Chapter 1: A World of Fools (Prologue Included)

Prologue:

“Dear hunter, someone is walking from the horizon of the wilderness. I have no idea if he’s a Reaver, a wanderer, a hunter, a bum, or a devil. What do I do in this situation?”

The hunter replies,

“Just shoot first.”

After a brief pause, he explains,

“Attack is the best defense.”

—

Chapter 1: A World of Fools

“Can’t give it to yah.”

“I know that times have become weird, but you must have lost your intellect. In this case, the only reason you’re not giving it to me is because you don’t want to. It’s not because you can’t.”

“I had a lot of chips when I came to you with my request, but I’ve used them all up since then. We wouldn’t be in this situation if you’d been faster at fulfilling the request!”

The man’s attitude had completely changed from their previous meeting as he gazed indifferently at the pile of monster ears Zin had brought. Not even four days ago, he’d been begging Zin to the point of kissing his ass, but now, after Zin had taken care of the troublesome group of beasts, he was acting as if nothing had happened, unwilling to pay up.

“If I recall, a pay cut based on time of completion wasn’t part of the deal.”

“Well, that depends. Anyway, I have no more chips. Can’t give to you what I don’t have.”

“Hmm… this might be some rural area, in a town somewhere in the boonies, but you do realize that not paying a hunter for his work isn’t exactly the smartest thing to do.”

The man laughed off his warning.

“Heh, you might be a devil hunter and not a regular one, but I can’t give you what’s no longer there. And if you’ve been hunting down beasts, you’ve probably got enough chips as rewards, so why don’t you just quietly let this go?”

Suddenly, the man stared at Zin with a different look on his face. It wasn’t the look of a person who couldn’t pay because he was out of money.

“That is, if you wanna get back safe with whatever chips you got.”

“I think you’re misunderstanding something here.”

Zin didn’t even flinch at the man’s threat.

“The amount of chips that you owe me is not the point.”

Zin continued to speak as his face hardened.

“It’s the fact that someone won’t pay a hunter his due—that’s the point.”

Someone who didn’t want to pay. Someone who needed to get paid. This never-ending feud had been ongoing since the Apocalypse.

The town leader, who possessed more than twenty guns was trying to avoid paying Zin at all costs.

And therefore, he played his last card. Reaching under the table, he slowly pulled out an object. Zin watched with amusement.

He cocked it.

CLICK!

“You realize what this is?”

“A ‘gun’.”

The man looked leisurely at Zin as if he’d gained the upper hand—Zin stayed still.

“Walk away, won’t you…? Heh.”

The man smirked before he could murmur, ‘before I shoot’.

But Zin gave a big sigh; there was no need for him to pay attention to the man’s gun.

“Dork…”

Zin grimaced. Instead of getting angry, he looked even more dumbfounded and annoyed.

“Do you even know what a gun is?”

“Of course. This thing can take care of anybody in one shot. Hunters are no exception.”

“Look… first of all, you’re holding it wrong.”

The man was holding the gun on the slide instead of the grip. A person would only end up smacking someone with the grip if they held it in such a manner.

“Plus, your fancy gun doesn’t even have a trigger.”

The gun only had a trigger guard. The man didn’t even know how to use a gun.

“And there’s no magazine.”

The semi-automatic didn’t have a magazine attached. Zin felt annoyed that he had to explain all of this, and that the man was threatening him. However, the man still looked confident.

“You think you’re all that, Mr. Hunter, but do you know how many people have died because of this gun?”

It was as if the man believed that he could have his way by using a gun without a magazine. He probably rose up as the town’s leader with this gun.

Zin started explaining some obvious facts.

“Hey, guns need magazines to be effective A gun by itself is worthless.”

The man laughed again.

“Not once have I heard of a gun that needed paper magazines.”

The man had no idea what a magazine was and that a gun needed ammunition. Zin was starting to get tired of the whole situation.

“Do you think a hunter has no idea what a gun is?”

The world had become a strange place where even fools were trying to fool a hunter. Breathing out another sigh, Zin pulled out his silver revolver. There was no more time to waste.

“Guns are not for show.”

“Wha… what…”

“They’re for shooting.”

—bang!—

A shot fired off from the muzzle.

“Arrrgh!”

The man screamed.

“…just missed it.”

The man felt the bullet whistle right past his ear, and he soon realized what a gun could do.

“It’s the real deal!”

If the bullet had gone a fraction of an inch toward his face, he wouldn’t even be screaming in the first place. Realizing who he was fooling around with, the man lay flat on the ground.

“Oh my… Mr. Hunter. I’m so sorry…”

“Enough. Get me the chips.”

“Right here!”

“And give me that as well.”

“Ye…yes!”

Zin disassembled the semi-automatic and threw it away before another fool decided to mess with the gun. The man ran to the storage room and brought back eighty blue chips as compensation. After counting the chips, Zin waved at the man.

“Ye…yes, do you need me for something?”

“This applies to rogue clients like yourself, so let’s revise our agreement for further compensation.”

“Wh…what?”

“I’m charging you an additional twenty chips for unnecessary stress.”

“What??”

“Another twenty for overtime since you didn’t tell me the exact location of the beasts.”

“What in the world…?”

“Another forty since there were about thirty percent more beasts than you initially mentioned.”

“No…”

“Another ten since the rain on my way back really fouled up my mood.”

“What!”

“So that’s an additional ninety chips. Plus forty chips for ammo, so you owe me a hundred and thirty chips on top.”

Zin’s request was out of the norm. And the man started to complain.

—CLICK!—

Zin aimed at the man and whispered to him.

“The bullet or your head. Do you want to find out which one’s tougher?”

“Ha…haha….”

After collecting an additional one hundred and thirty chips on top of the eighty chips, Zin talked calmly to the man who had no more chips.

“Don’t cheat a hunter out of his compensation, unless you want to get into additional negotiations.”

A hunter’s negotiation was not a negotiation.

Had the man given the promised eighty chips, things wouldn’t have turned out this way, but there was no point in regretting it now.

From the man’s perspective, he was lucky to have walked away with his life even after threatening the hunter.

Feeling unbalanced, the man watched Zin walk away. He then looked at the disassembled semi-automatic.

“So, we need paper magazines to use guns.”

It appeared as if the fool had a long way to go.