The thief clearly hadn’t expected someone to be out for a stroll at two or three in the morning.

He thought that, aside from the occasional passing rat, he was the master of this area.

Until he heard a roar.

The sudden roar made him jump. He whipped his head around, his pupils reflecting the image of a skinny old man in armor, brandishing an iron rod and charging toward him.

’What the fuck, this is surreal. Did this old geezer just escape from the intensive care unit of some mental hospital?’

"Fuck... what is this thing?"

He glanced at the things in his hands, then back at Don Quixote, and decisively dropped everything to run.

But just as he turned, Don Quixote’s iron rod struck first, slamming into his back and knocking him to the ground.

"Fuck!" The thief flew into a rage and reached for his waist. "You motherfucker, you’re asking for—"

*THUD!*

The thief let out a muffled grunt and flew two meters, slamming hard into a nearby trash can with a loud *CLANG!*. His handgun flew from his waistband, landing seven or eight meters away.

He was curled up in pain like a shrimp on a cutting board, only able to make choked, gasping sounds.

"Fuck... I’m... seeing things..."

His eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. The old man was still standing a meter or two away, yet it was as if a large truck had materialized out of thin air right next to him and run him over head-on.

He turned his head and saw a figure standing beside him. He had no idea when they had appeared; he hadn’t seen a thing.

"Well done, my friend!" Don Quixote strode forward and prodded the twitching thief on the ground with his rusty iron rod. "See! Before a true Knight, as long as you know how to use stealth, they are as fragile as yesterday’s bread!"

Li Wei had actually been standing right next to the thief the whole time, but the man had been completely oblivious. It was only when he saw the thief reach for the gun at his waist that he calmly struck, delivering a powerful roundhouse kick that landed precisely on the thief’s ribs.

’Looks like you can’t interact with people while in stealth mode,’ he thought to himself, watching the thief stare at him as if he’d seen a ghost. ’Otherwise, the stealth is broken.’

[Mission 2: Capture a Dark Elf - Complete]

[Reward: Agility +0.1]

[Reward: Skill ’Stealth’]

[Stealth: Can be toggled on and off for a total of 60 seconds per day. While active, your form is hidden. You cannot be detected by the naked eye unless exposed by special detection Magic.]

Li Wei closed the skill description for [Stealth], satisfied.

’Maybe I’ll try it next time I go to a sauna? In his opinion, this Stealth skill was practically invisibility to the naked eye. As long as he stayed out of sight of cameras and didn’t bump into anyone or anything, he probably wouldn’t be discovered.’

The loud crash of the overturned trash can was like poking a hornet’s nest in the dead of night.

Before Li Wei could figure out what to do with the black thief on the ground, the second-floor window of the house that had been robbed was thrown open with a *BANG*.

"Fuck! It’s you damn junkies again!"

A middle-aged white man in a dark blue bathrobe, with a huge beer belly, stormed out the front door carrying a double-barreled shotgun.

He had a pair of reading glasses perched on his forehead, and the flesh on his face jiggled with rage.

"What the fuck is this, a Middle Ages cosplay convention?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

On the edge of his lawn, an old man in armor clutched an iron rod. With his eyes closed in a solemn pose, he had one foot planted on the twitching black thief.

"Do not be alarmed, my subject," Don Quixote declared, raising his iron rod. His tone had the theatrical flair of a character from a novel. "You are safe now! Your property has been saved from the hands of this evil Dark Elf! I am Knight Don Quixote, and this is my fellow Knight, Li Wei!"

"What the hell is all this nonsense?" the middle-aged man yelled, tightening his grip on his shotgun. "Are you filming something? Get off my lawn!"

Li Wei quickly raised his hands, putting on a gentle smile, and pointed to the unlucky guy still twitching on the ground.

"Sir, calm down. I’m a student at Franklin K. Lane High School. This is my... uncle—his mind isn’t all there," he added in a hushed voice. "We were just passing by and saw this guy climbing out of your back window, so we helped out a bit."

The middle-aged man looked at the downed thief, then at Li Wei’s handsome face, which didn’t fit the part of a thief at all, and finally at the black man who very much looked the part. The shotgun in his hands finally lowered slightly.

He crouched down and checked the bundle on the ground, then let out a long sigh of relief.

"Oh... God, thank you," he said, wiping sweat from his brow. "Let me call the police first... This is the third time this month. He’s a repeat offender in the neighborhood, but those cops said they’d only come out after we caught him... A bunch of useless pigs who can’t do anything but write tickets."

After muttering to himself while calling the police, he put away his shotgun and straightened his disheveled bathrobe.

"I’m Maurice Stanford. Perhaps you’ve seen my name on the community bulletin board—I’m the chairman of the neighborhood business committee and also the public security supervisor for the Brooklyn Seventh District."

Li Wei’s eyes lit up slightly.

’Chairman of the neighborhood business committee?’

In a place like the United States of America, such a position might be unpaid, but it came with a surprising amount of power. They could decide whose lawn needed mowing, who wasn’t allowed to keep a dog, and even influence the allocation of government resources in the area, the choice of property management companies, and more.

"It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Stanford," Li Wei said, shaking his hand. "My uncle has a habit of sleepwalking and having delusions at night. Let’s have him shake your hand tomorrow during the day."

"A sleepwalking knight with a sense of justice, is he?" Maurice Stanford said. "Interesting. But shouldn’t you wake him up?"

"Definitely not," Li Wei said, quietly activating [Smooth Talker]. "It’s best not to startle a sleepwalker. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have to accompany him on his nightly strolls."

"You’ve got your hands full, kid," Maurice Stanford said, patting Li Wei’s shoulder with a sigh. "There aren’t many good kids like you who care so much about their family these days. That’s a tough job."

[Mission 1: Traverse the Demon Forest - Complete]

[Reward: Constitution +0.1]

"Well," Li Wei sighed, "what can I do? He’s the only family I have left."

...

「One week later.」

Franklin K. Lane High School’s stadium.

*CRACK!!*

Another dull thud of helmets colliding.

The Franklin High School defense was like a set of building blocks smashed apart by a heavy truck; the offensive line from Queens’ Tottenville High School tore a hole through them the moment the ball was snapped.

"Dammit! You bunch of useless sacks of shit who do nothing but jerk off to your moms, hold the line! Defend your zones!"

Head Coach Miller was roaring furiously on the sidelines, his hands gripping his tactics board so hard it creaked.

But it was pointless.

The glaring 0-21 on the scoreboard was like a stinging slap across the face of every Franklin K. Lane player.

Even the cheerleading squads on both sides had completely different energy. The Franklin High School squad was looking dejected, their morale at rock bottom.

There were only three minutes left until the end of the second quarter, and Franklin High School still hadn’t managed to push into the opponent’s half of the field.