Bricktown, home to bricks, ASCorp, and the Neo-Jokers. What could I say about it? The district sat directly to the east of Little Yukoto. As its name suggested, almost everything was made of bricks. At least everything short of the megabuildings. They were still the mess of concrete and metal that every other district had.

Even though the building material may have changed, it was still Aythryn City. Neon and trash plagued the streets. Bricktown was the industrial hotspot too, so the smog was far worse.

The population density also shifted. There was less Easter influence in the area. I could actually read most of the signs, though there were still occasional shops and buildings with varied language.

I passed several bikers on my way through Bricktown. Their bright red hair and laughing clown cuts immediately gave their affiliation away. Neo-Jokers, the 'owners' of Bricktown. Thankfully, no one bothered with me much. I was just another face in the crowd.

Stintith sat on the opposite side of Bricktown from Little Yukoto. It was literally on the furthest edge of the city. Not quite in the Outskirts, but a near thing. The population dropped, and pedestrians became rarer and rarer. Traffic died to just the occasional vehicle. Even Neo-Joker presence all but disappeared.

An explosion echoes out somewhere from the city. Just another background noise. Explosions were less common than gunshots, but this was still Aythryn City. All sorts of mercs, monsters, and mayhem lurked scattered over the place. Explosions were quite common place.

I pulled into a quarter-full parking garage and headed for the first location. It was an old, abandoned factory. Didn't stand out much from its surroundings in any way. This place was home to many abandoned buildings.

Stintith was ever-changing. Several corporations got into and out of business every year. The ones that fell? They left abandoned buildings behind. Those that succeeded? They tried to get out of this place at first chance, likewise leaving their buildings behind. It was a bit like a ghost town.

In a couple months, most of the buildings around here would probably be bought out for a time or bulldozed for some other doomed corporate uprising. It was just the nature of this place.

The factory had a chainlink fence around it, but c'mon, this was the twenty-first century! No simple chain link fence would really keep somebody out. Especially since it even didn't have barbed wire at the top. Talk about amateur hour.

I cased the place for a while, watching for any external security. I had the weird feeling this wasn't the spot, but I was already here so I may as well try to get up to the roof and check. I marked the cameras and their angles before I picked my infiltration spot.

It was out of the way, so nothing saw me hop the fence and head inward. The cameras likely wouldn't be active given the state of the place. The Blue Crusade likely wouldn't care much about this kind of B&E, but never could be sure. They were a hard bunch to get a read on.

I edged around the factory toward a side entrance. I tried the door- unlocked. Nova. Maybe things would actually be smooth sailing for once?

The factory had been a car manufacturing plant at some point. The production line still lay rusted over throughout the place. It was far from abandoned though.

A tent city covered the place, complete with a couple hundred homeless blokes scattered around. The majority were out, doing whatever they did during the day. The few that remained mostly sat around central fires. Plenty of room to edge around the space without being spotted.

I edged around the perimeter of the camp, using the shadows to slink toward the offices. The staircase or ladder up to the roof would hopefully be in there. I popped open the door and slid into-

"What are you doing?" A ratty voice called from behind me. I immediately locked up. So much for the stealth route. Directly behind me sat a guy, face absolutely covered in scar tissue.

My hand twitched for my gun just in case. The guy seemed rather laid back as if he didn't care that I was here… maybe I could just ask? "I- I'm looking for something… You see a group of Neo-Jokers around?"

The scarred man shook his head. "Ha. They know better to avoid places like this. Nothing to be had from the poor…"

And even a cornered rat would bite. Not like it had much to lose anyway. "Nobody got up onto the roof recently?"

"No. Look, you should probably leave." He waved a lazy hand to the rest of the camp. "I don't mind, but some of the other guys 'round here are quite trigger happy."

"Chek." Stupid Shiro. Why even check this place? It's obvious this wasn't it. The homeless were just another variable the group would've wanted to avoid.

I rubbed at the back of my head and turned back the way I came. It was always embarrassing to be caught. I'd been so sure I could get through undetected… hod did that guy know? Footsteps?

And wasn't Fox's Grace supposed to make sneaking around easier? Sure didn't feel like it… maybe I should've picked something else? It looked so very attractive though. And, to be honest, Fox's were always my favorite at the holo-zoos. Maybe I just hadn't used it right yet?

I trudged back to my bike, slightly delayed by the machine's refusal to start for several minutes. I twisted the key again. "C'mon, please don't quit on me now."

The thermoelectric engine chugged to life as if answering my please. I carefully twisted the accelerator, watching for any issues. Whatever issue it initially had seemed to clear up though. I pulled out of the parking garage without any issues.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The second location I checked was an abandoned sewer treatment station. It stunk to the high heavens, and I didn't even try to get close to it. I could see the telltale signs of mutants even from fairly far out. No point in messing with them and getting myself killed. Or worse, infected. No way they would've used this place.

The third place showed far more promise. A bit of searching on my worn-out phone revealed the company recently closed down, so there was little chance of it being a tent city already. Would be the perfect place.

I tied my hair into a loose ponytail and moved in, taking a similar approach to the last. There were enough alleys and shadows to easily find a secluded spot. This time I had to actually cut a part of the fence thanks to the barbed wire around the top. No way I wanted to try and climb that.

It was between two smokestacks, so the roof was the obvious place to check. I found the ladder leading up and climbed up it. Several smokestacks poked up out of the building, all in various states of disrepair.

