Faithful encounter

After admiring the scene, the weak kid got shouted at by Ezmo. He hurries inside.

After entering through a sliding door the inside of a tower greets you with an empty reception table. The place looks rather clean if you compare it with the wasteland outside. The previous hunter left a trail of trash in this area.

"Hey!"

The boy heard a voice. He saw a young boy around 12 years old. He has blonde hair and a nice-looking face. If you say he's an upper district guy you would never doubt it but He is a slum boy as same as him.

"Hi..."

the weak boy answered with a stiff greeting.

"I'm Hayato. What's your name"

Hayato walks up to the weak boy with a bright smile, not belonging to a slum boy. This guy is the excited kid back at the truck. He's having a good time. Judging from the light in his eyes he seems to like the adventure.

"I...I'm Velo."

"Hello Velo, why don't we team up? It'll be faster and safer, right? I have other friends waiting there. Let's go!"

"um...A"

Overwhelm by the positive energy of Hayato, the weak boy Velo just can't say anything. Hayato point to a group of 2 people comprising 1 boy and 1 girl waving back at Velo with a smile. Velo doesn't know what to do. People don't offer to help someone in the slum.

Hayato's kindness just makes him look a hundred times more suspicious than a robber, but Velo can feel that he's being sincere.

"No! He'll be coming with me!"

"Coal I....."

Another kid buds in as Velo is about to accept the offer. He's the big kid that argues with Hayato earlier. He grabs Velo's shoulder and gives a forceful pull.

Coal smile at Hayato while Velo just smiles bitterly, being uncomfortable.

"Just leave him alone, will you!? He's doesn't like you"

"Well, that's just too bad. We're both in the same gang. He's a part of my team. If he helps you, our gang would be unprofitable, you know?"

"That's not the point here!"

"Start working and stop talking, you damn brats!!!!"

A shout from Ezmo gets the kids to work. Velo got pulled by Coal in a hurry while Hayato looks at him worried. After that, the Coal team separated from the Hayato teams to find some relics. They head to an office area where they can find a pen and some paper.

A group of slum kids doesn't know how valuable relics are despite the hunter leaving them in the ruin. They pick them at random or look for something that has light in it.

While the Coal group is exploring. Velo finds an object that looks like a bracelet he picks it up and is about to throw it in the sack. It latches onto him suddenly. Velo panic as he tries to pull it off but to no effect. He gives up after many tries it'll get removed if he heads back to the city anyway. So he ignores this issue since it doesn't do anything.

After a while, Coal's team seems to gather a sack full of relics from searching the place. They head back to the entrance and saw Hayato's team waiting with Ezmo and his hunter friend.

"Hurry, we're late! We will leave you in the ruin at this rate!"

Ezmo reminds them it's past the time that they have agreed to. If some slum children don't make it, most of the hunters would leave. They can be a little late but It's Ezmo who doesn't want to take the risk.

"Sorry, we're late because Velo over here is slowing us down!"

"Well, you always throw the heavier relic here....."

"What did you say?"

"n-nothing."

"That's what I thought."

As the sun is about to go down, the orange hue basks their truck as the kids bring the relic sacks back to the truck one by one. Bonza thought that this a going smoother than he expect there are only three monster encounters and they easily solved them.

"Man, this job is too easy!"

"Don't jinx it."

Bonza says that while his partner Ezmo checks the surrounding through a scanner. This scanner is cheap. It only detects a moving target and can't identify what type of danger they're dealing with.

Beep!!!

"God damn it, I told you! Now that you jinx it, just clear it for me."

"ugh... fine."

Bonza gets out of the truck and readies his rifle in the scan's direction. Ten seconds later, a creature can be seen running to them at high speed. Bonza looks through a scope with a pale face. He quickly runs back to the truck.

"What? I told you to..."

"IT'S A RUIN TRACKER!! WE HAVE TO RUN!!!!!"

Before Bonza even finishes his sentence, Ezmo has already started the car and got it running. A mere cheap rifle and bullet that they have prepared for this escort can not penetrate A Ruintracker skin.

The truck starts so suddenly, but as if Hayato knows what is about to happen, he quickly pulls his teammate into the truck. The truck leaves two kids behind and one of them is Velo, who got the heaviest sack.

"What!? why are they leaving!?!"

The kid beside Velo shouts with fear in his voice. A second later It answered his question back with sudden death. The creature leaped at him, open its mouth in four directions and swallow him whole. The situation scares Velo shitless. He drops his sack and runs inside the tower.

The creature recovers from its leap and looks at the truck. It's too far away, so hunting the boy would be easier. This is an instinct, not complex thinking. It chases after Velo into the tower.

"Why does it chase meeeee!?"

The creature still answers questions by leaping and opening its mouth to swallow its prey. The blood of the kid is still dripping from its beaklike mouth. Velo suddenly makes a quick turn to avoid its leap. The creature only gets his homeless shirt as its meal and slams into the walls of the building. Even though the creature has enough force to bring down this era armor truck, it still only makes a dent in the walls.

Velo keeps running through the hallways trying to escape this monster. It recovered from that head butt when he looks back. There is a door. He runs there trying to open the door, but it's still shut.

He looked back. The only thing he only saw was a row of teeth flying toward him. It was long, tongue, spinning as if it were about to make him into a smoothie. His life flashes before him. Even if it's not that great, he still wants to live. The time seemed to stop for a second. He was able to duck under it because of it.

The monster slams headfirst into the door and pry it open. Velo pisses his pants, and the fear overwhelms him, but he didn't freeze and bounces through the door.

Inside is a high fall vertically. Velo didn't expect that and his weight push him into the elevator shaft.