With Morin's physique and intelligence, tasks like digging up evidence on a specific drug lord or gang in this spy-filled world were absurdly easy.
As for why Morin kept doing things that his superior, Chris, found strange and random...
The time he spent indulging himself with the drug dealer's money was because Morin had discovered that gray income came with a lot of restrictions. That annoyed him. So he went and splurged to vent.
Of course, Morin never intended to let the drug lord go.
He hinted at a so-called "protection fee," then immediately arrested the man. The switch was so fast the drug lord didn't even have time to react. He even wondered if the money he'd handed over was fake.
As a result, that money didn't count toward Morin's experience points.
This was extremely annoying.
So Morin took the money and went on a revenge-fueled spending spree in Dubai.
Afterward, Morin ran several experiments and confirmed that even gray income followed certain principles.
He had to honor the agreement made at the time of payment for the income to be counted as experience.
Morin had many complaints about this.
It was gray income. Why did it still have morals? Why should he show morals to a drug lord? Taking their money and then turning on them was completely justified.
But the system was clearly a no-fun guy. Heartless. It didn't care about Morin's reasoning and refused to budge.
Morin continued experimenting.
In another operation, he deliberately brought along a team member.
To avoid exposing his true strength, he intentionally acted as though his physical abilities were no different from a normal person. The result, however, was that after Morin and the drug lord "made a deal," the team member did absolutely nothing.
He just watched as the drug lord ran away.
In the end, Morin had no choice but to step in and capture the man himself.
When Morin questioned him afterward, the team member responded confidently and with flawless logic.
"You're the famous Morin. I trust you know what you're doing. I just need to follow your lead."
Morin was speechless.
After that, he abandoned this approach entirely.
Thinking it through carefully, the problems were obvious.
First, he couldn't tell the team member in advance that he planned to let the drug lord escape and then have them capture him. That would be invalidated due to "intentional guidance."
Second, most team members would assume his actions had some deeper meaning and wouldn't attempt to arrest the target at all.
Third... even if a team member genuinely wanted to chase the suspect, it would be nearly impossible for one person to succeed without Morin's help.
And the moment Morin intervened, it would count as a "breach of contract," invalidating the gray income.
So Morin gave up on team operations and returned to solo mode.
Since these tricks weren't working, he went back to his original plan.
He would involve himself in major events-nuclear crises, leaks of confidential lists, things like that. Then he'd strike deals with either the protagonists or antagonists to earn massive gray income.
After all, given the protagonists' capabilities, they would eventually recover the item according to the original plot.
If Morin participated as an insider, wouldn't things become even simpler?
With that thought, Morin opened his interface.
The Mechanic interface only had ten additional experience points. He'd earned those during missions where he had to temporarily play the role of a mechanic.
He hadn't had many such opportunities, so there was little change.
The IRS Employee interface, however, was different.
[IRS Employee - Intermediate (200/1000)]
Title Bonus:
[Physique] - 110 (You need a strong physique to subdue tax evaders)
[Intelligence] - 110 (You need sufficient intelligence to understand all methods of finding tax evaders)
[Intermediate Tax Law Mastery] (A craftsman must first sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well)
[Intermediate Spy Skills Mastery] (Sometimes, you need these to find enough evidence when dealing with a special kind of tax evader!)
[Intermediate Weapon Handling Skills Mastery] (As an IRS employee, this is a skill you must master!)
As for Morin's personal interface, there were no major changes.
Except for [Physique] and [Intelligence], which had each increased by 100 points.
With his vacation secured, Morin officially began putting his plan into motion.
Over the past year, he had successfully expanded his network of connections. Anyone willing to spend money would naturally have many "friends."
As for how reliable those friends were...
As long as there was money involved, they were extremely reliable.
Morin combined money with a certain degree of intimidation to build this network, mainly to obtain useful information.
For example, right now-
"I found you..." Morin murmured, smiling as he stared at an email on his computer.
"Ethan Hunt."
...
Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
Dressed in a suit, Morin entered the consulate with flawless posture and steady steps.
Naturally, he wasn't using his real face.
On the way there, he had ambushed a guest scheduled to attend the party, used a special device to create a mask, and paired it with a voice modulator. The disguise was nearly perfect.
As for where he obtained the mask-making machine and voice modulator...
What was a little secret to the CIA?
Couldn't the IRS just audit them and take whatever they wanted?
Of course, the IRS and CIA weren't openly hostile. They often exchanged small devices as mutually beneficial "gifts."
For example, the IRS wouldn't audit the CIA, and the CIA would provide some equipment in return.
(IRS: "This is definitely not a threat. It's just a normal gift from the CIA.")
More importantly, the IRS Special Agent Department wasn't a group of idle bureaucrats.
In some ways, they were even more powerful than the CIA.
Some of the equipment Morin possessed was more advanced than what the CIA itself used.
...
"Senator, what do you think of the opera?" the deputy consul asked.
"Hm... quite boring," replied a white-haired yet energetic old man after a brief pause.
At that moment, Morin was taking a glass of wine from a waiter's tray.
He had deliberately sharpened his hearing and clearly caught the distant exchange.
Normally, Morin would slightly suppress his hearing. Having senses that sharp meant being flooded with useless, chaotic noise.
Although the boost to his [Intelligence] allowed his brain to process everything instantly, Morin was too lazy to deal with it.
Only things that could be reused had value.
True garbage had none.
And those meaningless sounds belonged squarely in that category.