Ronin reappeared inside Battera's castle two days after entering the game.
Battera stared at the three players Ronin had brought out under his complete control. Even though Sabaz had already warned him how strong Ronin was, seeing it firsthand still left him shaken. If Ronin had actually tried to clear the game, he probably would've had a real shot.
Battera could also tell Ronin barely considered him an employer worth respecting.
Ronin had no idea what Battera was thinking. He planned to keep his end of the deal anyway. Battera had held up his side without complaint, so Ronin would honor the contract. Besides, Angel's Breath and the Witch's Youth Potion didn't interest him much.
His self-healing was already ridiculous, and he was still young. The youth potion came with a nasty catch anyway. It would roll back his age but probably reset every bit of Nen he'd trained. All that hard-earned aura gone in one swallow. For Battera it was a miracle drug. For Ronin it was basically poison.
"Ten days," Ronin told the three players. "After that you can re-enter the game."
Then he headed straight back in. Neon was still inside, and that was the real reason he hadn't lingered.
The three players watched him go and finally let out a breath. They'd been half-convinced Ronin might just kill them to speed things up for his teammate. Hearing him say ten days out loud in front of everyone made them feel a lot safer.
Kurapika's group didn't mind the wait.
Ronin dropped out of the newbie tower again. The moment he appeared, that same prickling sensation of being watched settled over him.
He opened his card book and used Magnetic, locking onto Neon. Aura wrapped around him and he shot into the sky like a comet, vanishing from the starting area in seconds.
Magnetic was a C-rank spell card that let the user fly straight to a chosen target. Only fifty existed in the game. Ronin had exactly one.
The effect faded and Ronin found himself standing in a seaside city. He hadn't expected Neon to pick Shufurabi. It was pretty, sure, but otherwise just another quiet coastal town. It also happened to be where Razor and his pirate crew were based.
To get One Square Yard of Beach you had to go there and play their game. Everyone knew the small-fry pirates were just warm-ups. Beating Razor was the real ticket.
Ronin had no interest in challenging Razor yet. Triggering the event also required fifteen players to use Accompany and arrive at the same time. Shadow clones wouldn't count. They didn't have real game rings.
"You're fast," Neon said when he found her.
She'd used Drift to reach Shufurabi. It was a spell card that let you fly to any place you hadn't visited yet. She'd brought four of them and had been ready to chain another Drift the second she landed in Masadora.
Instead she'd ended up here.
Without any fresh organs to collect, Neon had settled into enjoying the local food. When Ronin found her she was sitting by the water, working through a huge seafood spread the waiter had brought her.
Ronin dropped into the seat across from her without asking. He was already regretting not bringing Kurapika in first. At least then Neon would've had someone to drag her out into the wild to fight monsters instead of lounging by the sea.
Too late now.
He didn't mind her relaxing. They just weren't planning to stay in Greed Island very long. He'd already promised Miria he'd check out the ruins in the Etoria Kingdom, and the Hunter Exam was coming up in January. Time was tight.
Once the food arrived he pushed the worries aside and ate.
The next few days they took it easy. After that Ronin followed Kurapika's instructions and started hunting for any trace of the Troupe.
If a player had ever interacted with a Troupe member inside the game, that member's name would appear in their card book. Find someone who had crossed paths with the Spiders and use them as a stepping stone. That was how you tracked people in Greed Island.
The method had one big flaw. If the target used a fake name, the trail went cold. Only Ging was known to do that. The Troupe members were way too arrogant to bother hiding who they were.
On the eighth day, after Ronin beat another challenger, three familiar names lit up in the guy's card book.
Feitan. Phinks. And the third one.
All three names were still bright, which meant they were still inside the game. Hisoka's name was missing. Ronin had a pretty good guess why these three were still around.
They were pure fighters. No real strategist among them. They could win straight fights just fine. Solving the game's actual puzzles and clearing stages was another story.