2024-04-25
Author: Pencil Dancing
"Charlotte, the Brotherhood of Assassins has been wiped out. How do you plan to claim this loot?" Carlos pointed at the ashes on the ground and the surrounding factory buildings.
Watching Cross point at the ashes, Charlotte secretly thought, I've already claimed my loot. You just don't know it.
"Cross, The Textile Factory is yours. Since you came from here, it's only right that you take it over."
Hearing that Charlotte was giving him The Textile Factory, Carlos froze for a moment. He had thought it was Charlotte's loot. After all, their previous contract had stated that all spoils belonged to Charlotte.
Hearing Charlotte's words, Carlos said gratefully, "Then thank you. I'll sort this place out and see whether Sloan had any hidden cash or anything else. I'll wire it to you afterward."
Seeing how accommodating Carlos was, Charlotte nodded in satisfaction. "Fine, handle it yourself. The mission is complete now. Go pick up your son."
The two left The Textile Factory and arrived at where they had parked. Charlotte tossed Carlos the keys and said, "Wesley is at my Agency. You drive on the way back."
Carlos caught the keys without questioning why Charlotte wanted him to drive. He opened the door and started the car. Charlotte got into the passenger seat, sniffed, and could still smell that sewer stench from the rats. He opened the window and closed his eyes to rest.
Seeing Charlotte close his eyes as soon as he got in, Carlos drove steadily toward the Charlotte Agency on 71st Avenue, Forest Hills, Queens.
By then, Charlotte's consciousness had entered the system interface. Looking at the 1,730 Gold Coins displayed, he began checking the recharge records.
Special energy detected. Can be recharged. Recharge successful: 840 Gold Coins. First recharge bonus: Gold Coins doubled. 1,680 Gold Coins obtained.
Only then did Charlotte Doyle understand that the Fate Weaver had not directly given him so many Gold Coins. It was the system's first-recharge double bonus that had brought the total to that amount.
Still, it was ridiculous that 840 Gold Coins had only raised his VIP level by one. It wasn't that 840 Gold Coins were a lot—in terms of the Hokage mobile game, that was only eighty-four dollars and could reach VIP 3. The problem was that this Golden Finger did not take money at all, and the things it accepted were so rare. Yet it had only raised him one level, which left him rather frustrated.
Fortunately, even VIP 1 came with a corresponding gift pack.
Opening the VIP 1 privilege gift pack, Charlotte received 12,000 Copper Coins, 70 Prestige, and one Ninja Recruitment Scroll.
Seeing another Recruitment Scroll, Charlotte was quite pleased. This scroll was worth 168 Gold Coins—nearly a tenth of all his Gold Coins.
Including the five scrolls from before, Charlotte now had six Ninja Recruitment Scrolls. After glancing at his Gold Coins, he generously bought four more Ninja Recruitment Scrolls, making a total of ten.
He spent 672 Gold Coins altogether, leaving 1,058 Gold Coins.
Charlotte did not immediately recruit a Ninja. Instead, he began to think.
Since the Fate Weaver could be turned into energy for recharging, what else could be recharged?
Dragon Bone? The Ten Rings? Heart-Shaped Grass? The Casket of Ancient Winters? Eternal Fire? Or the Infinity Stones?
Charlotte did not possess those things, nor did he know whether they could truly be recharged, but he wanted to try.
After all, relying on his own growth alone was still too slow. Stacking the attributes of several Ninjas, along with their corresponding skills, was the true path forward.
With a goal in mind, Charlotte Doyle became even more confident about the future.
Putting those thoughts aside, he opened the Task Gathering Hall. Seeing that the mission to eliminate the Brotherhood of Assassins had been completed, he immediately chose to claim the rewards.
5,000 Reputation Points, 500,000 Copper Coins, and one Exquisite Treasure Chest.
He opened the Treasure Chest. After a flash of light, a Ninja Fragment popped out, clearly labeled: Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto Shippuden). It was Sasuke after finishing his training with Orochimaru.
Charlotte was fairly satisfied to have obtained a Ninja Fragment. Unfortunately, he only had one fragment of Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto Shippuden). Unless a B-rank Ninja was recruited directly, synthesizing one required forty identical fragments.
In an instant, Charlotte felt the terror of being controlled by card collecting. Refusing to think any further about the time and cost required to gather enough fragments for this Sasuke, he exited the System Space.
After Carlos drove for a while,
they arrived near the Charlotte Agency. While they were still some distance away, Charlotte spotted Charlie's corpse-collection vehicle parked in front of his Agency.
Charlotte raised an eyebrow. An assassin had come knocking and been taken out.
Carlos also noticed that something was wrong. The car quickly pulled up to the entrance, and the moment it stopped, Charlotte got out first and headed toward the Agency.
Charlie was watching his men clean up the traces when he saw Charlotte approach. "Good evening, Mr. Charlotte!"
"Good evening, Charlie." After greeting him, Charlotte looked inside and saw that the lobby was a complete mess. Bullet holes and signs of grenade explosions were everywhere.
Charlie's cleaners were sweeping up fragments, cleaning bloodstains, and bagging corpses.
Charlotte's expression darkened further. Those Assassins had gone too far. They had actually attacked his Agency directly—and even used Grenades.
"Charlotte, has the Brotherhood of Assassins been eliminated?" The speaker was Ginny, coming down from the second floor.
"They've been eliminated. Is everything all right on your end?" Charlotte asked.
Charlie, who was directing his men as they cleaned the room, seemed to have heard something unbelievable. His pupils abruptly contracted, and his body stiffened before he resumed giving orders as though nothing had happened.
"Everything's fine. No one was hurt." After saying that, Ginny addressed Carlos, who had entered behind Charlotte.
"Carlos, Wesley is upstairs. Go bring him home yourself."
"Ginny, thank you." After thanking her, Carlos immediately turned and went up to the second floor. He was about to have his first face-to-face conversation with the son who had lived right before his eyes all this time, yet whom he had never met.
After Carlos left, Charlotte said calmly, "Ginny, tell me what happened."
Ginny did not hide anything and began explaining directly. "Since this morning, six waves of Assassins have come. We've already spent thirty Gold Coins just paying Charlie for cleanup, not including the cost of renovating the Agency."
"However, the Assassins who came to the door were all too weak to cause us any harm. But the later they came, the more troublesome they became. Someone has already used grenades. Next, someone might take the risk of blasting us with a rocket-propelled grenade."
Hearing Ginny say that no one had been hurt did nothing to lessen Charlotte's anger. In fact, hearing the term "rocket-propelled grenade" made him even angrier. But since Iruka and the other two were nowhere to be seen, he asked, "Ginny, where are Iruka and the others?"
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