Hunting

The sudden appearance of Zi in the room made Mario startled. His golden yellow blonde hair wavy when Zi landed right in front of Mario.

Mario, who was just about to pour wine into the glass to relieve his fatigue, was surprised by the appearance of the spirit in front of him. The windows and doors didn't open, but Zi could get in easily.

"You...." Mario was at a loss for words for a moment. "You always come and go as you like!"

While Mario complained, Zi walked to the sofa. He sat back.

Mario couldn't possibly drink alone when there was someone in front of him. So, he picked up another glass in the pantry. Mario carried two glasses in his right hand and a bottle of wine in his left. He was going to drink by himself and sat in the pantry. Because Zi appeared, he was forced to change his show.

Zi observed Mario pouring wine into two glasses. Mario handed one of the glasses to Zi.

"Why did it suddenly appear?"

"Because I just want to warn you about that dragon from the underworld. You want me to take care of it or..."

"You are urging me?"

The atmosphere between them became more and more intense.

"Isn't it obvious?" Zi raised his wine glass.

Mario gritted his teeth, "Don't we have that bad relationship?" Mario said and then downed his wine.

Zi grinned. He downed the wine, then said, "It won't get any worse than this." He put the glass on the table gently. His emotional control went very well.

Mario doesn't like to be ruled.

"Please remember who has made you able to be in this position. I brought you the figure you will need for the rest of your life. If you don't want it, I'll take it away because its body is precious to me," Zi said.

Mario squinted his eyes. "What kind of creature are you really?"

Zi grinned, "No need to know," Zi said.

"So, how about it? Help from me is ready. Boarding houses, his residence was already filled with materials necessary for the power of his underworld. The question is what about you? Are you ready enough to be with him?"

Mario raised the wine bottle and poured back his own glass. He ignored the glass Zi was using. "Don't underestimate me. I am not my father who has no potential to come into contact with the underworld. I told you, my goal is to defeat D'Kingdom!"

Zi clapped his hands and praised Mario's determination.

"Since we have the same goal, we'd better cooperate well for a long time, okay..." Mario persuaded in the typical bargaining style of a businessman.

Zi nodded his head. "Good. I'm happy with your determination," Zi said, then he got up and leaned over until his face became very close to Mario's, "If you mess around, I'll make you perish to ashes. You don't have to worry about business, because I will take over all of that."

The muscles on Mario's head hardened.

After saying it, Zi disappeared again. Zi didn't create a teleportation wave that could cause chaos in a room as it disappeared.

Mario took a deep breath. He recalled his teenage years, how he could relate to Zi. How Zi is provided assistance so that his family's economic downfall could be saved. From that day on, Mario had to do a lot to satisfy Zi. Otherwise, the creature could turn everything into ashes. Mario hates losing wealth. He prefers that his wealth never runs out like an eternal spring.

Mario's body was hot because he was holding back anger. He threw the wine glass on the floor. The fragments are scattered in different directions. The burgundy color sticks to the floor, like patches of paint on canvas.

Aditya appears at such a time. He froze at the door.

"Sorry, I'll be back later," Aditya said.

"No. Come in," Mario said in a tone that had returned to normal.

"He was from here just now?" Aditya wants to ascertain his conjecture, the reason for Mario's anger.

Mario nodded. "He brags things I don't like. Threatened to take it all. I'm not going to let that happen," Mario said with his jaw hardened.

Mario then turned his head, looking at Aditya. "Had I not been in contact with him, I would never have been here. So, I'd better still maintain a good relationship with him, right?"

Aditya did not comment.

"I wish my family hadn't been weakened long ago. I don't need to have anything to do with that Black Skull Demon, do I?" said Mario, his eyes suddenly becoming wilder. He suddenly moved quickly just to grab Aditya by the collar.

Aditya and Mario stared at each other. "Please, calm down," Aditya said. He held Mario's wrist.

Mario almost vents his anger on Aditya. He then took a deep breath.

"Let's go back tomorrow. I want to see him," Mario said.

Aditya complies with Mario's request. The conversation between them ended with tension easing.

