Mafia's Way of Doing Things

Mafia's Way of Doing Things

Oboro left the city aboard the Fishbone Airship.

He was heading for a mountain city in the Republic of Padokea, where one of this year's Hunter Exam preliminary sites was located.

Some information could be found online...

Unless there were special circumstances... the Hunter Exam was held once a year.

Ordinary people might not be familiar with or understand Nen, but the concept of Hunters and the aspiration toward them were deeply ingrained. They were regarded as certification of being "strong and professional"!

Do not underestimate the word Hunter. If one could become a Hunter... there would be broad employment prospects and career paths ahead.

Most of the many members managed by the Hunter Association currently held positions in social organizations or corporations, while others had their own business teams.

For example, Mizaistom of the Zodiacs was the managing attorney of a private security company.

Hunters were involved in every aspect of life.

Of course... special professions were another matter, such as Ruins Hunters like Ging Freecss... or people like Kite, who engaged in Biological Investigation.

Possessing Nen would certainly greatly improve one's strength... but that did not mean a Hunter's professional expertise could be overlooked.

They were all specialists in a particular field.

As for their standards... they varied greatly.

The reason the Hunter Exam kept information about Nen sealed was primarily because it was impossible to determine what kind of character a person truly had.

After all, as long as one was strong enough, one could obtain a Hunter License... but if someone with poor character learned Nen too easily, they might cause serious consequences and have an enormous impact on society.

There was no small number of candidates taking the Hunter Exam every year.

Furthermore, learning Nen and cultivating it was a relatively private and personal process of growth...

Under normal circumstances, after obtaining a Hunter License, newcomers came into contact with Nen by finding a senior.

And every senior bore the responsibility of passing it on, nurturing others, and monitoring them... The senior would evaluate whether you were qualified to become a Nen user and whether your character passed muster.

This could greatly reduce the emergence of certain "bad people"...

Oboro had heard all of this from Wing.

Still, that was merely the usual situation. The methods and opportunities for learning Nen varied from person to person... nothing was absolute.

There were still half a month before the preliminary round... so he had no need to rush.

After two days of travel, he reached his destination, a small city called Tandon.

It was more than ten times smaller than Graham Galance, with very few people... Its atmosphere had little to do with bustling prosperity. Instead, it felt more like a quiet, leisurely place for an extended stay.

The architecture resembled ancient Roman style, and none of the buildings were very tall. The city was surrounded by mountains and forests, with a pleasant climate that was nowhere near as scorching as Graham Galance.

This was not the final preliminary site. Oboro still had to take a bus to a small town within the directly administered area.

Rarely getting a chance to relax, he treated it as a trip.

At night, he boarded a bus carrying twenty or thirty people as it wound up the rugged mountain road, jolting constantly.

There were elderly people, women, and children on the bus. They were all dressed simply, and the patterns and styles of their clothes were nearly identical. They were probably all local residents.

Oboro sat in the last row, his head tilted back as he snored softly.

He was still wearing his newly bought black suit, along with sunglasses...

After wearing this outfit for so long, he had somewhat gotten used to it.

A little girl with pigtails looked at the sleeping man in front of her and covered her mouth as she giggled.

Because she saw the drool...

"Driver, how much longer?"

Someone asked.

"Once we get down the mountain, we'll drive a little farther on flat ground and we'll be there... about two hours."

The driver called out.

Besides Oboro... there were several others on the bus who had clearly come from out of town as well.

Their expressions were somewhat impatient.

"Why is it so far away... what the hell is this... couldn't they pick an address in a bigger place?"

A young blond man grumbled.

Beside him, Oboro shifted slightly, turned his head in another direction, and went back to sleep.

Seemingly noticing his movement, the blond man shot Oboro a glare.

The road was terrible, and the bus kept shaking... Yet this guy could still sleep...

The blond man was a little jealous.

Another half hour passed before the bus finally slowly left the mountain road and entered a narrow flat highway.

Someone opened a window and let the wind blow over them, stimulating their weary nerves.

At that moment, Oboro woke up and pushed up his sunglasses with a finger.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

A series of piercing horns suddenly sounded outside the window.

Three black sedans appeared behind the bus, their horns blaring wildly.

"Fuck! Are they sick or something?!"

Already in a foul mood, the blond man cursed. He stuck his head out the window, just about to roar a few words, when with a bang, a bullet came flying in and left a bloody hole in the center of his forehead without warning.

Ending his life.

"Ah!"

The passengers inside the bus immediately descended into chaos.

Some screamed... several children began crying as well...

Screech! A piercing sound flooded their ears as the driver slammed on the brakes. The bus tires scraped against the road, and the vehicle slid and drifted for a distance before finally coming to a stop.

The next second, the night before the windshield lit up as brightly as day.

Beams of light shot over... dazzling them so badly they could barely open their eyes.

Looking closely, a row of black sedans had stopped ahead on the road. Several dozen people stood there, all dressed in suits and holding various weapons.

At the same time, the three sedans behind the bus blocked off their retreat.

"This is... the Mafia..."

One of the blond man's friends went pale and said in a trembling voice.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, more than ten Mafia members holding machine guns aimed at the bus in the glare of the lights. Then... they revealed vicious smiles, pulled their triggers, and began firing wildly.

Rat-a-tat-tat...

A large number of metal shell casings fell to the ground with endless crisp clatters, while the smell of gunpowder spread through the air.

The bus's metal body was riddled with holes in an instant, and its windows shattered...

Blood sprayed as figures fell to the ground.

"Hahahahahaha!"

The gunmen laughed wantonly, relishing the pleasure brought by their firepower.

A moment later, the gunfire stopped.

The bus had already become little more than a massive piece of scrap metal.

A refined-looking man in gold-rimmed glasses strolled forward and crooked a finger at his subordinates.

He lit a cigarette with a lighter, placed it between his lips, and exhaled smoke.

Looking at the silent bus cabin, his eyes were cold. "The target is a floor master of Heavens Arena... He shouldn't be that easy to kill."

As soon as he finished speaking.

Two companions carrying rocket launchers stepped out from either side of him, crouched down, and took aim.

Boom! Two rockets trailing fire and smoke shot out and struck the bus.

The enormous explosion and the burst of blazing light and thick smoke made the air several degrees hotter...

"You dared to scam money out of us... I'm afraid you may have lived long enough to earn it, but not long enough to spend it..."

"This... is the fate you deserve!"

The bespectacled man elegantly inhaled nicotine and spoke indifferently.

"Put out the fire..."

"Yes."