The experienced hunters quickly lined up, and Emir joined one of the queues, waiting for his turn.
Finally, he reached the front and held up his Hunter ID at the official's information terminal.
Following the verification of his details, the man in charge assigned Emir to vehicle number 1 with a curt nod.
"Proceed to the truck over there," he instructed, gesturing towards a massive truck built for navigating through the barren wasteland.
The cargo tray of the vehicle lacked a roof, and large cylindrical containers were stationed at the back.
Along the sides of the truck were long benches, already occupied by several hunters.
Stepping into the truck, Emir noticed several pairs of eyes turned in his direction.
As he scanned the group, he saw that the hunters present were of varying skill levels, some clad in basic gear while others donned more expensive and impressive equipment.
He walked in and sat on an empty seat in between two hunters.
The truck was quiet, and there was heavy tension filling the air.
Emir ignored the building tension and focused on preparing himself for the patrol ahead.
He checked his weapons, making sure they were loaded and ready to use.
Emir also made sure that his magazines were secure and easily accessible.
Looking around, he noticed that some of the other hunters were also checking their weapons and gear, while others seemed lost in their thoughts, some nervous and others excited.
He wondered how many of them were experienced hunters and how many were newbies like him, but as he didn't want to make any assumptions and get into unnecessary trouble, he just kept to himself.
Cutting through the tension, the staff member shouted from the driving seat.
"Let's go, everyone! It's time!" His voice commanding attention.
"Anyone causing a disturbance will be kicked off the truck and considered to have abandoned the job! Now, let's go!"
With that, they began their journey into the wasteland.
The truck's engine roared to life, and it began to move.
The ride was bumpy, and the truck swayed from side to side as they traveled over rough terrain.
But he managed to keep his balance, holding onto the bench as they went along.
They soon approached the wasteland, and Emir felt the tension in the air increase.
He pulled up his HX-10 assault rifle, placing its stock on his shoulder, and then aimed towards the wasteland, eyeing for any monsters.
They were assigned positions to watch out for, Emir's was on the right side of the truck, with seven other hunters, the other eight were assigned the left side.
Emir was determined to come out on top of this competition between hunters, as the more kills he obtained, the higher his pay would be.
As for the monster corpses, they were considered sellable goods and belonged only to the Hunter Association, this was to prevent delays in the patrol caused by hunters planning on dragging them back home.
The association made use of the devices that were installed in the trucks and on the hunters to identify the ones responsible for killing the monsters.
In cases where it was unclear who killed the monsters, the reward would be divided among all the hunters involved or even distributed among everyone on the truck.
This clause was included in the job request to prevent any complaints during the reward distribution.
All jobs had similar clauses to make sure that the association was clear on all legal fronts to avoid any potential problems.
Minutes passed until Emir finally detected signals of monsters in the vicinity, but they were still too far away.
He knew that the only way to take them down from that distance was to use his rail gun, but it would be a waste of both ammunition and money to use such a powerful weapon on weak monsters.
So, Emir decided to wait for them to come closer.
Peering through the scope of his AR, he eyed a big snake-like monster slithering its way towards the truck.
To steady his aim against the swaying of the truck, he activated his TDS ability and adjusted the augmented suit to compensate for the kickback and all other variables.
When the monster finally came in range, Emir slowly pulled the trigger, and several hunters beside him did the same, hoping to steal the kill.
The bullet blasted out of his gun, hitting the enormous snake's head, followed by a barrage of shots into its mouth, with the final round piercing through its skull splattering its head, causing the monster to slump over, lifeless and covered in blood.
The shots of the hunters next to him all missed, hitting the surroundings of the now-dead monster.
Several other types of monsters came into view, and following Emir's usual routine, he activated his ability, shooting them down, one after the next.
While riding in the swerving truck, his aim was occasionally disrupted by its random jerks, causing his shots to miss.
Nonetheless, Emir managed to hit the majority of his targets with precision.
Sometime later, the monsters slowly started increasing in numbers, which was very unusual for an area such as this.