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Marius returned later in the evening, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and white cotton trousers. "What? I like to mingle with the local culture. Everybody, gather up!" he yelled because Regina and Peter were upstairs.
"Lend me your ears, because I don’t like to repeat myself. First, I'll share my credentials with you. If you ever repeat it, I'll hunt you down and cut your tongues. Or balls. Or whatever I want.
"The first thing you have to understand is how the Special Special Forces work. There is no bullshit. No hundreds of pushups, running forty miles a day, or being able to do missions everywhere. The special special forces are specialized and work for the military counterintelligence.
"I have two lines of work: jungles or urban areas. In the latter, I do only one thing: infiltrating bank robber gangs. Sometimes to expose gangs used by foreign actors, but a few times to recover dangerous items hidden in the safe vaults. During my undercover missions, I robbed ninety-nine banks."
"Wow…" Naomi exclaimed. "Is working undercover hard?"
"It depends. I'll tell you my secret: play hard to get. FBI agents, for instance, behave hysterically. 'Hi, I know we just met, but what about robbing a bank together?' Had to shoot… err… I heard of a few agents who got shot because of that.
"But if the gangsters came to recruit you and you tell them no, they start to trust you. Make them work to get you into their bed."
"So true… so true," William nodded.
"I have a question," Peter raised his hand. "How does the prompt make sense? How can we act flashy, yet keep unnoticed at the same time?"
"You'll understand when the time comes," Marius said. “We'll strike the day after tomorrow, in the evening. Until then, I want each of you to rehearse a role I will give you. I want you to become that persona. Let's start with you, sweet cheeks," Marius turned toward Regina. "Sexy but not very smart former cheerleader, talking a lot, engrossed only in her priorities. Make a reproach to Peter using that tone."
"I have no reproach to make Peter, he's perfect," Regina retorted. "I mean… he'd be… If only he'd buy non-aluminum antiperspirants. And maybe read fewer books and pay me more attention. Who reads books nowadays? You can see the movie, right?" she puckered her lips.
"Atta girl!" Marius beamed. "Now, Ariana. I want you to be a Karen."
"But I don't want to be a Karen, I want to be the sexy bimbo!" Ariana yelled.
"That's the spirit. Naomi? Happles nerd, distracted, always phasing out."
"Sorry?" the girl raised his eyes from the journal she read.
"Perfect. Just perfect. The other Peter. Unhinged bank robber."
"Hands up!" Peter from Two roared. "Put the money in the sack if you want to live!"
Marius frowned, grabbing his chin. "Too direct. The unhinged is missing. Keep to the prompt. Yell like you'd be five feet tall—"
"—frustrated and compensating with a big gun, waving it all over, to assert your superiority."
"G-gi…me… your m-money!" the doppelganger shouted with a shrilled, sharp voice.
"Better. Rehearse with the mirror."
"What about me?" Peter asked. "What role do I have?"
"You and Will have special parts. Lend me your ears."
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Pretending to be someone else for almost two days was so tiring that Regina slept like a log and Peter didn't see any 'action' during that interval. Finally, the time to 'strike' came. Marius and Peter Two were the first to go out, and then William, and Peter, five minutes apart. The girls had their schedules, a bit later.
Peter had memorized the city's plan and rehearsed his moves in his mind countless times. Wearing casual clothes, a pair of wide sunglasses, and a baseball cap, he walked to a café, across the bank, and ordered an apple pie and a smoked black tea. That was one of the things Cultivators did best.
On the street, passersby went to their businesses, moving between shops. There were cars, equally divided between electric, mana-tech, and gas. Ten minutes later, on the clock, Ariana—with Shredder at his minimum size on a leash—entered a haute couture shop next to the café.
Soon enough, her scream reached Peter: "What do you mean we can't pay with gold?"
"Please, Your Highness, we commoners cannot take gold directly. The bank across the street can change it for you at an advantageous price. I'll accompany you." A shop clerk rushed to open the door for her. Taking Shredder in her arms, Ariana crossed the street with steps that could put to shame any fashion model, ignoring the cars slowing down around her.
Entering the Bank, the girl went directly to the desk, cutting the line. Peter could see everything through the bay windows, albeit the sounds were muffled. "Change this for me," the girl threw a bar of fifty ounces of gold on the counter."
"She's a visiting princess, from…" the clerk pointed a finger upward.
"Bambolina Hohenstuff," Ariana forwarded her gloved fingers to be kissed by the bank's clerk.
I know… It was Margerine von Zollernburg.
