Meteor City is a grey zone unrecognized by any country.
Originally, this area was designated by dictators to implement racial segregation policies.
But over time, it gradually evolved into a special existence free from political constraints.
Since it was never granted the status of a 'nation,' for 1,500 years, Meteor City has been treated as a natural dumping ground by countries worldwide.
Here, the definition of trash is infinitely expanded.
Not only daily waste but even corpses and abandoned infants are casually discarded here.
Today, this desolate land has gathered nearly ten million residents, yet governments worldwide still insist on publicly claiming that Meteor City is uninhabited.
Behind this tacit lie is simply the world's need for a corner where garbage can be recklessly dumped without any responsibility.
However, no matter what is abandoned here, the residents of Meteor City accept it all.
They sustain their lives relying on the trash discarded by the outside world.
Thus, a peculiar mutually beneficial relationship has formed.
The world needs a place to dump garbage freely, while the residents of Meteor City need this garbage to ensure their daily survival.
However, as times change, the international situation has become increasingly peaceful and stable.
On a macro level, there are various highly binding international treaties; on a micro level, every country has comprehensive laws.
But Meteor City is not among them.
Its essence is that of a global garbage dump, not a nation recognized by international organizations.
Therefore, residents born here have no social identification documents from birth.
And without identification, it means they cannot enjoy the rights and protections afforded by society.
Based on this perspective, in the eyes of some outsiders, the lives of Meteor City residents are even less valuable than protected animals in various countries.
Hunting such beings carries no fear of conviction.
It's like taking a bow, lifting a gun, and casually shooting an overpopulated wild rabbit in the wilderness.
However, in the face of such wanton hunting, Meteor City did not remain passive.
To seek protection, Meteor City's Elder council chose to ally with the mafia.
They provide the mafia with rare talents, and in return, the mafia sends them large quantities of weapons and precious metals under the guise of dumping garbage.
It was during this deepening cooperation between Meteor City and the mafia that Nen users emerged among Meteor City's Elders, and the 'vow of revenge' was born.
Environment, experiences, emotions... This mentality of revenge, shaped by numerous factors, ultimately became a self-proclaimed trait of Meteor City.
Through this characteristic approach, people worldwide began to fear Meteor City.
And it was during this period that the Phantom Troupe was born.
They truly embodied and amplified the characteristic styles of 'vow of revenge' and 'never take a single thing.'
Therefore, Meteor City residents widely acknowledge or admire the existence of the Phantom Troupe. Even the Elder council governing Meteor City considers the Phantom Troupe an indispensable presence for Meteor City. This wasn't just about a sense of belonging... More importantly, it was about strength.
Over the years, the Phantom Troupe, through their ruthless methods and formidable power, had brought significant benefits to Meteor City, even altering parts of the wasteland's structure.
It was assumed this situation would continue indefinitely.
Yet no one expected the Phantom Troupe to be eradicated, led by a Blacklist Hunter named Kurapika.
And precisely because of their characteristic 'vow of revenge' approach, some Meteor City residents working under the Ten Dons took it upon themselves to retaliate against Kurapika.
Failure alone wouldn't have been an issue.
After all, in Meteor City, sacrifice is a normal part of survival.
The problem was, these individuals redirected what should have been a conflict between Meteor City and Kurapika directly toward the Ten Dons.
This resulted in heavy losses for the Ten Dons.
Compounding this, the incident occurred during the Yorknew Auction.
This was the Ten Dons' most important annual event.
The outcome was predictable: in their fury, the Ten Dons severed most of their resource supply to Meteor City.
The fact they didn't cut it off completely was likely due to their reluctance to lose Meteor City as a cradle of talent.
This also gave Meteor City some room to salvage the situation.
Naturally, the Elders took the subsequent relationship repair very seriously.
However, after confirming the Ten Dons wouldn't resort to total annihilation, they became even more focused on how to create a new Phantom Troupe.
When this proposal was raised, it unsurprisingly passed unanimously.
After all, no one was blind to the Phantom Troupe's importance to Meteor City.
"Chrollo has proven this path is viable. There's no reason for us to abandon it halfway."
