7 Using a Hint

Chapter: 7

"Using a Hint"

"Excuse me?" Zen took a step back. Flabbergasted at what he just heard, "What are you talking about?"

The man gazed with piercing eyes causing Zen to feel a shock through his spine. There was no reason to be afraid of this gentleman but Zen was alert. "Who in their right mind would wear that in the middle of summer?" He thought.

"You should leave," the man repeated, his gaze kept still.

Zen decided to follow his instruction, not because he was afraid, but because he had already gotten what he came here for. As soon as he walked out of the store he realized that he had never seen this dude before. Since Zen was great at recognizing people's faces, he knew the man was a foreigner.

"Creepy," He thought.

Zen returned to his workplace, entering to find the television was on. It was playing the news so he decided to watch it while enjoying his ham sandwich. Subsequently, Zen sat on one of the restaurant's chairs before unwrapping the paper bag.

"Breaking news, three students of Horizon were found dead in the state park last night," The reporter stated, "There were bullet wounds in each of their heads indicating this was indeed a..."

Zen's brain ignored what the reporter had to say next. He took a deep breath and changed the channel despite Joel currently watching/listening to it. Zen scratched his head in a bit of frustration, "Damn it, I should've just taken their souls."

Joel, who was mopping the floors, looked at Zen with concerned eyes, "Seems like the killings just getting bigger, eh?" Joel said, "Never a day when the news is not showing another corpse."

"I don't really care about the killing," Zen replied, fidgeting his fingers around.

"You don't? Here I thought you were concerned about a bunch of kids' death."

"Have you ever heard of a red-headed girl who runs a mafia organization?" Zen changed the topic as he stared at the ceiling. His mind wanders to the scene where his body was being dumped in the dustbin. "Think of it this way, why a dustbin? Wouldn't that just make my body easier to find?" He thought.

Meanwhile, Joel stopped before glancing at Zen, "Where'd that come from?"

"Nowhere, just saw a hot chick in a magazine." For a moment, Zen induced a little chuckle in Joel, "Aye man, what's so funny?"

"Nothing, I actually never heard you talk about a girl before let alone a matriarch."

Zen put up a smile, "Yeah, you can say she changed my point of view completely."

"Is she really that hot?"

"Fucking hot."

Subsequently, the two burst into laughter, covering their stomachs. Even a mediocre conversation could get them to ball their eyes out. This leads to the room being filled with color now that their moods are lifted.

"So anyway, why does your bike look like it's been to hell?" Joel said as he stored the mop in the bathroom, "Never seen it so contorted before."

"A car crash."

"you're obviously lying."

Zen stood up from his seat and walked to the counter, "Alright, I got into a fight with an attribute. My bike was close by and it took 'collateral' damage"

"We both know you can't win against any attributes out there, man." Joel smiled. He then went into the kitchen before coming out with two cups of coffee, handing one to Zen, "Ain't gonna pry no longer. Here, Finish up and let's get back to work."

***

The days went by, It was a slightly better-than-average day in terms of how much the restaurant was selling. The people who come and go, usually order the same thing without thinking so Zen was able to coerce them into buying more stuff.

When the restaurant was closing for the day and two guys are left cleaning the place, Zen noticed the opportunity to use the hint and confronted Walter about Joel's situation. As a result, when Walter was packing up to leave Zen walked up to him and asked, "Yo Walter my man, how's it going?"

"Good, just getting ready to leave, what's up?"

"I- ugh, wanted to have a little chat with you." Zen gulped his saliva, "You see, there's this girl that always walks by my apartment. Do you know a thing or two about how I should approach her?"

To be clear, Zen had a neighbor who was a girl and she would always walk by his apartment. As for being interested in approaching her, that is a lie. Nevertheless, he did want to approach her when he was younger. "Wow, I'm such a loser," He thought.

*ding!*

〚※〛 〚※〛

[Hint used!]

[Hint: Klutz Walter is giving bad relationship advice to Jimmy Joel.]

〚※〛 〚※〛

For a moment, Zen could see Walter glancing in another direction as if looking for someone. Walter then sneaked up close and personal before speaking, "I actually do know some why do you ask?"

In this action, Walter looked like a friendly idiot and not really out to harm anyone. Clearly, Zen didn't want to know what this so-called 'advice' was, but he still honored whatever Walter was going to say. "You're the only guy here right now, who else should I ask?" Zen said.

"Maybe Joel," Walter gave a smile and continue, "One piece of advice, approach her when she notices you. Like when she's giving you glances and stuff."

"That's it?"

"Yeah," Walter raised one of his eyebrows, "It's actually the one I know that wor- I mean, would make approaching a girl less... creepy."

Zen put up a thumb sign, "Alright bro, I'll do it."

"Good luck."

*ding!*

〚※〛 〚※〛

[Hint fail!]

[You ended the conversation too early!]

[You've lost a hint for this soul and won't be able to get it again.]

〚※〛 〚※〛

Zen crunched his neck back. He skimmed through this new textbox and was confused as to what kind of failure it was talking about, "The fuck?" Following this, Zen now learned that there was a small risk to using hints.

In the following, Zen dragged his bike to Johns. There were many mechanics out there but John has been entrusted to repair Zen's bike when things go wrong. John has the ability to bend any type of alloy so he is perfect for the job.

"John, I need this thing fixed," Zen said.

John was actually about to close the shop for tonight but after seeing Zen, he kept the doors open, "Man, what happened?" He said

"Some dumbass got into a fight," Zen said, lifting his bike inside the workshop, "My bike apparently got in the way."

"That sucks but I ain't taking pity for compensation," John showed his palms.

"Right right," Zen took a bunch of coins and laid them on there. The coin wasn't made from your typical copper, silver, or gold; It looked like a casino chip with a golden border.

After paying the repair fee, Zen decided to return familial for the day. On the way home, he overheard a few patrollers, who are basically policemen, talking about an incident. They were anxious shown by how they talked.

Zen eavesdropped on the conversation as his ability asked him to.

"You think he's one of em?" said one of the patrollers.

"Don't think so, ain't he got red eyes?" replied another, "This one is just another victim."

"Yeah, I forgot about that."

"What the hell man-" There was a slight pause in between their conversation. Then, one of them started whispering, "I think there's a citiz' standing behind that corner."

"Should we check it out?"

Zen's heart rate fastened, "I need to end the eavesdrop now!"