[12]

Dante took a deep breath as he steadied himself, clutching a blood-soaked shotgun in his hand.

A multitude of rotting corpses were strewn across the area around him, which turned what he originally knew to just be a regular street located around central Los Santos into what looked like a war-torn battlefield. It was an experience that the boy felt he was quickly becoming used to.

Quest Completed!

[Third Wave]

Objective: Eliminate the third wave of zombies.

Reward(s):

[Laeral's Tear Necklace] - [Darksign] - [Sledgehammer]

Breathing heavily, he pulled up the level of his class with a curious glint in his eyes.

[Gunslinger] - Lvl. 51

Seemingly nodding to himself, which was due to the fact that there was literally nobody else around, the boy decided to finally make use of a wendigo boss drop reward, as another popup immediately flickered into existence.

[Class Selection]

With a mental command, the screen changed.

Choose Your Class!

[Warrior] [Mage] [Rogue]

Dante thought about it for a moment, before picking the rogue class a second time.

The boy had originally debated over the gunslinger and brawler specializations, but he eventually decided to pick something a bit different.

Class Gained:

[Bandit] - Lvl. 1

Perk(s) Unlocked:

[Greed Pays Off]

Better loot will be produced in dungeons at an increased rate.

[Mystery Man]

Without a first impression, most people will automatically feel an enigmatic aura coming from you, but on the other hand, the rate at which obedience increases is randomly boosted by either two or four points whenever you interact with someone.

Once again, it was a class that came from the rogue set, but he felt like it would be a pretty good fit for him, since it didn't seem all that subtle despite the fact that most of the classes standing alongside it were either clearly more stealth-based, or just a bit more quieter in general. The reason Dante thought that felt like a good choice was because he wasn't planning on being discreet about his plans moving forward.

For a brief moment, he could almost feel the [Gone Crazy] perk actively coursing throughout his body, as the finger he had next to the shotgun's trigger instinctively twitched at the thought of finally getting his revenge on those who had put him through an unforgettable pain.

----------

The next morning, Dante was already up and wide awake.

With his mind gradually clearing out all the bullshit over the span of a few days, the boy had eventually come to a potentially life-altering decision, and one that he felt could've easily have been made at a much earlier date if it wasn't for his love for basketball. However, with how much his life had changed, he figured all of that stuff was over and done with in all honesty.

Sat at the edge of his bed, with the sun peeking over the horizon and shining through his window, Dante stared down at a green bandana in his hands. It wasn't regular, either, since he actually got this one as a dungeon reward, which sometimes really made him ponder how sentient his system was and how much it possibly knew about the future of his life.

[Green Bandana]

The flag of a certified gang member, specifically from the Families. Aside from that, it's enchanted with the ability to erase the memory of an individual shortly after they have identified you, but only during certain situations.

After a brief pause, Dante stuffs the green rag into one of his pockets, before getting ready to meet up with Franklin and Lamar. They had apparently tracked down one of the Marabunta Grande members living up in the eastside, so it was only right that they went and knocked him down.

----------

Walking into a nearby alleyway, Dante is met with the sight of a familiar white van, which he knew to be owned by Lamar. Not only that, but the first thing his eyes landed on was Franklin sitting in the driver seat, with his partner-in-crime just casually puffing on a joint right next to him.

The boy shook his head, before approaching the butt of the vehicle in order to hop into the back, which is when both of them turned back towards him, each with varying degrees of both uncertainty and a willingness to go through with what was about to happen.

"Aye, lil homie..." Lamar said, quieter than usual. "You really sure about this? I ain't tryna see you get hurt and shit, know what I'm saying? Either way, though, I'm with you on this."

Without any hesitation, Dante nodded in confirmation as he glanced at Franklin as well, all while simultaneously pulling a Tec-9 out of the inventory space from behind his back.

"Yeah, I'm about as ready as I'll ever be." He muttered, drawing the watchful gazes of both his friends, who briefly glanced at each other. "Let's do this shit."

----------

After turning a curb, Franklin presses down on the gas pedal, as they speed down a neighborhood street within El Burro Heights. It isn't long before Dante hops out the back, raising his gun as he empties the entire magazine at a specific individual that had just been walking down the street.

The tattooed man had initially noticed the white van as well, it was simply too late for him to react as he attempted to run. It almost sounded like fireworks going off with how loud the symphony of all three of them shooting was.

In the end, Dante made sure to run up to his downed form, a puddle of blood forming beneath his body, before firing the last two shots he had into the gang member's head without any remorse.

