Finding

"Hello, young miss."

"Um... I'm..."

"Sorry, mister! How can I help you today."

"Please inspect these items." Vero places the plastic bag on the counter and takes out a brown bar from the plastic bag. He doesn't plan on selling his old-world cloth kitchen knife. He is sure that it'd get more money, but he thinks that it'd be more beneficial to keep it in the long run.

The receptionist looks at the item that Vero brings and smiles at him.

"From experience, I could tell that these items are in good condition and would fetch a good price on the market, but you have to pass our inspection first. Since you're a hunter that just registered, we can't give you priority in relic inspection. Please come back tomorrow with this queue paper. "

The receptionist girl handed over a piece of paper after her talk. Vero doesn't like how this is operated. He could sense a scam from a mile away.

"Can't you just inspect it now? It's not even that big. "

"Hah.." The girl looks over and sighs. Young hunters always have this kind of behavior where they think that they're on top of the world with one successful hunt. She has encountered a dozen of these hunters in her time working here, but lately, there has been an increase in their numbers.

"Look here, I know that you're excited about earning money, but relic inspection isn't something that can be rushed. We need a team of experts to analyze and value relics. We can't just glance at a relic and tell its value. In one day, there could be up to a thousand relics that they have to go through. If we give you priority, it'd mean that we would have to give all of the low-rank hunters priority, which would loop back to the same problem. "

"...."

"Which means that if you want to get your relic inspection done quickly, you'd have to increase your hunter rank. Do you understand? "

"Yes.."

Surprisingly, this little fella is easy to talk with. Most of the cases would end up with the young hunter yelling at her. They would tell her about how hard they worked to get all of these relics.

"Please come back tomorrow by that time and we will have your relic inspected and valued. Don't worry, we won't swindle you. We always pay the market price for your goods. "

Most of the time, the young hunters only bring in low-tier relics that have little cultural and technological value, so the hunters' guild wouldn't want to waste time inspecting every one of them.

They often push these cases to an apprentice inspector to have them get more experience.

Vero, seeing that he won't get his money anytime soon, leaves the hunter guild. He has something to do now that he has arrived at O'ruma city.

He was searching for his dead friend's corpse.

The A.I. said that it was needed for the resurrection. Even if the chance is low, he would still cling to that possibility. First, he has to search the place where his friend got shot. Walking down the dark alleyways brings back memories of him and Fran playing catch or throwing balls.

In the slums, most kids' entertainment consists of catching rats or inventing stupid games to play. Vero also has that kind of experience. One time, he and Fran thought it would be a great idea to throw a rock at a random slum building window and got in trouble because of it.

He cherishes moments like these when he can be free and not worry about his life. It gives him happiness.

'Wait for me, Fran.'

Vero continues with a small glimmer of hope. First, he checks out the scene of the incident. Usually, when people die in the slum, they are left there for about 2-3 months. If nobody picks up the inner walls, people will do a sweep through and pick the body up.

He was unsure how long he was stuck in Frankie's gang, so he went to check the place out first.

When he arrived at the site of the incident, The moment Fran got shot is still playing in his mind over and over again. Vero thinks about the scenario and what he could do to stop Fran from getting shot. He concluded that at the time, it was inevitable.

Vero searches the area for the possibility of finding his friend, but the area has been swept clean of any bodies. He concludes that the body had been disposed of before he could get a hand on it.

'huh... I must have been stuck in Frankie's gang for more than a month. That's really unfortunate.'

He honors his friend's death by building a little shrine out of rock and stone nearby. He knew this wouldn't last, but it was better than nothing. Vero would honor him with a chocolate flavored nutrient pack, but this time he's not wealthy enough to afford it.

He decided that he would give up on this objective for now and take a rest for today. Since Cherry had given him some pocket money to rent a room, he would use this opportunity to test out the hotel in slum city.

However, someone doesn't want him to rest. Along the way, he has been trailed by someone. They're waiting for the right opportunity to strike, and now is the perfect time for it. The dark alley provides the perfect cover as the sun is about to go down.

Two guys appear out of a corner of a dark alley. From the looks of it, they're just another slum city citizen. It is partially covered in dust and has a smelly body. They approach him and say a classic line that is often used in this neighborhood.

"Handover your money and we'll let you live."

"I don't have..."

"Don't lie to me! I saw you came out of the hunter's guild with a lot of money! "

They must have mistaken the plastic bags that he carries around as money, but in reality, the only things of value are the queue paper and the old world cloth. So they made the right move, following him into a dark alley and robbing him.

Unfortunately, they're facing Vero with only a knife and a pistol. These weapons could kill Vero at the moment, but this wouldn't be as challenging as dodging the ruin tracker. He looks around, assessing the information.

The guy with a pistol is in the back, while the guy with a knife is in the front. This is a classic setup for poorly organized robberies.

In a flash, Vero disappears from the spot and appears right in front of the knife guy. With one seamless motion, Vero slices the knife guy's neck open with the old-world kitchen knife. Next, Vero uses the dead guy's body as a meat shield, blocking a pistol shot from the other guy.

Vero steals the dead man's knife and throws it right in the middle of the pistol guy's head. Through the CQC training, He could handle street thugs without much trouble. In the past, he would have run right when he noticed them.

In a way, this is proof that he has improved.