Vincent added it to his territory. He now had two in total. He smiled slightly, “We’re a long ways off from capturing the entire city, but this is a good start.”

  Not long after, Ace came back. He looked at Vincent and sighed, “Sorry. I just needed to cool off.”

  Vincent laughed, “No problem. Let’s go.”

  Ace looked around and couldn’t find Diago’s body, “Where’d his body go?”

  “I stored the body in my territory. It’s probably being eaten by zombies right now.”

  Ace nodded, “Good riddance.”

  They left the territory and headed back to Allen’s office.

  Chapter 23.5

  All around the United States, police had their work cut out for them. Due to the increased crime, their jobs became a lot busier. Worse, most of the crime went unsolved. Crime was occurring in ways not previously possible due to the tattoo. In Northrock, Allen was currently visiting the house of a mother whose teenage daughter went missing. They sat in the kitchen as Allen interviewed her. He had his notepad in front of him, writing down all of the details.

  Raising his head, he noticed the Mother’s eyes were dark, likely due to lack of sleep. She held a tissue box in her hand. As Allen interviewed the woman, she constantly cried and used the tissues from the box. Allen flipped back to the first page of his notebook as he said, “So to summarize everything, your daughter, Gale, went missing after leaving high school. Her friends saw her walk home, so she definitely left from school. As you work from home, you noticed she didn’t arrive on time, and in the end, she didn’t arrive home at all. Is everything correct?”

  “Y-yes, that’s correct.” The mother grabbed another tissue and raised it to her nose.

  Allen looked down at the photograph on the table. The photograph was of a 16 year old girl with brown eyes and hair. Allen mused, “The same age as when my daughter…”

  He shook his head, “Focus on the job, Allen.”

  He stood up and prepared to leave, “I’ll do everything in my power to find Gale.”

  “Thank you, Detective Carter.” The mother hadn’t lost all hope yet. She knew her girl had to be out there.

  Leaving the house, he got into his undercover vehicle and drove to his private office. He worked for the police, but he rented an office on the other side of town for ‘private’ jobs. Walking inside, he looked at the far wall. A map of Northrock was on the wall with various circles drawn on it. All of them represented a territory that was currently active. He had driven around the city until he found a hologram informing him of a territory. He didn’t enter inside, only marking it down in his notes. It was in this way that he currently had tabs on all of the territories in the city.

  He compared the address of the high school Gale went to and the closest territories. His eyes lit up as he thought aloud, “There are 2 territories close to the school. Owners unknown.”

  He left his office and drove close to the border of the territory. He exited his vehicle and opened the trunk. Inside were over thirty small cameras. He had already tested if they worked inside a territory, and found that if it was battery powered, it would work. He grabbed ten of them and put them into a pouch. He picked up the pouch and entered the territory.

  Notice

  You are trespassing in ??? territory. No outsiders are allowed inside. You must enter the alternate reality to proceed.

  The territory covered a residential area, so there were hundreds of houses. He held his breath as he went invisible. He had low tier invisibility, and it only worked when he held his breath. He enhanced his endurance and was able to hold his breath for 5 minute at a time.

  As time was limited, he quickly set up the cameras in hidden locations. They pointed towards the street and would capture the license plate of a car that passed. He moved quickly, and 10 minutes later he was done.

  He moved onto the next territory and did the same thing. Nobody approached him either time. Either they were there and didn’t want to fight, or they were outside of their territory. Either way, it was good news for him.

  A few days later, he picked up the cameras and brought them to his private office. It was time to search through the recordings. It was a boring job, but one that had to be done. He drank coffee as he went through one recording after another. Eventually, his eyes lit up as a car zipped past the camera. He rewinded the film and paused it.

  The same thing happened for the other territory, and he was given 2 license plates. He called up a friend from work and asked for the owners of the plates. An hour later, he was faxed their info. One of them was a middle aged man, and the other was a young female in her twenties. Allen mused as he looked at them, “Not saying a young female wouldn’t kidnap a teenage girl, but odds are more likely its the man.”

  He acquired the address of the man as well, so he didn’t have to search through each house. He checked his gun and made sure it was loaded. After that, he got into his vehicle and rushed to the territory of the man.

  30 minutes later, he had his gun out in front of him as he stood on the border of the territory. He took deep, long breaths. This was an exercise he learned that helped increase how long he could hold his breath for. Now prepared, he turned invisible and entered the territory. He rushed straight towards the house that the man owned. He noticed the car wasn’t in the driveway as he approached the front door. He released his breath as he turned visible. After recovering, he once more held his breath. He held out his hand and a magic spell shot into the door.

  Click!

