14 Training: Stealth
Riley arrived at the hospital shortly after the mission. His wrist and shoulder still hurt from the recoil of the gun, and his right ear was still ringing. Firing a gun was not what he had expected at all.
'Man, movies and games definitely do not accurately represent gunfire. No wonder people at shooting ranges wear earmuffs.'
Making his way back to his mother's ward, Riley summoned his inventory and pulled out the stuff that he had grabbed from his house; a new change of clothes for his mother, her toiletries, and other necessities.
As he was arranging his mother's belongings on the tableside, he heard ruffling on the bed. Peering over, he saw his mom stirring back into consciousness.
Riley rushed over and helped his mother as she struggled to sit up straight.
"Mom, you're awake! Here, I got this."
Riley placed a pillow behind her, using it as a foundation for her back.
"W-where am I?"
"You're in the hospital, mom. The thieves hurt you when they broke in.. The doctor said you passed out because of the blood loss, but yo-"
"Ah! How are you doing?! Are you hu-"
Riley interjected. "I'm fine, mom. I managed to catch them off guard and I took them out with my bat. I knew joining the baseball team would come in handy someday."
"Why were they looking for you? Are you caught up in some bad company?"
"Wait, what? No, obviously not! I spend all my time gaming; I don't have time to do drugs! They tried to rob me when I was walking back from school, but I managed to escape. They must have followed me all the way back!"
"What happened to them? Are they still after you?"
"Nope! The police arrested every single one of them. We don't need to worry about them anymore."
Riley highly doubted his own words. Judging by the fact that the thugs had had reinforcements, he was dealing with something much more than just a few muggers. And there was no way that the police would put that much effort into investigating what they thought was a simple armed burglary case. He would have to do something about it before the thugs retaliated again.
"I'm glad to hear that." She glanced outside and noticed that it was pitch black. "Oh dear, look at the time. You must be so tired after all that's happened today. Why don't you go to sleep?"
Riley smiled to himself. 'You have no idea.'
"Okay, mom. Goodnight."
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"-ley... Riley."
Riley woke up to his head being shook. His head was in his arms; he had fallen asleep beside his mom's bed. Looking up from his make-shift pillow, he saw his mom smiling at him.
"Good morning kiddo. Your neck must be extremely sore after sleeping like that."
Riley groaned. His mom was right, his neck was killing him. Not only that, his escapade last night had kept him up all night, and he had only managed to reach the hospital at 4 A.M. Looking at the clock, he saw that it was 9.
'Great', Riley thought, '5 hours of sleep. I'm sure today will be a great day.'
As he slowly sat up and stretched while rubbing his eyes, he spoke.
"Urgh, it's fine. I didn't get much sleep, I don't think the hospital is the best place for that. Anyway, enough about me. How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling better already. The doctor will be making his rounds soon, and he'll let us know if I'm fit to check out. In the meantime, I think it's best for you to go home to freshen up."
"Alright, mom, I'll head home. Call me if you need anything!"
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As Riley was walking home, he pulled up his skills. After completing that main quest, his <Incognito> skill had levelled up, which meant new equipment.
Looking at his class skill, he saw that <Incognito> was now level 2. Inspecting the skill closer, he found out that he had unlocked two new pieces of equipment; a hoodie and a pair of sweatpants. Because he was in a public area, instead of equipping them, Riley tried clicking on the word "Top" under the section "Disguise Equipment" in the tooltip.
Upon clicking on it a new window popped up. Here, he could see a black hoodie drawn in cartoon-ish art.
"Vigilante's Cloak"
"Class-specific equipment. Binded to Riley Petesgeralt."
"Body Armor. Level ⅕"
"+2 Vitality"
"UNIQUE Passive - Shadow Blend: When standing completely still in dark areas for 3 seconds, the user blends in with the darkness and enters a state of stealth. Stealth breaks when the user moves out of position, or if a target is actively looking for the user."
"Unlocked at Level 2: UNIQUE Passive - Shadow Blend Upgraded: The user can now travel undetected slowly in dark areas. Stealth breaks when the user moves quickly, or if a target is actively looking for the user."
'Wow, this is amazing! This is literally what Batman does! I'm practically invisible! And that level 2 upgrade is even better. This makes stealth missions a lot less difficult.'
Moving on to the next piece of equipment, Riley clicked on "Bottom." Similar to the hoodie, the sweatpants also sported a black color.
"Vigilante's Pants"
"Class-specific equipment. Binded to Riley Petesgeralt."
"Leg Armor. Level ⅕"
"+2 Dexterity"
"UNIQUE Active - Shadow Move: When activated, the user gains an instant burst of movement speed, traveling a distance of up to 3 feet instantly. Cooldown: 5 minutes."
