“So, if you kill monsters, you’re a monster hunter; if you hunt people, you’re a bounty hunter; and if you work on cases, you’re a private detective?”

“Yes, the common denominator is that they’re all hired on a case-by-case basis.”

That was possible only because this was a big city. Some hunters were not ordinary bounty hunters, but closer to assassins for hire instead. But of course, such things were considered taboo, and they were ostracized within the hunters’ community.

In the Nest, unless reward was on the table, people were not to be hunted.

“The three types of hunters are different from each other because the nature of their work is different. Make sure you know that.”

Even those grouped together in the same category were vastly different. Hunters in the wilderness were different from hunters in the big cities in that same way.

“But if there are monster hunters, does that mean there are monsters here, too?” Leona asked as if she couldn’t understand how there could be monsters in a city where so many people lived.

“Of course. There are monsters in places like alleyways or underneath the rubble of abandoned buildings, where people don’t look. Nobody is going to just take care of them.”

More than anything, eradicating hidden monsters that humans couldn’t find or reach was nearly impossible, so there was always plenty of work in the big city for monster hunters.

While reading the numerous flyers waiting for a response, Leona could imagine a little bit about the lives of the hunters. She read each flyer she could see from far away:

[44-B Area Underground Monster Sweep]

Monster Type: Undetermined

Total Payment Amount: 100 chips

Client: Harold at 44-C 23.

Predictive Risk Level: Low

[Wanted]

Name: The Hoakside Brothers

Name: Murder and Robbery

Bonus: 170 chips per head

Last Seen: 23-C 554, Underground Club (7/22)

Client: Small Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Particulars: Alive or dead unconfirmed

[The Docchiad Family Murder Case]

Client: 36-G 1 Eric Docchiad

Requirement: Victim specific and/or execution

Payment: 500 chips

The flyers for bounty hunting included sketches along with the essential information. No details were given on the job posts for detectives, and although the fees were high, actually solving the cases seemed difficult.

The hunters were standing in front of the flyers, scanning jobs that all seemed challenging in some way and asking the bartender about the jobs.

The bartender was no ordinary bartender. He knew pretty much every job and advised the hunters on how to proceed on the requests.

In fact, he served as the manager of the inn as well as the clients’ broker and adviser.

After the meal, the team went up to the room. The neatly organized room was clean, and the laundered sheets were also clean. It was time for everyone to relax, but Zin had something to do.

“What are you going to do here?”

“It’s simple.” Zin’s business in the city wasn’t anything grand. “Many chips gather in big cities.”

Except for the two other big cities, no other city had as many chips as here.

“We have to fight the most dangerous monster in BH. To do that, my Darkborn powers need to be restored to a certain extent, if not to completely full.”

But the reason for his visit hadn’t been to get rid of a great monster.

“We have to make money.”

The energy of the Darkborn had to be restored to a minimum of 5 percent. The reason why he had come here was none other than to acquire the energy needed in preparation for the fight at BH.

The sooner the chips were collected, the sooner they could leave. As such, Zin had not decided to go to BH with a light heart.

“How much do we need?”

“A minimum of two hundred thousand.”

“Whaaaat?!” exclaimed Leona in disbelief.

Collecting that much would restore nearly 5 percent of his Darkborn energy, and they would need that much in order to confront the ruler of BH.

“I’m going to make this Golden Dragon Nest my base as I work for a while.”

Big cities were flooded with requests, and everyday, new jobs were arriving and being updated with things that hunters could not solve by themselves. That meant that the city was overflowing with clients.

“That seems physically impossible.”

In order to collect two hundred thousand chips, he would need to solve two thousand cases that paid a hundred chips. Even if he solved a case per day, it would take two thousand days. Ramphil was astounded by how much time was going to be wasted in the city.

“I have an idea for that. It won’t take that long. And it’s not going to be just me.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Leona, and Zin looked at Ramphil.

“Why waste time being idle? You should take a job, too.”

“… What?!”

Naturally, Ramphil scowled at the sudden suggestion.

“Being a hunter doesn’t require a license or anything.”

In fact, anyone who could solve cases could be a hunter. Just like anyone, not just professionals trained at the Academy, could post jobs, anyone could take jobs as well.

“Starting today, you be a hunter.”

It wasn’t possible for Leona to engage in real combat, but Ramphil already had the skills to do the work of the hunters.

—————–

Ramphil could withdraw funds as an executive officer, but as Zin mentioned earlier, going to the Fortress right now would be like asking them to capture him. That was why funding had to come just from solving cases.

There were a myriad of ways to make money in big cities, but the options were limited for the weapon lovers.

Monster hunting didn’t pay well, but the cases could be solved immediately. Detective work or bounty hunting took relatively longer to solve, and the payoff was weak when the time invested was factored in.

