Being a hero was expensive.
Rin sat at his desk, staring at his bank account balance on the center monitor, the number mocking him in bold red font.
Current Balance: 142 Credits
"One hundred and forty-two," Rin said to the room, "I took down a corrupt governnt official, raided a secret lab, fought mutant goblins, and I can barely afford a large pizza."
[Analysis: Private Investigators are expensive]
[Kira charged premium rates for rush delivery]
[You are financially insolvent]
"Thanks for the recap, really helpful."
Rin leaned back in his expensive gaming chair, which thankfully Leo had paid for years ago, the mansion was paid off so he wasn’t going to be holess, but the electricity bill for a place this size was astronomical, not to ntion food, gear maintenance, and the fact that his tactical jacket had been shredded by a breach creature.
"I need a job," Rin muttered.
[Correction: You have a job]
[You are a D-rank Hunter]
[Recomndation: Go to work]
He sighed, closed the banking tab, and opened his email.
**Subject: License Upgrade Processed**
**From: Association Administration**
**Status: Ready for Pickup**
He was officially D-rank, that ant higher base pay for missions, access to better equipnt discounts, and the ability to take assignnts without a supervisor breathing down his neck, mostly.
"Alright," Rin stood up, wincing as his muscles reminded him they were still recovering, "let’s go get licensed, then we get paid."
---
The administrative wing of the Association HQ was less cyberpunk future and more DMV with magic.
Rin stood in line behind a guy who was actively vibrating, probably a kinetic energy user having a bad day, and a woman with a literal owl on her shoulder, when he finally reached the front, the clerk didn’t even look up.
"Na and ID."
"Rin Matsuda, E-rank provisional."
The clerk typed, paused, then sighed the sigh of a man who wasn’t paid enough to deal with main characters, he looked up.
"Oh, the portal kid."
"Please don’t call that."
"Computer says you’re flagged for ’Special Handling,’ hold on." The clerk picked up a phone, whispered sothing, and hung up, a minute later, a heavy-duty printer behind him whirred to life.
He slid a new card across the counter, it was heavier than the old one, silver-edged.
Na: Rin Matsuda
Rank: D
Class: Specialist (Anomalous)
Status: Active (Monitored)
"Congratulations," the clerk droned, "you can now access the D-rank mission board and the armory’s second floor, try not to cause any more international incidents this week, the paperwork is a nightmare."
"I’ll do my best."
Rin took the card, it felt heavy in his hand, D-rank, it wasn’t much, there were thousands of D-ranks, but it was the first real step out of the newbie zone.
He walked out of the admin wing and imdiately bumped into a wall of muscle.
"Watch it," the wall grunted.
Rin looked up, it was Korvyn Thorne, the earth manipulator he’d buried during the exam, Korvyn was wearing fresh gear, looking significantly less crushed than the last ti they t.
"Matsuda," Korvyn sneered, "heard you got promoted, congratulations, who did you have to bribe?"
"I raided a Director’s lab," Rin said flatly, "what did you do this week, Korvyn, move so rocks?"
Korvyn’s face flushed. "Careful, you don’t have exam rules protecting you out here."
"And you don’t have a referee to save you when you lose." Rin stepped around him. "I’m busy, Korvyn, go find soone else to posture at."
He felt the spike of mana, earth energy gathering in Korvyn’s fist, but Rin didn’t stop walking, he just pulsed his fracture energy for a fraction of a second, a sharp warning spike that the tracker wouldn’t catch but Korvyn definitely felt.
Korvyn hesitated, the mont passed.
[Intimidation successful]
[Opponent morale: Low]
[He is still salty]
’Let him be salty, I have bills to pay.’
---
Rin t Joy and Tayo in the cafeteria, they were comparing their new licenses like kids with trading cards.
"Look at the shine on this thing," Joy said, tilting her card under the light, "D-rank, we’re basically professionals now."
"Speak for yourself," Tayo grinned, "mine says ’Sonic Specialist,’ sounds like I fix hedgehogs."
"Mine says ’Anomalous’," Rin said, tossing his card on the table, "which is Association speak for ’We think you’re a bomb.’"
"At least you’re a cool bomb," Joy offered. "So what’s the plan, we celebrated, we rested, we got the plastic, now what?"