"Exactly. The fact that the Ten Dons haven't completely severed ties means there's still room for negotiation. Repairing relations can be postponed for now."
"Since we don't need to exchange talent with the mafia for resources temporarily, we should quickly select a team to replace Chrollo and the others."
"This matter is indeed urgent."
The Elders deliberated and made decisions based on the current situation.
"And one more thing..."
At the corner of the worn wooden table, an old man wearing a half-open gas mask extended his right hand.
That hand, emerging from a grimy sleeve, was a half-rusted metal prosthetic. He placed it slowly yet heavily on the slightly decayed table.
"No matter how many times we fail, we must uphold the vow of revenge..."
The respirator valve of his gas mask trembled slightly with his icy words.
Everyone present nodded silently.
For all of Meteor City, these matters were of utmost importance.
They concerned their very way of life.
—--
Morrow, who was currently helping Kurapika reinforce the Kurta Clan's resting place, naturally had no idea that Meteor City intended to continue down the path forged by the Phantom Troupe.
He was even less aware that Meteor City's obsession with 'vow of revenge' had reached an almost appalling degree.
Even if he had known, it would only have strengthened his resolve to bombard Meteor City.
If they couldn't be subdued by force, it was only because they hadn't been hit hard enough.
—--
Some time later, the reinforcement plan for the Kurta Clan's resting place was completed.
With these Divine Scripts of varying effects in place, the resting place was essentially guaranteed to remain undisturbed.
While setting up these Divine Scripts, Morrow also drew upon his earlier idea of integrating Divine Script into 'illusions.' With this practical experience, some ideas in his mind became clearer.
However, the most difficult step remained the ability to forcibly teleport others.
This also included the teleportation ability that could directly transport himself into the illusion realm.
Morrow still had no leads for now.
All he could reference were the movement cards from Greed Island and the memories about 'message in a bottle' extracted from Post-Mortem Will.
But after resting for a day, Morrow suddenly thought of the Tree Hollow Organization.
Those cabinets used for storing items seemed to be some kind of Emission-type spatial teleportation ability, capable of directly teleporting specific items over long distances.
The Tree Hollow Organization's business was built upon this foundation.
When retrieving the sheath, I'll see if I can take the opportunity to observe it.
Before taking the Hunter Exam, Morrow had stored the Abyssal Sheath in the Tree Hollow and hadn't retrieved it yet.
This was a perfect opportunity to carefully observe the operating mechanism of those Tree Hollow Organization cabinets.
If he could discover something, that would be ideal.
—--
Two days later, Morrow chose a nearby Tree Hollow pawnshop.
Having become quite familiar with the deposit and retrieval process, he led Kurapika into the pawnshop.
This was Kurapika's first time visiting a Tree Hollow pawnshop, and he looked around curiously at the surroundings.
So this is the Tree Hollow, equally famous as the 'Sengi Guild'... I never expected it to look so ordinary.
Before coming, he had only heard some information about the Tree Hollow.
As for the Sengi Guild, it was an intermediary organization specifically introducing jobs to Nen users.
The jobs handled by the Sengi Guild were undoubtedly difficult, but the rewards were correspondingly very high.
Kurapika had previously made a special trip to the Sengi Guild to earn money.
Although the rewards for those jobs were substantial, they still weren't enough to support Kurapika's expenses.
Morrow glanced at Kurapika and smiled, "It is indeed ordinary, but much easier to find than the 'Sengi Guild'."
"Yeah."
Kurapika thought about the effort he had previously spent to find one of the Sengi Guild's bases. By comparison, these publicly operating Tree Hollow pawnshops were indeed much easier to locate.
Subsequently, Morrow led Kurapika through the iron gate to the basement that every Tree Hollow pawnshop had.
After descending the stairs to the basement, the air carried a faint scent of candle smoke.
Similarly, there was a long table and numerous cabinets lining the walls.
Every Tree Hollow pawnshop had identical furnishings.
But this time, the Tree Hollow staff member receiving Morrow wasn't the old man from before, but a stern-looking middle-aged woman wearing thick black-rimmed glasses.
Morrow walked to the long table and placed the copper coin for retrieval on it.