The photo was… hmm… maybe at this angle? I cross checked between my phone and the building a few more times. Eventually, I found an ashen patch between two of the smokestacks. A spot a bit further away held the burned remains of the "1%" in a diamond of char.

No camera around here. It was a dead zone through and through. No chance of stealing footage or something. Then again, burning bodies in view of a camera would be too amateurish for a setup. What was I even expecting?

A spring breeze passed along the top of the buildings, carrying with it the scent of burnt pork. Gross. Doubt I'd ever get used to the scent of burnt corpses. It always made me sick.

Okay… what now? How do I even investigate this? So far out of my comfort zone here. I should probably take some pictures of the scene first. I used the high-res camera I got from Taru to photograph the entire scene.

The bones were gone. Whoever burned the Jade Fangs either cleaned them up or used a strong enough chemical to burn them to ash. I checked around more. Something about the scene bothered me, almost like an itch in the back of my head.

Hmm… the ash wasn't disturbed. I crouched down by the pile's side. No prints or anything. Sure the wind could cover some of them, but all of them? No one reached into the ash. Then the bones must've been burned all the way… dunno why that mattered, but the Fangs might be able to figure something out. I snapped another pic and wrote it down.

That feeling that something wasn't right remained though. I poked around the place a bit more. It was almost as if- oh, was this Insight? Could be. What was triggering it though?

Honestly, I probably wouldn't have even noticed the bone thing without it pressing me. But that wasn't even what was triggering it? Was I really this bad at investigation and deduction that I couldn't even notice what the Trait wanted me too? The Fangs should've sent someone else out here.

I looked around a bit more to try and figure out what the issue was. Nothing really stood out. I eventually checklisted everything I knew about the Jade Fangs to see if that would help

They were a biker gang, obviously. Probably parked their bikes down below somewhere… maybe I should check that on my way back out. Um, they loved smoking. The Neo-Joker gang was one of the only places in the entire city to get authentic tobacco cigarettes-

Wait… I looked around the area. That's it! There were no cigarette butts laying around. Anywhere. Neo-Jokers wouldn't care to clean those up. Especially not if they sent a pic to the Fangs marking the kills as theirs. It just wouldn't make sense. 'Sides, what self-respecting criminal cleaned up after themselves?

'Course, could've just been no one smoking out here. But surely at least one out of the eight would've lit one up at some point, right? Hmm… maybe I'm really not cut out for this investigation stuff. I marked it down as a potential clue though.

I poked around a bit more, but nothing else stood out. Of course, I did my due diligence and took photos. I used the Chem Analyzer from Taru to check the residue, as well as a fancy BugHound for anything left behind. No bugs, but maybe knowing what kind of chemical they used to burn the bodies would help?

I packed everything up and headed back for the ladder. Next stop, look for vehicle tracks. It really wasn't that hard to find. I moved around to the fire escape side of the building, spotting the grooves in displaced rubble. I pulled out my phone and marked down the spot. There was a Thunder vending Machine right across the street that the Jade Fang runners might be able to pull the security feed from.

Other than that, the tracks themselves were weird. Insight tingled once more, warning me something wasn't quite right. The realization hit me much faster this time around. The tracks were from cars. The tire marks were too parallel to be bikes.

They might've had one or two cars to transport the Fangs here, but at the end of the day the Neo-Jokers were a biker gang. There should be marks of at least a couple bikes out here, and yet everything was made by a car. It just didn't quite make sense. Yet another sign something about the whole situation was a bit off.

So, what was my deduction? Was that the right word? Hmm… based on the evidence, the Neo-Jokers likely weren't the culprits. There was a high chance this was set up by a third party. And rather poorly set up at that.

Then who did it? Who would benefit the most from a gang war between the Jade Fangs and Neo-Jokers? Scavs and Savants obviously, but this didn't really fit their MO. Probably another gang or corporation then, maybe?

I had a feeling there was more to this, but I simply didn't know enough. And I wasn't an investigator in the first place. Petty thief, remember? Well, I did my duty. Came to the scene, collected clues, and now it was time to head back and collect my pay.

Just as I got back to my bike, the box popped back into my vision. It wasn't nearly as irritating this time around though. Its evident power afforded it at least some leniency.

「Name: Shiro Tsukuyomi

Traits: Fox's Grace, Quick Healing, Insight

Stealth - 6

1 Perk Point

Perception - 2

Data Pending - One Week」

Weird… so it was grading me on my skills? Was that the data the box wanted to collect? That felt right. And considering recent feelings came from Insight? It probably was. So then, I had a week to show off to the weird interface?

I had a six in stealth. Was that good or bad? I was above average amongst most people I knew, so it had to be good, right? I wasn't too shabby at sneaking around- or, at least, I thought so till that hobo caught me…

What was up with that anyway? Wasn't Fox's Grace supposed to help with all that? What a useless Tra-

A chill went down my spine. A flush of extreme danger hit me, warning against finishing that thought. I skipped over it to my next questions.

What was a perk point in the first place? What good would it do? I mean, logically, it was good. Could I buy a perk with it like a game? If that was true, then it'd be some kind of helpful benefit or something, maybe. How did I even spend it though?

「Spend a Perk Point?

Warning! Only use Perk Points in a safe, well-ventilated environment!」

Well, that wasn't ominous. Nope, not one bit. Probably best to take the warning at face value. I could wait till I got back to my container before messing around with the interface more. Just to be safe, if nothing else.

With that thought in mind, I straddled my bike and headed back to the Dragoon Saloon. Hopefully this job was already over.

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