Hal woke up to the sound of his phone vibrating, he reached out his hand to take it from underneath the pillow where he had stuffed it before going to bed last night.
Looking at the screen of his phone, he saw that it was a distress call from the 'MHO', which indicated that a gate had spawned not too far from his location and that a raid was about to go down.
"A raid by this time of the day. Didn't they just clear a gate yesterday?"
'Why the heck had another one spawned so soon and near his location as well.' Hal thought.
He looked at the time on his handset and saw that the time was just a little past seven in the morning.
Jumping off his bed, he tried his best not to wake his little sister and slipped into the bathroom to take a quick bath.
"Luckily enough, today was a Saturday, so after the gate had been cleared, he'd had the rest of today to spend with his little sis."
Quickly scribbling down a note of apology for his sister and a promise to be back as soon as he could, he ended it with a smiley emoji and was off.
******
Hunters operating within the same area tended to know each other well. In the event of a gate spawning, all hunters would be required to come, that's why.
The Hunters who had arrived early all chatted as they stood together, waiting for the arrival of their fellow Hunters.
"Hey. Jason! Jason! over here."
"Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you were giving up on being a Hunter?"
"Well, that.....I and my girlfriend have this really big date planned out, and I haven't gotten any money on me, so I needed the money.
"Hahaha, you arsehole, so you are telling me you came back to being a Hunter all for a date?
"Yeah, for a Hunter to earn big in one go, participating in a raid is the best, isn't it? Besides, a guy's got to impress his girl, right?" he replied while flexing his finely toned biceps.
They both burst into laughter.
"By the way, why do I feel like the 'MHO' is calling on us more and more lately? did the number of gates increase or something?" Mason asked.
"Nah, of course not, it's simply that the 'MHO' hasn't had any recruits in quite some while now, so the job has been left to those of us currently in the game."
"Well in that case, shouldn't the 'MHO' be thinking of raising our pay, no?"
Jason sheepishly smiled and said, "Of course, I agree with that."
Looking in a particular direction, he could see a certain Hunter coming.
"Hmm, he's here., Jason said with a slight frown etched on his face.
"Who?" asked Mason.
"Mister Hal," he said with a tint of mockery in his voice.
Other Hunters also looked in his direction to see who he was talking about.
"Ah, hello."
It was none other than Hal Rodgraim.
*****
E-rank Hunter, Hal Rodgraim.
No matter where he went, this title always stuck to him like glue.
It was par for the course then that he'd always end up getting injured; he nearly died several times, too.
Of course, it wasn't as if Hal exactly liked being a laughing stock that made him continue being a Hunter, no, it was just that he couldn't sit back and do nothing while the damned monsters that claimed both lives of his parents, killed other people and rampaged away.
The work was dangerous, and others made fun of him, and to top it all, the pay of an E-rank was pretty pathetic as well.
If it weren't for his sheer desire for revenge against the monsters and the fact that being on the MHO's payroll was the only way to sustain himself and his little sister, he would have long quit by now.
Hal performed a simple nod of the head while raising his hands as a greeting gesture and continued walking.
After making sure Hal was out of earshot, Jason said
"So, Hal showed up. Then today's raid is going to go quite well."
Mason raised an eyebrow and asked
"Why? It isn't like he's that strong now, is he?"
"Ahh, of course not, you see....the MHO tends to send distress calls to Hunters within a certain range of power."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, if the ranking of the gate was measured to be C-rank and above, they'd send Hunters also ranging from that rank and above, but if it were a D-rank gate and below, they'd send Hunters like us."
"Oh, I see now."
Jason sniggered before narrowing his eyes
"you wanna know that's guy's nickname?"
"yh?"
"The hunted hunter."
"What! All because he's an E-rank? I mean, there are other E-ranks, aren't they?"
"Yeah, ah but have you ever heard of an E-rank Hunter getting injured in an E-rank gate?""
"No?"
"Well, Hal recently was, thus, the nickname."
"Holy shit!"
They both busted into laughter.
"Hey dude, easy he could hear you."
"Oh, that's right."
Thankfully, the distance was far enough and Hal didn't seem to have heard them.
Of course, they were wrong.
'I can hear everything, you buffoons.'
A bitter smile formed on Hal's face as he tried to ignore them. At times like these, he couldn't help but blame his unusually acute sense of hearing.
Fortunately, it seemed like he arrived just in time as the squad leader could be seen trying to rally the Hunters.
He walked forward to join the other Hunters as they all prepared to enter the gate.