Chereads / Urban Stalker / Chapter 5 - Eatma

Chapter 5 - Eatma

Miso goes inside and sees... a disgusting, messy room. Papers, chips packets and takeout boxes lie everywhere.

The room has a dimly lit yellow bulb hanging dead in the middle, right under a desk. A man is sleeping on the chair with his feet on the table and a hat covering his face.

"WAKE UP, YOU FUCKER!" The policeman takes a takeout box and throws it at the hunter.

It connects perfectly and the hunter yelps.

"AAAH!" Yaroslav screams in a surprisingly high pitched voice and stands up in an attention position, saluting the wall. "I WASN'T SLEEPING, SIR!"

"I'm here, you moron." The policeman says.

"Oh, it's just you." Yaroslav sighs and sits back down in his chair. "What do you want?"

Miso doesn't hide his disgust. THIS is the hunter who was supposed to have abilities similar to him? This is the guy who's going to help?

"Why's the kid looking at me like that?" Yaroslav asks. "Wait, why is there a kid here?"

"Don't worry about that, kid." The police looks at Miso. "He's actually very competent."

The police looks at Yaroslav, "The kid wants to become a hunter."

Yaroslav giggles. "Hehe….wait are you for real?" He looks at Miso and says, "Why would you want to-" A flash of realization crosses his face, "Oh, you're the same as me, aren't you? You're abilities are absolutely shit, aren't they?"

"That's the detective for you." The police looks at Miso. "Yaroslav has the stats of an E rank hunter, but he kills up to C rank monsters. So in reality, he's a C rank hunter."

"Alright, get out." Yaroslav tells the policeman to leave. "I think I know what's going on."

"Alright, fine. Jeez, I'm leaving. You take care of the rest." The policeman leaves and mutters to himself, "I need to catch up with that new 'Magical Mesugaki Academy' anime."

"Come in, I'll make this conversation as quick as possible."

Miso walks in and gets a clearer look at him. He's wearing the cloud-grey hunter uniform, with the weird large turtleneck-like overcoat. The uniform has a lot of straps and zippers, like belts being wrapped around the uniform. How the hell is that even practical?

His face surprises Miso. Snow white, with platinum white hair and pink eyes. He's an albino.

"So, your abilities are similar to mine?" he asks Miso.

"Yeah." Miso hands him the report over.

He looks at Miso's report.

"Oh…ooooooh" he stares at it. "five forms, eh? That's pretty rare…. Oh, seven features too, nice."

Eventually he finishes reading it and looks at Miso, "Yeah, it's going to be really hard to pass the Hunter Exam, because they focus mostly on offence and defense, but mobility can be used offensively or defensively. And with your high mobility, you might have a chance."

Ba-dump

Miso's heart flutters with joy.

"If you really want to join the police, you'll have to start practicing as soon as possible. Try getting some hunter work experience when you turn 17 by joining your nearest police station, because you sure as hell can't join with these stats in any private organization."

"O-okay." Miso says, his eyes immediately shining with determination. "Okay! Oh my god. I can become a hunter!"

"Yep." Yaroslav looks at Miso. "Losers like us still have a chance."

"B-but how?" Miso asks. "I have barely any offense and zero defence. How can we still fight?"

"Hunters traditionally destroy buildings and punch monsters so hard that their eyeballs pop out from the force. They cause a lot of destruction and use brute force." He explains. "But I don't."

"How?"

"My ability's name is called 'octopus'." He says.

"I'm not going to go into detail about my ability's features, but what I can say is that unfortunately, I cannot split atoms with a kick. But it's perfect for hiding from predators and ambushing monsters when they least expect it.

Your abilities are the same as mine. Not a lot of power, but you can be sneaky. Unfortunately though, people these days look down on assassin types like us.

You just have to pass the Hunter Exam when you're 18. Although three of the four tests test offense and defense alone, the fourth test puts you in a group where you'll all be dropped in a fake city to kill monsters. They're all F tier but there's a single E tier monster. Killing the E tier will guarantee a pass. If you can become as strong as an E tier hunter and kill the E tier monster, you will pass. And if you pass, you'll be guaranteed a job at the police."

"So…I just have to train to become as strong as an E tier hunter by 18 and get some work experience as a hunter by 17?" I ask. "Then it's guaranteed for me to join the police and make money?"

"You know, I was 21 when I hit E tier. It's not that easy, but if by some way you can become an E tier hunter, yes. It's guaranteed."

"Guaranteed?" Miso repeats.

"Guaranteed."

"Thank god."

Awkward silence...

"Well, go away now. I have work to do." Thankfully, Yaroslav breaks the silence. "Since you probably have seven other features in your abilities that haven't awakened yet, all of your features will completely awaken only when you hit 17-18."

"I know." Miso tells him. "I'll have to wait for 8-9 more years for all my features to come out."

So far, only his bone sword came out. His second one will also be activated by 30 days. The other features, unfortunately, will generally take about a year to activate

"Try improving your physical strength and learning about monster-hunting until then." He tells Miso. "Alright, if you have nothing else to talk about, get out!"

"O-okay! I'll leave now." Miso replies and prepare to close the door.

But he turns back and says, "Umm…thank you very much."

He smiles, "You're welcome."

The door closes, and Miso walks out of the police station, optimistic.

'I can do it. I can do it. I can….' He keeps telling himself until he reaches home.

"Hehehehe". He occasionally laughs like a maniac.

The bystanders look at him weirdly as he keep muttering to himself and laughing evilly out of nowhere.

"Hehehehehehehe." He reaches his disgusting home. "12 more years." He tells himself. "12 more years, then I might even become a D rank hunter and earn a lot of money!"

He imagines the doctor's face, looking at Miso's face in shock while he watches the news after 12 years titled "Hunter prodigy saves entire city and gets a million-dollar contract from the top Private Hunting organization, Anti-Kaijin Co. Ltd."

Misi sighs. "How insane would it be if I joined the Anti-Kaijin private Organisation. Yeah, sure."

"Dream on. It ain't gonna happen."