Chapter 3 - Silver Case

Live as a case hunter is different.

But it's definitely not like what I've expected. All we ever do is just doing some errands for the town folks. Like looking for lost dog, fixing roof, but sometimes albeit rarely we do some scavenging in the city outskirts looking for items that can be used, or helping the town's guard on their guard duty. If I'm not one myself then I probably say that case hunter are just a bunch of handyman for hire or a mercenary. Really, one time I saw this case hunter with a giant Power suit that's equipped with a Gatling gun, but all I've ever saw him use his Gatling gun is to be used as an emergency pulley, or this ninja that used her blade skill to help out the butcher. Though sometimes there's some hunter that comes to the flagger and bring a case to the master, but that's about it, they're usually the hardcore guys the hunter that only live to hunt. But most of the hunter are fine with their small-time jobs.

And besides scouting the ruins is a dangerous job, they leave it to those hardcore guys. And if they know that the hardcore guys found something at a ruins then they immediately jumped at the ruins like vultures.

This is definitely not what I'm expected, but I'm not complaining about it. Rather I'm happy that the job itself is not dangerous, most of the time. I guess that the master is exaggerating Johnny is not that dangerous, he's a pretty nice guy most of the time, I think we're doing fine as a partner. He usually the one that deals with the physical labor while I do the technical stuffs. Well he does have some strange quirks, especially his hero gig, but I think we all have it. Now come to think of it all hunter have this strange quirks, must've been an unwritten requirement for the job.

Three months have passed since we've became partner. I have to say that I've become quite used to this job. All I've ever do is fixing electronics and other stuffs anyway nothing too different than what I've used to do. I guess life is pretty good after all.

NOT!

What the heck I'm doing I need to find my case! I'm getting too comfortable with this job, I almost forget what my main objective is. And Johnny is just amplified that feeling, his laid-back personality almost made me forget about it. Like now, all we do is just sit in one of the tables at flagger eating ice cream. Maybe I should talk to Johnny about it. But what if he stole the case at the last minute when we found it? Or maybe what if there's someone listening to us when we're talking about it. After debating it with my inner self for a few times I decided to talk about it to him.

"Uh, Johnny I've got something that I need to tell you." I told him.

"What is it mi amigo?" Said Johnny as he continued to eat his ice cream happily.

"This is about that thing that I've just lost a few months ago."

"Uhm."

"The one that I spent 3 million credits on."

"Whoa, yeah what about it?"

"Well, it's a case. A Silver Case to be exact."

Johnny just continued to eat his ice cream without a care. Then suddenly looked at me like a second head just grown from my neck.

"You're joking."

"No joke."

"EEEEEEEEHHHH????!!!" screamed Johnny. Almost the whole flagger looked at us flabbergasted wondering what happened.

"Sushh, quiet down." I told him. Johnny clamed himself and take a few deep breaths. Then looked at me seriously. "Why couldn't you tell me from the start? We could've told the master and assembled a team to look for it." Said Johnny in a quite tone.

"I-I don't really trust you yet at that time."

"And you trust me now?" Asked Johnny. His face still has that serious look to it. As if he's doubting our partnership for the past months. "Yes" I told him with a straight face, well I trust him now, most of the times anyway. We continued to stare at each other as if were judging each other. Johnny then returned to his usual cheerful self and continued to eat his ice cream. "Well, that's good enough." I told him what's happened to this point.

"Hmm… so when you bought the item, you immediately went to the space port. But on the way a horde of motorcycle riding bandits raided the area. You panicked, tripped and the bandits picked it up, you then feeling miserable despaired on what to do in that situation, which makes you miss the last ship leaving the planet. And then you meet with the great heroic Johnny." Concluded Johnny.

That sounds stupid when you put it like that. "W-well that's the gist of it." Johnny seems to be happier than before. As evident by his habits. he will always hums some song that I don't know of when he's happy. "Hehe, I wonder how much will we get if we retrieved it?" wondered Johnny.

"We can't sell it." I told him.

"B-but why?! If we sell it our livelihood would be secured for the next 3 months!" complained Johnny.

"I need what's in it."

"What's in it?"

"The seller said that it contained the panacea. If I get that then I would be able to cure my sister." That's the original reason for me, joining the mining company, enduring the harsh working condition. Coming here to Rayleh. All is for her medical treatment. My parents are also working for it but it's not enough. It would never be enough. The disease that plagued her is something new. And the treatment is expansive. Panacea itself is not the pinnacle of the old mega corporation medical research it's still overshadowed by things like immortality granting elixir but it's my best shot right now.

Johnny himself looked slumped and sighed to himself. "Alright I help you out but on one condition." Told Johnny.

"What is it?"

"Well, continue being my partner in case hunting of course." Told Johnny with a grin. Heh, this guy. I would probably escape from this planet whenever I got the chance. But for now, I'm desperate. This Is my only chance. "Alright." I agreed to him.

"Well now we need some more people to help us out."

"I thought we're going to do it by ourselves?"

"Idiot, it's impossible to do it by ourselves. The bandits that you just told me before is Throttle Disco's gang. It'll be a suicide if we go by ourselves."

"But we're not doing it for the money you know. Are there even people that even want to join us?"

"Hmmm…" Johnny then crossed his arm and seems to be thinking about it. While there's a sense of comradeship around the hunters, I think that sense of comradeship will be gone if there's a case involved. I'm sure of it. Many people sought after these cases after all making it a premium item on the market.

As we continued to brainstorm for ideas the door to the flagger immediately opened with a bang. Most of the people inside looked at the door and saw a man panting struggling to breath, as If he was running a marathon across the planet. He's one of the hunters that frequents the flagger.

"HEY I SAW THROTTLE AND HIS GANG WAVING AROUND A CASE IN THE OLD TOWN RUINS!" Screamed the guy. The guy's words feels like a hot knife cutting a butter. In an instant everyone in the bar seemed to be speechless for a moment. Then they immediately grinned and brandished their weapons out of nowhere. Guns of all size, swords, blunt weapons all seemed to appear in their hands.