List took him through the castle to a room that looked like a dumpster had lost a fight with a hobby shop.
Dwun was one of the designers. Tall, thin, hair like a nest, the kind of young man who had stopped caring what he looked like. Food trash, game cartridges, figurines, spare props. The books were the only pile that looked intentional.
The smell did not.
"Oh. Someone actually cleared it." Dwun stood up out of the mess and tossed a controller aside. A game-over sting leaked from the speakers. "Not the one I was waiting for, though."
He patted himself down, found a card, and held it out.
"Sit wherever."
Ronin looked at the floor and decided there was no wherever. He took the card anyway.
Ruler's Blessing. Also number 000. Also SS. Also unique.
This one was not an invitation. It was a castle and a village of ten thousand people living under whatever laws the holder wrote. A private country in a box.
It did nothing for him. He put it away and stayed on his feet.
"Does the game open a second run, or do you add new rules?"
Dwun blinked. Not the question he had expected. He scratched the nest.
"Both. New Game Plus. New cards with it."
"Final boss still Razor?"
"That's for you to find out."
"Fine. Harder, though."
"Not by much. It's already enough for normal people." Dwun clapped once. "Right. You filled a hundred kinds. One more thing happens."
He dug through the trash and came back with a long, expensive box. Three slots inside.
"This binder takes three specified-slot cards. Whatever you put in it works in the real world. Same number twice is illegal. You pick from the hundred you already hold."
Ronin closed the lid and kept the box.
"And that," Dwun said, "is your ending. Congratulations."
List stepped in again.
"This way."
Ronin had what he came for. He was not Gon. He did not need a longer goodbye.
At the door List hesitated.
"Will you keep playing?"
"Don't know. Not right now. The game's gone cold for me."
True enough. Next stop was the Hunter Exam. He had already traced Netero. Most days the Chairman sat in Association headquarters, which meant Pariston sat in the way. Other channels had already reached this year's head examiner. The man would put Ronin in front of Netero during the test.
Lippo. Trick Tower.
The exam changed with the examiner. It did not change every year. Trick Tower came back on a cycle. The prisoners were decent training tools, and running candidates through the place was a cheap way to find the holes in it.
List let it drop. Curiosity, nothing more. Even Ronin's Ten had weight. Razor's letters had added a second reason. Praise from that man was not cheap.
Outside, the town was already drunk on the clear festival.
Three days of it, Dwun had said. After that the second run opened and they could stay or walk.
Ronin found Shizuku's group under a sky filling with incoming light. Players who had heard the announcement. Some grinning. Some crying. Leave and a pass were not cards everyone could hold.
He had been inside long enough to sort them. Plenty of people here had opened Nen. Almost none of them could use it. Most were halfway trained and had no interest in finishing the job. The island was the best practice tool he had seen. Skip Biscuit's curriculum entirely, just fight the wild bosses, and the aura still moved. Most of them had taken one look at the drop tables, decided the monsters were not worth the sweat, and quit the only path that would have made them stronger.
A level system would have fixed that. Kill things, number goes up, people grind. He thought of Morena. Love's Serenade spread. After that, killing made you better. The game would not even need to raise a player's aura. Slap other rewards on a level and half the island would live in the mountains.
Dwun's people were not stupid. They had not built it. Which meant the game had never been meant to make anyone stronger.