It has been weeks.
About 2 and a half weeks to be exact since Abner went into a coma. And Arlo was getting bored.
Sure he was anxious and confused at the beginning when Abner suddenly had what he had thought to be a heart attack, but since then, days and time had passed. What was his concern and worry of his friend's health had soon began to turn into dying of boredom. Besides, Arlo was sure that Abner was fine, just in a deep sleep, since his pulse was still beating and he was still breathing.
"Fuu..." blowing a strand of hair on his face away, Arlo was at the epitome of boredom and colorless life. Waiting and waiting and waiting...
Is just not his style.
Ding! A light bulb suddenly went off in his head.
"I can just go for a stroll! Why didn't I think of that a week and a half ago!" Arlo hit his head full of complaint about his stupid brain not providing him with such an answer long ago at the beginning of his journey to become the king of boredom.
What Arlo meant by taking a stroll does not mean what it usually means, which is to take a walk outside for a bit to enjoy the view and the fresh air. No. There's no way it means just that when he takes daytrips as well which are not the common day trips.
What Arlo actually meant when he said he was going on a stroll is to steal. Do what a person with the thief occupation does.
When he goes for walks, he pickpockets. When he goes for runs, he steals from the rich. When he takes a stroll, he goes for anything that raises his fancy. When he goes for day trips, he steals from place to place. When he steals, he loots.
This is the routine and activities of a true thief.
So jumping onto his feet, Arlo randomly grabbed a big bag and flung it onto his shoulder—his body frenzy with excitement and anticipation. His face literary glowed with verve like a child underneath a christmas tree on Christmas Day—which is exactly what he felt like. After all, he hasn't gone for any strolls lately, he was pent up.
He grabbed a face mask to hide his face and wore a hood to cover his conspicuous green hair. Dressed in all black with a green-thread braided bracelet on his right wrist, Arlo was ready and rearing to go.
Arlo stood in front of the giant doors to his treasure lair—or as he likes to call this place, his Nest #5–, and reached out to push on the two heavy doors. About to push open the double doors, Arlo suddenly stopped.
The reason for his abrupt pause was the sudden sound that reached his ears coming from behind him.
Very specifically, it came from the spot where Abner laid.
However, instead of what one would expect, Arlo was not jumping around in joy at his friend's awakening. On the contrary, Arlo felt annoyed and wanted to scream in frustration. He had at last come to the right mind and was about to go for some fun but now he really doubts he can go now.
The annoyance inside him reached its peak, looking for an outlet, Arlo stamped his foot repeatedly on the ground. Afterwards, instead of going to Abner who showed signs of waking up through the twitch of his fingers and groans coming out of his mouth, Arlo decisively turned back around from looking at Abner earlier on and returned to his previous actions.
With the two doors slammed shut behind him, Arlo set off on his stroll.
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Time seemed to pass on into eternity as Abner's body continued to strengthen in the constant flow of warmth coming into his flesh and bones.
Gradually regaining his consciousness, Abner opened his eyes that hasn't opened for two and a half weeks to reveal a pair of violet-purple pupils shining with a particular light.
Standing up, Abner examined all over his body and didn't see any noticeable changes. However, he can feel the frightening energy trapped within his muscles that he didn't have before his coma. Clenching and unclenching his two fists, Abner threw a few punches into the air. The air whooshed and wind blew from the force behind the fists.
Feeling surprised yet satisfied of his unexpected gain, Abner only then realized that something was missing—actually more like, someone was missing.
It was Arlo.
He was not here. He had seriously got for his stroll to relieve his long-term accumulated boredom. Rich people are about to suffer and cry over their stolen goods and precious artifacts.
Abner rubbed his tummy when he remembered that he should've been asleep for a long time so he should be hungry only to find out that even though he wasn't full, he wasn't hungry either.
It was a mystified feeling.
But after that feeling came anger. Abundant anger directed at no one else except for that Mono organization that dares to commit such atrocities.
Determined to take down that organization that not only caused his death but also the miserable lives of many, Abner...
Can only wait for Arlo to come back. Because what came after that intense anger came hunger. Although Abner was not hungry just a moment before, for some inexplicable reason, he suddenly did feel hungry. And since he didn't have any food with him nor are there any known food location in this underground cave, Abner can only wait and pray that Arlo will bring back food with him instead of just non-edible items—which Abner can guess that he went to steal.
There was also another important reason why Abner waited for Arlo—a reason besides him being hungry and Arlo being his friend—which is the fact being that he doesn't know where to go. He might be able to find their base after some time because it's impossible for information about them to be completely nonexistent. But the downside of this method is that it takes too much time, and money which he doesn't have.
So alternatively, since Arlo had stolen from that organization in the past he should know where they are located. Of course there is a 90% possibility that they have changed locations already, especially after a thief had intruded in, Abner still wanted to try that 10% possibility where they didn't move.
And so, from that time on, Abner waited for Arlo's return who was ignorant the whole time out that Abner was waiting for him to come back with food.