They tried to get some training for Leona at the Academy with other aspiring hunters, but she refused it without a second thought.

“Why? You could learn so much from the teachers here.”

“I think it would be better to see you in action than to get lessons from the teachers.”

“Ha… Well, that’s not entirely wrong.”

Staying at the Academy when Zin was about to engage in real battle?! Leona knew better than anyone what would be more helpful to her. Eventually, they decided that she would practice shooting with real bullets at the Academy and, if not dangerous, she would follow Zin.

Ramphil and Zin agreed to take separate jobs, since they didn’t need to travel together. It wasn’t the Nest’s concern who took a job, but the bartender was quite sharp.

“You don’t look like a hunter. Well, but since the Dean put a word in, I’m sure you’ll do well.”

He concluded at a glance that Ramphil was probably someone good at handling weapons, but that he was not a hunter. Each took a flyer and headed to the subway station.

In other places, there weren’t even functioning carts, but there, they had huge vehicles that ran on gas.

Leona didn’t know how many more days she’d be there, but she suddenly felt like she would not get used to things until the day she left.

“Wait a minute.”

Now that it was time to separate, Ramphil suddenly called out to Zin.

“What?”

“You gotta at least tell me how to do this.”

In front of the ticket booth, Ramphil looked as if he was faced with the biggest crisis of his life.

——————–

There were monsters in big cities. Actually, there were more monsters lurking in the dark than out in the fields and the wilderness.

Every night, just as many people were killed by monsters as those killed by gang members, murderers and robbers.

In the field, there were only open spaces, but in the city, visibility was quite limited, and there were plenty of places to take cover and hide.

What was food for humans was often food for monsters, and monsters also ate humans, so big cities were literally food heavens.

Humans were killed by humans. However, humans in big cities didn’t eat people. But the discarded corpses were eaten by mice and filled by maggots.

Naturally, some were attracted to those corpses.

The corpse hunters would eat the corpses of those killed by robbers, maneaters would eat what was left behind by the corpse hunters, and spirits would attach themselves to the maneaters. Thanks to the chain of events carried out by these monsters, the big cities had the largest number of humans in the world, and it was also the place for the most amount of monsters.

In the end, the monsters that gathered here even built an underground ecosystem. If there was an ecosystem based on capital and chips above ground, there was an ecosystem controlled by the logic of power below.

“It’s called the Hive.”

“The Hive?”

“Yes, it’s like an urban legend that floats around in big cities. You know, to scare the kids.”

“To scare the kids?”

“Yes, they try to scare the children by saying, ‘If you don’t listen to me, the monsters from the Hive are going to get you.'”

Leona looked as if she couldn’t understand why anyone would be scared of that. Of course, it was more likely that she was the weird one, and not that the kids were fools. Most children didn’t become happy just by the thought of shooting real bullets.

“Not just the children. Many adults get scared, as well.”

“How?”

Everyone knew about the Hive, but no one believed it was true.

“You know, some believe in doomsday scenarios like, ‘The day the monsters come out of the Hive is the day the city gets destroyed.'”

“What is a doomsday scenario?”

“… There were things like that.”

Suddenly, Zin felt funny about what he’d said. Talking about doomsday scenarios in a world where the Apocalypse had already taken place was some nasty, dark comedy.

The two arrived at their destination by subway and headed to the appropriate address.

“Some people believe that the Hive is just a rumor.”

“If there was a group of monsters like that, there would be no one left on Earth,” was people’s logic.

Leona tapped Zin with her elbow as if she had thought of something funny.

“So, anyway, is there such a place called Hive?”

“Yes, if the Dean is right.”

The hunter at the Golden Dragon Nest had lost his arm and his eye while hunting the king of the Hive. It seemed like a lot, but it was only that much.

If his injuries were that severe, all those who were with him should have turned into guests who would never return.

“So, if I can control monsters properly, I use all my power right here to bring it all down?”

Zin stared at Leona with a confused look.

“Yes, you’d need to do that without making a single mistake.”

Because he sounded serious, Leona, who was initially playing, turned a little pale.

“Why, why do you have such a serious look? I wasn’t going to do it for real. I was… just wondering…”

The monsters hiding underground did not come up voluntarily. However, there was one witch who could control the will of the monsters and bring them to surface. This vast expanse of land would be destroyed in a single day.

There were many different reasons why devils were called devils, but witches also had interesting powers. And sometimes they were more dangerous than devils.

“Don’t say things like that.” Zin walked away without looking at Leona.

“…”

“Words have power, and sometimes what you say can make things happen when you don’t want to.”

“OK…”

Words had power, just like incantations did in real life.