The middle-aged woman silently picked up the copper coin, verified its authenticity and number, then turned and walked toward the row of cabinets.
Seeing this, Morrow quietly focused aura in his eyes using Gyo, closely watching the middle-aged woman's every move.
Click.
The middle-aged woman pulled out one of the cabinets, reached inside, and retrieved the Abyssal Sheath.
Morrow's gaze shifted slightly. As the cabinet door opened and closed, through the small gap he could see faint aura ripples inside the cabinet, along with faintly glowing traces of Divine Script.
"As expected, for long-distance fixed-point item teleportation like this, when the quantity increases, Divine Script is needed to assist in enhancing the ability's effects. Otherwise, a single person couldn't achieve this alone."
Noticing traces of Divine Script, Morrow quietly withdrew his Gyo.
After mastering Divine Script, he had suspected that the Tree Hollow's ability might utilize the functionality of Divine Script, similar to Greed Island.
Now that he had confirmed this with his own eyes, Morrow felt that implementing teleportation abilities within the illusionary realm was even more feasible.
But this matter wasn't urgent.
Morrow retrieved the Abyssal Sheath and turned to leave with Kurapika.
After exiting the pawnshop, the two didn't linger in the city and prepared to head directly out of town to meet up with Chimera.
On their way to find Chimera, Morrow received a message from Kanzai.
"Cheadle has taken care of it. You can go directly to that lawyer now. But why didn't you approach Cheadle about this yourself? I never expected she actually knows you and even said she owes you a favor."
After reading the message, Morrow didn't explain but simply replied with "Thanks for your hard work."
"Kurapika, that famous lawyer named Whitney has agreed to transfer two pairs of Scarlet Eyes to us. The price will be based on recent auction standards."
Morrow turned his head to look at Kurapika beside him.
According to existing clues, a highly renowned international lawyer possessed two pairs of Scarlet Eyes.
For ordinary people, money might solve most problems.
But when dealing with elites who had long reached the pinnacle of wealth and status, the possibility of trading Scarlet Eyes for money was almost zero.
Moreover, the international lawyer's identity, status, and connections formed an invisible barrier that made ordinary threats or deception ineffective.
Unless they crossed boundaries and resorted to more violent means.
But Kurapika's inherent kindness acted like shackles, restraining such thoughts.
His bottom line extended only to methods like threats and deception at most.
Yet Morrow had solved this problem for Kurapika with just one phone call.
So easily...
Kurapika looked astonished.
Morrow waved his phone and said, "This is the importance of 'connections'."
To resolve this matter, he had considered Cheadle's influence in the legal field, but instead of approaching her directly, he had asked Kanzai to intervene.
However, judging from Kanzai's reply, Cheadle seemed quite willing to help him with this.
Probably because he had helped deal with the serpentine nen beast incident last time.
'...'
Kurapika remained silent, but his eyes were filled with gratitude as he looked at Morrow.
Morrow said, "Let's go. We'll go find that lawyer now."
"Mm."
Kurapika nodded gently.
Morrow glanced at him, smiled, and put away his phone.
If not for the butterfly effect he had brought, in the original course of fate, Kurapika should have rapidly accumulated wealth and built a network of connections by taking control of the Nostrade Family's underworld influence.
With those resources, he would have been fully capable of recovering all the Scarlet Eyes except those held by Tserriednich.
Now, although the process had changed due to his intervention, with his assistance, the outcome remained the same.
—--
A few days later, Morrow and Kurapika finally arrived at the bustling city where the lawyer was located.
Because Chimera was too conspicuous, and the city's prosperity extended to the surrounding areas, they had to land in the distant suburbs.
After switching between several modes of transportation, it took them a full day to finally reach the city center.
The two walked along the bustling streets, surrounded by towering skyscrapers wherever they looked.
"It's just ahead."
Morrow spotted the law firm from afar, but the moment he finished speaking, he abruptly halted his steps.
Despite being amidst the ceaseless flow of the crowd, his keen perception still caught a faint, elusive trace of bloodlust.
Kurapika was the same.
The chains gave him a warning.
"It must be someone from Meteor City again."
His gaze met Morrow's as he speculated.