"H-Hello there...w-welcome to the Shenzhen Branch of the H-Hunters' Guild..." the receptionist said meekly. There must've been some special technologies implemented so that people on the other side of the glass pane would still be able to hear the receptionists loud and clear. Sound Magic, perhaps?

"Er...hey," I replied, equally nervous. Interacting with strangers wasn't exactly my strong suit, especially when the other party was also introverted like me.

Though that left me wondering...if she was introverted, why would she become a receptionist? That was a job that required constant interaction with others. I snuck a glance at one of the other receptionists on the other end of the room, and she seemed to be doing just fine.

"W-What is your business at the Hunters' Guild t-today?" the girl before me managed to ask quietly. Her voice was quite high-pitched, but I bet it was just because she was extremely nervous.

"Oh, er, I would like to register," I replied, looking at her again.

"...Register?"

"What, do you not allow new registrations?"

"A-Ah, n-no, it's not that..." she quickly shook her head in a fluster. "Forgive me, i-it's just that...you don't seem too strong, judging from appearances."

Do I really look that weak on the outside? Well, I suppose that's not exactly a bad thing, since being seen as weak is better than being seen as exceptionally strong and drawing unnecessary attention to myself. Yeah...it's better this way.

I sighed, and narrowed my eyes. "Just be straight with me. Can I register or not?"

"Y-Yes!" she yelped, slightly frightened by my sudden change in tone. "A-All you have to do is fill out this form!"

My expression softened again, and I smiled, though she had no way of seeing that, since I was still wearing my facemask. I watched as she fumbled to print out a registration form for me. However, when the printing was complete, for some reason, the girl used a pen to write something on the paper, but I couldn't tell what it was.

She then pulled a lever attached to the table on her right hand side, and the pane in front of me slid open. She handed me the registration form plus a pen, and I took them, curious to see what she wrote.

Hm...? Huh, that's cute.

On the top right corner of the paper, written in letters so small it was nearly illegible, were the following two words:

Thank you.

I glanced at the girl, and saw her eyes darting all over the place. Although I couldn't see her face, which was covered by a veil, I could tell she was probably blushing. I doubted it was because she liked me, since I only met her just now. It was probably just her introverted nature at play here. Still, it was pretty cute, in my opinion.

I chuckled and filled out the registration form she gave me, using the marble ledge cut in two parts by the glass pane as a writing surface. Of course, right now, the glass pane was slid upwards, so the ledge was just a single platform with no dividers.

The form didn't ask much, just basic information and fighting capabilities. I filled out everything truthfully, except for my name.

Hm...should I use an alias? If I just used my real name, it could cause problems. Knowing Xuan Yang, he'll probably hire people to assassinate me while I'm on a mission...especially now that I killed his son. Yeah, I think going by a fake name would be the better choice here.

...That said, what should I use as an alias, anyway?

Since the form was just asking general questions, I couldn't afford to just stand there and spend five minutes thinking up a good alias. It would seem suspicious if I took that long to fill out info I should know off the top of my head. And so, in the spur of the moment, I decided to just write 'Kai Xuan'.

Other fields included questions like 'what elements do you specialize in', or 'what is your fighting class'. I decided to put different elements than what people think I have, just to differentiate this persona from my real self even further. On the surface, I possessed three elements - Fire, Light, and Blessing. And so, for this form, I put down Water, Shadow, and Curse. To match with these affinities, I put down Assassin as my fighting class. Kai Xuan and Xuan Kai...polar opposites, perfect.

After reviewing the form one more time, I added another short line of text right below where she wrote 'Thank you':

No problem.

I then handed the form along with the pen back to the girl. The first thing she did was look at my 'reply', and when she did, she let out a cute little giggle. Then, setting down the paper on her desk, she activated the lever once more, and the glass pane slid down. I watched as she entered all the information I gave into a database, and soon enough she was done.

Holy shit, she types fast.

Strangely enough, I could tell she was running a printer or something behind that glass pane, but I couldn't hear the machine's sounds. Apparently, whatever technology was infused into this glass pane only allowed human voices to pass through. It was convenient, but to be honest, I didn't know why these panes were implemented in the first place. To protect the receptionists from perverted men? Hm...certainly a possibility.

My thoughts were soon interrupted by the glass pane sliding open once more. "Um...h-here is your guild card."

"Guild card?"

"Y-Yes...um, it's just a form of identification, and..." she began explaining.

Okay. So, basically, according to what that girl told me, the guild card proved you were an official member of the Hunters' Guild. It was an important item that you should never lose. If by some unforeseen circumstances, the guild card is lost or broken, then the owner of the card should apply for a new one immediately at any guild branch.

The guild card had multiple pieces of information on it, including the owner's name, rank, and elemental affinities. Each element was represented with its respective sigil, as to save space. My card in particular, had the following information:

Name: Kai Xuan

Rank: Iron Hunter

Elemental Affinities: Water, Shadow, Curse

Badges: (None)

Of course, the actual element names weren't written out, but instead just depicted by their respective sigils. Similarly, my rank was also indicated by a neat design that apparently represented that rank. Overall, the card wasn't all that different from a credit card in terms of size, so such measures needed to be taken to save space.

Speaking of ranks, like the mage ranking system developed by the IMF, the Hunters' Guild also had one, based on how much bounty points the Hunter had. Bounty points were achieved through quest completion, so in other words, the more quests a Hunter completes, the higher his rank will be. As an aside, more difficult quests naturally gave more bounty points, though it wasn't like a Iron Hunter could just skyrocket to Platinum Hunter through one extremely difficult quest, since quests with huge bounties required participants to be at least a certain rank.

Overall, the ranking system was as follows:

Iron Hunter - 0 bounty points.

Bronze Hunter - 100 bounty points.

Silver Hunter - 500 bounty points.

Golden Hunter - 1,000 bounty points.

Platinum Hunter - 5,000 bounty points.

Veteran Hunter - 10,000 bounty points.

Master Hunter - 50,000 bounty points.

Grandmaster Hunter - 100,000 bounty points.

Heavenly Hunter - 1,000,000 bounty points.

"Hm...? Isn't this gap between Grandmaster Hunter and Heavenly Hunter a bit big?" I asked, after looking through the brochure the girl gave me.

"Well...you see, no one has ever been able to reach the Heavenly Hunter rank," the girl replied meekly. "The guild master originally just created this rank for current Grandmaster Hunters to have something to work towards, that's all."

Huh...so when she's explaining things, she doesn't stutter as much. Interesting.

"I see..." I muttered. "Anyway, thank you."

"F-Fwah?! F-For what?!" she cried out in surprise.

"Well, y'know, taking the time to explain all this to me," I replied.

"N-No need to thank me! This is my j-job, after all..."

I then turned around and prepared to leave, guild card in hand. "Well then...see you."

"A-Ah, wait!" she suddenly stood up and called out. I glanced back at her questioningly. "U-Um...when will you be back?"

"Hm...I'll come pick up my first quest tomorrow. Is that fine?" I responded after some careful thought. But does that affect her in any way...?

"O-Okay! I'll see you t-tomorrow, then!"

Don't tell me...she wants to see me again? Hell no. There's no way. Definitely not. Love at first sight? Bullshit. There's just no way...right?

Harboring these uncertain thoughts in my head, I turned on my heel and walked away. Still...I managed to get myself registered at the Hunters' Guild, something I never even dreamt would happen just two months ago. And I said this would just be to support myself financially, but...it would be a lie if I said I wasn't excited.

Hunting monsters...kuku. Sounds fun.