I woke up the next morning with a mix of anticipation and nervousness. Today I would receive my new official identity, and for the first time in weeks, I could walk down the street without constantly looking over my shoulder.
╔═══════════════════════════════════╗
║ NEW DAY - NEW IDENTITY ║
║ Time: 9:30 AM ║
║ Status: Anxious ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════╝
🍾「Good morning, my little one!」
🍾「Today is an important day!」
🍾「New identity, new opportunities!」
At exactly 10:00 AM, someone knocked on my door. It was a thin, well-dressed man with a leather briefcase.
"Alleinad Gilbert?" he asked discretely.
"Yes."
"I have a delivery for you."
He handed me the briefcase and a tablet to sign electronically. Inside I found everything I wanted: driver's license, social security card, passport, two credit cards with respectable limits, and even a basic credit history.
All under the name I had carefully chosen:
Alejandro Romero, 25 years old.
I had thought a lot about that name. Alejandro was common, easy to remember, and Romero was a last name that would go completely unnoticed. The age of 25 would give me more professional credibility without being suspicious.
🍾「Perfect! I love your new name!」
🍾「Alejandro Romero sounds very... normal!」
🍾「Exactly what you needed!」
I examined each document carefully. The quality was impeccable; it was impossible to distinguish them from real documents. For the first time in weeks, I felt like a normal person with a possible future.
But there was something I needed to check.
"Loki," I said quietly. "I want to review my complete system. See all my abilities and configurations."
🍾「Of course! Time for the complete inventory!」
🍾「Let's see everything you've earned!」
🍾「ACTIVATING FULL SYSTEM VIEW...」
The interface that appeared left me frozen.
╔═══════════════════════════════════╗
║ COMPLETE USER PROFILE ║
║ Name: Alleinad Gilbert ║
║ Alias: Alejandro Romero ║
║ Age: 19 years old ║
║ MAIN TITLE: ║
║ 🧹💀 EXPERT CLEANER FOR THE MAFIA ║
║ Specialization: Crime scenes, ║
║ object recovery, evidence elimination ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════╝
I stared at the screen with growing horror.
"EXPERT CLEANER FOR THE MAFIA?" I whispered incredulously. "Loki! What the hell is this?"
🍾「Ah! You like your new title!」
🍾「You earned it with your exceptional performance!」
🍾「It's very specific and professional!」
"I don't like it! I want to change it! How do I change this?"
Desperately I navigated through all the system options, looking for some way to modify or change the title. I checked every ability, every configuration, every possible menu.
╔═══════════════════════════════════╗
║ CURRENT ABILITIES: ║
║ [IRON STOMACH] - Level 1 ║
║ [MEDICAL INTUITION] - Level 3 ║
║ [RESIDUE INSPECTOR] - Level 3 ║
║ STATUS: PERMANENT ║
║ MODIFICATION: NOT AVAILABLE ║
║ 🔒 NO CHANGES ALLOWED 🔒 ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════╝
At the bottom of each window, in small but relentless letters, was the phrase that chilled my blood: NO CHANGES.
"LOKI!" I exploded. "Why didn't you tell me the abilities and title weren't changeable? Why didn't you tell me I couldn't use this knowledge for another job?"
🍾「Well... because you never would have accepted!」
🍾「Or you would have thought about it much more!」
🍾「And you needed to make a quick decision!」
"Exactly! You would have given me time to think about other options!"
🍾「But admit it!」
🍾「You liked last night's work!」
🍾「Don't deny it!」
🍾「I saw how you felt when you found those hiding places!」
🍾「And when you cleaned the scene perfectly!」
I stopped, processing his words. I hated to admit it, but... he was right. I had felt genuine satisfaction during the work. The combination of analysis, problem-solving, and the feeling of transforming a messy, bloody room into a clean space.
"Okay," I sighed. "You're right. I liked it. I can't be mad at you for that."
🍾「I KNEW IT!」
🍾「Plus you were born not to get mad at me, hehehehe!」
We both laughed, and I felt the tension dissipate. It was useless to fight with Loki. Honestly, his way of acting is what has helped me a lot to see the funny side of this.
I disconnected from the system and decided I needed to get out of the hotel room. It was 12:00 PM and I was hungry. Plus, I wanted to test my new identity in the real world. Besides, I missed them a lot and wanted to go out with them.
