While the town was soundly asleep except for the rowdy castle, the two young men slipped unnoticed and boarded the passenger vessel.
Without anyone noticing a thing, they slipped inside their cabin and dropped the money bag on the table.
"Oh my god!" Julian plopped down on his bed. "We actually did it. We're rich!"
"Rich? Hardly." Kiernan shook his head and looked at the money bag. "That's just some reserve funds that Count Sander had kept in case he had to make a quick exit.
"It's not going to be much compared to his total wealth."
"It is still an amazing haul." Julian said.
"Not enough for the trouble." Kiernan said. "We could've died there."
"But we didn't, because of your quick thinking!" Julian patted him on the shoulder with a laugh. "Nice way of using the slaves and the navy as a distraction!"
"Well, we must leave this island immediately."
"How? Unless the captain has paid off the tax, we aren't going anywhere."
"We should be capable of convincing him." Kiernan said. "He hates this island, so I doubt he is going to come back here either way. Maybe we can convince him to leave without paying that tax."
"Hmm…" Julian smiled and took off his mask. "Take off your mask. Let's go talk to him."
They left the cabin, and after searching through the ship, they found the captain sitting by the ship's wheel, sipping on some water to shake off the drunkenness.
"Hey, captain!" Julian raised his hand as he walked over to him.
"What'chu you two doing here?" The captain asked with a drunken voice. "This room is only for the ship's crew."
"We wanted to ask you about something." Julian said. "It's important."
"What?" The captain asked and gulped down the water.
"Why don't we already leave for the Nightingale?" Kiernan asked.
"I haven't paid the goddamn tax yet." The captain said angrily.
When he remembered the tax, he just kept getting angrier. He had almost forgotten about it, but now the young man made him remember it again!
"What if you don't pay it?" Julian asked. "And just sail away? The tax man is soundly asleep and won't find out until the morning."
"…" The captain looked at the two young men and then shook his head. "Nah, I'll just get in trouble."
"Let's be honest here: you're never planning to come back here." Kiernan said. "You're crossing Kiwi Island on your map and will avoid this place like a plague."
"…" The captain stayed silent.
That was exactly what he was planning to do. He wasn't going to come back to a place where he was exploited and bullied.
'Then, even if I run away from the taxes, what can they do?' The captain frowned. 'Call the navy? If they investigate further, they know that they aren't taxing big shipping companies, but only the small ones.'
The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he could just skip paying the tax altogether.
The navy wasn't also the type to hunt down the tax evaders. They had way bigger problems in the World Seas. Also, he doubted that the Count of the small Kiwi Island had any real big influence over the navy.
'I don't think the Count will even care about small ol' me.' The captain rubbed his beard and nodded. "Alright, we're leaving right now!"
"Nice~" Julian smiled and then left with Kiernan.
When they were outside the wheel cabin, they high-fived and returned to their cabin to split the spoils of their robbery.
"How much is it~" Julian sat on his bunk bed and watched as Kiernan poured the gold coins onto the table.
The table was shaking and almost collapsed because of the weight.
It took him about thirty minutes to count it all.
"25,000 gold coins." Kiernan said with a nod. "Split in half, 12,500 each."
"Nice!" Julian laughed. "That's not bad!'
'I don't know how much that would be in the Earth's currency, but I know the gold coin is worth more. I saw some cars selling for 1500 to 2000 gold coins and some expensive luxury cars around 15,000 to 30,000.'
It was enough to buy himself a good, long-lasting car, but, of course, he wasn't going to buy a car. It was a waste of money for him.
"Can you go find yourself a bag?" Kiernan asked. "We must split this in two, and there's only one bag."
"Ah, right, second!" Julian rushed out of the cabin.
Kiernan stuffed the money bag with his own share of the loot, and when it was full, he added all his money to his interface.
It was the perfect place to keep his money.
The money bag turned empty, and he tossed it inside his inventory.
"I am back!" Julian rushed back to the room with a shabby bag in hand and then frowned. "Where did you put your money already?"
"I hid it." Kiernan climbed to his bunk bed. "The rest of the money is yours. I suggest also hiding it."
"Aight!" Julian stuffed the bag with the gold coins, and for now, he slid it underneath the bed.
With a flick of the switch, the light turned off, and darkness enveloped the cabin.
"Not a bad haul." Julian said. "I have now enough money to travel wherever I want to go."
"What about you, Kiernan?" Julian asked. "What are you doing with your money?"
"I don't know yet," Kiernan said.
However, at that moment, strange messages appeared across his vision.
[You've acquired over 10,000 gold coins!]
[You've unlocked the "Store" function of the system!]
'What?!' Kiernan's eyes widened in surprise. 'So, I had to reach 10,000 gold to unlock the store. So does that mean I must earn even more money to unlock the lottery function?'
His heart started beating faster than before.
'It might be that I won't be spending my money on anything earthly, but instead something found in the system's store.'
With a beating heart, he clicked on the store, and the store window slowly appeared in front of his eyes.
'Please have something good.'