Nothing more than a tool.

Dave was hurrying down a street. He had been summoned to an address by his boss. To be honest he did not want to work for his current employer anymore but he truly was not given a choice.

About 2 years ago, Dave was a small time information broker, unfortunately he got his hands on some info above his paygrade and broken certain unspoken rules of the underground by selling it openly to the highest bidder. It only took 2 days for the affected family to track him down. No matter where he ran to or hid he could not get away. Anyone who even interacted with him went missing within hours. Eventually he was caught and brought before the head of the family.

Right as he was about to be dragged off to be tortured to death, the head recieved a call. Dave did not know what the other party said, but he saw the head's face flush with anger, turn pale before grudgingly accepting something and then suddenly beaming with happiness. The head then told Dave simply.

"It's your lucky day, you have been bailed out by someone important. From today on, you are alive only because you are that person's property."

The family then promptly handed Dave a phone and threw him out into the streets. The phone contained only one contact: G-Anon. From then on this new boss would contact him purely on this phone to give him instructions. It was made abundantly clear to him, his role was to essentially fill in for G-Anon when a face to face meeting was required. He had a penthouse registered in his name and had servants assigned to take care of him and make sure he was taught to be elegant and dressed smartly. It was also made clear to him that disappointing his new boss would lead to a much worse outcome than simply being tortured to death.

At first Dave was happy with the arrangements, after all his life was saved, he had a penthouse and servants to ensure he was in good condition and a sum of money each month to spend on his own desires. But after doing his first job for G-Anon he realised why the treatment was so good. His first deal was with Silver Arrow, a mercanary troupe so cruel that even dictatorships think twice before employing their services. Meeting them with only a suit and briefcase, he was to collect their payment in person. When he arrived those mercernaries were torturing a man, the heir to a crime family. In fact, the family that Dave offended was merely a small subsidary of this crime family. Yet the heir was being tortured in this place, if it wasnt for the training by G-Anon's servants he would have pissed himself and begged for his life already. Instead he did what he was ordered to do, strut into the warehouse and calmly state 'G-Anon is here for his payment'

Fully expecting to be captured and killed, Dave was surprised when the mercanaries looked slightly panicked, before rushing to hand him a briefcase full of money and sending him off politely. After depositing the money at the pre arranged location, he returned to the penthouse to try and calm his frayed nerves.

Ever since then he had been interacting with more and more dangerouse people leading him to nearly have a nervous breakdown. Today he was told he was being given a new role apparently and was told to report to his new safehouse.

The new safehouse was apparently an apartment complex. He went to the top floor which had all the rooms merged into one. Inside, the room was divided into two spaces, the left side being a training space and an armory with a collection of weapons, gears and tools, many he had not even seen before. And on the right was some sort of integrated base of command of some sort, with an infirmary, place to rest, kitchen and a wall of moniters next to a bigger screen. The wall of moniters seem to be displaying security footage of the surrounding area and on the big screen was a chatbox.

[You have arrived at last.]

Dave replied into the chatbox.

[Are you G-Anon?]

[Yes. Now pay attention. From today on, you are a disgraced professor who, in your attempt to reveal corruption in the city as well as exposed the wrong doings of the crime families, was hunted down. In 3 days time, head down to the central districts and wait by the train station. Some gangsters will spot you and beging chasing you. Do not get caught, those men are truly on the hunt for you and will kill you if you fail to keep away. Once you run for long enough a man dressed in black will most likely jump in to save you. I have left you a script with what to do from then on. Memorise it then destroy the file.]

[Is that all?]

[Oh yes, one last thing. From now on, Refer to me as G, I am a hacker who works with you to help you reveal the corruption. Also your name from now on is Alfred.]

[But my name is Dave sir.]

[No, I have prepared a background and identification for Alfred, "Dave" was found dead in the harbor 3 hours ago. "Dave" no longer has citizenship. So now, you can be Alfred, or you can be Dead. Remember, a tool has no choice, it can only be useful or be discarded.]