Chapter 92 - , People who kill too much and get broken (1/2)

Drankam was one of the countless Hunter gangs in Kugamayama city. It was also a private military organization that focused on Hunter jobs.

There were many Hunters in Drankam. When it was just a union of a small clique of Hunters, it had no problem at all. But as it grew, factions started to form inside the gang, to the point that it sometimes disturbed the management of the gang.

As Drankam grew into a huge organization, the gang started to take in common people to make sure that the gang’s management could continue smoothly. Although it gave a boost to its growth, it also worsened the faction problem.

Some frictions started to spark between the management and the other people in the gang. As they needed more Hunters to fill the executive positions, inexperienced Hunters started to flow into the gang. Those people who never stepped outside the safe city would give orders to the people who faced the dangers of the wasteland firsthand, they even complained saying that the very people who went out to fight the monsters used too much ammo or medicines, or scolding them for bringing back bad relics or not enough relics to justify the expense. Although that might be the correct way to manage a big organization, it still rubbed the Hunters the wrong way.

Then there was one particular faction that started to rise lately. It was a faction of young Hunters that kept gathering influences. The very people backing up this faction were the people of the upper echelons who decided on the rule of how the gang will be organized, to be more precise, they were the people who made the new rule about prioritizing young Hunters. They were the Hunters with no particular past achievements, it was rare for these Hunters to get to the upper echelons position.

The young Hunter faction had a feud with the veteran Hunter faction inside the gang. s.h.i.+karabe was a part of the veteran Hunter faction, and so he was aiming to get the bounty monster in order to win that war of influence.

After listening to s.h.i.+karabe’s story, Akira more or less understood the reason behind s.h.i.+karabe’s offer. He then asked s.h.i.+karabe about the points that he did not fully understand.

“I understand that there’s infighting inside Drankam. So, how exactly is that related to not pa.s.sing this request through the Hunter Office?”

“It means that I’ll have to go through Drankam’s administration before I can get it to the Hunter Office, if I do that, some information might be leaked to the other faction. So it’s to prevent that from happening. Moreover, it’s better not to get this offer through Drankam so that we can adapt and make better adjustments in case if something happens. For example, if I try to bring along a rather suspicious Hunter with debt, the other faction or the office might cause some trouble. So that’s basically it.”

“That sounds rough.”

Akira sympathized as he mumbled those words. It seemed that joining a big gang brought more trouble than he had thought.

s.h.i.+karabe then asked Akira.

“If you don’t have any more questions and okay with it, it’s about time I hear your answer.”

Akira thought for a few sec.

“I don’t mind taking your offer, but I have a couple of conditions. I always fight alone, so I want you to let me stay like that. I’ll still help you with your strategy, but don’t expect me to work together with another team. And also, I’ll leave if I judge that we don’t have any winning chance. Although I’ll ignore you even if you tell me to stay and fight, I’ll at least let you know when I leave. I don’t want to die after all. If you’re okay with these conditions, then I don’t mind taking your request.”

“Those conditions are rather a lot to ask for, you know.”

“I can say the same to you too. I’ll be an unofficial part of your team, even my name won’t be recorded. I have no plans to be your sacrificial p.a.w.n. So?”

This time, it was s.h.i.+karabe who took some time thinking. After a few seconds, he smiled confidently and said.

“Very well, we have a deal.”

Akira and s.h.i.+karabe made a deal there. Although Akira would act separately, he was added to s.h.i.+akarabe’s bounty hunting team.

Alpha looked a bit surprised by that.

“Akira, are you really okay with that? Weren’t we going to avoid meeting with the bounty monster?”

“I at least got him to agree that I can run in case if I think we have no winning chance… Or is it still too dangerous with my current ability?”

“It’s not like you’re going to fight it alone, so I don’t plan to stop you. It just caught me by surprise that you suddenly got so interested in doing this.”

“Is that so? I think it should be relatively safe though, and since the reward is pretty good, I just thought that it might be okay to take the request. After all, it would be a problem to me if no one won’t take those bounty monsters out anytime soon since I can’t go to the ruin to gather relics.”

