Shadow Runner [LitRPG]

The next couple of days were a complete contrast to the peace of the date we'd gone on.

It started off so innocuously, too. All I did was bring up the access codes I'd stolen to the various credit deposits and accounts. After all, I figured we could use some extra funds. We had the clinic income and Amelia's savings, as well as the money the mercs had set aside, but you could never have too many credits.

To our, heh, credit, we were careful when it came to checking stuff out. We took a taxi ride to the opposite side of the inner districts and picked out a small net café. I hacked the cameras to prevent them from recording our little visit. We even connected to the net using one of their scrolls, too, just in case.

Amelia and I had intended to use the occasion as another date. Instead, we almost had a heart attack when we actually saw how many credits were scattered among the accounts.

All in all, about one and a half million.

That was, to put it lightly, a whole lot of fucking cash. More than enough to move to a different city altogether and set ourselves up as a minor but promising business, actually. It was with an uncomfortable twist in my chest that I realized the slums were apparently one of the most profitable areas of the city when it came to acquiring 'merchandise.'

Unfortunately, the sizable wealth also meant that we couldn't just carefully start lifting the credits.

Amelia immediately contacted Yuri in an understandable fluster. Her uncle agreed to a meeting after she not so subtly hinted we were going to be in deep shit if we tried to handle our current problem on our own.

Then we rushed back to the clinic to wait for his visit.

We returned to find Mela loitering in our apartment, Shadow Buddy's scroll in her hands. She'd asked to borrow the scroll for the additional security it provided, but I hadn't expected to find her in our space, if I was being honest.

"What's up with ya two? Ya look like yer butts are on fire," Mela snickered.

In lieu of an answer, I just messaged her a number.

She frowned, studying the number's many zeroes. "Is this supposed to mean anything to me?"

"That's how many credits we have access to through the crap I stole from the Zerx."

Mela dropped her scroll. She was very lucky it landed in her lap, but Shadow Buddy's eyes still materialized to glare at her in disapproval. Not that she was paying attention. She was too busy looking as us, bug-eyed and nearly choking.

"T-T-This m-much? What the fuck?! Do ya have any clue how much Kittens used ta earn?!"

"No?"

"Not even a fuckin' fraction of this bullshit! How?!"

"Selling people and drugs is lucrative, I guess." I shrugged, trying to keep a pissed-off grimace from claiming my face.

I failed.

"Oh. Yeah… Well, fuck. This changes things a little."

"Hmmm? Whatcha mean?" Amelia was staring at Mela without really seeing her, looking just a little dazed.

Couldn't blame her. Seeing that number of credits had blown both our minds.

I mean, I'd been literally squeezing by for most of my childhood, fighting against starvation. I couldn't even wrap my head around that kind of wealth yet.

Amelia was better off, obviously. But from what I knew, she was never put directly in charge of her father's wealth. She'd had chances to skim off the top, sure, or she wouldn't have been able to hide us and provide us with everything we needed for so long.

But still: one and a half MILLION?

"Well, I've been trying to figure out what we can do about the Zerx, right?" Mela's eyes gleamed a little too fanatically. "This gives me some ideas."

"Don't get too fond of those yet, please," I warned. "We can't exactly access the money on our own. I'll bet you that the second we take money out of those accounts, they'll try to hunt us down."

"Ah. Yeah. Checks out." Mela winced, looking like a kicked puppy. "Any solutions for that?"

"We're working on it," I assured her.

Thankfully, that was enough for Mela.

It wasn't much later that she skipped out of the room. Just from the look on her face, I could tell she hadn't really taken my warning to heart. She was pretty obviously scheming.

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But I wasn't going to complain. After that particular shock, we could use someone who still had a functional brain.

—

"Okay, menace." That was Yuri's opening line the second he stepped into the clinic. Two of his bodyguards had already cleared the way, with two more following behind him. "Talk. You sounded like things were urgent, and here I am. This better not be a pregnancy scare, though. I'd need to step in for that shitty idiot, and I'm not ready to be a grandpa yet."

Amelia had opened her mouth to start talking, then flushed a deep crimson. "What? No! We're careful!"

The smirk Yuri sent my way was equal parts 'mockery' and 'promise of death.'

"Oho? I see. Hrm. You're being 'careful.'"

"Uhhh… It's nice to see you again, sir?" I ventured, quickly shriveling under his laser-focused gaze.

That is, I shriveled until he broke into a full-on belly laugh, throwing his head back and everything.

"Ahhh, I'm teasing, just teasing… I mean, if you hurt my niece, I'll fucking gut ya, but if you're making her happy…"

He shrugged, then slunk off deeper into the clinic, forcing us all to follow him. Somehow, no idea how, he went straight to one of the rooms we used for meetings and plopped his ass in a chair.

"So… You've got a problem. What can I do to solve it for you?"

Amelia sighed, looking both worn out and much calmer than she'd been moments before Yuri arrived.

"My idiot here…" She slapped my shoulder. "He went to the slums to do some scouting and see about some enemies we've got. He came back with these."

