Meeting Alexis Dunk

On the way to Dunk’s lounge, in the elevator, Gabriel pestered Niklas with questions about what he and Blue’s-Tiger discussed. Niklas didn’t reveal what was discussed, but he gave answers that more or less satisfied Gabriel’s curiosity. They both arrived on the 6th floor and discovered that there were only two rooms, which were suites, that existed on this floor. They were opulent suites. Except for that wall close to the elevator’s doors, the walls of the two suites that they could see at the moment were glass, reflective float glass walls. They approached Dunk’s door with Gabriel in the lead.

Beep! A scanner detected the duo’s presence.

“Please tell me your name and your reason for visiting,” an automated machine voice said.

“I am Gabriel, and I am—

The automated voice interjected, saying, “Mr. Gabriel, Mr. Dunk has been waiting for your visit.” Instantaneously, the automatic double doors slid open.

Gabriel sighed and made his way past the door. Niklas followed, but the door shut quickly before he could enter. He threw up his arms, expressing his shock and confusion.

“He is with me. We are here to settle the debt I owe Mr. Dunk,” Gabriel said from behind the door.

“What is your name?” The automated voice asked.

“My name is Niklas.”

The double slid open, and Niklas entered the lounge. He and Gabriel entered directly into the living room through the door. The living room exuded luxury; there was an expensive rug strewn on the floor, a number of statues of various wild animals were beautifully positioned in the room, and there was also a television that was more than 80 inches wide and stood on a stand at the end of the living room. There were outstandingly crafted couches of different sizes circled around the television.

The opposite end of the living room was without a wall, so one could directly walk from the entrance door to the swimming pool that was after the living room. A chubby-faced man who looked to be in his middle age observed the visitors as he was relaxing at a corner of the swimming pool. Niklas noticed the middle-aged man. Gabriel wanted to sit on one of the couches to wait for Dunk to come to meet them. Niklas alerted Gabriel to the man who was observing them from the swimming pool. Gabriel tensed up when he locked gazes with the chubby-faced man. The chubby-faced man was Alexis Dunk, the clique boss he offended.

He got close to the swimming pool.

“Mr. Dunk, I’m here to settle my debt.”

“I haven’t received your credit,” Dunk said calmly.

Gabriel apologised and quickly transferred seventy thousand Earth Kredits to Dunk’s account. Dunk didn’t seem to be with any devices, as he was bare-chested and only wearing shorts.

“Received,” Dunk said. “You are still in debt; when do you plan to make it up?”

“I’m here to pay for everything,” Gabriel said, and he glanced at Niklas, who was standing and observing the interaction from the living room.

Dunk stared at Niklas for a few seconds before returning his gaze to Gabriel.

“I hope this is not another scheme of yours. I will not spare you just like last time, and you know what that means to your career.”

“I’m for real. Can’t you feel his aura? It feels like he is a B-rank-powered hunter,” Gabriel said.

Dunk stared hard at Gabriel with a calm face. Gabriel understood that he was asking if he was crazy. This made Gabriel worried. ‘Niklas is surely a B-rank-powered hunter. If I could feel his aura, why couldn’t he? Shit! I hope Niklas didn’t develop an anomaly.’

Gabriel looked back to sense Niklas’ aura. He was met with heartache; Niklas’ aura was gone. Now he understood why Dunk was not convinced that he had come to settle all his debt today. However, he didn’t lose composure before Dunk; his expressions still looked on par with his course. He wanted to go and ask Niklas what happened to his aura, but he was too scared to do that. He feared that if he went and asked and Niklas confirmed that he wasn’t a B-rank-powered hunter or at least a C-rank-powered hunter, Dunk would deal with him and ruin his reputation because it seemed that he had visited Dunk to scam him again. But if he went on with Niklas and it turned out he wasn’t at least a C-ranked-powered hunter, he would still meet the same fate.

“Mr. Dunk, I’m a B-ranked-powered hunter. I fought with the Knife-Edge clique yesterday,” Niklas said before his voice went solemn as he continued, “I happened to witness Pension Gunner’s death.

