Chapter 14, A Lost Wallet

Akira just returned from the ruins and went straight to the slum. The rucksack on his back was filled with more relics than usual. People with good eyes could easily discern that Akira was a Hunter who just came back with a lot of relics from the ruins.

The safety of the slum city normally got better closer to the wall and worse closer to the wasteland, especially for the slum area that was bordering the wasteland. The safety in the slum area was really bad.

Hunters who wanted to avoid any troubles would take a detour and enter the lower district without passing through the slum city. After all, there were people who were blinded by their greed for relics and immediately turned violent. Most of them ended up as a new addition to countless dead bodies in a particular area in the slum city. It showed the inhabitants of the slum city the difference between those people who regularly fought against monsters and those who did not.

Akira did not even bat an eyelash and just went straight to the slum city, after all, it was faster for him to go to the Exchange Centre through the slum city. Not to mention that since he grew up in the slum city, he was already used with the public order here. After all, nothing happened so far when he passed through the slum city so many times since he became a Hunter.

But something was not normal today, Alpha suddenly told Akira to keep his guard up.

“Akira, we’re surrounded.”

Akira stopped and confirmed his surroundings. It did not look like he was surrounded. There were more people around him than usual and that was all. But Akira did not question Alpha’s detection ability and kept his guard up.

“…Is it possible for me to win?”

Even if it was true that he was surrounded, there were many possibilities as to why he was surrounded. It might be just a form of greeting or just light intimidation or maybe he just got caught himself when they were aiming for someone else. But then, Akira immediately understood that he was the target, as such, he immediately took a pose by which he could quickly shoot back if he was suddenly attacked.

Alpha remembered the time when Akira decided to kill everyone when he was saving Elena and her friend in the Kuzusuhara City ruins, as such, she asked Akira.

“Are you thinking of fighting them? How far do you want to go this time?”

“If it doesn’t seem like I can win, then I’ll just run and think about the next course of action depending on the enemies.”

They surrounded Akira and intimidated him. But if the intimidation did not work and it was not worth it, they would just withdraw. Akira did not mind if that happened. But if they tried to extort relics from him, Akira had no wish to give them any.

He had become a real Hunter. He was no longer a small boy from the slum who would just throw his money that he had desperately collected so that they would spare him. That was the last thing he would do.

That was why, it depended on his enemies. If he had to choose to kill them all or not, Akira had already decided he would kill them if he had a chance.

Alpha then gave a suggestion. It was true that he did kill those Hunters down to the last man at that time, although they were not even attacking him. But their enemies this time seemed to be willing to talk with him. It was rather strange considering the situation, but it did not affect his winning chance.

“If you want to do that, then I won’t stop you. But if I decide that it’s getting dangerous, then obey my order and run away, okay?”

“Alright. I too don’t want to die after all.”

As Akira was standing still and was watching his surroundings, the encirclement was completed. All the alleys and escape routes around him were blocked by the slum people. Then 3 men came out from among the people surrounding him. Those 3 men looked different from the other people around him. They were wearing armour that was a bit dirty and damaged and they were carrying an anti-monster gun rather than a simple handgun. Basically, they were Hunters who fell from grace.

Akira knew immediately that these men were the leaders of the people who were surrounding him. Then in order to show that he was not scared, Akira shouted at them casually.

“Unfortunately I’m not rich to be able to pay the toll, so just go and hit someone else instead, okay?”

Those men laughed. Among them, a man called Sibea shook his head.

“Stop lying. You’re carrying a lot of relics on your back, aren’t you? I don’t know where you got them but I’m sure I can find more from where you found them, right?”

Akira tensed up and it was visible from his expression. Looking at that, Sibea just laughed as if he expected that would happen.

Sibea aiming for Akira was half coincidence. He was spreading his net since he started gathering information about his next prey.

There were countless gangs in the slum city and many of them were led by fallen Hunters. These were Hunters who did not have the skill and equipment to earn money in the wasteland but enough to use in the narrow space of the slum city and a touch of violence to earn money there. These Hunters would gather minions and form a gang.

Sibea was one of those Hunters. Although he was not one of the big fish here, his gang was pretty powerful and they had a base in the slum city. Akira was caught in the net that they were spreading.

Sibea imagined just how much Akira had in his rucksack and mocked him.

“You’re a boy from the slum too, right? Then we should help each other, right? I have a lot of people under me so we’re having a hard time surviving here, you see.”

Sibea looked around to the people who were surrounding Akira as if to say that they were his minions and threaten Akira that he could not escape.

“Don’t worry. A