"Me? I can't do it! If it's making bombs to kill people, or gathering intel, then I'm fine. But getting stronger..."
Roy simply looked at Milluki in silence, until the latter's voice grew weaker and weaker.
"It doesn't matter if other people give up on you. But the one person who absolutely must not give up on you is yourself. Believe me, I can make you stronger—stronger even than your big brother. Of course, if you want to give up on yourself, then just pretend I never said any of this."
Hearing Roy's words, Milluki's nose suddenly stung.
Didn't he want to become stronger? Who wouldn't want that?
At the very beginning, Milluki had tried too. He had worked hard too.
But the problem was that above him stood an exceptionally outstanding older brother. No matter what he did, he could never measure up to him.
Then, after his younger brother Killua was born, he completely gave up on himself. Little by little, he started binge-eating and burying himself in the internet, chasing that unique sense of existence he could only find there.
And now, the aniki he admired most, his idol, was standing right in front of him, telling him that there was still hope for him to become stronger—that he could even become stronger than his big brother.
That alone was enough to make the tears spill from Milluki's eyes.
"Roy-aniki, I... do I really still have hope?"
Milluki opened his mouth, and before he knew it, his voice had already turned hoarse.
"Of course you do. In fact, in my eyes, your talent is even greater than Killua's!"
There were many ways to become strong. It wasn't only about fighting head-on.
Even someone as strong as Netero had lost to the Chimera Ant King, and yet the Chimera Ant King had fallen to a tiny Poor Man's Rose.
If Milluki could bring his talent to its absolute limit, then his strength might very well become the greatest in the entire Zoldyck family!
And by then, with Milluki supporting him, Roy would be able to hold the entire Six Continents in the palm of his hand!!
"Yeah!"
At this point, tears were already streaking down Milluki's face, but he still nodded with all his strength.
Killua, for once, didn't argue back.
For some reason, he suddenly recalled a line from his prophecy poem:
You are a killer of men, not a butcher of fat pigs.
Meanwhile, Bisky also kept silent. Clearly, in her eyes, Milluki's talent had basically been wasted. Even if he could still be fixed, it would be extremely difficult—especially compared to the two even more perfect rough gems standing beside him, Gon and Killua.
"Then next, I'll take Milluki and put him through some proper special training. As for you and Gon, Killua, you can study under this senior master of Shingen-ryu Kung Fu from the Hunter Association."
Roy deliberately stressed the word senior, which made Bisky instantly furious.
Still, she hadn't paid much attention to these two rough gems before, but now that she had taken a careful look, they really were treasures. They looked like the kind of talents who would understand everything the moment they were taught.
Of course, Bisky might have wanted to teach them, but someone clearly didn't want to be taught by her.
"Huh? You want us to learn from her?"
Killua pointed at Bisky with undisguised disgust on his face.
He had only just gotten rid of Milluki, and now another nuisance had shown up. That made Killua extremely unhappy.
"Hey! What, is learning from me supposed to be a bad thing? I've been studying Nen for a full forty years!!"
"Forty years? Then that makes you an old fossil!"
Bang!
Watching Killua get sent flying by Bisky's furious punch, spinning in circles through the air, a tune suddenly popped into Roy's head:
Granny's magic spin attack~ whirling you till the stars come out... ahem!
"Gon, you and Killua should accept some special training from her for a while. As far as I know, she's the master of Wing—the one who taught you Nen."
"Huh? She's Wing's master? You'd never guess that!"
That was what Gon said, but the wariness lingering in his eyes had faded quite a bit.
Clearly, he trusted Wing.
But he trusted Roy even more.
He believed almost everything Roy said.
"Then Milluki and I will head out first. By the time we meet again, I hope you'll both have become stronger~ See you!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Roy put a hand on Milluki's shoulder, then vanished on the spot with Instant Transmission.
"Become stronger, huh...?"
Watching Roy disappear, Gon's eyes gradually turned firm.
"If I want to meet Ging, then this level of strength still isn't enough. I have to become even stronger!"
After Roy learned Instant Transmission, he had already conducted some experiments on Greed Island.
He had taken some of Greed Island's item cards out into the real world and used them there.
The result was that they did still have some effect, but the effect was drastically weakened.
For example, he once rolled a great blessing with the Risky Dice, and the result was that he only picked up a 1,000 Jenny bill on the roadside.
It seemed that if one wanted Greed Island's items to function at full effect in the outside world, certain conditions had to be fulfilled.
For example, clearing the game.
Or perhaps using that box that allowed three cards to be brought out of the game.
And after Roy used Instant Transmission to travel back and forth between the real world and Greed Island, he received a message in his binder.
The sender was Razor.
Strictly speaking, what Roy had done basically counted as cheating in the game, so naturally it had drawn the GMs' attention. The fact that they hadn't banned his account already was merciful enough.
Of course, he wasn't far from getting banned either.
Roy was allowed to use Instant Transmission to travel between the outside world and Greed Island, but he was not allowed to take the island's cards out with him. And when using Instant Transmission between the real world and the game, he could only use it on himself, not on other players.
However, while inside the game, he could still use teleportation-type movement together with other players.
He also wasn't allowed to reveal anything related to Greed Island to the outside world.
Razor, meanwhile, agreed not to ban Roy's account and not to wipe the game data stored in Roy's ring.
After all, they couldn't let him destroy the game's balance too badly.
After getting a plan from Bisky on how to improve Milluki, Roy brought him to the port on Greed Island.
This was the harbor used to leave the game and return to reality. It was located fifty kilometers west of Masadora, and it was the only port in the entire game. All one had to do was defeat the harbormaster and obtain a ticket for the ship out, and then one could leave the game and return to the real world.
After returning to reality through normal means, Roy used Instant Transmission and brought Milluki to a barren wilderness.
"Roy-aniki, where is this?"
Milluki looked around, only to find the place desolate beyond belief. It could be said that not a single blade of grass grew there.
"This place is wasteland now, but the soil used to be very fertile. It's just that because of the wars, all the people who cultivated the land moved away, and so the fields gradually fell into ruin."
Roy explained it simply. Information like this could be learned with a Hunter License.
"Then why did you bring me here, Aniki...?"
A very bad feeling suddenly rose in Milluki's heart.
(End of Chapter)
[200 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/Zukooo]
[Thanks for your support!]