Code Collector

Donald's hands were ignited with a bright purple flames. The fire traveled down to the bald man's body, seemingly burning him.

"Don't worry," Jack said. "That's only part of the Code. "A dramatic flames of warmth that is used to wake anyone up."

"Oh," Allen calmed himself down. He heard a series of chuckles behind him, but it wasn't offensive type of chuckle. It was more of a playful type, when Jack's men found his actions amusing. "Why did it have to involve that bright flame? For a moment there, I thought you'd burn him alive."

"Allen, my boy, this man is our only way to find out what Chen has been up to," Jack said. "We can't possibly lose him."

"Right," Allen said with a nod as they refocused their attention on Donald.

'New feature <Role Identity> unlocked.'

Allen heard the voice of his interface out of the blue. He looked around to see if his surprise was obvious, and when no one noticed, he read the description of the feature.

<Role Identity>

Effect: When the user focuses on a certain Hunter, they will have a 70% chance of accurately identifying the target's fighting role.

Allen pursed his lips to suppress a smirk that was about to form on his mouth. This effect leaned more on human to human interaction, but it was very useful when he's out getting to know his client more.

Roles play a huge part in a Hunter's personality. Albeit not always, knowing someone's role would decide what type of person a Hunter is. Allen could use this information to filter out clients based on these roles.

Front line roles such as tanks or tanky warriors are like pillars and a big brother figure. They are oftentimes reliable and wants people to depend on them. Damage type warriors and rangers are either jolly and playful.

It can be seen that these people are already capable, but they would always rely on the tanks or the damage takers. Meanwhile supports and mages are often lively acts like mothers of of their group.

The assassins are the most unpredictable. There are times that assassins are good and reliable, but sometimes they can be the traitor in a group. A lot of cases of betrayal would lean to assassins being selfish and has too high goals, touched with their huge ego.

Using this scale, Allen can find the best clients he could through their roles. As much as possible, he will steer himself away from assassins and should focus on the other roles, especially mages and supports.

'Target locked. Role Identity successfully activated.'

Allen almost jumped after hearing the interface so suddenly. In his vision, Donald was wrapped with a red outline and a word was displaying in front of him.

'Support'

From Donald's build, which was rough and huge, anyone would be surprised to see his role. Supports were usually weak and timid, but this man was able to lift another man with the same build as him with ease.

He lifted the bald man like the bald man was nothing. His arms were huge and thick, riddled with muscles and tattoos.

"That's why he could wake the man up," Allen said to himself, but his words didn't escape Jack's ears.

"Exactly," Jack said. "It's always a surprise for a lot of people how Donald has that body and he's a support. He specializes on team buffs, and he can also one hit a Basic grade beast with a low tier with only using his fist."

"That man is a beast," one of Jack's men said. "I'm Simon, by the way. I'm Jack's personal bodyguard. I'm a tank."

"I'm Dante," Allen introduced. "I can see why you say he's a beast. I think it would be a bad idea to mess with him."

"One hundred percent agree," Simon chuckled. "That man is a support with a physical build of a tank and has a physical attack of a warrior. His mood is unpredictable, and he's a man with few words."

"Wow," Allen breathed out. "He's so cool."

"That's a first," Jack snorted. "Most people thinks of Donald as weird, yet I could see sparkles in your eyes. Like a kid seeing a candy shop for the first time."

Allen just shook his head. For them, this was a random act but to him, this was an idea. Donald looked like he has different moods, and he could get some inspiration from him. Since he was literally living a double life, Donald could be an example.

While Allen was thinking to himself, the bald man's eyes slowly fluttered open. Jack raised his hands that made Donald throw the man on the ground as the boss approached him.

"Good work," Jack said, patting Donald's back. "You can now return to your position."

"Yes sir," Donald said with a smile and returned to the crowd.

Jack leaned in closer to the bald man who has his eyes widened. "Hello. What is Chen doing nowadays?"

"W-What…" the bald man stuttered. "I don't know any Chen."

"Aww," Jack cooed, stood and kicked the man hard on the side. This made the man roll on the ground a couple of times, spewing blood as he coughed continuously. "I don't like people lying to me… err, Hans, was it?"

"I really don't know any–"

Before Hans could even continue, he was kicked again, this time in the opposite direction. He was sent flying to the spot where Donald threw him, the man continued coughing out blood.

"Why did you attack Allen in Jeremy's form?" Jack asked. "This is the last time I will tell you to not lie. If I catch you lying to me again, I will punish you with an unending torture."

"Please stop," Hans cried. "I was just walking home back from hunting, meat in my hands as I excitedly entered my apartment building when a man approached me. He said that he has my wife, and the next thing I knew, I was out cold. It felt like I was asleep, and I couldn't wake up. Then when I did wake up, you were here kicking me. Please let me go."

Jack looked at one of his men who gave him a nod. "My skill said that this man is not lying."

"Hmm," Jack hummed. He placed the sole of his foot on the side of the man's head as he placed his finger on his chin.

"Jack, your man said that Hans is not lying," Allen couldn't help but intervene. He couldn't help but stop Jack from torturing the man even more, especially now that he's proven innocent.

"Dear young Dante. Consider this as a lesson," Jack sighed, tapping his foot on Hans' head. "This man lied after all. In the last question, he didn't say that he doesn't know where the whereabouts of Chen is. It's always the little things that you miss that'll give you a problem in the future."

Allen opened his mouth and closed it again after he was a loss for words. He couldn't believe he missed a clue like that. Jack was right, Hans told a lot of things, but he didn't mention anything about Chen.

"See?" Jack smirked. "You're still young. There's still plenty of space for growth, so you just watch me okay? I've been doing this work since before the existence of the Otherworlds, so I know how things work here."

"Okay," Allen whispered. He felt Simon pat his back in comfort, the man was smiling at him. "Thank you."

"Enough with the drama and your little break," Jack said to Hans. "My patience wore thin, so your chance vanished just like that. Time to torture you, heal you, torture you again, until your mind gives up."

"No!" Hans resisted. He sat up and kneeled, even kissing Jack's shoes. "I know where Chen is. I will tell you now. Just please release me, and promise me you'll catch Chen or else he will punish me."

"Of course, he'll punish you. He learned all his methods from me," Jack laughed loudly. "But if you just said it a moment earlier, he wouldn't have the power to hurt you. But since you lost your chance, I'll be the one to do it."

"He's with the police officer!" Hans yelled, making Allen's eyes widen. "Chen took Matthew Gray and copied his appearance with the same Code I used earlier. He plans on taking Jeremy and use him as a bait for John Smith to come out and give Chen the Minister of Defense title."

–

"Hey."

Jeremy felt himself being pulled to the side. It was Sarah, the Floral Fairy. She had her eyes stuck on Matthew, glaring at the man who was carrying the Smiths' driver.

"What is it?" Jeremy asked. "Are you trying to hit on me or something? Because if you are, I'm actually not interested. I have someone else in–"

"You don't have to be such an idiot. Listen to me," Sarah said. "I think something's wrong."

"Really?" Jeremy asked. "Why?"

"Matthew and I know each other," Sarah whispered. "But then since the accident earlier, he hasn't spoken a single word to me."

"What?" Jeremy gasped. "But–"

He suddenly felt his mind get groggy. It wasn't long after that he felt his body fall to the ground with a grinning Chen standing in front of him.

"Gotcha."