WREN SHOWED his system identification window with the help of his SPIA to the guard with a straight face. If the SPIA could also somehow show his real feelings, the guard might also know that Wren was grinning at him widely.
He could still remember how he was apprehended for entering when he first came into the association because he had no system identification that he could show. It's not because Wren had a grievance towards this security who was just faithfully doing his job.
Wren was just happy that he no longer needed to always carry that ID card with him wherever he went. He might have used to bring lots of things when leaving the comfort of his home in his former life but now, even bringing one ID card is already cumbersome to him.
He was kind of sloppy in the sense that just a little inattention can cause a great deal of negligence on his part. With how small these ID cards are in this world—smaller than his former world—they can be easily lost. And whether it was in his former life or in this life, identity cards were always important.
"You can now enter, sir."
Wren nodded his head to the security, and at the same time, he also deactivated his SPIA to stop showing his system identification. With his hands inserted in the pockets of his hoodie, Wren completely entered the hunter association.
This was only the second time that he had entered the association as himself but still, Wren feels amazed at how advanced this world has become when it comes to technology.
It can't be compared to how it was before the first interstellar invasion and much more, how advanced the technology that was used by the intergalactic species was, but compared with the technology in his former world, it can be comparable only within those science-fiction books that his colleagues suggested to him to read aside from those reports about mythology.
"Mr. Adams!"
Wren was about to take the way to the hallway where Hunin and Lucy had told him to take when he was going to register when he heard that call.
It might be someone else who had the same surname but to be sure, Wren took a pause in his steps to look at where the call came from.
There, he saw a familiar man wearing a white lab robe running in his direction.
"Dr. Noah," Wren called after the other had stopped before him.
Dr. Noah Wilson, who looked like he was in his early thirties but, in fact, was only twenty-four, had a haggard look like he had been running around the area looking for him even though he had just been running for not even a minute.
After he first registered as a hunter in the association, Wren learned more about the popular figures in this new world than about the most wanted summon. And that's when he learned more about the lab doctor who had helped him register before.
Dr. Noah Wilson was a renowned young genius among geniuses. With only the age of twenty-four, he had already accomplished many feats that help the hunters and the hunter associations when it comes to improving their skills.
It is a well-known fact that once a system reaches its optimum class rank, it can no longer allow the host to upgrade and that includes the set of skills that a hunter has. It was this genius doctor who broke that belief with his astonishing biomedicines.
With this, it has been seven years since the hunter association has been using those medicines for the hunters and there are a lot of hunters who already reside with the fact that they will no longer improve and yet have been improving since taking the medicine.
But that was not the only thing that made this doctor famous. It was also the saddening fact that Dr. Noah Wilson was unable to awaken a system himself despite all his help in the awakened industry.
Not only that. Because he didn't awaken a system, his severe sickness, which up until now was still a secret to people, made him weaker than the weakest. There was even an assumption on the intranet that he wouldn't even reach the mature age of fifty.
Certainly, that was totally an overused and overrated type of gossip ever since in his former world but to think that Wren will also encounter such unwanted gossip in this world.
Not that he cares or what; he was not that hypocritical to do that, but seeing that still made him pity the other. Fortunately, he could see how the person involved himself, that he, himself, wasn't taking all this gossip news seriously, which made him applaud the guy.
Now, he realized how he was a bit of an ingrate, thinking he was not a hypocrite when he was actually acting more than that when he felt pity towards this obviously mentally strong man.
Wren could only shake his head as he tried to sport a smile towards the other. "Do you need something, Dr. Noah?"
Dr. Noah quickly nodded his head with a smile. "Mr. Adams had come in at the right time. The headquarters finally sent their response and right now, they wanted to see you before the representative they had sent gave the final decision."
"I see. Then please take the lead."
Dr. Noah nodded his head and started walking. Wren quickly followed the others. Instead of the familiar hallway, the doctor took another way, which was on the other side.
Actually, the area where Wren took off on his first journey here was not the only one in this big association. Being the only hunter headquarters in this big city, they usually had to take more than ten thousand hunters.
Seventy percent of those numbers were mostly newly awakened hunters who wanted to register, while the other thirty percent were probably there to report an upgrade and such.
Speaking of upgrades, that was supposed to be his main reason for coming to the association and he didn't know if the system upgrade was different from the registration area.
But based on the introduction to him by Dr. Noah, it was not because of his upgrade that he was being pulled into an unfamiliar area. Wren had obviously forgotten how he hadn't told anyone, especially the doctor in front of him, about his upgrade.
"We're all sorry for the suddenness of this meeting, Mr. Adams. Although you have been notified that there might be a possibility that the decision will be provided at the end of the week, you might still find this a surprise."
Wren didn't think that Dr. Noah would start a conversation with him, knowing that the other was a serious type.
"It's nothing," Wren shortly answered.
He was really an awkward speaker, despite his chaotic mind. Even he himself was unaware that since he started living in this world, he had acquired the new hobby of talking to himself rather than speaking it inside his head.
Dr. Noah didn't answer anymore and just gave him a smile. Then they were back to the silence, with no one talking.
Walking in a hallway with a white wall and ceiling and a black and white tiled floor, Wren would honestly prefer if the doctor would initiate the talk first. He really didn't like the design of this hallway they were taking, and he wanted to question the person who designed it himself.
