The Deal

With his eyes fluttering open, Allen regained his consciousness. He stared at the light green ceiling for a few seconds, admiring the large circular light display that had small flowering vines around it. His head was still spinning from the sudden exhaustion, so he stared at the light for a few more seconds.

"So, you're awake."

The boy immediately sat up and summoned his hammer, pointing it on where the voice came from. He felt the pang in his head, but he ignored the pain and focused his attention on the stranger.

Jake raised placed the tray of tea on the bedside table, taking a few steps back and raising his hands in defense, "I won't harm you."

"Who are you? And why am I here?" Allen asked. He got off the bed and stood, eyes trailing over his body. He was wearing a pair of green pajamas that Jake lent him. With his right hand holding the hammer and pointing it at Jake, his other hand lift the pants, "What happened to my wound?"

"Lower your weapon first," Jake said. "I'm a support-type, so I can't possibly fight you one by one. I just want to ask you some questions."

Hearing this, Allen narrowed his eyes and looked around once more. For all he knew, this stranger could've investigated him. He was skeptical on whether he should trust the pale blonde boy.

"I will answer your questions, but you have to answer mine first," Allen said. "And I'm not dropping this weapon."

"That's fair," Jake said, smiling as he finally made the other boy calm down. "Ask away."

"Who are you, where am I, and how did you find me?" Allen fired the series of questions, making Jake scrunch his face and sigh.

"I'm Jake Summers, son of Natan Summers. He's the owner of Summers Corp–"

"The equipment company," Allen finished for him. "So, you're rich. What do you want from me?"

Jake's eyes widened, he shook his head and continued, "I just saved you because you have a large cut on your leg, a lot of brusies and smaller cuts on other parts of your body, and from the looks of it you had a concussion from an impact."

Allen slolwy lowered the hammer. "So, you just saved me for no reason?"

"You had no ID and no other identification in you. Your Hunter Bar doesn't work when I went to the guards, so I assume you're from another camp?" Jake asked. "We don't have a universal scanner as of yet–"

"Wait, go back," Allen cut him off. "The scanner didn't work on me? A-Am I in a different country right now? I'm from Lancaster, Division E, District 4."

Jake paused for a moment, he tilted his head to the side, and pursed his lips, "This is Lancaster. But we're in Division A, District 1. We're from the same country, but the scanner doesn't work on you."

He took a few steps back while still glaring at Allen. He found himself brandishing his father's sword, tightly holding it in his hands and pointing it at Allen. "Are you from Schneider? You're from the terrorist country, aren't you?"

"I am not," Allen gasped. "I'm from Lancaster, I swear it. But I have a favor to ask of you–"

"No," Jake cut him off. "You already had my favor when I saved your life. You shall do what I say or else I will expose you and your Schneiderian blood."

Allen could only gulp. The calm and relaxed boy he met earlier was now shaking in anger. His eyes looked like they'll pop out from their sockets by how wide they were. Jake continued to glare at Allen until the latter sighed and dropped his hammer.

"Let's do it your way then," Allen sighed. "Do what you must."

Jake grinned and returned the sword on its scabbard. He walked closer to Allen, taking the hammer and placed it in the corner where it was far from Allen's reach but not far enough to recall accidentally.

"I knew you defeat two large Rare grade beasts in the forest," Jake said. "Do me a favor and become my guard. Give me codes so I could exchange them for EXPs. I will pay you money, and I'll give you the right equipment to do so."

Allen stared at Jake, looking for the lies in his eyes. When he couldn't find them, he slowly nodded. "But what else will I do?"

"Nothing," Jake said. "You get me more codes, I exchange then in the Skill Altar for more EXPs, and then I ascend to Paradise. You'll do this with me until I reach Eternity."

"Why?" Allen couldn't help himself but ask. "You could hire a lot of people to do this. With your money, you can hire a hundred people to collect codes for you. Why me?"

"I don't have them wrapped within my fingers," Jake said, his aura suddenly turning murderous. Allen quirked his brow up, seemingly catching another meaning to the words. "Aw, hell no. Not like that. I mean, I don't have something on them like I do with you. You have something that they don't."

Allen shook his head, "That still doesn't sound right."

"Whatever," Jake surrendered. "I can threaten you, but I can't do that with them. Plus my father and brothers will always find out if I hire Hunters. Then they'll counter my offer and make the Hunter spy on me instead."

"And my case with the counter bribery is different because?" Allen narrowed his eyes. "You do realize that they can just do the same to me, right?"

"And I can just expose your vulgar Schneiderian blood," Jake had fake smile. "We're both at the same pit here. And we can only rise if we help each other out."

Allen stared at the other boy in the eyes. "I have no other choice, don't I?"

"Of course you don't," Jake chuckled devilishly. "Plus, I know you're incredibly strong after you somehow beat those two beasts. One corpse was missing, I don't know how you did it and I'm not gonna ask how. You keep your secrets."

"What if I take all your money and equipment and then abandon you?" Allen asked. "Did you think that kind of possibility?"

"I did, actually," Jake pursed his lips and took Allen's right hand. He pointed at a small band aid and grinned. "That's why I placed a tracker inside you. It's a capsule of nano trackers that flow in your bloodstream. Right now, every drop of blood has the very tiny tracker."

"You're sick," Allen grimaced. "You're so sick."

"Doesn't matter," Jake smiled. "I don't care about humans anymore anyway."