A young man was casually leaning against the wall, observing the hustle and bustle around him. A pair of pitch black and bulky earphones was placed around his neck and a light tune could be heard from it.

‘He’s coming!’

Hearing the voice, the youth finally spurred into motion. He leisurely walked out on the streets. He was looking down on his bracelet, not paying attention to the road.

Suddenly—

Bam!

He walked right into a person. The person fell down.

The young man showed a surprised and flustered expression. “Sorry, man! I wasn’t looking at where I was going!”

“No, it’s fine, I wasn’t, too.” The man that he had just ran into waved his hand carelessly. He glanced behind him, his gait betraying his haste.

The young man held out his hand to help the fallen man up. “I’m really sorry.” He scrunched his brows apologetically.

The man accepted his hands, allowing himself to be pulled up. “It’s fine.” He flashed a slight smile to the polite young man, then quickly scurried away as if running away from someone.

Watching the retreating man’s back with a peculiar gaze, he muttered, “Really sorry.”

The young man hid his hand that had just helped the stranger inside his sleeve, his fingers flexing as if he was typing something.

‘Did you get it?’

“Mm. I got it.”

‘Good.’

His eyes glanced over at a figure that had just walked past him. The person had pulled up their hooded jacket and wore a pair of black visors, hiding their appearance. As if he had just coincidentally looked at the person, the young man’s eyes roamed away casually.

‘Meet me back at the base.’

“Mm.”

The young man entered one of the many alleyways of the suburban district, disappearing into the shadows.

When the young man appeared again, he entered the rather inconspicuous bar hidden in one of the alleys.

“Welcome to Bar Lucid Dreams. How may I help you?” The robot waitress greeted him.

“VIP lounge.” The young man whipped out a black membership card rimmed with neon purple highlights. The waitress accepted the card and scanned its surface. Then, she returned it back to him with a smile.

“Right this way, Mr. Enigma.”

Without a word, Enigma followed the waitress up to the second floor. She placed her hand on the scanner next to it, and ushered him in politely.

Inside the room, two people were waiting for him.

“You’re here.” One of them said. His voice sounded nasally, as if he was high on something.

The other person, was exactly the same person he had been looking at just moments before he came to the bar.

“How come you’re always faster than me?” Enigma clicked his tongue at the person.

“Don’t blame me for being the better agent.” The person crossed their arms and harrumphed. “So? Where’s the thing?”

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“Calm down. I have it right here.” Enigma moved to the only monitor inside the room. He placed his hand on the black desk just under the monitor. The desk lighted up at his touch, showing that it was actually a touchscreen keyboard.

The desk recognised his handprint and immediately gave him access to the monitor.

Enigma took off his bracelet, placing it on the desk. The computer took five seconds to completely upload the files within his bracelet onto the monitor.

Enigma clicked his tongue, “your computer sure is a piece of junk.”

The nasally-voiced man glared at him, “hey! Don’t complain. That’s the best supercomputer I could afford with the peanuts you guys gave me. You think running this bar is cheap? Think about the maintenance cost. And the customers! Gods, why don’t we ever have any customers—“

Enigma tuned out of the man’s ramblings as he organised the files in his bracelet.

He made a swiping motion on the desk and sent a copy of one of the files towards an icon that had appeared on it.

Just as the icon flashed with a green circle, the hooded person’s voice could be heard. “I received it.”

Enigma nodded, then picked up his bracelet from the desk. He secured it back on his wrist.

The person browsed through the file, whistling in surprise. “This guy’s filthy rich.”

“It’s stolen money.” Enigma says plainly. “Are we going to return it?”

“Of course not. Do you know who that guy stole from? Pandora Corp! I bet you they won’t even feel the loss if we don’t return it.”

Enigma contemplated the person’s words, then nodded. “True. Losing a few millions won’t make them flustered.”

“So? How much is my cut?” The other man jumped eagerly at the mention of money.

“Your cut? If I recall correctly, you didn’t help at all this time.” The person sneered. The person took off their jacket and removed their visor, revealing a girl in her teens, with a grotesque scar marring her otherwise gorgeous face.

“Hey, I provided a safehouse for you, didn’t I?”

“We paid for this room.” The girl stated, crossing her arms across her chest.

The man coughed awkwardly. “Fine, you win. I won’t ask for it this time.”

“Hmph!” The girl harrumphed, condemning the man with her looks.

“…”

“So? What are we going to do with the money?”

“I’ll channel some of it to the others. Dean’s equipment needs repair and repair needs money. As for the rest of the money…” She frowned. “We’re finally old enough to ride the spaceship, but there’s not enough money to send all of us.”

“So that means we need to gather more funds?” Enigma sighed. He was getting tired of microstealing other people’s money. Although hacking in to strangers’ bank accounts is easy, it was a crime. It left a bad taste in his mouth. That was why, they tried to target those who were also criminals.

“Even if you guys have the money, you guys should wait for a while.” The man turned serious. “I heard that something’s going on in the motherland. Terrorists keep trying to attack, so the restrictions on spaceship passengers are getting tighter. They won’t let you on unless you have a super clean record or a military permit.”

“…” Enigma silently gazed at the girl. She had a few records of assault and battery on her plate, after all. That was far from ‘super clean’.

The girl glared at him. “What?”

“…Nothing.” He quietly opened a tab on his bracelet’s browser. He hacked into the government’s server and wiped out all of the girl’s criminal records in seconds.

The man looked back and forth at the two figure, a peculiar look in his eyes. “…Good for you, Amara.” He finally said. He had noticed Enigma’s actions and silently lit a candle on the officers who would misunderstand that Amara was a good girl. Even with the scar, if she kept her mouth shut, she would look like a docile and pretty girl.

“What!” Amara growled at him.

“Anyways, don’t you guys have somewhere else to be?” Lucid Dreams’ owner cleared his throat. Having these rebels in his establishment was bad luck, he thought.

Enigma and Amara ignored his blatant words of wanting to kick them out, and instead spent another two hours in the VIP lounge.

Finally, the two left, causing the man to almost burst into tears of joy.

The two took the subway to a rundown district. The buildings there did not look so nice but it was all they could afford. The two headed to a warehouse and entered it.

“We’re home~” Amara greeted cheerfully.

“Welcome home, Amara, Enigma.” The people inside warmly greeted them.

There was five people altogether, three guys and two girls. They all looked roughly around the same age.

“Oh, that’s right. Enigma, here.” One of the girls handed Enigma a small, rectangular box. “We went back to the old orphanage this morning and I finally found what you were looking for.”

Enigma’s heart thumped. “You did?!” A rare look of excitement filled his eyes, shocking his companions. Enigma was usually very stoic, and to get some kind of genuine reaction from him was a novelty.

Enigma accepted the box. “Where did you find it?”

“It turns out that damned Warren hid it in the headmistress’ office. No wonder we couldn’t find it anywhere.” The girl sneered, thinking of the jerk that kept bullying them back when they were still in the orphanage.

“Oh… what’s important is that we found it. Thank you, you guys.” Enigma gave them a small but genuine smile in gratitude.

The six people’s eyes widened in surprise.

Enigma had always been a good-looking fellow, and when he smiled… Ah. so blinding!

For a moment, these people thought that it was a good thing that Enigma did not smile very often, else a trail of admirers would have already gathered under his feet.