Saiyu was strong.
At this point, now that the ambush had begun, that fact had been carved into the minds of every Phantom Troupe member present.
But Saiyu's strength wasn't unbeatable.
An ability that stripped away the senses might produce miraculous results in a one-on-one fight.
But in a seven-on-one battle, it couldn't achieve the result Saiyu wanted.
Although Chrollo had lost his hearing and failed to notice the Sight Monkey appearing behind him, the monkey's attack still failed to land.
Because there were Nen threads attached to Chrollo's body.
They had been left there by Machi, who had been working with him from the start. The threads tugged Chrollo away, causing the Sight Monkey's attack to miss.
But in that moment, Chrollo noticed that Saiyu had already vanished from this floor.
He didn't attack the three large monkeys. With one shift of his feet, Chrollo appeared at the spot where Saiyu had been earlier.
The floor here had already been riddled with holes.
That was the joint work of Franklin and Nobunaga. But what made Chrollo frown even more was the large hole in the middle of the damaged floor—large enough for one person to pass through.
That should have been blasted open when Saiyu threw his Ruyi Staff.
Looking at it now, Saiyu's attack back then had never been aimed at Nobunaga. It had been launched to create an opportunity for himself to escape.
Unfortunately, he was destined to be disappointed.
Because the floor below was not an exit.
It was a maze.
From the beginning, Chrollo had predicted Saiyu's choice. In a seven-against-one situation like this, no matter how strong Saiyu was, the best move was to retreat first and then look for another opportunity.
So from the start, Chrollo had placed Kortopi below him for one purpose: to create a maze that Saiyu simply couldn't escape from.
Saiyu's mouth reappeared on his face, but his expression was now extremely grim.
The moment the ambush began, what he thought of was not fighting the Phantom Troupe to the death.
That had no meaning.
No, that wasn't quite right.
As a bounty hunter, he was actually quite interested in the Troupe members' heads. After all, each one represented a bounty worth billions.
The problem was that this was one against seven. He didn't have much confidence that he could keep all of them here.
So the best course of action was to use this attack to judge the Troupe's abilities and strength, then break away from the pursuit and look for a chance to counterattack later.
As for Beyond, the deals and favors between them could all end here.
Honestly, Saiyu really hadn't expected Beyond to be the one to screw him over in the end.
He and Beyond hadn't known each other for just a day or two. Both sides understood a certain amount about each other's abilities, and they had even agreed to travel to the Dark Continent together.
But looking at it now, perhaps Saiyu had simply been reading too much into things.
Unless Beyond was still testing him even now?
Still evaluating him?
Saiyu suddenly stopped.
Because he realized something was wrong.
He had already smashed through several walls in a row, yet he was still inside the hotel.
When had this started?
What kind of ability had trapped him?
Saiyu had no clue at all.
Instead, another thought surfaced in his mind.
Maybe Beyond hadn't done this to test him.
Maybe he had done it to test the Phantom Troupe.
If the Troupe could defeat him, then they would naturally have passed Beyond's test.
And if the Troupe all died at his hands, or if Saiyu managed to escape, then with the goal Saiyu wanted to achieve, he still wouldn't easily break away from Beyond's team.
As expected of someone from the Netero family.
They really did flaunt their talent for playing with people openly.
These people weren't afraid of their pawns snapping under pressure at all. Maybe they even enjoyed watching the powerless rage of those they toyed with.
No wonder he and that freak Pariston got along so well.
With those thoughts in his mind, Saiyu suddenly swung the Ruyi Staff toward the wall on one side.
But at the exact moment he swung, he abruptly erupted with force and stomped down hard on the floor beneath him.
The wall and floor shattered at the same time.
Behind the wall was still another room identical to the one he was currently in.
But beneath his feet, something changed.
So it wasn't an illusion-type ability?
Saiyu's body sank downward, and the Ruyi Staff in his hand spun as he smashed it toward the floor again.
The floor he had been staying on was the thirteenth. After breaking through earlier, he had fallen to the twelfth. Now, by falling again, he reached the eleventh.
But that still wasn't safe.
And after descending five floors in a row, he noticed something else wrong.
Aside from the people above him, he couldn't sense the presence of any living person in the entire building.
His downward movement stopped again.
Still wrong!
And while Saiyu was trapped inside the building, the street outside had already fallen into chaos.
Because, right before everyone's bewildered eyes, an identical hotel suddenly appeared beside the massive original one.
The street was squeezed and distorted by the sudden appearance of the hotel, and traffic was cut off by the building that had appeared out of nowhere.
The one responsible for all of this was Kortopi, the Phantom Troupe member wrapped in white cloth-like clothing, with only one eye exposed.
The moment Nobunaga launched his attack, Kortopi had already finished touching the entire hotel.
After that, he didn't remain beside Nobunaga. Instead, he left the hotel.
And once Shalnark sent him the signal, he directly duplicated another hotel building out of thin air.
The two buildings were pressed tightly against each other. After Saiyu dropped to the twelfth floor, his continuous movements only caused him to move from the original hotel into the copied one.
And the only difference between the two buildings was the people.
The building Kortopi had copied was completely empty, but it was like a cage. Kortopi didn't even need to enter it to fully grasp Saiyu's position inside.
Because the copy itself carried the effect of his En.
"The space isn't too large. Use it however you want. We'll keep attacking," Chrollo said as his figure appeared near Kortopi. Then he led the Troupe members who had withdrawn from the real building into the copied one.
Kortopi only nodded slightly.
He was certain Saiyu couldn't escape the copied hotel he had created.
Because whenever Saiyu appeared near a window, the view outside the window would only be the interior of the other building.
Police sirens began wailing in the street.
But when the officers arrived nearby and saw the extra building, their expressions looked as if they had seen a ghost.
Saiyu was now certain.
Someone was continuously creating buildings, making it so that no matter what he did, he could only keep moving through more rooms and corridors.
However, there were two possible flaws in this method.
One was underground.
The other was above.
He refused to believe the enemy could also create an underground parking lot out of thin air beneath solid ground.
But right now, going back to the starting point and then descending into the underground parking lot was nearly impossible.
So the only useful option left was the rooftop.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 70 Chapters Ahead of Others!