Next day.
[Ding!]
[Sneaking skill increased from 20 to 620.]
[Ding!]
[Pickpocketing skill increased from 30 to 530.]
Tristan had 950 Criminal Points left after improving his skills. He left them be.
***
Three days later. Afternoon.
After three days of preparation, gathering information and stalking his target, Tristan was finally ready. Somewhat ready, at least.
Murder was serious business. And a very cunning choice of mission from Pierce.
Now he stood near his prepared place of crime and waited for him to appear, enjoying the pleasant weather and musing about the mission.
'If I don't do this extremely carefully, I will get incriminated in murder. That's much worse than some drunk driving. Pierce will have blackmail on me, in case I betray his gang. While I can't even blame him in court—my only evidence is some printed notes, which anyone could get. Hell, I bet that even if I recorded our conversation, he'd come up with a way to avoid prosecution.'
The place was private, but not the kind that would scare a person. Just a quiet stone embankment of a small river running through the city, with a row of garages on the other side. A few cars were parked to the side, but there were no people nearby yet.
Tristan himself hid in a slightly shadowed alcove between two garages.
Tristan's improved stealth skill let him intuitively arrange his body in a way that blended with his surroundings. He stood there, almost motionless, and became almost invisible in broad daylight.
Even if someone took a photo of the place now, they'd have a hard time noticing Tristan on it.
Although everything looked very casual right now, it took Tristan a lot of effort to reach this point. His sneaking and observation skills have improved slightly, but he still spent a lot of time just watching his target move or browsing his social pages and social pages of his acquaintances. That, and reading articles about real and fictional murders, so he knew how to make one himself properly.
"Now, be very quiet. Someone wants to kill you, Jack Fulone. Do you have any idea why?"
Tristan let the target have a bit more air.
"I, ah, I don't know! R-really, please—!"
Tristan's sensitive ears noticed every tremble in the target's voice.
He was afraid, and he was lying.
"I can't save you from them if you don't tell me the truth," Tristan hissed, turning the man and pressing him into the wall so he could look into his eyes.
[Ding!]
[Fearsomeness attribute increased by 1. Reward: your CP increased by 100!]
[Ding!]
[You have terrified 1 person. Reward: your PP increased by 10.]
"Th-that's not a lie! I didn't do anything! I kept quiet, I didn't report them, I didn't say anything!"
"So you've seen something illegal? What was it?"
"What?! I can't tell you. Who... Who are you, anyway? What have you done to Gloria?"
It looked like the shock wore off, and the target was regaining at least a part of his critical thinking.
Tristan scowled. It looked like the things this man saw would forever remain a mystery, because Tristan didn't have the time for proper interrogation.
He quietly pulled a knife from his pocket. An ordinary kitchen knife—Evelyn's knife was too good for this.
With surgical precision, Tristan slid the knife through the target's T-shirt and right into his madly beating heart.