Kurapika imagined that scene. A corner of some abandoned building, piled high with Scarlet Eyes. A homeless man picking them up like discarded garbage.
He restrained his emotions. "Is this some kind of transaction method the Phantom Troupe uses?"
Liam wanted to say yes.
But according to someone in the manga who'd told Chrollo that "the boss likes the new and hates the old," Chrollo was the type who'd do whatever it took to obtain treasures he wanted. Then probably abandon them later when he got bored. Like old shoes.
"The Phantom Troupe is a gang of thieves, not businessmen," Liam sighed. "If they want money, they just rob it. They don't negotiate."
The Phantom Troupe had slaughtered Kurapika's clan in exchange for those Scarlet Eyes. After the novelty wore off, Chrollo had probably just tossed them in some roadside building without any protective measures. Because he didn't care at all.
"A homeless man is just a homeless man," Liam said. "According to the information, even the vagrant who accidentally entered that abandoned building was shocked by the beauty of all those Scarlet Eyes piled up. He immediately realized they must be valuable. So he didn't discard or destroy them randomly. That's how they had the opportunity to scatter and flow into different people's hands."
This time, Kurapika couldn't help it. His eyes turned scarlet, like two angry flames burning.
The Scarlet Eyes he regarded as precious relics of his people—in the eyes of those murderous spiders, they were just trash thrown away carelessly? If they didn't care so much, why had they killed every last Kurta tribesman so cruelly to capture the eyes? Did these people have even a shred of humanity left?
"After entering Scarlet Eyes state, his aura rivals mine," Shizuku observed Kurapika trying his best to control his anger. "But he's much weaker than Liam."
Her own aura was around 14,000 now.
Liam's was 18,000.
After Kurapika entered the Scarlet Eyes state due to rage, his aura surged sharply like adding fuel to fire. It might reach 15,000 now. That meant Kurapika's aura in normal state was around 5,000.
"The good news is you can now handle retrieving the eyes and revenge on the Phantom Troupe separately," Liam said. "The bad news is—as far as I know, there's someone who likes collecting human body parts. This pervert will definitely obtain a considerable portion of the Scarlet Eyes through various channels."
"Who is he?" Kurapika raised his eyes.
"A person of high authority. Someone below one person and above tens of thousands in a certain country." Liam spoke carefully. "To a certain extent, he's harder to deal with than the entire Phantom Troupe combined."
Kurapika's eyes narrowed. He finally nodded silently.
If this were Kurapika from a year or two ago—still isolated in the tribe's hermitage—he probably wouldn't understand what Liam meant. But his entire family had been killed. Kurapika had lived alone in this strange outside society for so long. He'd collected information, studied history from various places, especially war history. He understood what "high authority" meant.
What Liam was talking about was naturally the Fourth Prince of the Kakin Kingdom. The pervert who liked selecting young, beautiful women to keep in his residence. Skinning and deboning them for his collection.
When this person appeared in the manga, it was still early in the Dark Continent Succession Arc—before the stage of "illustrated novel" that Liam had been too lazy to read. So he still remembered, especially the scene where the Fourth Prince appeared. The perverted bastard had been sitting on a chair with the wall behind him filled with collections of human body parts. Jars of preservative solution containing Scarlet Eyes. In one of them, the solution contained a young man's head.
Manga readers from his previous life had speculated that head was most likely Kurapika's former close friend.
The information Liam bought from the Hunter website yesterday proved this indirectly.
Among the Scarlet Eyes "cargo" discovered by the homeless man was indeed a well-preserved boy's head. For whatever reason, the Phantom Troupe had gouged out the eyes of the others. But they'd cut off this young man's entire head and taken it away.
"So whether you're dealing with the Phantom Troupe or that high-ranking pervert, what you need to do now is accumulate strength," Liam advised. "Before officially confronting them, first retrieve the available Scarlet Eyes from other channels. Then plan again."
He stared at Kurapika with a bit of solemnity in his tone. "Don't forget—you're Suzaku of The Ten now. Your life needs to be preserved until you follow me, the boss, to explore the Dark Continent. Before that, don't even think about dying casually. Didn't I train you for nothing?"
Kurapika closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they'd returned to normal black. "I will not die before resurrecting my tribe."
Even if only one could be resurrected. Even if only part of them.
Would it be meaningful to survive that way?
"That's right!" Liam patted his shoulder and slowly read out a name. "Neil Chadman."
Kurapika suddenly snapped back to attention, staring at Liam.
"This is the only person currently holding Scarlet Eyes whose identity can be determined from the information Shizuku and I obtained yesterday," Liam said.
Shizuku opened her phone, pulled up photos of the information taken yesterday, and turned them toward Kurapika.
The photo showed another photo.
Neil Chadman, male, 34 years old, resident of Waterloo City, Mimbo Republic...
Kurapika's eyes immediately ignited scarlet. The aura in his body surged. He raised his hand and manifested a dolphin-shaped bookshelf floating in the air. "Book Four."
"Book Four, 'Revelation,'" the dolphin said. A book floated from the shelf and fell into Kurapika's hands.
The book opened. Kurapika's eyes blazed red, staring at the picture of the man named Neil Chadman on Shizuku's phone screen.
"What are you doing?" Liam asked, confused.
Shizuku looked at the book in Kurapika's hand. On the originally blank pages, strange twisted characters or patterns appeared one after another. Eventually these shapeless patterns completely merged together, like an ancient god's painting—messy and indescribable.
Kurapika sighed. He dismissed the "Revelation" book and dolphin bookshelf, closing his eyes. "As I thought. I need to actually meet this person. Or at least have something that belongs to him."
"Are you trying to use the Book of Revelation to divine this person's location?" Liam said suddenly.
An image of an old witch wearing a pointed hat performing tricks on a crystal ball appeared in Shizuku's mind.
Kurapika nodded. "Only when entering Scarlet Eyes state does 'Revelation's' effect reach its strongest. But even so, there needs to be enough 'information' to support it. Otherwise, like what just happened, no credible results can be obtained."
Holy shit, this was specially prepared for the Phantom Troupe! Liam nodded with satisfaction. Wasn't this just the ring finger soul-chasing chain with a different appearance?
In the manga, Kurapika had used his ring finger to track the location of the mafia boss's daughter like map navigation.
However, in addition to having to see the target with his own eyes and having enough supporting information, there should also be some kind of time limit. Otherwise, wouldn't manga Kurapika be able to use the ring finger soul-chasing chain to locate the Phantom Troupe at any time?
"Don't bother. When it comes to finding someone with a name and surname, this works best." Liam smiled and pulled out the black Hunter License. "Basic personal information like this can be checked immediately with the Hunter website's help. Even records of where he recently checked into hotels are crystal clear."
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