When I first saw the Neo-Jokers, I couldn't help but wonder why the hell they decided to have their part here of all places. Then I remember Micheal said Mr. Abernathy paid for it. There was probably some shady deal between the corp and the Neo-Jokers and ASCorp that I'd rather not dig into.

After a bit of indecision, I decided to return home for the night. Sure, I could just bust into the place and confiscate the camera feeds using my Blue Crusade identity, but that'd also probably shorten my lifespan to a few hours if I was lucky. An alternate method was required.

Maybe I could go in as Abernathy's investigator? But then they'd know that I knew, and that might not end so well. It was all too easy for a big corp like ASCorp to get rid of a lowly street-rat if they so desired.

I slept on it, worked on some stuff, and in the morning I was more than ready to enact my newest hare-brained scheme. I packed my bag full of stuff I'd need—including a tapper and my deck—and headed for the restaurant.

I looked up the building in the city's directory and plucked out the blueprints using Eidetic Schematic. Ruby's BBQ basically had two components to it. A massive-looking warehouse, one that looked far too big for a simple BBQ place to have, and the actual restaurant slash bar area.

Although my knowledge was quite limited, I would hazard a guess that the warehouse was some kind of Neo-Joker operation. The sheer number of gangers camped out front the other day hinted as much. The warehouse connected directly to the restaurant, and the airlock hallway led right past the manager's office. Unfortunately, the manager's office was likely where they kept the cams.

Between the two—a potentially heavily guarded warehouse and a highly populated restaurant—it was a hard decision on the safest path. The warehouse offered less population, but I'd probably be shot on sight. The restaurant offered way less danger, yet would require sneaking past at least a couple dozen gangers and various people.

At least, that had been my thoughts until my scheming brain started to come up with a strategy to get into the manager's office. It was crazy. It was foolish. It just might work if I played my hand right.

And that's how I found myself here, just outside of the warehouse in an alley. It took a bit find it, but now I stood before a fire escape headed straight for the roof of the building. I climbed up the rusted iron stairs, each step shaking rust into dust. The aged metal creaked with age.

I half feared for my life until I hit the top and climbed off the rusty metal onto the warehouse roof. From there, it took a bit of searching to find what I wanted. A small shed on top of the building 'securely' locked tight with a deadbolt.

That 'security' fell within a minute to my lockpicking kit, allowing me easy access into the shed. The electrical system for the entire warehouse's lights sat here in all its splendor. I popped the door closed with my hip and got to work.

After removing the panel face covering several breakers and switches, I carefully cut and pried out the master switch, replacing it with a modified variant of my tapper. It'd barely taken me an hour to jury rig the thing together. I set it up in such a way that it would be incredibly easy to remove, though still effective for what I wanted.

It was time.

I swiftly worked my way around the various ventilation units on the roof of the building, lightly jogging over to one of the pyramid skylights scattered across the roof. The rain had kept the window mostly clean, allowing my first real look into the warehouse.

Shelves sat in rows all around the place, reaching almost all the way up to the roof. Most of them were caked with dust, showing the long time that they'd been abandoned. Boxes and debris cluttered the shelves, their original contents lost to the annals of history.

Just from here, I spotted several guards moving about the place. All had the signature fiery hair of the Neo-Jokers and toted assault rifles of some kind. Definitely a heavily guarded position. Definitely wouldn't have just forked over the camera feeds if I tried to enter as a Crusader.

I went to work, undoing the several screws holding the skylight's panels in place. I carefully eased it off its mount, resting it on the floor. My Perks were active and ready to go. Stalk was the most important of the bunch. People hardly looked up unprompted, and Stalk keeping me out of their peripherals should give me basically invisibility.

Now or never. I tied a rope to one of the bulky ventilation unit's braces and lowered myself over the edge of the skylight. As soon as my feet tapped the tall shelf under the skylight, I ducked down. The shelf was thick enough that nobody should be able to see the rope and me standing on top of it, but it never hurt to be too careful.

I slowly slunk my way down the middle of the shelf, keeping low and calm. My heart beat in my chest, spiking my system with that familiar adrenaline that came with every heist. Excitement surged through me, so much so I had to force myself to keep calm and breath.

I slunk down the length of the warehouse toward the restaurant at the front. My entry point dropped me in several aisles to the side of the door leading into the hallway to Ruby's BBQ. Not exactly the most efficient entry, but it was the safest I could think of.

