Our Next Target will be...

A bit later, Seamus and I were walking down the slums of Termina. Seamus was talking to me about the couple of gangs that he knew in the vicinity.

"The wastes are an interesting target" I pitched in and said. Ginter, Leader of the wastes, used to be a nobody with insanely strong determination. He mined in the wastes pickpocketing about 100 crystals worth for himself each time.

Contrabanding that many crystals out of the mine was impossible, however, meaning that he took every single one while mining. After about five years, Ginter reached grade three at the age of 17. At which point he quit waste mining and disappeared into the slums of Termina.

In truth, he set up a gang, and 23 years have passed since that took place. The man had to at the very least be grade four by now. But as I was also at that same grade my stealth would still work. Of course, I still had to be careful.

"I don't think so" Seamus said shaking his head. It seemed like he believed that the difference in power between the wastes and us wasn't sufficiently large to put them as a first target.

"He won't be able to see me anyway" I said while calculating how much energy he could have gathered in 23 years. Assuming his business was booming, he could indeed be in grade five. With us monopolizing much of the sector B market however I found it highly doubtful.

"Sigh… I guess someone has to do it huh?" Seamus sighed before saying and flashing me a smile. It seemed like he was testing my resolve all along.

With both of our minds and hearts settled, Seamus and I headed to the edge of the slums where the Wastes were known to often traverse. Right away, I could tell that people were giving Seamus a shifty eye.

I wasn't being seen by these low-level tugs so I could scan their intentions openly, but Seamus only kept a low profile. The streets of the slum were just enough to fit a vehicle, just enough. So there was some space for battle.

Nevertheless, as that wasn't our intention it was unwise to get all the members in the area to attack us.

"Give me a moment" Seamus said before walking over to an alley and opening a door blended almost perfectly into the wall. I was shocked by this, I mean, how many of these things did Seamus scatter around? Wasn't this a bit too unbelievable? When did he have the time to make these and how was no one suspicious?

Less than two minutes later Seamus came out dressed as an aged man. He had to be at least in his forties based on looks.

"How do you make your masks look so good?" I asked not able to hold back my curiosity.

"Hehehe they are all imported from Eden" Seamus said with a snobbish expression. I had to admit, his bragging did work as I felt a bit jealous.

"Can I get a mask?" I asked, to which he quickly responded by shooting me a glance.

"Hey! These things aren't sold at a dime for a dozen!" He said clearly unwilling.

"But what if someone recognizes my face?" I asked back pointing at a paper posted on a nearby wooden post.

"I thought you were confident in your stealth" Seamus said clearly provoking me. I didn't give in however and he had to reluctantly hand me a mask, it wasn't a skin mask, just a regular mask. If I wasn't going to be seen by the vast majority then there was little point in upholding the rules prohibiting masks and hoods or anything that covered the face.

The mask was very thin and black. It was just enough to hide my features without looking conspicuous. That was because if I wore bright yellow for example I was bound to still be noticed in the moody environment.

"Hey! Suames!" Someone suddenly shouted in our direction. Turning around there was a man waving over to us with a smile. To be specific he was waving to Seamus, erm, Suames.

"Jack, how goes it?" Seamus replied in kind holding a warm smile.

"You back from the good side of town? How's your son doing?" A conversation that I could not at all understand then took place

"Lil Su is doing just fine. He was so glad to see me… but they sure grow fast, Little bastard didn't admit it!" Seamus started to make small talk with the man so I decided to ignore him and focus on our surroundings.

Surprisingly, I noticed that there weren't any eyes on us. There hadn't been any for a good bit in fact.

After less than five minutes the conversation ended and Seamus started to lead me towards the gang's base.

"We are here" Seamus said looking at a clean-looking concrete building. I was shocked, why did ours look so scrappy in comparison?

"The wastes had a firm foothold on Sector B before Kaiser came over. It's more or less a 10-year head start at the least" Seamus said making me learn something new. It seemed that Kaiser wasn't a gangster/mafioso from very young like Ginter.

I had expected this, I was already starting to think that Kaiser was not a simple resident of Termina. Nobody spoke about it but… Kaiser must have been in the military at some point. Maybe some just didn't suspect it and others were simply not interested in asking but I did find it necessary to know these things. Why?

I could squeeze that much more out of him if I had a clear picture of his origins and skills. If he had connections to the military that would be great, but his knowledge alone would have sufficed for me.

"So what's the plan?" I asked focusing again on the matter at hand.

Seamus looked at me and swept his gaze around. There wasn't anyone outside the base.

"Getting in might be hard but…" Seamus looked up at the buildings. The gang building looked surprisingly clean, but the surroundings were still rather cluttered.

"You want me to climb onto one of the roofs and enter from a window right?" I asked knowingly.

Seamus smiled a knowing smile. He was one of the first to greet me after I had snuck into their base this same way after all.

I stood to leave but soon noticed an issue.

"Wait… I don't see any open windows" I told Seamus.

"Just make one" He replied simply. If only it was actually that easy... but… I didn't have a choice.