"Unlocked at Level 2: UNIQUE Active - Shadow Move Upgraded: Range is increased to 4 feet, and the cooldown is reduced to 4 minutes."
If Riley understood correctly, <Shadow Move> literally gave him the power to teleport. Although his power bordered on supernatural, this ability was on a whole new level. However, Riley knew that it would be important to get in lots of practice with the skill before trying to use it in a mission.
As Riley stepped into his house, he received a text from his mom.
'Hey Riles. The doctor said I should stay in the hospital for another day just to be safe. So, you don't have to come back. Don't forget to study! You have your final exams coming up this week!'
Riley replied affirmatively. As his mom was in the hospital, Riley had the house to himself. This meant that he could test his new skills with relative impunity. Riley activated <Incognito>. Now, rather than just the mask, Riley sported a fully-black costume. The equipment, aside from the mask, looked exactly like regular street fashion. Little would anyone know, they were far from ordinary.
Riley walked into his closet and closed the door. Whilst he was standing in the dark, Riley kept looking at his hands. After a few seconds, they started to distort. Although he wasn't completely invisible, his hands seemed to distort the space it occupied. As he saw this taking place in front of his very eyes, Riley jumped in excitement, wherein he noticed the sudden movement removed his "invisibility".
'Ah, whatever. As long as it worked! Upgrading this to Level 2 is definitely going to be sick. Time to test out <Shadow Move>!'
Before Riley stepped out of the house, he paused.
He looked himself in the mirror and realised how suspicious he looked; just like a burglar! Riley took a step back and closed his lawn door before he fell deep in thought.
'Wait, the skill never said I had to equip EVERYTHING for it to work right? If it's in my status menu, does it mean I can just.... unequip it?'
Riley opened his inventory menu and stared at the diagram that portrayed his currently equipped items. When he clicked on the icon of the mask, several options popped up. Here, the options showed, 'Info' and 'Unequip'.
'Alright, let's unequip the mask and hoodie and see if it works!'
After unequipping both mask and hoodie, Riley walked out to his lawn. Smiling to himself, he casted <Shadow Move>.
It took Riley by surprise; before he could react to anything, he felt a strong force jerk his body, akin to a fast vehicle braking all of a sudden. This caused Riley to lose his balance.
'Wow... I was just standing there, and next thing I knew... what the hell was that?'
Standing up, Riley tried casting <Shadow Move> again, but a window appeared, indicating that the skill was currently on cooldown. Riley pulled out his phone, and set a recurring timer for 5 minutes.
'Alright, time to start grinding!'
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Riley stood still, with his bat in one hand, and a ball in the other. His knees were weak, and his arms felt heavy after training for the past 3 hours, but he wasn't going to give up. His last attempt was pretty close, and through all this practice, Riley had thought of several applications he could utilise <Shadow Move> in.
*Beep, Beep, Beep*
Without any hesitation, Riley underhand-threw the ball as hard as he could. As the ball flew, Riley grasped his baseball bat with both hands and leaped forward, swinging his bat and casting both <Power Swing> and <Shadow Move> simultaneously.
His body teleported forward, right into the exact spot that he had been aiming for. His bat continued to swing forward, hitting the ball. The forward momentum from the ball's original kinetic energy of being thrown, coupled with him leaping forward, <Shadow Move>, and <Power Swing> propelled the ball forward even more, blasting away just like Jesse and James.
Impressed by the fruit of his labor, Riley fist pumped and summoned the Quest window.
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Patch 12.0
- Regular weekly update
Name: Riley Petesgeralt
Age: 16
Job: The Roleplayer
Class: Vigilante
Level: 10 (+2)
HP: 250
MP: 220
EXP: 58/244
Strength: 27
Dexterity: 23
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 29
Wisdom: 22
Charisma: 26
Luck: 20
Skills:
Roleplayer's Mind
Virtual Body
Analyze (Level 5)
Blunt Weapon Proficiency (Level 4)
Physical Endurance (Level 1)
The Cinderella Effect (Level 1)
Dodge Step (Level 2)
Counter Flip (Level 1)
Leg Sweep (Level 2)
Power Punch (Level 2)
Extreme Agility (Level 2)
Sense Danger (Level 2)
Trash Talk (Level 1)
Power Swing (Level 4) (+1)
Quick Draw (Level 1)
Minimap (Level 1)
Incognito (Level 2)
Equipment:
Vigilante's Mask (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Cloak (Level 1/5)
Vigilante's Pants (Level 1/5)
