Code Collector

Allen was hesitant to accept the man's plea. If this was a simple case of theft, then he doesn't need to be concerned. There were police officers to do that job for them.

That was until he saw the mark on the man's forehead. It was a symbol that was faintly glowing with a purple light. The symbol was shaped like a tip of a trident, but thicker.

"Who gave this to you?" Allen asked the man, placing his gloved fingertip on the man's forehead. "And what does this mean?"

The man did not respond, prompting Allen to look at his face, only for him to be shocked. The man's eyes were rolled to the back of his head and his mouth was slightly opened. Allen took a step back, only for him to collide with a body.

"What–"

He spun and saw a much larger man than Oliver's tiny body. He leaped a couple of meters back, raising the dagger that he used as Oliver's weapon. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The large man did not respond. Instead, he ran towards Allen, conjuring a large broadsword that was the size of Allen's current body. The man raised the sword and did not think twice on slashing it against Allen.

The boy rolled to the side to dodge, successfully doing so but failed to see the woman who was on the side, grinning as she slammed her palm on his face. The impact from the slam made Allen's frail body blast away, crashing to the wall with a loud thump.

He forgot that Oliver had little to no defense when it comes to combat. The Body was a support/healing role therefore his defense is easy to compromise. He also had barely any damage, so he can't do a lot when it comes to combat.

"You are a person who shouldn't be involved," the woman said. "This isn't your turf, so you have to make way, child."

"Turf?" Allen asked, coughing blood out as he did. He may be in a puppet's body, but this body was still human-like. He could still cough out blood. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"In the darkness, we roam," the man said. "We don't need another person to roam in our darkness. This land is ours, go back to Haven, the Wandering Trader."

Allen's eyes widened after the man called his title. He looked at them in the eyes, both of them were still emotionless. "Y-You know me?"

"The Black Market has their own circle of information," the woman said. "You should examine what they know about you rather than if they know about you. You may never know, you're already caught."

"But why are you doing this?" Allen asked. "That man got robbed and now you killed him. Why?"

"We didn't kill him," the man said. "This person is our target, we merely did our job."

Allen scoffed, "By killing him? That was your job?"

"Four counts of murder, seventeen counts of assault, six counts of plunder," the woman spoke. "This man did all of those, and you don't think he deserved this?"

"I–I didn't know–"

"But now you do," the man cut Allen off. "You should go back now. You may have your business in Haven, but here in Paradise, the Soul Burners will do our job. Goodbye."

The two looked at each other before vanishing from existence. Allen was left alone in the alley, still confused about what just happened. He couldn't believe it, but he had no choice but to do as they say. There are already anti-heroic people here in Paradise. 

He looked at the man once more, seeing the innocent look of the petrified man. "You really can't judge a book by it's cover, huh?"

With that, the boy returned his focus in his real body and let Oliver, Stacey, and Vince go back inside him.

He discovered that when he lets his Body equip something from him, when he takes them back, the thing would go to his Inventory automatically. The only condition for this was that the item should have been in his Inventory before he sent it to his Body.

Therefore if a Body would pick up a stone from somewhere and Allen recalls them, the Body would return but the stone would remain where the Body picked it up.

Thid was a cool feature for Allen especially if he plans on making Oliver the new figure for the Wandering Trader. If the Body was cornered, he can just recall him and his items like the cloak, the mask, and the equipment set, would return to him too.

"We're almost there," Gwen spoke, waking Allen up from his daydreams. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Allen replied. "I just needed to think for a bit."

"Okay," Gwen said back, distancing herself to let Allen think. The others and her would do this when Allen needed time to think. They know how hard it is for Allen to keep up with all the problems, so they do their best to help him in any way that they can.

"Hey Gwen," Jeremy called out and walked beside Gwen. "What do we do once we got back to Camp Twyla?"

"We're going to greet Hilda," Allen said. "I can't start the Wandering Trader plot in Paradise because a group had already started that kind of business there."

"A group like you?" Jeremy asked. "They also deal with people's problems?"

"I don't know what they do," Allen sighed. "This is also why I want to go back here. I need to talk to someone and ask him about it."

The three of them looked at each other once Allen turned to a path that did not lead to the camp. "Where are you going?"

Allen did not answer them. He continued walking on the path until they saw a large fence that was tall and looked deadly. There was a sign on the side warning them about the possible dangers if they try to touch the fence."

"Hey," Allen said. "May I come in?"

Bernard smiled at them, running towards the gate of the fence. "You're back. What made you visit?"

"I want to ask a couple of things," Allen said. 

This made Bernard smile and open the gate for them. The other three behind Allen were looking at each other, thinking how would Allen knew of this place.

The path to Bernard's cottage was confusing. He designed a path that would make it hard for any Hunter to suddenly stumble upon his fence. However, due to Allen's intelligence attribute, he was able to remember the path they took when he went back to the camp.

"Come in, come in," Bernard ushered for them to get inside and so they did.

"Woah," Jeremy gasped at the sight. "You built all of these alone?"

"Yeah," Bernard said, also looking up to admire his home. "Though I did ask Sebastian for some help, but most work was done by me alone."

"Sick," Gary smiled. "I always dreamt of having a cottage in the middle of the forest, but I'd get too scared of the beasts that would roam free."

"That's why I installed a fence," Bernard uttered. "The fence is enough to keep even the Rare grade beasts away from me, and that's fine.,"

Allen cleared his throat, making everyone look at him. "Bernard, I have questions for you."

"And I'll answer them all," Bernard replied. "Just ask away."

"Do you know the group called Soul Burners in Paradise?" Allen asked. "You know I'm the Wandering Trader, and they said I couldn't do that if I'm in Paradise because they are already there."

Bernard's smile dropped after hearing the name of the group. He was quick to recover his composure, but slow enough that everyone had already saw the fierce anger in his face before he could recompose himsef.

"That is a group of people who steals people's EXP," Bernard said. "I don't know how or where they got such Code, but their victims would be left like stone afte they do thier job. Soul Burners have been a problem in our *asses for almost a year now. They keep doing this and we keep reviving the people they they chose to be their vicitms."

"But I thought they only go for criminals?" Allen asked. "I saw them working earlier and their vicitm was only a man. But this man had a lot of criminal cases in his name that he deserved what he got."

Bernard laughed lightly and sarcastically at what Allen said. He smirked and shook his head, "What you saw today was only one of their victims. They don't care if the person they're going to attack is a man with a million pending cases or a man without one. As long as they get money, Soul Burners will do their job."

"And what happens after?" Allen asked, gulping in fear that he might not like the answer to his question. "To the victims, what will happen to them?"