***

While Mario calms down, Victor is chatting with Ken at a bar. They didn't fully enjoy the Siren's singing. They have their own conversation topics.

"How is it? Your stress is gone?" Ken asked and scanned Victor's face.

"Not bad," Victor said, then picked up a peanut and ate it.

"Not bad?" Ken investigated. "Is there anything else bad that bothers you?"

Victor observed Ken for a moment. Because yesterday he had told strange stories, such as Unicorn Creatures, prophecies, and demons, Victor thought there was nothing wrong with telling Ken his dream. Although this was not a normal topic of conversation within the bar, he still did it.

"I had another dream just now, after work I slept and had an accident in my sleep. The dream feels so real!"

"Another nightmare?" Ken almost laughed out loud, but held back.

Victor nodded fiercely. "I woke up sweaty. The whole body was wet with sweat, I thought it was blood! In the dream, the incident feels very real!"

"Okay. What did you see in your dream? Maybe it has some meaning. I mean, back in the day, ancient people made dreams as.... What is it called, inspiration or what is it... Oh, a sign. A sign that you might have bad luck in life or luck."

Victor thought about Ken's words until his head tilted.

"I don't think my dream this time is about getting lucky because I'm dead!" exclaimed Victor and felt uneasy about it.

Ken burst into laughter, until then he stopped when he saw Victor staring at him fiercely.

"I'm sorry," Ken said. "Don't interpret it like that. Some say the meaning of dreams can be the opposite of the events in the dream itself. If your dream is good, you should be aware that maybe you will lose something valuable, while if you have nightmares such as seeing death or yourself die, it is said that you will live a long life. So your dream is a good dream."

Ken gave Victor two thumbs up.

Victor hissed, "I can't believe it!"

Ken asked why with an expression on his face. Victor shuddered as he answered him, "Because.... because..." Victor was also at a loss as to how to explain it.

"Somehow I explained it. I just felt a sensation that didn't seem to be a dream..." Victor stopped talking to think for a while. "Ah, never mind!" Victor ended his story in frustration.

Ken then took the story seriously.

"Has anyone been bothering you lately? In addition to work of course. Maybe it's because it settles and becomes a dream scene that feels very real. Whoever the dream-making entity is, he concocts it from your fear or from something that causes you stress."

Victor couldn't think the same way as Ken.

"I never thought that dreams were precipitated from our stress," Victor said.

"I read it in a book that dreams are something that is formed by the will of the subconscious and you know, the subconscious is home to everything that we are not aware of, such as pent-up fatigue, pent-up anger, pent-up longing, everything that is suppressed eventually forms something called a dream. So, according to the book, if you look at something while sleeping, you're looking at your own subconscious," Ken said convincingly.

"Who wrote the book?" Victor wanted to know if the source was reliable or not.

Ken tried to remember the author's name.

"Hmm, I don't remember the name of the author, but I do remember the name of the scientist mentioned as the source in the book," Ken said.

"Who?"

"Freud. Sigmund Freud," Ken said with a fluent tongue, pronouncing the name of the scientist who was born in 1856 in the Czech Republic. Sigmund Freud is known as the founder of psychoanalysis in the field of psychology.

Victor grinned, unfamiliar with the scientist's name.

"Is there any solution so that I don't have nightmares again tonight?" asked Victor reluctantly.

Ken shook his head small. "I don't know. I've never had nightmares," he said.

"How about searching the internet!?" he added after a while there was no conversation between them. Ken took his mobile phone. Victor prevents him from searching by covering Ken's phone screen with his hands.

"Don't! Don't do it for me. Let me do it myself later," Victor pleaded. He felt embarrassed just when Ken gave advice on finding a solution via the internet.

"Okay," Ken complied. He put his mobile phone back away.

At that time, both of them were unaware that they were being observed by a woman from a somewhat hidden side. Ken and Victor wouldn't be able to see the woman clearly, but she could see them very, very clearly. The woman enjoyed a glass of mocktail and smiled grinningly like a hunter who managed to find a rare animal.