Some of the people keeping an eye on the Troupe trio saw the names of the three members dim in their card binders.
And that could only mean one of two things.
Either they had left the game, or they had been dealt with.
The former was obviously impossible.
Because during the earlier attack, someone had revealed that they had stolen the Leave spell card from them.
That left only one possibility.
All three of them had been killed by Kurapika's team.
But with that, the people everyone feared had changed from the murderous trio to Ronin's group, who had appeared later in the game and were also hired by Battera.
That made their stance extremely important.
Nikens was thinking about the same thing, and standing beside him was Genthru, who should have been hiding in the safe zone.
Genthru hadn't expected something unexpected to happen.
His original plan had been to use the existence of those three killers to stir up trouble, then seize all the designated-slot cards collected by the organization for himself. After that, he would create a new organization and begin another round of progress toward clearing the game.
Now, it seemed that plan had fallen apart. Unless something unexpected happened, the cards in his possession would have to be returned to the other members later.
That made him reluctant.
What worried him even more was whether Ronin's group, with their forceful arrival, would become the main force in clearing the game.
If that happened, then what he needed to consider was how to play along with them on the surface while looking for a chance to plant bombs on them.
And for now, what he had to do was find an opportunity to contact them and probe their intentions, so he could decide what to do next.
The Bomber's plan had already begun, but the name "Bomber" was not yet infamous enough.
Approaching them under the pretext of searching for and killing the Bomber—a person who collected cards by eliminating players—and then mentioning the Bomber should not arouse their suspicion.
No.
It would be better to get close to them only after gaining a certain amount of trust. That way, he could make sure they would not suspect him.
There were quite a few people who, like Nikens, wanted to make contact with Ronin's team.
But some people quietly withdrew as well. They had no intention of approaching Ronin's group before confirming their stance and methods.
So in the end, including Nikens and Genthru, only seven people chose to use Accompany to meet Ronin and the others.
While Ronin's group was busy handling the aftermath inside the game, in a room of a private house outside the game, Shalnark, Machi, and Nobunaga had gathered.
In front of them sat a game console.
It was the key to entering Greed Island.
However, on the television screen, the avatars representing Phinks, Feitan, and Bonolenov had all gone dim.
Anyone who had played the game knew what that meant.
It meant all three of them had died inside the game.
In fact, they had arrived three days earlier at the address Feitan and the others had left before entering the game.
But the three of them had not been especially interested in entering the game, and Shalnark had just happened to investigate news about a pair of Scarlet Eyes.
So they had stayed there temporarily.
After all, according to the last message Feitan had sent back, it should only have taken a few more days for the three inside to finish healing Bonolenov and come out of the game.
No one had expected that in just those few days, something would happen to all three of them.
And the first person Shalnark thought of as the culprit was Ronin.
After all, according to the information Feitan had previously sent back from inside the game, there should not have been anyone there capable of threatening the three of them.
Clearing the game might be difficult, since that required investing a huge amount of time and effort into exploration and card collection. But the three of them had not entered the game with the goal of clearing it in the first place. They had only needed to collect spell cards and exchange them for Breath of Archangel, so there should not have been any real danger.
Even if the three had acted a little arrogantly, killing all three of them almost at the same time should have been practically impossible.
In Shalnark's view, even if Ronin had been the one to act, it should have been very difficult for him to kill all three nearly simultaneously.
"Should we go in and take a look?" Machi's expression was ugly.
She hated this passive feeling.
The bad news that kept coming one after another made her feel the same helplessness she had felt as a child, when she first saw Sarasa's corpse.
Shalnark shook his head.
"Whether Ronin chased them into the game, or Feitan and the others encountered some other powerful enemy inside, if we enter now, there's nothing to gain except possibly exposing our identities and inviting danger."
Shalnark sighed.
"And if it really was Ronin who chased them into the game, then I think Feitan's death was probably something he had already mentally prepared himself for."
Nobunaga slammed his fist into the wall.
"Damn it!"
Since when had the Troupe ever been this pathetic?
But ever since they came into contact with Ronin, the word "pathetic" seemed to have become something exclusively attached to the Troupe.
"So we're just going to leave him alone? Still no word from the boss?" Nobunaga still couldn't hold back.
Even going all-out and fighting him directly would feel better than watching him slowly devour their side bit by bit like this.
Shalnark shook his head.
At this point, with Ronin clearly holding the advantage, even Shalnark no longer knew what they could specifically do.
It seemed that aside from trying to collect the Scarlet Eyes, there was nothing else they could use to restrict Ronin.
"I'm going back to Meteor City." Machi stood up, her face utterly emotionless.
In her view, continuing to collect Scarlet Eyes was pointless too. It would be better to return to Meteor City and wait for Ronin to come to them, or wait for the boss to summon her for one final struggle.
Yes.
A struggle.
Machi had a feeling.
This time, the Troupe really was going to end.
She wasn't afraid of the Troupe ending.
She only regretted that they still had not found the culprit who killed Sarasa back then.
Shalnark opened his mouth, but he did not know how to stop her.
When Machi passed by Nobunaga, he followed her as well.
"You're not leaving?"
Shalnark shook his head.
"I'll get my hands on that pair of Scarlet Eyes. After that, I'll return to Meteor City on my own. Don't worry."
Nobunaga didn't try to persuade him, but he still felt an inexplicable pressure weighing on him.
At some point, Ronin's existence had completely become a sword of Damocles hanging over the entire Troupe's head.
No one knew when it would fall.
And no one knew who it would cut down.
Looking at the now-empty room, Shalnark put away the game console and also chose to leave.
…
After entering the game, Ronin saw Genthru for the first time.
However, he showed nothing unusual. Instead, he cooperated with Kurapika and led all seven arrivals into the hotel reception room.
Ronin understood exactly what these people wanted.
They simply wanted to judge how Ronin's group planned to clear the game, how they intended to distribute the profits after clearing it, and whether they would help Battera "cut personnel."
~~~
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