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Chapter 145: Genthru
Back at the Starting Point, Ronin and Neon welcomed the three players who had just entered the game. Kurapika still had no idea that Ronin had already tracked down the Phantom Troupe trio in the game, but upon seeing the subconscious smile tugging at the corners of Ronin's mouth, he managed to roughly guess what was going on.
"Good haul?" Kurapika asked as he gave Ronin a brief hug.
"Yeah." Ronin released Kurapika, surprised when Shizuku seamlessly moved in for a hug of her own. Not wanting to play favorites, he hugged her back. "Found traces of the Troupe members. Three of them in total. It'll be a good trial run."
"Three of them? That's right at the absolute limit of what we can handle," Kurapika noted. "You haven't exposed yourself, have you?"
"No," Ronin shook his head.
"Shalnark isn't one of the people who entered the game?" Kurapika asked, apparently taking something into consideration.
"Correct."
"I figured. If Shalnark were in the game, acquiring [Breath of Archangel] shouldn't be difficult for them." During his time outside, Kurapika hadn't been idle. He had memorized the information of every single card in the game. Based on their effects, he had even run various analyses and predictions.
Acquiring intel regarding the locations of card acquisition channels wasn't hard. As long as they found the right place, Shalnark's ability to manipulate others would easily allow him to force guinea pigs to test out every conceivable way to trigger the quests. It was exactly because Shalnark was absent that the Troupe members were so agonizingly slow at gathering [Breath of Archangel].
With Shalnark absent from the game, he was likely out hunting for Scarlet Eyes. Who knew how many pairs he had managed to get his hands on during this time.
"But even without Shalnark, they should be close to completing the card set by now," Ronin shrugged.
He honestly didn't care whether Bonolenov got healed by [Breath of Archangel] or not. In fact, compared to fighting a severely injured Bonolenov, he'd much rather fight a fully enraged Bonolenov at max capacity. Kurapika just gave Ronin a glance and instantly guessed his thoughts.
"The critical issue isn't the healing. It's whether they'll immediately choose to use [Leave] to exit the game after the healing is done," Kurapika pinpointed the real problem.
With the group all standing close together, Ronin pulled out an [Accompany] card from his Binder. Target: Masadora. As the spell card activated, the group swiftly launched into the sky and departed.
Recently, extreme changes had taken place within the game. Players were feeling an unprecedented sense of crisis. Powerful enforcers hired by Battera were actively purging the freeloaders who contributed absolutely nothing to clearing the game. Meanwhile, there were others indiscriminately attacking players to pillage their spell cards and Restricted Slot cards.
However, while the former was widely understood as Battera making new moves, the latter was viewed as pure, unadulterated terrorism. Anyone who had interacted with them and luckily survived knew one thing: their theft of Restricted Slot cards was nothing but an afterthought. They weren't doing it to actually clear Greed Island. What they truly wanted were the 40 different spell cards. Their method of occupying the only spell card shop in the game was especially inciting the wrath of the player base.
After all, spell cards had long since become deeply ingrained into every aspect of life for players surviving in Greed Island. Genthru was one of the many players affected by this.
He had entered the game three years ago. At the time, he hadn't mastered Nen for very long and desperately needed the combat experience. Entering the game with him were his two sworn brothers, Sub and Bara. However, when he decided to infiltrate another player's organization to secure the completion cards, he had temporarily separated from the other two.
Together, the three of them had created the Nen ability, [Countdown]. It was their combined finishing move. As long as the prerequisites were met, they could plant a Nen time bomb on their target. Its destructive power was overwhelming, more than enough to blow anyone strapped with the bomb to pieces.
But now, before he could even spread his infamy as "The Bomber," someone else had beaten them to the punch, adopting extreme measures to start hoarding cards. This made Genthru extremely displeased. What's worse, some of the people they killed were members of his organization.
One had to realize that the current organization was composed entirely of people Genthru had systematically sought out and recruited alongside Nickes. Every single one of them held quite a few Restricted Slot cards. Now that they were dead, those Restricted Slot cards had naturally changed hands. How was this any different from robbing Genthru directly?
Inside a cavern, the remaining organization members—less than ten of them—were all gathered together. Nickes, looking thoroughly haggard and exhausted, was the first to speak up.
"Let's reduce our activities for the time being. Those cold-blooded killers won't spare a single person they come into contact with."
At first, they had only been blockading the spell card shop in Masadora to rob people. But two days ago, rumors had already spread of them heading to Dorias to rob and slaughter. Nickes couldn't help but worry. The people he had painstakingly gathered here might not be the most combat-proficient, but they all had their own specialized skills and were excellent card gatherers. He absolutely refused to let his entire organization be wiped out by some homicidal maniacs.
Genthru swept his gaze over the crowd, raising a finger to gently push up his triangular glasses. Seeing that Nickes had finished speaking, he took the initiative to step forward before the members could start their own discussions.
"Have any of us had contact with those three homicidal maniacs?"
After hesitating for a moment, two people voluntarily stepped out from the group.
"I got robbed once at the shop in Masadora," one of them recounted his experience, his face flushing with shame. What this actually meant was that all of his Restricted Slot cards had been taken.
Genthru nodded. He had long expected this outcome. Seeing no one else step forward, he continued, "I'm sorry to tell you two this, but once you've made contact with them, you've become their 'loot piñatas.'"
The expressions of everyone present slightly changed as they instantly grasped the meaning behind Genthru's words. Yet, they didn't quite understand his purpose in bringing it up now.
Seeing their confused stares, Genthru finally revealed his plan. "My suggestion is that we temporarily consolidate all of our cards onto one person. Then, the person holding the cards will suspend all activity and hide in a safe location. I have a feeling that this trio of killers won't linger in the game for too long. In fact, clearing the game might not even be their objective."
"I don't know how long they'll stick around, but I do know that people are already starting to organize a hunting party to kill them," Nickes shared his own intel. "However, I agree with your proposal. We can't let our two years of hard work go down the drain."
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