The hallway wasn't that narrow but he could feel that he was about to get suffocated by this simple yet very hard-to-see design. Luckily, before he really suffocated, they had reached the end.
Wren couldn't find any doors or anything that would show that there was an opening but it was still a wall painted white. Despite his uncomfortableness, Wren remained silent as he waited for the doctor—though in his head, he was already begging and hurrying the other to find any form of exit in this deranged hallway.
Dr. Noah stands closer to one side of the wall. Then he inch his face closer so that there's only a few inches apart before he would be kissing the wall when a beep resounded in the whole hallway.
Because Wren wasn't expecting that, he almost gasped in shock. Fortunately, he was able to hold himself back, or he might embarrass himself again.
After that mechanical beep, a red dot light appeared and scanned Dr. Noah's face. Three seconds after that, the light turned green, and a 'click' was heard.
"The security has been like this since the creation of this headquarters, and the current leaders here were too busy to change that. Anyway, we can now enter Mr. Adams," Dr. Noah said, looking back at him.
Slowly, a visible door appeared on the wall and it heavily opened. When the inside was apparent, Wren released a sigh of relief as he could see that the interior this time was different. He was afraid that if it was not the case, he might go color blind.
"After you," Dr. Noah said after the door had completely opened.
Looking inside, Wren had taken his first step. Probably because the door was situated at the very end of the room, he couldn't see the people inside. It was only when he was inside himself that he saw how many people were waiting.
Among these people, there are two familiar faces that he saw. Lucy, in his usual fairy-like look, was waving her hands at him and Hunin, who was just looking at him with a smile.
He curtly nodded back at them and then he moved his eyes on the other five unfamiliar people that were sitting with them.
"Are you Mr. Adams?" an old man who looked like he was in his late thirties asked while giving him a scrutinizing look.
"He is." Once again, it was Hunin who answered for him. "Let everyone take a seat first before we start asking what was obvious."
"This brat!"
"Calm down, Master Richard. Let's not embarrass ourselves in front of the newcomer." Another man with the same age as Hunin tried to be the middleman.
"Take a seat, Mr. Adams and Dr. Noah, so that we can start this meeting," an elder woman said with her gentle voice.
Wren could say the other was an elder because of the natural color of her hair, which was gray-white. As far as Wren knows, there's no one who would want to color their hair in a way that they would look like an old person. Just like this woman, she might have this hair color but her face didn't look old at all.
He didn't know how that happens and he wouldn't give a damn about it, whether his assumption was right or wrong.
He took the seat beside Hunin. He wanted to sit beside Lucy but there was no chair available besides her so he could only choose the other one he was familiar with. And Dr. Noah took the chair on the other side of the table.
"Before we start, how about we introduce ourselves first? I will take the liberty to start," the elder woman said. "I am Anna Grooves, one of the elders of the hunter association. I am representing the elders of the association in this meeting. Nice to meet you, Mr. Adams."
Hearing that she is an elder representing not only one headquarters but all the headquarters from all parts of the Earth, Wren quickly showed some respect by standing to give the other a bow of reverence.
"What a well-mannered kid! But you don't have to do that for this old woman."
As an answer, Wren just gave the elderly a smile and then he returned to sitting on his chair.
"I am Richard Cooper, the representative head from the headquarters of Vestern."
The man who asked if he was 'Mr. Adams' introduced himself. Wren noticed that the other didn't introduce himself like he was expecting the other would have an eyebrow raised.
"When the headquarters on Vestern heard about the great prophecy, they immediately sent me to first see the said hero in the prophecy before we agreed to anything. So do not expect that this will be easy, Mr. Adams."
With that addition, Wren didn't answer and just nodded his head toward Mr. Richard. And his curt reply was taken so negatively by the latter that he scoffed loudly at Wren with his arms crossed.
"Ahem!"
The middleman once again does his job, which he succeeds at. Now all their eyes were on him. His golden-rimmed glasses had a glint of light when he used his right thumb to push up his glasses.
"I am Laurence Jay. And I am pleased to meet you, Mr. Adams. I came here with Master Hunin as the head representative of Emantla. It was the headquarters of Emantla who first suggested this meeting's agenda."
"Then please extend my gratitude for including me in this meeting to the other heads of the hunter association in your country."
Mr. Laurence nodded. "I will definitely do that."
The rest of the people also take their turns to introduce themselves. The other man who had been silent but always had a kind smile plastered on his face had introduced himself as the head representative from Del Sur, Mr. Donald Campbell.
And lastly, the only female aside from Lucy and Elder Anna was the head representative of the North, Nortelge—Mrs. Natalia Ivanov.
"And I'll be representing the Orientale, although I am not part of the headquarters. Since Mr. Adams is a native of the East, the heads of Orientale's Hunter Association decided to forfeit their attendance in this meeting for fairness. I am only here to share the legal information we gathered about Mr. Adams," Dr. Noah explained.
Everyone looked at Lucy besides Hunin, who shyly raised her hand. "As for me, I will be the testimony about the meeting's result."
Wren mentally smiled seeing that. But because he was afraid that his action would be questioned, he kept his silence and just gave Lucy an acknowledging nod before moving his eyes away.
"Since we're done with the introductions, shall we proceed to the start of this meeting?" Elder Anna asked everyone with her usual kind smile.