  The door automatically unlocked and he entered inside. His gun was held in front of him as he checked his corners. His footsteps were slow and quiet, afraid of making any noise. He checked the first floor and found nothing. The only thing left was to check the second floor. As he walked up the stairs, his heart beat loudly in his chest. Suddenly, the stair underneath his foot creaked loudly. His heart froze as he paused, listening for any other movements in the house.

  “Hellooo?” The voice of a young girl sounded further up the stairs. His eyes lit up as he thought, “It’s her! She’s here!”

  He moved quietly as he entered the 2nd floor and walked down the hallway. There were 3 doors, and only 1 of them was shut. He approached and tried to open it. It was locked from the outside. He used the same ability to unlock the door. Opening the door, he found a young teenage girl tied to a bed. She had brown hair and eyes. She looked in terror at the door, but found no one. However, that spooked her even more.

  Allen frowned as he looked at the condition she was in. She was currently naked and bruised. He stepped inside and untied the rope holding her to the bed. Suddenly, a figure appeared in the doorway and shouted, “I know you’re there!”

  BANG!

  The man held a shotgun in his hands. Allen’s heart gripped in shock as his eye winced in pain.

  He whipped out his gun and fired at the man, hitting him in the center of the forehead. The man fell backwards and collapsed into the hallway. Allen released a breath as he looked down at his mangled arm. Thankfully, the man had missed by a foot because he was invisible. He had likely been relying on the hologram to see him, which was pretty inaccurate for close distances.

  “Aahhhh!” Gale screamed in fear at the sudden appearance of Allen.

  He summoned a mid tier potion from his inventory and drank it. A moment later, his arm was fully recovered. He looked down at Gale as he spoke, “Don’t worry, I’m Detective Carter. Your mother sent me.”

  Gale calmed down as tears formed in her eyes, “My mother?”

  Allen nodded as he wrapped her in a sheet from the bed. He gave her a low tier health potion and told her to drink it. A moment later, all of her bruises were recovered. Allen asked quietly, “Can you stand?”

  “Mm.” She stood up and walked over to the now dead kidnapper. She picked up his shotgun and fired into his chest. Allen sighed as he witnessed this, but made no move to stop her. After all the rounds were fired, he spoke, “Let’s get you home now, yeah?”

  The shotgun dropped to the ground as she nodded, “Okay.”

  Half an hour later, he had dropped her off at her house, only giving her a brief explanation about the tattoo. As he watched her knock on her door and greet her mother, he drove off. Tears formed in his eyes as he recalled his daughter, “Sorry, honey, I couldn’t save you in time like her…”

  Chapter 24

  People around the world went into a frenzy. After listening to the President, along with all of the footage that was released of the monsters, they finally believed in the existence of the tattoo. What truly set them off however, was a viral video that led to a website. The website had complete details on the mechanisms of the tattoo. It also said that anybody could become a user by spending 10,000 points.

  The governments of multiple countries tried to find the creator of the website, but no matter how skilled their programmers were, they couldn’t figure it out. The website seemed to be encrypted using technology that hasn’t been seen before. To find the password would take thousands of years, and so, the website stayed online. Word of mouth caused almost the entire world to visit the website. The populace grew increasingly knowledgeable about the tattoo.

  The website sparked a violent backlash from citizens around the world. They criticized their governments for withholding knowledge of the tattoo. Progressive spokespersons even rose amongst their ranks, advocating for the public use of the tattoo. Some of their messages even said, “We should use the tattoo to spread knowledge. We would no longer need to go to school.”

  “The tattoo holds knowledge of technology that would advance our society by hundreds of years. We should only spend points on those.”

  These were just a few of their messages. Others were more radical, advocating for the complete ban of the tattoo. However, they were eclipsed by the progressive spokespersons.

  However, most of the world was afraid. Crime had spiked across the world, and multiple cities had been destroyed because of the tattoo. The riot across the world was so fierce that the government had to respond, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are creating a new program that will enable those selected to receive a tattoo. However, the process will take a long time. It takes a lot of points in order to create another tattoo. In addition, you must pass a stringent vetting process. This is to screen out those who wish to use the tattoo for malice.”

  The world quieted down, satisfied with the response.

  …….

  Meanwhile, Vincent and Ace continued to slowly take over more and more territory because it took time for Allen to find a target. However, they encountered a problem. Vincent felt this was too troublesome, but he had to deal with it. He turned to Ace, “The more territories we control, the more parts of the city we are locking out from other users. We’ve already had several users that live within a territory get angry at us.”

  Ace considered his words as he tried to think of a solution. His eyes lit up as he spoke, “Why don’t we open them up? We don’t need to block them out anyway.”

  Vincent agreed, but he remembered why they blocked off territory in the first place, “Didn’t you want to protect Alice from evil users?”

