Crash. 

Two more drones came crashing down from the sky. The debris scattered across the cold, barren road. 

Drew balanced himself carefully on top of Uenkram’s truck as its body snaked wildly along the road. Drew nearly fell a couple of times. 

“He really didn’t hold back.” Drew laughed. The wind rushed through his brown hair as he caught one of the flying knives. His suit jacket flailing violently once could even hear the snaps every time the coat whipped up. The adrenaline coursing through his body was like a drug. He craved for more of it. 

There were still a few drones remaining. 

Drew clenched both of his knives. His feet planted securely into the roof of the truck. Taking a deep breath, Drew threw the blades in opposite directions towards two drones. The string from his rings extended longer and longer as the blades pierced two more drones effortlessly. 

Yet, it didn’t stop there. 

Drew grabbed the strings connecting the knives and his rings. With a slight tug and a pulling-apart motion, the flying blades changed direction in mid-air, shredding apart the last few drones. There was not even an opportunity for them to change their trajectory. 

The Commissioner, in his van, was stunned. Being a Low B-Rank Intergalactic Warrior himself, the Commissioner would not expect an E-Ranker like Drew to pull off that level of flying knives technique that would normally be seen performed by D-Ranks or higher. Considering Drew’s age, it was extremely impressive that he could take out moving drones with such precision while going at higher speed and standing on top of a swerving truck without using a single drop of Otrio. 

It must be his primary weapon. The Commissioner thought to himself. 

“How commendable.” 

Oh, how wrong he was. 

Drew’s primary weapons were a shortsword and a shield. However, Gerald had taught him how to use flying knives as an auxiliary weapon for self-defense. To Gerald’s surprise, Drew picked it up rather quickly to which he replies that he’s familiar with wielding knives of the same size. What were those knives? The kitchen knives from the soup kitchen but that’s not all. Once a month, the soup kitchen employees would schedule a get-together at the archery range on campus. Since archery was too expensive for the employees, they did knife throwing. There was even some competition amongst them, which motivated Drew to practice in his spare time. He once even won 50 Kalas from a competition. As such, before Drew even became an Intergalactic Warrior, he already possessed incredible dexterity from both cooking and knife throwing, which only got better when he broke into E-Rank. 

“Get me closer to the truck!” The Commissioner ordered. “I need to confirm something.” 

The driver nodded, stepping on the gas pedal. 

“Understood.” 

“Zander,” The Commissoner called to the Hunter in the back seat who was monitoring the drones that had been destroyed. “I need you to replay the saved footage from the drones. You know what to look for.” 

The Hunter monitoring the drones, Zander had completely forgotten about the drone footage. He was mesmerized by the flying knives performance he had just witnessed. Although Zander’s rank was only High E-Rank, he felt fear run cold through his bones. Not even the A-Rankers the Hunters had faced in the past had ever made him feel like this. There was something different—something more terrifying about this man with purple eyes. 

As instructed, Zander rewound the footage. He zoomed in closer to the purple-eyed man. On his right collar, Zander’s eyes widened. His mind went blank. There was a silver pin. It was small but visible enough that Zander could tell what it was. The pin had a familiar curved tree. Its branches and curved stump touched the circular frame it was encased in. 

“Hey, boss! We’ve got a Crow.”

The Commissioner slammed his fist on the dash. A small dent had formed on it. 

“Shit,” the Commissioner cursed under his breath. “So Neilson decided to interfere in this one.” 

Pressing an icon on his wristband, the Commissioner spoke, his voice blaring through the speakers of the van that even Drew could hear it. “This is the Commissioner. Pull back your weapons. I would like to speak with this Crow.” 

Meanwhile, on the truck, Drew dialed Uenkram. 

“We in the clear yet?” Uenkram asked. 

“Not quite,” Drew replied. “Although, I will need you to stop. I’ll handle the rest.” 

“You got it, Dealer.” 

Both sides ceased their activities. 

The Hunters had retracted into their vans that had come to a stop fifty meters from Uenkram’s truck which was now facing perpendicular to the road, creating a blockade. 

Drew nimbly jumped off the roof of Uenkram’s truck as Uenkram climbed out of the driver’s seat. The Hunter’s stepped out of their respective vans. The Commissioner, the dirty blonde-haired Elf, glared at Drew with malicious intent. Though, that didn’t faze Drew one bit. He was used to being surrounded by influential people, correction, scary people. 

Following the Commissioner were twelve hunters. Each one is equipped with a plasma blaster and its own weapons ranging from axes, knives, hammers, and even lanterns. They were all holding on to them, ready to attack Drew when given the signal. Yet, Drew knew they couldn’t attack him, and neither could he. 

Amongst the Hunters, Drew found a familiar face. 

Well, well. Drew chuckled silently. What do we have here? 

On the right side of the Commissioner, in the flesh, Elias pointed one of his pistols at the Drew. 

Drew could even hear the slight moving of the trigger as Elias's finger put barely any pressure on it. 

Drew had no time to be surprised and focused on the Commissioner, who had pulled out a cigar from his dirty coat pocket. 

Tink. 

Tink. 

Goes the vintage lighter in his hand as he ignites the cigar with the dancing blue flame, releasing a pungent smell into the air. 

As the Commissioner was much stronger than Drew, Drew decided to initiate the formalities. 

"Hello, Commissioner." Drew greeted, bowing down to the Commissioner with respect. "I'm Dealer 3960 from the Crow's Eye. To what do I owe the pleasure?"  

