruin Goldshank’s business? My haven?! I was going to make him pay for-

I managed to trace his wild eyes to my right hand, which was curled into a raised fist. Oh…

The raging waters within me suddenly went calm, but in a wave of ice that left everything frozen solid so suddenly it was nauseating.

I sat there frozen for another few seconds. My head turned towards the raised fist, and I slowly lowered it with a drawn out sigh.

“So it really is going to take some work, huh?” I said.

“W-what?!”

“Not talking about you.” My head swiveled over to the man on the ground and I gave him an unsteady look, as if my mouth wanted to give an apologetic smile while my eyebrows were still angry. The end result made the man under me squirm even harder. “But I still have a job to do, so maybe I am talking about you?”

“For fuck’s sake, why do I always have to deal with the crazies?”

I raised a finger but stopped partway before lowering it. “Yeah, fair. But just tell me who you work for and I’ll let you go.”

“I don’t know, I swear! I was just told to pick up some packages and move them around, and there’s usually cash sitting somewhere when I’m done.”

“Told by who?” I impatiently tapped a finger on his shoulder.

“Dunno! It’s someone different each time!”

I took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, a complete contrast from the short and frantic pace of the man below me.

“I-I can show you where I’m supposed to be meeting them next! I still have more packages to pick up and drop around town!”

The residual anger within me demanded I slam a fist into the man’s head for giving me more work, but the only place I put it was my pocket. That made it harder to stand up when I was using only one hand for balance, especially when I was already on an uneven surface, but I was able to get to my feet before he could run away. My other hand was on his shoulder as soon as he was about to.

“Hey hey! No need to still keep your hands on me, I’m not going to run!”

“Good, because we both know what would happen if you tried.” I slowly lifted my hand and placed it in my other pocket. In any other circumstance I wouldn’t have been so confident in my threat, but I was pretty confident about [Intimidation].

And for a good reason as the man stood in place. His feet didn’t budge one inch, even though the rest of his body began shaking.

“So what are you waiting for? Lead the way.”

---

“Alright, over here,” said the nervous man. His shakes settled down to a more restrained fear in the fifteen minutes it took us to walk here. “I’m supposed to pick up another couple of packages in thirty minutes. So can I go now?”

“Not until I meet your boss,” I said.

No sooner than when the words left my mouth, I saw another man walking towards the pickup spot. Just like last time, he let out some grumbles before tossing a stack of packages into a payphone and walking away.

“Alright, you’re free to go,” I said to the man next to me and began to follow this new one.

I was able to close about half the distance between us before he noticed me and began to increase his pace. It didn’t take long before he figured what was up and broke into a dead sprint.

“Hey, get back here!” I shouted while channeling my physical attributes into my legs to close the distance.

The man let out a pained grunt as I tackled him to the ground and grabbed at his shoulder.

“Alright, who told you to move these packages around?” I asked, my voice much more calm and amicable than last time.

“I-I- I can’t say! Please, let me go! I beg you! I’ll get into so much trouble if I don’t finish this run!”

“You’re already in trouble. The contents of those packages are letting people cheat in a massive national poker tournament.”

“What?! I swear I didn’t know that!” the man continued to stammer. “Please, I’ll tell you everything I know, I don’t belong in jail!”

My eyebrows rose in surprise. This guy was much easier to deal with than the last, almost as if they had completely different alignments.

“I just answered an ad from the paper, I didn’t know they were having me do something illegal! Come on, you’ve got to believe me!”

He reeked of desperation. And judging from his build and demeanor, he definitely didn’t come off as some kind of hardcore career criminal. He really did look like he was unknowingly dragged into this. But the cheating ring I was dealing with at work was much too complex to be run by a couple of nobodies, so I wasn’t entirely convinced. But it didn’t feel good being so hard on this guy.

“Alright, don’t worry. I’m just trying to figure out who’s in charge, so tell me who your boss is and you should get out of this scott free.”

“Really? Oh, thank you, thank you! But… I really don’t know who the boss is. I was just handed a letter by another employee along with these packages and told to bring them to different parts around town.”

