Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

Tristan weaved between cars expertly, ignoring the honks and shouts that followed him. The motorbike he was sitting at wasn't the fastest model, but it was still more nimble than the car No Hope hitched.

She was still sitting on the trunk roof while the driver did his best to get away. The assassin was holding onto the car with one hand, and with the other was pointing a pistol in Tristan's direction.

A bullet whizzed past him in slow motion. In the slowed time given him by his talent, Tristan tilted his body and the motorbike, avoiding it by a few centimeters.

The bullet hit the metal of a car behind him. No Hope aimed and shot again, and again, but each time Tristan was just slightly faster.

Considering her unstable position, the movement of both vehicles, and all the obstacles in the way, it was already incredible that she could shoot precisely at all. But even she had problems hitting Tristan.

Especially since he tried to stay behind other cars when he could.

In a minute, Tristan caught up in the distance between him and No Hope. All that was left was to get to her. Tristan already was driving with only one hand, having pulled out a gun from another.

She saw it when Tristan pointed it at her. When Tristan shot at her chest, No Hope was already jumping from the car, trying to catch another.

But Tristan's shot, made with an amendment for the dodge, still caught her leg while she was jumping. No Hope's graceful jump turned into an awkward half-fall that went way short of her target.

She fell from the car at the speed of 80kph.

It would've been an instant death for anybody else, but No Hope must've had system-enhanced toughness, not to mention her incredible athleticism.

Despite the injuries, she curled protectively and dissipated the energy of the fall by rolling on the asphalt. And yet, Tristan could see the moments when her limbs had to been hit too much.

No Hope stopped rolling in the middle of the road, barely avoided by all the cars driving past. Then she was already pulling herself up on unsteady feet.

There were tears on her clothes, and definitely bruises underneath. Likely even broken bones.

She pushed through, running away to a narrow alleyway, narrowly dodging more cars and causing several drivers to screech their brakes loudly.

Tristan grit his teeth and turned his motorbike sideways. At least her charge gave him a narrow opening, which let Tristan drive perpendicular to the road without hitting another car immediately.

He stopped the bike near the alleyway—it was too narrow and cluttered by garbage for it to get through. Tristan jumped off and ran forward on foot, already aiming his gun.

No Hope was right ahead of him. The alleyway was a dead end, and the woman was just standing there, with his face to him.

Her gun was aimed at Tristan's head, but now her hands were shaking. From up closer, Tristan could see that things were definitely broken. Her ribs, probably—the woman was breathing unevenly.

There was no way for her to hold her gun up for long enough. And she was too slow to shoot first, so now the two of them were at a stalemate again.

"Hayes… Why weren't you satisfied with not knowing about me? Why did you want to kill me?" No Hope asked suddenly.

"Kill you? What gave you the idea?"

She scoffed.

"What else? You were searching for me, and for what other reasons would you do that?"

Tristan nodded.

"Fair enough. But you searched for me first. You threatened me by this—and now you are surprised?"

No Hope frowned.

"Ah… Your first commission. It was a complicated one—I wanted some guarantees you weren't trying to screw me over."

Tristan hummed.

"So it turns out the only reason we are fighting now is because we are both paranoid? Because we are afraid that one of us will attack the other one for no other reason than that they CAN?"

No Hope thought for a moment.

"Yes. Sounds about right. And you are a system user, aren't you? Normal people don't move like you do. It makes you only more dangerous."

"I am."

In this moment, No Hope finally stopped avoiding Tristan's eyes. Their gazes met, and mutual understanding and respect flashed between them. From one system user to another, from one powerful person to another.

Then Tristan pressed the trigger of his gun.

The shot echoed loudly between the two narrow walls.

No Hope fell to the ground, and a gun fell out of her hands into the muck on the ground. There was a narrow, near hole in the middle of her forehead.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Tristan was nothing if not precise.

[Task complete: neutralize No Hope. Reward: your PP increased by 50000!]

With a loud exhale, Tristan approached the woman's still body.

The points felt meaningless at the moment—he didn't have much to use them on, unless he met a third hostile system user.

He hoped he wouldn't.

"Fucking hell…" Tristan muttered, kneeling next to No Hope. After a moment, he lowered her eyelids, making her face look more peaceful.

This entire situation was so stupid, if one thought about it—but Tristan couldn't imagine any other way. Both he and No Hope were too paranoid, indeed.

Came with their careers.

'And now I probably have half the city of cops coming after me, whether or not I have LAPD under my thumb. This was one insane chase, and I better end it.'

Tristan ran out of the alleyway and away from the crime scene. In ten minutes, he disappeared into the concrete jungle. There wasn't a trace of the fight on him, and no trace of blood, thanks to his 'Clean Hands' talent. It also didn't let him leave any fingerprints on the scene.

At least this entire thing was over and done. It meant that Tristan could call out the search after No Hope for good.

***

Next day, he found an article about the murder on the news. It wasn't big, but Tristan checked it out to see if the cops found who No Hope was.

They didn't. Tristan could have searched for it more himself, but he didn't want to. Despite having a task dedicated to it, he felt entirely satisfied just letting things be.

Instead, he focused on taking over Cuatro Angulos. His puppet-gangster out there was doing great progress, thanks to the information and instructions Tristan was feeding him.

A couple of weeks passed without trouble when Tristan got news about his brother.

Daniel Hayes had wrapped his business elsewhere and went to see his disgraced parents, who were hiding from the public in Los Angeles while trying to not get prison charges.

So far, it wasn't going in their favor, but to Tristan's surprise, Daniel made a public statement about it.

He claimed that the accusations about his parents had to be unfair and baseless, and did his best to portray them as victims of someone's cruel scheme. Although he avoided any names.

Daniel didn't have a good way with words, but he sounded earnest enough that some people even supported his point of view.

Not to mention he used his personal funds for his parents' court and lawyer fees.

'I can't believe it…' Tristan thought sarcastically as he read Daniel's public statements, as well as information he got by shamelessly hacking into his accounts. 'He really does his best to help, isn't he? This bastard…'

There was no way around it—Tristan had to visit his parents personally. But he was going to make sure the time was right.

***

Three days later.

No matter how prosecuted its owners were, the mansion was still beautiful. It had a modern design, the type that looked amazing in a journal but was actually pretty inconvenient to live in, especially if you were trying to do the housework yourself.

Even in these trying times, though, the Hayes couple had hired other people to clean up and put plates on the dinner table. But it was a much smaller dinner table than usual, and the food was simpler and cheaper.

There was no one in the dining room except for Norah, Harry, and Daniel Hayes. They were eating and talking about the last court session they were at.

"This judge… What a bastard! I won't be surprised if Tristan is threatening him to give us a worse verdict!" Harry was grumbling.

"Even so, I'm sure that you will end up with nothing more than a probation," Daniel was assuring them. "You aren't some lowlife scum, and everybody knows it! Not to mention, with me here, we can play a pity card."

Norah looked at her son, touched.

"Oh, Dani. We knew we could rely on you… at least one of our children grew up to be a good son!"

"Mother, th—"

Daniel choked on his word when he looked out of the window and saw it open.

Tristan was sitting on the windowsill, acting like he was there since the conversation began.

"So that's what you say behind my back…"