She paused there, sending all the access codes to Yuri. It was a sign of trust I'd have called stupid if it were anyone else sitting across from us.

"They are access codes to a bunch of credits. Actually, this many credits…" She followed up with the total sum.

When even Yuri's eyebrows climbed up his face, I felt that our panic was justified.

"I… see. And who did you acquire these from, hmmm?"

He directed the question at me, and I didn't hesitate.

"The Zerx. A slum gang."

"Zerx… Zerx… a slum gang, you say? And they are raking in enough profits to have this kind of cash?"

"Well…"

I filled him in about everything. I left nothing out. Maybe I was being a little naïve, but I felt that the man deserved it. He'd genuinely done everything he could to help us. And every time I watched him interact with her, I could plainly see his love and affection for his niece.

"I take everything back. She's a menace…" He pointed at Amelia, then shook his head at me. "But YOU are just plain trouble when you want to be. Also, you two need some kind of therapy. With all the daddy issues you are gonna end up with… I fear for your children. Since there obviously will be some of those running around at some point. I'll do my best, but I can only unscrew childhood trauma so far."

My face felt like it was on fire. I just shut up and tried to hide behind Amelia. Surprisingly, she did a much better job of maintaining her cool, even if her face was just as scarlet as mine.

"We'll consider it." She managed not to stutter, even! "Can you help with the credits thing?"

"Can I help with the credits thing? Obviously, I can help with the credits thing. Fair warning, I'll need to run it through a few of the people I work with. They know to keep their mouth shut and everything, but they'll bump off about… eh… ten percent of the total? I'm not taking a cut again, of course, but can't really deny them."

"That's fine. You really don't want to know how the Zerx earned the money to begin with. Truly, we're not upset about losing part of it. Right?"

She elbowed me, making me finally stop hiding my face in her hair.

Or maybe it was because I'd started to tickle her a little, just to mess with her?

"Yeah. Yep." I nodded vigorously. "Don't mind at all."

The look he gave us was piercing.

"And how was this money earned, exactly?"

"Mostly drugs and selling people. That's why we want to, you know, help the Zerx disappear," I explained, noting with some satisfaction the dangerous gleam that entered Yuri's eyes.

I'd strongly suspected he was a decent man, but it helped to have confirmation.

"I see. Well, no worries, little menace. I'll get it all sorted out. The credits will be with you in a couple of days, at the latest. And if you need any help getting the rest of it done… well, don't hesitate to ask. Got it?"

Amelia was just about to reply when the door was pushed open roughly, making Yuri's bodyguards tense and turn towards the newcomer.

"There ya are! Been looking all over the place for yer sorry… Aha. Who's this?"

I stared at Mela, noting the odd look on her face.

Amelia beat me to an answer. "This is Yuri, my uncle. Might have mentioned him before?"

"You did!" A smile slowly slid onto Mela's face. "Never mentioned he looked so tasty, though."

Okay, so maybe it was more of a leer.

"Mela!" Amelia flushed, looking frantically between the redhead and her uncle.

Yuri just blinked, then broke into another belly laugh.

"Ooooh, where do you keep finding all these characters, little menace? You look pretty good yourself, Miss… Mela, right?"

"Stop that!" Amelia demanded. "Both of you! Mela, he's, like, thrice your age!"

Her uncle looked like she'd punched him in the gut. "I'm only few years older than your mother! I'm forty-three!"

"Oh…" Amelia looked him over, a grin dancing in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Uncle. You know there's rejuvenation treatments out there? Want me to pay for one for you?"

"I help her get stuff, I help her launder credits, and this is how she repays me?!" He looked at me with exaggerated sadness in his eyes. "Be careful, Adrian. Who knows what she'll do to you when she's got her hooks in and you give her those kids she wants."

"Hey! You're my uncle, not his!"

"And he's been a lot nicer to me than you have!"

"I feel like yer all forgetting about me? Also, Amelia… nice family genetics!"

My lovely ripper groaned in frustration and threw her hands up in the air.

Unfortunately for her, Mela and Yuri insisted on flirting all the way to our front door. Amelia finally managed to shove him out, and then she focused her glare on Mela.

"What did you even want?"

"Hmm? Oh, sorry, your hot uncle distracted me," Mela said cheerfully. "Anyway, no matter what we end up doing about the Zerx, you wanted in, right? That means I need to prep both of you!"

Mela's hands closed around our wrists. She pulled us outside, sent a wink Yuri's way as he got into his car, and then marched us over to the merc HQ.

"Mela, what do you mean prep us? Mela?!" I tried to extract more info out of her, but you'd think she was the one with cybernetic arms with how easily she was keeping a grip on us.

The following days of workout and combat practice were agony. Pure agony. Mela kept us busy every waking moment she managed to steal us for, to the point that Amelia's ripper work turned into our off-time recreation.

Still, by the time the credits I'd stolen landed in Amelia's account four days later (a bit off Yuri's prediction), I could admit that we were already starting to see some payoff.

I just wasn't going to thank her for it. Ever!