Kuro looked at the gate quietly, closed his eyes, and remembered fragments of his past.
He remembered if there was a sea of blood and if there were mountains of corpses. He remembered that there were two people carrying him, running quickly and escaping from something. They placed him on a military truck near other people. He looked at the sky and saw a terrifying rift in the sky, as if the apocalypse was knocking at the door.
He knew this wasn't the time to recall past memories. What happened had happened. He didn't want to change it or try to confront it because it was a fixed event in his life.
After Kuro returned to reality, he passed by and looked around.
Kuro turned to the right, and there were tables with computers and military personnel sitting on chairs working on the computers. They were doing some work on the computers.
The computers were connected by an electric cable leading to a blue crystal, and there were four of them around the gate. Kuro remembered that the crystals had some function regarding suppressing the gate's energy.
Kuro advanced towards the gate, and he was advancing towards it without fear or tension on his face.
"Wait."
Kuro looked at the soldier and saw that he was putting his hand on a headset in his helmet and started communicating with someone.
"Don't enter, wait here a little."
Kuro shrugged his shoulders, indicating yes indifferently.
"9255182"
"992646"
"Yes 615268"
"This is more of their weird numeric talk than usual," Kuro thought as he looked around the place and noticed some things.
"This is why I didn't want to do this. It always causes a headache. Exactly. I hope it ends quickly, because I'm starting to feel movement in my back," Kuro thought because he felt piercing glances.
Kuro felt the soldiers staring at him like sharp swords ready to stab him at any time. The soldiers were standing in formation, ready to attack anyone. Literally, they might shoot Kuro if they saw anything suspicious happening.
They weren't trained to become cold killing machines; they were the embodiment of killing machines. They wouldn't hesitate to kill any man, woman, or child. The job of these people is execution and judgment, nothing more.
And Kuro, being a hunter or not, wasn't important to them. He was just a number, a number until another hunter came and took his role. They had seen a large number of hunters come and go and die. So for them, his death would give them less paperwork; alive, more paperwork. After the gate appeared, people started losing their human values more than before.
"Dammit, just when will this end.....Uh....Hmmm?"
Kuro looked to the right without turning his head and focused his gaze on someone. He was wearing a white cloak and had green hair, and he was in his mid-forties. He was sitting, holding a notebook, and drinking coffee.
"Is that a scientist? What is he doing in a place like this?"
This was strange for Kuro, as he had never seen scientists near the gate before. He had heard about them and their work on the gate.
"Maybe they have work at the gate. I rarely go to the gate for hunting, to be honest."
Kuro heard footsteps approaching him and saw the soldier with another person wearing different clothes. He was wearing the ordinary green military uniform and wasn't wearing a helmet or armor. He wasn't carrying weapons. He was wearing glasses and holding a logbook in his hand, and his appearance was friendly, which completely contrasted with the atmosphere around the place.
Kuro felt suspicious and looked towards the soldier. The same soldier who had walked with him downstairs; he was able to distinguish him thanks to his senses.
"Is everything ready, or is there a problem?"
"The gate is ready for entry, but you just need to answer some questions."
"New routine, huh."
The man took a step towards Kuro, straightened his posture, and began his work.
"Name?"
"Kuro Lansorn."
"Rank."
"Not registered."
The person looked at Kuro for a second before continuing to write.
"Hunter license."
"I don't have one."
The person stopped writing immediately and lowered the log in his hand.
"You cannot enter if you don't have a license."
"I entered last time without any problems. Why can't I enter this time?"
"This is because of the new law, Article 31, Clause 14 of the Hunter Law, which is—"
"Stop.... Just ignore it."
The bespectacled man looked at the soldier with some anxiety in his expression, adjusted his glasses, looked at Kuro, and returned to his log.
"Ahem, Mr. Kuro Lansorn, do you have a special ability?"
"Yes."
"Can you tell me what it is?"
"I become a werewolf."
Both of them looked at Kuro with a cold, narrow gaze. [-_-]
"I'm not joking. Look."
Kuro raised his hand. The soldiers looked at him, and without hesitation, they aimed their weapons at him, and there were many laser sights on him. Even the soldier who had spoken to him kindly a moment ago immediately raised his pistol towards him, ready to pull the trigger. The bespectacled man immediately stepped back.
"Calm down. There's no need for all this reaction."
He started pulling up his sleeve, uncovering his arm. It was a normal arm, but suddenly his hand grew larger and became covered in fur, and his nails grew and became sharper. Everyone looked at what happened in silence, and after a while, it returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.
"Happy now?"
The atmosphere remained silent. Kuro's cold expression made the situation more complicated, and after a while, the bespectacled man decided to break the silence.
"Well, Hunter Kuro Lansorn, some penalties will apply to you since you are not an officially registered hunter with the organization."
