Chapter 5 - The Value of One’s Result (1/2)

Standing outside the Exchange Centre, Akira kept staring at the 300 Aurum on his hand. Although he did get a clear explanation about why he got so little compensation, he still couldn’t fully accept it. He then let out a sigh as if he was expelling unwillingness from his heart and put the 300 Aurum, compensation that he got from risking his life going to the ruins, into his chest pocket.

Alpha smiled as if she was trying to cheer him up.

“Don’t worry, you’ll receive the rest later. So just patiently wait for it, okay?”

Akira composed himself and his expression calmed down as he gave Alpha a deep nod.

“…Yeah, you’re right. I shouldn’t let it weigh me down.”

As he somehow was able to force himself to calm down, he used that momentum to start thinking of his next plan.

“Alpha, I’m planning to go to the ruins again tomorrow, is that fine with you?”

“Of course. In that case, you should take a rest for today. I’m sure that you’re pretty tired.”

“Yeah, I really am tired. Let’s just take a rest for the day.”

Akira moved his gaze to the contents in the paper bag that he was carrying. The bag was filled with a knife, medicines, and many other things that he didn’t sell. For the current Akira, those things were really valuable.

“Well, we still have to hide these stuff though. So let’s head to the back alley first.”

As he was heading to the place where he had slept yesterday, Alpha suddenly gave Akira a signal to stop.

“What’s wrong?”

“Akira, be careful.”

At the direction where Alpha was pointing, 3 children appeared from a small branch road. As Akira was alerted by those children, 2 more children appeared behind him. All these children were from the slum just like Akira and their ages were more or less the same as him.

The leader of these children was the boy named Darbe who was standing right in front of Akira. He laughed and started making demands to Akira.

“Take out your money, you do have some with you now, don’t you?”

As expected, after hearing such a demand, Akira’s expression turned stiff. But he decided to try to defuse the situation.

“I have no money with me. You should know that by just looking at me. If you’re going to rob someone, then look for someone who is carrying money.”

At a glance, Akira’s argument did look valid. If these children actually came to him only for s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around and not for money, that should be enough to discourage them at least. But Darbe laughed repulsively and tilted his head as if he was mocking Akira.

“Stop with the lie, I saw it, you know? You just came out from the Exchange Centre, right? You headed to the ruin today and yesterday, but unlike today, you didn’t go to the Exchange Centre yesterday. So you did find something, didn’t you? Which means that you have some money with you right now.”

Darbe and his gang had seen Akira go to ruins and decided to standby around the Exchange Centre. Compared to venturing into the ruin looking for relics themselves, it is way safer to just rob the people who return from the ruin. There are many people who follow this line of thinking. As for these small children, there was no way they could rob an adult Hunter, and so they had no other choice but to rob other children like Akira. This was one of the reasons why the number of child Hunter kept decreasing.

Akira let out a sigh and answered honestly.

“Look, I have no more than 300 Aurum.”

“Hah? Stop s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with me.”

“I’m not s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with you. They didn’t give me anything more than 300 Aurum for all the things that I brought here. I’m not lying, they said that it’s the rule. So you see, I don’t have much money and it’s not worthy of ganking me with 5 people. If you understand now, then just go somewhere else. “

Darbe looked at Akira with suspicion. But he did not look like he was lying. Moreover, he remembered that he had heard from someone before that the first payment for a new hunter is no more than 300 Aurum. And so he clicked his tongue in frustration.

“What the heck, And here I thought that we would get a lot of money for the first time after a while. Stop doing something so misleading like that!”

“My bad, so, can I go now?”

It seemed that the other children had lost their will. But that was not the case for Darbe, he still looked like he would tell the other children to attack Akira. Darbe scanned Akira for anything that looked expensive. But Akira was only wearing a ragged dress that was not worth robbing. Moreover, the paper bag that he was carrying was so dirty that it did not look like it had anything of value. Normally, that would be enough to make him give up, but he was so frustrated since he had promised his friends.

His frustration finally reached its peak, he let his emotion take over his body and pulled out a gun.

“G.o.ddammit!! I don’t care anymore!! Give me your 300 Aurum if you don’t want to die!”

Akira who was already tensed, stiffened even more.

“…You won’t get anything from trying to shoot me, you know? After all, I would definitely fight back. Do you really want to do this for just 300 Aurum? Just stop it.”

“Shut up!! Just handover the money!!”

Fighting to the death against a penniless person would only make them deplete their money on the bullets. Moreover, fighting a cornered opponent might cause them fatal injuries. Darbe understood that, but he was looking for a way to vent his frustration and was pushed by the momentum after he pulled his gun. It’s 5 vs 1 and he already had his gun out first, having such an advantage made Darbe take a rash decision.

Akira’s face got grimmer. It was only 300 Aurum, it was not an amount worthy of risking his own life. While at the same time, it was the money that he had earned after risking his life and it was the very first compensation that he got as a Hunter. So in short, that money was not something that he could easily give up on, thus Akira had to make a difficult decision.

Suddenly, Alpha stood in front of Akira and looked at him with a relaxed smile.

