The Kakin Kingdom has three major mafia families: the Heil-Ly Family, the Xi-Yu Family, and the Cha-R Family.
These mafia families hold considerable status within the Kakin Kingdom.
However, compared to the Ten Dons whose influence spans all six continents and ten districts, they are still considerably inferior overall.
Morena belongs to the Heil-Ly Family, and the backing behind the Heil-Ly Family is none other than Kakin's Fourth Prince, Tserriednich.
One of Tserriednich's hobbies is his obsession with collecting human organs.
Among his numerous collections, his favorite, without a doubt, is the Scarlet Eyes of the Kurta Clan.
However, his fondness for the Scarlet Eyes isn't due to their rare characteristics.
It's because these eyes only display their most vivid crimson red when their owners are in a state of extreme rage.
Thus, for him, the true value of the Scarlet Eyes lies in their ability to perfectly capture life's most intense moments.
Fury, despair, struggle, and the ensuing withering.
By gazing into those scarlet pupils, Tserriednich can directly glimpse the final emotions of their former owners, then look down upon their pain and helplessness.
This art of permanently sealing intense emotions fascinates him deeply.
For example, he also enjoys skinning women alive... but these women must possess exceptional insight and depth.
Otherwise, it would be no different from skinning pigs or monkeys, mere beasts.
This is Tserriednich's pursuit of comprehensive art and his sole criterion for collecting human organs.
Therefore, to obtain the two pairs of Scarlet Eyes appearing at the upcoming Yorknew Auction, he directly dispatched Morena, a capable member of the Heil-Ly Family.
Just for two pairs of worthless eyes, really...
Morena naturally clasped her hands, resting them on her thighs, her dark, profound eyes reflecting the phone on the desk.
Utterly boring.
She murmured softly.
Morena extended her right hand, casually flipping open the auction catalog beside the phone.
She had absolutely no interest in hobbies born from this cesspool of a world, existing solely to satisfy human desires.
However, to carry out her final plan, she needed to wait patiently.
Before that, she needed to gain Tserriednich's trust.
Soon...
Morena's slender finger paused, tracing the photo of the Scarlet Eyes with her fingertip.
The moment she could be appointed as the leader of the Heil-Ly Family by Tserriednich... at the inauguration ceremony, she would issue the command for "mutual slaughter."
This was the most crucial step in her "screening process," and to take this step, she was willing to wait and endure.
All of this was to destroy this cesspool of a world.
—--
Approaching noon, Battera's motorcade entered Yorknew City and stopped on a road near the Bull Market.
This was Morrow's request.
To quickly raise funds for bidding on the Scarlet Eyes, Morrow's first action upon arriving in Yorknew City was to head straight to the Bull Market to see if he could find any bargains.
As the cars came to a stop, Morrow, Menchi, and Kurapika got out one after another.
At that moment, from a black luxury car in the middle of the motorcade, Battera and Tsezguerra also opened their doors and stepped out. Battera approached Morrow, with Tsezguerra following closely behind.
Security personnel from other vehicles quickly disembarked, forming a protective circle around Battera in a state of high alert.
"Mr. Morrow, although I'm well aware that you have no interest in clearing Greed Island, I still wish to express my sincerity once again."
Battera spoke with a solemn expression. "If one day you change your mind and develop an interest in this game, please be sure to contact me immediately."
"Alright."
Morrow looked at this top-tier billionaire who carried no airs and nodded.
Truthfully, that day would never come.
Not to mention whether there were prey on Greed Island that met his requirements, even if there were... just thinking about the various card mechanics that could directly influence combat changes made him immediately lose interest.
As for the staggering 50 billion reward for clearing the game... without genuine passion for gaming, attempting to clear it solely for the reward would not only consume vast amounts of time but might also result in failure to collect all the designated cards.
It could even lead to complete failure at the final hurdle.
Thinking about it this way, the temptation of 50 billion wasn't that great anymore.
A moment later, Battera's motorcade headed toward the city center.
Morrow watched the convoy disappear into the distance before withdrawing his gaze.
Menchi also retracted her gaze and softly sighed, "On our way here, I looked up Battera's information on my phone. I never expected that not only is his wealth astonishing, but he spends money without hesitation. He didn't even blink when bidding billions for a single Greed Island game."
