Jimmy almost spit out his coffee when he saw the tall young man approach the registration desk.

Technically, Jimmy wasn’t supposed to be here, this area was meant for media officials as well as various corporate interests to assemble and observe the team registrations. The whole affinity test was a show for the people standing and sitting around Jimmy. He was as incognito as he could manage to be. He’d been losing a lot of weight recently, which he was quite proud of. He was taking notes along with everyone else. He looked the part, and played the part well enough to pass muster. The badge was totally fake, but he’d had enough connections in the city to get him through. They knew that Jimmy had friends in high places, and that meant that they wanted Jimmy as a friend. People would be willing to stretch the rules a bit for him, and Jimmy wasn’t above taking advantage of that.

The reason why Jimmy had gone to such lengths to get himself here was simple: early intel meant he’d know who to bet on ahead of time. Payouts for these competitions could be quite lucrative. He’d been enjoying the show so far. Some of these kids were cocky, and that meant there would be drama, and drama usually meant more interest. More interest meant more bets, and more bets meant more money. Jimmy liked money, and he knew exactly where to be in order to gauge where the wind was blowing.

It wasn’t anything like a sure thing, and he was probably breaking a law or two by being there, but Jimmy didn’t really care. He was still only retired part-time. When he wasn’t doing an official job, he liked to explore. He liked to learn, and finding fun ways to lose or gain lots of money. So it was natural he’d found his way here.

He hadn’t even noticed the kid walk in, which was rare for him. He was usually pretty observant, but he’d chalk it down to not having seen the kid in years. But the way he hunched as he walked, the appearance of being malnourished, his skin practically stretching over what little muscle the boy had— skin and bones, as they say. He almost wanted to believe it wasn’t him, but then he’d taken the affinity test, and they’d called his name out for the world to hear.

“Hunter Koar, Affinity: 5”

“Well, screw me sideways,” Jimmy whispered, earning a few odd looks from his surrounding ‘colleagues’. He threw up his hands in apology, muttering a ‘sorry’.

Did Trey know about this? He’d gone to some length to eliminate the trail of Hunter Koar to the rest of the world.

How’d he get past the preliminaries without anyone being the wiser? Someone had to have known, right?

His curiosity was burning, and he knew how to get the answers. He left the room and took out his mobile phone. He had Trey’s number memorized, but rarely used it. Trey Oberon was an incredibly busy man. You didn’t call Trey, Trey called you, and there was usually a very good reason as to why he did it. Council Seats don’t have much time for meaningless small talk and catching up.

But there were exceptions for interrupting a Council Seats’ busy schedule.

He finished dialing, and waited. Trey didn’t pick up, so he called again. At this point, Trey would know it was Jimmy. No one else had the balls to call Trey twice in a row if he didn’t pick up the first time.

“You’re interrupting my family time,” Trey said, his tone tone leaving very little room to misunderstand just how he felt about the intrusion.

“Hey, it’s Jimmy. You’re not gonna believe who I just saw…”

----------------------------------------

As soon as he was registered, and confirmed where he needed to be tomorrow morning, Hunter left. But before he could, someone called his name.

David Nettle was tall for his age, but not as tall as Hunter. But he had a solid, athletic build, long blonde hair that appeared to flair out slightly like wings, and blue eyes. His team followed behind him. Hunter debated if he should ignore them and leave, but he figured he’d hear them out, not that he expected anything good to come of this.

His instinct was confirmed immediately.

“You’ve got some nerve taking a name like that,” David said. Hunter fought to keep his reactions under the surface.

“Oh?” Hunters responded, mostly out of reflex, and he cringed. He was keen to leave. Nothing good would come of this conversation. He’d sketched its trajectory

Insult his father.

“Gideon Koar may have been a psycho, but he was a competent psycho,” David said. Hunter frowned. Was that half of an insult? If this was a test, he might get a half mark.

Next would come the fallacy.

“If you were his son, you wouldn’t have such a low affinity. As soon as I saw you, I knew you were the charity case that had been registered this year. I don’t even know how you have the guts to stand here, still. Not only that, but after what Gideon Koar did, you still have the gall to keep that name?”

Hunter started balling his fists, but what would he do?

Fight them? Even he could, he wouldn’t want to. He couldn’t afford to be disqualified. As soon as the thought appeared, he tilted his head. Maybe what they were saying wasn’t personal. It stung like hell, but he’s sure that’s what they were counting on. They could eliminate some competition before the first round had already begun. Whether it was a team of one, or a team of 4, a team was a team. And besides what did they have to lose? A fake Hunter Koar, with an affinity of 5, from their point of view there was no way Hunter had a chance to make it very far in this competition.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that they were just a bunch of assholes, but these were supposed to be a group of pretty smart people. You didn’t pass that preliminary test if you didn’t have a brain to work with. A smart asshole would try and kill two birds with one stone. And Hunter kind of agreed with David, sort of. He didn’t know why he was still standing here.