Alpha then thought. The reason why Akira decided to take that offer was mostly because of that conversation with Elena. For Alpha, anything that could greatly influence Akira action was bad news.

It was still tolerable for now. But no one knew how it would affect him in the future. Thus, Alpha decided that it would be better to come up with a way to mitigate it.

After that, Akira stayed in the pub to meet the other team members.

He moved to another seat since he would be blocking the next person negotiating with s.h.i.+karabe if he kept sitting on that chair that was across the table from s.h.i.+karabe. There was an order terminal fixed on the table where they were, Akira used that terminal to order some simple meal. He then waited for his meal to come while talking with s.h.i.+karabe about the details of his request.

s.h.i.+karabe had decided on a simple plan to hunt for the bounty monsters. The next day, at 4 in the morning, Akira would meet up with s.h.i.+karabe and the other Hunters outside the city before going to hunt for the bounty monster. As for which monster among the 4 bounty monsters that they were going to hunt, s.h.i.+karabe would gather information both from Drankam and from other routes and decide right before they went out on their hunt.

Although, in the worst-case scenario, someone might hunt the 4 bounty monsters before they could even try. But it was not like they could go right now. s.h.i.+karabe and his friends had a lot of things to prepare first. They were in the middle of making that preparation while gathering more Hunters. It seemed that they even planned to work overnight tonight to finish their preparation.

Not too long after that, a girl wearing a s.e.xy dress came with the meal that Akira ordered. She was surprised to find a young boy like Akira there.

She then placed Akira’s order on the table and asked s.h.i.+karabe.

“This is a pretty young newcomer, not to mention that this is the second floor. s.h.i.+karabe, are you the one who brought him here?”

“Yes. This guy will be busy today and tomorrow, so don’t try to offer anything to him. Tell that to the other girls too.”

That girl made a friendly smile and said.

“Of course we won’t offer anything to a small boy like him. How about your friends?”

“I’m sure the master also told you that we’re going to be busy too, right? He didn’t tell you? Everyone in this table is out of question.”

“What boring men! Why are you even on the second floor?”

“We have a lot of things going on too. When we finish this job, we’ll throw a big party and spend a lot of money here. So wait until then.”

“Don’t forget those words, okay?”

She smiled seductively before leaving that place.

Akira was not sure what they were talking about, so he asked s.h.i.+karabe.

“Is there anything special with the second floor?”

“Well, the third floor of this building is a brothel. So the waitresses on the second floor also offer their service and will go to the third floor. So people who only want to drink would stay on the first floor in this building.”

After hearing s.h.i.+karabe’s explanation, he understood why he was told to leave when he was on the first floor. He looked at s.h.i.+karabe with a blaming gaze.

“…You shouldn’t call a boy to this place, you know.”

s.h.i.+karabe lightly laughed.

“Age doesn’t matter when it comes to being a Hunter. It’s not like I chose this place in order to annoy you, it’s just that it’s better to talk about an unofficial request on the second floor. So just ignore it.”

Akira sighed, he then decided to ignore the fact that he was on the second floor and started eating.

A group of 4 men approached the table where Akira and s.h.i.+karabe were. Yaman.o.be noticed them and waved his hand. They were the people that Yaman.o.be called and the people who accompanied them. Basically, 2 Hunters with debt, their observer, and someone sent by their creditor who would be the one negotiating with s.h.i.+karabe.

The observer and the person from the crediting company took a seat. The Hunters in debt stood behind them. The guy from the crediting company started first.

“Are we late?”

Yaman.o.be, who was dissatisfied, replied.

“Yeah, so you better bring the people that I asked you for making us wait like this.”

“Of course, if it was only random people, we can bring as many as you want. It’s hard to find the people who satisfy your requirements, you know. So like, just forgive us for being late. There are not that many Hunters out there who have enough skill to hunt bounty monsters while not minding taking an unofficial request not from the Hunter Office, you know?”

