"You want me to kill someone?"
Sitting in a massive, ornate receiving room deep within the Zoldyck mountain estate, Liam stared at Silva in genuine surprise.
The imposing patriarch of the family sat across from him, his thick, messy white hair framing a majestic, stoic face. He looked like a massive lion resting peacefully in its den. Just being fixed by his heavy gaze was enough to make most people tremble in terror. However, Liam found the current situation slightly hilarious.
The Zoldycks, the most legendary family of professional assassins in the entire world, were asking him to kill someone? And they were actually offering to pay him for it?
Liam found the request incredibly funny, but the rest of the Zoldyck family in the room clearly did not share his amusement.
"Dad," Milluki complained, his face bunching up in annoyance. "Do you really think that highly of this guy?"
Illumi remained perfectly silent, his dark eyes locked onto Liam. Internally, he analyzed the situation. This outsider knows far too much about Alluka. Since we cannot kill him on the spot without risking a catastrophic backlash from Nanika, our only logical option is to formally befriend him.
"Young man," Zeno spoke up, breaking the tension. The oldest assassin present stroked his beard and offered Liam a dry, knowing smile. "Our family consists entirely of assassins. Assassins are very simple creatures; we do our work for money. Are you not the same? You should know that in our family, the most sacred bond is a 'transaction.' If you accept our money and successfully eliminate a target for us, then, by our rules, we will be considered friends."
So this is how the Zoldyck family makes friends? Liam thought, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. No wonder Killua is completely incapable of making normal friends.
Silva leaned forward slightly, his deep voice rumbling through the quiet room. "What do you say?"
Liam offered a relaxed smile. "Tell me the name of the target."
"The specific target has not been decided yet," Silva said. He reached into his coat and pulled out a heavy, encrypted mobile phone. "A client recently paid us a massive sum to eliminate a specific individual within the next year. However, this individual's current whereabouts are completely unknown. The only concrete piece of information we have is that he recently joined the Phantom Troupe."
"Joined the Troupe?" Liam asked, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
"Do you have a personal interest in the Spiders? That would make things much easier," Silva noted, watching Liam's reaction closely. He held up his phone. "Give me your bank account number."
"I have a friend who is very interested in them, yes. But what do you mean by 'easier'?" Liam pulled out his own phone and quickly read off his secure account number.
"Our contracted target is only one specific member of the Spiders," Silva explained calmly. "However, the Troupe is notoriously difficult to track. Therefore, our transaction with you is simple: as long as you kill any member of the Spider, we will consider our transaction with you completely successful."
Silva tapped a few buttons on his screen. A few seconds later, Liam's phone chimed. He looked down. A clean transfer of exactly one hundred million Jenny had just cleared into his account.
"Well, that was incredibly refreshing," Liam chuckled, slipping his phone back into his pocket. "But what happens if I mess up and fail?"
Silva did not answer. He merely offered a faint, chilling smile that did not reach his eyes.
Yeah, if I mess this up, this old lion is absolutely going to hunt me down and rip my head off, Liam thought.
He glanced around the room, taking in the terrifying family. Zeno and Silva were monsters in their own right. Kikyo, with her wide dresses and glowing electronic visor, looked like a villain ripped straight out of a cyberpunk nightmare. Illumi was a terrifying, dead-eyed control freak. Even Killua, who looked cute and relatively normal, was a hardened little killer who could casually rip a man's heart out of his chest before he had even met Gon.
This entire family was fundamentally ruthless.
Looking at it from that perspective, the fat, lazy otaku Milluki was easily the most approachable person in the room. Well, except for Alluka, who was genuinely pure and harmless. And Nanika, who literally fed on pure love.
Killua, sitting nearby with Alluka on his lap, looked up at Liam with genuine curiosity. "Hey, I was wondering. If Nanika had not been there, how were you actually planning to escape? Grandpa and Dad would have definitely killed you!"
Liam smiled easily. "I do not know about that. When they had me surrounded at the wall, they did not exactly look like they were out for blood."
"Kill you? What nonsense," Zeno scoffed, waving a hand dismissively. "Did anyone pay us to kill you?"
"Exactly," Liam agreed, nodding at the old man. "A professional assassin must adhere to professional standards! So, my backup plan was always just to pay my way out. I figured offering one hundred million... no, a billion Jenny would have been enough to buy my life, right?"
Killua stared at him, bewildered. "Are you really that rich?"
Miles away, in a quiet restaurant near the Special Voyage Bureau building.
The waiter was carefully placing the final few dishes on the table when, out of the corner of his eye, a person suddenly materialized out of thin air in the previously empty chair.
It was a young woman with short, slightly messy black hair and heavy glasses that obscured half her face, making her features look small and delicate. Her large lavender eyes blinked rapidly as she adjusted to her surroundings. It was the exact same girl the waiter had assumed was in the restroom earlier.
The waiter froze, his hands trembling slightly as he stared at Shizuku, and then at Menchi, who was casually tucking a heavy cast-iron pan behind her back.
Menchi flashed the stunned waiter a bright, completely unapologetic smile. "We are practicing a new magic act. She is my stage assistant."
