Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

"Zack, are you we supposed to enter the underworld anyway?" Emma asked as the two of them were currently standing outside the guild.

Emma had never heard of the black market while playing the game so she had no idea where it was situated or how one could enter it.

Zack on the other hand had a grim expression on his face.

Originally, there were three ways to enter the true black market of the Eizenburgh kingdom. The three ways were situated in Trishapat, Hethburn, and Kaliopolis.

The only problem was, the black market in Hethburn had been destroyed by Hark while the one in Trishapat had been burned by players during the limited time quest.

Despite Kaliopolis being a way to enter the true market, Zack knew that going there was similar to committing suicide.

Any new person wandering in Kaliopolis's black market would immediately be spiked with poison and interrogated to receive his or her identity unless and until they had told of their arrival beforehand.

This left him with only one remaining way.

Without saying anything, Zack set out towards the edge of the capital. Emma closely followed him with a confused expression but didn't ask anything. She knew that if Zack wanted to tell her something, he would have already done that long ago.

The place where he was going was a special place and the owner of the place was even more special.

'Silvie, do you want to see that person being killed or beaten?'

The place where he wanted to go was the same place where he had found Silvie. If the owner of the shop heard his words, he would flee from his place.

'I already visited that place and the owner was changed. Now all the birds there are treated nicely.'

Hearing Silvie's reply, Zack clicked his tongue in disappointment. He had wanted to help the swan get some of her revenge yet someone beat him to it.

The only thing he could hope for was that the owner had been thoroughly beaten.

'Well, I guess we can just buy the things there then.'

A few minutes later, Zack was holding a black leash in his hands while walking back towards the guild.

The leash didn't look anything special from a distance yet only he knew what it truly was.

[ Slave Collar (15% obedience): If a person places this around the neck of any other person or beast, the latter would lose control over their body and would have to agree to every command given by the former.

- There is an 85% chance that the wearer can remove the slave collar. ]

"So… why did you buy that?" Emma's curiosity finally won as she looked at the details of the item Zack had purchased.

The pink-haired girl immediately realized what the collar was but she had no idea who Zack had bought it for.

"The place we are going can only be visited if you are a slave or have a slave with you. So one of us has to act as a slave." Zack replied with a sigh as he placed the collar inside his inventory.

The collar had originally been created to make beasts obey their master's commands. If a beast wore it at a very young age, they would have no idea how to refute and would be forced to wear the collar almost forever.

However, a human being would easily be able to break free of the collar since they could use their will to take it off.

Zack had purchased one of the cheaper collars since he and Emma were only going to need it for a few seconds.

The question was, who would wear it?

Both of them exchanged a look as they came to a silent agreement. Both Zack and Emma lifted their hands and silently counted to three before bringing their arms forward.

Zack had his fist closed while Emma had her index finger and middle finger pulled apart to form a V shape.

"Just put it around my neck." Emma sighed as she felt Zack putting the collar around her neck.

They were currently standing in front of their guild so no one was looking at them.

"Let's go now." Zack avoided making eye contact with Emma as he felt extremely awkward. Currently, there was a fifteen percent chance that the pink-haired girl would obey any order he would give her.

Though he knew that the number was actually highly inflated. The fifteen percent would only work on the most weak-willed ones.

If he had to guess, Emma would probably slap him on the face instead of letting him order her around. With that thought in mind, Zack felt slightly better.

He suddenly took a sharp right turn which led the duo to a bricked-up alley. The place looked like a garbage dumpster with trash lying outside of the dumpster.

'If anyone had told me that this was the entrance to the biggest black market in the kingdom, I would have definitely spat on their feet thinking that they were crazy.'

Chuckling to himself, he moved towards the dumpster while kicking trash bags out of the way.

Emma too moved behind him while eyeing the trash. She expected something to pop out like a jumpscare from a horror game.

"Did you come here to dumpster dive?" Emma asked while narrowing her eyes. All she got in response was a chuckle as Zack's attention was focused on the green dumpster.

Without any notice, he jumped directly into the open dumpster which left Emma dumbfounded. The pink-haired girl looked inside the dumpster, thinking of seeing Zack lying in the middle of trash.

But all she saw were heaps of trash and a foul rancid smell.

'No Emma, jumping inside dumpsters is not the way.' No matter how much she convinced herself, she realized that the dumpster was indeed something special.

She took a deep breath and placed her right arm on the side of the dumpster. She then jumped inside the dumpster with her eyes closed.

"Emma, open your eyes. You are not surrounded with baby diapers or anything." Zack's voice suddenly entered her ears as the pink-haired girl opened her eyes to see the two of them standing in a cramped room.

The room was entirely made from bricks and covered the entire room thoroughly. The room was only ten cubic meters big and was empty except for the chair.

"Next time you decide to jump into a dumpster, tell me beforehand," Emma muttered while crossing her arms. "I will surely burn that thing later on."

"You just had to go through some bad smell. It wasn't that bad." Zack's lips curled up into a grin as he turned his eyes to stare at the chair.

Even after combining both of his lives, this was only the second time he was visiting the room. The first time, he had been the slave brought to the room. The second time, he was bringing a slave.

Even though it was quite ironic, Zack definitely loved the change.

Five minutes went by as the duo waited for something to happen. Emma kept staring from one brick to another while Zack had his eyes closed and was waiting patiently.

'It should happen now.' He opened his eyes slightly to see a glow surrounding the room. The next moment, a man wearing a black suit appeared and sat on the chair.

"State your business." His eyes roamed to the black collar on Emma's neck yet he didn't say anything.

[ I don't know what he looks like… ] Emma sent a private message to Zack while staring at the man's face.

Every time she blinked, his face would change to a different face while she would forget his previous face. Zack too was facing the same thing as her and couldn't see the man's true face.

[ This is a unique skill that prevents the faces of the black market officials from being captured by the kingdom. This way, they remain safe. ]

"Item purchasing and slave business," Zack replied in a formal voice as the man's eyes stared at his face.

"Time."

"Six hours."

"Ten gold coins per hour. As a first-time visitor, you will pay thirty gold coins." The man then extended his right hand in Zack's direction.

The latter took out twenty gold coins and placed them in the man's hand. The man then stood up while fixing his suit before turning away.

"Enjoy your shopping time."