Disclaimer: I don't own DC Comics.

Chapter Three: Course of Action

The relaxing feeling of your body being completely refreshed in the morning was still something Damien was having a difficult time getting used to, perhaps he never would; his body's mental state had been conditioned from bad sleeping habits for too long. Still, he got up and allowed his body to settle into the acute wonderful sensation, he had other things to worry about. Namely, what to do with the stolen jewelry, the cash had already been placed into the system, but the actual goods were in his inventory. He would have to find a way to convert those physical objects into cold hard cash, although several ideas popped into his head, he placed them in the back seat. There were other pressing matters that could be settled right now, a hazy memory of right before he fell asleep popped into his head.

I leveled up, and there was a mystery box thing, is that because I reached level 20?

Thinking about his status brought up the box of information he was already growing accustomed to seeing, his attributes had been raised by the level up, and even he got a small feeling of anxiety at seeing his money. Looking at the number which was now over 7,000, he felt a bit of anxiety, it stemmed from the thought of making money so easily. Doubts of what he was doing sprung to life in his head but were quickly suppressed by an overwhelming force.

The more important thing, however, was the small box that was glowing to the side, it reminded him of a minimized window in a computer, he pressed his finger on it and was greeted by a new prompt.

Minor Mystery Box unlocked!

The moment he was done reading the message, a grey stone cube materialized on his palm, it held intricate designs all over each face with a faint blue light shining through each pattern. Slowly gripping the surprisingly heavy box, he realized that the light was pulsing ever so slightly, as if it was calling for him. With his empty hand, he reached out and touched one of the faces of the small cube, the electricity that ran through his finger was more than enough to jolt him out of his daze. The light, which up until this moment had been passive, began to grow in intensity as the box violently shake out of his vise grip. Despite his enhanced strength, he found himself only being able to hold on to it for a mere moment before it managed to escape his hand and floated directly in front of him.

The light quickly became so bright it was forcing Damien to shy his eyes away with his hands, but as suddenly as the change had occurred, it stopped. The bright spectacle was done, turning his eyes back to the floating box, he observed the stone turn into blue motes of light. They floated in the air and dissipated a few inches from their origin, the box was slowly giving way to show its core, another system prompt.

Feeling somewhat upset the Mystery Box when through so much trouble for basically something he was used to seeing already, he was expecting to find an item within, not a prompt.

Congratulations! You have opened a minor Mystery Box!
Please select your prize.

Lock Unlock: A consumable item that allows the user to open any door that has been locked through any means, either physical or electrical. (x5)

Triple Jump (Skil): Allows the user's feet to find footing anywhere twice after an initial jump. Extra jumps will nullify the user's momentum upon contact of fabricated footing.

$15,000.

Looking at the three options the choices he could make and which ones were not the ones he should be thinking about doing became a little murky. The choice that was obviously not as good as the others was the money, sure he reasoned, that with that money he could do plenty for himself at the moment. He had just got done thinking that gaining $7,000 in one night was an impressive feat, and yet here he could more than double that amount with much more ease. But against the other options, the money just wasn't worth it. After all, a skill was something that could be used forever and might even save his life, it definitely was worth more than $15,000.

Discarding the money, the choices were narrowed to two. The Triple Jump skill or the Lock Unlock item. Unlike the skill, the item was consumable, and it would be gone in five uses. Normally something like that would not even be worth considering, but in his current context, it held merit. He had already accepted that the System spoke in absolutes, if it said something then it would work that way, which was exactly why this decision was difficult.

The item description said it would open any door, even if it was locked by placing an unmoveable item on the other side, the item would open the door, or regardless of the state of the art electronic security it was using to secure itself; it would open for him. Dealing in absolutes surely had its perks, this sort of item would be extremely helpful in his raid of the crown jewel, the question was, however, was it worth more than the alternative.

Damien liked to think himself to have more common sense than the average person, he wasn't conceited or anything close to that matter, but he often saw people make dumb decisions for instant gratification. Spending money on expensive things that would be gone tomorrow when the money could be better spent and bring a return, people would always choose the option that would give them the most now as opposed to later. The item would be extremely helpful for the coming week and a half, but it would only prove detrimental for his future. If he jumped to the big leagues with the crutch that was the easy to use item, he would not be getting better, not to mention that the skill would continue to be useful even after five uses. It was a hard decision, but he made up his mind and made his selection.

You have selected the Triple Jump skill! Congratulations!

The feeling of something entering his body as the skill was learned was somewhat fulfilling, he got up from his bed and started about his day. He still needed to get his daily quest done, so he didn't waste any time and got right into that.

I need more time practicing, last night was perfect. If those guys hadn't shown up I surely would have gotten out of there with no issue, but thinking back on it maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. I did get XP out of them, and a decent chunk of it too.

With that new mentality set in, he braced himself for the danger he would have to place himself in if he wanted to get better really quickly. There was no other method other than jumping into the crucible that was real-life experience.