"Now I need money," Rin said, "I have exactly one hundred and forty credits, if I don’t take a mission today, I’m eating ran for the rest of the month, and not the good ran."
Joy winced. "Right, the investigator fee, okay let’s hit the board, D-rank missions pay way better, base rate is like what, two thousand?"
"Plus hazard pay," Tayo added, "and we keep the monster cores, if we get a good haul, we could clear five grand easy."
They headed to the mission terminal, the D-rank board was different, no more "Rat Extermination" or "Lost Cat in Dungeon," these were real threats.
**Mission: Rock Golem Suppression**
**Location:** Olympia Quarry
**Threat:** High physical resistance
**Pay:** 2,500 Credits
Mission: Sewer Drake Nest
Location: Katutura Drainage System
Threat: Poison, enclosed space
Pay: 3,000 Credits
"Drakes in the sewer?" Joy wrinkled her nose. "Hard pass, I am not slling like sewage for a week."
"Rock Golems are tough," Tayo noted, "my sound waves bounce off them unless I hit the resonant frequency perfectly, might be slow."
Rin scrolled down, he was looking for sothing specific, sothing that paid well but played to their strengths.
His eyes caught a listing near the bottom.
Mission: "Clean-Up" - Sector 9 Industrial Zone
Type: Breach Creature Elimination
Details: Remnant biological experints escaped during the Volker Raid
Threat: Variable, artificial mutations
Pay: 1,500 Per Head (Bounty System)
"That one," Rin pointed.
Joy read it. "Cleaning up Volker’s ss, again?"
"It’s a bounty system," Rin said, "pay per kill, we know how these things fight, we fought them in the warehouse, they’re fast, aggressive, but fragile, if there’s a pack of them..."
"We could make bank," Tayo finished, "and nobody knows how to fight them better than us."
"Exactly, plus," Rin lowered his voice, "it’s Sector 9, near Fiona’s training spot, I need to swing by there anyway."
Joy gave him a look. "You’re still training with her?"
"She knows things about the tracker that I need to learn, just trust ."
Joy sighed. "Fine, but if she tries to crush into a ball, I’m making her sad, like clinically depressed."
Rin accepted the mission.
Team Leader: Rin Matsuda (D)
mbers: Joy Castellanos (D), Tayo Okonkwo (D)
Mission Status: Active
---
Sector 9 was still crawling with Association patrols, but the periter around the industrial zone was porous, the "Clean-Up" mission was basically the Association outsourcing the grunt work of hunting down the stragglers that fled when the lab was breached.
Rin, Joy, and Tayo moved through an abandoned shipping yard, the sun setting casting long shadows between the rusted containers.
"Keep eyes up," Rin ordered, his voice low, "these things like verticality, they climb."
"Got it," Tayo said, his hands hovering near his sound emitters.
Rin focused on his internal energy, the tracker was dormant, he needed to practice what he’d learned in the kitchen, burst control.
He didn’t keep his fracture energy active, instead he held it in a state of readiness, just below the surface.
Scritch.
Sound of claws on tal, above and to the left.
"Left side!" Rin shouted.
Three breach creatures, the weird bipedal cat-things with too many teeth, launched themselves from the top of a container.
Tayo didn’t hesitate, he clapped his hands together, amplifying the sound into a concussive blast, BOOM.
The creatures were knocked out of the air, tumbling to the ground.
Joy hit them before they could recover, her eyes flashed pink, Terror.
The creatures froze, their enhanced aggression short-circuiting as their brains were flooded with primal fear, they huddled against the container, hissing but unwilling to attack.
"Rin, you’re up!" Joy called.
Rin moved.
He didn’t charge up a massive blast, he sprinted forward, and just as he reached the first creature, he pulsed the energy.
On.
A blade of purple void ford around his hand for exactly half a second, he slashed, the creature’s head separated from its body.
Off.
The blade vanished before the tracker could register the output spike.
He spun to the second one.
On, slash, off.
Second kill.
The third one tried to run, overcoming Joy’s fear.
Rin pointed a finger.
On, a needle-thin beam of fracture energy shot out, piercing the creature’s skull, off.
Three kills, three seconds.
[Tracker Status: Dormant]
[Energy spikes detected: 3]
[Duration:
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