The next morning, Hans made his way through the dirty streets on the outskirts of Chicago, drawing a couple of unfriendly gazes from the residents.
Soon he found what he was searching for: a dark alley to his left where three men were sitting on some steps while they smoked.
As he approached cautiously, Hans received skeptical stares from the trio.
One of them even reached into his back pocket, taking out a pocket knife, however, while maintaining a calm demeanor, Hans declared, "There's no need to do that; take me to your boss, I just need to repay some money."
After a moment of silent talk between them, the three gazed at the sports bag in Hans' hand before nodding and emerging out of the shadows, showing their faces.
The one leading them, though young, looked quite tough and was a little bit shorter than Hans, while on his left, was a bald middle-aged man with a chubby and short stature, and under his loose white tank top, one could see various tattoos on his shoulder.
On the right of the young fellow was another man, but other than being really ugly, there wasn't much in him that stood out.
The one leading the other two spoke, "Follow us."
After that, they opened the door behind them, allowing Hans to enter a dimly lit bar.
In the bar, many people remained seated but their faces were obscured due to the smoke and poor lighting.
The room almost fell silent as Hans and the other three made their way except for some whispers here and there.
The three accompanied Hans to a table located at the furthest corner from the entrance before leaving for the entrance once again.
Seated at the table was a tall man with defined muscles and sharp features.
The man had black hair and brown eyes and was dressed in a white shirt which was paired with a black jacket and black pants.
He also wore a tie.
He eyed Hans before asking, "What do you want?"
"My name is Hans.
Six months ago, I borrowed a significant sum of money and today I'm here to repay my debt," Hans replied naturally, though a hint of intimidation lingered beneath the surface.
The leader noticed the bag in Hans's hand and inquired, "How much do you have?"
"It's about a hundred and ninety," Hans answered. However, after hearing the number, the people all over the bar turned around and stared at the young man and his bag with immense greed in their eyes.
A guy even approached the boss and whispered in his ear, "Boss, should we-"
But before the guy could even finish, a cold response came from the leader, "No!"
After that, the boss ordered one of his goons to bring him the list of loans.
After going through it and making his helper count the money, he signed the paper of Hans's loan to be paid off and declared, "Well done, Hans. As for the accord, you have given back the money with a monthly interest rate of 10%, you now have no ties with our group. It was a pleasure doing business with you and you will be welcomed if you want to come back anytime." The man smiled.
'I hope I won't ever have to come here again,' Hans thought while giving a short bow before leaving the place.
While Hans made his way to the bar's entrance, the guy from before went to the boss once again and asked, "Boss, should we follow him? We'll manage to get some more out of him."
However, the leader glared at his lackey and rasped, "Liam, I have already told you that I'm staying here because I have to. I oppose these criminal activities of yours and while I'm here, refrain from doing these kinds of things. That boy has kept his word and repaid the debt, there is no need to go over that."
"I-I understand," the guy named Liam could only lower his head and move back.
Meanwhile, Hans, who had already walked quite a bit, was met with a sticky situation as a group of ten people surrounded him.
"Hey rich boy, come with us obediently, you don't want to cause a scene in the middle of the street, do you?" said one guy in the group, drawing attention from the residents.
Speaking was the same young fellow who was guarding the entrance.
"Sigh…. Come on, let's settle this in private," Hans replied, knowing that there were people around.
The group led him to a dimly lit storehouse and once inside, the leader of the small group brandished his knife and said arrogantly, "You see, the boss recalculated the sum and said that the money doesn't add up, you will need to cough out another thirty thousand."
Despite exploding in anger, Hans managed to keep his composure.
The only reason why he didn't raze them to the ground was because of the gang behind them.
The infamous Stripped Clan, identified by their black leather jackets adorned with a tiger emblem.
Their boss, whom he had met a couple of minutes ago, was rumored to be a C-Rank hunter, and messing with someone of that caliber wouldn't bring any benefits to him.
