After less than a day of flight, the helicopter airship landed on an open area near the outskirts of a city.
The members of the Troupe walked down from the airship.
Walking at the very end, Kisho glanced around.
"Aren't we not there yet?"
However, before his words had even finished, the helicopter airship that had still been behind everyone vanished without any warning. "...?!"
Shalnark turned around, looked at the completely stunned Kisho, and smiled as he explained,
"Because the airship was copied by Kortopi."
Having his name called, Kortopi turned his head back. One eye, revealed from behind his hair, showed a smug gleam.
"Well, that's how it is~" Shalnark continued,
"'Copying' is Kortopi's Nen ability. He can copy anything, and the copied objects retain the original functions, but they only last for 24 hours~"
Kisho froze.
"He can copy anything?"
"Yep."
Shalnark laughed.
"But if you're thinking of having him copy banknotes, you'd better forget it. Copying just one isn't very useful, but if you copy a lot, every bill has the same serial number, so you'll get found out right away."
Kisho responded coldly with an "Oh."
Kortopi shot Kisho a sideways glance.
"But gemstones are fine. After copying them, you can immediately sell them at a jewelry shop—but the downside is that you can only visit each shop once. It's easy to get blacklisted."
Kisho fell silent.
"...Why are you so experienced at this?!"
...
After leaving the Republic of Pinsge, the members of the Troupe went their separate ways. In the end, the ones who decided to return to the base were still those few hardcore shut-ins.
Because he needed Shalnark's help to look up some information, Kisho followed them back to Meteor City.
The second floor of the base, Shalnark's bedroom.
This was a very standard otaku room; the rest of the furnishings didn't need elaboration.
What drew all of Kisho's attention was a computer placed in the center of the room, completely out of place with the surroundings, and looking incredibly impressive at a glance.
He made himself at home, walked over, and sat down in front of the computer. The moment his hand touched the power button, the screen automatically lit up, and the speakers to the side emitted a series of beeping sounds.
Immediately after, the previously dark screen displayed lines of text:
"Welcome to the system..."
"Verifying login information..."
Kisho stared in amazement at this box-shaped computer, which to him probably counted as an antique, yet he was stunned by its excessive level of automation and intelligence.
He turned his head to look at Shalnark, who was leisurely leaning against the doorway. He really hadn't expected him to be such a tech nerd.
At the same time, the speakers connected to the computer spoke again:
"Beep. Identity verification error."
With that alarm, the computer screen went dark.
Shalnark sauntered over, speaking as he walked,
"Heh heh, no one but me is allowed to touch my computer."
Kisho narrowed his eyes and cast him a malicious sideways grin.
"Is it because there's something unspeakable hidden inside your computer?"
Before he could finish speaking, Shalnark had already punched him on the head.
After beating up the annoying brat, Shalnark irritably shoved Kisho aside and sat down in front of the computer.
"Welcome to the system. Verifying login information..."
"Identity confirmed. Welcome~"
After the login screen flashed by, Shalnark glanced at Kisho, then clicked on an icon that looked very much like a browser.
He took out his hunter badge and inserted it into a device connected to the computer. Only then did he enter the account name and password on the website's login page.
Kisho pointed at the device and asked in confusion,
"What's that for?"
"A reader for the hunter badge."
Shalnark explained,
"You can look up a lot of information on the Hunter Website that's confidential to most people, but you can only log in with a hunter badge."
Hearing that, a glint of light flashed in Kisho's eyes.
"Can you find anything on the Hunter Website?"
"Of course—" Shalnark laughed.
"Not!"
The instant brightness in Kisho's eyes vanished, replaced by black lines. He looked extremely speechless as he stared at the teasing Shalnark, with a gaze that looked like he wanted to stab someone.
"Even an organization like the Hunter Association, which is recognized worldwide, has existences it can't shake—like the V5."
Shalnark seriously explained some common knowledge to the utterly clueless little spider.
"The V5 is the alliance of the five most developed countries in the world."
"In a sense, the Hunter Association was only able to be established with the support of the V5."
After entering the account, Shalnark successfully logged into the official Hunter Website.
"So confidential information about the V5 is basically impossible to find on the website—of course, that's just one example. There are plenty of other materials that can't be looked up either."
Kisho was silent for a moment, then looked at Shalnark.
"Then whether it can be found or not... we can try first, right?"
"I've got a bad feeling you're provoking something terrifying."
Shalnark sighed helplessly.
"What do you want to look up?"
Kisho said each word slowly and clearly,
"Black Calamity Island."
"Black... Calamity... Island."
Behind the screen, Shalnark muttered the words as he typed the three characters into the search bar and pressed Enter. Strangely enough, the keyboard layout in this world was exactly the same as the one from the previous world.
Kisho leaned closer to the screen.
As expected, the refreshed webpage was completely blank.
But Shalnark's expression changed instantly.
He quickly opened a page full of code. His fingers flew across the keyboard, and lines upon lines of code jumped across the screen at a speed that left Kisho in awe, until three minutes later—
"Whoosh."
With lightning speed, Shalnark yanked his hunter badge out of the reader, let out a breath, then glared viciously at Kisho.
"I almost got killed by you!"
Kisho: "..."
Seeing Kisho still looking utterly lost, Shalnark darkened his face and explained to the computer illiterate,
"The place name you wanted to search doesn't just require higher permissions—it's also been under constant monitoring by surveillance software."
"Anyone who searches for that term gets their location traced in reverse."
"So—" Shalnark stared wide-eyed at Kisho and demanded, "Where did you even learn that place name? What kind of weird stuff have you gotten yourself involved with?"
Kisho met Shalnark's gaze.
Somewhat unexpectedly, this blond, blue-eyed fox showed no fear at having nearly been traced. What filled him instead was intense curiosity.
"Hehe~" Kisho grinned.
"Secret."
Before he finished speaking, he took another chestnut to the forehead from Shalnark.
"I was risking getting targeted to help you, you know!"
Kisho raised a hand to rub his reddened forehead, chuckling foolishly. Yet the emotions in his eyes were far from as calm as his expression suggested.
Even though he hadn't obtained any concrete information, he hadn't come away empty-handed.
At the very least, he now knew that "Black Calamity Island" truly existed.
Taking the worst-case scenario into account, the figures behind the research on Black Calamity Island were the V5.
He had no intention of dragging the Troupe into this matter.
If the V5 really were behind everything, then to avoid their sharp edge, there was a possibility the other members of the Troupe would stop him from continuing his investigation.
Not only that—if the Troupe got involved and followed the trail all the way through, it would inevitably lead to Noah Barton's former family—
The deliberately fabricated "death certificate" in the system was clearly meant to ensure that anyone connected to Noah would stop pursuing the cause of his death.
No matter what role Noah's family played in the whole affair, Kisho did not want them to be dragged into it, nor did he want the Troupe to have any connection with them.
He was forced to walk in darkness using Noah's identity, but he would also use all his strength to protect the final light that belonged to Noah.