John Smith looked at the key card laying on the kitchen counter. He had stolen it from one of his former co-workers last night, thankfully the man had a similar build and look to himself so there would be no questions when he used the key card to enter the building through the back.

Now he just needed the $5,000 dollars to pay for the device that the tinkerer was selling him. For the past week he had attempted to pickpocket it off people, but so far, he had only managed to get just over 500 dollars instead, considering he needed the money in two days' time there was no way it was going to be possible.

However, he knew exactly the place to go to get the money.

He turned his attention back to the door, listening through the door to hear, he wasn't just waiting for anything.

Every Saturday, practically on a clock, John's landlord would head out of the building and go to the pub to get drunk. He always returned in the middle of the night later smelling completely of booze. He was glad the man lived alone because he had witnessed how angry he got when he was drunk.

Bang

Bang

Bang

There were the clumsy steps of the landlord heading down the stairs. John waited until he could hear him heading down the next flight of stairs before he opened the door, watching as the man thumped downstairs.

"See you." John smiled and headed upstairs, ensuring that he was being as careful as possible.

With as much grace as possible, John climbed the stairs and reached the landlord's apartment. He knelt down and took a lockpick out of his pocket. Luckily for him, lockpicking had been a surprisingly easy skill to learn, much easier than he had expected. It helped that the locks in the apartment building were extremely cheap and crappy.

Within a couple of minutes, the door was unlocked.

Congratulations! You've levelled a skill:

Lockpicking – Level 11

He slipped himself inside, looking for a particular thing.

Quite a while ago the landlord's daughter had been staying here, she had recently broken up with her long-time boyfriend and needed a place to stay. John knew this because the woman had taken a liking to him as she stayed there.

One day, when the landlord had returned drunk, his daughter had convinced him to allow her to borrow a large sum of cash. The landlord had told her:

"Just take it from the stash."

Judging by the large amount of money it had been, the landlord likely kept a significant amount of his earnings from the building and kept it in cash form. He had spoken about the banks collapsing a couple of times so John supposed it wasn't unexpected.

This meant that a lot of money had likely been over John's head for a while, money he was going to take, and the landlord would have no idea since he didn't believe in security cameras, believing that they weren't worth the money.

John walked into the landlord's apartment and began to look around. It wasn't exactly tidy but at the same time it wasn't extremely messy. John began to think of where the money could possibly be.

Moving quickly, John began to search the apartment. First, he looked in the more obvious placed, under the bed, in the cupboards, etc. Eventually he found a drawer that wouldn't open no matter how much he pulled, it was locked.

Kneeling, John had a look and realised that the lock was much more advanced than he was able to pick. Deciding he had no other choice; John pulled the crowbar he had brought with him as a 'just in case' scenario and used it to pry the drawer open.

It burst open after a few attempts and John was extremely pleased to see a large wad of cash inside. Without hesitation, he picked it up and shut the drawer. As far as he could guess the landlord wouldn't notice until the money was out of his hands. He'd likely have so much of a hangover tomorrow that he wouldn't leave the bed.

With a large smirk on his face, John left the apartment, locking it behind him, and headed back into his own.

John walked into the public park that he had been ordered to walk into, looking around him to make sure nothing was amiss. He looked down at the bin where he was supposed to leave the money and quickly popped it underneath, hoping that it wasn't just going to be stolen.

It turned out that he had stolen just over $10,000 from his landlord, meaning he also had $5,000 to spare.

As he placed the money under the bin, John noticed the disposable phone he'd brought busing and looked at his messages.

'Leave the park, wait ten minutes and return.'

The message was from the Tinkerer. He would collect the money while he was gone and then leave the device behind.

So, John left the part and waited outside for ten minutes, when he returned there was a phone on the bench, open and on an active call.

'Pick up the phone.'

That was the next message, he picked up the phone.

"Where's the drive?" John asked, worried that he had been tricked.

"Under the bin." The Tinkerer answered and as John reached under the bin, he realised the man was telling the truth. John grabbed the drive. "Good, you've got it."

"You're watching." John spoke, unsurprised.

"Of course, I'm watching." Tinkerer spoke as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm just confirming the details of our deal. Once your little heist is complete send me a message and I'll give you a meeting place. We'll meet there and you'll give me the drive, in return you'll get your money, smart asking for half in cryptocurrency. Less trackable, less danger, although less profitable as well."

John smiled, he had recently realised how valuable the other John's knowledge was, especially for his financial growth. It allowed him to get into cryptocurrencies before they became more popular, leading to a massive growth in what it was worth in the next few years, making himself insanely rich.

"Better safe than sorry. I look forward to our next meeting." John spoke and hung up.

John Smith – Level 5 (586/625)

Title – Trilingual

HP – 110/110

AP – 594/594

Str – 17

Con – 22

Dex – 21

Int – 27

Wis - 16

Skill Point: 664

Skills:

English – Level MAX

Cooking – Level 19

Cleaning – Level 43

French – Level 80

Increased Cognition (S) – Level 3

Stalking – Level 24

Stealth – Level 46

Pickpocketing – Level 25

Running – Level 33

Language Comprehension (S) – Level 2

Enhanced Listening (S) – Level 2

Spanish – Level 80

Lockpicking – Level 11

Portuguese – Level 14

Abilities:

Blessed Soul (Passive)

Danger Intuition (Passive)

Paralysis Touch (Active)