Kaito walked down the stone-paved path from the summit. He noted that the mountain was situated by the sea; the air was thick with moisture, and the stone steps were slick and treacherous.
Combined with the biting mountain wind and the steep incline, he figured that anyone willing to climb this mountain to seek an apprenticeship truly had to be a lunatic.
Walking with Kaito was the owner of the mountaintop hotel. The man, who called himself Toguro Hachidan, primarily ran his business in the small town at the foot of the mountain. But as rcenary Tao's fa grew, so did his side hustle.
What started as a simple gig acting as a middleman for Tao's contracts was now more profitable than his main business. As a result, he'd built the hotel on the summit to capitalize on the extra traffic.
rcenary Tao earned money at an astonishing rate and spent it just as capriciously. He might kill you if he was in a bad mood or shower you with cash if he was in a good one. To have survived and profited from a man like that, Toguro Hachidan had to be an exceptionally sharp judge of character.
At the foot of the mountain, a car was already waiting at the edge of town. It was a small, rounded taxi, a design typical of the world of Dragon Ball.
Toguro Hachidan pointed at the vehicle.
"You're a calm and patient young man," he said. "If you were trying to beco a student of a true grandmaster like Master Roshi, you'd probably be a promising candidate."
"But Master Tao doesn't care about that stuff. You'd better be able to actually complete this mission. Otherwise… hmmph."
He grunted, patting his belly. The aning was obvious.
"This car will take you to South City to et the client. The others have already left."
Kaito didn't seem bothered in the slightest. He simply maintained his faint, unreadable smile, opened the car door, and got in. The engine revved, and the car disappeared down the forest path in a cloud of dust.
As Toguro Hachidan walked away, he thought about the fresh batch of death-wishers who showed up every year. They either fled in terror or were never heard from again.
But this young man… he gave him a strange feeling.
He was always smiling, but there was sothing unsettling about it. He was handso, and at first glance, his smile seed bright and sunny. But the longer you looked, the more you felt it was a hollow, creepy facade.
Kaito sat in the back of the unique taxi. The driver was a big, bearded man who looked like he was about to burst the seams of the driver's seat.
"Excuse , sir," Kaito asked with a harmless smile. "Can this car turn into a capsule?"
The driver glanced in the rearview mirror, clearly uninterested in talking to a pretty boy who likely had all the luck with won. "If I had high-end tech like that," he grumbled, "do you think I'd still be driving a cab?"
Kaito felt a twinge of disappointnt. So, the famous Omni-Capsules weren't as common as he'd thought.
The rest of the three-hour drive to South City passed in silence.
South City was a tropolis located where the southern desert t the sea. It was ho to many wealthy rchants, which ant it was also ho to a lot of trouble.
After telling Kaito where he would be waiting, the driver dropped him off and left. Kaito began to wander through the city on his own.
He saw many beastn—people with animalistic features—roaming the streets. They were a unique race in this world: Animal-type Earthlings. Many of these unique demi-humans were even capable of learning special transformation abilities.
The ones Kaito saw, however, showed no signs of any superhuman traits. He observed their posture and movents and concluded they were no different from ordinary people.
Just as the world's difficulty rating of "Low ~ Unknown" suggested, the power level of an average person in the Dragon Ball world was close to that of his own. The prevalence of martial arts ant the general populace was slightly fitter, and the upper limit of their technology was higher, but their fundantal physical abilities weren't far beyond what Kaito was used to.
This world's reputation was built on the monsters at the top: the god-tier martial artists, aliens, androids, and Majins.
The gap between the floor and the ceiling of this world was imnse.
Kaito passed a gun shop. The city's laws were similar to those in the United States, with liberal gun ownership policies. But Kaito had no local currency, so he couldn't buy anything.
A normal trial-taker would probably try to find so side quests to earn money first, or perhaps wait for the cover of darkness to do sothing illegal to acquire a weapon.
But Kaito wasn't a normal person.
Anyone with real experience knows that the human body is a fragile thing. With a bit of bad luck, a simple trip and fall can be the end of you.
Therefore, you don't need a powerful weapon to kill soone. All you need is a cruel heart.
He arrived at a large building with a sign that read [Abola Trading Company]. Monts after he entered, he was escorted to a eting room on the top floor.
The client, Abola, was a portly, middle-aged man with distinct Middle-Eastern features. He was bloated and opulent, flanked by two bodyguards in black suits. He constantly dabbed at the sweat on his pale, fleshy face with a fine silk handkerchief, a sight that made the smile on Kaito's lips widen.
"You there! You're the assassin rcenary Tao sent?" Abola demanded. "Why didn't he co himself?!"
Abola was at his wit's end dealing with the striking workers demanding back pay. He hadn't even hesitated when Tao demanded a fee of 100 million. But seeing a smooth-faced young man show up instead was a disappointnt. He didn't bother asking for Kaito's na or even looking him in the eye.
Kaito sat on the sofa opposite him, less than two ters away, a table carved from a single block of natural stone between them.
"I am Master Tao's newest disciple," Kaito said, his tone casual. "For small-ti jobs like this, my master can't be bothered to act himself. We apprentices handle them in his stead."
He spoke as if the striking workers and their leader, Magee, were beneath his notice, his eyes instead drifting around the luxurious office.
Floor-to-ceiling panoramic windows, walls paneled with expensive marble, a floor made of precious stone—not to ntion the furniture. The very sofa he was sitting on was incredibly comfortable.
And the soundproofing in the room was good. Exceptionally good.
Abola's opinion of Kaito shifted slightly due to his confident attitude. He lit a cigar and gestured to a bodyguard, who imdiately placed a photograph on the stone table.
"This is Magee. I hear he trained for a few years at a local dojo. He's a tough custor; ordinary people can't get near him."
"Since Master Tao sent you, I won't beat around the bush. Eighty million!"
"Kill him, and I'll give you eighty million!"
Abola made the offer generously. While it was a steep price, it wasn't worth offending a monster like rcenary Tao over a few bucks, so he didn't haggle. He figured it was a fair price for one of Tao's disciples.
Kaito nodded without haggling either. He didn't even glance at the photo of Magee.
"The price is acceptable. The only remaining issue is that I lack a weapon."
"I left in a hurry and ca unprepared."
Abola blew a puff of smoke, frowning. An assassin who forgets his weapon? But he didn't want to argue. He flicked two fingers.
A bodyguard imdiately placed a black gun on the table. It was short, less than thirty centiters long—a submachine gun unique to this world.
Kaito picked it up.
[Short-barreled Submachine Gun]
[Quality: White (Common)]
[Description: A mass-produced, gunpowder-based automatic firearm from this world. Uses conventional ammunition.]
[Effect: High rate of fire, low stopping power.]
[Note: Cannot be taken out of this world (Insufficient Item Data).]
Kaito could see the system's annotation. Only items that possessed a certain amount of extra "data" could be placed in one's inventory and brought out of a derivative world. A common weapon like this, which practically everyone could own here, lacked the necessary [Information] to be recognized by the system.
It didn't matter.
Kaito raised the gun, aid it directly at Abola and his two bodyguards, and pulled the trigger.
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