Battera had placed all the game consoles in a single room.
When Ronin inserted the memory card into the slot and wrapped the console in Nen, his whole body vanished with a whoosh.
Ronin felt everything in front of him change in an instant.
The room he was in was no longer the machine room from before, but a far more futuristic-looking space. As he walked forward, a door opened automatically. Inside, a young NPC girl was already waiting for him.
She had large, unnaturally bright eyes, a strange device on her head, and highly futuristic equipment in front of her, making her look like an anime girl who had leapt straight out of 2D and into reality.
Ronin knew this girl was one of the game's creators. There was another girl who looked exactly the same as her: one handled players entering the game, and the other handled players leaving it.
The game itself was simple. Each player would receive a card binder.
As long as you filled all 100 fixed blank slots in the binder, you cleared the game.
In addition, each binder also had 45 free slots. Those could hold spell cards used for attack and defense, along with cards you collected that didn't belong in the fixed slots, or duplicate fixed-slot cards.
Any item obtained in the game could be turned into a card and stored in the binder.
And the things that could be obtained covered almost everything except the players themselves, though discovering that was up to the players.
There were also quite a few detailed rules regarding how items were cardified. After patiently listening to all of them, Ronin walked down the stairs.
And that meant he had officially entered the game.
As Ronin descended the stairs, Neon also successfully entered the game and began going through everything Ronin had just experienced.
When Ronin reached the bottom, what he saw was a vast stretch of grassland.
He could tell that from the instant he appeared outside the beginner's tower, someone's gaze had fallen on him.
Ronin leaned against the wall and waited patiently.
Not long after, when Neon came down from above, Ronin called out to her and then casually started walking in the direction where he sensed that gaze.
Based on what he knew from the manga, the nearest city should have been Andoniba, a bounty city.
But that was the city Gon and Killua reached after playing rock-paper-scissors and picking a direction. In truth, there was more than one city near the starting point.
As she walked, Neon summoned her card binder and looked at it with curiosity. It was so similar to a Conjuration-type ability that it immediately piqued her interest.
"It doesn't feel like I'm in a game at all," Neon said curiously as she looked at the completely empty binder.
She actually liked collection-type games quite a bit.
"Has it occurred to you that we might still be in the real world?" Ronin said, revealing the truth. "It's just that we triggered someone's ability and got teleported to a specific place."
Greed Island was, to begin with, a real island that existed in the real world.
It had simply been developed by Ging and his companions into a special game for Nen users.
Ronin rubbed the ring on his finger. There were strange script-like markings engraved on it, and he had no idea whether something that special had also played some unique role in the construction of the game.
"Huh?" Neon was genuinely shocked.
That possibility had never even crossed her mind.
"To create a game on this scale, and keep Nen running continuously for years... how massive of a project would that have to be?" The more Neon learned about Nen, the more Ronin's explanation felt like pure fantasy to her.
"Yeah," Ronin said with a sigh.
According to the information he knew, there hadn't even been more than ten people involved in creating this game.
Ten people building something this huge was already unbelievable.
And the fact that they had kept it running for over ten years was even more shocking.
And just as the two of them were still marveling at it, a streak of light wrapped in aura suddenly dropped toward them.
Bang!
With a light sound, a slick-looking blond punk had appeared not far in front of them.
His binder floated in front of him. The instant he saw Ronin summon his own binder right away, the contempt in his eyes faded slightly.
Judging by the location, it should have been near the starting point, but this guy didn't act like a beginner.
Whether he was or not, the first thing he did was pull out a card.
Peek: View one target player's free-slot pockets. (Only usable on players you have already encountered in the game.)
The card activated, and two names instantly appeared in his binder: Ronin and Neon.
Seeing that Ronin didn't do anything to defend against his card use, the caution that had just risen in the blond youth's mind faded by more than half.
He acted like an experienced player, but had no defensive response, so he could only be a newcomer. At most, maybe just a cautious type who had chosen to summon his binder immediately.
"Hey, were you hired by Battera to enter the game too?" Ronin saw what the guy was doing, but he didn't care.
There were two things he wanted to confirm right now: first, the guy's identity; second, making sure he couldn't escape.
The blond ignored Ronin's question.
He operated his binder, confirmed that Ronin didn't have a single card in his free slots, and became even more certain of his judgment.
At the same time, another spell card appeared in his hand. Since they were newbies, all he had to do was use Tracking on them.
With that in mind, he was just about to loudly activate the card.
But in the next second, his vision blurred, and the card in his hand disappeared.
Ronin had taken it.
Ronin could more or less guess what kind of card the guy was about to use. While being marked or tracked wouldn't mean much to him, snatching the card directly was obviously the more practical choice.
It was Tracking, a card that let you know a target player's current location at any time. (The effect lasts until the target player leaves the game.)
A very useful card.
Ronin casually slotted it into one of the free pockets in his own binder, then turned and fixed his eyes on the guy again.
The blond's gaze tightened. Instinctively, he tried to reach into his binder for another spell card.
But Ronin spoke first.
"If you try to run, I'll tear your head off before you can activate that card."
The man's whole body froze.
Ronin smiled like a demon. "So now, I ask. You answer."
When the guy didn't react, Ronin frowned slightly. "Did you hear me?"
"Yes!" the man answered shakily.
Ronin looked satisfied. "Good. Then first, hand over all your cards. After that, answer the question I asked earlier."
~~~
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