Chapter 7

As it turned out, the earlier brawl caused quite a commotion and a passer-by ended up calling the police. Two officers arrived on the scene and started to assess the situation.

They had to deal with numerous situations like this, the only unusual thing was that everyone involved was still present and probably alive. One of the officers asked the two children for their newly made ID's, while the other tried to find one on the unconscious man with little luck.

The two teenagers ended up being questioned while the officers tried to figure out who they knocked out. Fortunately, the man's fingerprints were already on the police's database so they could close the case quickly.

"Congratulations kids, you caught a pickpocket. The bounty will be sent to your guardian if that's all right with you."

The pair just nodded because they didn't know what a bounty was and started to head home after declining medical attention. They wanted to hide what happened from Anthony, not realizing they were kind of late with that.

However, before going away, Sarah secretly touched the man's hand when no one was looking.

The walk home took more than half an hour because Peter could only limp a few steps at a time due to his injured leg.

After finding their way home the pair found a grumpy Anthony and a panicking James in the doorway.

"Can you explain what is up with this bounty?!"

Peter took up the responsibility of explaining what happened, he was primarily trying to justify their decision to wander off into the city despite being told not to, but he was failing at it miserably.

Both of them ended up being grounded for a week and they had their key to the building taken away. The two adults were seriously worried about the kids' health even without them going on the streets and getting into trouble.

The capital was a notoriously dangerous place. Originally they only moved there out of necessity and because both of them were strong enough to protect themselves. Now with having to take care of children, they were seriously considering moving to a more peaceful city.

Being grounded didn't matter to Peter that much since he would be bound to his bed once again, this time because of his leg. And Sarah, while hating every minute she had to spend in the house, still had plenty of things to explore due to the connecting bridges between their building and some of the neighboring ones.

During the following week the usual routine set in, minus the walks outside and the exercise for Peter.

[Achievement unlocked: Basic science.]

[Reward: INT +0.05]

Peter ended up asking what the bounty the police officers mentioned was. James explained it to the best of his knowledge, although not too enthusiastically.

It was a little complicated but in short, the bounty system was present internationally and the participating countries' governments had the responsibility of enforcing it, with a few asterisks. Under standard operations anyone could place a bounty on anyone else, even organisations on each other, but the alliance made it so that only legal entities who are at least suspected of a crime could have a bounty placed on them. Because of this, bounties had to be claimed from the police.

The money they got for the pickpocket was basically pocket change but James noted that it was a surprisingly low amount for his crimes. It would usually be double or triple of what they got.

At the end of the week, after much thought and time to calm down, Anthony decided that the kids earned the money they got from the bounty, as much as he didn't like it, and he ended up giving it to Peter because he thought he would be the more financially responsible one of the two.

When he was explained how to use money, Peter was over the moon. He thought that the collection of bounties might be a good thing to pursue. If he couldn't do that he wanted to get a job as soon as possible, just to help out around the house, not realizing how much money Anthony had.

That night both kids received a notification, they were both achievements. They didn't think much of them but these achievements would play a big role in their future.

Peter was pleasantly surprised by his own but he did find the reward disproportionate. There was also a weird message afterwards that he would ask the interface about in the morning.

[Achievement unlocked: Earn money!]

[Reward: STA +0.1, INT +0.1, MGC +0.05, EXP +30]

[Remaining tier 1 path achievements have been locked.]

Sarah was less surprised by the achievement itself but more by the fact that it took this long to get.

[Achievement unlocked: First kill!]

[Reward: STR +0.1, AGI +0.1, END +0.1, MGC +0.05, EXP +100]

[Remaining tier 1 path achievements have been locked.]