Chapter 3: Preparation

Steeling himself to follow through with whatever he ended deciding to do, his first order of business was fabricating a cause of death for her, and to purposefully leave clues and traces that could lead law enforcement to conclude that his tale was the one that happened. He ran several hypothetical situations through his head, but of course the most likely to succeed was framing it so that it looked like an accidental death.

Doing so in theory was no difficult feat, but of course he had watched many true crime shows and seen how the guilt that came with murder affected the murderers. He could only hope that what was depicted there was nothing more than cinematic effect, but he couldn't be sure. So of course, he threw all reservation out the proverbial window and got to work getting ready.

He went to the department store near his apartment complex and got his hands on some cheap clothing he could afford to dispose of after use. He decided on full sleeves to prevent blood from getting on his skin, and long rain pants in a similar shade of black.

On his way to checkout, he passed by the bandana and mask section. COVID being rampant, face wear was no rare thing to see amongst the common populace. Recalling that facial recognition did in fact exist, he decided to get a mask for his lower face and a bandana for his upper face, in case he did get spotted by someone passing by. Recalling one of his favorite K-POP groups, he chose a mask with a depiction of long tusks among regular teeth.

'If it was glow-in-the-dark, that would be real ironic, wouldn't it?'

Walking out of the store with his full black attire in cheap paper bags, he looked no different that any other shopper in the shopping complex. But his face was struggling to mask that his mind was filled to the brim with exciting thoughts and playing on loop the simulation of actually killing her over and over in his head. He hurried back home in his run down car, all the while thinking his usual thoughts of 'How the ever-living fuck hasn't this car broken down yet?'

Getting home, he threw his keys on the countertop and sat down at his living room. Putting on his new clothes one by one, he soon assembled his outfit and walked to his bedroom mirror to bask in his to-be glory.

Upon actually looking at himself, he noticed that he looked taller than he should be. Going over to his doorframe, where he had marked his height with pencil every month, he stood straight up against it, with his back against the threshold. Grabbing the pen from his dresser, he drew a line right where his head ended and the wall began and looked around. He had in fact, gotten taller. By almost three inches. Incredulous over this, he started thinking about it and eventually just attributed it to the system. He also figured it would be more difficult to identify him, since most people knew him as a 5'7" college student. Being 5'10" did come with its advantages.

After changing into some pajamas and keeping his battle outfit near the door, he sat down on his couch and closed his eyes, recalling everything that had happened and reflecting over everything.

'Heh, before this shitty system I would never sit still like this, but here we are.'

Doing this had its merits, as he realized multiple mistakes he made in the past day. His mind listed them off like a parent lecturing their child. He could have saved $10 by using his skill to put an article of clothing into his inventory instead of buying it, but he made the excuse of supporting the industry. He needed to find a way to make sure that his DNA was not found at Mrs. Rudolph's home, and that hers was not found at his. He quickly developed a solution to both of these issues. He also opened his system panel and looked at the quest, wondering if it- like the previous one- had bonus conditions that would net him more rewards. It was a stroke of luck that he did so, because there was in fact, a bonus condition.

[ Bonus Conditions: ???? will be given if target's life is taken in a way that satisfies The One Who Punishes Hubris. ]

'Fuck does this mean? I have to kill her in a certain way? Does that mean I can't use the apple? And why is the reward censored?'

Seeing the question marks in the place of the bonus reward, he suddenly realized that he had seen another piece of information before that was censored with question marks.

'Status Window'

And there is was.

[ Name: Atlas ????? ]

The shitty system knew what his last name was.