Chapter 91 - Bounty Hunting Invitation (2/2)

“…So basically, they’re telling us to ask what’s going on with those Hunters ourselves and decide what to do with them, huh?”

s.h.i.+karabe’s team was aiming to hunt the bounty monster. They were gathering men for that purpose, it was also the main reason why s.h.i.+karabe called Akira.

But it was a little different from Elena and Sara who were invited by Drankam.

Akira was walking in the lower district, his destination was the pub where s.h.i.+karabe was. He was walking through a relatively dangerous area within the slum city.

There were some drunk Hunters knocked unconscious beside the road. The only reason that no one attacked them was because there were people who were monitoring the area so that it would not turn into a lawless zone. Not to mention, trying to attack those Hunters might get themselves killed instead. These people could not complain if they got attacked when they were sleeping beside the road, and the people who attacked them also could not complain if they got killed instead.

Akira ignored everyone who was trying to offer their services, mainly about alcohol or girls, in that place and headed straight to the pub. It was a pleasure district maintained with the money that the Hunters gathered from risking their lives. A particular kind of nuance and splendour was maintained in that area so that those Hunters, who exchanged their blood and sweats for money, would be willing to spend their money in that place. That place became the reason why some Hunters could still face the next day as well as the reason why some Hunters fell from grace.

Akira never came to that area himself normally. Thus, he could not help but look around with a face full of interest.

Alpha was walking next to Akira while evading the people who walked past him. Even if she collided with someone, her image would go through their bodies, so there should be no problem at all. But even so, she still evaded those people while walking beside him.

Akira found that weird and asked her about it.

“Alpha, is there any need for you to evade colliding with people? There should be no problem even if you collide with any of them, right?”

“It’s because of a different reason.”

“Is it because it makes you feel sick when that happens?”

“No, but it’ll make you feel sick. Well, I don’t think it’s a problem though if it doesn’t bother you at all.”

Alpha then walked to one of the Hunters there and fused her body with that Hunter. The moment that happened, her face half-fused with the head of that Hunter and it made her look like a weird looking humanoid creature.

Akira frowned. It was true that it looked disturbing.

“I’m sorry, can you keep evading people like before?”

“Told you.”

Alpha returned beside Akira and smiled happily.

The equipment carried by the Hunters around them varied. Some of them carried huge weapons, those Hunters must have headed straight to the pub after they returned from the wasteland. Some of them even carried relics with them.

Akira himself only brought his augmented suit, AAH a.s.sault rifle and A2D a.s.sault rifle. He left his CWH anti-material rifle and DVTS minigun attached to his vehicle and his ammo-filled rucksack back home.

He thought that he would not be allowed to get into the pub if he carried his usual weapons as if he was going to the wasteland, that was why he left most of his equipment back in his home. But he started to think that he should have brought those weapons with him.

Akira eventually arrived at the pub where s.h.i.+karabe was waiting for him. It was a fairly huge 3-storied pub.

When Akira entered that pub, the master of that pub frowned and told him to leave.

“This is not a place for a young boy like you. You should go back home.”

But Akira calmly gave a flat reply.

“You should say that to the person who told this young boy to come to this place. Someone by the name of s.h.i.+karabe should be here, do you know him?”

“No idea, but you can go ahead and look around… Good grief, who is this fool, who told a young boy like you to come to this place?”

Although he complained, the master of that pub gave his permission for Akira to come into his establishment. Since he did not get kicked out, Akira proceeded to look for s.h.i.+karabe inside that pub.

The pub was fairly big and there were a lot of Hunters present. It would be a huge pain in the neck to look for s.h.i.+karabe among all those Hunters.

“Where exactly is s.h.i.+karabe…? Should I try calling him?”

Akira pulled out his information terminal, but Alpha suddenly said to him.

“It seems that he’s on the second floor. Let’s go.”

Although Akira was a bit interested as to how Alpha did that, he stopped himself from asking any questions about it because he thought that he should get used to it. Even before Akira bought an information-gathering device, Alpha was already able to tell him the exact location of enemies around him even when they hid behind an object. Thus it would be weird to question how she did that now.

