A Small Fortune

Arriving at a brick house that was in terrible condition, Alex came near its door. He already knew that there were four people sleeping inside. Two of them were sleeping deeply as the sound of their snores could be heard outside. The other two did not have stable breathing; they seem to have just gone to sleep.

The door was locked from inside by a latch, even without the latch, the people inside would definitely wake up after hearing the sound caused by opening the wooden door. The neighbors have gone to sleep and Alex also didn't want to wake them up.

One of the Thief puppet came ahead to use his skills for the first time as ordered. Alex saw him using two very thin sticks and skillfully inserts them through small cracks on the door to the lift the wooden latch inside without making any noise.

The concept was very easy, and even Alex could do this because the difficulty was not high. There will be more opportunities test the skills of his puppets in the future so Alex throws out the unnecessary thought to back of his mind.

The thief then opened the door with his stable and experienced hands just enough so that one of the puppets with assassin skills can slide into the house. Alex switched his vision with the puppet inside the brick house. 

Though he couldn't control its movement he could very well see and hear through the puppet. The puppet easily ended the lives of the poor sleeping thugs by slicing their neck with his knife.

After which the puppet dug out the money hidden in a corner half a meter deep in the ground. Alex also entered inside; he quickly used his hands to touch the money bag and absorbs it in his inventory without counting first.

This was only the small part of the money which the gangs hide in different places for more safety or maybe for other reason not that he cared.

And like this Alex went to most of the houses where he can steal money easily from the bad people. It took him 2 hours to do this work. In this time his men looted 16 houses and killed 27 gang members. 

When Alex counted the money in his inventory, he found himself gob smacked. The amount of money he had stolen from these 16 houses totaled 11928 gold. The concept of money he had in mind has already been changed and even this much money seemed little as all it would be used in just a minute.

He didn't want to find any more trouble, so he stopped their operation for the night. Someone had truly said it right. The quickest way to obtain money is through bad means. Even better way than this is to steal from bad people who make use of such bad means.

Alex spent 4800 gold coins to upgrade the cultivation of his Thief and Assassin Puppets to 4th grade of Body Tempering Realm.

Their main task now would be to mix up in the slums. The thieves can steal from the other gangs if they found any good opportunities.

The money that they steal would be sent back to him as they can also use the inventory by using his permission, Alex would use that money to buy more puppets with different abilities from the book.

 The 6 assassins from the shadows would protect teh members of Goldsun Chamber of Commerce and Lens group when they go out hunting.

They also have to find some way to earn money so as to enlarge their group and buy abilities that can give a boost to their professions. For example, a puppet having professions both of an Assassin and Thief. 

Alex also gave 100 gold coins to both groups as their starting fund.

 With the remaining money, Alex purchased 20 sailors for 200 gold coins. He also purchased the commanding skill worth 500 gold coins for Blackbeard so that he can form battle strategies when fighting a group battle.

He gave rest of the money from the loot to Blackbeard, so that he can form a pirate group as quickly as possible.

As per the situation he would increase the cultivation of other sailor puppets when the need arises and buy good ships to start sailing.

Each puppet is connected to the book spiritually that's why they can also buy puppets with the Masters permission.

They are completely loyal to Alex as it is there only reason for existence. But they can't use any other function except inventory and Artificial Puppet Personnel. 

Blackbeard was given the command to only attack other pirate ships and not harm the ships belonging to the Merchants. He can however capture ships transporting humans as slaves.

But before that he has to find an unoccupied island with fresh water to build a base for the Pirate ship and also use that island to house the people they freed.

Any money gathered from the spoils can be used to enlarge their numbers and become a pirate fleet.

Alex wanted to clear the area on the south side of the Island from the influence of any pirates, so that his Uncle Jack can safely traverse the sea.

If possible he wanted Blackbeard to find a source from where he can get supply Spirit stones so that he can speed up his cultivation and also increase the Currency to buy better stuff from the MBC (Myriad Book of Changes).

Alex also needed to increase his fame because it was necessary for the collection of Faith energy. And his Fame should be for doing good deeds. That's why he can't let other know about his connection to the forces he would establish in the dark.

Alex came back to his room to sleep while his puppets got busy in their task. 

He had a hunch that tomorrow the slums would become the talk in the city for a long time, he could already imagine the chaos that his today's action would bring.

Just as he had imagined, the slums had been turned upside down by the gangs who were trying to find the person responsible for the stealing their money and killing their men.

 A big fight broke out between the gangs as they first suspected their rivals. That suspicion then turn into an opportunity to satisfy their personal vendetta they had with their rival gangs.

The fight did not stop until the law enforcement squad had to interfere. But the damage had been done.

Cracks have formed between the balanced relationship tthat the gangs have tried to maintain all these years. The most frustrated about this incident were the forces behind them.

The money which had been stolen was for an important purpose that would be needed in realizing the long term plan they had been brewing past theses years.

Though the money was not much, but this incident still made them nervous.

Their first fear was that the enemy somehow came to know about their plan but through spies they got assured that there enemy is still in the dark and this incident was the work of an unknown group.

They collectively commanded their spies to start the man hunt in the dark for the responsible third party. To be safe they all brought up the time to implement their plot forward.

What Alex didn't know was that his action had forced some people to bring their plan ahead of schedule. What effect this would have on Alex and his family would only be known in the future.