Close-Quarters Combat, Despicable Ian

"Ron!!"

Uvogin's roar pierced the sky.

Everyone in the car instinctively covered their ears.

"You idiot, why are you yelling so loud? You nearly deafened me!" Nobunaga complained, digging a finger in his ear.

In the distance, Ron and Baines, who happened to be pursuing them, naturally heard the roar.

Both men looked up at once.

One sat on the giant wolf's back, his eyes red. The other, a burly man who looked like a lion, had a piercing gaze and twisted his mouth into a savage grin.

"Brat, I finally... caught you!"

Beside Ron, Baines could no longer contain his desire to learn about the "god" from the boy.

"Faster, Black Wolf, faster!"

"Ron, don't say anything when we get there. Just attack. We have to catch that kid first!"

Ron grinned and said coldly,

"You don't need to tell me that. And you'd better not hold back either, Baines!"

The two quickly worked out a strategy without slowing down in the slightest.

They had noticed that the other group was riding some strange, unknown thing, speeding away.

Of course, at that speed, they were confident they could catch up!

Up ahead, Ian, who was driving the rock car, had naturally noticed their pursuers as well. He narrowed his eyes and quickly considered what to do.

Without a moment's hesitation, Ian said calmly,

"Machi, come drive."

Machi was startled by Ian's words, but she didn't refuse. Pressing her lips together, she immediately switched places with him.

Even though she had never driven a "car" before, as long as Ian believed in her,

she wouldn't let him down.

Fortunately, the rock car itself wasn't difficult to operate. All she had to do was turn the stone steering wheel.

In this endless stretch of Gobi, there was no need to worry about hitting anything. She only had to keep going.

Machi's slender body tensed slightly as she focused entirely on driving.

Ian flipped around and sat facing backward at the rear of the car, studying the two men pursuing them alongside the others.

When he saw the two men and their single mount, he instinctively narrowed his eyes. The next moment, Nen gathered in his eyes.

"Gyo!"

Even from far away, he could sense the immense Nen radiating from them.

The will and determination contained in the Nen unique to the strong...

Although he didn't know what their Nen Abilities were, judging by the sheer amount of Nen, they were probably close to Hisoka and Illumi's level later in the story.

At the very least, they should be on par with Gotoh, the Zoldyck Family butler.

After coming to the world of Hunter x Hunter,

Ian knew that in this real world, there couldn't possibly be as few strong people as there were in the manga.

After all, there were so many people and the world was so big, with countries such as the V5 that hadn't appeared in the manga.

Even counting only the geniuses who appeared once in a million people, there should still be hundreds or thousands of them.

Because of that, he had his own way of judging an enemy's strength: he simply compared them to the strong fighters from Hunter x Hunter in his previous life.

Clearly, the two pursuers were powerful. No wonder they had been able to destroy the Trip Expert.

"Those two don't look easy to deal with..."

Ian kept his eyes fixed on the two men and whispered to the others beside him.

Chrollo glanced at him calmly and said softly,

"But now, all we can do is fight back to the end."

"Think about the obstacles you made. Those two are still chasing us even now. I think you must be their target, Ian."

Ian frowned slightly at that.

He had to admit, he had the same feeling.

Perhaps he had been too "flashy"...

The consequence of showing off too many Nen Ability items was that it was easy to attract people who coveted them.

For now, it was only Meteor City, which was manageable. But if the V5 set its sights on him at this stage, he would be in trouble.

Ian reflected on his actions.

He had been in this world for less than a month, and he had been far too impatient.

He had even changed many of the original plot's developments without realizing it.

Of course, he didn't regret it. He would simply be more cautious in his future actions.

It had to be said that Chrollo's assessment was spot on.

Not long after he spoke, the two pursuers drew closer to Ian's group.

"Hey, brat who rescued Uvogin, listen up! I mean you no harm!"

"The Third Elder values your talent and hopes to invite you back so we can rebuild Meteor City together!"

As he ran, Ron raised his head, revealing his weathered face. He grinned and shouted in his rough voice.

Hearing this, everyone quietly looked at Chrollo and Ian.