To make up for this deficiency, I needed to hop from one shelf to the next. I switched my tapper on, giving it a five-second countdown till it would flip the switch. A deep breath filled my lungs. You got this, Shiro. Just don't look down.

Before I could second guess myself, I got a running start and leapt freely towards the other shelf. At that moment, the entire warehouse turned dark and the lights shut off. I felt the true freedom of flight as my small frame sailed through the air like it had been launched by a cannon. My heart pounded ferociously in my chest, sending pure exhilaration through my system like a caffeine bomb just exploded into my bloodstream.

My eye adjusted quickly to the sudden darkness and I smoothly adjusted my angle. My foot caught on the next shelf, the force of my leap jolting up through my legs. I lightly controlled my momentum and balance to make no noise. The momentum carried me a few steps, though I returned to the center just as the lights flickered back to life, casting away the darkness.

I took several breaths, forcibly calming down the pure exhilaration I felt from the maneuver. My pounding heart in my ears slowly faded, allowing me to faintly catch concerned voices. They were too faint to hear entirely, though it sounded like 'must've been another brown out'.

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I repeated the process several times, landing on the shelf closest to my target door. I peeked over the shelf down the aisle. No guards. I slowly crawled down the side of the massive shelf, moving from layer to another. I took a bit of a drop and rolled behind a box.

Just before I peeked out and made a move, an icy-cold caress trailed through me. Without even bothering to question it, I ducked back under the shelf and hid once more. I ran a hand down to my side and clicked a button on my tome. The deck cast Unending Darkness, instantly shutting off the lights.

An aggravated sigh came from the mouth of the aisle and a dark shape lumbered through the area. The skylight's streaming neon illuminated half the man's face. His eyes drooped tiredly and he cast an idle gaze around

His eyes made contact with mine right as he yawned. For a moment, my brain froze up. I desperately fought the desire to yawn and give my position away. It was a brief, brutal fight. I barely managed to resist the desire, but the double-edged nature of Lethargic Presence nearly cut me as well.

Our eyes stayed connected for what felt like an eternity. I could've sworn he saw me, throwing my heart into a stammer several times faster than could be healthy. Maybe it was thanks to Stalk? Or was Lethargic Presence showing its dual-consequence usefulness once more? He continued on without pausing even a step.

I let out a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding and slid out from under the shelf. Once more, I peeked out to make sure the coast was clear. The aisles were completely clear. I slunk across the aisle and reached the door. Locked.

But what did locked doors really matter? Nothing, as long as I had time. I knelt before the door and pulled out my lockpick set. The lock was a simple kind, allowing me to easily breach and get through in merge moments.

I slid through the doorway and closed it behind me. I was in. And a lot more painlessly than I originally expected. Seriously, I didn't even know I had that kind of hop in me to get between shelves so easily. I guess I was finally growing. Or my muscles were, if nothing else.

The hallway was an airlock style one with two doors on either side of it. Sandwiched in between was my goal: the manager's office. I stepped up to the door and unlocked it too, allowing me access to where my treasure lay.

Inside the manager's office wasn't exactly what I was expecting. In some ways, it resembled my apartment. A large desk covered in parts and boxes sat in the corner with an absolutely massive 3d printer blitzing away-

I completely forgot what I was doing as I spotted the beautiful piece of tech. It was something that I'd seen on the Net- a Raijin Industrial Plasticworks. Or RIP. Raijin proclaimed it to be the end of all other printers, at least those that were plastic only. And indeed, the piece of tech was so-

A loud sound came from behind me. I whipped around, missing the grip of my pistol entirely as I tried to throw myself to the side. I ducked behind the desk and finally managed to pull the pistol free to find the intruder. Why hadn't Insight warned-

The sound repeated, this time coming from a couch off to the side of the room. I flicked towards it, finger on the my trigger-

A weak laugh almost bubbled out of my throat. I casually slid my pistol back into its holster. A man, built like a cyborg unit, lay collapsed on the couch. Bright red hair came from seemingly every part of his body, making him seem more like a bear than a person. He was absolutely covered in empty bottles. Doubt he'd be waking up anytime soon.

I turned away. As long as he remained asleep, there was no point in doing something… drastic. Killing a defenseless man in his sleep was- well, I didn't want to leave any traces… Chek, that was the reason. I glanced at the printer one last time before moving to the desk.

