Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

The shock was visible on Zack\'s face as looked around the place for a second time before opening his status window.

[ 26th July 2069 ]

The date was correct and so was the year. He opened his mouth to answer Emma\'s questions however, his surroundings changed for the second time.

[ 6th August 2069 ]

\'Ten days later…\'

Zack found himself sitting on his bed in his room. In front of his eyes, a hologram was running live.

"Hikari\'s founders bring us a shocking news!" The man on the hologram belonged to an international gaming news channel. Currently, his face was twisted into an expression of shock.

Behind him, the tower which served as the headquarters for the Hikari team shone in the sunlight.

"The servers of the entire game have been hijacked!"

This time, it was Zack\'s turn to be shocked. He stood up from his bed while continuing to stare at the hologram while listening to the man\'s words.

"From what we have heard, those playing the game through the use of gaming pods are now able to receive the physical power of their counterparts."

As if to prove his words, the man pointed behind him towards live footage coming from multiple buildings in America.

Humans barely weighing 50 kilograms were lifting stuff thrice as heavy as their weight. People with portly bellies were running faster than athletes.

Similar footage continued to stream on the news before the man cut it off.

"If humans can use the power of their physical counterparts inside Hikari, will humanity be able to use magic as well?"

With that question, the news broadcast ended.

Zack\'s entire body was sweaty after watching the scene that had unfolded in front of his eyes.

"It happens ten days from today…" He started pacing around the room while thinking about the video.

First, he had seen a vision in which Emma had been his girlfriend and he had no sister. Now, he was seeing something that was supposedly happening ten days later from his current time.

Zack suddenly opened his inventory and took out Gugnir. The blue lance\'s description was the same as Zack\'s current life one.

After pacing around for a few more seconds, he decided to go out and see whether everything was the same.

The moment his hand touched the doorknob, he appeared back at the capital of the Eizenburgh kingdom.

"Dude, you hallucinating or something?" Emma asked with narrowed eyes as this was the second time Zack\'s eyes had gone out of focus.

She was getting worried that Zack was experiencing something similar to what his sister had faced. Currently, the teenager was staring at the sky.

"Emma, let\'s go." Tearing his gaze away from the sky, Zack started making his way towards the shop.

"What happened to you back there?" Emma asked while matching his pace as the duo moved towards the shop.

"I saw something," He replied. "Something very shocking…"

Zack had played Hikari for many years in his previous life yet such an incident had never happened. Furthermore, he never befriended Emma while playing the game.

Many thoughts were currently running around in his mind but he decided to put them in his later section for the time being.

"What exactly did you see?"

"Either that thing will happen in ten days or I will tell you the answer myself. You have to wait till then." Zack cut off the topic completely as Emma gave up on trying to find more information.

It was clear to her that he wasn\'t willing to share more information but that didn\'t stop her from thinking about the future.

What could possibly be so shocking that even Zack was shaken by it?

Ten minutes later, Zack was holding the black collar in his hand for the second time. He didn\'t waste any time and played rock, paper, scissors with Emma.

The girl had chosen scissors and lost. Zack didn\'t waste any more time and put the collar around her neck before dragging her to the same dumpster.

He told her about the place they were going to before they dived into the dumpster together. They appeared in the same bricked-up room again and the suited man appeared in the chair.

"Slave jewelry, two hours." This time, Zack decided to go directly to the jewelry section.

The same thing happened again as the duo\'s vision went blank. When it reappeared, they found themselves standing in the middle of multiple stalls with their owners calling out to them.

"Dear sir, I have the perfect jewel for your beautiful slave."

"No, he is lying! I have something that can\'t be rivaled by any of the shops here."

"Forget about jewels, I have earrings that will protect your beloved slave!"

Just like that, the owners of the stalls kept shouting over one another. None of them were bothered that a human slave had and her master had appeared out of nowhere.

They were long since used to people and beasts appearing in front of their stalls. Their only job was to make sure that their goods were emptied out and they paid their taxes to the center on time.

"Do any of you have anything worthy enough to rival the jewels that were being sold in Hethburn?" Zack asked in an arrogant tone as his noble aura fell into the surroundings.

The stall owners immediately fell silent after hearing his words. Though very few nobles dared to step into the black market, the stall owners knew that they were trouble.

They could easily tell that the person in front of them was a count and could easily afford almost everything in their stalls. Furthermore, they knew that the jewels sold in Hethburn far outclassed their items so they had no choice except to keep their mouths shut.

"Dear sir, you just have to go towards the north and the quality of the goods being sold would increase." A merchant hoping to leech some favor pointed towards the north while keeping his head slightly bowed.

An amused smile appeared on Zack\'s face as he took out ten gold coins and tossed them at the merchant.

He had already known that the more he progressed towards the center of the place, the higher the quality of the goods would be. The chances of being scammed would also decrease with the distance.

The only reason he had acted arrogant and given those coins was to make sure that they counted him as a cold, aloof, and arrogant noble.

[ Emma, stick close to me and don\'t look anyone, especially males, in the eye. ] Zack ordered while tightly gripping her hand.

If a slave looked at another person in the eyes, many would consider as a spark of rebellion. But then, many would consider that the slave was interested in them and would approach Zack to ask for the custody of the slave.

Even though slaving humans was banned in the Eizenburgh kingdom, it didn\'t necessarily mean that it was banned in other places too.

There were many instances that travelers would go to the black markets of other kingdoms to prevent being caught in their own kingdom.

On their way to the center, the duo saw many humans and beasts roaming around in the shops. Many males turned their heads as they looked at Emma passing by.

However, Zack\'s aura prevented them from approaching near the duo. Unlike the officials, if they were caught, they would definitely be held as prisoners for a long time.

\'What a lucky bastard…\'

Zack was completely aware of the stares that he was getting yet he kept moving forward.

\'I will see you soon Hayden Solanski.\' Zack thought with a smile as he looked at a green tent with two humans sitting around it.

They had arrived at the center of the place.