Chapter 71: The Simplest Scheme
The moment Mord stepped into the hotel, the Terrio family gang members, alerted by the commotion, rushed out.
Leading them was a senior executive, who was also a Nen user.
Frowning at the sight of Mord, the executive felt a twinge of unease. Something about the young man's composure seemed far too calm.
Mord couldn't be older than twenty, while they had over thirty men armed with more than thirty guns. Even if they were just ordinary pistols, a single volley would be enough to riddle him with holes!
Not to mention they also had submachine guns and other heavy weapons. Even if he was a Nen user, so what? Nen users weren't invulnerable to bullets.
With that thought, the executive steadied himself and sneered, "I advise you to surrender quietly and confess who sent you and what your goal is. Bullets don't have eyes."
"Surrender?" Mord laughed, looking up at the men in black. "With just you?"
"Take him alive!" The executive grinned ferociously and sharply waved his right hand. Immediately, two burly gang members stepped forward and charged at Mord.
Both were underground fighting experts, their large hands shooting out from left and right to grab him.
Mord stood firm as a mountain, his expression unchanged. The instant the hands were about to seize him, his own hands shot forward in a lightning-fast cross motion.
Crack—
Two crisp snaps echoed as the heads of the two men in black twisted at a horrifying angle, like pretzels, to face backward.
His movements were so swift that, aside from the executive, no one else even saw what happened.
Thud! Thud!
The two corpses collapsed in front of Mord with heavy thuds.
Yet Mord remained utterly composed, his actions as effortless as brushing off a speck of dust.
"Open fire!" The executive's expression shifted, and he immediately gave the order to shoot.
With skills like that, capturing him alive was impossible with their current forces.
Rat-a-tat-tat—
Muzzles flashed as countless bullets sprayed toward Mord.
But all they hit were afterimages—their eyes couldn't keep up with his speed.
Then, screams erupted.
At first, the deafening gunfire was occasionally punctuated by a few cries, but soon the screams grew more distinct until, finally, the gunfire ceased abruptly.
Mord casually tossed the corpse of a man in black aside and looked up at the sole remaining executive. "Only you left."
"Who exactly are you?!" The senior cadre drew a military knife from his waist, covering his entire body with a thin layer of Nen, staring intently at Mord.
Too weak.
Mord shook his head slightly.
This person's strength was only on par with the Nen users hired by the Nostrade family—someone who knew Nen but ranked at the bottom in terms of aura capacity and physical prowess.
As the military knife stabbed toward him, Mord merely used two fingers to clamp the blade. The senior cadre's face turned red with strain as he channeled all his Nen, yet he couldn't move the knife an inch from Mord's grasp.
Clang!
The sound of metal breaking echoed.
The senior cadre from the Terrio family watched in disbelief as his military knife snapped—a blade infused with his Nen ability.
Then, under his stunned gaze, four cold gleams of blade light flashed.
He felt excruciating pain simultaneously from all four limbs. With his Achilles tendons severed, his feet could no longer support his robust body.
The broken half of the military knife fell to the ground with a clatter.
The senior cadre collapsed in a pool of blood, watching as Mord cleared out all the valuable items from the entire hotel. In his blurry vision, he saw Mord's retreating figure, the exposed lower back revealing half of a spider tattoo.
"It's... the Phantom Troupe..."
"...I must report this to the family."
...
Late at night.
Outside Yorknew City, in an abandoned cathedral.
Beneath the incomplete statue of the Virgin Mary, Hisoka fiddled with a deck of playing cards, looking at Mord with a light laugh. "Do you have a grudge against the Terrio family?"
"What makes you say that?"
"In two days, you've taken out over twenty cadres sent to Yorknew by various mafia families, big and small, including some leaders. It seems random and impulsive, covering the Ten Dons' forces. But among them, the subsidiary mafias of the Terrio family or organizations closely related to them make up the largest proportion."
"Of course, it could be a coincidence, but my intuition tells me it's not." Hisoka looked at Mord as he spoke.
There was no denying that Hisoka's intuition was sharp.
Dealing with someone like him would require extra caution in the future.
Seeing that Mord didn't deny it, Hisoka continued, "So this is your method—framing others, setting the wolves against the tigers?"
"It's the simplest and most direct way, isn't it?" Mord replied.
Schemes don't need to be complicated; they just need to work.
"Those in the Troupe are all monsters. Are these mafia guys really up to the task?" Hisoka knew the strength of the Phantom Troupe all too well, which was why he found it so challenging.
"They don't need to defeat the Troupe members; they just need to hold them off. Besides, with all the commotion I've caused, I believe they're already spending heavily to hire professional assassins. You know the strength of your 'good friend's' family members better than anyone." Mord spoke calmly.
Everything was going according to his calculations.
"Given Chrollo's personality, he will likely send most of the Phantom Troupe members to participate in the auction heist, and it's highly probable he won't let you join. To guard against any potential attack from you, he will keep at least two or more Troupe members by his side."
"With those assassins around, the group participating in the auction heist won't be able to return quickly." Hisoka nodded, then asked the most critical question. "Then what about the few remaining members staying with Chrollo?"
"I'll handle them for you."
Hearing the words he had been longing for come from Mord's mouth, Hisoka's entire body began to tremble violently, his smile turning terrifyingly intense.
After all, the targets Mord so casually mentioned handling were Phantom Troupe members even he found troublesome.
Such confidence was utterly intoxicating to him.
"I told you, every member of the Phantom Troupe is a monster. When the time comes, you must protect your own life—I'm still looking forward to fighting you someday," Hisoka reminded him.
"You should worry about yourself. Don't get killed by Chrollo when the time comes—that man is no simple opponent."
Mord waved his hand and turned to leave.