So he just held it in and replied with an annoyed tone, "Ah, I heard your gang used to keep their words. It seems like it was a lie after all. What do you think will happen if I were to spread the news?"
The other man smiled disarmingly, "Haha, what makes you think you'll be able to get out of here?"
Before Hans could even retort, the guy continued, "Come on, I'll give you three more days.
We have investigated you and know why you needed the money. The fact that you managed to repay the debt can only mean one thing, right?" The guy smiled again, this time more like that of a creepy psychopath.
"You let them die, didn't yo-"
Hans, who was doing his best to stay calm finally couldn't hold it and lost it the moment the imbecile mentioned his family.
Lunging forward, he punched the guy with a well-aimed jab that sent the fellow flying, and by the time his body touched the ground, he had already fallen unconscious while the others were left surprised by what had just happened.
Only after a moment or two did one of the members raise his voice and urge the others, "WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING!! GO GET HIM, HE'S ALONE!!"
Hearing the call, all the others started rushing towards Hans from all directions, surrounding him and taking out their knives while others grabbed the crossbars scattered around.
"Take this," a guy hissed with his knife aimed at Hans's abdomen,
However, just before the knife could get any closer to him, Hans grabbed the attacker by his hand and threw a punch, incapacitating the guy.
Thinking that he was brighter than the first fellow, the second guy who was using a crossbar, tried to swing it to Hans's head, but before he could even scratch his hair, Hans ducked and turned around, forcing him asleep with a good and old straight punch right in the head.
The remaining seven attackers also fell one by one akin to leaves in autumn under Hans's punches and kicks.
By the time he was done with all of them, the unconscious leader woke up with a still blurry vision, but after looking around he could only see Hans's silhouette.
Seeing that he had woken up, Hans squatted, his face about fifty centimeters apart from the leader's, and warned him with a firm voice, "Don't ever try anything like this again, or I swear I won't be as soft as I've been this time."
The guy on the ground almost pissed his pants and backed away while using all the power he could muster from his left arm.
Luckily for him, Hans left without going any further.
_____
20 minutes later.
Back at the bar.
The boss was sitting at a table alone, smoking a cigar, when a breathless man burst in.
Panting, he exclaimed, "Boss, we have a problem!" while holding onto the chair beside him to avoid falling due to exhaustion.
"What is it now??! Liam," the boss grumbled.
Between pants, Liam explained in his defense, "I forgot to tell the guys outside not to go after the guy… And they gathered a group of about ten members to squeeze something more out of hi-"
Before he could finish speaking, the boss interrupted him, "Then what are you doing here!? Go give him his money back and go apologize!!"
"That's not the point boss!" Liam shook his head and continued while still gasping for breath.
"Pant… pant… we found all of them were passed out in a storehouse."
"And there were some who were even about to die."
As Liam finished, the boss's eyes widened in surprise as he asked furiously, "What in the world happened?!"
"It's only a guess, but between the witnesses for his strength and the money he made so quickly, there's a probability that he is an awakened," Liam answered.
"Awakened huh?! … Ok," the boss calmed down and simply continued smoking his cigar.
Seeing his boss's unbothered attitude, Liam asked, "What will we do now, boss?!"
"What do you mean we will do, just continue doing what you always do," the boss shrugged.
"But boss, he injured our members, we have to pay him back-"
"LISTEN WELL LIAM! This is the last time I'll say it. Stop telling me what to do! It was your idea to irritate him even after the boy had repaid his debt. You should be grateful that he merely taught them a lesson or else I would've done that myself."
"Now scram away before I beat the shit out of you," the boss rasped.
Being ridiculed and humiliated in front of all the other tables, Liam ran outside.
When the doors closed and he was left alone, Liam seethed with hatred and embarrassment in his voice, "How dare you, kid. Awakened or not, I swear I'll f*ck*ng kill you."