Around Ariana, a commotion started, many patrons petting Shredder, or commenting about how cute he was. Except for Peter, the pup was the only one allowed to use a magical skill, and it was one about charm and charisma.
Yet the charm didn't last long. A car stopped abruptly in front of the bank, with loud brake noises. Dressed in his leather biker suit and helmet, a huge gun in hand—Peter's—the doppelganger rushed up the stairs. There were two guards, one outside, one inside. Peter Two pistol-whipped the first before it had the time to react, then shot the second in the shoulder through the door's window. Both collapsed unconscious.
The crowd on the street dispersed, everyone running for their lives. The ones in the bank hit the floor. Peter threw a coin on the table and took refuge in a gang's shadows.
"Put everything of value in this!" Peter Two threw the bank's clerks Peter One’s backpack. "Only gold. You have a minute. DO IT!" he screamed.
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"What do you think you're doing, halfling!" Ariana—the only customer standing up—boomed. "Surrender yourself or—"
Peter Two shot her. All bullets except the first were blanks. The girl fell backward, with a spray of fake blood erupting from Shredder, who was now in her arms.
"Noooo…. My baby… My baby!" Ariana screamed.
"Hurry!" Peter Two yelled at the clerks. "Show me the director's office."
It was Peter's signal to move. He entered Stealth and Warped up, to the highest floor. There was a balcony there, and the door was supposed to be left open by William. It was. He peaked through the curtains. Naked, William was servicing a curvacious lady in her late forties. Or a hundred and forties, one could never know with Cultivators. Judging from her moans, the deed had just finished.
A phone rang. The woman took it from the nightstand and answered.
"We had a robbery, Madam," a faint voice said. "A male halfling with a gun, he just left. I called the police, they're on their way."
"What did he take?" the woman asked.
"Gold, four hundred ounces or more… and the art, Madam… The painting in your office, and the statuette…"
"Bloody thieving halflings!" the woman hissed. "That art is priceless… I'll be down in a minute… You have to go," she said to William.
"I can wait," the man said. "It was… nice."
"You're sweet," she patted her cheek. "Here, buy yourself a present," she shoved in his hands a handful of banknotes. Cultivator ones, Peter had never seen those before. "Dress, and fast. I can't leave anyone alone in the apartment. Company rules."
Albeit maintaining Stealth in broad daylight was consuming Mana like sponge water, Peter kept it on, eating a Mana Pill to prolong the duration as much as possible. Finally, William and the woman were gone. He entered the room when a gust of wind pushed the curtain away. If there were cameras, nothing would seem suspicious.
It was a studio, not a big one. Not a home, a place to relax during lunch break or spend the night after a long day of work. On a desk was a sort of laptop. Peter touched it with his index.
So fast?
Going back to the balcony, Peter Warped to the second tallest building in town, then to their hotel, directly inside the apartment. The bay windows had been left wide open. As soon as he arrived, he exited Stealth, threw off his clothes, glasses, and hat in a hurry, and went back to the terrace, wearing only boxers, holding his phone in hand.
The buzzing of the mana bolts, creating ozone around them, was resoundingly loud. The police here were at least of rank five. On the largest avenue, a convertible car was going in reverse at full speed. Marius—a racing helmet on his head—was driving it with his feet, sitting on the top of the chair, and shooting two guns at the same time at the pursuing flying Cultivators. Next to him, Peter Two was shooting his weapon into the street, making cars swerve out of their path.
The muscle car intended to make a hard left, but at the last second, a tire exploded. The momentum made it go up the stairs, then through the hotel lobby, skimming over the infinity water pool, missing a few patrons by inches, and then plunging into the abyss of the waterfall below.
"Hey, asshole, watch your driving!" a man shouted. Marius. A glass in hand, he ran out of the water, dressed in a swimming suit, followed by Peter Two. A Cultivator law enforcer landed nearby, to ensure everyone was safe, and the two others descended parallel to the waterfall, to check the car.
The following hours were hectic. The news showed footage from the bank, but instead of concentrating on the money, it was all about how the puppy's collar saved his and Ariana's lives. The wounded guard, taken away by a flying ambulance, had his own moment of glory. Swimmers from the pools were interviewed. Regina, most of all. Her two-piece suit made her look splendid, and the news spent a lot of time asking her questions just to be around her. Peter offered the police his phone's footage, showing the car and two silhouettes falling to their doom into the depths of the ocean. The System had added a lot of CGI, but no one could detect it, it said.
Finally, when the night came, they gathered in the living room with a glass in hand.
