From the very beginning, Chrollo's goal had not been to kill Saiyu.
It was to capture him and steal his Nen ability.
Shalnark had not joined the pursuit, but he was the most important part of the entire plan, because he had to provide two precious antennas.
From the start, the Troupe's plan had been to plant an antenna into Saiyu's body.
As for why they didn't have Shalnark stay hidden the whole time, and instead had him control a waiter at the beginning, it was because Shalnark had predicted that Saiyu might have already obtained information on the Troupe.
He didn't even need to know the details. As long as he knew the Troupe might appear here, there was a high chance he would search the internet for information about them.
If that happened, the intelligence Ronin's side had sold would enter Saiyu's view.
And that information would definitely include details about Shalnark.
By controlling the waiter first, Shalnark was sending Saiyu two messages: one, that the antenna had to be personally inserted into the target by Shalnark himself; and two, that he had already used his antenna on someone else.
After Saiyu entered the copied building, Shalnark regrouped with Chrollo and the others, then handed the antennas to Machi and Chrollo.
Chrollo had also long since prepared an ability meant to pair with Shalnark's Black Voice.
As expected, Saiyu had been guarding against the antennas the whole time.
Machi's antenna, hidden with In, was instantly caught in his hand before it could pierce his body.
But he never would have imagined that throughout the entire attack, Machi was only there to run interference. Even that antenna had been deliberately offered up for Saiyu to grab.
Of course, if Saiyu hadn't noticed it, then that antenna would have become the key to taking away his ability to move.
But what Machi truly needed to do was simply leave a mark on Saiyu's body with her Nen thread, making it convenient for Chrollo to activate his ability and fire the other antenna directly into Saiyu through the blowpipe.
Sure-Hit Circle Blowpipe.
This was the Nen ability Chrollo had specifically prepared to deal with Ronin.
After his last encounter with Ronin, Chrollo had developed the bookmark that allowed him to use two abilities at the same time.
So from the beginning, hidden on the Nen thread Machi used to hit Saiyu was Chrollo's spider silk.
Saiyu tore away the Nen thread, but he could not tear away the spider silk on it. Instead, the extremely sticky silk clung to Saiyu's clothes and formed a circle.
And that circle was the key condition for triggering Sure-Hit Circle Blowpipe.
Even though Saiyu had already sensed something wrong after pulling out the antenna Machi had delivered, Chrollo still fired the dart.
Only what came out of the blowpipe was not an ordinary dart.
It had been replaced with Shalnark's antenna.
Sure-Hit Circle Blowpipe was originally an ability created from Emission combined with Transmutation. The projectile should have been a poisoned dart, but even after being replaced with an antenna, it did not lose the Emission effect that let it pass through space.
The instant the antenna shot out of the blowpipe, it vanished from midair.
When it appeared again, it had already stabbed into the circle on Saiyu's body.
The Nen on the antenna broke through Saiyu's Ken defense and pierced into his body. In that instant, Shalnark's Nen ability, Black Voice, was completed.
Outside the copied building, Shalnark's eyes had been fixed on his phone screen the entire time.
The moment a new controllable target appeared on the screen, his finger immediately pressed the button, completing his control over Saiyu.
The off-road vehicle stopped in front of a villa. The Edo Tensei Fourth Prince pushed open the car door and stepped out.
The security guards inside the villa had already gone on full alert.
After all, the off-road vehicle had forced its way through the checkpoints, but there were no pursuing vehicles behind it anymore.
The villa's lights shone toward the off-road vehicle. When the guards inside saw the person stepping out, their hands trembled in shock.
Because that was the Fourth Prince.
And just one hour ago, they had received news that the Fourth Prince was dead.
The guns in their hands rose involuntarily and aimed straight at him.
But looking at the Fourth Prince, whose entire body was covered in cracks, none of them dared pull the trigger immediately.
At the villa gate, the sound of a password being entered rang out.
With each beep, the guards' hearts rose into their throats. The villa's door-lock system didn't only use a password. It also had facial and fingerprint recognition.
Makeup might get past facial recognition, but getting past fingerprint recognition should have been impossible.
Yet when the sound of "Welcome home" rang out, everyone was dumbfounded.
The gate to the villa courtyard slowly opened.
The armed guards standing inside the courtyard trembled as they gripped their guns, their eyes wide.
But there were still people with enough sense to think. After someone shouted, "Fire!" not everyone pulled the trigger, but bullets still swept toward the Fourth Prince.
He did not dodge.
He did not block.
The Fourth Prince was riddled with bullets under the barrage, but the more they fired, the more the guards' minds collapsed.
Because even after being shot full of holes, the Fourth Prince did not bleed a single drop.
He did not even stop walking forward.
If the bullets had not carried enough force to slow his movement, he might already have reached them.
But seeing him continue forward without the slightest reaction even after bullets pierced through his brain, someone finally shouted what everyone was thinking:
"A ghost!"
With that scream, many of the guards simply threw down their guns, turned, and ran toward the villa.
But just then, another figure appeared at the villa entrance.
"Blinky, vacuum up all the guns."
Shizuku's voice sounded slowly, followed by a sudden burst of terrifying suction.
The guards in the courtyard who were still holding guns felt a tremendous force seize their weapons. Those who didn't let go were dragged along with their guns toward Shizuku.
Quite a few reacted quickly. Since guns couldn't kill the "Fourth Prince," they turned and fired at the person who had suddenly appeared.
But the bullets couldn't get anywhere near Shizuku before they were swept away by the massive suction from Blinky's mouth.
At this point, the guards defending the villa finally broke down.
At the same time, Kurapika and Neon moved together. Before long, a pile of bodies had fallen in the villa courtyard.
Ronin and Abachi walked out slowly, following the Fourth Prince—whose corpse had gradually restored itself—into the villa.
The Scarlet Eyes were hidden in the underground collection room of this mountainside villa.
It was a collection room the Fourth Prince had built specifically for the Scarlet Eyes. Not only was it guarded by a sturdy steel door comparable to a bank vault, but there were also large numbers of security personnel watching over it.
But without Nen users present, those guards could only be defeated with ease.
As for the sturdy vault, in front of the Fourth Prince, its owner, it lost all defensive value as well.
It was opened effortlessly.
~~~
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