Master Inventor Starting from Hunter x Hunter

But...

"But there is one problem."

Father Zhol said slowly, "Chrollo is too young."

"I'm not that old either, am I?"

Mog finally spoke, uttering his first words since Father Zhol's arrival.

He had vaguely anticipated what Father Zhol meant.

"You're different."

Father Zhol shook his head slightly, looking at the aura and Nen that coiled warily around Mog's body, and a smile crept onto his face:

"You've already cashed in part of your potential and talent."

In this world, potential and talent naturally referred to Nen ability.

"No matter how talented or promising Chrollo is, that's all it is—talent and promise."

Father Zhol said softly, "In this world, only those who can ultimately grow up are truly exceptional."

Chrollo certainly had talent and potential, but right now he didn't even know what Nen was.

He was too young, and the time wasn't right—the moment hadn't come yet.

Mog was different. He was older than Chrollo, and Father Zhol felt he was also more mature.

Most importantly, he had already opened his Aura Nodes, learned Nen, and developed his own Hatsu.

A Nen ability involving space—no matter which aspect it touched—was absolutely a formidable ability with great potential.

From any angle, Mog was a fine young man worth paying attention to, no less than Chrollo.

Not to mention, anyone who knew about investment understood.

You can't put all your eggs in one basket.

Besides Chrollo, this young man who had appeared here was also worth investing in and watching closely!

"Child, what's your name?"

"Mog."

"Mog, is it? Good..."

Father Zhol nodded gently. "If you ever need anything in the future, you can come to the Church."

"Of course, if you feel it's not suitable, you can continue living your own life."

"But I think, in Meteor City, there's no better place than the Church for you to develop."

"If you still want to keep improving yourself..."

Indeed, in Meteor City, there was no place better than the Church.

This "better" meant in every aspect.

That was also why Chrollo often liked to come to the Church.

"Why are you doing this?"

Seeing Father Zhol turn to leave, Mog spoke up again to ask.

On someone else's turf, Mog was polite enough to use a respectful title.

"No reason..."

Father Zhol glanced at Mog once more. "Just for myself."

"Just to secure Meteor City and my own interests within it."

For the first time, Father Zhol spoke so bluntly, so plainly, so utterly at odds with his current persona of compassion and guiding people in devout prayer.

"When you, Chrollo, Uvogin, Phinks, and the others all grow up..."

"You'll be able to protect Meteor City and safeguard its interests."

Clearly, Father Zhol's attention wasn't limited to Chrollo and Mog, the two most outstanding ones—he had also taken note of the other children.

"As long as Meteor City is secure, then I, living here, will naturally reap the corresponding benefits."

Indeed, the Church was a unique and special existence within Meteor City.

No matter how chaotic, poor, destitute, or filthy the outside of Meteor City was, the Church remained splendid and opulent.

"I once roamed the outside world, so I know full well how dangerous it is."

Father Zhol said slowly, "So I just want to spend the remaining broken years of my old life peacefully here in Meteor City."

"I don't want anyone to disturb my current life."

"All I can do is make this final contribution—for myself and for Meteor City. That's all."

With that, he walked out of the room.

"I have one last question."

Mog watched his retreating figure: "Is this worth it for you? Aren't you afraid we might..."

"What's left for me to fear?"

Father Zhol's voice drifted further and further away, unhurried:

"Afraid you'll waste the support and help I've given you? Or afraid you'll betray me?"

"All I can do is give you the support you want, within my means. The resources consumed—compared to the returns you'll bring once you've grown—amount to nothing."

"Even if you never grow up, or die halfway, so what?"

"At worst, I'll just find others, pick new suitable targets, and raise them instead."

"In Meteor City, we lack everything—except people~~~"

Chapter 040: He's Acting Quite Devotedly

Just as Father Zhol said, Meteor City lacked everything—except people.

Meteor City had a population of a full ten million.

And living in a place like this naturally produced an extraordinary number of formidable individuals.

Mog also thought Father Zhol was right.

Only those who ultimately grew up could be considered true geniuses; the rest were merely waste who fell along the way.

"As for the betrayal you mentioned..."

Father Zhol's voice gradually faded into nothing, leaving behind one final sentence:

"This place itself was abandoned. What is there left to betray?"

In an instant, the entire room fell silent once more.

"An abandoned place..."

Mog stared silently in the direction Father Zhol had gone.

Faintly, the sound of a countdown reached his ears.

"Five, four, three, two..."

If Mog wasn't mistaken, the video tape had been fixed, and Chrollo was leading the young audience in a countdown, welcoming the restart of the screening.

Mm, setting everything else aside, even in terms of personal charisma, Chrollo had shown extraordinary talent from a young age.

"Investment, huh~~~"

Mog muttered to himself, whispering a few words under his breath.

Then, slowly, a smile spread across his face.

"Looks like I'll have to come to the Church often from now on~~~"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whether Father Zhol's so-called "investment" was genuine or not, Mog couldn't judge with absolute certainty.

But judging from the original timeline, based on Father Zhol's support for Chrollo—

He really was exceptionally good to Chrollo.

Helping him organize this screening event for the children to watch cartoons was the least of it.

Father Zhol had also gone out of his way to visit the Elder Council of Meteor City, personally recommending Chrollo to them.

And later, after Sarasa died, it was Father Zhol who made a special trip to Misty Forest Valley, inviting Miss Renko to come and stitch Sarasa's corpse back together.

Then came the founding of the Phantom Troupe.

And Chrollo lived up to expectations, leading his band of thugs to become an extremely formidable force in Meteor City.

By that time, just as Father Zhol had hoped, Meteor City was basically free from outside interference, its stable living environment undisturbed.

Even when special external factors arose—like the invasion of the Chimera Ants—the Phantom Troupe would return to help clean them up.

And with Chrollo's intervention, the Elder Council of Meteor City established connections with the underworld organizations outside.

The underworld figures provided the elders with heavy metals and other resources, in exchange for the talented individuals of Meteor City as their subordinates.

In this way, the place, with Chrollo's help, was barely developing in a somewhat better direction.

And for Father Zhol, that was already enough.

"In the future, with Father Zhol's help, Chrollo will become a world-class thief and criminal."

"Then I can temporarily rely on Father Zhol's support to complete this most basic, primitive growth..."

Mm, mainly because there was a living example like the future Chrollo right there; otherwise, Mog really wouldn't have made this choice.

Of course, the most important thing was that Father Zhol had already discovered his existence and seen his abilities.

If he really wanted to do something, here in Meteor City's territory, Mog figured he'd have a hard time shaking him off.

Besides, he needed the power source here to continuously charge and refine himself, growing stronger~~~