Unfortunately, the terminal was locked. I glanced around before picking up the keyboard. There, written down on a sticky note, were the username and password. Neo_eoN and the password was Nobodywilleverknow123. Real creative.

I set them down and keyed them in, cringing slightly at the noise the clacking keyboard made. The info on the note worked, allowing me access to their system. It didn't take long to find the camera feeds, though not before I 'accidentally' looked through a folder called Schematics on the home page.

The folder contained a vast array of firearms and how to make them. More specifically, how to machine and 3D print the parts before assembling them. There was also some more minor stuff in there, such as making cameras and motorcycle parts.

It was an absolute treasure trove that I happily indulged in. Eidetic Schematic engraved every print down, ensuring I wouldn't ever forget any of the schematics. My trove of knowledge was ever growing.

I finally settled in to look through the feeds. I already had the date from Micheal Schwartz, so all I had to do was scroll back through the saved recordings. From there, I tracked Christopher Strun until I spotted a man pulled him aside.

He was a rather plump man that looked like he ate exceptionally well. A mop of dirty blonde hair clung to his hair like some kind of cheap wig. I couldn't see any scars on the guy from the cams angles, but I'd have to take Christopher on his word about it.

I copied the video clip onto my phone and sent it to Clarence. 'Does Mr. Abernathy know this guy?'

I didn't exactly have the time to wait for a reply. I chest down the tabs and locked the terminal back up, making it look like I was never even here. I cast a look around once more. My eyes automatically drew to the printer. It was so pretty… unfortunately, it was far too bulky to carry out with me.

Something else caught my attention. A golden statue of a fox sat on the coffee table by where the guy slept. I hefted it- ugh- why was this thing so heavy? It felt like solid gold or something. No way I could carry it out.

「Request - Precious - Received

Steal the precious item

Reward: Crow's Wheel of Wares」

Another request from Crow… I wasn't sure who some of the Requests came from, but this one was easy. The Reward easily gave it away. So far that and the title of the Request were my best guesses.

I wanted to take the statue sooo bad, but I just- I just couldn't. It was too big, and I'd have to leave behind everything in my bag to maybe carry it out. That wasn't even including how much the thing probably weighed! But I wanted it so bad…

I forced myself away, deciding to take a couple of spools of plastic filament as a cheap consolation prize. I needed material for my own printing anyway. Maybe in the future I could come back and actually hit this place on my own.

One last forlorn look tracked the statue's glorious curves before I began my trek back through the warehouse. I kept low, ducking behind crates and shelves to avoid lines of sight. Once I got back to the right shelf, I clambered up the side of. Then I hauled myself up the rope.

I screwed everything in and fixed what I did to the breaker box. There was no point giving away the weaknesses in this place's security, especially considering I wanted to return for the statue… I would need to be stronger though. Maybe it was really time to hit the gym?

I retreated back out onto the neat streets. My phone buzzed just as I reached my bike. Unfortunately, no HUD meant I had to manually pull out my phone and look. 'Sir Abernathy said he looked familiar, but couldn't place him.'

'Chek.' That hadn't been nearly as informative as I hoped… maybe I could run him through facial recognition? That might take a long while to pick up the right guy. Hmm… well I knew he was a higher-up from somewhere in ASCorp.

I returned home and surfed the Net for a long time looking for my man. I checked dozens of different sites to no success. My journey led me to a scream stream put on by the Inverse Media Corporation, one of the biggest media corporations in the world.

A beautiful news anchor stood outside a massive building. "… reporting live from ASCorp's Bricktown Supermarket. Aythryn City's ASCorp Supermarket General Manager, Mr. Keratás, has agreed to an interview about the ongoing situation. Mr. Keratás?"

She waved her mic towards the man beside her. Dirty blonde hair clung to his head, and his face had the rounded shape I was literally just looking at. "I assure you! Everything is under control-"

A screeching whirl cut him off as one of the robotic greeters whirled to life. It instantly twisted awkwardly, breaking several pipes and spewing black oil all over the man. His fancy clothes flowered ruined immediately. A laugh broke out of me.

"I SWEAR! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU-"

The video abruptly cut off before the guy could make a potentially massive mistake on live television. I glanced through my phone one more time and then compared it. That was definitely the guy. Well, I knew where to head next.

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