As she spoke, she shook her head slightly, showing an expression of incomprehension.
In fact, the Hunters attracted by the astronomical 50 billion reward similarly couldn't understand Battera's approach, being willing to invest such staggering funds just to clear a game.
But the vast majority didn't care about Battera's motivations.
In their view, the tempting 50 billion reward was the only thing worth focusing on.
Listening to Menchi's sigh, Morrow remained silent, only glancing subtly at Kurapika.
He knew that Battera was investing such enormous funds solely to obtain the Archangel's Breath card in Greed Island, which he would then use to save his lover who had been in a coma due to an accident.
Theoretically, Kurapika's Holy Chain might also be able to awaken Battera's lover.
If successful, it would mean directly obtaining the 50 billion reward, and possibly even more.
With such a huge amount of funds, not only could they acquire the two pairs of Scarlet Eyes appearing in the upcoming auction, but they could also recover all the Scarlet Eyes scattered among private collectors through monetary transactions.
However... the Limitation cost of Holy Chain was paying with lifespan according to the intensity of healing.
Someone like Battera, being a top-tier billionaire, must have tried various methods before noticing Greed Island, all ending in failure.
It was even possible that Battera, until now, was still pursuing a dual approach, pouring massive funds into Greed Island while not giving up on searching for other healing methods.
Yet after all these years, there had been no progress.
This fully demonstrated the extraordinary difficulty of healing Battera's lover.
Therefore, if Kurapika's Holy Chain could successfully awaken Battera's lover, it would mean... Kurapika needed to pay a substantial amount of his lifespan.
But Morrow knew that in this decision, Kurapika would undoubtedly choose to sacrifice his own lifespan without hesitation in order to find his clansmen's eyes more quickly.
Based on this judgment, Morrow would never voluntarily inform Kurapika of this matter.
"Alright, let's start shopping."
Morrow shifted his gaze toward the entrance of the Bull Market.
From his position, he could already see some street stalls.
Returning to the most familiar Yorknew City, the first thing he ended up doing was still making money...
With a hint of emotion, Morrow gave Kurapika and the others a few instructions, then chose a direction and skillfully walked toward the stalls displaying various antiques and miscellaneous items.
With his level of expertise, even if they were genuine items without attached aura, he had the ability to appraise them.
But in terms of efficiency, it was far inferior to using Gyo to directly scan for items.
Most importantly... he wanted to use this opportunity to test the absorption difficulty of the third Tree Rings energy.
An hour later, Morrow had visited all the street stalls in this area and ultimately found only one Nen-imbued object.
It was a small stone statue of a monkey wearing a crown, with faint aura swirling around its surface.
Since it was a modern carving, this statue had almost no collection value.
Morrow easily bought it from the stall owner for only 200,000 Jenny.
"Young man, take a look at this flying bird statue too!"
Seeing how readily Morrow had bought that cheap statue, the stall owner immediately began enthusiastically promoting another item. "This is an authentic work by the 12th-century master carver Diaz! Someone previously offered 2 million for it, but I didn't sell. If you like it, you can have it for 1.8 million!"
Morrow didn't even glance at it, turning away with the crowned monkey statue in hand.
The stall owner, unwilling to give up, continued shouting and trying to persuade him to stay from behind.
Morrow paid no attention, finding a secluded spot where he absorbed the aura from the crowned monkey statue into his Tree Rings.
Throughout the brief process, Morrow kept watching the energy bar of the third Tree Rings.
The result was only a slight increase, not even 1%.
The charging difficulty has indeed increased significantly. It's only the third ring, but ordinary Nen-imbued objects are already proving very challenging. I'll just have to accumulate little by little.
Morrow had been mentally prepared for this outcome.
However, maintaining the mindset that something is better than nothing, he wouldn't easily miss any Nen-imbued objects he encountered.
Morrow glanced back in the direction he came from, wondering how Menchi and Kurapika were faring with their own searches.
Thinking of this, Morrow applied pressure with his fingers, breaking off the head of the crowned monkey statue, then casually threw the remaining half of the statue body into a pile of stones in the greenbelt.
Looking at the crowned monkey statue head in his hand, Morrow controlled his strength, carefully grinding away the crown on the monkey's head.
As stone fragments gradually fell away, only half of the monkey head remained, revealing a faint orange-yellow glow.
