Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

The more Tristan thought about his plan, the better it sounded. After he finished with the details, all that was left was to offer it to Leon or Pierce.

Before that, though, Tristan spent a few hours managing his social networks. His performance on TV was a promotion he HAD to use to boost his online popularity!

He posted some casual pictures online with kind words to anyone reading them, thanked his supporters, and asked if people wanted to hear covers for any specific songs.

By evening, Tristan switched an identity and drove to his criminal business. Today was the day when Tristan usually gathered protection fees he had to pass to Pierce later.

One of the business owners tried to get pity from Tristan, telling about "bad times" and asking for a delay in his payment. This was a common situation, and the only right response was to break something before a delay for "a few days" turned into a delay for a few forevers.

However, the owner of the business knew enough about Tristan by now that a single dark glance and a subtle threat made him bring out the money.

[Ding!]

[Fearsomeness attribute increased by 1. Reward: your PP increased by 100!]

That was Tristan's daily life.

Now, since he had to bring the cash to Pierce, he could do that and give him the plan at the same time.

***

"A plan, you say? Another one?" Pierce pushed up his glasses. "You are a wellspring of ideas lately."

It was impossible to tell whether Pierce was sarcastic. Even Tristan, with his great observation skill, understood only one thing.

Although he was in much better spirits lately, Pierce didn't forgive Tristan for going above his head.

"Will you listen to it, Mr. Pierce?"

"Of course."

Tristan smiled.

"I've been thinking and searching, and I was lucky to find something incredible. It's a computer virus that can be put into any ordinary file. Then, as soon as someone opens it, the virus will hide in the computer, or even a smartphone, and send all text typed on it to the owner. It can even tap into phone conversations."

The latter was a recent update, something that Tristan spent a night working on.

Entirely worth it.

Pierce frowned.

"A computer virus? Huh. And you have it? Don't tell me you are a hacker, too…"

"No, no, I just bought that thing from one. And he can set it up however I need. So I immediately thought that if we could send this virus to Cuatro Angulos somehow, a lot of our problems would be solved in an instant."

Pierce's eyes lit up.

Of course, he had some sources of information within Cuatro Angulos, just like Angulos had rats and moles within the King Lion Gang.

However, they weren't giving Pierce a lot of information lately. When it came to a gang war, gangsters from Cuatro Angulos were annoyingly loyal. Otherwise, they ended up dead rather quickly.

"That's true. If we had a source of information like that, we'd be able to attack Cuatro Angulos where it will hurt the most…" Pierce smiled. "Not to mention, be warned about their attacks. But there's a caveat, I assume?"

"I don't know contacts of anyone within Cuatro Angulos, and I don't know what to send."

Curiosity alone could make a person open just any video or image file, but for the sake of spreading the trojan as far and wide as possible, it better to have a lot of impact.

"I see. This is solvable, though." Pierce leaned back in his office chair, still smiling. "Good work here, Hayes. And as always, you brought the money you needed to in a timely manner. If you don't need anything else, you can give me the virus and go."

Tristan almost raised his brow at this blatant attempt to steal the results of his efforts.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Pierce, but that's impossible. The virus needs to be attached to a file you will send by the hacker who made it. And like all hackers, he won't just help a stranger, so I will have to talk with him myself."

Pierce narrowed his eyes.

He couldn't find fault in Tristan's explanation, because he didn't understand much about how viruses and hacking worked. Clearly not the way they did in movies. Or maybe they did.

"Fine. I will tell this to Mr. Clavon, too."

***

Next day.

It felt like no time at all passed before Pierce asked for a meeting again.

In his office, Pierce put an unremarkable old flash drive in front of him.

"There's the file your hacker will need to 'infect' with a virus. He better not show it to anyone who doesn't need to see it. Otherwise, it's on you."

Stay with the story on m v l e m p y r

"Don't worry, Mr. Pierce. Loudmouths don't last long in his business."

Back at home, Tristan inserted the flash drive into his laptop with some trepidation and a lot of curiosity.

Inside was a single short video, titled, "For all cowardly dogs in Cuatro Angulos.mp3."

When Tristan opened it, he saw a man that could've only been Leon Clavon, although his face was blurred and his voice changed.

He was standing in front of a dark wall, with nothing specific on it to hint at where the video was shot.

"Cuatro Angulos. You think yourself high and mighty, but you are just a bunch of mangy mutts! Your courage only lasts until someone shoots one of you like you deserve, and then you all run with tails between your legs."

"It looks like after my last 'gift', you realized no one goes against my gang and lives. In these concrete jungles, a lion is the king, and I'm the King Lion! Others can only think otherwise because they are too pathetic for the lion to bother."

"If you had enough of your plotting, scheming and other ways to say 'hiding from us with shaking knees', let's settle the score the old-fashioned way. Just tell where. We will come."

The video ended.

Tristan chuckled.

'So this is the idea Leon came with? Yeah, he really is like a lion… an ambush predator!'

He eagerly began injecting the video with the Beholder trojan.

Tristan couldn't wait to find through his virus what the reaction of the people in Cuatro Angulos to it was!