Nikens wasn't talking about Ronin's crew. He was talking about someone else entirely.
The three Spiders had already crossed a line. In the real world, players could run or hide. Inside Greed Island, there was nowhere to go but straight at them. Especially now that the Spiders had taken over the spell card shop. Anyone who smelled real danger was already thinking about how to wipe them out before they got wiped out themselves.
Nikens had been invited to join the hunting party. After thinking it over, he'd agreed. His support gave Genthru a little more confidence.
The group talked it through and backed Genthru's plan. The only real question left was who would hold all the cards. With Nikens volunteering to go watch the hunting party, Genthru suddenly looked like the most trustworthy person in the room.
Genthru didn't pretend to refuse. This was exactly what he'd wanted. Still, staring at the fewer than fifty specified pocket cards in his book, he couldn't help thinking how thin it all felt.
Two years of grinding and they'd scraped together a little over forty cards, a few of them rare. Not bad, but nowhere near enough if things went sideways.
From here on out, anyone who'd already crossed paths with the killers was out. Even inside the organization, only Nikens and one other original member, Jishiba, knew where Genthru was hiding.
Jishiba was supposed to be their top fighter, but Genthru didn't rate him that highly. The two of them dropped Genthru off at his hiding spot, gave him a few last instructions, and left. The most important one was simple: if he got made, burn a Leave card and get out of the game immediately.
For the next ten days Nikens checked in every single day with a Communication card. If Genthru ever vanished and the card stopped working, the rest of the group would start hoarding Leave cards so he could slip back in and out again safely. Right now they had four. Nikens figured that was enough for the moment.
What none of them knew was that Genthru's real plan was brutally simple. If the organization took too many losses, he'd turn on whoever was left, clean them out, and take every card for himself. The three killers would make the perfect scapegoats. No one would ever suspect him. He could even use the cards as seed money to build something new once the dust settled.
Of course, that only worked if the three killers were already dead.
And just like he figured, the three psychos who'd pissed off the entire player base only had two possible endings: either they broke every last person in the game until nobody dared fight back, or the players killed them first.
Genthru settled in comfortably and let Sabu and Bara feed him updates through Communication cards while they scouted and gathered intel.
At the same time, Ronin's group reached Masadora.
They didn't have to worry about running straight into the three Spiders. The trio was still camped inside the spell card shop. Ronin had people feeding him that information in real time. Tracking the Spiders was almost too easy now. Their behavior had made them public enemy number one, so their movements were basically public knowledge.
To the Spiders, being seen didn't matter. Once they had enough spell cards to trade for Angel's Breath, they'd just use it and leave. No need for subtlety. Straight violence was the fastest way to get what they wanted.
Once they reached the hotel, Ronin pulled out his crystal ball and activated the Far Eye Technique. The three Spiders appeared clearly inside the glass.
Kurapika got to work the second they were settled. He grabbed a small blackboard and started laying everything out.
"Forty-five free slots," he said, marking it down. "That means once Lev finishes trading for the cards he needs, he'll probably only have five spell cards left. That's our window to peel him away and deal with him alone."
Abachi hadn't expected to jump straight into an ambush on her first day with the team, but she listened carefully, ready to do whatever she could.
"We have to make sure he doesn't have a Leave card," Ronin said. "And once we take him, the other two can't be allowed to track him."
Kurapika nodded. "That's why we need Gate cards. They block other players from casting spells on you from close range. Keep spamming them and we can stop Accompany, Magnetic, anything they try to use to chase him down. We also need Migration cards. Those are how we split Feitan and Phinks apart."
He kept writing. "Our advantage is numbers. We can carry more spell cards than they can. The problem is they're sitting on the spell card shop. If we want cards, we have to take them from other players."
Ronin raised an eyebrow. "So we're just robbing people like the Troupe now?"
Kurapika shook his head. "No. Those three have already made everyone hate them. If we step up and show we're actually trying to help, every player who wants them dead becomes a potential ally. One person attacking them might get shut down. But if enough people pin them down while someone with real power breaks through, we can strip every card they're holding."
He looked around the room. "Think of it like a raid boss. The more you contribute, the better the payout. We limit what they can do with their cards first, then we finish them with raw strength."
Ronin got it immediately.
"Lev's the easiest to isolate," Kurapika continued. "We can leave him boxed up for now. Without useful spell cards, he won't be able to join any real fight. That leaves Feitan and Phinks. We split them and take them separately."
Ronin didn't hesitate. "I'll handle Feitan."
Compared to Phinks, the injured Feitan who could drop his big move at any moment felt like the bigger threat. Phinks was a straight Enhancer. Kurapika's group could use the practice.