Chrollo didn't reach Molding City until seven days after Omokage's death.
On the way, they were hit by snipers.
According to what Shalnark dug up, someone had been spreading Phantom Troupe members' ability intel online.
The intel wasn't cheap, but plenty of people bought it—and even more people took action.
From Heavens Arena to Molding City, four airships were blown up.
Three Troupe members suffered minor injuries, and Nobunaga—like Uvogin—lost an arm.
Fortunately, Nobunaga's arm wasn't pulverized. With Machi's stitching ability, he could recover after some rest.
"Their abilities were probably observed by Ronin during the Kurta massacre. That clan still had some troublesome individuals," Feitan said. He was part of the group now.
Or rather, at this point, every Troupe member except Omokage had gathered here.
"Yeah—so far, the intel matches up. But some of it was probably told to him by his father. Based on where Ronin was in my memory, he couldn't have seen every member's ability himself," Shalnark said, sounding annoyed.
Feitan narrowed his eyes and said bluntly, "If Uvogin weren't a useless piece of trash, that kid wouldn't have gotten away."
"You short bastard, what did you say?" Uvogin's furious voice came from behind them.
"Go die!" Feitan snapped—then vanished.
Bam!
The sound of a hit came from behind, but Chrollo and the others kept walking forward, not bothering to pay attention to the two fighting.
"We've lost contact with Omokage," Isri said. Ever since his last tip-off, he hadn't been able to reach Omokage again. Now he didn't hide it. "He's most likely dead."
"Ronin." Chrollo wasn't surprised.
Omokage's obsession with eyes was obvious—but he'd been too impatient.
He knew Ronin wasn't easy, yet he still pushed in. Did he think his ability countered Ronin?
Looks like he paid for his arrogance.
"Yeah. He arrived first. His ability wasn't weak, and it should've countered Ronin—yet he's gone. Does that mean Ronin got stronger again?" Isri asked, doubtful.
He'd never met Ronin, but even from scattered descriptions, he could tell Ronin was a genius.
A Nen genius. A combat genius. An escape expert. And a little crazy.
Otherwise, what hunted fugitive would dare go to Heavens Arena and loudly advertise their own existence?
Isri certainly wouldn't.
To him, someone that stubborn and extreme was usually either a straight-line Enhancer—or an iron-willed Specialist.
Ronin seemed to be both.
"Who knows? Maybe he got a new helper," Shalnark said. He arguably had the most right to comment.
Reviewing Ronin's behavior made one thing clear: the guy was contradictory.
When he traveled by airship, he was extremely cautious, leaving no trace. But once he reached Heavens Arena and climbed to the 200th floor, he became loudly public.
In combat he was decisive and ferocious, yet afterward he escaped with absurd smoothness.
Even though his abilities gave him ways to avoid their ambushes, he still stepped into the open to provoke them.
Until a week ago—when his behavior pattern changed completely. No matter how Shalnark searched, there was nothing.
Ronin's last known location was Molding City.
"Ronin probably ran. Want to get moving?" Phinks—wrapped in bandages—spoke with heavy killing intent.
Some of his own intel had leaked too, and it put him in a bad mood.
In Phinks' eyes, the people still testing them and watching from the sidelines were perfect targets to vent on.
"Sure. Kill more. People only learn to back off when they're scared," Chrollo agreed, his own killing intent sharp.
…
Seven days ago, after killing Omokage and taking the Scarlet Eyes, Ronin fused them.
He could feel his eyes' evolution slowing down. He even wasn't sure whether continuing to fuse Scarlet Eyes would truly awaken the Mangekyō.
But his aura capacity still increased. His total aura now exceeded twenty thousand.
Finding Neon. Killing Omokage.
Ronin's objectives in Molding City had been perfectly completed.
Next was Yorknew.
But before that, Kurapika asked Ronin for intel on the Phantom Troupe members—then packaged it and sold it as intelligence.
During this period, Ronin contacted Adly again and borrowed Adly's Hunter account. Only on Hunter intel sites could Troupe information be sold at high prices.
Borrowing the account also let Adly earn a neat cut—win-win.
Still, by Kurapika's estimate, leaking intel would only cause the Troupe some trouble; it wouldn't cripple them.
The key was that Troupe members were strong on their own and rarely traveled alone.
Someone like Omokage—who targeted Troupe members and was only superficially allied—was extremely rare.
If Omokage were still alive, once attackers appeared, he'd likely move with Troupe companions. In that case, even if Ronin ran into him, Ronin wouldn't have had a chance to kill him.
Ultimately, it came back to one thing:
Not enough strength. Not enough time to grow.
What Kurapika was doing was buying growth time—for Ronin and for himself.
Ronin was happy to leave these matters to Kurapika. After all, he'd been a guy who drew blueprints, did livestreams, and played with cosplay—he only had "theory" experience. In real execution, gaps were inevitable.
Kurapika, on the other hand, grew more and more skilled as he absorbed knowledge from the internet.
According to Kurapika, in the short term, the Troupe shouldn't be able to find them.
But that window would last only until the end of August—because what they planned to do at the end of August would be obvious to the Troupe as long as they weren't stupid:
Go to Yorknew and buy the Scarlet Eyes at the auction.
"For now, Kakin is still hard to approach." Kurapika sat in the passenger seat, thinking as he spoke. "Even though your intel suggests the collector is Kakin's Fourth Prince, Tserriednich—and he's still just an ordinary person.
But in my research on Kakin's history, I found that in the three months before the next king is born, no prince with inheritance rights has ever died unnaturally."
"If that's true, then yeah—it's hard." Ronin drove, heading toward the outskirts of Yorknew.
They'd arrived three days ago.
They'd searched around but found no leads on Scarlet Eyes, so for now Ronin planned to take Kurapika and Neon outside the city to train.
After all, in September, at least five pairs of Scarlet Eyes should appear at the auction.
For now they had only two tasks:
Get stronger—and make money.
~~~
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