No matter whose contribution was counted as the bigger one, the other side would definitely feel very uncomfortable about it.
It was just that everyone had been drawn in by the 50 billion Jenny, and all of them believed they were the one who had contributed the most. So before they gathered enough cards, every last one of them would stay full of drive. But if they really did collect everything...
Heh.
And they actually believed Genthru would remove the bombs for them. What a naïve bunch.
Roy stopped paying attention to their stares, found a shady spot, and waited for Gon and the others to come down.
Not long after, Gon came down the stairs wearing a green sun-protective outfit.
"Roy~!"
Gon called out to him, then his expression shifted.
"Don't mind them. They're just a bunch of rats who only know how to hide off to the side and spy, without even the courage to show themselves."
"Yeah!"
As someone who was hopeless at games—or rather, someone playing a game for the first time since the day he was born—even though Gon had already listened to the explanation, he only half understood it and was still pretty confused.
So with Roy here, the "top-student type" and "knowledge master," even though he didn't understand why Roy said that, Gon still chose to trust him unconditionally.
"Roy has never misjudged anyone."
That was what Gon thought, while at the same time recalling the message Ging had left for him through the onee-san who had explained the game to him.
"A machine-like setup will always bring unexpected gifts?"
For Gon, receiving a message from Ging was already the best gift he could have asked for.
While Gon was thinking and looking around at the surroundings, Killua and Milluki also came out one after another.
As expected, Killua had relied on his speed and eyesight and barely beat Milluki by a hair, which made the latter extremely unhappy.
"Oh? So this is the game made by Gon's dad? This is my first time playing something like this." Killua looked around. Clearly, he had also noticed the gazes of the others who were monitoring them, but he didn't care in the slightest.
"Tch. Saying that only exposes the fact that you haven't played many games. Other than proving you're a total gaming newbie, it explains nothing," Milluki said with obvious disdain.
"What did you say? Then go on, tell us. We've just entered the game, so we count as beginners. What should we do first?" Killua shot back without any politeness.
"Fine, I'll tell you." The moment the topic turned to games, Milluki immediately became much more confident, and even his tone turned smug. "Generally speaking, for beginners like us who've just entered a game, there'll be a starter village around the login point. Take this place, for example. Let's call it the Starter Plains for now. Based on my many years of gaming experience, places like beginner zones usually have decent opportunities or hidden Easter eggs that help new players."
"But there's nothing here except grassland," Gon said, raising his hand to voice his question.
"Tsk tsk tsk. If it's an Easter egg, of course it won't be that easy to find. If you want to discover something, then either you get lucky and stumble into it by accident, or you open your eyes wide and carefully look around for anything unusual."
As he spoke, Milluki suddenly widened his tiny eyes.
"Unusual???" Gon looked left and right, trying to spot something out of the ordinary.
At that moment, Roy moved, and even gave a detailed explanation:
"What counts as unusual is anything that feels abrupt or out of place in the environment you're currently in. For example, on a grassland, is there any grass whose color is different from the surrounding area? Or any animal or plant that logically shouldn't appear on a grassland?"
As he said that, Roy stepped forward twice, then bent down and picked something up from the grass in one motion.
"This is?" Gon and Killua both froze for a moment, only to find that Roy was holding a dog. Its fur was completely white, except for a black patch around its left eye.
"Roy aniki is right," Milluki first voiced his agreement with Roy before continuing, "Take this dog, for example. It looks this weird, and it's wandering around out on this huge grassland. A dog wandering around on the grassland is obviously something unusual!"
While Milluki was explaining, the dog in Roy's hand instantly turned into a card.
"F-20, the Lost Black-Eyed Dog."
"Amazing, it turned into a card just like that?" Gon and Killua were both staring in amazement. "And there are letters and numbers on it too."
"Generally speaking, letters represent rank, while numbers represent quantity. And usually, the earlier the letter, the higher the rank," Roy said.
"Yeah, that's how it usually is in the games I play too. After clearing a stage, you get a rating. If your performance in that stage is really good, you get a very high rank evaluation. Of course, getting an excellent result is usually pretty hard," Milluki added.
"So that means the rank in front of the card probably represents how hard it is to obtain?" Killua immediately caught on and drew the inference.
"As for the number after that..." While Killua was still thinking, Gon's ears suddenly twitched, and he raised his head.
...
Roy had already looked toward a certain point in the sky. Someone was heading this way at high speed.
Very quickly, the figure grew closer and closer. Killua and Milluki also noticed it and looked up.
With a heavy thud, someone landed in front of them. It was a slightly dark-skinned guy with headphones on and hair curled into multiple tight ringlets.
The curly-haired guy swept his gaze around, then looked toward Roy's group and curled his lips into a contemptuous smirk.
"This is the plain near the starting point, right? Which means you're all first-timers?"
"He flew here!"
"Was that Nen?"
Gon and Killua both instinctively glanced at Roy.
Roy naturally noticed the question in their eyes, and casually said as he looked at the curly-haired guy, "Not Nen. There wasn't any fluctuation in his aura when he flew over here. And if someone uses Nen, it always consumes at least a little stamina, but this guy isn't even breathing hard."
"And he's holding the game book, so he should also be a player. That rules out the possibility of him being an NPC. If he was able to fly here, it was most likely because of one of the game's card functions. After all, if even an animal like a dog can be turned into a card, then a function like flight naturally ought to be something the game can grant or let people use."
(End of Chapter)
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