Ronin's guess was correct.
As an ability user stationed on the imaginary continent year-round, Regson had only one objective: prevent all humans from landing on the imaginary continent.
Killing the target was also within the permitted scope of his mission.
When Ronin's group's ship appeared near the coastline, he received the notice.
He simply had not expected the target to be this difficult to deal with.
However, Regson had already contacted his superiors. Now he was just waiting for them to send someone stronger to handle the other side.
As for him, he had no intention of throwing his life away for nothing. He did not even consider splitting off a substitute to track them.
He believed the people above him would have a way to find and intercept the intruders. If even they could not do it, then at worst, they could just let those people cross this continent—assuming they were capable of doing so.
If he had not once gotten curious and walked deeper into the continent, he might have thought his job was impressive. But after that one curious trip inland, he now felt like standing guard here was especially stupid.
Regson raised his head and looked at the sky.
It had been cloudy earlier, and now, in such a short time, a light rain had started falling. It really made him feel annoyed.
Pulling his clothes tighter around himself, Regson walked beneath a large tree to take shelter from the rain. As for whether he might get struck by lightning, he would worry about that if it actually happened.
What he did not notice was that while he was hiding from the rain, a pair of scarlet eyes had already appeared not far away, observing him.
It was Ronin's shadow clone.
As for the light rain falling from the sky, it had been produced after Ronin used the Rain Tiger at Will Technique. Everyone covered by that drizzle would be clearly sensed by him.
Naturally, Regson had not escaped detection either.
However, Ronin had no intention of coming to capture him personally. Instead, he directly tore apart a scroll he had prepared in advance, releasing the shadow clone sealed inside and sending it near Regson.
The fact that only Regson was present was somewhat unexpected to Ronin.
But that worked out perfectly. After confirming there was no danger, the shadow clone made its move.
Unlike Ronin's main body, the shadow clone was more accustomed to using ninjutsu. So before the other party could react, Earth Release: Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness had already risen from beneath Regson's feet as the shadow clone pressed both hands to the ground.
Regson never would have imagined that even though he had already stopped provoking them, the other side still had no intention of letting him go.
He was hiding beneath the large tree, and by the time he reacted to the rising walls of earth and stone, it was already too late.
The rising earthen walls completely trapped him in darkness. He tried punching toward the spot where he remembered the wall had risen, but aside from pain shooting through his fist, nothing happened.
The wall was as solid as bedrock. Breaking through it was completely beyond his ability.
He had already thought highly enough of the other side before, but now, it seemed he had still been careless.
Had he known they were this strong, he should at least have waited until the other two members of his four-man squad arrived before acting together.
But now, no matter what he said, it was too late.
As the group continued moving, Ronin's shadow clone caught up from behind. Regson was not with him.
The shadow clone handed a communicator to the main body, then stopped and trailed far behind the group.
This shadow clone could not only do many things, but could also become an energy supply source when necessary, so Ronin would not let it disappear casually.
The communicator was not a normal phone, but something more like a walkie-talkie. That left Ronin unsure of how to extract information from it, so he simply handed it to Ging.
Ging fiddled with it for a while, and he actually managed to make a call.
However, the two sides only exchanged a brief conversation before the communication was cut off. After that, no matter how Ging messed with the device, it produced no more sound.
"I feel like you should have waited a little," Kurapika said quietly.
"Mm. Good point." Ging nodded seriously.
Between passive and proactive action, he had chosen to be proactive. In his opinion, the result was still acceptable.
The imaginary continent was enormous. Overall, it even seemed farther to cross than going from NGL through the Mitene Union to East Gorteau.
So crossing this place in a short period of time was nearly impossible.
No one could say for certain what kind of arrangements V5 had made on this continent. In fact, in Ronin's view, even whether V5 had fully explored this imaginary continent was doubtful.
"This place called the imaginary continent may not have been fully explored yet," Ging said, making the same guess as Ronin.
Ronin's judgment was based on the manga, where V5 had handed the exploration rights of this continent over to Kakin. But what was Ging basing his judgment on?
Curious, Ronin asked the question in his heart.
"I've been to all five great nations. Their way of doing things is actually very obvious," Ging said. "A continent this huge can't possibly have no value at all. And yet V5 hasn't directly occupied it. At least based on what we've seen since arriving here, V5 has only sent some people to guard this place.
"Even their attitude toward intruders hasn't reached the level of an absolute kill-on-sight blockade. In my view, there's only one possibility. If we really intend to cross this continent, then V5's people will take action.
"They'll either act when we encounter danger, or make their final struggle after even the dangers of this continent prove unable to stop us."
Ging gave his assessment.
The first half was his judgment of the imaginary continent's situation, while the second half analyzed what actions V5 might take and what dangers might exist on the imaginary continent.
Kurapika nodded in agreement.
"That does seem to be the situation. And the reason V5 hasn't occupied and developed this place may be because of the dangers that exist on this continent.
"But I have another theory. The benefits and investment don't balance out. That may be the key reason V5 gave up on this place. Don't forget how we got here.
"If we didn't have a way to avoid attacks from underwater creatures, the cost of reaching this place would definitely be enormous. Even if we blocked the threats from below, danger would still appear from above. Unless this imaginary continent produces heaven-defying items like those found on the Dark Continent, V5 probably wouldn't invest massive amounts of manpower and resources into it."
Ging found himself looking more and more favorably upon Kurapika.
Naturally, he had also noticed all of these things, but he had focused the issue more on their current situation.
If there was anyone in this team Ging thought most highly of, it was definitely Ronin.
But that was from a combat perspective.
In terms of strategy, Kurapika was among the very best people Ging had ever seen.
One had to remember that Kurapika was only fifteen years old right now.
To possess this level of strength and insight at fifteen, especially with such delicate thinking and meticulous reasoning, meant his future was truly limitless.
"No matter what, we need to be careful from here on out," Ronin said, raising an eyebrow. "But if the other side is really planning to play the oriole behind the mantis stalking the cicada, then they'd better hide themselves well."