The Commissioner exhaled a puff of smoke. 

"Spare the formalities," The Commissioner said in a gruff voice. "I didn't realize that Mr. Uenkram here was under the protection of the Crow's Eye." 

Drew smiled. 

"Ah, straight to the point, I see."

This made things much easier for Drew. 

"I'm sorry to say that your hunt has to end here."

"How come I wasn't made aware that Uenkram was a Crow's Eye affiliate?" The Commissioner asked bluntly. His hollow eyes pierced Drew's own gaze. 

Drew's consciousness shook a little under his pressure, but he continued speaking with the same cadence. 

"It was finalized today," Drew spoke in a clear voice. "Neilson hadn’t notified you yet.” 

“He sure is busy that old cat.” The Commissioner remarked. “Also, you don’t look familiar. Are you a new hire?” 

Drew nodded. 

“Yes.” 

“Haha!” The Commissioner cackled. Smoke escaped from his mouth. “Neilson’s got an eye for spotting talent. Always grabbing the new blood before I can even touch them. If Neilson didn’t hire you, I would’ve recruited you to the Hunters.” 

He’s trying to rope me onto his side. Drew thought. It’s as Neilson warned me. The Commissioner is quite crafty. 

Uenkram, who had the same thoughts as Drew, was experiencing deja vu. He couldn’t help but let out a wry smile as he leaned against the battered steel body of his truck. 

Sorry, Commissioner. This 'kid' is sharper than you think. 

“Well, ain’t that a shame,” Drew replied. “However, I will humbly decline your invitation.” 

“And why’s that?” 

“You Hunters may be the vigilantes of the underworld, but your methods are rather crass. The Crow’s Eye possesses more elegant, sophisticated ways of getting the same outcome. You may be cooperating with us, but you and I both know that you are simply another affiliate working under the Crow’s Eye.” 

The Commissioner remained calm as he blew out another ring of smoke. 

“It's mutual cooperation. Neilson required my information from within the Police Force to exchange information about my foes while keeping our identities confidential. I’m pretty sure that even you know that. We aren’t ones to do moral things like those idealists in the police force. Like the Crows, we both reside on the underbelly of Ozwarth. We perform our jobs as long as we get the result we want.” 

Drew snickered, twirling his knife as he removed a hidden tracking/speaker dot hidden between a crack in the truck’s trunk, causing the Commissioner to swear under his breath. 

“Whatever you say, Commissioner. In reality, you are fighting a war, and we are simply the weapons supplier of this war. You might achieve your goal in the end, but who do you think is the true winner of this game?” 

The Commissioner remained silent as the crazy young Dealer before him rambled, but there was some truth to his statement. 

“The Crows feast in times of conflict. Just remember that. If you don’t mind, we’ll take our leave.” 

The Commissioner had talked with many of the Crow’s Eye Dealers in the past. Each one, without fail, had been an enormous headache towards the Hunters. If he were to rank Dealer 3960 in his list, he would make it into the top five. Yet, as much as he wanted to punch the Dealer, he could not, according to the contract, but there was another reason he didn’t do so. 

[Insight]. 

[Insight] was one of the Commissioner’s Abilities. It allowed him to see a person's value and future potential. Though it was only an E-Rank Ability, it had never failed him. 

The Commissioner could tell that even without recruiting Dealer 3960, he would become a great ally to the Hunters in the future. He didn't know why, but it wouldn't be that long before he would know. For now, it was better to let the Dealer and Uenkram leave with minimal conflict. 

“It seems you're off the hook, Weasel!” The Commissioner said, glancing over at Uenkram. 

Uenkram smiled.

Once again, he owed Drew a favor, and it was not something he could pay for with his services.

As Drew and he climbed into the vehicle, glancing over at the Hunters through the side view mirrors, who couldn’t help but shake their heads with disappointment. Tonight, they had failed to remove another drug dealer off the streets. With that, both parties left in their respective directions ending the night’s conflict. 

As Uenkram drove through the lonely road, he sighed a breath of relief. 

“Thank you, Master Snow, for helping me.” 

“Not at all,” Drew replied. “You're an asset to our project. We can’t have you caught here.”

“That’s not the issue, my work has been exposed to the Hunters, and even if they can’t touch me, they can touch my men.” 

“Well, that's the loophole in the contract,” Drew said calmly. “However, there’s nothing we can do about it since that contract has been active for many years.” 

“How unfortunate.” 

“But I did promise you that I would make you untouchable.” 

“Yeah, but you left me on a cliffhanger after the auction."

"I did, but it's as you said before, not completely. However, what you need is patience. You may have rushed to become a feared drug dealer in the underworld, but that kind of rushing is not applicable here. What we're fighting isn't simply a battle but a war."

"Fine," Uenkram sighed. "I'll trust you on this one, but damn, you take way too many risks, you know." 

Drew snickered. 

"Speak for yourself, Mr. Debauchee drug lord. Why did you even enter the underworld in the first place?" 

Uenkram felt offended. 

"Excuse me, that's just a cover. I'm also a virgin." 

"Wow, Mr. Uenkram is a virgin. Who would've thought cause from my understanding, you have a harem going." 

Uenkram shuddered. 

"Did you look into my file again?" 

"Hey, can't help it." Drew shrugged. "I'm a Dealer, so I gotta know these things. Also, don't dodge my question." 

"Fine, I'll tell you why. I mean it's not really a secret to you anyways." 

And so, Uenkram told his story as the truck sped into the night.