I am going to be so screwed if I mess this up.

Looking out from his small window into the next building was never something that he would find informative or even a pretty sight, it was just a view of a red brick wall, but it did serve a single purpose; it showed the weather. The small white flakes that were floating down gently in the wind explained the small chill he felt in his bones. Winter in Gotham was coming, and with it, his favorite weather, snow.

It was a beautiful thing he thought, a white blanket that covered the dirt and filth of Gotham city, even if it was just temporary and easily removed, it still was nice to have his brain forget about the city for a subconscious moment.

I should try that Triple Jump I guess.

- Triple Jump: Allows the user's feet to find footing anywhere twice after an initial jump. Extra jumps will nullify the user's momentum upon contact of fabricated footing (Passive).

Passive? That's great.

Knowing that if he could jump three times in a row, he would easily clear the ceiling over him, to prevent that he decided to do kiddy jumps that barely lifted him off the ground. He wanted to know exactly how the ability worked before he tried it live, or rather needed to know.

Giving a little force to the floor below him, his body was displaced a few inches of the ground, feeling the strength of his push propel him upwards he attempted to once again push off the air but found nothing happen. It was only once the force of his initial jump ceased to exist against the overwhelming force that was the Earth's gravity that his efforts were rewarded with a result. The moment that gravity took over and pushed him down, he felt the air below his feet solidify. It was a weird thing, it wasn't like standing on the ground or even on anything, after all, there was nothing below him; but still, the System cared little for what reality imposed, it was not restrained by it. Damien jumped off nothing.

It's just as described, this should help me move around much easier, I guess life really is a game… Now does the momentum nullification work in my favor or against it? Oh, I get it…

Realizing how he might be able to use the Triple Jump skill more effectively, Damien starts to plan his next move regarding the quest. If possible, he'd like to focus on this subject completely, but he still had the obligation to school. He couldn't just miss classes for over a week without anyone realizing, he would have to juggle both matters, still, he placed a little more emphasis on thinking about how to steal the $1,000,000. Failing to do that would result in whatever System Rejection was, doing bad in a class would definitely not be as bad as what the alternative was.

"Is that another one of them?" a voice spoke from within a dark room.

"Yeah, this is the seventh one this week, and its only Friday," came a response shortly afterward. The two figures stood in front of several large monitors that were producing a plethora of information, from 911 calls to live police reports.

"The same MO?"

The teen that sat in a large leather chair spoke as he read the latest police report, "Similar enough, method of breaking in relies on subtlety, no signs of forced entry, cameras have been disabled, and there have been no witnesses aside from the perpetrator that was caught in the scene of the crime on Gotham Star Pawn Shop. He was concussed and was only able to briefly see the real thief so his testimony is questionable, but what is certain is that someone beat him and his gang before they made off with the merchandise and the safe money."

He continued to explain the situation to the red-haired teen whose face was concealed by a bat-themed cowl, "That alone would not be important to investigate so thoroughly, but subsequently, similar types of robberies have been happening daily since, the culprit is robbing these places with great care not to get noticed. Considering most of Gotham's underbelly likes to go in guns blazing when they steal, this is very unusual; the lack of a calling card is also worrying."

Gotham's villains were infamous for wanting fame or recognition for their evil deeds, if something was done by anyone, even the small little-league gangs, you could be sure a calling card would be left behind.

"And you think these are all being done by the same person? There is no correlation in the targets you know?" argued the red-haired teen.

"True, and maybe this is just my intuition, but I think it is the same person. I can't explain it, but I'm sure of it."

A sigh escaped from behind him, "Well Batman did train you, I suppose you could have some merit to your conclusions, but what of it? We just said that there is no pattern for each robbery, how will you catch this thief? The only hope you have is if you stumble upon them during the act while you are out in patrol, considering the size of our patrol routes that is very unlikely."

The dark-haired teen sitting in from of the monitors smirked at her rebuttal, "Well I did say that there is no pattern regarding the targets of theft, but I didn't say that there is no pattern at all."

The confusion on the girl's face was apparent, so the domino mask-wearing teen decided to explain, "If you see the thief's MO, it is very easy to see the similarities between them and Catwoman; sneaking and escaping with their prize without being noticed. But there is a big difference between the two, Catwoman only steals extravagant and ludicrously expensive things, this guy has only been stealing from places with little overall profit and low security."

The implication settled in the girl's expression, she was starting to understand what he was trying to explain to her, "So if you could say that is was likely this thief is new in town, his targets start to share a similar trend; low security. I think this guy is using easy targets to practice his way up the ladder, it's not a fool-proof theory, but I think I am probably right."

The thought process was solid, but even to his own self-admittance, it wasn't undeniable, so her doubts remained, "Even if you are right, that sort of profile fits more than half of the locations in Gotham, you couldn't keep an eye on all these."

