An Excuse to Rob

As the Astur and the others leave the hotel and hang around outside in an alley near the hotel, Ystur lowers her voice.

"Why is the first part of the plan to linger around outside?"

"Because if things go smoothly here, we can skip most of the other parts of the plan. But it depends on the actions of the delivery guy," Astur turns to Illsrvati, "Where did they get food from again?"

"Lasophia, it serves mostly Lithro-style food and is well known amongst the locals for their stir-fry noodles. Their delivery bags are easy to recognise, bright red bags with the picture of a white mountain on them," Illsrvati says.

"Once we spot someone with that bag then we'll move into action. If we're lucky then the delivery guy will walk by this alley and we can mug 'em. Otherwise, we'll enter the hotel behind them and follow them into the elevator. In the elevator, we mug 'em. And for… uh… safety reasons, yeah, safety reasons, we'll mug whoever sees us in the act as well," Astur says.

Kretea fails to see a problem with Astur's reasons, seeing it as sensible and logical to remove witnesses. But Illsrvati and Ystur see through it easily, knowing that Astur's main purpose is to steal some extra cash or any other valuable the prospective victims may have.

Ignoring the look of approval from Illsrvati and the expression on Ystur's face that clearly says "At least come up with a believable excuse", Astur whispers, "Look, the other end of the alley, dude carrying a bag from Lasophia. When he walks past us we'll make our move and beat him up."

Roughly twenty seconds later, the man carrying the bright red bag with the white mountain on it walks through the middle of the alley where Astur, Illsrvati, Kretea, and Ystur are hanging around. He feels they're a little suspicious and wonders why they are lounging around in a place like this at night. Although he can't see past Illsrvati's hood and Kretea's hair, the man lets his guard down upon seeing that Astur and Ystur, one is a beautiful woman and the other is a cute young girl.

Just as he is about to pass Astur's group he hears one of them say, "Now," and the last thing he sees is his takeout falling to the ground as he passes out. The man is just an ordinary person and in the eyes of Astur and Ystur who can see the System Interface, know this man's level is only 2. As such, it doesn't take more than a soft and quick blow to the back of the head to knock him out.

The four move quickly to hide the body as Astur is going through his stuff.

"This man is broke," Astur shakes her head as she goes through her victim's wallet. "Only 57 VD, no bank cards, his phone is a model so old it isn't sold anymore, and his clothes are beyond worn out."

While Astur lights a cigarette and wonders if anyone will notice if she takes one of his kidneys, Ystur is looking at the bag of food and has a bad feeling as she checks the receipt.

"I think we have the wrong guy," Ystur says as she begins to read the receipt, "Beef Bowl, Fowl Noodle Soup, and a Salad."

"Isn't that what they ordered? I remember Illsrvati said something about Fowl, Beef, and a Salad," Astur says.

"Their order was two servings of the Fowl Stir-fry Rice Noodles, a Beef Stir-fry Flat Noodles, and a Vegetable Sandwich Combo Meal with a Salad," Illsrvati says.

For a moment the only thing that can be heard is the sound of cars along the road and the people walking outside the alley. After a few seconds, the silence within the alley is broken. But not by one of them, but by a raccoon jumping out from a nearby dumpster.

"It's not my fault that he looked like the right target," Astur shrugs, throwing her responsibility in the matter into the trash.

A few more minutes pass as a car pulls up near the hotel. In the passenger seat is a familiar bright red bag.

So as not to make the same mistake as before, Astur turns to Illsrvati and says, "Hand me a spider."

Grabbing one hand with her other, Illsrvati's left hand breaks off from her wrist as she gives the left hand to Astur. Astur gives her a strange look but doesn't think too much about it since it still fits her goal. With a good wind up, Astur throws the hand at the window while the driver, a young woman, is reaching for the red bag. Colliding with the window, the hand makes a loud thump and the woman screams with a mix of surprise and fear upon seeing what appears to be a severed hand hit her car. But instead of blood coming from the hand, what comes out is an uncountable amount of spiders. The scene sends chills down her spine as she moves back in fear and collides with the door of her car.

While the woman is panicking, Astur asks, "See the receipt? What does it say?"

"It reads 2x Fowl Stir-fry Rice Noodles, 1x Beef Stir-fry Flat Noodles, and 1x Vegetable Sandwich Combo Meal with a chosen side of a salad. We should have the right person this time." Illsrvati says.

Astur looks on at the scene and sighs, "Did you really need to give me your entire hand?"

Raising her left arm as spiders gather around and quickly reform her left hand, Illsrvati asks, "You wanted a hand of a spider, didn't you?"

"Well, yeah, but that's not really what I said. I mean, I worked. Perhaps it worked a bit too well. Look at her, the delivery girl is so frightened she isn't leaving her car," Astur says.

Illsrvati who has a closer look at what's happening refutes, "It's not that she isn't leaving her car but she can't leave the car. The woman has fainted. Probably from fright. Unless we want to bluntly rob-- I mean, borrow her delivery in front of everyone around the hotel, we can only wait for her to wake up."

"Did you say rob just then?" Ystur asks.

"No," Illsrvati denies.

Crushing the remains of her cigarette and tossing it aside, Astur says, "Up for a small 100 VD Bet on when she wakes up?"

"Three minutes," Illsrvati says.

"Two minutes and thirty seconds," Ystur says.

Just as Kretea is about to place her bet, Astur covers her mouth with her hand and says, "Exactly three minutes, thirty-two seconds, eight hundred twenty milliseconds, seven hundred ninety-one thousand two hundred thirty-five microseconds, and five nanoseconds."

Listening to Astur's answer, Illsrvati can't help but think Astur is either insane for giving such a strange and specific answer or actually knows the exact time the delivery girl is going to wake up. But she quickly discards this idea and concludes that Astur is both insane and probably does know the exact time the woman is going to wake up.

"Just take the money," Illsrvati tosses a 100 VD coin to Astur.

While the woman is asleep in her car, Illsrvati disperses the spiders that had been thrown. After the exact time that Astur had just predicted arrives, the woman wakes up. Initially startled before realising her situation, that she fell asleep on the job. Although it isn't really her fault, the woman herself can't recall the events before she passed out and assumes she was tired and fell asleep. She soon finds that she was only unconscious for a few minutes and that that food is still hot. Reconfirming the order, 8th-floor room 842 of the North Tower Hotel.

As Astur's group watches the woman leave her car, Astur says, "Let's follow, we need to be in the same elevator as her."

Leaving the alley, Ystur can't help but ask, "Why not take the other guy's bag and pretend to be the delivery guy?"

Astur and Illsrvati look at each other for a moment then look at Ystur whose waiting for an answer, as well as Kretea who seems curious.

Finally dropping all their pretences, both Astur and Illsrvati simultaneously say, "But then we don't have an excuse to rob people."