Xuzhou City

Xuzhou City, East domain.

After the cataclysm, the land on planet Earth is broken into Four zones. The humans named these zones depending on their location. They named the land east of the Atlantic ocean as East domain and west of it as West domain, whereas the polar ice caps became Snow domain and the last but most precarious of all, the Oceanic domain.

"Bartender. Why is the bar so empty today?" a man shouted while walking into a bar.

"Because it is closed for today," said the Bartender, wiping the liquor glasses like a typical bartender in pre-cataclysm movies.

"Closed? Since when did hunter association bars are even closed," said that man, perplexed.

The federation established Hunter association to eliminate mutated animals which are close to the stronghold walls. The Federation military will post missions with rewards in the hunter association bars making them accessible for the freshly awakened and the brave.

"Don't you know that there is a gang war going on between Luciano family and the Conte family" that bartender answered, still wiping the glasses.

"Of course. I heard that one of the Luciano's Capo tried to forcefully take over one of Conte family's businesses. So the Conte family's soldiers went to war with them. The city police already took care of it, right? But how does that affect the hunter association," that man bewildered.

Soldiers also known as "Made Man" are the lowest members of a mafia family but still command respect in the organization. To become made, the soldiers are required to take Omerta, which means a code of silence about criminal activity and a refusal to give evidence to the police among the mafia. In some families, another requirement is that candidates commit murder. Whereas a Capo is a ranking made member of a family who leads a crew of soldiers. A capo is similar to a military captain who commands the soldiers.

The Bartender stopped cleaning a cup and lifted his head and took a glance at the man before him.

"Are you new to this city?" he asked.

"Yes. I am from nearby D level city. I awakened my ability last week and came to Xuzhou city to enroll myself as a hunter" replied that man with a hint of pride behind his words.

"Really? What type is your ability?" that bartender asked curiously.

"Tier-2, attack type" that man said.

Because of the unknown phenomenon, humans are awakened to different abilities. The Federation and the Council created a new form of system to distinguish the abilities. After many observations, they established that abilities to have similar traits.

So they divided the abilities into four typical types depending on their characteristics. They are Attack, Defense, Support and Normal. Where most of the awakened abilities are attack or defense types. Support types are the awakened with abilities that can assist attack or defense type ability users..

The last one is Normal. These are the people whose abilities are useful for daily activities but not for fighting mutated, like cooking and painting. All types are further divided into Tiers, where Tier-1 is the weakest to the Tire-12 the strongest.

The awakened can increase enhance them from the lowest tier to highest by increasing their control on their ability and by consuming potions that are prepared from the materials of mutated animals and plants. At Tier-7 the awakened will break their shackles and enter the superhuman domain, where the abilities will gain a qualitative and quantitative change. So the awakened from Tier-7 are called Supers.

"Attack type, that means you have potential to be a superhuman" said that bartender and made a conversation with that man because he got bored by the looking after an empty bar.

"Anyway, tell me why the bar is affected because of gang wars?" that man realized that he went off topic after chatting with that bartender for half an hour.

"Ah that! As you recently entered this city, you might not hear about this. E and D level cities are close to the beast territories so the Federation military controls most of them. When it comes to mid-level and high-level cities, the underground forces lead the strongholds, like cartels and mafia" that bartender replied.

"But that doesn't clarify my question?" that man interrupted.

"You should talk less and listen more" the bartender said with annoyance but still continued.

"Though we call them the mafia families, their businesses are legal and approved by the federation and most of those businesses are very important for the continuous survival of humans, like potion manufacturing, weapon manufacturing and Materials harvesting from mutated animals and Thirios. So if there are any wars between these families, the hunters associated with those families won't come out because of the fear of getting themselves involved unnecessarily in the fight. So the bars are empty" he completed his explanation.

"Just because they work for their opposition family, they will get attacked?" that man mumbled.

"It has only happened once, but it is better to be safe than sorry with mafia and underground forces," that bartender said. Just then, a group of men entered the bar and sat at a table.

"Master, 10 beers here" one member shouted.

"All right!" that bartender said, and quickly served them their beers.

"You said there will be no one coming today" that man asked immediately once the bartender came back.

"I said most but not all" that bartender replied nonchalantly.

"Anyway, what are police and the Xuzhou city federation office is doing, if the situation is so serious?" that man asked but the bartender didn't reply his question but gave a shrug.

"I heard that the federation office sent some investigators here to assess the situation. Do you know anything about them?" that man asked again.

"Yes, we heard of them. Aren't those guys are here to control the mafia families?" the member in the group that arrived answered loudly.

The bartender shook his head and left the bar counter. An air of tension filled between that man and the group in that bar.

Right at this moment, another person entered the bar and said "You guys should stop coming here. The mafia will take of its own problems. Federation should stop involving again and again, " looking at the man who came first into the bar.

"Emanuel Luciano, nice to meet you Mr. Investigator" said that person who entered the bar just now and apparently that man who chatted with the bartender before is an Investigator, who came to investigate the mafia's influence in Xuzhou city.

"The Luciano family should stop your war with the Contes, otherwise the federation will have to take drastic measures" that investigator said coldly releasing a frightening aura.

"A Tier-5? Looks like the federation is pissed off this time" Emanuel said with a smug face but there is a hint of fear in his eyes. The others in the bar are also shocked to hear this. Tier-5's are the strongest ability users in a C-level city. The person before him can be the governor or the Chief of Xuzhou's federation office with his power.

"Okay, we will stop them but the federation should also stop Contes from attacking us" Emanuel said with a quivering voice. That investigator nodded and walked past Emanuel, leaving the bar.

"Boss, why is a Tier-5 investigating here in our city?" one member in the group said, trembling. The group of people who ordered beers are the soldiers from the Luciano family. They know that the man who came here was an investigator, but they didn't expect him to be a Tier-5 ability user.

"There is something brewing in our city that we don't know about. I am sure that a skirmish between the families won't make the federation to send a strong ability user here. We should get prepared for the upcoming storm" Emanuel Luciano, the Consigliere of the Luciano family, said seriously.

Just then an armored bus entered the Xuzhou city walls but instead of going to the bus station it is stopped near by the city gates and a group of men in suits stood in front of the bus blocking it.

"Hey kiddo, those are my men. They are here to kill you and your men" said that man whose hand they decapitated looking at the boy.

"Our Badami family will always reciprocate the kindness we received" that decapitated man said viciously.

"Even though this kid has two ability users with him, this will be an end to him" said that man in suit who got beaten by the youngsters from D-level city in the bus.