Hide was shown to one of the luxurious rest rooms, which were normally only reserved for VIP's.
Well, he was no less than a VIP currently, he had just broke a 10 year old record and as if that wasn't enough. The gate was specified as a 2 star, rather than a 1 star.
Considering that, and the time he took to complete that, it was extraordinary... no less than a miracle.
Hide sighed and summoned the system screen by calling class state in his mind.
--
[Universal Adaptation System]
Host: Hide Volter
Age - 18
Level: 4
Exp: 60 / 1100
Class: ∞
Class Rank: F
Evolve - Level 4/20
Physical Attributes
Strength: 10
Agility: 5
Endurance: 11
Vitality: 8
Mental Attributes
Perception: 7
Willpower: 12
Non-Allocated Points: 10
Active Skills – Abyssal Scale Carapace (A), Abyssal Flame (B)
Passive Skills – Dermal Reinforcement (F), Predator's Respite (B), Unshaken Will (B), Toxin Resistance (C)
[Inventory]
[Daily Quests]
System Messages:
[0 Unread Notifications]
--
Hide looked at it and contemplated for some time before assigning the 10 non allocated points.
'5 to agility'
Agility 5 - 10
'2 to vitality'
Vitality 8 - 10
'3 to perception'
Perception 7 - 10
Now all his attributes were above 10 or above 10. He didn't know how much difference it would make, but he knew that sometimes even a single point can mean life or death.
He didn't feel much changes anywhere else, but he did feel that his body had become lighter and he had better control of his muscles. Giving 5 points to agility did make a difference.
It was not like he was healthy, he barely passed the line for skinny.
Hide was about to open inventory to check the rewards he got for leveling up, when suddenly a figure passed through the wall on his left.
He wasn't seeing there, but his enhanced perception was triggered the moment the certain someone stepped inside the room. Hide looked towards him and to his surprise, it was the young boy from the cafeteria who had suggested that he and Fuu should do a Gate challenge.
Hide shot up to his feet and took a step back. "What are you doing here?"
The boy was covering his face with a hood, he removed the hood and raised his hands. "Hey, its me. Incase you don't remember."
"I remember well," Hide replied. "I asked, why are you here?"
"Now, now," The guy slowly walked forward and sat on the other chair there was. He let out a long sigh and chuckled. "You know it get's hard when you get old. Haha."
"..." Hide looked at him from top to bottom, with narrowed eyes. He looked, by all means like a young boy in his early twenties. "What do you mean by old? Aren't you like 21 or something?"
"Haha, Do I look that young?" The man laughed, then he suddenly went silent and stood up. "Holy shit! I forgot."
Hide looked at the weird guy as he panicked and brought out a card from a secret pocket. The card looked as if it had been through a really tough ride with bent sides and wrinkles.
"Here, come to the headquarters of National Exterminator Agency, its in area 5, not too far away." The man said with a smile.
Hide took the card, a bit in a daze and when he looked up the man was gone leaving behind a remnant of his voice.
"Contact the number written behind the card when you get there."
"Huh?" Hide was shocked for a while. Then he let out a sigh.
'National Exterminator Agency... that's the official government agency.'
Hide was... really, feeling like this was a dream. The National Exterminator Agency was the Agency run by the government itself, not associated with... but run by.
It was on a whole different level, with the best and powerful exterminators from all across the continent. Though, there were three or four large private agencies too, some even more powerful than the government itself.
But the NEA was in a league of its own.
Hide looked at the card for a long time, he also had the card given to him by Claire which was to invite him into the GFEA (Geo Ford Extermination Agency).
He almost laughed... he was just a nobody till 2 days ago, none of these people really cared or even knew he existed. None of them came to help them when his mom was died trying to protect him.
They said that it was a delay in response team's arrival, but Hide knew better. He knew that the response team had arrived already and that they even knew that there were beasts in the house.
But, their main focus was the gate. For them, one or two citizen lives are just numbers.
Hide clenched his fists and ground his teeth, realizing how much he hated Exterminators.
Then he stood, picked up one of the chairs, carried it out of the room and across the main floor, and set it down directly in front of Zone Four's glass observation window.
He sat in it.
The Zone Four gate pulsed slowly behind the glass — the same deep, dark vertical tear he'd stepped through himself from Zone Two, its edges curling inward with that expression of constant almost-closure.
Fuu's party was still inside. The timer above Zone Four read twenty-three minutes and climbing.
Several people on the facility floor looked at Hide sitting in the chair in front of Zone Four, but nobody said anything to him.
Toma came to him after eleven minutes and stood besides him. "They are still not out? So much to prove that his fat ass is useless. How could he be taking more than 30 minutes with a party?"
After the timer tickled to thirty two minutes, the gate tear widened at the centre, the edges pulling outward, and the exit formed — the gate cycling through its completion sequence.
Four figures came through.
They came through in a group, still in formation out of habit, and the transition from gate interior to facility floor hit them all the same way.
They were not in good condition.
All four were sweating heavily, the kind of deep sweat that comes from sustained exertion over a long period, their gear damp and their faces carrying the look of a run that had cost them.
One of the broadest man of the party, a large, sturdy-built person, had his arm over the shoulder of the woman, his left leg dragging.
The other male party member had his hand under the injured man's other arm, both of them helping him stay upright.
Fuu came through last.
He was limping slightly but not badly, his jaw bandaged from earlier where the two teeth had come out. Despite the sweat, the state of his party, his expression was the same one it always was. Wide and performing.
He laughed.
Full and loud, the sound of it bouncing off the facility ceiling.
"Thirty two minutes!" He raised one arm, looking back at his party. "Not bad for a gate that tried to eat us." He grinned around the gap in his front teeth. "And that talentless bastard—" He shook his head, still laughing. "He would never be able to finish before us. He probably died in there and they haven't found the body yet."
The large sturdy boy — still propped between his two party members, laughed heartily at that. "Right? Probably still running from the first beast in there. Maybe they'll find his shoes." He shook his head. "Should've stayed home, man. No talent means you've got no business in a gate."
The two of them laughed together.
However, the woman in the party did not laugh. She was looking toward the main floor.
Then the large sturdy boy's laugh started to die. He had followed her line of sight.
Fuu was still smiling when he turned toward the exit doors.
His jaw hit the ground without any delay, his eyes widening and a gnawing horror slowly creeping up.
Hide was sitting in the chair in front of their zone.
One leg crossed over the other. Both hands resting open on his knees. With a sheet of almost 10 paper held there.
He was looking at Fuu, with a faint smile.
The large sturdy boy with the broken leg had gone very quiet. The woman was looking at the floor. The second male party member was looking at the record board with his mouth open.
Hide uncrossed his leg and waved the contract paper of the challenge in his hands.
"Are you ready?" he asked pleasantly.