“Are you ready for your first mission, rook?” Luna asked, stepping into the parking garage from the elevator.

Rei jumped up and down with joy. "Oh, ye ye! This is going to be-"

Luna shot her finger toward Rei's face. "First, you need to stick to English! My computer brain implant doesn't have a translator!"

Rei gulped. "But I always speak both. I can't help it!"

"Then try. Not everybody knows Korean here. We all live near the American coastline."

"Joh-ayo ki!"

Luna growled as she approached a black hover car, sitting between two police vehicles.

"Wow!" Rei ran toward the car with sparkling eyes, glancing at the front. "Is that a V50 Interceptor 2100?"

Luna paused as she opened her driver's side door. "You know cars?"

Rei giggled. "My father was a big car collector. He owned a three-story tall garage, full of classic cars, including the old hover types. The V50 Interceptor was the first hover car he built."

Luna shrugged and sat into her car. "Your family must be rich."

Rei got in next. "Yeah, both of them owned High Sun Corp. An energy company. That is how I was able to enter the Digital Science Academy."

"Impressive." After she closed her door, Luna typed on a keyboard between the front seats. A computer screen on the dashboard flashed on, revealing the face of a hyena next to a profile document.

Name: Gonzo

Age: 35

Race: Hyena

Occupation: Assassin

Crime: Murder

Wanted: Alive

Reward: 100,000 bitcoins

Rei glanced at the screen. "Who is that?"

Luna glared at the monitor as if her hatred was building up inside of her. "That is our target, Gonzo."

Rei narrowed her eyes. "That's it?"

"Psychopath, cold-blooded, and loves killing for money. He used to be a janitor at a high school before he became an assassin."

"Really? How?"

"No freaking clue. The bastard killed my previous bounty." Luna held up her transformer gun and clicked it. "Fiona was kind enough to put him on my hit list."

Rei blinked her eyes at the monitor and dropped her mouth. "Holy haneunim! His reward is 100,000 bitcoins! You can live for two months with that much cryptocurrency!"

Luna placed her gun back into her holster and switched the screen off. "Not in this city. If you cause too much damage, you have to pay the fee from your paycheck. Rent is not cheap, and the bills are high. You need to keep hunting to survive, just like a predator in the jungle."

"Now that is poopy!"

Luna punched in the code on a small keyboard beneath the control wheel. The engine roared to life outside. "Now, just to let you know……" She glared at Rei. "Don't try to get close to me. I had partners before, and all of them ended up in body bags. That is why I work alone."

Rei's lips trembled. "But I like conversations."

"Only conversate for the mission. Not for interpersonal business." Luna placed her hands on the control wheel and levitated her car up. "If you get to know someone too much, it will break you when they die."

Rei didn't like the sound of that. If Luna doesn't want to become Rei's new friend, did that mean Luna doesn't care about Rei's safety?

Luna backed her car from the garage and zoomed into the airway.

Rei looked down through the window, amazed how high they were flying through the city. The bottom appeared to be endless below the giant skyscrapers. Each building has unique architectures; western, eastern, and Egyptian to satisfy individual cultures from around the world. Most Humanimals weren't born in the cybernetic urban jungle of Moreau City. Like Rei, they were mutated in foreign and sentenced to live in the city for the rest of their lives. Not all Humanimals were lucky to reach their sanctum. Some were shot on sight after the virus corrupted their bodies. Rei was lucky because she had lots of crypto credits to buy a safe trip to the city. And Seoul has a humane service for all infected without using violence. Too bad the rest of the world was still afraid of Humanimals with extreme prejudice.

"Where are we going?" Rei asked.

Luna focused on the traffic. "To the Underbelly. I got a snitch who might know Gonzo's location."

"What is the Underbelly?"

"The street levels in the city where the poor and ruthless lived. Lots of criminals like hiding there because the police are too lazy to watch it. That is why they established bounty hunters like us to go down there and do all the work. If you are not strong, you will die down there."

Rei gulped. I hope I will not die on my first day!"