Chapter 9

A gigantic bluish-skinned monster plopped to the ground, causing the earth to tremble with a small tremor.

Thud!

Beside the body was a man in a suit with a dagger in both of his hands while a young man stood on his left, looking at the man dumbfoundedly.

"You're not an ordinary B-Rank Hunter, are you?"

Kaminari just saw him easily annihilate the three hobgoblin warriors with ease.

In fact, Jirochou looked like he wasn't even serious and started to play against them in the middle of the fight.

"So, what's your standing in the Hidden Guard Unit?"

"..."

"Are you the leader or some Vice-Head or something?"

"..."

"Or is every member of the Unit as strong as you?"

"..."

Hearing no answer, Kaminari just gave up and sneakily glance behind Jirochou as he could see two more bodies with the same physique and shape as the monster that just died.

Naturally, the bodies lying behind were the other two hobgoblin warriors with a gash and cuts all over them.

He then stared at Jirochou again who was as calm as the wind and sneered.

'Just a single and lone B-Rank Assassin, huh.... my ass'

Kaminari still recalled how Jirochou made it sound like the hobgoblin warriors were some big problem but look at him.

This man easily defeated them, he even speculate that the two hobgoblin warriors from earlier were now dead.

Seeing Kaminari's expression, Jirochou cleared his throat and felt the need to explain.

"Young master, you misunderstood me. I only said there were three incoming B-rank monsters but I never said I couldn't kill them"

"Uh-huh..."

Kaminari rolled his eyes and didn't bother him anymore as he turned to stare at the group of civilians in the distance, waving his hand at them to imply that it is safe to come out now.

Seeing this, the civilians came out of their hiding place with Wataru leading them at the front.

And amid the group, there was one person who was being isolated within. It was the bald man from earlier with tattoos on his face.

The man was being avoided by others like he was some kind of plague and this made him grit in anger.

'I swear I will pay this humiliation back, Ryuji Clan?'

The bald man then glared at a certain young man's back with a hint of hate and anger in his eyes.

This scene was naturally seen by Kaminari in the corner of his eye.

'I bet he's thinking some third-rate villain quotes right now'

Kaminari only glance at him for a minute before turning back around and stopped caring about him.

And not too long after, they stumble upon a wreckage of a scene and gasped in shock.

"What happened here...?"

Kaminari saw buildings slice in half with bodies littered everywhere, he could even see a few hobgoblin's body parts lying there and that.

It looked as if some kind of battle took place here and devasted the area. Some weak-hearted people from the group puked at the sight while some fainted.

"W-What should we do, young master?"

Wataru arrived beside Kaminari with uncertain eyes.

"Hmm... what do you think we should do?"

"T-That, I think we should look for survivors... is what I think"

Kaminar glanced at Wataru before turning his eyes around to Jirochou, giving him a certain look.

Seeing his look, Jirochou nodded in understanding.

"Don't worry, young master. I can assure you... I'll protect them from any harm"

Kaminari nodded in satisfaction at Jirochou's words and turned to look back again at Wataru.

"You heard him, did you? So what are you standing there for?"

"I-I understand, young master!"

Wataru flinched and nodded as he immediately went back toward the group of civilians.

The group soon decided to split up into teams and looked for any signs of survivors as they wandered around from place to place.

"How about there?"

"Nothing here!"

Unfortunately, after searching for a while, they didn't find anyone or anything and had to give up the search.

The group had to reluctantly advance while avoiding the bloody pieces of human and monster parts everywhere.

It didn't take long before they saw military soldiers in the distance as the group waved and called for them.

"...!!"

The military soldiers heard them and turned in their direction, looking surprised as they immediately headed toward them.

"Sir, we have found survivors, over!"

A soldier turned on his walkie-talkie and reported their findings to their commander.

"Escort them out of there and lead them to the shelter, soldier!"

"Copy that, sir!"

The soldiers took them in and shortly called a few military transport trucks, letting them ride inside at the back.

Vrooom~

The truck's engine roared as they all drove forward, leaving behind smoke and dust on their trail.

And at the back of a truck, Kaminari was leaning on the seat and sighing in relief as he could finally take a rest. On his side however was Jirochou, looking nonchalant like usual.

As for Wataru and the mother and daughter, they were on another truck being treated for their injuries, especially Wataru for his missing left arm.

While Kaminari was waiting, he noticed the unusual expression of the soldiers.

"Hm?"

They looked wary of their surroundings and gripped their guns tightly as if afraid they'll slip off their hands.

The way they behaved made it seem like something terrifying was lurking around which got Kaminari's attention.

'Are they that afraid of monsters?'

Kaminari thought about it and shook his head, denying this assumption. After all, they are soldiers and they should have been trained to fight against monsters.

Why would they be afraid of them?

Unless it's something that these soldiers couldn't fight against with their weapons and skills.

That's when he suddenly recalled the wreckage they saw earlier and couldn't help but wonder whether the thing that cause it was the one the soldiers are wary of in the first place.

It couldn't have been the hobgoblin warriors since they fought like barbarians and the wreckage from earlier showed otherwise.

