The Insider System

Chapter 72: Spree Pt.2

Lake activated Burst before he got anywhere near his target. One of the side effects of one of your stats doubling all of a sudden was sometimes it made you jerk if you weren't ready for it, or at least that was what Lake had experienced. Lake didn't want to draw attention to himself right before he stole something so he thought it would be best to do it now.

At the rate burst drained Stamina he could have it on all the time so he wasn't worried about the few minutes of walking he had to catch up to the person he was about to rob. As he was walking, Lake looked at the other side of the street. It would be much easier to steal over there because he would be walking against traffic, and people would be forced to bump into him.

The only problem with that was they were much more likely to check their things after he bumped into them because it was the more known way pickpockets stole from people. The way he was doing it, they wouldn't notice until they reached back to get something out of the pouch to find it was missing.

Lake switched his job off Pickpocket before he stole the next pouch. He had gotten lucky the last one didn't have anything in it, or he would have accidentally leveled up again. Lake knew the fact he was trying not to level up was stupid and he was just being greedy.

Lake knew it was dangerous to stunt his growth because he could run into someone much stronger than him but if he didn't at least get a few more Unique jobs first to see what his options were, he would end up underpowered compared to how he would be with a bunch of jobs at level one.

The more skills he could get the better, and he was willing to be weak for a while if it could help him in the long run. The next job Lake planned to unlock was Mugger, its name made it pretty obvious what he needed to do.

The only reason he hadn't done it yet was it wasn't a common job so there was a chance he wouldn't unlock it on the first try, and Lake felt going around mugging people wasn't really a good idea just yet.

After Lake thought this he looked up at the sun he still had almost half of the day left before he could go all out. Lake bet in a city this size even at night there would be plenty of people out and about. Under the cover of night Lake could mug a few people no problem. He also planned to use tonight to find some of the seedier parts of town.

He could just go to the more run down parts of town but he bet seeing where the people went at night would lead him straight to the best place to do business. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone willing to buy stolen goods as long as they couldn't tell they were stolen, but in this world where Appraisers existed Lake needed to find someone who didn't care.

Lake snapped back to reality because he had finally caught up to the person he was about to rob. Activating Fast Hands on top of Burst Lake could tell this was pushing it. It was like when your cursor speed was set too high on your computer and you were unable to use it correctly, but just like that Lake found himself getting used to the feeling.

Lake wondered if his increased ability to adapt to new things was the result of his Intelligence going over 100, because controlling his arms right now was the feat of a god. They were so fast he didn't even have the time to describe how fast they were. He had already hidden the pouch under his arm and walked onto the porch of a nearby building.

Once the guy he had stolen from had left his field of view Lake opened the pouch like he owned it legally. Finding a smaller pouch with five gold in it Lake added it to his, and dumped the rest of the junk into a nearby pile of trash.

After doing this Lake laughed at the fact he was out here stealing from people when he could ask for anything back in the guild. He had sort of forgotten what he needed to do because he was doing what he wanted to do. Lake reopened his satchel and grabbed the core he had stolen from someone's chest a little over a week ago.

He couldn't use it here but this was the real reason he had needed to leave the guild he needed to be somewhere no one was able to see him transform into the guy he had killed. Inside the guild he could feel eyes on him at all times and while it had gotten better after he had gained the skill Trespasser it had never gone away.

Out here on the street people barely even glanced at him so it was a much better place to do it and if it wasn't for the fact he might cause a scene if the skill was painful he would do it now. No one would be able to tell if his face changed under a helmet.

Lake would just wait till he rented a room in an inn before he tested it out. After thinking that Lake started to read the signs on the buildings to see if he could find one. He needed to know how much it was going to cost to spend the night to see if he needed to continue to steal or if he had enough for tonight.

Looking at all the signs Lake didn't see any that were hotels, so he looked up to see he was standing right in front of one. Opening the door, Lake saw an old man behind a counter. Judging that he looked honest enough Lake asked. "How much for a room for tonight." The old man shook his head and said. "Sorry we're full."

Lake wished the old man had hung a sign or something but Lake shrugged and left. There wasn't much he could do except kill someone and rent their room and Lake didn't think he could pull it off because the police always looked for motive, and Lake would stand out with how much he profited from their death.

Back outside Lake moved one street over and did the same to receive the same answer from the person behind the counter. Once he was outside again instead of just brute forcing the problem by checking every hotel he could find Lake tried to think why every place was full.

It didn't take long to remember what Lucas had told him this morning about a massive amount of people arriving last night. Lake wondered if every room in the city was booked and he wouldn't be able to find one no matter how hard he looked. If that was the case he guessed he could just pull an all-nighter.

He just needed to find somewhere private enough to use Impersonate. Lake was pretty sure he needed to use Impersonate to get his next mission from the Insider, so not having a room wasn't a big enough reason to stop him. Lake looked around, he just needed an alley or something that would block anyone from seeing him.

Finding a particularly large pile of garbage Lake crouched down and activated the ability while holding the core. The core disappeared from his hand or more accurately into his hand but after that nothing else really happened. Lake stayed where he was in case it was just a delayed reaction, but after nothing happened for an even longer time, he opened his stats to see if he could see anything.

Name: Jon Melon

Race: Human Lv.7 ( 2/10 )

Job: Pickpocket Lv.2 ( 3/20 )

Special: The Insider Lv.0 ( 3/5 )

Stats

Health 70

Stamina 70

Mana 190

Strength 15

Endurance 15

Agility 49

Dexterity 49

Perception 83

Intelligence 114

Charisma 11

Free stat points: 23

Lake almost didn't see it right away because he normally just skipped right over the name part of his stats because it never changed but now he guessed he had a reason to care about it. Lake took off his helmet and used the shiny surface to see if his face had changed. Lake frowned not because it hadn't worked but because it had.

He now looked Like the first person he had ever killed. The Assassin Jon Melon. Lake put his helmet back on and started to read the message that had come up a second ago. [New Quest: Use stolen identity to infiltrate an organization] Lake was happy he had been right but right now he just wanted to figure out how to turn his face back.

After a few seconds he did the only thing that made sense and taped the name part of his stat sheet, Lake bet it worked the same as the job page he had. Seeing a new golden screen open, Lake knew he was right. Tapping his name to switch back, Lake stood up and went back onto the street.