One of David’s teammates joined the assault.

“What, were your parents fanboying Gideon when they named you? Isn’t that adorable?” He laughed like a hyena. David snorted, and the other two teammates either smiled or laughed as well.

He wanted to take their words personally, but now that he’d seen it, he couldn’t unsee it. This was strategic. It barely made the words any less impactful, but the impact shifted.

“I’ll see you all tomorrow,” Hunter said, relieved that he was able to keep his voice even. He did his best to square his shoulders and keep his chin up as he left them. He was used to slouching, keeping his posture erect was usually quite taxing for him after more than a few minutes. He wouldn’t give them the satisfaction they were looking for, and he couldn’t wait to see their reaction when he ended up winning this damned competition.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“My, my,” someone drawled from behind as soon as Hunter had left the room. The voice belonged to an older man. Hunter wasn’t interested in another round of drama, so he kept walking.

“You know,” the man said, keeping pace behind Hunter, “when I dropped you off in Seckina, I was pretty damn sure I wouldn’t have any business associated with the Koar's for the rest of my life.”

Hunter stopped walking, and turned to get a look at the man that was following him.

“Jimmy?” Hunter asked. He’d never forgotten the man’s name. He remembered standing in front of the law enforcement branch, with the mildly obese man in a suit telling him he’d take him away from the hell he’d been thrown into. But after a while, he realized that all of life was hell. Some people just suffered to a different degree than others.

The man took off his hat, but then rubbed his hand over his bald head and frowned.

Hunter almost didn’t recognize him, not at first.

“Well, I suppose it would be hard to recognize me. I’m not aiming to make much of an impact while I'm here. But yeah, its me, kid. Surprise!” Jimmy said, flaring his hands.

“What are you doing here?” Hunter asked, lowing his voice.

Jimmy barked out a laugh as he approached, patting Hunters shoulder.

“Wow, look at you,” Jimmy said, looking up at Hunter, “you’re practically a giant. Gideon was never this tall.”

His levity dropped a bit, then.

“As to why I'm here, let’s just say I’ve got some personal business I'm attending to. My question is, why in the world are you here?”

Hunter was about to answer, but Jimmy waved his hand.

“Hold that thought. Any conversation worth having, is worth having over a nice breakfast. Come, there’s a great restaurant just down the block. They’ve usually got a corner booth available that’s perfect for this sort of thing.”

Hunter shrugged and followed. So far, today had been a rollercoaster. Jimmy was the last person he was ever expecting to see.

He said as much once they’d reached the restaurant and sat in a private corner booth.

“Feeling’s mutual, kid. So, spill the beans. What made you decide to sabotage all the hard work my boss put in to hiding your presence?” Jimmy asked, his smile seemed to harden, not quite reaching his eyes.

Hunter’s jaw clenched. It was going to be another hard conversation, then.

Jimmy laughed again, leaning over to pat Hunter shoulder, a bit harder than he had earlier.

“Come on, relax, kid. I’m kidding. The fake ID we gave you was all me, took 20 minutes to call up my guy and it was all done by the end of the day. The house was out of the boss’s own pocket, though, not that he minded. He’s got deep pockets.”

“Who is your boss?” Hunter asked. It was one of the most pressing questions on his mind. He’d wondered for years.

Jimmy chewed his steak, considering Hunters question.

“Well, it’s an open secret at this point. And I called the boss after I realized you were here,” he said, cutting into his steak again, “The head honcho himself. The big cheese.”

Hunter felt simultaneously weary and thrilled. It confirmed his theory, only he'd never gone so far as to imagine that the Council Seat himself had intervened.

“You mean--” Hunter said, but Jimmy held up a finger to his lips.

“It might be an open secret, but its still somewhat of a secret. Keep your voice down. Yes," his voice dropped down a raspy whisper, “Trey Oberon is my boss, at least when I'm not retired.”

Hunter waited for Jimmy to elaborate.

“Its a long story,” Jimmy said, “and you didn’t answer my question. What are you doing here, kid?”

Hunter considered how to answer. He didn’t trust Jimmy, but he had no reason to think that he had any ill will towards him.

“This was my best option. I accidentally revealed my real name during the preliminary test, and it turned out to be the only reason that I was able to pass.”

“But that doesn’t explain why you were there in the first place,” Jimmy said.

Hunter sighed.

“There was this gang, the 32nd Street Comics. They gave me the choice to join them. Today would be the day I was supposed to give them my answer. I suppose that’s exactly what I did.”

Jimmy leaned back in his seat, nodding his head. His smile was gone, but his eyes were filled with sympathy.

