Geez, I need to rank up to D-rank so I can go into the dimensional rift. Gah! This is going to take a while. Just need to figure out my time rules when it's come to fighting. Maybe I need to reduce the punch speed or like slow down time - just enough to cause significant damage. Ken thought to himself, while looking through the board for H and G ranks missions.
Man, G ranks are only delivery missions. H ranks are a little worse, they deal with just dismantling monster’s parts. Man, the payout is based on the bid. I have like a couple of months of savings for rent, maybe I don’t really need to rent anymore. Can I afford to underbid significantly? Ken went to the library, nearby - to use the computers there to research the appropriate bid.
Ken screamed internally; he couldn't find any information on appropriate bids to utilize. He looked through the different availability for different ranks since his curiosity is up. There should've been dimensional rift at these ranks he could explore for different things to sell on the marketplace - but they have had been monopolized by some of the major guilds. The guilds would then sell monsters to different requesters that would require dismantling services. The guilds don’t dabble in deliveries unless it requires certain level of security involves and that depends on different guild.
Ken looks through all the H and G ranks - and he bids the lowest as he can go universally. He bid on about 100 deliveries closest to him in distance and the amount of travels he needs to do, he bid like 15 dollars. These deliveries he bid on dealt with small items. He also bid about 100 dismantling missions also closest to him in distance, where he bid 40 dollars per 10 small monsters. Thankfully Ken bids are anonymous and is to be trusted as he used the Hunter Corp portal. They will notify the bids result to a holographic projection from his wrist band he had received at the end of his exam.
One way Hunter Corp portal ensure their trusts, would be that if for example, a delivery is failed - the person who bid would be responsible for paying for the 50 percent amount they bid for the mission. Hunter Corporation would be paying the fines and would recoup the cost directly with Ken, in this case. Most would lose their hunter license among other legal issues. His identity, he made it so that it is explicitly private.
Simply put, the lower the bid, the better it is for both mission provider and hunter corps - however the middleman loses out on money and dealing with consequence. In Ken case, Hunter Corp would not be losing a lot of money on him. Hunter Corp takes in roughly flat 5 percent of all revenue.
Ken exited the library to go to nearby market to get some sort of mask to hide his identity when goes to pick up the item. He found a mask that he liked, it was a bear mask - he bought it and stored it for when he does the missions.
He immediately got ping on his wrist - most of his bids were accepts for deliveries, similarly for the dismantling. I am not smart; I should've thought of a way to organized these. Well, no matter, Ken thought to himself,
He slowed down time to a halt. His holographic display was still working, maybe because it is part of his person. Ken will experiment later, but now, he is organizing his thought and plan.
It took a while - he must dismantle approximately 1200 monsters and travel on foot, roughly 3000 miles without optimization of his routes. Jeez, I am a very stupid man he thought.
He went to another market and bought himself a large metal suits he can easily carry, he kept a receipt, for later financial taxation. It cost him 1800 dollars. I hope this is worth it! he internally screamed. He is somewhat regretting his choice not to join the guild.
He needed to finish all the dismantling in a week. He needs to complete the deliveries in a week. He went towards his first delivery by slowing down time. Following instruction, he scanned his wrist band, and managed to get the items he needed to deliver from the pickup box. He delivered the product in the drop off box, which is needed to also scan in for. It was verified. The total time, barring the slowed down state, took ~2 minutes on average. He eventually familiar enough, which items was going to the same destination - he managed to complete all the deliveries under 5 hours. He spent weeks. He took his sweet time while understanding the intricacy of his power.
He is unable to become physically fatigue. He is not able to get hungry. He doesn't need sleep, but he needs it for his mental fatigue. He was able to sleep in the halted time state. He can move object without affecting their states. For example, if a ball was falling, he can move the ball to a different location and have it continued falling like no external influence was acted upon, but this required intentions from Ken. If for whatever reason, he moves an object, but doesn't null it. The force exacted upon it when time resume would be so great, that it would cause catastrophe, therefore he needs to be intentional.
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His method of traversal became very proficient. He was able to float or fly through space, by allowing intentions of gravity to apply when he wanted near the end. He fallen flat on his face one too many times.
He went towards the dismantling sites. He began - he had butchered before. He was provided guideline on the pieces to be set aside.
