John Smith is a wanted visitor who buys food. Reporting him pays the listed 125-Credit bounty, and his storyline can bring him back after the arrest. Leaving him unreported preserves a recurring food customer instead. If you report him again on his angry return, his next response is graffiti and another encounter at the shop.
His ordinary appearance does not make the wanted entry a mistake. Reports of John Smith are legitimate within his storyline, including the repeat encounters. Choose between the immediate bounty and continuing trade after checking which stage of his sequence you are handling.
Identify him before deciding about the bounty
John Smith appears on the Security Wanted List as an ordinary-looking man. Compare the visitor with the poster rather than deciding from whether he looks threatening. His dialogue asking not to be reported does not remove the wanted status.
The earliest visit reference is day fourteen, or day five with Skip Intro. Treat that as the point at which the relevant visits can begin, not a universal appointment that must happen on the same calendar day for every shop.
The ordinary-looking buyer still has a wanted entry.
Keep the Wanted List accessible during the encounter. A decision about reporting has to be made while the customer is still at the window. Recognizing him only after the day's queue has moved on does not let you reopen that exact counter interaction.
John is also distinct from any nearby seller offering stolen food. Buying food and bringing stolen goods for sale are different transaction roles. His bounty rests on his wanted identity; you do not need to wait until he offers contraband or shows a stolen item before the report becomes valid.
Understand what you keep by serving him
John buys Food, accepts retail markup and can haggle. On the first listed visit his budget is 125 to 175 Credits. If never reported, he returns every seven days and his food-buying budget gains four Credits for each day of the run.
That makes him a recurring outlet for food stock, rather than a character who only asks for a handout. You still need appropriate goods to turn that interest into a sale. A customer budget does not pay the shop automatically if you have nothing he wants or cannot agree on the offered trade.
Do not confuse his budget with your profit. The money received for food includes the cost of obtaining or producing that stock. A large purchase can be useful for cash flow without making its entire face value a net gain.
The markup permission also is not a promise that he accepts every possible price. Read the live negotiation and the current budget. Building a trade around the amount he can actually spend is more useful than assuming a familiar visitor has unlimited credits.
Compare a repeat customer with immediate money
The basic choice is between a bounty available during the current encounter and food sales that require stock and later visits. Neither option can be evaluated solely by comparing one visible number with another.
| Consideration | Keep serving John | Report John |
|---|---|---|
| Immediate source of credits | A food sale you can complete | The wanted reward |
| Stock requirement | Suitable food for his purchase | Identification as the wanted visitor |
| Later story state | Regular return visits while unreported | Angry return after detention |
| Main practical constraint | Inventory, budget and sale terms | Follow-up encounters and their consequences |
If your shop already has food waiting for buyers, preserving the customer has an obvious use. If you cannot supply food, his theoretical spending capacity is not money you can collect today. Conversely, a bounty may be convenient cash without being the best long-term use of a recurring buyer.
There is no fixed break-even count that applies to every shop. Different acquisition costs, food values and negotiations change the trade income. Calculate from sales you can actually complete rather than treating the listed budget as guaranteed profit at each return.
Report him using the counter alarm
Once you confirm his identity, use the teal Call Security control beneath the counter. Press and hold it rather than repeatedly tapping. Keep him at the window until the report has been accepted and the officers arrive.
- Inspect the Wanted List and match John Smith's portrait.
- Decide whether you want to complete any food trade before ending the encounter.
- Press and hold Call Security while he is still present.
- Let the arrest sequence finish.
- Check the resulting reward and later return state.
The 125-Credit figure is the listed bounty reference. Starting perks can modify wanted rewards, so the precise amount shown in your run can differ. Do not diagnose a reporting failure solely because your character's payout modifier changes the credits received.
A valid report is also different from accusing an unrelated customer who merely resembles an ordinary man. John's specific storyline rule does not make the alarm safe to use on every food buyer. Verify the identity each time you decide to call.
Expect the angry return after the first arrest
Security holds John for two days. He then comes back angry and can buy food with a listed budget of 100 to 150 Credits. His return means the first arrest is not the end of the character sequence.
A food budget becomes income only when you complete a suitable sale.
Read the new dialogue before treating the visit as the same weekly customer appointment. The report changed his state, and you now have another decision about whether to serve him or report him again.
His presence is not by itself proof that the wanted system failed to register the first arrest. Some named characters have follow-up encounters. The current visit needs to be understood through that specific story rather than a general assumption that every reported person disappears permanently.
This is also why the first bounty should not be described as an unlimited automatic income loop. A return encounter is a new stage with its own consequences. You still have to identify the actual visitor, make a choice and deal with the next result.
Understand what the second report triggers
If you report John again on the angry return, JOHN SMITH is spray-painted across the store that night. He appears first in line the following morning and gloats about the vandalism.
The graffiti is therefore a consequence of that repeat-report branch, not evidence that an unrelated random thief entered the shop. Follow the sequence: first arrest, angry return, second report, vandalism, and morning confrontation.
At that confrontation, reporting him for the vandalism pays the listed 125-Credit reward. Serving him instead leads to no more visits in that branch. Do not confuse this final service choice with the never-reported route, where he remains a regular returning buyer.
John's repeat encounters remain legitimate reporting opportunities.
The stage distinction matters when interpreting advice to let him shop. Letting him shop from the beginning and serving him after the graffiti confrontation do not produce the same future schedule. Both involve food transactions, but they occur at different points in his story.
Likewise, completing the final confrontation does not establish another guaranteed weekly cycle afterward. The sequence documents the visits and choices above; it should not be extended into an invented endless reporting strategy.
Separate John from the Butcher's revenge
John's vandalism is his own response to repeated reporting. It is not the Butcher's MEAT graffiti, cleaver threat or hunting service. Those are different character events even though both can follow a wanted arrest.
Do not buy a firearm or wait for Sawyer as though those were requirements to advance John's food-buyer storyline. His documented branch concerns an angry return, name graffiti and a further reporting decision. Borrowing another wanted character's resolution adds steps that do not belong here.
The wider lesson is to identify the name and dialogue attached to the current incident. A damaged storefront alone does not tell you which character caused it or which service ends the story. John's own morning appearance gives the context for the decision in front of you.
Resolve common decision mistakes
If you are unsure why he returned, check whether you already reported him. An angry visit two days afterward belongs to his follow-up, while the unreported food customer follows a seven-day return cycle. Treating both as the same recurring schedule obscures the branch you selected.
If you are unsure why a later service choice ends visits, check whether you reached the graffiti confrontation. The no-more-visits result belongs to serving him at that stage, rather than proof that any ordinary food sale permanently dismisses him.
If you worry that another report will be wrongful, confirm that the visitor is John Smith in his documented sequence. His repeated reports do not count as wrongful. That exception is specific to the character and should not be generalized to someone else who has already been cleared or never appeared on the wanted entry.
If you are deciding from the money alone, compare the bounty with the net value of food you expect to sell. A budget is spending capacity, a sale is credits received for inventory, and profit requires accounting for the stock. Keeping those separate prevents both overvaluing the customer and dismissing a useful buyer too quickly.
Your next action depends on the visit state. Keep him unreported to retain the regular food custom, report him for the immediate wanted reward, or follow the later vandalism branch with its own final choice. Read the current encounter before committing, because the same face can represent a different decision after each report.