HunterNet Exploration

With enough money saved up from the settlement, I headed straight to the Hunter Guild and subscribed to various additional services.

“The additional services you’re signing up for are the HunterNet service, Airscreen service, and OTT service. Is that correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“If you’re subscribing to the HunterNet service, would you also like to add the VPN service…”

“…Why would I need that?”

“It’s useful in many ways. It makes anonymous activity much easier, for one.”

Who subscribes to a VPN just to use HunterNet? I let out a dry laugh, but the counselor in front of me seriously recommended the VPN service.

“Anonymity is quite important, you know. There are cases where people demonstrate their abilities over the internet.”

“…Really?”

“Yes. That’s why I recommend not just the VPN service, but also subscribing to the secrecy maintenance service. If you sign up now, the VPN will be added, and we’ll even delete any information that’s already spread. You’ll also receive real-name protection. How about it?”

“Hmm…”

Was this just a sales tactic, or was it actually an essential service? While I was pondering, a future vision appeared before my eyes.

From the content of the future vision, the secrecy maintenance service seemed essential. Following its advice, I nodded and asked if I could also subscribe to rescue insurance.

“Great. I’d also like to add rescue insurance.”

“Ah, in that case, there’s a bundled package. Here. If you subscribe to the Safety Integration Pack…”

“Rescue team dispatched within 12 hours after death. If rescue fails, the company covers all rescue costs. Rescue team dispatched even if you’re unable to move for more than 72 hours due to an abnormal status?”

“Yes. It’s an opportunity to subscribe to rescue insurance at a reasonable price.”

“What happens after rescue if I’m in an abnormal status?”

“You’ll be transferred to hospitals affiliated with us. Here’s the list of affiliated hospitals.”

Recalling what Estelle had told me, I thoroughly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠checked all the information related to rescue insurance. I had to make sure I wouldn’t end up like those statues displayed in the park. Maybe it was because it was a service directly provided by the Hunter Guild, but nothing seemed suspicious.

“Alright. Then, as is…”

“Confirmed. The total cost of the services you’ve subscribed to is 48.88 million credits per month.”

An additional fixed monthly expense of 48.88 million credits had been added. It was expensive if you thought it was expensive, but cheap if you thought it was cheap. With this, the amount I needed to earn each month was now approaching 200 million credits, but it didn’t matter. I was confident I could make that much from now on. After signing the contract, a familiar pistol-shaped syringe was once again held out in front of me.

“The usage is the same as the awakening agent—just press it against your head.”

Following the staff’s instructions, I pressed the syringe to my head and injected the mental image.

“Oh. I can see it.”

Immediately, a semi-transparent window appeared before my eyes.

It was my information, now viewable on my phone. The Airscreen service—commonly known as the status window service. It seemed to have been applied properly. The name had changed to Helper, so the secrecy protection service must have been applied as well.

Come to think of it, my Mental Image rank was still at 1-star. Since I was already at the guild, should I update my Mental Image rank too? I’d need to raise it to enter gates more smoothly from now on.

“Congratulations on your 2-star promotion.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes. Abilities are ultimately self-reported.”

“Ah, I see.”

Getting recognized as 2-star was extremely simple. All I had to do was use the Mental Image measuring device again to confirm my 2-star status. After finishing the rank upgrade, I left the guild. That took care of everything I needed to do at the Hunter Guild. Now it was time to look into magic implantation procedures.

“Huh?”

A message from Estelle appeared before my eyes. The Airscreen service really was convenient. While marveling at that, I replied to Estelle.

Crossed the line. Was that related to the debt collectors forcibly using Mental Image manifestation?

I casually brought it up with Estelle, but…

Estelle firmly stated that it wasn’t something to tell me.

Had Elly told her what I’d done? Estelle’s nagging messages reminded me of an old memory.

‘Little brother, no matter what, this deal seems too risky. Can’t you play it safer?’

‘It’s fine. It was a safe investment with only 3x leverage.’

‘No. Just put it in Onvidia? You can’t put it somewhere like that.’

Hmm, that wasn’t quite it? Anyway, receiving this kind of concern didn’t feel bad at all. Just as Estelle said, now was the time to solidify my foundation.

There were many things I could do to build my foundation. I could buy new equipment with this money, or learn other skills. Shion was a city of possibilities. If you had enough money, anything was possible here. But the most appealing option right now was…

Becoming a mage.