"Like what?"
"First, you cannot break or take a core unless approved by another authority."
"As if I would do that."
"Prohibited from using any magical weapons or potions since you do not hold a legal license to possess them."
"Do I look like I carry any of them?"
"And third, you will lose 90% of the profit from every monster you kill."
"90%!"
"And the fourth and most important is that your life is entirely your personal responsibility. We have no intervention in what happens to you inside or outside the dungeon."
"Wait, wait, did you say 90%?"
"Yes, I said that clearly."
Kuro was about to drop his cold facade, put his hand on his forehead, and started rubbing his temples.
"Is this a joke? You better be joking, because that would be the most unfair thing I've heard in my life."
"These are the Union's laws, approved by more than 100 countries."
"Can I know why they suddenly put out such nonsense out of nowhere?"
"It's a step by the United Nations Council to increase the level of security and order among hunters, due to the many incidents and crimes that have occurred."
Kuro let out a sigh and closed his eyes.
"You can only register as a hunter at H.E.R.O.E.S."
"On my dead body."
Everyone looked at Kuro suspiciously, and Kuro noticed this and intervened before the misunderstanding worsened.
"No, no, it's not like I'm against it, but becoming a member of it makes me work for them for overtime."
"But when you join, you will get magical tools and special potions that help you grow."
"Nope, I'm fine with this, thank you."
"Then my job here is done."
The bespectacled man looked at the soldier near him, and Kuro was talking to him, and he began to feel a hint of tension.
"You may cross now, hunter."
"Finally!"
After Kuro let out a cry of victory or celebration, Kuro entered the gate and disappeared. The atmosphere around them became quieter with Kuro's departure. When he entered the gate, the soldier looked towards the bespectacled man.
"I'm going back to the surface. Martin, go to your usual office."
"Yes."
Martin went to his office, but before he went, someone stopped in front of his desk. It was a person well-known here.
"Professor! What brings you to a place like this?"
"What? Can't I go and wander freely as I want? I'm not a rat in a cage, you know. Or am I not allowed to enter?"
"No! I would never dare to do that! It's just that..."
"Ahahaha, it's just a joke. Don't take it seriously."
"Phew."
"Really, none of you have any sense of humor here."
"Because we are inside an important military site, Professor. Monsters could come out at any time."
"But are we here talking in an office near a gate that might release an Eldritch being?"
"Yes, sometimes I get too tense when I work. I'm sometimes afraid that this might happen. That's why I'm late in submitting reports."
"Yeah, so what do you think?"
"About what?"
"About that cat-boy. Tell me your opinion, not as a gate bureau employee, but your personal opinion about him."
Martin listened to the Professor's words carefully, thinking well before answering.
"Honestly, he doesn't seem like a hunter to me at all. He seemed to me like just a Mutant boy with debts he has to pay."
"Pfft!"
"???"
Martin looked at the Professor, who was trying to hold back his laughter. It was a scene where Martin didn't know exactly how to respond.
"Pff... It seems I'm not the only one who thought that when I saw his expression when he heard about that law."
"But it still doesn't justify why that soldier let him slide and enter the gate."
"He said he caught a bullet with two fingers. Doesn't that mean he's a good person?"
"It might be impressive, but it's still not enough. I've been working as a gate inspector for five years in Las Vegas, and I've seen a large number of them die, soldiers and hunters alike."
"Yes, that's true, but he did that for a reason."
"A reason?"
"Yes, he told me, and it honestly surprised me."
"What did he say?"
"He said he doesn't care whether he lives or dies. All that matters to him is that if he kills enough monsters, it will be good for us. It will give us more time to prevent the gate from breaking."
"What about H.E.R.O.E.S? Didn't they send a statement or anything regarding this?"
"They say they are busy on their end too. This means we have no choice but to rely on the limited hunter guilds."
"But that's not the main problem. The protesters are even preventing hunters from going to the gate. The number of hunters who have entered this gate has dropped sharply over the past months."
"Seriously, are they braindead or what? Don't they know that without hunters, those things will come out and end us?"
"They fear them, Professor, because they are different."
"And so are the Mutant, isn't that right?"
"Yes, they fear them more than the hunters. And there have been cases of killing lately these days."
"Speaking of the Mutant, isn't it a strange coincidence for a hunter and a Mutant to come to the gate?"
"Yes."
"Really, the world works in a strange way."
"So we are alone in this situation, Professor."
"You mean you are alone. My job here is to study the magical readings of the gate for my research."
"Oh!, excuse me, sir!"
"Jesus, you really have no sense of humor. You need to take a break، seriously you needed one"
"Sorry."
"But I really hope he comes out alive from here, because I want to study some samples from this dungeon."