System's Greed.

"Alice, have the two of them arrived?"

Alex was on the phone. He had sent Katherine and Sean back to the Kramer family.

"They have arrived."

"Take care of them for me. They both will be good additions to the family."

She looked at the two of them talking to Zira and said,

"Do we have to train them as Assassins?"

They were already in their 20s. Training them would probably not be that fruitful.

"Basic training. They will not be working as assassins under us."

Every family had a spy network all-around their countries. Alex was hoping to use them as the basis of his spy network when he returned to the Kramer family.

"Got it. Anything else?"

"No. That will be all."

Alice hung up. Alex looked at the time and said,

"I hope the dressing down is kept to a minimum."

He knew that an argument was coming.

---------------------------------------------

"Why did you do that?"

Lucius was not happy with how Alex had gone through this mission.

"The moral answer isn't going to work, so let's go with the logical one."

Clara, Claudia, Steven, Jane, and Hank. All of them were present as well.

"Whatever I do with this mission is my lookout. The collective was only a messenger, remember?"

Lucius looked at Alex and asked,

"And you took out 2 of our clients in the process. Isn't that something the collective will ask you about?"

"Is Jack already dead?"

Alex acted surprised. Tim was the one that had killed Jack, and he already knew.

"Stop pretending."

He was serious. What Alex had done was not acceptable.

Alex sighed and said,

"You must have noticed that I took in two new members."

"Still not worth it. We never put the client's life at risk."

"The moment I changed my mind, he stopped being a client to me."

Lucius stood up.

"That sort of mentality is not welcome here."

"Well, I'll be leaving in a month anyway. If you don't want me here, you can take up your problem with the collective."

He was stern with his remark. What morals? What pride? They were assassins, not royal knights.

He turned around to leave.

"Stop."

Lucius called out to him.

"Why did you betray Jack?"

"I told you already. That was my business."

"You involved my family into that business."

"And I paid them what they were owed."

"Alex."

Hank stepped in.

"You should remember who you are talking to."

Lucius was his teacher, not some nobody.

Alex looked at Hank and said,

"I killed Noah because I wanted to. I betrayed Jack because I wanted to. If you want me to be an assassin with morals, then you are asking for the impossible."

He looked back and Lucius and said,

"I respect you trying to reprimand me for doing something outlandish. You are my teacher, and that fact will never change. But this was my mission. If it had been a family mission, I would have followed a plan. But if it is up to me, I was bound to improvise as time went on."

He left the room.

"That boy doesn't understand what is good for him!"

Lucius already understood that. Alex knew how to choose, and he was very good at making decisions. But plans don't work like that.

"Let him be."

Clara spoke up. She was with Alex on this one.

"I know that you care about him, but if you control how he works, you will suffocate him. If you wanted to dictate how he went forwards with this mission, you should have taken charge in the first place."

Jane and Steven agreed with their mother. Hank was not completely sold on his words, but he decided to remain quiet.

Claudia was once again impressed. He held off against her father and her grandfather.

-------------------------------------------------------

"System, did I get anything for this?"

"You got some AP, but nothing more."

He was back on his laptop, working on the program.

"Was it a mistake to not go through with it?"

"Depends."

The system appeared at his side.

"You can look at it this way. The mission was not that difficult anyway, and you might have gotten a common, non-upgradable skill if you completed it."

It brought out the system panel.

"On the other hand, you do need money in the outside world to buy important stuff. And 166 million is by no means a small amount."

"I understand."

He focused back on the laptop.

"May I suggest something?"

The system created a small presentation on the panel.

"Go ahead."

A slide show appeared.

"An armory inside the system space."

Alex raised his eyes to look at the panel.

"That's right. I can store anything inside here."

The system nodded.

"Noth quite. As of now, there is a limit to how much you can store inside the system space. A book, A laptop, these objects are too small. However, you can actively spend action points to store objects from the outside world."

He looked at the panel, and the price range appeared.

"Inside the system space, every object exists in multiple dimensions at once. This makes the object practically unusable, as you can only pinpoint its location and use it inside the system space."

"I can use action points to create a stable space that exists somewhere in the middle, allowing you to store supplies, ammunitions, and pretty much anything you want as long as you have enough space. I can handle a book and copy its contents, even help you train in it. But for utility objects like guns, digital gadgets, and something that you frequently use, it will take Action points to store them in here."

"A 4x4 meter square costs 400 points?"

"After discount. Usually, it's 4000."

He sighed.

"How much AP do I have right now?"

"400. It used to be 420, but I used it to preserve your stuff."

Alex stared at the system in disgust.

"Your greed has absolutely no limit, does it?"

The system brought up this fact only now. There was a reason for that.

The system smiled.

"Fine. I will be taking my stuff outside."

He took his laptop and went out of the system space.

"So much for an empty, boundless void."

He continued his work outside. He was not going to give in to its greed.