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Chapter 107: Two Phone Calls, Two Results
Shalnark had already reported in: the Shadow Beast capable of rapidly transporting goods had died at Ronin's hands. Chrollo had considered it a tragic waste. Now, with Shizuku's appearance, things had taken a turn.
He accepted the Elder's request and asked for the enemy's information. When the files finally arrived, Chrollo's gaze deepened. Based on the descriptions of the attackers, one name immediately surfaced in his mind: Ronin!
That guy had beaten him to Meteor City and found Shizuku first.
But why? Chrollo couldn't quite understand it.
He had considered the possibility that Ronin's group might enter Greed Island to hunt down isolated Troupe members. He had anticipated them tracking him to Nancha City. He had even planned for them to compete with Shalnark over the Scarlet Eyes. But he had never imagined Ronin would set their sights on Meteor City.
Now, Chrollo was the one with the headache. If he went back now and tried to fight Ronin with a scattered Phantom Troupe, he didn't have a one hundred percent chance of winning. Yet, letting Ronin run rampant through Meteor City was something he absolutely did not want to see.
After careful deliberation, Chrollo made two phone calls.
The first was to the Zoldyck Family. The last time he contacted them, he had planned to hire Illumi to call off the Zoldyck assassination on Isrli. Unfortunately, Isrli had died before Chrollo could even get the target list from him. This time, the call had only one purpose: hire the Zoldycks to assassinate Ronin, regardless of the cost.
"Ronin?" When Illumi heard the name, his first thought wasn't the man who had humiliated the Phantom Troupe in Yorknew City, but the Ronin who had taught Killua a brutal lesson at Heaven's Arena.
"Name your price," Chrollo said, well aware of how the Zoldycks operated.
"Ten billion Jenny," Illumi replied without missing a beat.
Even for Chrollo, the sum was absurd.
When Chrollo didn't immediately respond, Illumi added, "Consider it a friendship price. Besides me, I doubt anyone else in the family would take this contract."
Ever since the Yorknew incident, Ronin's threat assessment and the corresponding assassination fee had been firmly logged into the Zoldyck intelligence network.
"Fine," Chrollo agreed. Ten billion wasn't entirely unmanageable. If he ran out of money, he could always just steal more. Weren't the banks full of it?
"A deposit of five billion is required upfront. No refunds if the assassination fails," Illumi continued.
"The target is in Meteor City. You'd better move fast, or that money is going straight down the drain," Chrollo warned.
Illumi didn't even bother acknowledging the remark. His mission success rate was one hundred percent. If he hadn't been mildly curious—and if Killua hadn't been complaining about Ronin recently—he wouldn't have bothered taking such a troublesome job to begin with.
Chrollo hung up and immediately wired the funds. Then, he made his second call.
A moment later, a mildly surprised voice answered. It was a voice that never failed to make one's skin crawl. The man on the other end was Hisoka, the magician who dreamed of nothing but a one-on-one death match with Chrollo.
"To think you'd actually call me yourself!"
"I can agree to your conditions," Chrollo said, entirely skipping the pleasantries. "But my condition is that Ronin must die."
"I refuse," Hisoka answered almost instantly.
Chrollo frowned. "Why?"
"Because right now, he seems much more appetizing than you!"
Chrollo fell silent. A moment later, he pivoted. "And what if I help you?"
"Help me with what?" Hisoka's voice dripped with amusement. "We already have a date set. October 1st at Heaven's Arena. You're more than welcome to come watch."
It was a blatant invitation.
"It was you, wasn't it," Chrollo realized in an instant. Hisoka had made contact with Ronin. He had traded intel on the Troupe and Meteor City in exchange for a duel.
"I still have a few prior engagements to attend to," Hisoka purred, his tone thick with anticipation. "But if you suddenly find yourself interested in me, I wouldn't mind pushing things back a bit."
The sheer breadth of Ronin's abilities, especially his overwhelming dominance in close-quarters combat, had completely captivated Hisoka. He wanted to pry open all of Ronin's secrets. More than that, he craved a blood-pumping, life-or-death battle with him.
He was looking forward to October 1st more by the second. So much so, that his original main course had slowly been relegated to a side dish. But if he could enjoy a crisp, refreshing appetizer before the grand feast... that wouldn't be half bad either. And Chrollo was the perfect fit.
"I was the one who pointed him toward Meteor City. What can I say? He asked so nicely, I simply couldn't refuse!" Hisoka mocked, completely ignoring the fact that Ronin had been searching for specific people and shifting all the credit onto himself.
"You did well," Chrollo replied, his voice unnervingly calm.
The calmer Chrollo sounded, the more exaggerated Hisoka's grin became. It was a shame they weren't on a video call; he would have loved for Chrollo to see the absolute euphoria plastered across his face. It would have been a spectacular sight.
A dial tone abruptly cut through the line, snapping Hisoka out of his reverie and forcing his next taunt back down his throat.
So he hung up. What a pity. Chrollo closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he opened them again, the murderous intent that had been swirling in his gaze was entirely gone. Relying solely on the Zoldycks was too risky. But if Ronin truly believed Meteor City was a place he could just waltz into, he was gravely mistaken.
The true core of Meteor City was a place even Chrollo respected.
Let's go to Heaven's Arena. Chrollo decided against returning to his hometown. If Ronin wanted to tear the place apart, let him. It wasn't his city anymore anyway. In fact, Chrollo was quite curious to see just how much chaos Ronin could unleash.
Back in his villa, the first piece of news Ryan received was that Elder Theodore and his entire squad had vanished.
Dead. Ryan made the judgment instantly.
They had to be dead. Just like the clinic that had vanished into thin air, their bodies had likely been packed up and taken away. But how did it happen so fast?
Theodore was one of the most capable fighters in the Council of Elders. Yet, he had been wiped out in the blink of an eye. From the moment Theodore's men engaged the target to the moment he died... had it even been ten minutes?
Could the ragtag mob of useless thugs gathered in his villa actually stop an enemy this powerful? Ryan hesitated.
Maybe I should just sacrifice them all. A twisted, grotesque smile crept across Ryan's face, his eyes curving into dark crescents. Without warning, heavy iron gates slammed down, sealing off the corridors where the elite enforcers sent by the other Elders had been stationed.
As the gates locked into place, hissing vents opened in every corner of the rooms, pumping thick, concentrated sleeping gas into the enclosed spaces.
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