Before showering, I called Richi.
"Alle? How are you, bro?"
"Good. Hey, want to go eat? Maybe we could meet up with some of the others."
"Oh, bro, I'd love to, but I'm not in the city. I went to visit my cousin in Tampa for a few days. How about next weekend?"
"Sure, no problem."
After hanging up, I decided to call Jonathan. I dialed his number, but he didn't answer. Strange—Jonathan always answered quickly. I tried again. Nothing. Third time, fourth, fifth...
🍾「How weird?」
🍾「Is Jonathan avoiding you?」
🍾「That's very suspicious!」
On the sixth call, he finally answered.
"Alleinad?" His voice sounded tense, different.
"Jonathan! Are you okay? I've been calling you."
"Yeah, I'm... busy. What do you need?"
There was definitely something weird in his tone. He sounded like he was reluctantly accepting the call.
"Want to go to lunch? I wanted to tell you some things."
There was a long pause. "Sure. Where should we meet?"
"Do you know that sandwich place downtown? I'll text you the address. See you in an hour."
He hung up abruptly, which was very strange for him. But I decided not to give it much importance. Maybe he was stressed about something family-related.
I got in the shower, enjoying the feeling of relaxation as the hot water washed away yesterday's tensions.
I had finished washing my hair when I heard knocking at the door. I put a towel around my waist and looked through the peephole.
It was Santos, with his characteristic smile, though there was something slightly different about it that I couldn't identify.
I opened the door, greeting him like a lifelong friend.
"Santos! What a surprise to see you here!"
"Hello, rookie!" he laughed. "Wow, should I have come later?"
"No, no, don't worry. I was just showering. Come in, come in."
Santos entered and immediately noticed the pile of medical books scattered throughout the room. He flipped through them briefly, seeing the marked pages, detailed notes in the margins, different colored bookmarks organizing complex information.
His smile gradually faded as he processed the amount of material I had studied. These were books that normally took years to master—he knew because it was the study material Giovanni had given him when he started working with him—and here they were, clearly studied thoroughly in a matter of weeks.
The reality of the trauma that had pushed this kid to study so compulsively hit him full force.
"Give me a second to get dressed," I told him from the bathroom, not noticing his change of expression. "By the way, want to come to lunch with me? I'm meeting Jonathan, my friend from university."
"Jonathan?" Santos asked, his voice sounding strange.
"Yeah, my ex-roommate from university. Why?"
"Nothing, just curious."
I came out of the bathroom dressed in fitted jeans and a navy blue short-sleeve t-shirt. Santos had recomposed himself and had his usual smile back.
"Did you get your new ID?" he asked.
"Yes!" I exclaimed, pulling out my driver's license. "Look, Alejandro Romero, 25 years old. I can finally go out without fear!"
The expression of pure happiness on Alle's face when showing his ID gave Santos a pang in his heart. It was like seeing a kid at Christmas, completely excited about something most people took for granted. It gave him deep sadness to think about the orders he had for this innocent kid.
Fifteen minutes later, Jonathan arrived.
"John, hi," I said, hugging him. "Come in, come in."
When the kid entered and saw Santos, he froze completely, his face losing all color.
"Excuse me for a moment," I said, heading to the bathroom. "I just need to fix my hair and I'm ready."
As soon as Alle closed the bathroom door, Santos scolded John.
"Did you forget the orders?" Santos murmured.
"No... Alleinad asked me to lunch. I didn't know what to say without raising suspicion."
"Ready?" I asked cheerfully.
In Santos's car, I tried to keep the conversation light, but Jonathan was unusually quiet. That's when Santos said he would pay for lunch.
"Hey, Santos," I said. "You don't have to pay for lunch. I can cover my part."
"Don't even think about it!" Santos responded emphatically. "I'm treating you. Consider it my gift for helping last night."
"No, seriously, it's not necessary..."
"I insist!" Santos smiled, but there was determination in his voice. "It's the least I can do."
I finally gave in. "Okay, but just this once."
Santos sent a quick text while driving, then announced:
"I'm taking you guys to Cantaros. It's a really good restaurant, you'll see."
It wasn't particularly fancy, but it had a cozy atmosphere that I liked, so I happily accepted.