It was a thumb-sized jade stone that had merged with the statue.
Morrow became even more cautious as he ground away the stone material surrounding the orange-yellow jade.
It took him several minutes to completely extract the jade, which was only the size of a thumbnail.
It's a bit small, but it should be worth around 10 million.
Morrow stored away this orange-yellow jade.
The value of this small item wasn't in its collectibility, but rather in its calming effects.
Morrow hadn't been certain at first that there was something inside the crowned monkey statue; he had sensed the source inside the statue while absorbing its aura. Upon seeing the appearance of this orange-yellow jade, he immediately recognized its origin.
This item was quite popular in jade collecting circles. He had encountered it before, and although he hadn't profited from it at the time, he had gained some experience.
Originally, he had only intended to absorb its aura, never expecting such an unexpected delight.
Indeed, any object imbued with aura, no matter how ordinary it appeared on the surface, was likely to conceal hidden mysteries.
Two hours later, Morrow waited at another entrance of the Bull Market for Kurapika and Menchi to meet up.
After a while, Kurapika and Menchi emerged one after another.
Their harvest was quite good; they had managed to acquire six antique miscellaneous items carrying aura.
In contrast, Morrow's luck was average. Aside from the already damaged Crowned Monkey Stone Statue, he had only found one Nen-imbued object later on.
After absorbing the aura from that Nen-imbued object, the energy bar of his third Tree Ring remained stuck at 42%.
"How much are these worth?"
Menchi glanced at the seven antique miscellaneous items gathered together and asked curiously.
Morrow looked at the coffee shop across the street and said, "Let's sit there for a while. I'll calculate it slowly."
"Okay."
Menchi nodded.
The three crossed the street, entered the coffee shop, and found a seat in the corner.
Placing the seven antique miscellaneous items on the table, Morrow assessed their prices while absorbing the aura from them in front of Menchi and Kurapika.
After absorbing the aura from the fourth Nen-imbued object, the stagnant energy of the third ring finally increased to 43%.
Roughly five Nen-imbued objects are needed to convert 1% of energy...
Morrow had a rough idea and continued absorbing the aura from the other Nen-imbued objects.
Menchi and Kurapika watched Morrow's actions. Though puzzled, they didn't ask further and waited for the results.
"This one is a counterfeit, worthless."
Morrow picked out a vividly crafted porcelain doll from the pile.
Collectibles carrying aura weren't necessarily genuine.
Some master counterfeiters possessed astonishing skills, and once they reached the pinnacle of their craft, they could leave behind aura in a state of enlightenment.
The porcelain doll Morrow picked out was a 17th-century craft, but he couldn't absorb the aura surrounding it.
This indicated that the person who created the porcelain doll was still alive.
Based on this alone, the authenticity of the porcelain doll could be determined.
Morrow then looked at the remaining six antique miscellaneous items and estimated an approximate price based on his experience.
"The total value is around 90 million Jenny."
As he spoke, Morrow also placed the small calming jade on the table. "Including this, we can roughly reach 100 million. This is a conservative estimate. If we want to sell quickly, giving up tens of millions in profit is quite normal."
Menchi's eyes sparkled as she excitedly said, "We earned nearly 100 million in just two or three hours! It seems raising 5 billion won't be too difficult!"
"Don't celebrate too early."
Morrow calmly shook his head, forming a stark contrast to Menchi's excitement.
"There are only a few decent Bull Markets. With our method of sweeping through goods, one round is enough to drain their value. It's hard to get a second wave of harvest in the short term. Moreover... there might be other competitors."
"Ah..."
Upon hearing this, Menchi deflated like a punctured balloon and slumped onto the table. She rested her head on her arm, tilting it to look at Morrow, sincerely marveling, "But honestly, I didn't expect you to know all this; that's really impressive."
"I just come to Yorknew often. I actually don't know that much."
Morrow shook his head again and glanced at Kurapika, who was frowning in thought.
"Anyway, let's earn as much as we can these next few days. If it really doesn't work out... we can always borrow money from someone again."
Kurapika and Menchi each nodded.
—--
On a street near the Bull Market, a man held a phone, looking down at the picture of Kurapika on the screen, then lifted his head to scan his surroundings.
His gaze was icy, his bloodlust undisguised.
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Bonus chapter @850ps