Code Collector

"W-What is that?"

"Who are they?"

"Are those A rankers?"

…

Words and whispered voices flooded the entire camp when a group of four arrived. Two of them were dragging a giant beast that looked like a gorilla.

"Silverthorn Gorilla," a man walkes up to them. "This is classified as a high-tier Grand grade beast. How could mere D rankers hunt this? And within a week? Impossible!"

"I really don't want to argue with a brainless grump right now, Bryant," Allen sighed. "This beast was killed yesterday and it's starting to stink."

Bryant's face flushed in red while his eyes widen in shock. "I-In just four days, you hunted this beast? But how?"

"I thought beasts in this world were hard to kill," Allen shrugged. "I guess, the thing was not from the beasts at all. But from– nevermind."

"From what?" A new man asked. This man was tall and had a body like a weightlifter. He wore a tight blue bodysuit while a leather belt was buckled in his waist which contained pouches. What the pouches contain, Allen didn't have any idea.

This man had a helmet on with a vizor that covered his eyes. The helmet was pointed to the back and its color matched the blue that the man wore. He overall looked like a Hunter that would use his head in the battle, literally.

"I didn't say anything," Allen said. "It's up to you how you'd interpret my words–"

Without giving the boy a chance to think, the man grabbed Allen's collar and raised him from the ground. There was an obvious size difference between them, so it was no wonder that the man could raise Allen off of his feet on the ground.

"Say it to my face!" the man growled. "What is the thing?"

"Zayn," a female voice called out, making the man lose his grip and drop Allen. The boy landed with both his feet firlmy on the ground. He looked at what Zayn and Bryant were watching and saw Fantasia herself.

The voices that were whispering at each other got even louder. More people crowded around them as Fantasia showed up. "Oh, it's you. The boy I met on the Portal House."

"Yes, ma'am," Allen grinned. "I was just talking when your friend here interrupted me and lifted me off of the ground. Tsk, tsk. So hot headed."

"I have to vouch an apology for Zayn," Fantasia said, bowing lightly. This made Zayn try to stop her, but the woman raised her hand in his face, causing him to stop. "He is a member of Barandilla in Paradise. As one of the leaders of our group, I could not bear to watch him bully an innocent Hunter. And worse, in the middle of such a huge crowd."

Allen wanted to say a lot more things, but he figured that this would not help him. He needed to stop the scene from escalating even more, so he decided to end for now.

"I am sorry too, Ms. Fantasia," Allen said, following the woman's slight bow to show his own apology. "It was also partially my fault for being reckless with my words."

"Ah," Fantasia smiled. "I guess we're both at fault. Well then, let's just hope that this never happens again."

"I do hope for that," Allen said. "For now, we have to take this corpse to a Hunter mortician. We need parts so we could be more powerful."

"Of course," Fantasia stepped to the side to let the group pass. She was smiling but it was obvious that she wanted to skin Allen alive, and the boy just grinned as he walked by.

"Wow," Gwen whispered. "Her aura is intense. How could her allies stand that?"

"They have the same aura," Allen said. He looked behind him once and smiled when he saw that Fantasia was still looking at him. "Foul and disgusting."

–

"Alright," a man said as he gave the group a large box. "I will incinerate the body. These are all the parts that you could use."

They were in a what's called as Parts House. When a Hunter hunts beast that has edible meat, they go to a slaughterhouse. But when they hunt beasts that has no edible meat, they go to parts house like this one.

The workers in the parts house would remove the parts that the Hunters could use as raw materials, hence the name. The remaining parts were going to be burned and incinerated and turned into fertilizer for experimental planting.

Right now, they have three large bags that containes the useable parts. The gorilla was the size of a bus, so its parts were also gigantic.

"Aww, the plan worked after all," Gary said. "Everyone was staring at us while we went to the parts house. Could you imagine what must be in their minds as they watched a couple of D rankers drag a high grade beast? They did even know that we only dragged it back. Kenneth was actually the one who killed it."

"My mind could only wonder," Gwen laughed lightly. "But I bet we intimated them enough so we could start on with our actual plan. D rankers getting all the glory that the A rankers could never."

"That plan is really awesome in the sense that it's so evil," Gary could only laugh. "I really like it."

"Well, you'll like this even more," Jeremy showed them his phone where a blog was opened. "Someone was talking about us in the camp's blog. They even took a photo of it."

"But a photo? They spent a lot of money just to post in a blog?" Allen asked. 

"Nope," Jeremy said. "It has been discovered that the higher the worlds, the easier it is to build the technology."

"What?" Allen asked. "You mean in Star Nest–"

"They have almost the same everything as earth," Jeremy said. "Atmosphere, air pressure, even the wavelength of light. Everything is almost the same, which is incredible."

"These worlds have more mysteries to them than we think," Allen said. "Now, we should go to Sebastian's room. We have to plan the WDS information feed."

"Okay."

The group headed to Sebastian's room. They have the permission to enter and have the keys to the room, so they were free to enter and exit anytime they wanted.

"You know, if people really talked about us a lot, then we are like celebrities," Gwen said. "That's not too bad. I like the sound of it."

"You're thinking too deep into the fame part," Allen laughed. "You still have to remember that we need to feed WDS tomorrow. This stunt will just disappear tomorrow or the next day. We need to give them more and more rumors."

"What if the Soul Burners could come to us?" Jeremy wondered. "Barandilla could just hire them and then let the people kill us."

"You wouldn't have a problem with that," Bernard's voice came from Sebastian's room. He walked out and yawned stretching his arms in the air. "It's already afternoon. I slept for the entire night."

His half naked body, made Gwen swallow loudly. She was staring at Bernard's glory, earning herself an elbow from Gary. "What? He's so hot."

"But wait, why don't we have to worry about it?" Allen asked. "The Soul Burners don't function like I do which seeks justice. They just get hired and do as they pleases, don't they?"

"Wrong!" Sebastian said rather cheerfully. He also walked out of his room but he was in his pyjamas. "The Soul Burners does things like you too. They implement justice and do the right thing in the shadows. In fact, they have more successful cases than you do."

"Only because there's a lot of them And they're connected with a lot of networks," Bernard said. "I'll go make ourselves coffee. I'm tired."

"Go ahead," Sebastian said while the other man left. "You guys should also not worry. I know people from Soul Burners. They're good folks. They also are in the Snake's side in case a war would break out, they just don't want you to interrupt with their work."

Allen nodded and slowly understood the nature of Soul Burners. They are the ones who serve justice in Paradise, seeing as the justice system in this world was practically nonexistent. He was also glad that they are doing it, he could focus on his other tasks while they do the job for him.

–

Inside a dark abandoned laboratory, a woman was walking around a man that was tied to a chair. "You made me bow for an apology just because of your temperament."

"Madam, I apologize deeply," Zayn pleaded. "I won't do it again, madam. Please, don't do it."

"Of course, you won't do it again," Fantasia said. "Or more like, you can't do it again. Go ahead."

The woman left while two poeple who wore lab gowns entered. Zayn was screaming his pleas, while the two injected something in his arm. "Fantasia! I will kill you!"

"Ah," Fantasia smirked. "I'd like to see you try."