Accidental Villainy 76 (Patreon)

There was no working around the fact that I needed money. A humongous pile of it. Not just for my own purchases — though they were vital — but also for Daria.

She was clearly above attacking me for money, if she wasn’t, she would have been living in luxury. I wouldn’t miss the chance to buy her goodwill by providing her some much-needed cash.

Funding her lifestyle wouldn’t be too difficult, but the same wasn’t true for her heroic activities. Their ambitions required a lot of cash to support properly. While funding them completely was not an option, even small but timely support could help me make inroads with not just her, but the others.

With that in mind, the moment the bar was closed, I put on my disguise once more to visit Emily. I wanted to start making money, and the combination of our powers should give us the boost we need.

 The easiest path was to hack people’s bank accounts. The combination of our powers was very promising for it. However, I decided against it. For the scale I wanted, it wouldn’t work. It would be noticed. And, I didn’t want anyone getting ideas about the potential of my power combined with Emily.

The stock market was potentially tempting as well, but I had no doubt that there were many safety measures there to prevent market manipulation by superpowers. Exactly what kind of things, and what they would catch, I had no idea. And, I would avoid it until I had some.

“As far as the scale goes, I’m nothing more than a speck,” I muttered even as I moved into the city, ignoring the dangers of the night. “Like a rat … no not like a rat, but an ant,” I added, suddenly smirking. All the stories I had read about money laundering and shell companies finally gave me an idea.

Emily’s technology power had its deficiencies, her inability to bypass the digital protections one of them, but she had one incredible advantage. Multitasking, is one that I used to my advantage when trying to dig information on people.

Why not do the same for another reason.

Opening shell companies to act as the front was a challenge, mostly because it took a lot of time and effort to make them real, and even then, as soon as they grew to a certain size, people started to look at them. Rivals, tax authorities, police, guilds… All gather like flies.

What if I had a thousand front companies, none with enough operation to actually catch attention. That way, I could actually hide their potential, and Emily could slowly build a presence for them.

It felt like a viable method, particularly if we could keep the links between them a secret.

“I’m on fire today,” I muttered even as I climbed the stairs to Emily’s apartment, a smile on my face. Now that I had a way to hide the money — potentially, pending a practical test — I needed to find a way to make a lot of it without getting attention.

Amusingly, the idea came in the form of a spam message, inviting me to a fantasy football league, offering some sign-in bonus to achieve. My eyes widened to a smirk as I found an excellent method.

Online gambling.

Trying to get millions out of a site wouldn’t work. Even assuming that they could pay, it would almost certainly trigger the same kind of protection scheme the stock market had. But, what if we created thousands of accounts across hundreds of sites.

Even if we failed most of the bets, just the bonuses we would get from signing in would turn a profit. And, with my power, I could pick some sure wins, particularly if I overcharged my power in some tricky situations.

I started chuckling as I realized the simplicity of it. All the while, I was trying to find a way to make money, ignoring the most excellent method available. This way, I should be able to make a hundred thousand a night easily.

Not enough for my needs, but certainly a start.

Even with my power, I couldn’t simply guess the results of the matches, but it was the beauty of it, I didn’t need to. I just needed to beat the odds. Doing so in a hundred different sports events, while Emily put thousands of bets at the same time, would be excellent.

The best thing, since Emily was using her power, she wouldn’t trigger the usual protections that were there for the bots.

I knocked on the door with a big smile on my face. Emily opened it immediately, showing she had lingering near the door since she received my call informing my arrival. However, my eyes widened as she opened the door.

Considering we had spent a lot of time not only fucking, but also recording a high-quality amateur porn movie, I wasn’t expecting her to be in the mood for more sex. Especially since, when I called her and woke her up, I explained that I needed her expertise in hacking. It was very late, enough to be classified as early morning.

Emily clearly had different ideas, or she wouldn’t have been wearing what she was wearing. She was dressed as a hacker … or at least, what a hacker would look like in a terrible B-movie. One with a lot of unnecessary nudity.

She wore a hoodie with its hood pulled enough to partially hide her face, which, under normal conditions, hardly qualified as a sexy outfit. She solved that problem by cutting its lower half to turn to leave not only her belly, but also the underside of her breasts naked, which made her lack of a bra clear.

Underneath, she was wearing yoga pants that strained to the limit, making it clear that they were not designed for someone with her curves. It was tight enough to show that her bra wasn’t the only piece of underwear she neglected to put on.

It was an interesting mishmash, one that wasn’t supposed to be alluring. Yet, somehow, when combined with Emily’s absurd eagerness, it was enough to make my pants tighter once more, making me glad I hadn’t overindulged with alcohol while working.

It would be rude to skip.

“Hello, beautiful,” I said as I hugged her for a kiss, but pulled back when she tried to deepen it. “Work first, fun later,” I said, but even as I said that, I put my hand to her ass, squeezing.

“I … see,” she squawked, making her even cuter. I led her to her computer setup, teasing her as we walked. Just because I didn’t want to tire myself with some extra fun before trying to see if my plan worked didn’t mean I was not captivated by her seduction attempt.

So, I kept teasing her even as I explained the details of my new plan, though with an interesting twist. “… And, we’re going to do everything for you, and not just for your boss,” she said.

“Yes. I’m using one of my boss’s contacts to get some tips, and we will need to pay them quite a bit, but we’re doing it for me,” I said, not just slipping an excuse to keep the money in her control, but also giving a reason to make most of the money disappear as needed.

With some emotional component that not only explained my need for more money, but also created a hook for the future to ask her help with the purchase of high-power equipment. “Today’s events scared me a bit, and my boss refuses to equip me.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll handle it,” she said as she leaned against my palm and I caressed her cheek. “I will protect you.”

She was cute and determined as she declared it. In an amusing twist of fate, I couldn’t even argue her statement of protecting me. Right now, the abilities she was offering were even more critical to me than Tara’s combat abilities.

What a twist of fate.

“Let’s start with creating a dozen shell companies to start,” I said. She nodded as she put her hand on the keyboard, which was enough to activate her power. Through that, she started the process of not only creating a dozen companies across a dozen island nations famous for not asking questions, but also building a comprehensive digital presence for them.

I picked those, because no one would target them, at least for the money we would be making.

While she worked, I browsed through the different gambling platforms and the events that were currently ongoing, deciding on the platforms and the bets we would be putting for each platform to avoid looking suspicious.

And, I was already tired.