“I had no idea it was that kind of neighborhood. Sorry, Hunter.”

Hunter could hear the guilt in Jimmy’s voice. Hunter didn’t blame Jimmy for the choice of neighborhood, though.

“As far as I'm aware, the Comics didn’t pop up a couple of years after you dropped me off. You couldn’t have known, neither could your boss. Apparently, it had been a pretty nice neighborhood before they showed up.”

It hadn’t taken long for all the park monuments to be covered in graffiti. They’d also managed to aggravate other gangs. You could hear gunshots, some nights. They would be the only thing that broke Hunter’s focus while he was working. Its why he liked to spend most of his days inside. He only ever started to leave the house more in the brief period that the Comics felt that his little cul-de-sac was worth their direct presence. They’d moved into a couple of the houses nearby, and the parties they threw could last all night, well into the next day. Hunter was always good at minding his own business. But neighbors would talk, of threats to children, to pets, if word was to get out that anyone notified the cops about the Comics activity. Hunter didn’t have anyone else around that the Comics could threaten. That had only made the risk feel more personal to him.

Every day since then it felt like the walls were closing in. Even after Joyce passed him through the preliminary test, the pressure continued to build, but at least the Comics were no longer his problem to deal with. A silence stretched between them for a minute. Jimmy was either deep in thought, or really enjoying his steak.

He didn’t know how busy Jimmy was today, so he figured he should get as much information as he can.

“You said that the Council Seat was on his way? Did you tell him I was here?” Hunter asked, nervous about having to meet the man.

“On his way to the competition,” Jimmy said, “not the restaurant.”

Hunter felt some relief.

“Oh, he does want to meet with you though. See, I didn’t know about the gang when I told him I saw you at registration table. So he’s probably about as curious as I was, if not more, about why you would be showing up to the Global Youth Artisan Competition. He would figure, quite like I did, that you would have a very good reason to feel confident enough to join under your real name.”

Hunter felt a slight sense of apprehension settle over him.

Of course.

He was Gideon Koar’s son. The infamous, visionary Gideon Koar. Etherium luminary, and genius artisan.

The man who the Council had envied enough to destroy, and that man’s living legacy had just announced himself to the world.

Maybe, if he was Trey Oberon, he’d be a curious as to why such a youth would have the balls to show himself, after having airlifted him about of a pool full of ravenous sharks.

“Shit,” Hunter whispered.

“Come on, it’s not like you couldn’t have known. You might not have inherited your fathers affinity, but from what I understand, you inherited some of his brains.”

Hunter nodded. Of course he’d known, but he hadn’t really understood. Up until now it had seemed abstract. The threat of the Comics far outweighed the threat of the Council Seats, and now that the gang wasn’t a threat, a more powerful gang could be learning about his presence here at any minute.

Hunter felt a headache forming.

Joyce said that he was safe. As long as he was in this competition, Oberon would be invested in his potential. Maybe, there was another opportunity forming here. If it wasn’t a panel of indifferent judges, but Trey Oberon himself that he needed to impress, maybe the nature of this competition could have just shifted.

Jimmy observed Hunter as he thought, electing to stay silent.

“How many people know that Trey’s on his way to the competition?”

Jimmy smiled.

“I think I know where you’re going with this, and the answer is not many. He usually has a flair for drama— don’t tell him I told you that,” Jimmy said, pointing a finger directly Hunter. Hunter smiled and nodded.

“Anyways, he’ll have them announce his presence at the final round. That’s my bet, anyways,” Jimmy said.

“So, you’re just guessing?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah,” Jimmy shrugged, “but it’s an educated guess. Council Seats are like cats, they live their busy lives by their own rules. Plans lain years in advance can change on a dime, so you never know.”

Hunter considered that.

Whether Trey Oberon announced himself or not, if Hunter could prove himself to be a valuable asset, he might be able to grab some benefits from Oberon Enterprises without having to win.

Not that he was going to aim for anything less than the top spot.

David Nettle’s annoyingly symmetrical face flashed through his mind. He imagined the look of confusion and fury when his team was eliminated, and Hunter went on to win the whole damn thing.

“If I'm thinking what you’re thinking, I've got to say that the boss isn’t an easy man to impress,” Jimmy said. “At this point he’s seen it all, really. You’re gonna have to pull out the stops in order to gain his attention beyond— well, quite frankly, beyond the mild annoyance you’ve just made for him.”

Hunter nodded.

“Given the fact that you’re not breaking out in a sweat, I'm assuming that you’ve actually got some stops to pull?” Jimmy asked.

Hunter was about to answer out of reflex, but he caught himself.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Hunter said. Jimmy seemed like a decent person, but he was still employed by a Council Seat.

Hunter revised his gameplan.