Akira had learned a lot of things from Alpha thanks to her cla.s.ses. As he learned more and more about common sense from her, it reminded him more and more that she was an anomaly.

But to be honest, Akira did not really care who or what Alpha really was. The important thing to him was whether she was his ally or not, although she might be only helping him since she was in contract with him.

That was why Akira decided not to ask too much about Alpha. He prioritized on the most important part as he thought that there was no reason to needlessly ask about her techniques. It was so that he would not deplete his luck and that his days with Alpha as his ally would continue.

Akira followed Alpha’s instruction as he headed to the second floor and right to s.h.i.+karabe’s table. Just like she said, s.h.i.+karabe was really on the second floor.

s.h.i.+karabe quickly noticed Akira. He then waved to Akira and called out.

“Come over here.”

s.h.i.+karabe and his friends were sitting around a round table. Akira took the seat on the opposite side where s.h.i.+karabe was sitting. s.h.i.+karabe and his friends were sitting on the big sofa that was originally put there so that customers could sit with the server girls.

s.h.i.+karabe smiled at Akira.

“These two are my friends, Yaman.o.be and Velga. Yaman.o.be, Velga, this is Akira.”

Yaman.o.be looked at Akira with curiosity. While Velga looked at Akira with suspicion.

Akira did not care about them as he looked at s.h.i.+karabe’s eyes and asked him.

“So then, what is it?”

“Well, before that, do you want to order something first? Although this is a pub, they also serve meals other than the snacks for drinking alcohols.”

“No need. I’ll order something if it seems that it’ll be a long talk. Not to mention, I don’t know how much they cost too.”

Akira seemed to be cautious, s.h.i.+karabe smiled and said.

“I see. Let’s get into the main subject then. You heard about the bounty, right? We’re planning to hunt those bounty monsters. If we just want to kill them, we alone should be enough. But to be able to do that faster, with a better winning chance, and to take them all out, even us alone would not be enough. That’s why I’m recruiting for extra helping hands right now, and that’s why I called you here. I can guarantee that you’ll get paid handsomely, so, do you want to come with us?”

Everything that s.h.i.+karabe said up until that point was already guessed by Akira after hearing Elena’s explanation. So he calmly replied.

“That would depend on the terms of the contract. But if that was all, you could have told me when you called me, right?”

After Akira said that, s.h.i.+karabe’s expression turned serious.

“It would be bad if you make a decision without listening to what I have to say from here on. This request is not an official request pa.s.sed through the Hunter Office. It’s simply an offer between two Hunters. I want you to agree about this part first.”

s.h.i.+karabe and his friends waited for Akira’s reply with serious expressions. But Akira was not sure what exactly those words meant. Although he knew that it was a pretty important point, he did not know anything further than that.

Akira then asked back, also with an equally serious expression.

“…If I take that offer, what kind of down-side might I be facing? Tell me as much as you can. I’m sure you know this even without me telling you, but secrets like that are the main source of conflict in the future. And don’t give me that ‘I didn’t tell you because you didn’t ask’ thing. I’m not someone from Drankam, I’m just a Hunter who is used to working alone. That’s why I’m not really familiar with the conventions and other subtle things between Hunters.”

“Very well. Just tell me if anything still bothers you.”

s.h.i.+karabe then explained his offer in detail to Akira.

Requests that did not get pa.s.sed through the Hunter Office were basically informal requests. To be more precise, even if Akira was paid by s.h.i.+karabe to help him fight the bounty monsters, it would not get written in his Hunter track record.

Furthermore, there was no insurance for such requests. For the requests that were pa.s.sed through the Hunter Office, in case if there was a defect in the request or if the reward went unpaid, it would leave a record. Thus it would help force the Hunters to follow through with their contracts. And so without it, the only people who protect the contracts would be the Hunters who signed those contracts. There were cases where Hunters used violence to claim their unpaid rewards and got framed as robbers instead and got themselves killed in the end.

The trustability of such requests was so low that people usually took any of those informal requests as a scam.

