Hunt Prep

"Puah!" The water on her face looked like a heavy droll. "Either that I need to exercise more, or I need to pour more money to increase my stamina…"

"We probably should…"

Looking at their physical prowess, I could see that both of them had invested a couple of thousands for their body, mostly physical enhancement procedures that didn't affect their appearance too much.

Both also had a good reaction. They might haven't noticed it, but I ran a few circles and outbursts of turns just to see if they could keep up with just a small time-frame.

"The two of you looked pitiful, but I applaud the endurance for not dropping the documents."

Nusa and Neijya each plastered on a proud smile, together with their thumbs ups. ""Thank you, sir!""

Now that I started to look into it, their weapon of choice was quite unexpected.

Nusa had a stretchable pike. It could be used as both a short spear and a long stick of doom that could poke the head of someone from five meters away when it retracted.

Neijya might be crafting her own weapon, in which her weapon of choice was literally a modified chainsaw with a spear-like handle. It couldn't be retracted, so all the time, she was holding her weapon with one hand and the document on the other.

No wonder why she almost died.

We then entered the site. There was a huge open field in front of the storage building. While we took our time by walking at average human speed, more people started to come in from the entrance and out of the storage, carrying large boxes and bars of steels.

There were more than thirty people or so. As we arrived at the front of the building, a Headlamp's leader walked to us with a clipboard in his hand. He looked excited.

"Yoo! Faust ma man! Didn't know that you're the one that we're waiting for. Since when did you get recruited? Wait, is a Mediator allowed to be in an organization?"

"Only for a maximum of a week per organization, every year."

"Huh, didn't know that."

"You didn't know it because you're always wasted in the pub."

"Ahahah. Oh right, where's my manner? I'm Taurine from Headlamp 23."

"Headlamp Zero's leader, Faust."

"Nusa of Headlamp Zero, reporting in!"

"Neijya of Headlamp Zero, reporting in!"

"Alright." He filled something upon the file that his clipboard held. "The materials transporting process will take quite a while. It will be done in forty minutes or so. If you want anything, I'm the man that you should come to."

"I appreciate the support."

As we entered the half-empty storage, the air that we breathed felt different in warmth.

With everyone busy and the traffic near the entrance became crowded. We went into a corner of the large building to start with our briefing.

"Alright, the two of you can open the content of the documents now."

As both opened the documents, the expressions that they made were on the border of confusion on what they were going to do, and also a great amount of curiosity for what kind of new things that they would experience.

"These are the files of the people from Yugen Extras?" Neijya stroked the back of her neck. "Woah, there are a lot of them!"

Nusa kept flipping and flipping, until he realized one thing. "Sir Faust, why are the ranks of these people scratched off?"

Maintaining my smile like always, I opened my wounded left eye, allowing them to see the shallow hole of flesh that had replaced the half of my sight.

"I really haven't mentioned anything related to the mission. While Nusa knew what was going on, you Neijya, might be really confused as a flipped out turtle on the beach.

"These are the candidates of our prey. All of them were randomly chosen amongst all ranks within the database of the Streetlight Talon. Even the page that you're currently opening could be the high ranking members within the organization~

"The two of you were chosen to become the devil advocates. A spear of judgment, and the undiscriminating guillotine. When there is no material left within the storage, we will immediately start our hunt with the bow being our fear, and the arrows being our soul.

"You two have around fifty four minutes left until we start. Before your feet are allowed to leave this room, I want your eyes to siphon all words and sight upon the files into your brains.

"Because as you both can see, I'm the only one who knows their ranks. So the people that may or may not face your arse will depend on my judgment. Forgetting the face and the birthday of the prey I chose would result in your death."

Their faces were frozen. All kinds of thoughts were racing in their mind. Fear was not the only thing that could be seen. Shock was not the only thing that could be seen. They were pale, because not only would they be taking the backlash of failing.

They didn't want to stand up against the man who they believe to have taken the heart of the Golden Beard.

"DO ANY OF YOU UNDERSTAND!?"

""YES, SIR!""

"Alright, I'll be preparing the site for the ritual. Both of you shouldn't take my words too literally, it's fine to take it slow and skip a couple of names."

Both of them swallowed their saliva.

For neither of them knew that I wasn't joking at all.

After that, I exited the site, leaving both of their fates to each of their own.

I skipped the alley and went on to my apartment. After arriving, I took the soup canteen that I somehow possessed and immediately departed right after.

With a couple of Solus in my pocket, I went into the Cassandra Tavern and went inside despite the sign on the door showing that they were closed. Apparently, one of the barmaids and the girl from yesterday was already at the pub as they prepared for the day.

"We are closed at the moment, Mr Faust. Is there anything that we can help you with?"

"Is the chef here?"

A blond woman in her forties opened the door.

"I'm the chef, what the hell do you want?"

"I want to feed a pitiful person on the street. He is currently on the brink of starving to the dead. Can I get a beef stew rather early in the morning?" I said that as I showed her the portable pot.

The barmaid and the chef looked at each other before facing me.

"I guess we could, I'll charge you triple the price in return."