Author's note: power stones, you got 'em; I need 'em. Come on, man, gimme my fix already!
...
Harley lazily stretched as she walked through the hallway towards Gray's apartment. She felt tired after several hours of taunting Black Mask and kicking his goons' asses.
The crazy blonde was already looking forward to annoying Gray into making him go berserk again so she could get another show. The one he put up on the docks when he beat The Beast to death and when he almost killed an almost inkillable werewolf were just too entertaining for her to not try for an encore.
She immediately opened the door as soon as she reached it and froze at the sight of the empty apartment.
The crazy blonde frowned as she began searching the apartment but found no trace of Gray or any furniture other than the air mattress in the bedroom with a piece of paper on top of it.
Her frown became more pronounced as she picked up the piece of paper and discovered it had a message left to her by none other than Gray.
...
Dear Dr. Harleen Quinzel.
It is with great regret that I'm informing you of the following; our time together, though most jolly, must now come to an end as I have many things to do that require my full attention.
You should also be pleased to know that my deal with you know who regarding you has officially concluded, and I have taken it upon myself to inform his associate from Bludhaven.
You are now free to do as you will, as am I, so let us keep it that way.
I have already paid for the apartment's rent, so feel free to use it as a shelter at your convenience for the next two months.
Thank you for the pleasant company you have provided me in the past few days.
Sincerely,
Grayson Whitlock
...
"Sincerely, my resplendent pale bottom; just ya wait!" Harley exclaimed with a scowl as she proceeded to tear the letter into shreds before leaving the apartment in a huff.
...
I chuckled in amusement, shaking my head as I looked at my laptop screen, watching Harley leave the apartment in a huff through the camera I especially installed to see her reaction.
I was already sick of dealing with the crazy blonde and keeping her in line for so long, and as far as I'm concerned, she stopped being my responsibility the moment I exposed Anarky.
I made sure Nightwing knew that I'd be washing my hands of the crazy bitch before he left Anarky's hideout, and Batman could choke on a dick and die if he didn't like it for all I cared.
In any case, my apartment was already exposed, and I didn't find the idea that villains and capes could come into my house whenever they wanted very appealing, not to mention it was most likely bugged to hell and back by now.
So I took a page from Anarky's playbook and found a nice hideout in Gotham's abandoned underground tunnels network.
It was a similarly abandoned bunker, and I was smart enough to wipe it off the city's database. I also sabotaged all servers with information about the abandoned tunnels I'd found to hide my tracks and any information about my hideout.
There were still people like Batman who had their own databases about the Gotham's underground tunnel network, but they'd still have to comb through the entire area to find me, and by the time they did, I'd be long gone.
Though I'd need to spend some effort to make the bunker feel like home, like getting electricity, an internet connection, cleaning up the place, and getting some furniture to fill it up, it'd be worth the effort in the end.
Honestly, I should have found a hideout like this and moved out after Selena managed to track me back to my apartment.
However, my subconscious need (which I only recently discovered) to maintain a normal lifestyle and not fall into any comic character stereotype prevented me from even considering the idea.
But I was here now, and that's all that mattered.
'Now, let's see what new notifications I have...' I mused, smiling as I turned the notifications prompts in the corner of my vision. I had a pretty heated-up confrontation with Anarky, and I'd be surprised if my Computers skill didn't go up by at least one level.
[+1 level the Crime skill]
[Crime (level 28)]
[+2 levels to the Computers skill]
[Computers (level18)]
[+2 levels to the Programmer class]
[Programmer (level 25)]
[+6 stat points]
'Nice... now only five more class levels before I can move on to the next one...' I nodded in satisfaction, frowning as I noticed several more notification prompts remaining.
[quest complete: Get Rich Or Die Trying (literally) II]
Get Rich Or Die Trying (literally) II:
You finally got a taste of money, but is that really enough to fill the black hole in your heart? You want, you need; it makes the world go round. Go for it.
[Objective: Gather $50,000 through any means]
[Rewards: [Random equipment] [+5 levels to the crime skill]
[Progress: $73,221/$50,000]
[Would you like to receive your rewards now?]
'Oh, yea... almost forgot, I even had that quest...' I smiled, shrugging my shoulders as I read through the completed quest. It wasn't that I forgot about it. It's actually almost impossible for me to forget anything.
However, with everything that's been happening recently, I'd just put it in the back of my mind and been ignoring it to focus on other, more important matters like not getting my teeth kicked in by Batman or getting killed by angry gangsters. You know, just usual everyday stuff.
But you're probably wondering how I suddenly finished the quest, and the answer is quite simple, really. I'd found Anarky's backup database and easily hacked into it since it was connected to his computer, and he wasn't there to stop me.
After some rummaging, I salvaged a lot of recourses, including custom-made viruses and computer programs, along with 68k in emergency funds.
'Too bad I'll spend it all buying Wayne enterprise stocks... but first...' I mused with a smile as I accepted the quest rewards since spending the money would regress the progress bar if I didn't finish it properly first.
[+5 levels to the Crime skill]
[Crime (level 33)]
[Programmer (level 27)]
[+6 stat points]
[Randomizing equipment... randomizing complete]
[You have gained: Phantom Belt]
[Phantom Belt: a stylish, highly damage-resistant black belt fully equipped with the latest personal concealing technology. It works y generating a refracting light field around its user, making them invisible with the click of a button]
'This will definitely come in handy...' I mused as the black, scaly belt appeared in my hand, and I didn't hesitate before putting it on before finding the activation button on the circular buckle.
"Wow..." I remarked as my hand and the rest of my body disappeared from my vision. I tried moving my hand in front of my face, but it was still invisible.
I tried walking, running, and jumping. But I still remained invisible until I pressed the activation button on the buckle, causing my body to appear again as materializing from thin air.
'Fuck you, Sanji! I've got your dream power, but I ain't using it to peek at the lady's rooms like a creep...!'
I chuckled, shrugging as I stored the belt into my inventory and turned to the available stat points on my character screen.
'Might as well...' I mused as I distributed my 60 stat points equally between my Mind, Body, and Spirit attributes, raising them all to 70 points, respectively.
Name: Grayson Whitlock
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Archetype: (The Mad Scientist level 1)
Class: [Thief (level MAX)] [Fighter (level MAX)] [Acrobat (Level MAX)] [Programmer Level 27]
...
Stats:
Body: 70
Mind: 70
Spirit: 70
Stat Points: 0
.....
Skills:
[Brawling (level 38)]
[Crime (level 33)]
[Acrobatics (level 16)]
[Computers (level 18)]
....
Perks:
[Dormant Metahuman]
[Silent Step]
[Eidetic Kinesthesia]
[Superhuman Stamina]
[Perfect Recall]
[Accelerated Healing]
[Energy Detector]
[Energy Concentration]
...
Archetype powers:
[Network Crash]
[Code Manipulation]
...
I gave my character screen one last look and immediately got to work, buying Wayne enterprise stocks as cheap as I could find, and it didn't take me long to most of my money, leaving me with only 15k.
I honestly have no idea why people would sell Wayne enterprise stocks since the company was the oldest in Gotham, and survived many catastrophes.
Every time something happened that would cause the company's stocks to plummet, something else would happen and make them soar through the roof several days longer, and sometimes not it doesn't take that long either.
Why anyone would sell their shares in such a company was honestly perplexing, and I could only attribute it to being part of the plot since it happened all too often, but I wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Well, maybe I was, considering how many doubts I had about the system, but that doesn't apply to money.
"Time to get to work..." I remarked as I stored my laptop and got up, ready to turn the dingy, dark bunker into a permanent base.
...
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