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| Infiltrating the Criminal Network |
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- Sponsor: Adventurer's Guild
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| Objectives: |
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- Prerequisite: Missing Children
- Infiltrate a criminal network while undercover.
- Gather intelligence about criminal activities.
| Networks of criminals, thieves, and street gangs are known to operate in Scribel.
In order to stay one step ahead of crime, we need to know what they're planning.
Please infiltrate a criminal organization. Do not get caught. |
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Infiltrate a criminal group?
How would she do that, she wondered. She did not even know that there was a criminal group before in the city. Though, she never paid attention on such things. From the quest form, though, she inferred that the guild also knew of their existence. therefore, she asked the receptionist for anything that could identify them.
"Hmm... The most well-known gang is EEE. It stood for Exterminate Exoplanet Entities. They are a gang of youth who did not like the existence of adventurers from another world, though there is nothing bad about them so far. They are more like activists, trying to protect their culture and identity."
"Eh?" She tilted her head.
"Well. From my observation, adventurers on general grow more quickly than the residents, so it was easy to actually overpower them. That's why there was no conflict between us. We still have to observe them, though other than flyers and mass gatherings campaigning their cause, they are harmless. Well... that's what I know, to be honest. Maybe you can ask the guards instead?"
"Thank you." Mei bowed, and left.
+++
How suspicious was she? It was not the first time she pretended to be a cat. Would they think that she was a cat, when they saw her? She tried to emulate cat behavior, like licking her fur. But other than that, she did not know what to do.
As she was in the market, observing the ground below, she wondered. Should she try to steal a fish? She thought it would be more convincing for her disguise. First, she would steal a fish from one of the barrel on that corner, then she would run, and she would eat the fish somewhere. Setting that plan in motion, she ran.
ten meters...
seven meters...
five... four... three... two...
She leaped, snatching a fish with her mouth.
"Hey! My fish!"
She could hear the man shouting and cursing. Her first priority was to evade detection though. With that, she took the alleyway in the corner.
It was safe, she thought. She would be safer if she went above, obviously, but she had to behave like a cat. Cat couldn't climb walls after all.
"Running a little light in the pockets, lad?" She heard someone said that. She turned her head at the origin of the voice. It was a man with red hair, wearing some kind of leather armor. In front of him, there was a young boy who was panting.
"I'm sorry, what?" The boy said.
"I'm saying you've got the coin but you didn't earn a gee of it honestly. I can tell."
"How could you possibly know that?" The boy said, his posture defensive.
"It's all about sizing up your mark, lad." The man said. He explained with exaggerated motion, "It's the way they walk, what they're wearing. It's a dead giveaway."
The boy held the pouch on his hand tighter, "My wealth is none of your business."
"Oh, but that's where your wrong lad." He grinned. "Wealth is my business. Maybe you'd like a taste?"
The boy seemed to hestitate, then he relaxed his hold. "What do you have in mind?"
"I've got a bit of an errand to perform, but I need an extra pair of hands. And in my line of work, extra hands are well-paid."
"What do I have to do?" The boy seemed fully interested at the man's offer.
"Simple... I'm going to cause a distraction and you're going to steal Ulfric's silver ring from a strongbox under his stand. Once you have it, I want you to place it in Torygg's pocket without him noticing."
She got her mark.
+++
In the end, the man was unable to do anything. The boy declined, saying that he couldn't do that. The man let the boy go, then went to stand on the alleyway once again.
Another kid passed her, running through the alleyway. The boy was panting as he caught his breath. His left hand gripped the pouch. As she was licking the last of the fish, the man approached the boy.
"Running a little light in the pockets, lad?" The man said.
She could say that the man was dedicated. His response to the boy seemed nearly the same, ending on the same request to steal the ring.
"Lockpicking? I couldn't do that."
"I'll teach you if you agree, don't worry." The man said.
She didn't know if the man had some kind of organization behind him. Nevertheless, she probably had to follow him on the off chance he had. As the man and the boy stopped talking, they began to move.
After they were out of her sight, she took off to the rooftop, intending to follow the man from there. Though, when she arrived at the rooftop, she couldn't find them. Missing her mark, she set off to the market once again.
How should she do this? She did not understand how the criminals of the scribel city worked. Should she do some petty crime, she wondered. Though, she did not know if that would be good enough to draw a notice from the criminal elements. Using this thought, would murder be sufficient? Or child trafficking? With the quest missing child being posted perpetually, one of the criminal elements should be targeting them.
Arriving near the market, she perched herself on the rooftop, looking at the market. Perhaps, she thought, she went about this in the wrong way. She thought about the missing children. Some of them were returned as a corpse... why? Why that entity needed to murder the children, she wondered.
"Those EEE kids are doing public speech again?"
"Yeah... I don't know what is in their mind, antagonizing adventurers like that. They were lucky so far, that the adventurers did not take offense at those speeches."
"I mean, I get what they think. But, seeing our city being so intertwined with the adventurers, it is a futile cause, I say."
"Me too..."
An EEE speech? She would
