By the time Jason rode his motorcycle to the docks, Franklin had already been waiting for quite a while.
He quickly jumped down from the truck.
“Boss, you good?”
Jason spread his arms and turned in a circle.
“What do you think?”
Franklin breathed a sigh of relief, then said guiltily, “Sorry, Boss. That was on me. I can’t believe I forgot about the GPS.”
He was a professional car thief.
Whenever he repossessed vehicles for nonpayment, dealing with the GPS tracking system was always the first thing he did.
But he’d just killed someone for the first time.
His nerves had been shot, and in all the confusion, he’d forgotten to remove the truck’s GPS tracker.
Jason patted him on the shoulder.
“It’s not all your fault. I screwed up too. Just remember the lesson and don’t make the same mistake next time. By the way, how are the bikes?”
Franklin had been driving the truck like it was a sports car.
The cargo container had been swaying all over the place.
If the motorcycles had been damaged, everything they’d done tonight would’ve been for nothing.
“I checked them just now. They’re fine.”
Jason nodded.
As long as the bikes were intact, everything else was manageable.
[Biker Heist completed. Reward: 1,000 Villain Points. Current progress: 4,915/4,000.]
[Congratulations! Host has reached Level 5. +10 Attribute Points. Current progress: 915/5,000.]
The two waited inside the truck for a while.
Eventually, a black Audi appeared in the distance and stopped about twenty yards away.
The Audi flashed its high beams in a signal, three long flashes, one short.
After confirming the code, Jason instructed Franklin to respond.
“That’s the signal we agreed on with the buyer. Three long, one short.”
Franklin nodded and did as instructed.
Once both sides had confirmed the signal, Jason and Franklin climbed out of the truck.
Four men stepped out of the Audi as well.
One of them was someone Jason had met before, Mr. Moran’s driver.
The man took two black duffel bags from the trunk and placed them on the hood, then gestured for Jason to inspect them.
Jason walked over and opened the bags.
Stacks upon stacks of worn hundred dollar bills filled the interiors.
1.3 million dollars in total.
“The money’s good.”
After checking the cash, Jason signaled for Franklin to open the cargo container so the buyers could inspect the merchandise.
The driver waved a hand.
Two specialists climbed into the container and began examining the motorcycles.
Mr. Moran kept plenty of professionals like these on his payroll specifically to inspect merchandise.
A short while later, they jumped down and nodded to the driver.
Goods inspected.
The deal was done.
Jason and Franklin abandoned the semi truck, took the duffel bags, mounted their motorcycles, and headed home.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The next day at noon, at Franklin’s house.
Jason sat on the bed with two duffel bags in front of him, one large and one small.
He divided the $1.3 million into two portions.
He kept the larger share, one million dollars, to buy skills.
The remaining three hundred thousand went to Franklin.
Jason opened the system and converted the money into Credits.
The cash inside the larger bag vanished instantly.
[Credits successfully added. Remaining Credits: 103.]
Jason then opened the system interface and purchased a skill.
[Spent 100 Credits. Level 6 Firearms Mastery successfully purchased. Remaining Credits: 3.]
━━━━━ SYSTEM ━━━━━
Host: Jason Walter
Level: 5 (915/5,000)
━━
[Attribute]
✪ Strength: 38
✪ Agility: 40
✪ Endurance: 35
✪ Intelligence: 40
✪ Remaining Points: 0
━━
Notoriety: 191 (Next recruitment: 300)
Accomplices: Franklin Clinton
━━
Credits: 3
[Skill]
𖦏 Combat Mastery (Level 4)
𖦏 Driving Mastery (Level 3)
𖦏 Firearms Mastery (Level 6) ↑
𖦏 Melee Weapons Mastery (Level 2)
[Shop: Click here]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Jason wasn’t sure where to put the remaining ten Attribute Points yet, so he decided to save them until he actually needed them.
He picked up the smaller duffel bag and knocked on Franklin’s bedroom door.
“Your cut from last night’s job. Three hundred grand. Count it.”
Franklin rubbed his sleepy eyes and unzipped the bag.
Inside were stacks of old bills carrying that unmistakable unpleasant smell of heavily circulated cash.
He froze.
His throat bobbed as he swallowed, and the arm hanging at his side began trembling slightly.
In all his life, he’d never seen this much cash in one place.
“Boss, this is too much.” Franklin quickly regained his composure.
Yesterday, all he’d really done was drive.
Jason had handled every real problem by himself.
Worse, Franklin’s mistake had gotten Jason chased by the Biker Gang.
He felt genuinely uncomfortable taking three hundred thousand dollars.
After all, repossessing a car for his boss at the dealership normally earned him only three to five hundred dollars.
Jason waved him off, unwilling to waste time arguing over something so minor.
“If I’m giving it to you, take it. If you feel like you didn’t earn it, then pull more weight on the next job.”
Jason had never been stingy when it came to subordinates who were loyal to him.
He left the room and suddenly realized he was hungry.
Jason went to the living room, dropped onto the couch with a bucket of fried chicken and a Coke, then switched on the television and turned to a news channel.
Sure enough, the anchor was reporting on the events of the previous night.
And the footage being shown on-screen was the bloody message Jason had left on the road.
THE KILLER IS JW!
JW was short for Jason Walter.
“Killing his victims and then leaving a message written in blood, this highly theatrical style of crime further suggests that Jason Walter may be suffering from severe psychological problems. We’re now joined by a psychiatry professor from Washington University, who will give us a professional analysis.”
“Bitch! You’re the one with psychological problems!” Jason cursed at the television, grabbed the remote, and changed channels.
This time, the anchor was a woman.
“The bloody crimes Jason Walter has committed over the past few days remind me of another man, nineteenth century London’s most infamous serial killer, Jack the Ripper.”
“Both men used exceptionally brutal methods. Coincidentally, both of their names also begin with the letter J. The difference is that Jack killed prostitutes, while Jason kills gangsters.”
Jason hit the remote again.
“Shit! Do they let any idiot become a news anchor these days?”
He flipped through several more channels.
Almost every news program and talk show was discussing him.
“A normal person who kills someone experiences fear, guilt, and remorse. But Jason?”
“In just five days, he’s killed nearly seventy people. He’s even begun leaving messages written in blood at crime scenes. That strongly suggests Jason is mentally ill, much like Dr. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.”
“Jason’s methods are becoming increasingly twisted. I believe he’s beginning to enjoy killing. To enjoy committing crimes. And I suspect all of this is connected to his childhood. Every psychopathic serial killer has a tragic childhood.”
“According to police statistics, New York’s crime rate has fallen significantly since Jason appeared. A large part of that decline is because Jason has been punishing criminals.”
“One man has accomplished what thousands of New York police officers could not. I believe calling Jason a serial killer is inaccurate. Perhaps ‘the Hand of God’ would be more appropriate.”
“Exactly. Jason is a madman who believes himself to be justice incarnate. He ignores the law and massacres gang members, hoping to change New York through his own strength. But I want to tell him this, no one but the law has the right to take another person’s life.”
“Bunch of idiots!”
No matter which channel he switched to, the hosts all seemed united in trashing him, just in different ways.
Annoyed, Jason turned off the television.
Still, there was one upside.
Thanks to all that publicity, his Notoriety had begun skyrocketing.