The buildings and bodies were cut clean like something sharp which the hobgoblin warriors couldn't have done due to their dulled and blunt weapons as far as he knows of.

This made him think, could there be another monster more dangerous than the hobgoblin warrior?

'Now that I think about it, I still don't know what rank the dungeon break is'

Kaminari knew it wasn't the C-Rank goblin dungeon for sure just from seeing the level or rank of monsters that popped up.

"Hmm..."

Kaminari caress his chin, thinking of two possibilities of what level of rank the Dungeon Gate was that broke.

It could be a top-tier B-Rank or a low-tier A-Rank, it's between either of them.

If it was the latter though then the strength of the boss monster would have a minimum of a low-tier A-Rank.

And it couldn't have been an S-Rank because if it was then this city would have been destroyed or obliterated already by now.

Just as he was speculating inside his mind, he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of Jirochou yelling.

"Shit- Young master, brace yourselves!!"

"Huh...?"

Kaminari was surprised by Jirochou's outburst when the truck they were on was abruptly pushed back by an enormous force of wind, flipping it upside down.

Bam!

Kaminari stumble inside and hit his head on the railings of the truck as he felt his vision slowly turn black and lost consciousness

The last thing he saw was Jirochou shouting at him in panic as a blast of wind blew him away.

•••

"Ugh... my head hurts..."

Kaminari woke up and immediately groaned from the stinging pain reverberating nonstop in his head. It must have been when he slammed his head on the rail.

Caressing and massaging his head, the pain slowly eased up and soon disappeared as he let out a breath of relief.

He could finally focus on his surrounding and saw nothing but a blank and white space with a neverending horizon.

"Where am I, anyway?"

Kaminari stood up warily and look around him, still seeing nothing or even a sign of life.

He waited for a few minutes for something to happen before succumbing to boredom and started to walk forward, heading to the horizon with no destination in mind.

After about an hour of walking, he still hasn't found anything and began feeling like something is wrong.

He wracked his brain, thinking of what had happened earlier.

"Hmm..."

But all Kaminari remembers last seeing was Jirochou's face before he was blown away by a blast of wind.

Then he thought about what connections there are with the last thing he saw that relates to his situation right now.

All he knows is that something caused that blast of wind, it could have been the monster that the soldiers feared.

'Was it this monster that brought me here to this place...?'

Kaminari felt that was unlikely the case and shook his head to deny his speculation. After all, if it was really the monster that brought him here then it would have already done something.

"You're right, it wasn't the monster that brought you here"

A sudden male voice abruptly sounded behind him, startling him as he turned around and instinctively launched a kick at the mystery man.

Swish~

The man immediately ducked, missing the kick from hitting his face as he backed away with his hands raised in the air.

"Woah, woah, woah... calm down! You almost hit me, you bastard!"

"Who are you?"

Kaminari narrowed his eyes and got a good look at the mystery man before him.

He had the appearance of a middle-aged man with a messily trimmed beard and moistened hair, wearing a soggy office worker-style suit.

Seeing him, the man looked as if he had just experienced a storm and got drenched all over from the rain.

"I said, who are you?!"

"Calm down, batman"

"Bat... what now?"

Kaminari's anger disappeared immediately and was replaced with the most confused face he had ever made from the man's words.

Seeing this, the man laughed and pointed his finger at him with a mocking smile.

"Hahaha... look at your face!"

"..."

Kaminari's silently popped a vein in his forehead and was about to lunge at him when the man stopped laughing and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Jokes aside, nice to meet you... Kaminari Ryuji"

The man smiled at him with his hand propped up for a handshake.

"..."

Kaminari just glanced at the man's hand before turning back to stare at his expression, trying to read his motive as the atmosphere turned awkward from the silence.

"Cough... how rude of me, I haven't introduced myself"

The man coughed to ease the awkwardness and tidy up his suit as he cleared his throat and stared at Kaminari with a smile.

"My name is Shiro... as for my family name, I don't have one and well, nice to meet ya... again"

The man or Shiro as he called himself, smiled brightly and propped his hand again for a handshake.

"Do you really expect me to shake your hand just like that?"

"Uh... kinda?"

Kaminari gave him a deadpan expression and didn't plan to shake his hand at all.

After all, who knows what kind of scheme or motive he has?

It didn't make the situation better that this man knew his name and even appeared all of a sudden in this neverending space of whiteness.

"Are you the one who kidnapped and put me here?"

"No, and... yes"

"...?"

"It's complicated"

Shiro gave a dried smile and shook his head in helplessness as he put his hand down.

"Explain"

"That... hmm, where should I start?"

Shiro caressed his chin and look up at the sky, seemingly lost in thoughts.

"I guess, we can start from the very beginning..."

Shiro then walked towards Kaminari slowly with a smile which made the young man tense in vigilance.

"You are me"

"Excuse me?"

"Ah! Wait... let me make it easier for you to understand"

Shiro halted his steps in front of him and cleared his throat as a shy expression formed on his face.

"Well... I am kinda your... past life"

"..."

Kaminari was dumbfounded by his words and looked beyond shock at the revelation.

"...What?!"