Chapter 13: “Borrowing” a Car

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Josh and Margaret spent the afternoon in the new house, but in the end Josh didn't stay there that day.

Although he had already been given the keys and the house was fairly well furnished, the problem was that the fridge and other essentials were empty and the nearest restaurant was quite a distance away. Without a car, it was indeed inconvenient - although Josh had 'borrowed' a luxury car, it was not something he could openly use; it could only serve as a collectible or for special circumstances.

As for a new car, Margaret had already arranged one, but the earliest it could be delivered was the next day.

So, as the time drew near, the two returned to town. After a meal together, Margaret dropped Josh off at his place.

"Aren't you going to invite me up for a while?" As Josh got out of the car, Margaret leaned back on the steering wheel and smiled as she asked.

"Er, ma'am, you know I live alone, so it's a bit messy at home... but of course, if you don't mind..." Hearing Margaret's teasing, Josh couldn't help but scratch his head. In truth, he wouldn't have minded getting involved with this beautiful woman, but his place was a bit of a mess and he had been too busy with life to tidy up.

As a citizen of a certain country in the past, he was really not used to bringing a woman he barely knew back to his home under such circumstances.

"Ha ha, I was only joking. Go home and get some rest, I'll pick you up tomorrow morning." Seeing the boy's somewhat shy and awkward demeanour, Margaret laughed happily.

Although they had only known each other for a day, Josh had clearly made a very good impression on her, even giving her a sense of love at first sight.

However, during their previous interactions, Josh had behaved too maturely; his attentiveness to various details had made Margaret feel very comfortable, but had also aroused a twinge of pity in her.

After all, she thought, what could a 15-year-old boy have experienced to be so knowledgeable about social matters?

Only now did she catch a glimpse of youthful awkwardness in Josh.

"How about afternoon? I have a few things to do in the morning," Josh said, feeling a little relieved that Margaret didn't seem overly concerned.

This morning he had 'borrowed' a car to get back at the thief who had stolen his, and then he had met Margaret who then eventually took him to look at houses, which had completely disrupted his original plans.

While his life was at stake, the more pressing matter was still the arms deal with Daenerys.

But as it was getting late and he didn't have a car, he'd have to wait until tomorrow - in this era and in the future, stores in America usually close early; most close around five or six o'clock, with only a few neighbourhoods staying open a bit later, but they usually wouldn't go past nine, and gun shops generally fall into the earlier category.

So if Josh wanted to buy a gun, it was already a bit late.

So he planned to get a car tonight and then buy a gun tomorrow morning. Although Margaret had said she would get him a new car, it wouldn't hurt for Josh to get a few more vehicles, especially undocumented or "stolen" ones, to have on hand for special situations - like when he found himself out of town without a vehicle.

Finally, the trading system's inventory had plenty of space - although the system's storage wasn't infinite, a thousand cubic kilometres was more than enough to hold an entire international metropolis.

Moreover, time was frozen within the system's space, so there was no risk of the items inside deteriorating.

In fact, with such a vast space, even without trading partners, Josh could make a lot of money smuggling; after all, customs wouldn't be able to detect anything even if they peeled him like an onion. (T/N: This had me laughing bad, lol)

But right now, Josh was too weak to take that risk.

After all, judges need proof, but those in this line of work do not.

As long as they suspect you of stealing their business, they have every reason to act.

In that era, when business practices were still rather crude, the disappearance of a few people wouldn't raise an eyebrow.

"All right, I'll come by around 1 in the afternoon." When Margaret heard that Josh had things to do, she didn't ask too many questions and immediately suggested another time.

Josh had no objections.

Having reached an agreement, the two said their goodbyes.

But as soon as Margaret's car was out of sight, Josh turned and walked in another direction.

After about ten minutes, Josh arrived at a car park, sneaking in when the guard wasn't looking.

The rest of the steps were quite simple: he could simply take any car he wanted and store it in the system's warehouse.

At this point, some may wonder how useful it would be to take a car without the keys.

However, in this time and age, as long as you could unlock the car door, you could easily drive the car away without needing the keys.

Because the car keys of this time period served merely as a simple anti-theft measure to unlock the doors.

The starting mechanism for cars was similar to the one-button start that people in the 21st century are familiar with.

That's right—one-button start, not key ignition.

The only difference was that in the future, one-button start required the driver to have an electronic key with chip recognition, whereas in the past, this was not the case.

In fact, the first generation of cars didn't even need a "key". Before 1927, cars used a hand crank to start, similar to tractors of the 80s and 90s.

After 1927, with the invention of electronic ignition, one-button starting became a thing.

The mechanical key ignition of later generations was invented by Chrysler after 1949.

So when Josh 'borrowed' a car from the old warehouse and locked Joe and Mike inside, he had to pour a pot of coffee into the old Ford's gas tank.

The insistence on using the key to the Cadillac V16 was simply to avoid damaging the window.

If he had been a bit more forceful, he could have just smashed the window to get in and driven off.

But Josh didn't want to risk damaging a collectible luxury car, of which only just over four thousand were produced worldwide.

But if it was just a spare car for temporary situations, that wouldn't be a problem.

He could find an empty space, smash a window and drive off.

So as soon as he entered the car park, Josh didn't hesitate; he 'borrowed' seven or eight standard black saloons and then quietly left, avoiding the guard at the entrance to the car park.

The whole process went very smoothly, but Josh wouldn't allow himself to feel smug about it, nor did he want to think that the existence of the system's warehouse gave him a free hand to steal other things.

After all, other places wouldn't be as defenceless as a car park where there was practically no security.