"Cheers," Marius toasted. "Impeccable. Congratulations, everyone."
"How did you change clothes so fast?" Ariana asked.
"We didn't," Peter Two said. "We had our swimming suits on us, I pulled the rest of our clothes into my storage when we jumped out of the car and stealthed us for a few seconds. I went for a Rogue class today."
"Amazing!" Peter said, raising his glass.
Peter choked, and Regina had to pat his back a few times.
What class?
Stranger things had happened.
"Why are we still here?" Regina asked. "We cleared the quest, haven't we?"
"We're supposed to talk about our findings. Naomi?" Marius gestured an invitation. “Have you analyzed the data we recovered?”
"S-sure," the girl nodded. "The Reasonable Cultivat Sect has several factions, but only two are of interest to us. I’ll start with the one in power, the Martial faction. Body and Spirit cultivators focused on combat. Their objective is to train a large army of humans and conquer other sects, integrating them into the Tower, as they did with Earth One and Two.
"A secret faction, let’s call it the Trade party, the ones whose data we stole, opposes that. They have a lot of money and would like to stick with the status quo, doing business around the galaxy. They're willing to offer us more freedom and some governments are secretly collaborating with them."
"So, they're better?" Peter asked.
Naomi shook her head. "The Culling is their idea. They control most of the Colleges, directly or indirectly. There are fifteen hundred pairs of students in which one has powers, and the doppelganger does not or is weak. The strong will have to murder their doubles. The training is already ongoing, starting with a few test subjects, controlled by blackmail, greed, or fanaticism. In the right place at the right time, they'll kill someone, posing as a normie, the normie takes the blame but is nowhere to be found, and the assassin will go back to their planet."
"Complicated…" Peter said.
Naomi raised her hands upward. "The laptop contained several databases. Locations, accounts, timelines, files about the plotters, and their accomplices—hidden behind code names—the students, and the targets. I managed to unlock the real identities on the last two lists by comparing them with the Colleges' databases. Melinda is the first on the targets list."
"Oh, no!" Ariana gasped.
"Why?" Regina asked.
"She's the illegitimate daughter of the most powerful Combat Cultivator," Ariana said.
"I saw him once," Peter nodded. “He looked powerful indeed.”
"They want to kill her to throw him out of the balance. His father is a prick, Melinda often says it, but he loves her. When she was a kid, her uncle, Li’s brother, poisoned her and her mother's food, with high-tier qi-pills, using a faction made of assassins, the Rogues… The mother died, but Melinda survived and jumped through several breakthroughs at once. Grandmaster Li discovered who was responsible, and killed every Rogue, and his own brother, single-handedly. Imagine the Trade faction kills Melinda but leaves evidence pointing to members of the Martial party? "
"Then we should let him know," Regina stated, clenching her fists.
"Woof!" Shredder agreed.
"Not so fast," Marius said. "We make sure she lives, the rest, we see. Go on, kiddo."
"The Martial faction is no better," Naomi said. "They were the ones behind the students' deaths on the first trip."
"And they have death squads hunting Resistance," Peter remembered the man he killed.
"They'll make us compete in duels in an Arena, starting Thanksgiving, and use of deadly force will be tacitly accepted. The Culling has been postponed to New Year’s Eve, to profit the holidays."
"I'd like to hear ideas," Marius said. "I'll start. Find a way to pit the factions against each other but on our terms."
"Protect the people we l— care about," Ariana said, her voice strangled.
"Find the identity of the plotters," Will added. "I'll… revisit that lady if I must."
"Guys, you're missing the obvious," Peter Two said. "The secret faction's objective is not bad per se. The method is. If we offer them another way, we should let their plan go on."
"Find allies among other factions?" Regina asked, a bit unsure.
"It's a great idea," Naomi said. "I was thinking the same."
"Explore the fog further. It helped us a lot…" Peter said.
Quest cleared. Prepare for teleportation in one minute. Please be sited to avoid nausea.
General rewards: Priceless art. XP. Bonus for showmanship and discretion: +2 APs in every stat.
Bespoke rewards for Peter Hillden:
+5 levels. Two epic skills unlocked: Glide (Novice). True Aura (Novice).
Next quest: Deal with Fafnir. Requirements: Minimum level: 50. Kill 10 Cultivators.
A second after Peter read the text, the light came and his group was transported back to the Campus, mixed among the students returning from the field trip. Kostel gave them a thumbs up, and when asked, confirmed no one noticed their absence. Melinda and another teacher asked about them a couple of times, and by coincidence, the next second, there were movements in the fog that distracted their attention.