4 System Synchronised

Surrounded by darkness, the young man couldn't speak, feel or smell anything. On top of that, he was greeted by a deafening silence yet despite it all, he felt no fear.

'Where… Am I…?' He wondered

<Syncing… Twenty-three percent>

<Syncing…>

'Syncing? Syncing what? What's going on?'

The young man tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids were forced shut. Confusion filled his mind as he lost command over it.

<Syncing… Ninety-nine percent… One hundred percent>

'One hundred… what's going to happen now?'

'System ac-'

Before he could finish the thought, everything suddenly turned white and he felt as if he was pulled by a strong force it was almost as if some sort of magnet had been attached to him.

The sensations which he had lost in his body, all simultaneously returned to him as he opened his eyes. Suddenly, a bright light, opposite of the darkness which he had grown accustomed to, blinded his eyes as they opened wide.

"Argh… What…?"

With his head throbbing in pain, his ears ringing and body aching. The young man found himself laid down, staring at the starry night sky.

"Huh…?"

He needed a moment to process what had just happened. But his eyes quickly widened when he remembered what had happened.

"T-The H-Hunters!" He shouted as he got up.

The sudden motion caused a surge of pain to flow around his chest the moment he sat up. "Argh!" He let out as he placed his hand over his chest.

It felt like he was being stung right in his heart. "What the hell, happened…?" He asked himself, before turning his head to the right.

The instant he did, he could feel whatever little food he had eaten on this day, rise straight out from the bottomless pits of his stomach.

"Eurgh-"

He covered his mouth and forced it back down in a single gulp. He couldn't afford to waste any more energy. Even with the horrific sight ahead of his eyes.

Organs, laying around the blood red, painted walls. A detached fully geared torso, with an eyeball that had somehow managed to make it over to the young man, stopping near him.

The only word which could be attributed to the sight in front of him, was simply, hell.

"Angel's tear… More like devil…" He muttered to himself as he got up.

With his vision still blurry, the nauseating feeling of the world spinning around him, the unquenchable hunger and thirst forcing their way along his insides, was the worst feeling he had ever felt. And he was someone who had been through a lot of shit.

'Fuck… Getting food-poisoning is better than this…' He thought to himself.

As he made his way over to the disfigured and headless corpse, a smile could be seen on his face as he muttered. "Jackpot…"

Excluding the blood-bath which had just occurred on the area where he was standing on, for someone like the young man who lived his whole life and luckily survived in poverty, he was standing on a gold-mine.

He crouched down, beside the corpse and stared at it with cold eyes as he said. "I warned you." Before reaching his hand out towards the vest.

***

"What the hell…" He muttered in disbelief as he counted the coins inside the pouch.

He then placed the pouch down and analyzed the rest of the loot he had gathered.

"Five hundred and forty nova… Who walks around with all this money…? Not to mention… Five fully loaded energy mags… A type-E Level one energy knife sheathed in good condition, some strange cubes which I assumed to be stun grenades and an AR energy rifle… I don't know what kind this is, but nevertheless… It's amazing."

He had successfully looted the body, what he got was way more than what he had expected.

'The vest too… What a waste…' He thought to himself

"I wonder if it's still working." He muttered as he picked up the AR.

It was big and heavy, so much that he wouldn't be able to carry it unless he was using both hands. It seemed to be an older-prototype of the normal rifles, however he didn't know what exact one.

"Even though it's dangerous to use, types like these are still sold and bought by the public… Mainly due to their cheap price."

In shape, it resembled a simple AR, yet had a visible large core in the middle. The cores would usually be smaller on the newer versions, so that was a way to distinguish them.

'I'd fire a shot but… It's night time… Don't want to attract any monster's attention.' He thought to himself as he put the rifle down.

As he did so, he suddenly felt a throb near his heart as the memory flooded in. He had remembered what had happened right before he was knocked out.

He looked down and noticed a hole on his shirt. He then raised his shirt and his eyes widened.

There was no hole but, the place where there was supposed to be a hole, right next to his heart was the artifact. It was the red gem. He had remembered. It wasn't in the capsule anymore but implanted within him.

'What…? What!?'

He could see some of his veins attached onto the gem. Was such a thing possible? Did someone pass by and give him an implant? What was going on?

"D-Don't panic… C-Calm down…"

He took in a deep breath before slowing letting it out.

"I'll think about this when I get back… For now I need to think to deal with this." he muttered as he looked back at the loot.

He needed clothes, but this guy's would not only not fit him, it was too torn, he could just buy some with the money he got from him after getting back.

The question was, how would he carry everything back. If he did, other hunters would definitely try to take it. It wasn't uncommon for hunters to die on the battlefield, so finders keepers, those were the rules.

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