Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

The hostages in question were the family of Rafael "Big Rocket". Not only did Tristan promise to him to help, Rafael had helped Tristan too much to leave him on his own.

Thanks to Rafael, Tristan had sent his worms and viruses into the Cuatro Angulos network, and had an excellent electronic view of their actions since then.

At the moment, Rafael wasn't even aware that Tristan was doing all this. He was on a music tour, probably also smuggling drugs for Cuatro Angulos as they forced him to. Tristan got the information about his family from hacking and listening to Cuatro Angulos' network.

It was better if he couldn't spill the information to anyone, even by accident.

***

It took several hours to reach the town where Rafael's family lived.

This extraction mission was going to make Tristan and his team a signal on the enemy radars, but if he proceeded with the main operation before doing this, the hostages could be threatened.

For now, though, Tristan was still hidden.

The town was small enough that tourists were a rare sight there. People stared as Tristan's car drove by, even though all but the front windows were tinted black.

Tristan parked a safe distance away from the right address, left Cutout to guard the car, and sent the rest of his men to scout the area.

Then, he made a slight adjustment to his stats, using his 13400 CP in reserve.

[Stealth skill increased from 844 to 6844.]

[Stealth rank increased from Shadow to Impossible!!.]

With a burst of energy, Tristan himself went directly to the address. Although he was walking in plain sight and his looks made him stand out next to all the distinctly Mexican people, his aura was so subdued that people barely threw a glance at him.

At this point, Tristan knew in his bones how to move and stand to not blend with the shadows, but disappear in the sunlight.

He stepped into a particularly bright spot, and the blinding light hid him entirely. It was too bright to look at, so no one did.

Tristan had to squint too. He pulled out a pair of shades and put it on, before looking around.

Most of Rafael's family lived in this small town, where they were easy to monitor—although it was just a convenient coincidence for Cuatro Angulos. Several houses on this street belonged to Rafael's parents, siblings, and cousins. 14 people, three cats and two dogs.

Tristan was just happy there were no chickens, goats or other farm animals, because he had seen households that had those and more.

14 people were fewer than he originally thought. Some of Rafael's siblings, when he shared money with them, took an opportunity for better education in bigger cities. Cuatro Angulos watched them, but they weren't in immediate danger if shit hit the fan.

They didn't know it, but they were being watched daily. The nice neighbors who helped to fix their fences after a bad storm and befriended their pets were also plants of the Cuatro Angulos cartel.

Those people (only three of them according to Tristan's data) also made photos of Rafael's parents regularly and sent them to him. A reminder.

Just as Tristan watched, a kind-looking elderly woman walked out into the yard of her house and went to check on a small vegetable garden planted there.

She left again and returned with gardening tools. Her husband stepped out to watch from the porch, then began helping. Her neighbor watched from the window.

Tristan watched them all, thinking.

'It will be easy to quietly kill all the watchers. The hardest part will be convincing those people I'm trying to save to abandon their homes and go somewhere else. Rafael couldn't do it—and he said as much as he could about Cuatro Anglos without endangering them—and I'm a stranger to them. The only way to do it quickly is to either use force… or be extremely beguiling.'

Tristan smirked.

'I still have Pop-star Points left. Hm… I can improve my charisma, but I will lose the perfect charisma-fearsomeness balance. Attractiveness won't help me much here, I think. This is more about… acting. Especially since it was merged with stage presence skill when my system updated.'

[Acting skill increased from 2538 to 6538.]

[Acting rank increased from Drama King to Impossible!!.]

Tristan smiled as the knowledge filled him. He felt within him an ability to present himself even more imposingly than he already could, thanks to his stats.

Those things enhanced each other. Charisma, fearsomeness, looks, ability to play a role of someone greater than God, and a hypnotic voice to top it off.

'I wonder what my ranks might become if I put even more points into my skills. Is there a limit to them?'

That was an interesting question, but for another day.

Tristan turned away from the house and pulled out his phone to type messages to his team, checking on their status and explaining their next actions. They will need to prepare a lot of things in one short day.

***

That night.

The watchers from Angulos grew lazy. Their targets didn't try anything funny in… never, actually.

When at least one should've been watching the houses of Rafael's family even at night, they were all sound asleep in their homes.

It took Tristan thirty minutes in total to break into their homes and kill each of them by stabbing them through the eye. There was a lot of blood, but none of it stuck to Tristan's skin or clothing, thanks to his talent.

His team guarded the perimeter during this time.

At this signal, they went to guard the target homes instead, so no one panicked and ran.
Explore stories at empire

Tristan, who showed no signs of murdering people recently, rang the door of Rafael's parents.

The doorbell sounded even more shrill in the night's quiet.

A minute later, he heard a man shuffling toward the entrance, then felt him peering into the peephole.

<Who's that? Nobody good rings so late! If you are a robber, I will call police!>