Do you know what an “inalienable rights character” is? In gacha games, they refer to characters with performance so strong that the game becomes difficult to play without them. They’re called inalienable rights characters because you need to have them to be treated as a person. Since inalienable rights characters are usually popular characters when released, becoming one is my immediate goal.

Of course, Last Shion also has inalienable rights characters. It’s a game that’s been in service for two years—there’s no way it wouldn’t. But the characteristic of Last Shion’s inalienable rights characters is…

They were all supports. And among those supports, the job class with the most was mage.

Therefore, the conclusion was that learning magic was advantageous for becoming an inalienable rights character. Especially since learning magic would be much easier than learning other skills.

In the case of martial arts, there was no easy way to learn techniques, and you could only learn hand seals to begin with. The superpowers at the academy were too heavily dependent on talent. At best, the artifacts from Reverse Factory were relatively easy to obtain, but getting something worthy of an inalienable rights character was impossible with my current funds.

But with magic, if you could learn it, you could choose and master the magic you wanted. And now that there were supposedly no conditions required to learn magic, was there any reason not to learn it? Oxy would foam at the mouth if she found out, but since I had citizenship, she’d let it slide.

“Future sight is useless this time.”

I used one of the refreshed search attempts that had accumulated over the day to find information ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠about magic implantation, but no results came up. Was it a setting that wasn’t mentioned in the community? Or was it referred to by a different name even if mentioned?

Well, it didn’t matter. I could find this kind of information without using future sight.

I’d been so busy looking at other worlds’ communities that I’d forgotten, but of course, this world also had internet communities. Important information probably didn’t circulate here, but something like magic implantation should be findable on HunterNet.

“First, registration…”

The registration finished in an instant, and upon accessing HunterNet, several boards were visible.

There were five boards like this. I wondered what the atmosphere of the boards would be like. With that thought, I opened the first board.

The atmosphere seemed quite hostile. It was a chaotic mix of promotional posts occasionally seen on boards in my previous life and posts that looked like they were written by AI.

“…I roughly get the atmosphere.”

Come to think of it, even anonymity required money here. Because of that, the free board seemed to have a prevalent atmosphere of looking down on non-anonymous people. And it seemed the same for the other boards too—not to the extent of being flooded with bots and ads and giving up on moderation like the free board, but…

If you weren’t anonymous, your statements seemed to lose power. Indeed, what important information would someone who couldn’t even afford the anonymous service subscription share? It would be wise to assume most of it was just aggro.

“…But isn’t this my story?”

A large quantity of transparent magic stones had been released. No matter how I thought about it, I was the only one who came to mind. Had one of the people at the guild exchange posted this? Seeing this, not all real-name posts were aggro—there were useful ones mixed in too, so I’d have to distinguish them carefully. Now, what about the anonymous board?

My lady recently suffered losses from an investment, so she has to make do with this dog food… I hope you all prepare proper security and escort personnel before investing. Well then, enjoy your delicious breakfast~

“……”

Ah, right. Even the anonymous board’s quality didn’t seem particularly better. No, it might even be worse in a different sense? One interesting thing was that even though it was the anonymous board, people seemed to figure out who was who from the writing style or something. While I was roughly gauging the atmosphere by browsing the boards, I noticed something strange.

“There’s no search function?”

Nowhere on HunterNet was there a search function. What? Wasn’t a search function basic?

It seemed no one knew the exact reason. Sigh, this was going to make it hard to find information. That’s what I thought, but…

Looking at the titles that seemed like they were spammed by bots, it didn’t seem entirely so. I roughly picked one of those posts and checked the content.

“…Hmm.”

It was literally a viral advertisement post. But one thing I could tell was that magic implantation was truly an open door to anyone. The fact that they were advertising this much meant they really would perform the procedure on anyone if you paid.

“There’s no detailed explanation. It just says you’ll be able to use magic.”

No matter how I thought about it, it didn’t seem like just any procedure. I could just barge in and find out, but I didn’t really want to do that. It would be unfair to pay a huge amount of money for the procedure and not see much effect.

“…Useless.”

Even if I posted a question to get more detailed information, I didn’t get proper answers. Seeing this made me realize how essential a search function was on a community. Was there no way to get more reliable information?

Ha, if only HunterNet was linked to my ability. They said there were people who used their abilities over the internet, so there should also be people who could handle the internet with their abilities. While sighing with that thought…

“…Huh?”

As if granting my wish, a message appeared before my eyes.

I could now search on HunterNet.