Chapter Two
John looked up from his book as there was a knock on his apartment door, he placed it down and began to walk to the door, ignoring the messages that had popped up. He opened the door and was extremely disappointed to see the last man he wanted to see, his landlord.
"John, you're late this month." The man told him, waiting expectantly.
"I'm so sorry." John put on a façade of apologetics, only feeling slightly angry at the man. He was doing his best. "Give me one more week, I'll have the money I swear, please."
"Fine." His landlord shook his head, sighing. "You have exactly one week, if I don't have that money in my hand by then you're out. Don't think that just because your young you'll get away with shit."
"Thank you, I swear I'll have the money." John spoke and shut the door, breathing a sigh of relief as a look of worry overcame his face. He'd gotten paid the day before and found out that his salary had been lowered, meaning he didn't have enough money. He needed a way to find some. "I need a walk."
He shook his head and slipped a jacket on, heading outside. He walked down the streets of city, weaving in and out of the bustling crowds.
As he walked his eyes moved towards something poking out of a trouser pocket, someone's wallet. They were talking to someone else, a woman, completely distracted while their wallet was poking out of their pocket, someone could take it with minimal effort, he could take it with minimal effort. He did need the money after all, he reasoned with himself. The man was obviously very well off, it surely wouldn't make that much of a difference to him.
He walked a bit faster to catch up to the man, the street was crowded so people were walking so close together nobody would be looking down at people's waists, they all wanted to get to their destination.
Eventually John got to the point where if he was a step faster, he would be standing adjacent to the man, he could just reach out and slip the wallet out of his pocket.
Congratulations! You've learned a new skill.
Stalking – Level 1
Congratulations! You've learned a new skill.
Stealth – Level 1
Dismissing the messages, John reached out towards the pockets and carefully grabbed the wallet. In one movement he slipped it out of the man's pocket.
Congratulations! You've learned a new skill.
Pickpocketing – Level 1
He realised he'd made a mistake very quickly. The man who'd he'd stolen from stopped walking and turned around, spotting his wallet in John's hand.
"What the fuck, kid." The man spoke and John froze for a moment until his danger sense warned him to get out of there, so he ran. "You little shit!" He heard behind him.
+2 Dexterity for Pickpocketing Someone.
Congratulations! You've learned a new skill.
Running – Level 1
Panic flowing through his veins, John sprinted, dismissing the message as a few more popped up, telling him that his Running skill had levelled up. Just as he was about to turn down a corner into an alley, his danger sense went off, so he carried on. He continued for at least a few minutes despite his danger sense telling him that he'd lost them. He wanted to be sure they wouldn't catch up.
+3 Constitution for Running.
Congratulations! You've levelled up a skill.
Running – Level 4
John finally stopped only a couple of blocks away from his own home, he could continue walking but he needed to catch his breath. He looked at his AP.
AP – 90/196
He shook his head, watching as the bar refilled slowly.
"Shit, shit, shit." He looked at the wallet in his hands, surprised that he hadn't dropped it during the sprint.
As he recovered, he knew that he should feel guilty for stealing from another person, but he didn't. Sure, there was a little bit of guilt that told him he shouldn't of done that, but it was nothing compared to the adrenaline and excitement from getting away with what he had done.
He looked in the wallet and took the cash out, throwing everything else away. Overall, there was about $200 inside the wallet, enough to pay for the difference in his rent, he sighed in relief.
He wanted to do it again, but there was too much risk. He needed to get better, but he couldn't without a higher level in the skills he'd just gained. He could use his skill points, but he was saving those for when skills were too high to level normally, so he needed to do it the hard way.
To see which skills, he wanted to focus on more, he looked at his profile.
John Smith – Level 2 (180/250)
Title – Always Average
HP – 28/28
AP – 196/196
Str – 11
Con – 14
Dex – 12
Int – 14
Wis - 12
Skill Point: 160
Skills:
English – Level MAX
Cooking – Level 6
Cleaning – Level 23
French – Level 14
Increased Cognition (S) – Level 1
Stalking – Level 1
Stealth – Level 1
Pickpocketing – Level 1
Running – Level 4
Abilities:
Blessed Soul (Passive)
Danger Intuition (Passive)
A few more days later John had organised himself very effectively. He had gotten into quite a useful daily routine. Every morning he woke up at seven in the morning and went on a run for about an hour, he didn't measure how far but for how long. Then he went to work. After finishing work, he spent about two hours following people around the street, stopping when they either break away from the public or when they notice him. Then he got home and worked on educating himself for his GED as well as teaching himself French.
In short, he was extremely happy with himself. The progress that the gamer system was showing him motivated him effectively. Normally he wouldn't notice the difference that a level made but every time he levelled up, he knew that he had progressed at least a small amount and it made him happier and inspired him to work harder, resulting in his increased progress.
Standing up from where he was studying, John decided he was bored and looked at his profile once more.
John Smith – Level 3 (125/375)
Title – Always Average
HP – 48/48
AP – 288/288
Str – 12
Con – 16
Dex – 13
Int – 18
Wis – 13
Skill Point: 258
Skills:
English – Level MAX
Cooking – Level 8
Cleaning – Level 29
French – Level 19
Increased Cognition (S) – Level 2
Stalking – Level 8
Stealth – Level 6
Pickpocketing – Level 1
Running – Level 17
Abilities:
Blessed Soul (Passive)
Danger Intuition (Passive)
He was a little disappointed, he had not found a way to level up pickpocketing without pickpocketing anything. As far as he knew there was only one way to level the skill without pickpocketing something from someone, and that was using up his hard-earned skill points.
He shrugged, if they had to be used for something he might as well use them for that he supposed, being more skilled at it would mean less chance of being caught.
Would you like to use skill points to increase skill?
Pickpocketing – Level 1
Cost – 5SP per Level.
John looked in surprise, it was a lot cheaper to level up than he thought, he decided to raise the skill to level twenty-five. He spent 195 skill points reaching level 20 before the cost changed.
Cost – 10SP per Level.
He nodded, realising that it would be an obvious thing that as skills rose, they'd cost more to level up, they were certainly getting harder to level normally. He decided to leave it at level 20 and go out to see how good he was at it then.
He left his apartment and began to walk the streets, looking for some easy prey. It was at least twenty or so minutes of walking the busy streets before he found his target. It was a woman; her purse was handing right out of her bag that she was holding over her shoulder.
He sped up slightly, not so much that he would be noticeable but enough so that he caught up to her within a minute or so, simply appearing as if he was a man on a rush.
He slipped his hand out of his pocket and in one swift movement he plucked the purse out of her bag, switching it to the other hand before changing the direction he was walking smoothly. Only a few metres later he ducked into an alleyway to catch his breath as adrenaline pumped through his veins once again.
He looked in the purse and was slightly disappointed to only find about $40 in the purse. However, he chided himself, he had gotten extremely lucky before and he was lucky now again. He was simply happy that he had not been caught.