My eyelid twitched.

“B-but I could show you where I’m supposed to pick up the next batch! Yeah! It’s just down the street!”

“…lead the way.”

---

“Stop right there!” I shouted at the third illicit courier of the night as I tackled her to the ground.

She reached for a whistle around her neck but I smacked it out of her hand before she could put it to her mouth.

“Hold up, you’re the criminal here!”

“What?!” she said, more scared than confused.

I quickly got up, feeling more uncomfortable and ashamed at myself right now than I ever had since coming to this world. For a criminal courier, she was making me feel like I really did chase down and tackle a woman walking alone in the city in the middle of the night. And not to mention her whistle…

“Oh my god, you really are all innocent.”

The woman simply reached for her whistle again.

“Wait, please!” I shouted, making her stop for an instant. “Those packages are being used to cheat in a massive poker tournament! I’m just trying to figure out who’s actually in charge of the cheating ring!”

“For real? Dammit!” the woman shouted as she slowly rose to her feet and walked over to the dropped box. She tore it open, letting loose a nasty odor that reminded me of rotting papier mache. Inside was a radio headset and a case of counterfeit chips. “And I thought I finally scored a good job, what the hell?!”

“Hey, I’m sorry about all of this.” I gave the woman a sympathetic look. “But if you tell me who your boss is, I can at least get them to face justice.”

“I wish I knew, but I’ve been picking these packages up from dead drops, and all I have to go with is the next stop.”

“Heh. Heheh. Ha! Hahaha!” I let loose a cacophonous laugh that echoed out into the night. “I’m never getting to the end of this wild goose chase, am I?”

“Is that what you’re doing?” came the voice of a man from behind me. “I could’ve sworn you were up to something else with how you tackled this young woman in the middle of the night.”

I quickly turned around, trying not to show the red covering half my face.

“Hey Mike, long time no see.”

“Sam? Is that you?”

“The one and only!”

I barely recognized the man in front of me. His snark and smile were the only features I recognized; everything else about him had changed. His chin was cleanly shaved and hair trimmed into a neat crew cut. The brown leather coat was a far cry from the old, hole-ridden wool one he used to wear when he still slept on the streets. And the presence he held himself with was probably the biggest change out of them all. This was a man rebuilt.

“So how’s life been treating you? Word on the street is that you’ve been doing well for Goldshanks, catching cheaters left and right. Glad you took my words to heart and went with him!”

“You have no idea how right you were,” I said with a tired laugh. “But you didn’t say anything about overtime.”

“Is that what you’re doing now? I told you the work would be honest, not easy. But… your work doesn’t exactly look honest from where I’m standing.”

My eyes darted between him and the woman, now panting while standing over the broken contents of the package. “I swear it’s not what it looks like.”

“Don’t worry, I know you’re not that kind of guy. So, what really is going on?”

“There’s an organized cheating ring, but they’re all being supplied by dead drops. I’ve been chasing after it for the last hour or so, but I haven’t gotten anywhere.”

“Hmm, sounds like a wild goose chase, alright.” He clapped his hands together, bringing mine and the woman’s attention to him. “Tell you what? I still owe you for getting me this job, so let me help you out with this!”

“I didn’t get you your job, you were just next to me at the right time.”

“Same thing, if you hadn’t caused that ruckus back then and attracted Kozakhov’s talent scout, she wouldn’t have noticed me and given me control of his street network!”

“Still, I owe you for telling me about Goldshanks.”

“Whatever, I’m still doing this for you.” Sam flashed me a confident smile. “Just tell me where the next dead drop is and I’ll have someone scout it out, and branch out from there. I’ll get you the info as soon as I can track it back to whoever’s in charge.”

“Sam… you’re a lifesaver, you know that? Seriously, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it! Besides, a rival gang is bad business for my boss, so I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

I said one more round of thanks and goodbyes, and headed back home. It was pretty late into the night, and I needed my sleep for tomorrow. I was feeling more confident about things thanks to Sam, but that wouldn’t stop all of the cheaters I’d have to deal with tomorrow. And besides, I still had to deal with the traitor.