Ian frowned. The man sounded like an enemy soldier trying to talk them into surrendering, and he said irritably,

"Rebuild Meteor City!?"

He turned to Chrollo, a little puzzled.

"Is this Third Elder of Meteor City a philanthropist or something?"

The pursuer's words had also taken Chrollo slightly aback, but he quickly considered them and said,

"Maybe they've set their sights on the construction ability you showed earlier. No matter what kind of person the Third Elder is, if you're caught, it won't end well for you!"

Ian nodded in agreement, then raised his voice and shouted back,

"You beat up one of my people, and now you want me to work for you? Not a chance! Dream on!"

At that, Uvogin immediately perked up. He glared, stood beside Ian, and bellowed at them,

"Ron, you bastard, remember this! Sooner or later, I'm paying you back for that punch! Wash your ass and wait for me!"

"Yeah, wash your... your ass... and wait!"

Ian had meant to curse along with him, but halfway through, he felt something was off and hurriedly looked at Uvogin.

Everyone around them also turned to Uvogin with strange looks.

Nobunaga even backed away repeatedly, shouting with a look of disgust,

"Uvogin, I never thought a guy with those thick brows and big eyes would be into that sort of thing!"

Seeing everyone's reaction, Uvogin froze.

"What? Can't I kick that guy's ass?"

The group's joking around naturally reached Ron's ears. His chiseled, tough-guy face turned icy, and he gritted his teeth.

"Those damned brats, how dare they humiliate me like this!"

Baines, meanwhile, had no time to pay Ron any attention. His eyes were slightly red as he shouted urgently,

"Hey, brat over there, have you seen the God of Demonic Fire!? You must have, right? Otherwise, how could you have carved a statue of the God of Demonic Fire? Hurry up and tell me how I can see the god!"

When Ian and the others heard him, they looked at one another.

Seeing how frantic the man was, like an addict, they all grew slightly worried.

"The God of Demonic Fire?"

"Have any of you heard of that?"

Ian was puzzled. Why did these two powerful pursuers keep saying things that made no sense?

"Forget it. No point thinking about it. We were enemies to begin with, so there's no hope of settling this peacefully!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Ian wasted no time. He held out a finger and slipped a long, black rectangular tube over it—the Air Pistol.

Then he aimed at them and shouted repeatedly, "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The next second, Ron and Baines stiffened in mid-run as though struck by lightning. But both men were strong, and in the space of a breath, they had regained their balance.

"Damn it, that brat has no intention of talking this out..."

Ron muttered angrily.

Baines was also extremely anxious. If the other party got away, he would have no chance at all of seeing the god. He said in a low voice,

"But... we need to get a little closer to catch them. Right now, they're still too far away!"

"Yeah, then let's pick up the pace!"

The two reached an agreement.

On the other side, Ian shook his head.

Although he had considered that the Air Pistol was only powerful enough to deal with ordinary people, he hadn't expected it to be unable to break through their Nen defenses.

He then took out the pink Set-Building Machine and looked at the others.

"We're down to the wire. Now that we're in close combat with the enemy, if we want to slow them down, we'll all have to work together!"

Hearing Ian, everyone immediately spoke up.

"Tell us, Ian, what do you have in mind?" Uvogin shouted.

"No problem. Just tell us what you need us to do!" Nobunaga said seriously.

"Yes, it's time we did something too," Pakunoda said. She glanced at Machi, who was concentrating on driving, and lowered her eyes. "We're comrades, not dead weight."

Feitan rested his hands behind his head, whistled, and said,

"So you finally remembered us. You don't have to take everything on yourself, you know!"

Chrollo nodded as well and said calmly,

"This is our team's first time working together. The enemy is strong, but we're not weak either."

Seeing everyone's attitude, Ian felt more at ease.

The troops are ready...

He had originally worried that his idea was too despicable, but seeing how supportive everyone was, he felt reassured.

"Then, everyone, bear with it for a moment!"

He raised the Set-Building Machine and used it on each person's hand.

The next moment, even Chrollo's expression changed slightly.

"After I count to three, everyone attack the enemy together!"

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

"Everyone, throw!"

"Damn it, Ian, that's way too dirty!"