“Akira, answer me quietly. Don’t worry, I can hear you no matter how small your voice is. Do you understand?”

“…Okay”

“If it’s needed, I’ll give you my support, so what are you going to do? Handover the money? Or escape? Or maybe kill them?”

If he just gave away the money that he had gotten after risking his life, it might let him survive longer. But it also meant that he had to give up on his money again next time.

He might as well survive if he ran as far as he could. But it meant that he had to run away again next time.

And lastly, he might survive if he killed them. But there was a chance that he might get himself killed in the process.

Akira made a decision without even hesitating.

“…I’ll kill them.”

Alpha smiled without showing any animosity.

“Roger that. I’ll give you instructions then. First of all, we’ll break through the encirclement. You can pa.s.s through the opening between the 2 children behind you, after all, they’ve lowered their guards and are standing a bit further away from each other then the rest. Turn back, take 2 steps forward, then lean forward as if you got tripped and run through the gap between those 2 children. After that, immediately jump into the small alley on the right side and we’ll start fighting back from there. You get that?”

“…I understand. And when exactly should I turn back?”

“Do it now.”

Akira immediately turned back.

On his first step. the other children stiffened as they were surprised when Akira suddenly turned back.

Then on his second step. the other children extended their hand trying to grab Akira. But their hands reached nothing as Akira leaned forward as if he had tripped. After that, Darbe pulled the trigger, but his bad aim had caused the bullet to pa.s.s above Akira who was leaning forward.

The other children were surprised by the gunshot from Darbe and stood stunned temporarily. Akira used that opening to go to the alley on his right and continued running. When the other children snapped back to reality and hurriedly checked the alley, Akira was long gone.

The boy who had narrowly missed Darbe’s bullet came to him.

“Hey!! That was dangerous, dammit!!”

“Shut up! It’s that boy’s fault for moving so suddenly!! That d.a.m.n boy, I’ll kill him!! Hey!! What are you standing around for? Chase after him!!”

Another child replied back with an annoyed tone.

“Just give it up, there’s nothing we can get from robbing a poor kid like him, right? Moreover, he already got away from us. If you’re really going to aim for him, let’s just wait until he comes back to the Exchange Centre again. After all, I’m sure he’ll have a lot of money by then.”

Darbe clicked his tongue in annoyance at his friends who had lost their motivation and gave up on chasing Akira. They disbanded and started getting on their own different ways. But just after taking a few steps, Darbe, who was unwilling to give up on Akira, looked back to the alley where Akira had vanished.

At the next instance, Darbe’s expression turned grim. Akira suddenly jumped out from the alley while pointing his gun at him. Darbe was able to evade Akira’s bullets since he was coincidentally looking at him. But the other children took the bullet and fell down while crying in agony.

“d.a.m.n you!”

Darbe was about to attack back as he pointed his gun to Akira’s direction. But when he did so, Akira was already gone and there was no one where he aimed. The surprise and confusion that came due to an enemy who appeared out of the blue started to die down. But in exchange, anger started to swell inside him overwriting the fear of death. His hand started trembling while holding his gun that was pointing to nothing.

“How dare he mess with me!!”

His loud voice that showed his anger reverberated around him.

—

Meanwhile, Akira was running on the back alley with a grim expression. Since he had immediately ran back into the alley without confirming whether his shots got any hit, he was able to distance himself from Darbe and his gang.

“Alpha! How was that?!”

“3 of them got hit, 2 of them rendered unable to fight. All of them are still alive.”

“I see, that was better than I had expected.”

Akira was not someone who was skilled in using a gun. Normally, it would be impossible for him to just jump out of an alley and hit 3 shots. An amateur would normally jump out of the alley and take his time aiming before pulling the trigger, then he would stand there to confirm whether his shots got any hit. But if Akira did that, he would definitely get shot back.

Who made it possible was Alpha. Alpha went out from the alley before Akira and stood in an efficient shooting position while pointing at Darbe and his gang. Akira just followed Alpha’s movement. He jumped out of the alley to the position that Alpha showed and pointed his gun to the directions that he already knew beforehand by looking at Alpha, then he shot a predetermined number of bullets in those directions as fast as possible before running back to the alley. It was only because Akira followed Alpha’s instructions precisely that he was able to successfully execute the surprise attack.

But it was not like his enemy had been defeated. The battle still continued.

“We’re moving to the next position. This way!”

“Alright.”

Akira kept running in the back alley as he was following Alpha.

Darbe was watching his surroundings with his gun ready as he peeked into the alley where Akira disappeared. He didn’t see Akira there, but he thought that Akira might be lurking somewhere nearby. So, he brought his friend, who fortunately didn’t get shot, and cautiously walked deeper into the alley.

One of the children shouted at Darbe with an uneasy look as Darbe was moving deeper into the alley.

“H-hey!! What are we going to do with them?! Are we just going to abandon them?!”

Darbe answered with a stern expression as if he was scolding back.

“We’ll kill that boy first!! Otherwise, we won’t even be able to move those guys to a safer place, you know?!! What would you do if he starts shooting at us while we’re carrying them to the clinic?!!”