Greed God chapter 2

January 3rd 2016 Metropolis 9:00 PM EDT

I'd  been pretty excited to hit a local store and rack up some Greed Points,  but I'd run into a slight problem. I didn't know how to rob pretty much  anything. I knew, for instance, that everywhere in Metropolis had some  level of security, what with Lex Loser's whole "City of the Future"  schtick. I could have driven to Gotham, but honestly I'd rather dip my  hands in sulfuric acid than expose myself to that dumpster fire. So here  I was, all dressed up with nothing to steal.

I  pulled out my phone and started searching for stores nearby. I couldn't  exactly look for "places easiest to break into", but at the same time, I  figured I might see SOMEWHERE worth stealing from. Of course, I also  checked up on Superman, but he was dealing with some kind crisis in  Malaysia, at least according to the toxic squawk of that unbearable  troll Godfrey. I mean, Superman annoyed me as much as any reasonable  person, but even an idiot could see Godfrey's pathetic attempts to  rabble rouse for what they were.

I  flipped through channels a bit as I searched, hoping to find something  decent. I finally got to a radio broadcast of an interview Cat Grant did  a few hours ago with Zatanna. My stance on heroes aside, I was pretty  sure a magic girl in fishnets with a fat ass was a tune everyone could  dance to. Plus her voice was cute. They were talking about the alien  attack on the UN and of course the Leaguers weren't stupid enough to  actually say anything. Shame I just caught the radio show though and not  the video footage, I hated to see Zatanna leave, but I did love to  watch her go.

Finally  I settled on a place nearby. A pawn shop, because they were the least  likely to have decent security and hopefully there was some gold or  something to steal. Plus with my appraisal skill I could totally find  some expensive object to take and rake in even more. I pulled into an  alley next to the place and pulled my car as deep into the shadows as  possible, trying to make sure I wasn't visible in the darkened alley.  Luckily the towncar was black so it blended pretty well and I was able  to climb out easily enough through the window despite the doors being  blocked off by the walls.

I'd  taken off the license plates before I drove onto this street so even if  there were security cameras around they wouldn't see more than "black  towncar" and I had the hood of my jacket up and a bandana tied around my  face just in case. I even dug out my winter gloves from the glove  compartment so I wouldn't leave finger prints. I popped the trunk with  the keys and checked the back and luckily, in the compartment under the  spare tire I found a crow bar, still wrapped in the tag and right next  to an unopened tire jack.

I  grabbed the crow bar, slipped over to side door, and bashed the door  knob off. I winced at the noise, but there shouldn't be anyone near here  anyway so it was fine. I was relieved to see the place was empty, so I  grabbed a pair of duffels off the nearby shelf, threw one over each  shoulder and got started with my shopping. I also made a mental note to  call my dads guy with MPD to have him make sure any evidence I left  behind didn't get found. Street level crime did happen in Metropolis,  mostly when Superman was elsewhere, and he mostly left the aftermath to  the cops if nobody got hurt.

My  first stop inside the pawn shop was the jewelry counter. I kept my head  down and hood up since I was pretty sure there was a camera somewhere  in here, but when I got close enough to see the jewelry I used appraisal  on all of it. J rank, J rank, J rank. All of this stuff was fake  bullshit. But they were small so I took them anyway. Finally I found a  class ring that appeared to be made of real gold with an actual gem and I  snatched it up. I mumbled to myself. "System. How many GP did stealing  that ring just net me? How about the others."

[The host currently has 100 GP. Plus ten for miscellaneous J ranked costume jewelry, plus ten for  I ranked gold signet ring.]

I  blinked at that. "Wait, what the fuck? You said gold was E ranked and  requires a ton of points to work with, I should have gotten way more  than ten for the ring. Why was the GP so low when the cost to merge it  is so high?"

[GP cost  for merge is calculated based on perceived value. GP rewards for theft  are calculated based on inherent value. Inherent value of soft metal: I  rank. Ten points per ounce.]

I  gaped. "Wait what? That's complete fucking bullshit." I groaned with  frustration when it didn't respond. "I know you understand me, you make  comments about my motivations sometimes, don't pull that braindead program bullshit with me." Still nothing. "Fine, this isn't over." I  rolled my eyes at the stupid thing and went back to appraising. In the  end I picked a decent amount of relatively small stuff, mostly more  costume jewelry.

I filled one of  the duffels with stuff like that, though I did find a box hidden behind  the counter that had a bit of a jackpot in it. A few I ranked pocket  watches and a sleeve of rare coins that came up as H ranked. I filled  the other duffel with things I thought would be useful for merging,  padded jackets, a bulletproof vest that came up as I rank, a few junk  katanas and assorted knives and brass knuckles, also junk,a shotgun and a few  books and DVDs on random stuff like martial arts and hacking because why  not.