It was just him at this facility - this facility had the monster he needed to dismantle. Hunter Corp owns many similar dismantling sites. He scanned in while wearing bear mask. He was taken to the location within the facility, where he would be working by a drone. The drone provided a map to where the monsters were for each mission and the place the dismantled pieces of the monster should be placed.
He started butchering one by one per the guideline, his proficiency increased within the slowed time state he was working in. He was able to cut and dismantle a single monster, it took some intuition from Ken, to not cause a major disaster by accident. He was able to cut and dismantle in the halted state, after figuring out that he needed to just cut deliberately with intention of no outward force. Him slicing through the piece of meat was easy like cutting through butter. The states of the monster remained the same, but now they are separated like that how they were to begin with. As soon as he was done, he wrapped it, placed it in a designated location. He did 1200 monsters in less 5 minutes - but for him, more than 700 hours. He took breaks in between.
He was done. the drone verified. He completed all his missions. He didn't feel tired, but he was tired. Just annoyed he did all that.
I shall get my confirmation by tomorrow. I should rank up to at least to G rank. I can take F rank, which is probably more important delivery methods. Ken went back home. He made 6300 dollars.
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"Boss, there's an anomaly with our result on one recently ranked hunter" A person wearing a business suit says to person sitting behind the desk with grey hair.
"What's the anomaly?" He asked back, peaked in curiosity.
"He completed 100 deliveries and 100 dismantling missions in less 6 hours, 5 of which was focused on deliveries."
"Okay - that's beyond the realm of what can do typically. What am I missing?"
"He was given the rank of H, and the system only showed him to have minor healing factor. I researched him a bit, he survived from a near death states, his limbs grew back."
"Minor healing factor, unless you are extremely talented, typically gives you an aptitude of G. It's doesn't have any sort of weighting when giving rank. It's just there to provide prospective."
"Exactly - his intelligent test came 85%, he completed the test 20 minutes. Which is one of the reasons he was even given a rank, instead of not qualifying all together."
"What was his last exam score?"
"0%, he got snagged and thrown by the first monster."
"That's weird, it should've just kept going for a bit."
"Yes sir. The system experienced some anomaly regarding this hunter, and we cannot go against regulations - otherwise we would have to redo the tests for many other hunters."
"Yeah - and we have verified that missions he had accomplished legitimate?"
"Yes sir. The missions were all accomplished legitimately."
"Okay, ensure his privacy is kept locked. This conversation doesn't leave this room. If you want to continue discussing this hunter - we'll do it in a secure place. Also, double check the system, look at the black box - determine if there are any issues and figure out what his actual abilities may be."
“Yes sir” They replied and left the room.
The testing facility is always accurate, we ensure calibration. What happened? The man behind the ebony desk, opened a tablet, looking at the hunter information in more detail.
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Eventually, Ken found himself in his room after finishing off his missions. He was packing up, and ready to move closer to the city.
I don’t need to live here anymore. Ken thought to himself as he paid an early cancellation fee and got out of the apartment. He left his only furniture, a mattress.
Ken headed out, towards the unsavory part of the city. I’ll need to train up, fighting and what’s not, the only place to do it while I rank up, would be “The dark burrow.” Despite the name, it was just one of the boroughs of the kingdom’s main city.
He got pinged just now from the Hunters Corp. Huh, looks like my missions were verified – I have had gotten positive reviews. Funding has been transferred. He opened his banking information and saw roughly 4000 dollars more now, totaling approximately 6000 dollars. The taxes got a big chunk of it. Whatever, I am in a much better position. My rank is also now G rank. I can do F rank missions now too – which is just team delving of the lowest caliber dimensional rift. I’ll probably make more money from just dismantling, but the experience would be not comparable to just doing dungeon once every week. I don’t really have any meaningful expenses now. I should apply for a 24-hour gym, and get coached on fighting techniques, different ones.
He was thinking of a path forward as he was going into the dark burrow. The placed darken – he looked up to see the familiar site of the tall building blocking any sunlight from reaching. Maybe I should make money from winning in these underground fighting while the dimensional rift, or can I still fight within official capacity as a hunter?
He arrived at the gym, “The Greatest Gym.”
He entered – not knowing what to do next besides ranking up.