Why does he need a gun?

An hour later.

Pierce really prepared all the information Tristan needed to plan Mark's assassination.

According to the file Tristan opened through the link, Mark was currently living in an apartment on Cuatro Angulos' territory, together with two other members of the gang. Mark wasn't an official member yet, but it was only a matter of formalities.

From Pierce's expectations, as soon as Mark could walk without support, he will get the gang's signature tattoo.

Pierce also got word from a hospital, which said that Mark will probably need a cane to walk for the rest of his life.

As expected, Mark almost didn't leave his current dwelling. It was a good thing, and a bad thing.

With two roommates, Mark was rarely alone there, and the entire apartment building held a lot of Mexicans who were, in one way or another, affiliated with Cuatro Angulos.

The entire district was full of the eyes and ears of the gang. Just walking to the building could be a problem for Tristan, who was being hunted himself.

He studied the map of the city on his laptop and frowned.

'Even if I use my Pop-star identity in this place, I might get attacked anyway because someone liked my jacket too much. No, I can't approach openly. The best way will be not going too close at all.'

This was going to cost him a higher CP investment, but Tristan would need to raise these skills eventually, so it wasn't a waste.

[Ding!]

[Firearms shooting skill increased from 1 to 601.]

With the increase of skill, Tristan immediately became more sure about what he planned to do. He searched some things online, just to confirm his knowledge, then called Pierce again.

"Mr. Pierce, you promised to deliver me a weapon. I will need a rifle with a silencer, you don't mind. Oh, and an optic scope."

"A rifle? Any rifle, Hayes?"

"Yes, any will do."

Pierce hummed.

"How about a Remington 700? Will that suffice?"

Remington 700 was a popular among hunters bolt-action rifle. Somewhat primitive, but reliable, and able to shoot at long distances.

Tristan smiled.

"Yes, this will work perfectly, Mr. Pierce."

"Alright. This small thing I can arrange quickly. I will send you coordinates and time—come there after this time to pick up your weapon. And ammo, of course. And you can keep it afterward."

"Thank you for being generous, Mr. Pierce."

"Just remember—don't start a war, Hayes."

It was another half an hour after the call ended when Tristan got the next message. It pointed to a small park a couple of bus stops away from the Good Lion Bar. The time specified was the middle of today's night.

Quick, but not convenient at all.

'Maybe I can get it after work,' Tristan thought. 'Tomorrow, weekends start—it will be a good time to make that kill. Yes, that's a good plan.'

In the meantime, he still had a few hours until his evening shift. Too little to scope out Mark's apartment. Maybe Tristan could do more research, or just relax a little, or…

Struck by an idea, Tristan took off the earring that magically changed the way other people perceived him and turned into Tristan Gemello.

Then he went to the remnants of his video shooting setup.

He might as well shoot a new music video to get more CP for later!

It didn't take Tristan long to put his phone camera the way it stood the last time he made a video and arrange other things similarly.

He opened the window curtains to invite the most light into the apartment and sat next to the window. His fake leather jacket was casually slung over one of Tristan's shoulders.

Sunlight poured on Tristan's back, shadowing him and creating a halo around his head. The contrast sharpened his handsomeness, which would've been incredibly apparent to anyone who would've looked at Tristan at this moment.

Tristan took his guitar, turned on the camera, and struck the chords.

Although he was only playing the song for show, Tristan still put his soul into it. From the almost relaxed riffs Tristan played sitting on the chair the emotions rose until Tristan shot to his feet, singing to the top of his lungs like a rock-star on stage.

"I soar toward glass dreams,

DRAGONFLY!"

When Tristan finished singing, he was slightly out of breath, but pleased with himself and the footage. And his system seemed to reflect that.

[Ding!]

[Stage presence skill increased by 1. Reward: your CP increased by 10.]

[Ding!]

[Charisma attribute increased by 1. Reward: your CP increased by 100!]

However, the sound quality was as bad as one could expect, and the visuals…

Well.

It was still a video shot in one go, with an unmoving phone camera. That was as amateurish as it could get, and Tristan knew he wouldn't move beyond that without finding a cameraman.

But even in that video, the pure enjoyment and emotion Tristan put into singing was visible, and that was the key.

That and his skills were all Tristan had. But everybody had skills—that's what they spent years in music courses for.

Talent and passion were rarer.

Shooting the video only took half an hour, so Tristan had plenty of time to edit it, attach the prerecorded audio track to the video, and post it as well.

Perhaps he was a bit hurrying and should've taken more time to polish the video, but he couldn't wait—not when he had an assassination planned for tomorrow!

And it was almost time to play piano.

***

Several hours later.

It was the earliest morning of the next day when Tristan came to the marked spot, wearing his Hayes identity.

He knew how that type of item transfer worked.

After looking carefully around, Tristan quickly spotted a parcel taped to the underside of a bench near himself.

He tore it off and took the heavy parcel. It wasn't as long as a rifle, but it was big enough to fit a rifle in a dismantled state.

Tristan hid the parcel in his backpack.

Next stop was Cuatro Angulos territory.