“You can confirm with the Knife-Edge clique to know whether I am a fraud.”

Niklas had intentionally mentioned Pension Gunner's death. When he arrived at the subway station, he saw digital memorial hoardings for the heroic hunters who had passed away in the disaster that happened yesterday. Pension Gunner had the biggest hoarding, and it was not put on a digital billboard that flashed through other hoardings. With this fact, he summed up that Pension Gunner must be a popular hunter, and so he took the opportunity to mention the deceased hunter.

‘Did this fraudster meet and convince you to help him? Or did you bump into him when you were in search of adventure and then you decided to help him?’ Dunk had formulated these questions to ask Niklas, but he abandoned them. Instead, after a few seconds of silence, he said,

“That won’t be necessary; I have the means to test your strength.

“Follow me. Gabriel, wait here.”

Dunk came out of the pool. Water dripped down on the floor, but he didn’t mind. He was at the end of the pool, opposite the end where Gabriel stood. Niklas quickly walked from the living room and caught up with Dunk. He saw that the glass wall bordering the pool oversaw what was outside. He followed Dunk, and they walked into a balcony, which functioned as a passageway, on the side of the pool. Gabriel couldn’t see them now; a wall blocked his view line. He didn't go to the living room to have a seat; he stood in his spot, tensed about the outcome of the test that Niklas was going for.

Dunk and Niklas walked into a gym room. There were a variety of pieces of equipment in the room. Dunk pointed at a cylindrical tube that had a black, solid platform as its base and roof.

“That is where I will conduct the test.”

‘A truthjack port!’ Niklas exclaimed in his thoughts. He had heard of this machine before and had seen images of it. Back when he heard of it, he knew that it was used to check the strength of boxing athletes to match them to categories correctly.

Dunk ordered his home A.I. to bring the Truthjack port online. The machine came to life with a soft humming sound. Dunk gestured for Niklas to enter the machine. Although he just had one buff decal in his possession, Niklas expected Dunk to tell him to drop all buff decals in his possession. Niklas nodded and entered the machine, and testing began. The machine sent a sudden gust of sonic waves at Niklas. It was sharp and painful, but it didn’t cause him any injuries.

Dunk was observing through a hologram screen that was as tall as him. From the screen, he saw that Niklas was still conscious.

“He has enhanced vitality. Now to obtain his real strength.”

The sudden gust of sonic waves was a precautionary test to know if the tested person had enhanced vitality or was just a regular human being. In a way, it also exposed those who relied on buff decals to enhance themselves; when faced with the pain from the sudden attack by the sonic waves, the tested person would tend to grab on to their buff decal. However, this method was unreliable; most buff decal users could control these impulsive actions. But being a buff decal user wasn't a problem; this only changed the rule of how Gabriel would compensate Dunk. The rule was that the buf decal user must be A-ranked-powered. A-ranked-powered buff decal-dependent users were highly coveted, or they hid themselves very well; hence, it was very stressful to find them. For this reason, Gabriel sought an awakened.

As soon as Dunk finished speaking, sonic waves relentlessly attacked Niklas for more than five minutes. He yelled like a mad man inside the cylindrical machine, but his screams didn’t make it out of the machine. The machine had active sound cancellation inside it.

Niklas staggered out of the machine. The test was over. Dunk had confirmed that Niklas was an A-rank-powered hunter. Niklas felt a warm liquid between his upperlip and nostrils; it was blood. Dunk passed him a towel, and he used it to wipe off the blood.

“It’s quite amazing to see a young person who is A-rank-powered awakened,” Dunk said, his demeanour as calm as ever.

Niklas nodded, not knowing what to say.

“Welcome to my clique. I call it the New Covenant.”

Niklas nodded. He went to the full-body mirror in the room to check if there was any smear of blood on his face.

“When you are done, let’s meet Gabriel and tell him that his debt is settled,” Dunk said.