The waiter let out a long breath, a look of sudden comprehension washing over his face. He clapped his hands lightly. "Wow! I am standing right next to you and I did not see a single flaw in the illusion. That is an incredible magic trick!"
"Thank you," Menchi chirped, completely sliding the heavy pan out of sight behind her waist.
The waiter pushed the empty dining cart away, shaking his head in mild confusion. He was not entirely sure, but he could have sworn the green-haired girl's heavy pan had literally vanished the moment she tucked it behind her back. Was that part of the magic trick too?
"Alright, you must be starving. Let us eat!" Menchi cheered, grabbing her chopsticks.
She leaned over the table, taking a deep, critical sniff of the various dishes spread before them. In a matter of seconds, she accurately assessed the absolute limits of the restaurant chef's skills. Since she was no longer acting in her official capacity as a Gourmet Hunter judge, she did not particularly care if the food was slightly subpar. It would never be as good as her own cooking anyway. She was used to it. She dug in enthusiastically.
[Shizuku, what exactly did Menchi do to you?] Liam's voice crackled urgently through the Moon Mark.
Shizuku picked up a piece of meat, took a small bite, and suddenly froze mid-chew.
Menchi noticed her hesitation and offered an evil, teasing grin. "What is wrong? Does it suddenly taste like garbage because you realize you can cook it better yourself?"
She let out a dry, sarcastic laugh. "Your current culinary skills were directly inherited from me. It makes perfect sense that the line cooks in a standard restaurant like this cannot even begin to compare to your new palate!"
[Hey? Shizuku? Hello? Is the signal dead?] Liam's voice echoed anxiously in her mind.
Shizuku ignored Liam for a moment. She methodically took exactly one bite of every single dish on the table. Once she had tasted them all, she neatly placed her chopsticks down and offered a deep, formal bow across the table.
"Thank you, Menchi."
"I did not include a 'thank you' in my demands," Menchi muttered, poking at her rice.
While trapped inside the special pocket dimension of the pan, Shizuku had naturally suffered three consecutive, crushing defeats in the required cooking competitions. Because she lost, she was forced to unconditionally fulfill three demands from Menchi. One of those demands was that immediately upon exiting the dimension, Shizuku had to taste every dish on the restaurant table and critically compare them to her newly acquired cooking skills.
Having fulfilled the condition, Shizuku finally tapped her Heavenly Path ring, responding to Liam through the Moon Mark to explain what had just happened.
Menchi, with her sharp eyes, immediately noticed the subtle movement of Shizuku's thumb stroking the ring.
"Are you explaining to Liam what just happened?" Menchi asked, resting her chin on her hand. She thought to herself, It is incredible that they can clearly sense each other from such a massive distance. They are literally communicating through their consciousness.
Shizuku lowered her hand and looked at Menchi. "Liam says your new ability is incredibly dangerous."
"Hmph," Menchi snorted, clearly pleased with the compliment.
"No, I think he means dangerous for you," Shizuku corrected her in a flat tone. "He says you need to be extremely careful about who you pull into that pan. Even if you trap a complete layman who knows nothing about cooking, you are forced by your own rules to teach them everything you know. What happens if you trap a genuine prodigy? Someone with raw talent who has never cooked before? After you teach them all your secrets, it is entirely possible they could surpass you within the three matches and cook a better dish. If that happens, you lose the bet and become their slave."
Menchi's smile did not falter for a second. "Wouldn't that be absolutely wonderful?"
A manic, passionate look flashed across Menchi's face, an expression of pure culinary obsession that Shizuku had never seen before. "Wouldn't it be incredible to finally taste a dish so perfect that even I could not create it? I genuinely hope I meet a chef who is better than me!"
Shizuku stared at her blankly. "Which is more important to you? Finding a better chef, or your own personal safety and freedom?"
"The cooking, obviously!" Menchi rolled her eyes as if the answer were the most obvious thing in the world. "Everyone dies eventually. But where else am I going to find the ultimate dish? That is a stupid question."
Shizuku fell silent, processing the Gourmet Hunter's insane logic. After a moment, she asked, "I have Liam's Manipulation mark on my body. So why was I still forced to obey the 'requests' generated by your ability?"
Menchi laughed. "What does a Manipulation control mark have to do with the absolute physical laws created by a Conjuration space? Two completely different rule sets, Shizuku."
Shizuku nodded, accepting the logic. She stood up from the table and offered another polite bow. "It is time for me to leave. I need to meet up with Liam. There are some very important things happening on his end."
"What kind of things?" Menchi asked, immediately standing up and waving for the waiter to bring the check.
"Do you want to participate, Menchi? Liam issued an open invitation. If you agree to join us, we can travel together."
A few minutes later, Shizuku and Menchi walked side-by-side out of the restaurant and onto the busy street.
"Wait, why do I have to officially join his weird group just to tag along? Can't we just hang out as friends?" Menchi complained, crossing her arms in deep dissatisfaction.
"Because what we are doing is a life-threatening matter," Shizuku replied flatly.
Menchi grabbed Shizuku's shoulders and shook her roughly. "If it is life-threatening, then you should absolutely be calling your friends to help you! What on earth is going on with you guys?!"
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