“Isn’t that why I paid you a lot of money? So if the people that you bring me are useless, I won’t let that slide.”

“I know, I know. Let’s start the negotiation.”

Yaman.o.be started his negotiation with Tomejima. Akira was still eating his meal while listening to them. The guy working as the observer then sat beside Akira. Akira knew him, he was the Hunter who Akira met in Higaraka Residence Ruin, it was Colbert.

“…Yo, been a while.”

Since Colbert talked to him first, it was not like Akira could just ignore him now.

“We meet again huh, Akira.”

“Observer for Hunters with debt, huh? Is it your main job?”

“Nah, just a side job. The company that guy is working for, I owed them the money that I spent to fix my arms which got eaten by the monsters. So it’s either I pay them the money or I have to do this kind of job for them. Since I want to fix my prosthetic arm too, I still need money. So then, why are you here? How about your job to escort Sheryl?”

“Being a Hunter is my main occupation. Sheryl’s escort is not.”

“I see.”

“Yeah.”

Akira and Colbert ended their conversation with that awkward closing. The air between them felt rather tense, but it was all blown away when Akira sighed.

“So that explains why you knew about Guyver’s debt, huh. I really hope you’ll do your job properly as an observer, you know. If you did back then, we wouldn’t have had to get in that trouble.”

Colbert just laughed and said.

“I know, I’m sorry. I never thought Guyver was that stupid.”

“Don’t tell me that Dale too…”

“Nah, he doesn’t have a debt and he’s not an observer for Guyver. He’s completely unrelated to us.”

Observers did a lot of things in the shadows to secretly watch over the debt-ridden Hunters. They even a.s.signed some Hunters to join suspicious arbitrator companies. Then they got a.s.signed on the same team as their target as if it was a pure coincidence.

Their front face was still an arbitrator company with proper permission from the Hunter Office, thus some other Hunters who were not related to that particular credit company also used their service. Dale basically was one of those Hunters. It was by pure coincidence that Dale and Colbert were a.s.signed to the same team.

“I heard Dale sent a long complaint to the arbitrator company, but that was pointless. After all, it’s basically a creditor company pretending to be an arbitrator company in order to keep the Hunters in debt under its watch. Even if Dale caused a ruckus and told people how bad the company is, it’ll have almost no effect at all. It’s a half-dummy company, so it can just shed its old skin and restart again.”

“To think that Dale would get himself in that company, he’s really an unlucky guy.”

After listening to Colbert, Akira mumbled as if it has nothing to do with him. Well, it was about someone else after all.

But their exchange affected someone else who was present. It was one of the guys who were standing behind Tomejima. His name was Kadol, he was brought there to resolve his debt.

Kadol was already annoyed the moment he saw Akira. But he finally could not hold himself back as he suddenly interjected in the middle of the negotiation with a rude voice.

“Hey, is that boy also a team member?”

Tomejima quickly scolded him.

“Don’t interrupt like that! Just shut up and wait there!”

But Kadol ignored him as he said annoyedly.

“…I’m going to risk my life out there, you know?! So I don’t want a small boy like him joining the team and reducing my share of reward!!”

Everyone turned to Akira, who looked completely calm.

Kadol pointed his finger at Colbert and said.

“Moreover, isn’t that boy his acquaintance?!! Are all of you guys planning to cut my share and get them for yourself?!! Don’t f.u.c.k with me!!”

Tomejima suddenly came up with something. He saw a way to make him get the upper hand in that negotiation, thus he scolded Kadol and told him to shut up.

“Just calm down and shut up!! Don’t interrupt the negotiation!!… Colbert, you watch him!”

In order to hold Kadol back, Colbert stood up from his seat and stood next to Kadol. Tomejima then continued.

“…Well, uhh, I can understand him though. So yeah, adding a small boy like him as a member will only reduce our share, you know? Can you do something about that?”

“What exactly do you want me to do? If you’re here to negotiate, I’m sure you have thought of some terms too, right?”