I saw a  few video games and systems but they were all pretty low value,  probably because they were old, and they would have taken up a ton of  space so I passed on that and made my escape, loading the duffels into  my trunk quickly but calmly, trying not to look suspicious in case  anyone on the street noticed me, then I slipped back in my window and  calmly drove off. The whole thing took me fifteen minutes in and out,  and my heart was beating like a drum. I swallowed hard. "System, what  are my Points looking like?"

[Current GP total is 460. Congratulations host, your Greed knows no bounds. Continue to consume and grow stronger!]

I  called Benson, my dads guy on MPD ,and gave him a heads up. He'd helped  me get out of more than a few jams in his day, from drunken disorderly  charges to joy riding to getting caught balls deep in the throat of some  cheerleader whose daddy had more than a bit of pull with the city  council. Benson was discrete, effective, and loyal as hell. My old man  had gotten him out of a scrape when he was a rookie and Benson never  forgot a favor.

Then I drove  into a nearby park, put my plates back on, took of the jacket and drove  out nice and relaxed, the soul of plausible deniability. Once I was done  and pulled out my phone to call my buddy Zack. He picked up first ring.  "Hey Nicky! How's it going man? You have fun on your boring stay at  home day? Sarah was asking about you today, and she looked pretty hot  for it. You missed out." His voice was teasing and I rolled my eyes at  his nonsense.

Sarah  Braglin was one of the cheerleaders at Brentwood Academy and one of  my regular hookups. I hadn't missed anything, and if I called her and  asked she would show up anywhere I told her to wearing anything at all. I  ignored my friend. "Funny, hey does your cousin Riley still work as a  fence? I had some weird stuff I was looking to sell." Zack and I had  broken more laws together than I could count, and besides he knew my dad  would get me out of any jams I ran into and screwing me over would be  pointless and stupid, so I wasn't worried about him diming me out.

He  chuckled. "Your old man get his hands on something weird again?  Surprised he let you have any of that, he usually keeps that kind of  thing away from you. But yeah, Riley is still hooked in. He can help you  unload some stuff. I can get in touch and have him meet us in the  parking lot after school tomorrow if you want. I'm sure whatever you  have he can find a buyer for. He works with all the big names. Hell he's  sold to Toyman a few times."

I  grinned. I had plenty of new things to try out my merge on, and all the  money I made from sales could be used to buy higher quality stuff and  get more greed points. Using my old mans money didn't count, but as long  as I made the cash through my own effort, be that theft, sales, or  force I should get points. I was betting that Riley had more than a few  things to sell me too. "Yeah, set it up. I'll see you tomorrow man, I've  still got stuff going on tonight." I wasn't going to tell Zack about my  system, hell I wasn't going to tell anyone. No one needed to know.

I  hung up and pulled into the tunnel leading to our garage, hitting a  button to raise the gate. I hopped out, tossed the keys onto the hook  and headed upstairs with all of my stuff. I put the box with the Liquor  Sword into the less full duffel, and briefly wondered if I should have  just left the damn thing at home, but no use crying over spilled milk. I  hauled everything up to my room, and decided to take a break before I  did any merging. I grabbed the muscle pills and popped one, deciding to  work out a bit to burn off some of the adrenaline from my heist.

The  pill filled me with a ton of energy almost as soon as it hit my  stomach, the power building through my body and racing along my muscles.  I felt like I could punch out a truck. I dropped down and started  hammering out pushups. I could feel my muscles start to burn but I  wasn't getting tired, just sore from exertion. It was an intoxicating  feeling, and I could almost imagine myself literally getting stronger as  I worked. Once my arms were well and truly dead, I switched to squats,  then crunches. Trying to get the effect for every part of my body.

After  about an hour of non stop exercise my whole body felt like jello, but  the energy from the pill kept flowing into my muscles, slowly repairing  and re invigorating them. I realized what the whole ten times faster  muscle growth thing really was. Rather than just magically augmenting my  rate of muscle growth the pills made it possible for me to work out ten  times more every day than another person would be capable of. I could  feel it would take a few hours for the soreness to fade, but once it did  I would be able to jump right back into it.

I  wasn't going to complain about the ability to use my body ten times  more harshly than anyone else, that would be an amazing boost to my  capabilities. Especially if I got one of those martial arts lessons  books or DVD's merged with some kind of pill or something and I was able  to learn all that information via ingestion. Then I could just use the  pills to hammer out way more training every day than a normal person at  no cost to myself. I sat up, stretching my sore muscles and enjoying the  feeling of the workout. I had to admit, I was actually looking forward  to school tomorrow.