Since they didn't have an Accompany card, the group's destination was still Andoniba.
With Zakari leading the way, things went much more smoothly.
His presence also made a lot of people look at Ronin and Neon with a bit more caution.
Clearly, quite a few people recognized Zakari. But where there were cautious people, there were naturally also people who saw Ronin as a target.
Someone viewed as troublesome in one person's eyes might look like easy prey in another's.
Ronin didn't mind that at all. In fact, he was almost hoping someone would attack first. That way, he could harvest more cards with ease.
"The fact that I have cards in my designated slots already proves I'm not weak. You two are just way too strong."
Zakari had gradually realized that Ronin and Neon weren't bad people, so he had gotten a lot bolder about speaking.
He even tried to save a little face.
Neon nodded in agreement. Against an ordinary opponent, they really wouldn't have been able to do what Ronin did.
Snatching a card out of someone's hand before they could activate it was a very standard tactic, but without enough strength, it was hard to pull off in practice.
Zakari had just been unlucky. Even without using Lightning Release Chakra Mode, Ronin was already fast as lightning. He was never someone Zakari could have handled.
Seeing Neon agree with him made Zakari like her a lot more.
Ronin, meanwhile, paid no attention to their conversation. He was busy thinking about which of the nearby ill-intentioned watchers was most likely to have an Accompany card.
He would only get one shot.
Once he used violence to take something by force, the most likely reaction from the people nearby would be to immediately activate spell cards and get as far away from him as possible.
"No clues?" Ronin turned to Zakari.
Just from Ronin's look, Zakari immediately understood what he meant.
So his gaze also began sweeping across the surroundings.
But the three of them had only just approached Andoniba. They hadn't fully entered the city yet, so even if someone was lying in wait, they were still quite far away.
And judging from their attitude, the moment the three of them made any unusual move, those cautious people would probably choose to flee.
The closer they got to Andoniba, the more bounty notices there were in the area.
Sometimes a gust of wind would blow in carrying several of them.
The bounty targets were all over the place too. Just about everything in everyday life had some sort of bounty posted on it.
If someone was hardworking enough, they could probably live quite comfortably in the game just by doing bounty jobs.
There were simply too many of them.
Ronin didn't pick up any missions. From the moment they entered town, more and more people started watching them, but very few actually dared make a move.
That only changed after Ronin deliberately led them into an alley.
Inside the game, robbery was absurdly easy—especially when your strength was overwhelmingly superior.
By the time they walked out of the alley, both Ronin's and Neon's free slots were packed with cards, while what remained behind in the alley was a pile of collapsed bodies.
Zakari was still with them, and the team had also gained two more players—one tall and one thin—both under Ronin's control via puppet strings.
That made three in total.
As long as he got them all ship passes at the harbor or obtained the Leave spell card, he could send all three of them out of the game.
The reason Ronin hadn't focused on spell cards from the start was because Leave was a relatively rare spell card.
There were only thirty of them in the entire game.
By contrast, the Passes that could be bought after defeating the harbor master numbered one hundred fifty.
The only real difficulty was beating the harbor master. That was the key obstacle preventing most players in the game from leaving.
But for Ronin, the harbor master clearly wasn't a problem. At least, from the manga, even Gon and Killua at that point had been able to beat him, which meant his combat ability was only so-so.
Once they had Accompany, Zakari was the one made to use it.
With Ronin watching him, he had no chance to play any tricks. Ever since Ronin had first asked him about the harbor, he had already understood how he would eventually be dealt with, but he still had no way to resist.
By now, Zakari had actually started hoping the harbor master might be able to defeat this devil of a man.
But once Accompany activated and they arrived at the harbor, Ronin casually used pebbles to defeat everyone in the ferry office, including the harbor master, turning them all into cards. At that point, Zakari was completely hopeless.
Ronin was just too strong.
Still, Ronin didn't use the first Pass immediately. Instead, he planned to farm a few more.
After all, leaving the game by using a Pass didn't send you back to the place where you entered the game. It sent you to the real-world island itself.
To make sure the three players leaving would all have their memory card save data erased, they would need to be sent to Battera's castle and kept there under supervision.
Only after the three of them had failed to return to the game for ten days would their records inside the game be completely deleted.
So Ronin needed at least four Passes—and that was assuming Neon didn't plan to leave the game with him.
Neon was fairly confident in her own strength. She also didn't think that just because Ronin would be gone for a little while, she would suddenly run into danger, so she chose to stay in the game on her own after Ronin left, get more familiar with how the game worked, and collect cards along the way.
Ronin was a little worried, but after they had counter-killed quite a few attackers, the spell cards they currently had were enough to guarantee Neon's safety for the time being.
Too bad they didn't have Leave.
That would have been safer.
"I'm not going far. I'll just wander around the harbor area a bit. I'm not going to recklessly head to Masadora," Neon promised.
"No. You can't stay in either the harbor or Masadora for long. It's better if you go somewhere else—Dorias, Soufrabi, or Aiai. Any of those is fine," Ronin advised.
Neon made an OK sign with her hand.
After thinking for only a moment, she understood exactly what Ronin was worried about.
If the Phantom Troupe was still inside the game, then Masadora was the city where they were most likely to be. And if they wanted to leave the game, their best options would either be using Leave, or doing the same thing Ronin had done and going to the harbor for a Pass.
The harbor master didn't respawn very quickly. It took six hours before he swaggered back into the ferry office.
But the moment he stepped inside, Ronin casually flicked a coin that pierced straight through his head.
Once the fallen harbor master was touched by Ronin, he turned into a card.
That card was the Pass.
By the afternoon of the second day, Ronin had gathered all the Passes he needed.
After giving Neon a few final instructions, he left the game with the three dejected players in tow.
~~~
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