  Ace felt conflicted as he voiced out his thoughts, “Uhh… I do want to protect her… but locking people out of their homes isn’t fair either…”

  Vincent thought of the perfect solution, “Why don’t you move in with her?”

  However, Ace felt even more conflicted, “I would like to, but we don’t have enough money. And,” He looked at Vincent, “I love living together with you.”

  Vincent felt his eyes tear up. He clasped Ace on the shoulder as he laughed, “Don’t worry. You can buy USD with points anyway. In addition, why don’t we live next to each other? That way you can spend some alone time with Alice and then just come next door to hang out with me.”

  Ace’s heart beat up at the prospect. He gave Vincent a thumbs up, “Perfect! Let’s move now!”

  “Now?” Vincent was stunned, “Don’t you need to ask Alice first?”

  Ace’s face fell as he imagined Alice declining. He looked at Vincent as fear gripped his heart, “She’ll say yes, won’t she?”

  Vincent was amused. Ace wasn’t afraid of fighting an ogre, but asking his girlfriend to move in with him caused him to shake in his boots. Vincent chuckled, “She will definitely say yes.”

  Ace immediately informed Alice of their plan over the phone. His face lit up as he gave Vincent a thumbs up, “Success!”

  Six hours later, Vincent, Ace, and Alice were standing in front of their new homes. It wasn’t a mansion, but it was good enough for their purposes. In addition, all of them decided to stop going to school. They could buy any type of knowledge from the tattoo anyway.

  …...

  A week later, Vincent and Ace were sparring inside of the training room. It now appeared much bigger than before. Due to their enhanced bodies, they were able to cover the distance in a matter of seconds, so it was a necessary purchase.

  After an hour of sparring, they were gasping for breath on the ground. Vincent’s face became solemn as he looked at Ace, “I need to tell you something.”

  “Oh?” Ace raised an eyebrow. He wondered what could be so important for Vincent to look so serious.

  Vincent took a deep breath. He was hoping Ace would agree to his plan, “Don’t you think we’re growing too slow?”

  Ace considered his words. They indeed had hit a plateau, it became increasingly expensive to purchase more stats. In addition, they needed 500,000 points to get their high tier advancements. He looked at Vincent, “What do you have in mind?”

  “Well,” Vincent thought aloud, “I think the creator of the tattoo wants people to build and expand their territories.” He stood up and looked at Ace, “There are so many options that enable someone to accrue points with territories. Mainly through taxation.”

  Ace considered Vincent’s words. A moment later he said, “Why would someone want to pay us taxes?

  Vincent opened up the hologram and browsed through the options for the territory as he said, “We can guarantee protection from monster attacks.”

  Ace stood up and paced back and forth, “Indeed, they can retreat to our territory and gain a safe haven.”

  “Most importantly,” Vincent started to explain, “is most of the world is afraid. There are strange monsters that are appearing around the world. These monsters seek to destroy their homes and murder them. Most other humans aren’t like us, they are afraid and weak, unable to fight back.”

  Ace felt offended by Vincent’s words but understood it to be true. Normals humans couldn’t fight against a horde of monsters. He decided to hear him out, “How does that help us?”

  Vincent pointed to an item in the rewards shop, “There is a contract here. It says it binds the souls of whoever signs it. If they break the contract, their tattoos are removed and they lose all of the rewards they purchased. In addition, the other person gains all of their points.”

  Ace didn’t know where Vincent was going with this. Vincent looked back at Ace, “If they guarantee to live within our territory, we can give them a tattoo. We can guarantee they’ll live through the beginner challenges by giving them gear and potions. We can even train them.”

  Ace’s heartbeat sped up the more he listened. He had felt hopeless about being unable to help other people. Afterall, he could only be in one place at a time. Vincent’s proposal aligned with his desires! He had a question, “How exactly does the taxes work?

  Vincent had been thinking about this for a long time. He had been browsing the rewards list to find anything that would make his plan a success. He continued, “You can purchase stores in the rewards shop. You can place them within your territory. Food, clothes, recreational activities, training… all types of buildings. We can make points the main currency within our territory. Every time someone spends points, we will tax them. This will give us a huge amount of points in the long run.”

  Ace’s smile grew wider and wider as he listened. He shouted, “This’ll work! Let’s do it!”

  Vincent knew that Ace was forgetting one little thing. He reminded him, “Don’t forget. We need to forcibly take over the city. You think people will hand over their territory nicely?”

  Ace’s smile froze, “Eh?”

  Vincent had given him the carrot, now was time for the whip, “Ace. If we become much stronger, and arm the populace so that they can protect themselves, don’t you think this’ll be worth it?”

  Ace’s worries flew away in the wind as he nodded, “I understand. Let’s do it.”

  Vincent clapped his hands. His plan was successful! He informed Ace of one more thing, “Allen has already agreed to help us out.”

 

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