Code Collector

"Do you know?" Allen stood in the rooftop, a man standing in front of him. "Was that why you decided to send me in the Bryans because you needed my help?"

Elvis sighed as he huffed a cigarette. "You have nothing right now, Dante. The Bryans are the ones handling the case of the Snake, if you could tell them that you have the Code, then you'll gain their trust."

Allen scoffed and shook his head. "You're unbelievable, Elvis. I even trusted you and this is how you repay me. What will you do next? Tell the world that I have the Code?"

"I signed a treaty with Verta Carta that I would never do that," Elvis said. "If I ever break that contract, Blood Moon will perish, so I hope you'll have this at least sense of security that I won't betray you."

"This is madness," Allen groaned. "Let us rewrite the deal first. I get to know your wife's location, and you will give me ten Grand grade Codes."

"Deal," Elvis said without any hesitation. "Though, that wasn't the one I was going to offer you. If you're willing to listen, maybe I can still–"

"Ten Grand grade Codes," Allen spoke sternly, cutting Elvis off before he could even finish his words. "No more, no less."

"Real time information from the investigation of the death of Drake Nelson," Elvis said. "I feel sorry for putting you through that, so in behalf of my apologies, I will add the information along with ten Grand grade Codes."

Allen paused for a moment. He was wondering how Elvis could give him the information. He was in Haven most of the time, and he just contacted Elvis from a number the man gave him back when they first met. "Deal. I'll take the information and the Codes in exchange for the location of your wife."

"Okay," Elvis sighed. "And just to let you know, I really was just looking out for you. Jack is a really special person for me since he was the one who brought up Blood Moon from ruins. But then the way he speaks about you makes everyone think that you were his son instead of Chen. I wanted to repay him back by at least treating you right."

Allen shook his head, "Don't fret. I will go back to the office tonight and find the information. Don't do that ever again. I work alone because I don't need anyone else's help for me to achieve my goals."

Elvis nodded and bowed. Allen nodded in return but he left without saying another word. They were on top of a building on Earth while talking about the Bryans and their deal.

Allen never expected that people like the Bryans would exist. Though he knew that a lot of people bear grudges on the ones on top considering that they were mostly garbage, he didn't knos that the intensity of hate was like this. They even have their own society just for the Snake.

Not long after he left Elvis, Allen arrived on the Bryans' firm. It was located on the top floor of a building that has restaurants, gyms, and other offices. The top three floors were occupied by the couple as the office for their large law firm.

Allen pretended to be in the gym to register a membership there. He chose the gym since it was the best option considering a person needed time to get in the gym unlike a restaurant. He already examined the entire building and found the blind spots of the CCTV cameras all over the establishment.

Even when technology on Earth was more effective than the Otherworlds, the Otherworlds still have greater protection. Allen could easily escape the cameras and go directly to the Bryans' office.

And he did just that.

The boy walked into the blind spot and pretended to work out for a few seconds. He then walked to the path where the cameras could not see his movement before he walked out of the room.

"Who in the hell puts cameras that has a blind spot near the exit?" Allen asked himself. He took out his equipment, wearing his cloak and other items, as he walked up the stairs. Taking the elevator would be too obvious while the stairs had no cameras at all.

"Mental note," Allen said to himself. "When you build a building, make sure to put cameras everywhere."

The boy walked further into the stairs. A couple of minutes later, he arrived on the floor where the stairs stopped. This was the restricted area where the Bryans' firm was on. It seemed like they were really treated as VIPs in the building by how much the floor was even locked from access.

"Conceal," Allen whispered to himself as he activated the skill of his cloak. He got inside the firm and into the Bryans' office in under ten seconds. His movements were swift, and unlike the jungle, the firm had no obstacles at all.

He could move as quickly as he wanted without any restrictions or worry of getting pounced on by a predator.

'Cloak of Nobody active effect upgraded. Cooldown reduced to 30 minutes.'

Allen just entered the office and the invisibility wore off. He heard the notification, making him grin and chuckle. Now, the cloak is even more useful that he could use the invisibility every thirty minutes. That was a huge advantage.

The boy looked around the familar office before walking to Amanda Bryan's desk. He opened her computer and placed the flashdrive that Elvis gave him. The flashdrive contains a system that would temporarily disable all security systems on a computer while continuously providing logs in the background.

It would record the activities of the computer for the past two hours and would stitch those logs while the systems are down, making it look like nothing happened at all. Although there was a limit on how long Allen could try and find clues, two hours would be enough.

And by the time he was done, the Cloak's effect would finish the cooldown and he could escape. 

Using the intelligence attribute, the boy quickly maneuvered the files of the woman. She had a lot of case files from theft, to gore stuff like murder and mass murders. Amanda must also have a gut of steel from how gore the evidence photos are attached to every case file.

"This woman doesn't even have a picture of her daughter," Allen sighed after looking at all possible folders there are. That was until he saw the picture frame on her desk. 

It was a photo of Amanda and Daniel while they were on a park. The two were slightly apart while their hands were in awkward positions. The boy narrowed his eyes while looking at the photo. It was odd.

He took the photo from the frame and raised it to the light. His eyes widened when a woman appeared in between the couple, a woman that was Elvis's age. "This must be his wife."

Allen inspected the photo frame for any more clues until he found a gap on the frame. Using his nail, he opened the gap and found three words there. 'Sand Valley folder.'

He immediately got back to the computer and typed in Sand Valley. There, he saw a folder that was located outside of the drives and was floating on the memory of the computer. The flashdrive that Elvis had given him would suppress the security, but it wouldn't locate hidden folders like this one.

Allen clicked on the folder and found a link to a map. When he opened the map, a grin etched on his face after seeing the location. "Dubai."

–

It was the next day. Allen had already reported to Elvis about the location, and the man said that he will locate her first, but take her away a couple of weeks later. This was because the timing of Allen's time at the office and the time the wife's location was found out matched too quickly.

Elvis planned on taking his wife the moment the Bryans get their fourth secretaries after him. He also just found out that the Bryans had hired two secretaries the month he was hired, and that this occurence was normal.

The man also confessed that he had sent many people there before him. But each and every one of the people who investigated on the office failed, so he decided to give Allen a chance.

The boy was on his chair when the man who interviewed him entered the office, face red with anger. "Such incompetence!"

"S-Sir?" Allen asked. He was caught off guard by how much the man was angered. He was only working for three days, and he already made a mistake? "Sir, I don't know what you're talking about."

"You sent the wrong file to the client, and now we're all in shambles," the man said. "You're fired! Don't ever come back here again!"

Allen felt bad that he wanted to resign after seven days, since it was the average days for the other secretaries to resign. But then he looked at the man and the man have him a wink.

"Oh."