"Yes, but there is another thing, every target so far has not been a small business owner, and those that were had been publicly shamed for their preying tactics like the pawnshop. I think using these parameters, the Batcomputer could narrow the next target by a large margin. So far each crime has taken place between the hours of 1 A.M. and 3 A.M., we might be able to catch this guy tonight."

Seeing how much thinking the boy had placed into the matter, she was hard-pressed to argue any further, "You really thought it all out, honestly I am surprised. Why so much interest in this guy anyway? He looks pretty small time to me."

A silence filled the large dark room, the boy seemed to be in deep thought, "I must be talking a lot about intuition but something is off about this guy, I get the feeling that if I don't catch him now… He will grow into a huge problem later, you know?"

The girl stared at him like he was speaking nonsense, "Well, if you feel that strongly about it… I guess I can help you catch them."

"Perfect! Now let me explain why this thief is a problem in how he steals. In order to steal without being noticed like he has, you need one of two things: incredible skills or weeks of surveillance. The problem is that this thief doesn't have the former, otherwise he wouldn't be targeting small prizes, and the problem with the second one is that it would be impossible to pull that off every day, you need weeks for each target. The culprit must have a method of gathering lots of information in a short amount of time, hours at the very least."

The talk of ambushes and possible next targets went on for a few more minutes, slowly, a course of action was formed.

Damien looked down from where he stood, twenty stories separated him from the cold hard concrete. Across the street from the building he was on, he could spot tonight's target. The jewelry store was considerably much smaller than the high-rise building he was on, truthfully he had no reason to be up there, but a secret joy of his had brought him to the incredible height.

He had initially tested it with smaller more non-lethal heights, but after a few tests with those the experience had grown stale, and soon larger and larger buildings were attempted.

Standing over the edge of the ledge, Damien gave himself a small hop off the building. The strong wind that immediately assaulted his face was refreshing, the way his gut sank as he approached the ground faster and faster with each moment, the silence as the city was drowned out by the gust in his ears; it was all perfect.

If this progressed anymore, he would have to be scraped off the pavement in the morning when the city would be forced to clean his dead body. Despite the situation he was in, not a shred of fear was visible in his half-hidden face. In fact, if one was able to see his mouth, they would only be greeted by a wicked smile. The ground was mere feet from him.

Just as his feet were a few inches from meeting the ground, he jumped. Instantly the momentum that was gathered from the drop was dispelled, the oppressive force that would have him become paste was gone, nullified completely.

His jump shot him upward, through this week's activities he had grown stronger and it showed in his agility, he easily jumped ten feet from the platform that had been created, another jump and he was across the street and on the targeted roof.

Just as he had predicted, the skill Triple Jump would stop him from taking damage from a fall if he jumped just before hitting the ground, it was starting to prove to be more useful than what he initially thought it to be.

A quick look at his status was all he needed to gain the confidence to keep moving with his plan.

Gamer Status:

Select an item to view additional information.

Name: Damien White

Title: The Gamer
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Level (D): 29
Debuff: Mental Corruption X105

HP: 96
SP: 71
MP: 31(36)
Magic: E31
STR: D56(D78)
DEF: D46(D51)
AGI: D71(D96)
INT: D+116(D+136)
WIS: D86(91)
CHAR: B
LCK: B
Points: 18
Money: $16,568

This should be easy, just like every other time. Don't forget, if you run into trouble, use those skill points wisely. You got this!

Damien headed into his next practicing target for the week.

AN: That was a hot minute between the last update, sorry! It was partially because I lost the draft for this chapter (I meant to get this out the last week of January), but it was mainly because I am working on my own book. The website I am publishing it on needs me to update daily to even get a few readers to notice it so I have been writing non-stop to get those out every day, naturally, I had little time to work on this (Hence the short chapter length). My original fiction story is also a "Gamer" story, which I found out to be actually called "LitRPG" stories, who knew? Anyway, thanks for the reviews! I read them all and take them into serious consideration, if you got any suggestions, let me know. Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Answered some reviews.

Jestersky98: He knows its there and that it's increasing, but he doesn't really have the means to stop it. Or even know what it is doing for that matter.

Magnussen osbourne: It's called Anathum: Quest for the End, not really much like this story other than the fact that it's a gamer story, so yeah. I post it on Royal Road, lots of cool stories there!

Recieve the Wind: The other thieves had the jewelry, he didn't want to leave without it. Regarding heroes, I don't think that this character is a dark or white one, he definitely won't be working with them, or even being friends with them, but don't expect him to stabby-stabby with them either. As for the harem stuff, I don't have a pairing and I am not great at writing romance so yeah, we'll see :D!

SirMaou: I don't have a name yet, if someone suggests one that I think is good I'll steal it (But i'll give credit)(Maybe)

Lq840i: He'll get to some of the stuff you mentioned.

Other than that, I will try to update more often, but no promises!