1 Cheater

Black boots slammed against the smooth, obsidian road before they took off again.

"Hey! You little sh!t—get back here—hey! You better let go of that you son of a b!tch!"

A smile crested the kids lips as he sneered—stop running and get beat to death? Yeah, no thanks; though death followed him around plenty, he didn't want to meet him personally just yet.

Soon, the obsidian gave way to old, broken asphalt, and the thief couldn't help but grin in triumph—oh yeah, he was in his home turf now! The telltale hum of a techie sounded near his ear, and on reflex he ducked in the opposite direction, rolling from the electric zone and then, he was up and running, flawlessly.

He gave a little hop—he'd finally did the roll and run trick right!

Soon however, he got his head back on straight when the sound of more footsteps entered his ear.

'𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒉!𝒕... 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒏... 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔!'

Skidding around a corner and leaping onto a trashcan, he shimmied up a ladder left behind from the old days, when fire escape ladders were still required. Old as they may be though, they were one of the reasons why he stayed in the old district—they were great for getaways from the Turfs.

"Hey! Come back here, come—huh?! W-Where the devil did that b*st*rd slink off to?"

A group of goons congregated around Old Man Jin, and with a snarl he bellowed, "Search everywhere! Alleys, trash, houses—I don't care how long it takes, just find that damned Cinth!"

"But... what if one of them, y'know, Systemers find us—"

"Screw those Players, just find that boy!"

"Yes boss!"

Unfortunately, they wouldn't find the little thief on the ground, nor would they be lucky enough 𝒏𝒐𝒕 to meet a Player in their search—but such details hardly mattered to the thief; he was a man who swiped goods, not a man who gave out charity.

Or, at the least he thought himself to be such a man—but truly, he was just a boy... well, as boy as you can get with slight kleptomania.

Cinth—or rather Hyacinth—grinned at the goons before he began traversing the rooftops; another good harvest indeed... he'd eat well tonight!