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It was hours before Arlo finally returned with a bag full of stuff and an additional bag that wasn't there when he had left.
The first thing that Arlo saw when he came back to his Nest #5 was Abner sitting on the floor at the center of the room cross-legged.
Looking at him sitting there among the piles of treasures and valuable items made Arlo imagine a king. The atmosphere around Abner was majestic and commanding but not in a forceful way, instead it seemed very charismatic.
Shaking his head to clear away the hallucination, Arlo approached Abner who appeared like he was asleep. But abruptly opened his eyes the moment Arlo neared that seriously scared Arlo out of his mind.
"Ahh!! Seriously! I nearly popped an egg out!" Arlo loudly complained after his racing heart finally calmed. He threw the bag he didn't take with him to Abner who caught it.
Abner opened up the bag to see an apple, a bota bag filled with water, bread, and eggs. It was a very full meal and Abner's mouth salivated in anticipation for its meal.
"How did you know?" Abner took the bread and bite out a large part of it and chewed, but not before asking Arlo something.
Arlo huffed and rolled his eyes, "I am smart." Was all that he answered.
Shrugging his shoulders as if accepting that nonsensical answer, Abner continued to devour the bread, the eggs, the water...
Ka-la!
Part of the apple was bitten out and taken into Abner's mouth after he had finished everything else—with only some water remaining in the bota bag.
Wiping his mouth of the apple juice with the back of his hand, Abner asked, "Do..."
However, before Abner could continue further, Arlo unexpectedly cut in, "They are located in the Slums!" His chest puffed out in pride.
Abner's brows raised high up as he looked questioningly with astonishment at Arlo who had surprisingly guessed his mind.
"How did you..."
Again Arlo cut in and answered without hearing the question, "Because I know you! Even though we have known each other for only 19 days, and only 1 of those days you were awake in, I can completely and truthfully and solemnly swear that I understand you!" Arlo's grand speech of great bravo had Abner clapping his hands in appreciation.
Even his old friends cannot say that they know everything about Abner, especially his personality, yet the green-haired thief, his new friend, unbelievably claims that he knows his personality completely. Astonishing, it was truly astonishing.
But back to the main topic: the Slums. It wasn't really surprising to Abner that Mono organization is located there. After all, a lot of small and big organizations and groups plant their roots there.
Those organizations and groups mostly contains those from the Underworld, and since the Slums is closely connected to the Underworld where most of the Slums' inhabitants choose to become an Underworld citizen, it makes sense that some Underworld groups would locate their base in the Slums.
And this Mono organization definitely belongs to the pure dark faction people.
To elaborate more on the intricate internal situation of the Underworld, it can be simply explained as there being two main factions in the Underworld: the pure dark faction and the dark faction. Although the naming sounds funny, it is what it is, and that's what they themselves call themselves.
The people of the pure dark faction are those who are against the light, they don't want light in the Underworld or the Slums so they do everything possible to stop that from happening. All the truly evil and unamendable citizens of the Underworld are in this faction, and rarely anyone switches to the dark faction.
While the dark faction is made up of those who don't mind light being brought into the Underworld and the Slums but they don't actively sought after or actually do anything to help with that. They also do bad things (all the people who are from the Underworld do bad things for a living).
Some of will switch to the light faction---the third faction that appeared in the Underworld under the lead of Abner---and try to bring light into the Underworld because their hearts were won over by Abner and his passionate words and actions.
The original two factions became three when Abner came into the mix. Another fact of the matter which is commonly seen is the choosing of the "king". The "king" of the "kingdom" was originally chosen from only one of the two factions, but since a third faction was created, there are now three candidates to the "throne".
Their "throne" fighting is very complicated because the Underworld is not an actual kingdom and their "king" is not an actual king with powers over all his "citizens.
But all that aside, Abner has now decided his course of action.
Taking another bite out of the red apple, Abner spoke, "We'll going to the Slums."
Arlo nodded and agreed without much fuss or question. It has been a while since he has been on a day trip, and going with a friend sounds fun—very, very fun. Arlo smirked in mischief.
Not minding the plotting look on Arlo's face, Abner was about to stand up when he suddenly heard something dropping. Looking behind him, Abner was surprised to see the earring he had always worn before he died. Picking up the sparkling black-purple jeweled earring, Abner opened his mouth but had to shut it again not even a moment later.
"It's yours. Think of it as a present from a friend," Arlo winked as his coolness rate suddenly spiked and exploded.
Abner smiled warmly as he clutched the earring in the palm of his hand.
"Thank you." Truly, Abner was truly thankful to Arlo. This earring meant a lot to Abner even if it wasn't the same one. Well, the original one had probably already turned into ash from the large, fierce fire.
Abner touched his unpierced earlobe on the left and made a decision to pierce it soon. He pocketed the earring inside his money bag and looked at Arlo with determination and spirit burning hot in his eyes like fire, "Let's go."