MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin



The moment Adam sat down next to Medusa, he immediately felt the surrounding space distort slightly before going back to its normal state.

"This…"

"This is a sound barrier."

She pointed toward the barista of the coffee shop he entered. This cafe was one of the rare places in the world which only catered for the hunters and hunters only.

It was a basic communication hub where the hunters gathered to exchange information or simply chat and have a leisurely time while they had some tasty refreshments.

Adam just nodded his head; he did not shift his gaze to observe his surroundings. That action was already being enacted by his skill The World in real time.

This whole place was reeking with Prana the moment he entered the shop.

"Since Hunters have very developed senses, even muttering under one's breath or whispering to one's ear would be no different than speaking with a loudspeaker for them; pretty easy to hear and understand. For those reasons, all shops dedicated to hunters install this kind of sound-blocking system that ensures absolute privacy. It's pretty useful if I say so myself."

"You seem quite happy…"

"Heh. What can I say… This is one of the very few places I can come to drink some alcoholic beverages without having to show my ID and then argue endlessly with the authorities that it isn't a fake ID. The problem here… is that it's indeed a fake ID that I am showing them so I can't really complain much."

Adam chuckled at her explanation.

Medusa indeed looked more like a first-year high schooler than the age-old mythical figure that she was. It was pretty hard for people to see her and reason within themselves that she wasn't a kid.

"Like this is so fucking ridiculous… I can legally buy a gun but I can't legally drink nor gamble yet before three more years? How does that even make sense?"

"What can I say? Gotta protect yourself, I guess…"

"Ugh… Whatever. Either way, there is no such thing as legal age in the hunter world. If you are old enough to kill then you are old enough to make any decision you wish."

She smirked at her own words then shifted her snake slit eyes toward him…

"Speaking of killing… You reek of blood, you know?"

Her voice was eerily calm as she delivered that line to him, as though she was talking about everything stuff, "You also should tone down your bloodlust. You are making all the people in this place agitated by your aura."

She grinned and it was only then that Adam understood the current situation.

The reason the atmosphere in this place had been so tense hadn't just been because he was a newcomer coming out of nowhere. They had been wondering if he was an enemy coming in for slaughter all along.

"Sorry."

He breathed out a sigh and slowly calmed himself down, feeling his mind become noticeably lighter than before.

The change in the atmosphere of the coffee shop was pretty noticeable as even the barista who had his hands under the table resumed his glass cleaning session as though nothing had been wrong from the start.

"Don't be. I do not know what you did yesterday and honestly speaking, I don't really care. As long as you don't start attacking innocent civilians in an indiscriminate manner then I believe even the Association won't bother with whatever killing you are doing in the background."

Might make Right, indeed.

That sentence held the most weight in the world of hunters. As long as the hunter didn't threaten public safety, high-ranked hunters were given an incredible amount of influence and leeway.

"Anyways, that isn't exactly why I called you here. Firstly, congratulations are in order. You officially became registered as a hunter in all our databases under the code name The Magician. Nearly all information about you, except the fact that you are a core member of the Kaminari clan, has been blurred in the databases so you don't have to worry about others digging up your info anytime soon."

She took out two black cases from under the table. The first one contained a pair of contact lenses and the second one had a small black band that she put around his right arm.

"I see that you are currently wearing quite an outdated model of the Virtual Reality Glasses that we used to give out. Either way, the one I am giving you now is more secure and has far more features and capabilities than whatever you're using. I had to get one from that nerd but she is quite proficient when it comes to tech."

She brought her own arm forward and showed the white band that was tied around it. "This is the latest model computer created by that girl. I think her pseudonym is [~S.K~] nowadays. Those things are really handy and only given to Gold-ranked hunters and above. Silver rank and below are given a smartphone to access the database. So, you could say that it's another one of your privileges as a high ranked hunter."

A holographic screen was projected in front of him that was coming out of the band in her arm, "Currently, I have set it to visible so you are able to see the screen. But by using it with those lenses, you can make it completely invisible to anyone but yourself. You can access all the functionality of a computer and it has a special connection to the Internet. So it will always have an internet connection and the world wide web will be available to you no matter where you are on this earth."

The screen started to show different pictures as she imputed the code name, The Magician on her band.

A new page appeared and Adam could see a completely blank profile picture and not a single bit of info was filled in the profile.

"Take this as your social page. You cannot fake information but you can still choose to show or hide the missions you take and all information about you. In principle, this is no different from social media for people searching for work."

She laughed lightly after saying that. The only thing in his profile that attracted others' attention was the golden bird that was attached after his name.

"I don't think I have to explain this to you right? Your grade is the only thing you cannot hide from the others of the Hunter Association. As many people search based on grade first and there's no way to mask your ranking to others as that would make no sense. Your current achievement level is zero, which is unprecedented for a gold ranked hunter. So you might not receive many requests at first as many would think that you got your rank by doing something shady."

Most hunters started small and then progressively grew into the upper ranks. So even the most talented hunters had to start at a low level and while doing missions they would accumulate achievement.

Adam being a gold rank was clear proof that he directly became a hunter from the test alone. People will understandably be hesitant to hire him as there was no precedent of that happening before.

"Of course, the request system is quite risky. Both for the one giving the request and the one accepting it. Even though rare, there are many cases of hunters getting scammed or tricked or doing the scamming on their clients. This is why it's better to go to the official board for your first few missions."

She proceeded to explain that all the official missions were carefully screened by the Association so there was no risk of scamming. The mission from the board had a lesser reward as the Association took a cut of the reward for their process fees. But in exchange, if any problem happened, be it from the hunter or client side, the association would act in accordance and make sure that the problem was quelled and make financial or any other form of amendments if necessary.

"So… Basically I am paying for insurance?"

"I say we are much less scammy than your average insurance company. But that is an apt description of the Association's services."

Adam shook his head at the devious smirk that was etched on her face and focused on the screen.

He had just finished his work from the dark side but it seemed like he would soon be doing some work for his other persona as well. There was just no time for him to rest it seemed.

This was bound to become tiring in the long run but for now, he didn't complain about it.

"So. Do you have a mission for me?"

"I, in fact, do. If I speak of the city of light, love, and fashion… What is the first thing that comes to your mind?"

Adam's eyes widened abruptly. He wasn't the most cultured man around and he definitely wasn't interested in countries outside his own but even someone like him knew about the place that she was referring to.

"Paris?"

"Bingo. Hehe, are you interested in going to France?"

(AN: Don't forget guys, Mass release start in at reset. Don't hesitate to send any gift. Even the smallest one can help. Though new readers bring more points so don't hesitate to recommend if you like.)