September 3.
Somehow, a piece of news spread through Yorknew.
It was about the game Greed Island—supposedly there were items inside the game that could make people revert to youth.
Ronin saw the news online in his hotel suite.
But he wasn't interested.
Or rather, he didn't have much interest in Greed Island as a whole.
If anything in that game could attract him, it would be the monsters living out in the wilderness—perfect targets for training.
But he was already past the stage of using weak monsters to train. Kurapika and Neon, on the other hand, would actually be well-suited to fighting those creatures to sharpen their skills.
As for the in-game items, Ronin couldn't think of anything worth fighting for, let alone something he had to bring out.
He yawned.
Fusing two more pairs of Scarlet Eyes still hadn't immediately given him the Mangekyō Sharingan.
He had a feeling he should be able to awaken Mangekyō now, yet whenever he tried, it always felt like something was missing.
It seemed that unlocking Mangekyō required not only enough fused eyes, but also a special "trigger."
Ronin remembered the manga condition: Mangekyō awakened when intense negative emotions produced a special chakra that pushed a three-tomoe Sharingan into Mangekyō.
If that rule still applied here, did it mean he had to experience the death of someone close to him to awaken Mangekyō?
Ronin scratched his head.
It irritated him. If Mangekyō really worked like the manga, did that also mean repeated use would damage his eyesight?
But then he thought: Scarlet Eyes also required emotional stimulation to "open." Maybe a deeper level of Scarlet Eyes needed even stronger emotions to trigger.
Just like how the Troupe massacred the Kurta—forcing the clan's emotions to the peak before killing them, to harvest Scarlet Eyes at their most vivid crimson.
And the information Vesley had given him earlier about Pairo also pushed Ronin toward that interpretation.
Ronin planned to get the Scarlet Eyes that would be auctioned at Numpis as well.
After that, he'd have two options:
1. Keep them for now, and wait until Mangekyō truly awakened before continuing to fuse.
2. Fuse them immediately and see if "quantity" could force a "qualitative" breakthrough.
Ronin leaned toward the second.
Even if it didn't trigger Mangekyō, fusing Scarlet Eyes would still increase his aura capacity.
He already had Numpis' auction catalog. The Scarlet Eyes would be auctioned on the 5th.
Money wasn't an issue. Over the past few months, even though he hadn't fought constantly at Heavens Arena, with Milia's operations his funds kept growing.
By now, he had over ten billion.
All he could say was: Milia really lived up to being a gold-level agent.
"Milia asked if you still need aura," Kurapika said, tossing Ronin a canned drink.
"Not for now." Ronin cracked it open. "But you two could borrow some from her—honestly, it's pretty useful."
"If we can't split the Troupe up, attacking them is too dangerous," Kurapika sighed. "Even if you have the Four Violet Flames Formation to divide the battlefield, we still can't risk it. In that case, the best move is to use the arrangements I've already set up to test whether there's any opening."
"Fair." Ronin had no objections.
A diamond-shaped mark had appeared on his forehead—the seal created by Strength of a Hundred Seal.
The principle was simple: in daily life, you continuously compress and store chakra into the diamond mark on the forehead.
When you need it, you release it by unsealing.
With Tsunade's related techniques—Strength of a Hundred Technique and Creation Rebirth—the user could achieve rapid regeneration and monstrous strength in battle.
Skilled users could even use low-output fine control of the seal's chakra to preserve youth and maintain peak bodily function.
Ronin had only recently begun using the seal, so the stored chakra was still negligible. It was far too early to "burst" with it.
Right now, the Troupe were moving as a tight group. Even if Ronin used some special method to explosively kill a few, he'd still put himself into danger.
It wouldn't be worth it.
And after he killed Uvogin, the ones who should be desperate were the Phantom Troupe.
Still, tonight might be an opportunity.
The Ten Dons had paid a huge price and truly hired assassins from the Zoldyck family.
Tonight, besides completing Kurapika's assigned tasks, Ronin planned to go take a look. He wouldn't mind snatching an advantage if the chance appeared—but he wouldn't force it if not.
He also wanted to know whether Chrollo would again hire the Zoldycks like in the manga.
If Chrollo planned to end the Zoldycks' attacks by killing the Ten Dons, he was going to be disappointed—
Because Raymond would not die.
After all, "Raymond" was Ronin's shadow clone. Even if one got taken out, he could create another at any time.
At 7 p.m., large numbers of mafia personnel gathered at Cemetery Building.
Every mafia man was armed. Every vehicle arriving was checked thoroughly.
At the same time, in an upper-floor room of the building, Ronin had already transformed—disguising himself as Kakashi.
White hair, face mask, a short blade strapped on his back—though he wore mercenary-style clothing.
Inside this room were several others.
Just like Ronin's "Kakashi," there was Silva Zoldyck, with long silver-white hair, and Zeno Zoldyck, also silver-haired.
Their presence matched the Yorknew auction arc in the manga.
But besides those two, among the other four Nen users there was one person who surprised Ronin:
A clown with a teardrop and star painted on his face, bright red hair styled and swept back. His cropped top exposed his waist, with club and spade symbols on the front and heart and diamond on the back.
A pink belt cinched his waist, and white pants ended in black shoes with curled tips.
Hisoka.
Ronin recognized him instantly.
Since Omokage had been killed by Ronin, at this point Hisoka indeed hadn't joined the Phantom Troupe yet.
Still, Hisoka being here surprised Ronin.
As for the remaining three:
One was a young man covered in tattoos with a mohawk—more like a street punk than an assassin.
One was a middle-aged man dressed like a mechanic, with a wrench stuffed in his pocket as if ready to repair a car or a drainpipe at any time.
And the last was a strikingly beautiful young woman with red wavy hair, a seductive tear mole under her left eye, wearing sportswear—looking dressed for a night run, but with makeup that made her look like she was headed for a club.
None of them were ordinary.
Just from observing their Ten, Ronin could tell they were stronger than the Shadow Beasts he'd encountered before.
~~~
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