Ajin had now returned home.
An old, decrepit building, visible even from afar – his place was on the eighth floor.
As he walked past the parked cars to enter the building itself, the voice of an old man stopped him short.
"Young man of 902".
It was from the old security guard. He had been in this place for a very long time; Ajin knew the older man well, so he greeted him without hesitation.
"Aren't you home yet, Mister?"
"I'm on night shift today."
"Haha."
Ajin nodded slightly.
The former guard immediately pulled out a package from the guard post.
"Ajin, it came for you today."
“Oh! Thanks a lot."
The sender listed on the slip was the Association.
"Oh, so that was today, huh?" »
The day his replacement Association phone was supposed to arrive, of course.
Ajin took his brand new phone out of the box; it shimmered softly in the light.
He remembered hearing not too long ago that due to the continued extreme level of interest in all things Hunter, the number of unawakened people trying to get their hands on one of these phones was increasing explosively.
“Never mind who wants to buy one, what are those idiot hunters thinking, trying to steal a few and sell them? »
The old adage said that it was not the country that lacked money, but that there were far too many crooks.
Whether inside the Association or in the military, or anywhere where people gather in large numbers, corruption will always cause problems.
Due to corruption, money would leak out and the promised financial support would decrease as much as the amount leaked, which would worsen the overall situation.
This would ultimately mean that those who were meant to benefit from the system in a legitimate way would be royally screwed.
"That's why I was worried, but…"
Luckily, there was apparently no problem with her new phone.
While waiting for the elevator to arrive, he had nothing else to do so he turned on the phone.
Well, there was a mountain of unanswered messages and missed calls.
"Will I even be able to verify all of this?" »
Curiously, two numbers kept appearing as he stared at the screen. Both seemed unknown to him. One called her a lot, while the other texted her a ton.
"But, I don't know anyone who could call me that many times, though?" »
Ajin tilted his head slightly, before deciding to check the text messages first.
[Hello, I am from this hospital….]
[If you have free time this week….]
[Did I bother you? I just thought we could chat for a….]
He belatedly remembered the face of a certain person. Indeed, it was the face of this pretty hospital nurse, the one who asked him for his number at the time.
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"What was her name again? »
He couldn't tell she bothered him, but he had a feeling that the moment he answered her, his life could become really and unnecessarily complicated in the blink of an eye.
'Good then. I will come….'
Then the number that called him repeatedly.
Ajin pressed the call button. A fairly new and catchy pop song greeted it loudly as a ringtone.
Hearing that, Ajin could more or less guess who that number belonged to.
The call was connected fairly quickly.
- "Hello?"
Yes, indeed it was him.
Ajin let out a small, wry laugh after his guess turned out to be correct.
"It's me. From today, call me only on this number.
– “Ah! You finally have your phone, big brother!"
Of course, it was none other than Takuya.
Ajin had written down the boy's contact number somewhere, but he had never called him before, so it was a bit of a wonder why he hadn't recognized him.
Takuya spoke with a rather excited tone of voice.
“Actually, I was thinking of calling you later, big brother. I've finished recruiting the team members, so I'll pick you up tomorrow morning!
Just hearing that voice, Ajin could imagine Takuya's happy face. Ajin also chuckled lightly.
"Good. See you tomorrow then."
Click on.
As Ajin ended the call, the elevator arrived at the ground floor and its doors opened.
ting.
Finally, the raid would begin for real starting tomorrow.
His heart was beating faster just thinking about it.
“Let's level up as fast as we can. »
He would increase his levels, improve all of his stats, and become stronger than everyone else.
Once he became a truly powerful hunter, he could get his hands on money, fame and influence, and most important of all, destroy the "Scorpion" Association.
And tomorrow would be his first step towards that goal.
***
Eastern Canada.
Late at night.
Silas was the main hunter of the guild, "Scrapers", one of the best guilds in all of the United States. Not only that, but he was also an S-rank. And just before falling asleep, he received a phone call informing him of a shocking case.
“…..My subordinate is dead?? I want you to speak slowly and tell me everything in detail. It's understood?"
Her subordinate's name was Koner. Apparently he entered a C-rated door and lost his life.
“….My subordinate and her eight teammates are all dead, and only three others are unscathed?
And the two that survived were just a rank, B, a rank D and a damn F??
Something smelled like fish here.
Silas knew Koner would never sacrifice his own life for a much weaker teammate. What if this teammate was a temporary worker?
It didn't even have to be mentioned.
However, only ranks, B, D, and F made it back alive, while his friend and other C-rank hunters all perished in this dungeon.
‘There is something going on here…’
Silas' eyes became incredibly sharp.
Right now, he was in a faraway foreign nation after being spotted by one of America's top guilds, but back when he was still in the United States, his subordinate was always by his side and was always there. He was a good teammate.
He may not have been a good human being, but he was a great and precious friend…..
"I was planning to invite him here once I got my footing, but now…"
To think, he would meet an accident before it happened.
Silas bit his bottom lip.
“Fax me all the information on the three surviving members. My number is…."
Silas ended the phone call and then called his manager. The call went through fairly quickly.
- " Sir . You call me quite late. What's going on?"
"Laura. What would happen if I were to kill people in the United States?"
- "Do you really mean that?"
"Yes."
There was a silence before the woman's voice continued.
– “….Canada has not yet signed an agreement to exchange Hunter criminals with the United States. Mr. Silas, you are now a Canadian citizen, so you will have a hearing in a US court instead. If we talk to the relevant government officials, then your overall sentence should be quite light. »
"Good to hear that. Looks like I'm going to have to take a trip to the States for a while. Something happened there. Can you clear up my schedule a bit?"
– “However, Mr. Silas, if you leave so suddenly like this, the operations of the Guild will come to a halt. Can you inform me of the nature of this "something"? »
“It's a personal matter. Of course, I will not harm the Guild in any way. Tell me how booked my schedule has been.
– “You are fully booked for the next two months. »
“Two months, is that… good. After that, I'll need time off, so don't schedule anything. I don't need a lot of time either. Just two weeks. I will only need two weeks to enter and leave the United States.
- "…..Understood. What do I say to upper management?"
“Tell them I'm going to the funeral of one of my precious friends. Also, going on a trip to cheer me up, too.
- "Okay. It will be fine. By the way, Mr. Silas… If there is anything I can help you with….."
Click on!
Silas abruptly ended the call.
It doesn't matter if it's comfort or advice…. He wasn't in the mood to hear either one right now.
Whirrrr-!!
That's when the fax arrived. Silas glanced at the documents that arrived one by one.
On the white pages were photos of three hunters, their names and brief biographies.
“The D-rank hunter, Takuya, a B-rank hunter, Ben, and an F-rank hunter, Ajin. »
Silas alternated his gaze on the photos of the three men and gritted his teeth with determination.
"I'm sure I'll get answers from either if I ask them personally."
And, if he found anything, even a little suspicious, then….
“You will regret coming out of this place alive. I'll make sure.
The rim of Silas' eyes reddened slightly.