Ronin didn't dwell on that matter. After contacting Hisoka, he and the others boarded a garbage ship out of Meteor City.
Airships weren't exactly rare there, but not many people took them.
Mainly because too many had been blown up. Trash ships were still the safer option.
As long as they could reach the port city outside Meteor City by ship, they could take an airship from there to Heavens Arena. The whole trip would take two days.
Which meant Ronin would arrive at Heavens Arena on the 30th.
Kurapika had already made arrangements in Meteor City. Even if Ryan's villa got raided, the backup measures he'd left behind were enough to ensure they could still get information out of Meteor City whenever they needed it.
This time, the ship didn't explode halfway through.
It arrived safely at port, and from there they switched to an airship. It was also Shizuku's first time leaving Meteor City.
She looked at everything with quiet curiosity.
Ronin sat with Kurapika and discussed the Zoldyck family.
"Illumi probably won't give up on the job easily," Ronin said, sounding a little helpless. "Our relationship with the Zoldycks should've been decent. Is that guy mentally ill or something, taking a contract to assassinate me?"
Their cooperation in Yorknew should have been enough for Silva and Zeno to see how troublesome he was.
Given that, unless Chrollo offered the Zoldycks a price they couldn't refuse, Ronin hadn't really been worried that anyone in that family would take a contract on him.
After all, on the other side, Silva and Zeno were still carrying the long-term assassination job Kurapika had placed on Troupe members.
In other words, Kurapika's move there had been meant to eliminate the possibility of the Zoldycks coming after Ronin at the source.
But clearly, the Zoldyck family's internal situation was more complicated than he'd assumed.
"We can only restrict Silva and Zeno. The other family members are harder to control," Kurapika said, equally frustrated.
He also couldn't understand why Illumi would take a job that was obviously high-risk, low-return, and hard to complete.
Ronin, however, thought of one possibility.
It was absurd.
He'd only had one brief interaction with Killua in the arena, and they'd barely exchanged a few words. If that alone was enough to trigger Illumi's jealousy, then the man was even more of a freak than expected.
But the more Ronin thought about it, the more plausible it felt.
Damn it.
If he ran into that psychopath again, Ronin definitely wouldn't hold back. If he had the chance to kill him, he wouldn't hesitate.
As for whatever problems that might cause afterward, he'd deal with them if they actually came up.
"Don't worry. Just fight normally," Kurapika said, waving his phone. He had already told Silva, the Zoldyck family head, about Illumi's assassination attempt.
Silva's reply had been simple:
"If he accepted the job, then that means he already had the necessary resolve. If he dies during the assassination, then it only means he was inferior. The Zoldyck family does not avenge useless people."
It was such a cold answer it almost felt inhuman.
Ronin believed it.
"I thought he'd use his authority as family head to order Illumi to drop the job," Kurapika said, sounding a little regretful.
That family really was bizarre.
Wasn't this basically one family splitting into two groups and each group assassinating the other side's client?
"He won't. This job only ends when either I die or the Phantom Troupe gets wiped out. Once one client is gone, the contract naturally ends, and the Zoldycks still preserve their 100% success rate," Ronin said, laying out his understanding.
That was exactly how the Zoldycks had operated in the manga.
One side accepted a contract from the Ten Dons to assassinate the Troupe, while another side accepted Chrollo's contract to assassinate the Ten Dons.
In the end, Illumi, Maha, and Kalluto killed the Ten Dons, which stopped Silva and Zeno's assault on Chrollo.
Though back then it had been close.
If Illumi had been even a little slower, Chrollo would've had a very high chance of dying at Silva and Zeno's hands.
No…
Ronin suddenly remembered Chrollo's fortune from the manga. It had clearly said, "Even if only half your allies remain, your supreme position will still stand."
Which meant Chrollo had known all along that as long as he carried out his original plan, that fight against Silva and Zeno would be his best shot at stealing their abilities.
And as long as he fought seriously, he never needed to worry about dying to them.
In other words, everything that happened back then had been within Chrollo's calculations.
That was terrifying.
Even now, when Ronin replayed Chrollo's moves in his head, he still found them impressive.
"I hope October's divination gives us a good result," Ronin said, looking expectantly toward their trump card in the distance: Neon.
"Illumi will probably bring in Maha or Zigg from the family," Kurapika said. He had already learned the Zoldyck family structure from Ronin.
But even Ronin only knew that those two older Zoldycks were still alive. He had no way of knowing what kinds of abilities they possessed.
That said, Zigg had once accompanied Chairman Netero and Gourmet Hunter Linne to the Dark Continent—and all three had returned alive to Lake Mobius.
That alone proved how monstrous Zigg was.
According to the official records, there had been 149 recorded expeditions by humans to the Dark Continent.
And out of all those attempts, only five produced survivors, with just twenty-eight people returning alive in total.
The fact that Zigg and the others had gone in as a team of three and come back alive meant they were monsters even among monsters.
As for Maha—he was an even older monster than Zigg.
If Illumi really brought one of those two out, Ronin genuinely felt some pressure.
Trying to contain monsters like that would be hard.
So the best move was to set a marker in advance, and when the critical moment came, run if necessary.
Ronin voiced that thought, and Kurapika strongly agreed.
Honestly, Kurapika had been worried Ronin would get excited and run straight at Zigg or Maha just because they were strong.
So hearing that Ronin had already prepared to flee if needed made him feel a lot better.
"There's nothing shameful about running when you're not strong enough. In fact, escaping from a powerful enemy is also a form of strength. Once I get stronger later, I can always come back and settle the score," Ronin said casually.
He had no intention of standing his ground no matter what.
He'd trained for less than a year. Going up against century-old monsters now wasn't "courage"—it was stupid.
At least give him another two and a half years.
By then, who won and who lost might not be so obvious.
Ronin had absolute confidence in how fast his strength would grow—especially with these Mangekyō eyes, which were his greatest proof that one day, he would surpass everyone.