Kansai couldn't stand staying in the jewelry exhibition hall for even twenty minutes.
Men and women dressed in finery, holding champagne, wore meticulously calculated smiles as they complimented each other with hollow pleasantries.
The air was thick with the scent of hypocrisy and desire; to Kansai, it smelled worse than rotting meat.
"Tsk."
He spat in a low voice, turning to walk toward the back door.
He pulled open the door marked 'Staff Only' and stepped into a relatively quiet Freight Corridor.
There were no soft lights or soothing music here, only concrete walls, metal shelves, and a few stark white fluorescent lamps.
Kansai took a deep breath—this was more like it.
No perfume, just the scent of dust and metal.
He leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and his ears twitched slightly, capturing the sounds of the entire building.
Right then—click.
At the other end of the corridor, a fire door was pushed open gently.
A tall, thin figure slipped in, moving as quietly as a cat.
He wore a Minke Building maintenance uniform, but it was a bit ill-fitting and far too clean—no grease stains, no wear and tear.
Coyote.
Kansai's eyes snapped open.
The two were twenty meters apart, their eyes meeting.
The air froze for a second.
Kansai recognized that face—it was the man with the sinister gaze from the file photos.
Coyote spotted him too. Although he had never seen Kansai before, that beast-like aura, that Hunter-specific gaze looking at prey... there was no mistaking it.
"An enemy!"
Kansai didn't waste any words.
His Nen erupted violently, and his body instantly accelerated from a standstill to its limit. He kicked off the ground, leaving a shallow crater, and shot toward Coyote like a cannonball!
Coyote's pupils constricted.
He hadn't expected to encounter an ambush here, let alone for the opponent to strike directly—they were still inside the building, with hundreds of visitors outside!
But in a life-or-death moment, there was no room for hesitation.
Coyote crossed his arms, hastily condensing Nen in front of him.
Boom—!!!
Kansai's fist slammed into Coyote's crossed defense with a dull thud.
Coyote was sent flying, crashing heavily into the fire door behind him, the metal panel denting into a human shape.
"Cough!"
Coyote spat out a mouthful of blood, his gaze turning vicious.
He shook his numbed arms and crouched slightly, several slender daggers appearing between his fingers at some unknown point.
"Hunter Association lapdog..."
Coyote's voice was hoarse.
"How did you find this place?"
Kansai grinned, revealing forest-white teeth.
"Who wants to talk to you?"
He charged forward again.
At almost the same time, outside the main entrance of the Minke Building.
Several black SUVs sped from the end of the street, their tires screeching against the pavement.
They braked sharply, stopping outside the police line.
The doors opened almost simultaneously, and a dozen masked men jumped out.
Dressed in uniform black combat gear and wielding automatic rifles, they moved with disciplined precision, fanning out quickly as they aimed their weapons in every direction.
The crowd was stunned for a second before erupting into screams.
Visitors, media reporters, and passersby—everyone fled backward in a frenzy, and the scene instantly turned into chaos.
Leo stood by the reception desk, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Gunmen... and two rocket launchers. Just for a robbery? That's ruthless!"
He muttered to himself.
The intel hadn't mentioned that The Three Jackals Trio would bring backup, let alone use this scale of armed force. It seemed the opponent had learned their lesson after suffering a loss last time and had wised up.
In the distance, a sedan parked at a street corner.
The window rolled down halfway, revealing two faces—Jackal, with a hideous scar running from his brow to his jaw, and the red-haired Fire Wolf.
"Big brother, you're still the smart one."
Fire Wolf watched the chaos in the distance, grinning.
"Letting this cannon fodder lead the charge. Even if there's an ambush, they can wear the enemy down first."
Jackal's gaze was gloomy, his voice gravelly.
"Hmph. Last time we fell into a Hunter Association ambush and nearly didn't make it out... This time, even if they come, they're dead. With a dozen heavy weapons plus rocket launchers, even a Nen User can't hold out."
Their plan was simple and crude: use heavy firepower to sweep the area, create chaos, storm in during the confusion, grab the jewelry, and run.
As for those gunmen—they were just desperate mercenaries hired with money; their lives didn't matter.
In front of the main entrance, the lead masked man raised his hand, signaling for silence.
He glanced at the few security guards still standing at the door—they had drawn their pistols, but their faces were pale and their hands were shaking.
"The boss has spoken."
The leader turned back and shouted to his accomplices.
"Aside from the valuable jewelry... spare no one else!"
The bandits behind him let out excited, strange cries.
They raised their muzzles, aiming at the security guards at the door.
Leo moved.
No warning, no preamble.
His Nen went from dormant to full power in just 0.5 seconds, and an aura erupted violently around him!
The hem of his suit jacket flared upward, and the ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch!
He performed two of the simplest movements—lifting his foot and slamming it down.
Boom—!!!!!
The moment his right foot slammed into the ground, the stone pavement within a five-meter radius of the impact point shattered completely!
Gravel, dust, and concrete chunks erupted upward like a fountain.
Leo raised his right hand, his speed so fast it left afterimages.
His index finger danced in front of him; with every flick and extension, it precisely struck a piece of flying gravel.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh—!!!
The gravel turned into bullets, shooting toward the group of bandits at supersonic speeds!
Pfft!
The first stone pierced the leader's forehead.
The cruel grin hadn't even vanished from his face before he keeled over backward.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft—!
Following that was the second, third, tenth... every single stone precisely hit a target—forehead, throat, heart.
Piercing wounds, instant kills.
There wasn't even time for screams to fully escape.
Over a dozen bandits all fell within less than three seconds, their guns slipping from their hands and hitting the ground with scattered clatters.
Dead silence.
On the street, aside from the distant sounds of panicked screams and car alarms, there was no other noise.
Blood slowly spread from beneath the corpses, converging into dark red rivulets on the cracked pavement.
Leo lowered his hands, and his Nen slowly receded.
The tattoo on the back of his hand continued to emit a warm sensation—over a dozen weak life energies surged into his body. Though each was minute, they added up to quite a bit.
[Rank: 41 (85%)]
At the street corner, inside the sedan.
The expressions on Jackal and Fire Wolf's faces froze.
They had witnessed the entire process—from Leo's Nen eruption to the ground shattering, to the gravel shooting out like bullets, and finally, all the gunmen dying instantly.
The entire process took less than five seconds.
"What... what was that..."
Fire Wolf's voice was trembling.
Jackal's face was ashen, his fists clenched tight.
He stared fixedly at the young man standing in the middle of the corpses—the opponent hadn't even looked at the bodies on the ground, but instead turned his head to look in their direction.
Their gazes met.
In an instant, Jackal and Fire Wolf felt as if they had fallen into an ice cellar.
That was not a human gaze.
It was a predator scrutinizing its prey—cold, calm, yet carrying a suffocating pressure.
Cold sweat soaked their backs.