Putting aside if the reward was worth that risk or not, Akira was offered a huge amount of money for that request. They would subtract their expenses from the bounty prize before dividing it equally among them. But s.h.i.+karabe and his friend were not included there. Although the final number of people was still subject to change, if Akira and the other 4 Hunters excluding s.h.i.+karabe and his friends were able to defeat a bounty monster, the rest of the prize money would be theirs after subtracting their expenses and s.h.i.+karabe’s share.

As for the payment, s.h.i.+karabe would get the money from the Hunter Office first before distributing it to the other Hunters through bank transfer. Even if they failed taking out the bounty monster, s.h.i.+karabe would still pay 1,000,000 Aurum to Akira. But in this case, Akira would have to pay his ammo expense and the other expenses himself.

Akira thought carefully of s.h.i.+karabe’s offer and asked everything that bothered him.

“There are some points that I want to confirm. First of all, for the expense, how much is acceptable?”

“I have no plans to put any particular limit. That’s why I’ll explain to you things that we won’t accept. First, we won’t include paying back your debt. If you can’t join us because you have a debt to pay, we won’t give you any money to pay for that debt. You’ll have to pay that debt using the money that we pay you. Second, money for new equipment. It’s to avoid Hunters who ask for compensation for buying equipment that is worth the same amount of money as the prize money. Just because the prize money is 500,000,000 Aurum, we won’t give you any money if you buy yourself 500,000,000 Aurum worth of new equipment. After all, that would mean you would basically take away all the reward money from the bounty. But, we will reimburse you for the money that you spent on ammo or rental equipment… It would be a pain in the a.s.s if you guys look for any loopholes. That’s why for my offer, even if we are able to kill a bounty monster, leaving the expense aside, all three of us won’t take even 1 Aurum more. I can guarantee you that.”

“Second question. How many people would be on the team?”

“Including you, it’ll be at least 4 people. Although it still depends on how our negotiation goes with the other Hunters, I think it would go up to somewhere around 15-20 Hunters. We do plan to get as many people as possible, but we won’t go above 30.”

“Alright, is there any guarantee that you would really pay the reward?”

“None.”

s.h.i.+karabe gave a straight answer without any hesitation. Akira’s expression turned grim, it was as if s.h.i.+karabe and Akira were putting pressure on each other with their gazes.

After a short silence, s.h.i.+karabe then added.

“…If I have to be honest, I prefer to pay your reward than to have to fight you over the reward. If I really think that you don’t have enough skill to pose a threat to me, in the scenario that I don’t pay your reward, I wouldn’t bring this offer to you in the first place. After all, it would be useless to bring you with me if you’re really that weak.”

Akira stared at s.h.i.+karabe and thought. If he took that positively, it meant that s.h.i.+karabe recognized his skill. But if he took that negatively, it meant that s.h.i.+karabe would do that if he discovered that Akira was not that powerful. So in the end, depending on his performance, it could swing either way.

“…Lastly, why don’t you pa.s.s it through the Hunter Office? You could have offered me this request through an official contract, right?”

When Akira asked that question, s.h.i.+karabe frowned.

“Are you going to refuse this offer unless I tell you the reason?”

“Yes. After all, I don’t want to get roped into some troublesome conflict without realizing it.”

s.h.i.+karabe turned to Yaman.o.be and Velga. Velga smiled bitterly and said.

“It’s fine to tell him that, right? It’s only a matter of time before it gets out to the public. Well, I can understand if you don’t want to tell him though.”

Yaman.o.be also agreed with Velga.

“It should be fine as long as he’s not going to spread it around. He’s the guy that you picked, so if it’s possible, I don’t want to lose him just because we didn’t tell him about that thing.”

s.h.i.+karabe sighed, he then turned back to Akira.

“Don’t tell anyone, okay? It’s due to a problem in Drankam. So don’t tell anyone outside Drankam about this.”

Akira nodded firmly.

“Alright.”

s.h.i.+karabe judged that Akira was not lying. He then looked so annoyed as he said.

“…Well basically, there is currently a power struggle within Drankam.”

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