Billy's motive for throwing out that question was nothing more than trying to find a sliver of hope between the cracks.
But that was clearly unrealistic.
As for Billy's question, Maud's second answer wasn't perfunctory.
Treating criminals as hunting targets had always been Maud's creed.
In his previous life, when Maud had first crossed over into Hunter's World, he had initially wanted to live a quiet life in a city called Rolle.
But in a society with a supernatural power system, danger lurked everywhere, even if public security was fairly good.
It was like the traffic accidents that happened every day, or a flowerpot falling from the sky.
Without the ability to protect oneself, such things could suddenly happen one day.
Maud hadn't cared at first.
That was, until a bounty hunter accidentally involved him while pursuing a criminal, along with a female colleague he got along well with...
In that instant, Maud had watched helplessly as the criminal slammed his colleague into a mass of flesh, leaving her utterly unable to resist.
Afterward, Maud had been lucky enough to survive.
His colleague's death was ultimately classified as an accident.
It was only then that Maud came to his senses.
In a supernatural world different from Earth, possessing strength was more important than anything else.
Only by first gaining sufficient strength could he protect himself, do whatever he wanted, and refuse to do whatever he didn't want to do.
So he had gone to great lengths to learn Nen ability, then infused it with the idea of rapidly increasing his strength.
Influenced by the idea of leveling up by defeating monsters in games, Hunter's Notebook had come into being.
After that, Maud took the Hunter Exam and obtained his license.
Once he had his license, Maud used the convenience it