Artistic Renaissance

"Ok here's the plan. I'll drive the getaway car, and you go inside and rob the money. Sound good?"

'...Sir, although we can appear on Earth in soul form, that's the extent of it. Similar to your limitations in Cardopolis, we cannot physically interact with any objects,' Scott answered.

"That's very...convenient. How do I know you two are not just con men and this whole thing hasn't been a big plot to get me to be your fall guy for this robbery?"

...

Scott didn't have a response to that, but that only made Alex's suspicions grow.

"Take me to Hades, I need to cross-examine him."

Alex entered Cardopolis with Scott's help and soon they found Hades.

"What the hell are you doing?!?" Alex shouted.

It was night time and Hades was dressed in a black cloak. In the middle of the city, he stood at the side of a large building, with a spray can in his hand...doing graffiti.

The yell startled Hades. Realizing he'd been caught, he was preparing to run away when he saw it was his Lord and Scott. Immediately, he made what he believed to be the most intelligent response and hid the spray can behind his back. "...Nothing, Lord."

"Is that nothing?" Alex pointed to a giant mural made in intricate color illustrated across the side of the building. The shading work and realism of the figures were truly impressive, making the piece worthy of standing amongst the finest of ancient Greek art.

Atop the magnificent exhibition, in bold imaginative lettering was the text, "Ladies Man Hades."

It was a mural of Hades on a throne, surrounded by women fawning over him. Little did anyone on the scene know, this mural would later be known as Cardopolis' first masterpiece. It would ignite an artistic renaissance in Cardopolis, the likes of which would advance art and culture into a new age.

"...It wasn't me, Lord."

"The hell it wasn't!"

"...I get bored, Lord." Hades finally took responsibility. The first step of recovery is admitting you have a problem.

"Alright look, we don't have time for this. Scott's come up with a great plan to get rich and it involves you robbing the Federal Reserve while we drive the getaway car."

"Lord...I can't interact with any physical material on Earth."

"Damn! You two already coordinated this in advance, didn't you?" Alex grew even more suspicious.

After a long time of examining the two cheats, trying to get information from their mischievous eyes, Alex finally sighed. "Alright, this isn't a place to talk." He looked up at the mural and almost threw up. "Let's go to the sky lounge."

Hades and Scott looked at each other, confused about where the sky lounge was.

Witnessing their lack of imagination, Alex just shook his head. "Just take me to a random place in the sky...let's go."

Moments later, they were in the sky lounge.

"Alright. Scott, talk about your plan." Alex said

"Yes, Sir. It's quite simple. Wearing the Helm of Darkness, you will enter the Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan. Inside, there is an elevator that goes down to the vault which holds cash and gold. The bank staff opens the vault daily so all you have to do is follow the staff down the elevator, steal some cash while invisible, and go back up. It's that easy."

Alex stroked his energy chin. "It seems reasonable..."

"How much can we get?" Alex asked.

"The gold vault houses approximately 500 thousand gold bars weighing over 6000 tons combined. Considering the gold and cash, the value...is over $250 billion."

Alex's eyes became gold colored. "When would we do it?"

"Tomorrow would be appropriate, Sir." Scott responded.

Alex deeply exhaled and clenched his teeth. To Scott and Hades, he seemed to be struggling with the morality of stealing.

'There's a server event in PUBG tomorrow with some nice items lined up.' He was weighing the value between infinite money and limited items in a video game.

'Money will always exist, but limited items...' Not everyone is a slave to money. Some people have higher principles.

'No wait, for millions of dollars I can just buy accounts with all the items I want.' It was a perfect example of the power of human reasoning.

"Ok, the plan is set, we'll go tomorrow. You two better not fool around in Cardopolis and get distracted. Tomorrow's important and we can't fail. I've heard that in prison, they only let you choose between a dozen books and some old movies. I'd rather get gang-r*ped than have to sit through an Adam Sandler movie again."

...

"You can feel relieved, Sir." Scott assured him.

"Of course not, Lord," Hades said as he squeezed tightly on the spray can behind his back. He wouldn't stop...he couldn't stop.