Destination

The mountain road wound and twisted.

Moro had been walking for about an hour without encountering a single person.

He looked up at the sky. There should still be two or three hours before sunset.

Time-wise, it was barely sufficient.

But it would be best to leave this sparsely inhabited area before the sun went down.

Because undeveloped wilderness areas in this world were often filled with lethal threats.

And most of those threats came from strange creatures capable of killing humans with ease.

In such places, without professional knowledge to rely on, even a Nen user could lose their life in the deep mountains and forests.

Ever since crossing over, Moro had basically thrown himself into human society, where opportunities were everywhere. He had rarely ventured deep into the wilderness.

Even fully developed natural scenic areas were places he had never visited even once.

But that did not stop him from maintaining a healthy sense of awe toward them.

After resting for a few minutes, Moro continued down the mountain road, considering his next steps as he walked.

First, he needed to solve the identity issue...

From the moment he had been locked in that cargo truck cage, a death certificate had effectively been issued for him by force.

Thus, every piece of his information in the identity database had vanished along with that death certificate.

Back then, Molena had helped him obtain a new identity. Now, he had to find a way himself.

Still, it probably would not be too difficult.

Having spent over half a year in Yorknew City, he knew that money could solve many problems.

"Six hundred thousand Jenny... I wonder if that'll be enough."

The money he had searched from the two corpses was not much, but it was crucial to Moro right now.

Even if it was not enough to buy an identity card, Moro could use it as seed money and make as much profit as possible.

Lightly patting his bulging pocket, Moro looked into the distance, where wisps of cooking smoke could vaguely be seen.

Resolving his identity issue was the highest priority at the moment. After all, fast means of transportation like airships inevitably required identification.

To Moro now, time was practically life itself.

So he needed to avoid wasting every minute and every second he could.

Once the identity issue was resolved, he had two possible destinations.

One was Heaven's Arena, where he could earn prize money and make up for his lack of combat experience.

In the process of challenging for the Floor Master position, he would most likely encounter competitors harboring ill intentions as well.

And the vast majority of those competitors were Nen users looking to pry match-win points from newcomers.

In pursuit of status and money, such people had no morals or humanity to speak of. Resorting to any means necessary was simply routine for them.

If Moro encountered them, he naturally would not hold back.

After all, every Nen user was worth one level, which was extremely important to him.

The other destination was Yorknew City.

Moro knew that place well. As long as he had some starting capital, he could turn a profit in a short time and solve his funding problem.

Of course, more importantly, he could spend money to acquire antiques or handcrafted artworks wrapped in aura and see whether Annual Rings could continue collecting energy.

But even if it could keep collecting energy, compared to that lengthy process, Moro would still focus on leveling up and becoming stronger.

Two destinations.

No matter which path he chose, there was only one final destination.

That was killing Feitan within a year.

As Moro pondered, he found it difficult to make a decision. Then he thought of something very important.

An intelligence network—

The prerequisite for killing Feitan was being able to find Feitan.

According to the original plot, in the early days of the Phantom Troupe's establishment, they committed every evil imaginable in order to make a name for themselves and establish their authority.

All kinds of shocking crimes had been committed by their hands.

Their style of operation and brutal methods quickly made them a notorious Class-A criminal organization, granting them considerable deterrence.

Soon afterward, the fact that the Phantom Troupe came from Meteor City naturally became widely known.

People's wariness and fear of the Phantom Troupe gradually spread to Meteor City as well.

That had been one of Chrollo's motives for creating the Phantom Troupe.

He wanted the world to fear and dread the Phantom Troupe, then extend that perception to Meteor City, creating a layer of protective coloring around Meteor City.

The Phantom Troupe had devoted itself to that goal.

But beyond that, there was one more thing the Phantom Troupe had to do.

They had to avenge their childhood friend, Sarasa.

Under Chrollo's leadership, the Phantom Troupe had waded through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, finally killing the chief culprit behind Sarasa's torture and murder six years ago.

After that, the Phantom Troupe's madness eased to a certain extent.

They no longer committed crimes and killed people as frequently, and the frequency with which the entire group gathered for action visibly declined.

Later on, the Phantom Troupe had not even assembled once in three years.

The members who had scattered and acted independently were like stones dropped into the sea, impossible to trace.

Because of that, Moro had no choice but to consider the importance of an intelligence network.

Otherwise, even if he developed the strength to kill Feitan, it would all be pointless if he could not find him in the end.

As Moro's thoughts delved deeper, he inevitably recalled that rain-soaked night filled with killing intent.

Why had the Phantom Troupe come looking for trouble with him...

He did not know.

Having chosen another path now, he also could not be sure whether Chrollo and the others would still go to Yorknew City a year later.

He would keep that piece of intelligence as a backup plan.

If circumstances allowed, Moro naturally preferred to face Feitan one-on-one.

So an intelligence network was necessary.

It would allow him to find Feitan when he was acting alone.

And intelligence was an extremely, extremely expensive thing in the Hunter world.

"I'll go to Yorknew City."

Having realized the importance of an intelligence network, Moro ultimately decided to go to Yorknew City first.

He would hunt for bargains and accumulate a fortune as quickly as possible.

Besides, after gaining a foothold in Yorknew City, he had heard stories about this person finding an incredible bargain and that person setting up a scheme to swindle some collector out of a top-tier treasure.

Moro could completely use that future intelligence to intercept some priceless treasures.

That way, he could rapidly accumulate money for his intelligence network while also verifying Annual Rings' current functionality.

Half a month later.

Yorknew City, Rat Alley in Sewer Street.

There was not much trash in the somewhat damp alley, yet an unpleasant stench still permeated the air.

It was late at night. With only a few yellow lamps in the depths of the alley, one could barely see.

Moro stood at a T-junction, carrying a suitcase in one hand.

Tap, tap—

Footsteps sounded from the darkness.

A masked man dressed from head to toe in concealing clothing slowly emerged from the dim light, constantly scanning his surroundings. He looked incredibly furtive.

Upon seeing Moro, the masked man's wary gaze swiftly swept over the suitcase in Moro's hand before he slowly approached.

When he reached Moro, the masked man untied a long object wrapped in black cloth from behind his back and handed it over.

"You can inspect the goods, but give me the money first."

The masked man's voice was hoarse. After a pause, he added, "I'll only wait one minute."

"Fine."

Moro tossed the suitcase at the man's feet, then took the long object and pulled away the black cloth, revealing a red-and-white katana wreathed in aura.

Seeing the smoke-like aura emanating from the katana, Moro nodded in satisfaction.

He had arrived in Yorknew City a week ago, only to find that obtaining an identity card was even more troublesome than he had expected.

So he temporarily set aside the identity issue and instead went bargain hunting on the street market.

In less than a week, he had earned more than twenty million Jenny.

But rather than use that money to solve his identity problem, he had immediately sought out the masked man and bought this highly valuable yet illicit katana.

If he could sell it successfully...

He would make over a billion Jenny in one go.