September 3rd.
A rumor had somehow spread like wildfire through Yorknew City.
The word on the street was about the game Greed Island—specifically, that there was an ability inside the game capable of reversing aging and restoring youth.
Ronin saw the news online from his hotel suite, but he couldn't care less. Or rather, the entire game didn't interest him much.
If anything in Greed Island appealed to him, it was the monsters roaming the wasteland. They were excellent tools for grinding XP and honing skills.
However, he was past the stage where beating up scrub mobs would help him improve. It would be a great training ground for Kurapika and Neon to sharpen their techniques, though.
As for the in-game items? Ronin couldn't think of a single thing worth fighting over, let alone something he needed to smuggle out into the real world.
He stifled a yawn.
Merging two pairs of Sharingan hadn't immediately unlocked the Mangekyou Sharingan.
He had a gut feeling that he should be able to activate it, but every time he tried, it felt like something was missing. A catalyst.
He thought back to the lore in the manga. The Mangekyou Sharingan required a special kind of chakra, surged by intense negative emotion, to evolve the three-tomoe eye into the kaleidoscope form.
If he had to follow those rules, did that mean he needed to watch someone close to him die to unlock it?
Ronin scratched his head, frustrated.
If the unlock conditions mirrored the manga, did that mean using it would eventually wreck his vision too?
Then again, the Scarlet Eyes also triggered based on emotion. Maybe evolving them required an even more intense emotional spike—just like how the Phantom Troupe tortured his clan to harvest the eyes when they were at their deepest shade of crimson.
The intel he had bought from Vize regarding Pairo only confirmed that suspicion.
Ronin planned to snag the Scarlet Eyes from the upcoming Southernpiece auction. That would give him two options:
1. Hoard them for now and wait until the Mangekyou naturally unlocked before merging them.
2. Merge them immediately and see if the sheer quantity of power could force a qualitative change.
Ronin leaned toward the second option.
Even if it didn't trigger a mutation, fusing the Scarlet Eyes would still boost his total aura capacity.
He already had the catalog for the Southernpiece auction; the eyes were scheduled for the 5th. Money wasn't an issue. Even though he hadn't been fighting in Heaven's Arena lately, thanks to Milia's financial wizardry, his capital had been compounding.
He was currently sitting on over ten billion jenny.
Milia really was a top-tier agent.
"Milia wants to know if you need any more Nen," Kurapika asked, tossing a soda can to Ronin.
"Not right now," Ronin cracked the tab open. "You guys should borrow some from her, though. It's pretty useful."
"Without splitting the Troupe up, a direct attack is too dangerous. Even with your barrier jutsu to separate the battlefield, we can't risk it," Kurapika sighed. "In this situation, the best move is to use the trap I've already set to see if we can find an opening."
"Sounds good," Ronin agreed.
A small, diamond-shaped mark had appeared on the center of Ronin's forehead—the Yin Seal.
The principle was simple: constantly compress and store chakra into the seal during daily life. When needed, the seal could be released to access that stockpile.
Using Tsunade's "Creation Rebirth" and "Strength of a Hundred" techniques, the user could achieve high-speed regeneration and explosive physical strength in combat. Masters of the technique could even use the micro-regulation of chakra to maintain eternal youth and keep their bodies in peak physical condition.
Ronin had only recently started using the Yin Seal, so the amount of chakra stored inside was negligible. It was way too early to use it for a power spike.
Right now, the Phantom Troupe was moving as a tight unit. If he engaged them, even if he managed to kill a few with burst attacks, he'd put himself in a bad spot.
The risk outweighed the reward.
Besides, after he killed Uvogin, the pressure was on the Troupe, not him.
Tonight presented a different opportunity.
The Ten Dons had spent a fortune to hire assassins from the Zoldyck family.
Ronin planned to head over tonight, not just to complete the task Kurapika assigned him, but to see if he could vulture a kill in the chaos. If there was a chance, he'd take it. If not, he wouldn't force it.
He was also curious if Chrollo would hire the Zoldycks as well, just like in the original story.
If Chrollo planned to stop the attacks on the Troupe by hiring the Zoldycks to kill the Ten Dons, he was going to be disappointed.
Because "Raymond" absolutely would not die.
The current Raymond was just one of Ronin's Shadow Clones. Even if they managed to kill it, he could just snap his fingers and create a second one.
---
By 7:00 PM, a massive number of mobsters had gathered at the Cemetery Building.
Every man was armed, and every vehicle approaching the building went through a rigorous security check.
Meanwhile, in a room on one of the upper floors, Ronin was leaning against a wall. He had used a Transformation Jutsu to disguise himself as Kakashi Hatake.
Silver gravity-defying hair, face mask, flak jacket, and a short sword strapped to his back. He looked the part of a mercenary.
There were several others in the room.
Sharing the silver-hair aesthetic were Silva Zoldyck and Zeno Zoldyck.
Their presence aligned perfectly with the events of the Yorknew auction in the manga.
However, among the other four mercenaries present, there was one figure that surprised Ronin.
Face painted with a teardrop and a star. Slicked-back red hair. A tunic emblazoned with clubs and spades, and hearts and diamonds on the back. A pink cummerbund and curled shoes.
It was Hisoka.
Ronin recognized him instantly.
In this timeline, because Ronin had personally killed Omokage (the former #4), Hisoka hadn't actually joined the Phantom Troupe yet.
Still, seeing him here was unexpected.
As for the remaining three ability users: one was a young man with a mohawk and heavy tattoos who looked more like a street thug than a hitman. Another was a middle-aged man in a mechanic's jumpsuit clutching a wrench, looking like he was ready to fix a sink or a radiator.
The last was a stunning girl with wavy red hair and a beauty mark under her left eye. She was wearing a tracksuit that looked ready for a jog, but her makeup suggested she was ready for a nightclub.
None of them looked like amateurs.
Just by observing their Ten—the flow of aura around their bodies—Ronin could tell they were significantly stronger than the Shadow Beasts.