Perhaps the richer and more powerful someone was, the more afraid they were of death.
Ronin, however, had no intention of wasting words on Ryan. He used Mind-Reading Technique on him.
Since the only thing he searched for was the Scarlet Eyes, the process was simple. A few minutes later, when Ronin let go of Ryan's head, he already knew where they were.
They were inside this hotel.
"What should we do with this guy?" Kurapika asked as he followed after Ronin.
"Shizuku and Neon should be here any second. They can deal with him," Ronin said. He knew Kurapika wasn't the type who could easily bring himself to finish someone off, so it was better to leave that sort of thing to the team members whose moral standards weren't quite so high.
"My judgment is that he's worthless," Neon said, looking at Ryan with obvious disgust.
"Oh."
That simple reply was followed by Shizuku swinging Blinky.
"What a violent person," Neon muttered softly. "Come on, hurry up. Don't let Ronin pack up all the good stuff."
She knew Ronin far too well.
If there was a chance, Ronin definitely wouldn't stop at taking just the Scarlet Eyes. He'd sweep up Ryan's collection and treasures too.
If she didn't know Ronin's past—and if she didn't know he wouldn't do the sort of thing where he just murdered people and looted them—there were times Neon genuinely felt that the Phantom Troupe should've simply recruited him back then. He probably would have fit in with them perfectly.
Shizuku glanced at Ryan's corpse, but in the end, didn't vacuum it up. Instead, she quickly followed after Neon.
There were still a few guards in black protecting Ryan's vault.
But they were all just ordinary people. Once Ryan had started triggering one transfer after another, the Nen users who had been left in the hotel to protect him had already completely abandoned him.
Ronin and Kurapika dealt with those guards easily, then entered Ryan's treasure vault.
Gold and silver, piles of cash, and all kinds of art objects—this vault had everything.
But the most eye-catching part was the small section Ryan had deliberately set aside, where human organs were displayed: eyes, hearts, hands, feet, skulls, infants, even men and women arranged in various struggling poses.
"This guy is way crazier than Neon," Ronin said with a sigh.
"And way more low-class than me," Neon said from behind him, her voice carrying a faint trace of breathlessness. Her gaze had also landed on that display area.
But there was no excitement in her eyes—only disgust.
She had long since outgrown this kind of collection method. These days, she preferred finding organs she liked herself, then personally turning them into preserved specimens for her collection.
And if she could pair them with some especially compelling story in the process, that would be even better.
Unfortunately, the kinds of organs that truly caught her interest were far too rare. You could only come across them by chance, not by searching for them.
Especially since she couldn't exactly go around killing every person who looked like they might have a perfect organ just to collect them. She could only gather such things from enemies, which slowed her progress a lot.
Still, she actually enjoyed that process.
"Want to pick through them a bit?" Ronin's eyes swept through the collection, and very quickly he spotted the Scarlet Eyes.
But Kurapika got there faster than he did and picked them up.
Even though it wasn't the first time he had recovered Scarlet Eyes, Kurapika still could never fully control his emotions whenever he saw them.
Ronin turned and headed for the valuables that could be exchanged for large amounts of money, like jewelry and ornaments.
But Shizuku moved even faster than he did. Before he could even control Owl and take out the Big Cloak, Blinky had already started vacuuming up item after item.
By the time Ronin brought out the Big Cloak, there was basically nothing left for him to pack.
The shrill alarm had been blaring nonstop ever since they broke into the vault, and it wouldn't be long before more security personnel arrived.
The Glam Gas family wasn't just Ryan alone.
So after seeing that Shizuku had already cleared out the contents of the vault, Ronin simply put the Big Cloak away and left the vault with Kurapika and Neon.
Instead of heading downstairs, the group made straight for the rooftop.
The Ultra-Lightweight Rock Technique didn't just let Ronin fly alone—it also let him take his companions with him and escape through the air.
Since the performance had taken place at night, almost no one noticed Ronin and the others leaving from high above.
Ronin's shadow clone was still with the Freak Show Troupe. After leaving Abaki a way to contact them, the clone dispelled itself at the right moment, leaving the troupe members to hurry down the corridor and flee the hotel.
The security personnel knew Ryan's target had been the Freak Show Troupe, but now that Ryan himself was probably dead, those guards loyal to him naturally cared more about the people who had emptied the vault—Ronin and the others. They had no time to bother intercepting the troupe.
Still, once the troupe left the Glam Gas Hotel, some of Royal Glam Gas's dirty dealings would inevitably come to light as well.
The only question was how many people would actually believe it.
Ronin didn't really care about that, but he also knew that a small troupe like the Freak Show had no chance whatsoever of bringing down Royal Glam Gas.
Royal Glam Gas had already established its name, while the Freak Show Troupe had never been especially well-liked to begin with. Plenty of people had said they were lucky just to be chosen to perform at Royal Glam Gas.
Now they had left Royal Glam Gas and were smearing its name?
Most people would only see it as the bitter resentment of sore losers.
And things turned out just as Ronin and the others had expected. By the time they got the Scarlet Eyes and prepared to leave Gaslan, news had already spread through the city that the Freak Show Troupe had colluded with thieves to loot the Royal Glam Gas Hotel.
But since no one had managed to capture the supposed thieves' actual faces, people could only focus their suspicions on the Freak Show Troupe.
By the time Ronin met Abaki again, the Freak Show Troupe had already disbanded.
"The Glam Gas family has put a bounty on the Freak Show Troupe," Abaki said bitterly. "After all this circling around, the troupe's finished again. Since I don't have any physical deformities, I can avoid the bounty hunters as long as I disguise myself a little. But the others in the troupe… it's much harder for them.
"According to Captain Norman, scattering is the best way to maximize our chances of survival. So my earlier idea of trying to help some of the others had to be shelved."
Ronin and Kurapika exchanged a glance, and both could read the deeper meaning in each other's eyes.
That centaur captain, Norman, probably didn't want Abaki to remain tied down by the troupe.
And besides, Norman's decision was the right one. In the entire troupe, the ones who would be watched most closely were the Nen users—Norman and Abaki.
"So what are you planning to do next?" Ronin asked.
As for inviting Abaki to join their team, Ronin had no such intention for now. He still hadn't fully figured out the specifics of her ability, and he knew even less about what kind of person she really was.
If he ever wanted her to become a companion, then at the very least he'd need to understand her better first.
"I'm going to take the Hunter Exam and become a Hunter," Abaki replied.
That answer surprised Ronin a little.