The Reincarnated Hitman

"Are you calm now?" Zero asked as he wiped the dust off his white shirt, as his jacket had been long discarded.

As calm as he sounded, he was in quite a bit of pain from being tossed around by a Beta-Ranked hero.

Radiance wasn’t attacking anymore, but she didn’t seem to like him very much.

"First things first, this is a dream," Zero started explaining, "so all the people you saw die would just wake up in the real world, so you don’t have to blame yourself for not saving them."

"How do you expect me to believe that?" Radiance asked as she pointed her sword at him.

"Think about it. If this were happening in the real world," Zero sheathed his katana, "don’t you think the HA would’ve sent Valor by now?"

He then pointed around them. "Look at this place. Monsters are everywhere, and civilians are being attacked."

Radiance looked around with a frown, and she finally realized something: everyone who had died disappeared.

She hadn’t had the chance to realize that earlier because she was busy trying to prevent more people from dying.

"What does the villain want with you?" She asked, allowing the sword to dissipate.

"They’re trying to find out who I actually am," Zero answered, "hence the reason they put everyone in deep sleep."

"I’m guessing you know a way out of here?" Radiance asked again.

"Yeah," the hitman nodded, then explained, "this place is held together by an anchor; destroying it should cause everyone to wake up."

"And where is it?" She asked.

Zero looked towards the city for a while before awkwardly scratching the back of his head. "I have no idea."

"..." Radiance looked at him with a blank expression and then sighed, "Are you certain?"

"Hmm," Zero nodded with a smile, "wanna team up?"

She went silent for a while; though she didn’t exactly like this mercenary, she couldn’t deny that he was the only one who knew how this place worked.

So, for now, "fine, but only until we break out of this Factor."

"Of course," the hitman answered with a shrug and placed both hands behind his head as he started walking forward.

Radiance looked at him with a frown. "Shouldn’t we hurry? After all, even if this is a dream, it’s still terrifying to die."

"Ah, don’t worry about that," Zero turned towards her with a grin. "Mecha Hero is currently protecting them."

"Mecha Hero?" Radiance looked a bit confused until the hitman pointed to the sky, and the next second, a large shadow suddenly passed above them.

She looked up and noticed a massive blue mecha flying across the sky, its mechanical wings spread wide as it fired a barrage of blue energy blasts at the monsters below.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"The people should be just fine," Zero said and continued walking forward, and although hesitant to leave people in danger, Radiance followed him.

***

"I’m guessing that’s it?" Radiance asked as she looked at the creature before them.

It took them a couple of minutes, but they finally discovered the largest source of Pragma within this place.

A Kaiju-like monster that was simply a bigger version of the smaller ones, but a lot more terrifying.

It had appeared out of nowhere, which meant that the sleepy man was getting impatient.

According to the comics, the dream anchor was the one with the most Pragma within the dream realm.

And right now, this was the one releasing the most Pragma, so perhaps it was the anchor.

"Looks like it," Zero answered, staring at the Kaiju-like monster.

"I’ll take it down," Radiance said as she floated higher without waiting for an answer from him.

Zero let out a sigh and searched for the highest building before scaling it and sitting at the very top.

"Might as well enjoy the show," he said, forming a can of juice in his hand and a straw to sip it through, "let’s just hope that’s the anchor."

Radiance, meanwhile, looked at the monster before her. From what she could sense, it was most likely also at Beta rank, so she knew that this wasn’t going to be easy.

Lifting her hand towards it, a large beam of light started charging within it and the next second,

BOOM!

The beam of light heated the surrounding air as it quickly made its way towards the creature.

ROAR!!!

In response to the attack, it let out a roar, but that did nothing to stop the beam of light from completely enveloping it.

BOOM!

The impact created massive debris and a shockwave that enveloped the entire surrounding area, releasing heat that reached Zero even from a distance away.

"She really is quite strong," the hitman muttered with a smile as his hand dug into a bag of chips that he had created.

The cloud of dust obscured the creature’s form, making it impossible to know whether or not her attack had worked.

Radiance remained floating as she looked down at the cloud of dust with a frown on her face.

She was certain that her attack hadn’t done much damage, if any at all, and her thoughts were proven correct when suddenly,

ROARR!!!

The creature let out another roar, one that immediately cleared up the dust cloud, revealing that the creature was completely unharmed.

"I knew it wouldn’t be that easy," she muttered with a frown, "shall we try something else?"

She extended her hand towards the monster again, but this time, the creature didn’t simply watch her attack.

It opened its mouth and from within came a red glow, one that grew larger by the second, until,

BOOM!

A massive beam of red energy shot out from the creature’s mouth, heading straight toward Radiance.

Still mid attack, Radiance wasn’t given a chance to react before she was completely enveloped by the beam.

BOOOOOOM!

The explosion illuminated the entire area, sending out a powerful shockwave that created a completely cloudless sky.

"..." Zero looked towards the sky with a frown as he muttered, "that’s not good."