Readjusting the bandana tied around the lower-half of his face to make sure it stayed in place, the boy quickly returned to the back of his getaway vehicle and subsequently fled the scene.

----------

A couple days later...

"My goodness!" Céline whispered to herself, as she stared up in amazement at the house in front of her, with her husband mirroring her actions for the most part.

Dante simply watched them with a smile on his face, completely silent as he allowed his parents to soak it all in. It was their new home, after all.

It didn't take very long before he was practically tackled by his mother, who quickly began shedding tears, and he wrapped his arms around her in a comforting manner.

When he glanced at his father, and their eyes met, he knew there was going to be a discussion later down the line about how it was possible for a kid at his age to have obtained something like this when he had grown up incredibly poor all his life, but he wasn't all that worried about it. He knew the man wasn't upset or anything in the slightest, and it certainly wouldn't be hard to convince him once he saw the amount of money that would be available to them after a while.

Eventually, Dante began to shed tears just like his mother, feeling the raw emotions within the moment, and it seemed his dad wasn't immune to the invisible onions either since another pair of arms joined the fold a couple seconds later.

----------

With his back leaned up against the garage door of Lamar's house, Dante crossed his arms.

"What'd I tell you, Frank?" Lamar grinned, simply acting his usual self. "I knew the lil homie was one of us! It was only a matter of time, really."

Chuckling in response, Franklin glanced at Dante with a smile full of amusement. "Yeah, I guess so."

The boy rolled his eyes, a smirk etched into his face at Lamar's antics. Once Franklin mentioned the fact that he had worn a green bandana during their drive-by shooting, Lamar quickly jumped into the conversation with his own two cents. He had a feeling that was gonna happen, anyway, so it wasn't much of a surprise to be honest.

----------

Dante could hear a familiar siren in the distance that was quickly approaching their location.

Running alongside Franklin and Lamar, the trio hopped a fence before jumping into a car and hightailing it out of the Vespucci Beach area, as they left a Marabunta Grande member bleeding out face-first on the pavement.

As they left the scene of the crime, Dante's phone vibrated in his pocket. When he briefly took a look at who had texted him, he realized with confusion that it was Tracey.

Hey...

That's all she had texted him.

Shaking his head, the boy quickly stowed his phone away within his inventory and focused back on the current objective, which was to not end up getting caught.

----------

Speeding down a highway within Blaine County, Dante saw Franklin pass him up on his own motorcycle as they both shot up the vehicle of an escaping target. They had been on the chase for a while now, and was finally starting to get somewhere when it came to putting an end to one of the last people Dante was extremely motivated towards exacting his revenge on.

However, after veering off the road and somehow finding themselves on a more rural, and less-populated dirt path, a small group of the Lost MC suddenly made an appearance from behind, as they seemed to be following them. Figuring that it was most likely a territory thing between gangs, Dante quickly decided to cut their mission short by speeding past everyone, including both Franklin and Lamar, before tossing a sticky bomb on his target's car.

With that, he let them get ahead, and before they could react or even realize what he just placed on their vehicle, it detonated and blew up the driver within a split-second.

Feeling the heat of the explosion blow back on him, Dante quickly gestured for the guys to split up, which would allow for an easier escape since the Lost MC riders trailing behind them couldn't just stick to everyone involved. As he took his own path, which was actually back towards the highway, just not in the same direction that they had originally come from, it didn't take long before Dante had no choice but to retaliate when a couple bullets flew past his head.

The boy grinned in delight at that, though, not that anyone could see it with the motorcycle helmet covering his head, but with just a thought, a compact grenade launcher popped into existence within his hand, and without even looking back towards them, he began raining down explosions to the point that what little of the group were eventually left couldn't properly view the road. As a result, by the time they had driven out of the smoke, none of them were able to react fast enough when they either veered off the road to their deaths or violently crashed against something and ended up dying that way.

------------------------------

This chapter contained short time-skip transitions that basically just explained what Dante has been up to, and so will the next one or two. After that, the MC will likely head to a different world.

Just a bit of a disclaimer, though, but the one-chapter-a-day thing will probably stop around that time as well. Now, that's not me saying that I'm gonna stop publishing chapters entirely, because after what I've been doing these past ten days or whatever, that wouldn't really make much sense.

It's just that I have an actual life outside of this, and it's quite difficult for me to multitask between the two at the same time, without inadvertently neglecting the other in the process, you know?

Anyway, it is what it is.