Team Invitation

Gelman pursed his lips. 🐚🐠  ☞🐧

The original owner had really left Gelman with a lot of trouble. Bilbo had probably been hacked to death by the original owner before he had the chance to pay Shizuku.

Or perhaps Bilbo simply never intended to pay. In the original owner's memories, he had been that greedy a person.

After the original owner killed Bilbo, he had transferred the money in Bilbo's account into his own name. It was just that there was barely any left now.

Having this debt transferred onto his head didn't seem entirely undeserved.

"Did you come here specifically to collect the debt from me?" Gelman asked. "How did you know I was here?"

"I didn't." Shizuku shook her head. "I was just passing by and saw you on the street."

Gelman froze for a moment and looked at Shizuku. Her expression was serious, and she did not seem to be lying.

In that case, either she was incredibly lucky, or Gelman was incredibly unlucky.

"How about this? If you can provide proof of your employment arrangement with Bilbo, as well as proof that you really cleaned up the scene for me, I'll pay you five hundred thousand Jenny."

Gelman made a rather fair request.

Shizuku had not been in this line of work for only a day or two. She had indeed kept her communications with Bilbo and the employment contract with her, and she could take them out for Gelman to inspect right away.

The contract was there in black and white. Combined with the five mentions of "the scene," Gelman recalled that those places had indeed been cleaned up afterward, leaving no trace behind.

Shizuku was very dependable at her job.

That meant the remaining five hundred thousand Jenny in unpaid compensation was basically legitimate.

"All right." Gelman set down the contract, regretting that he had been unable to spot any flaw. "Let's add each other's contact information. Send me your bank account number afterward, and I'll transfer the money to you."

But Shizuku shook her head. She adjusted her glasses again and said firmly, "No. After Mr. Bilbo died, it took me three months to find you. I need to see you transfer the money to me with my own eyes."

In other words, she wanted them to go to the bank right now.

However, Gelman had a more convenient method.

"Don't worry." Gelman took out his phone. "Since going to the bank for every transfer is such a hassle, I set up 'Online Banking' a few days ago. I can transfer the money directly to you with my phone."

He was not lying. When he had paid Machi a few days ago, he had activated the service at the bank.

"'Online Banking'?" Shizuku blinked her large eyes behind her Black-rimmed Glasses, clearly curious.

"You've never heard of it? Anyway, just follow my instructions step by step. Tell me your phone number first."

"Oh, okay." Shizuku obediently recited a string of numbers.

Gelman entered the number into his contacts, casually changed the note to "Glasses Girl," then had Shizuku send over her bank account number. After a few operations, he transferred five hundred thousand Jenny to her.

"Ding-dong." A notification sounded from Shizuku's phone. She curiously opened it and discovered that she had received a payment Text Message.

"Ah." She spoke with mild surprise, covering her mouth. "I don't know which idiot transferred five hundred thousand Jenny to me."

"That was me."

"Huh? You're that idiot? Oh... so this is the 'Online Banking' you mentioned." Shizuku nodded, somewhat understanding now.

The matter of Shizuku's remaining unpaid compensation was settled just like that.

Gelman had originally been hurrying to the three auction houses in Yorknew City, but he was no longer in such a rush. Instead, he looked at Shizuku and fell into thought.

There were four little imps on the base of the "Lantern," and each one could teleport him to the Dark Continent. The hint could not have been more obvious.

In other words, at most three companions could join each Dark Continent Journey. Including Gelman himself, that made a four-person adventure team.

And aside from outstanding strength, the team members needed clearly defined roles. In other words, he needed to assemble an elite team capable of handling every kind of situation.

Gelman was responsible for combat, as well as safely traveling back and forth between the human world and the Dark Continent.

Beyond that, medical treatment, psychological counseling, combat support, cargo carrying, biological knowledge, danger prediction, and so on would all need to be handled by others.

Gelman could take on some of those duties during breaks in battle, but he could not become an all-rounder and fight alone.

His relationship with his team members was like the Nen System.

Gelman belonged to Conjuration. He could lean toward the Transformation type, and under certain special conditions, he could even transform into the rare Specialist type.

In fact, if he wanted to, he could skip over the neighboring Transformation type and Specialist type to learn abilities from the Enhancer, Manipulation System, and Emitter categories.

But the price would be twice the effort for half the result, along with extremely obvious weaknesses.

Rather than personally handling everything, it was better to leave things to specialists.

Gelman had understood this principle long ago. He had also been watching several potential members, but he had reservations about all of them and had not casually told them about the "Lantern."

Behind Machi stood the Phantom Troupe, while behind Biscuit stood the Hunter Association. Either one could expose him and attract the attention of Nen users from the major V5 nations.

Before his strength had grown enough to protect himself, Gelman did not want to take that risk.

As for Hisoka, he still needed to be observed.

Hisoka loved fighting, which made him quite a good candidate in that regard. But his actions were too unpredictable, and he might do something unforeseeable during the Dark Continent Journey.

Then what about Shizuku, standing before him?

Her Nen ability, Evil Tenderfoot, could swallow anything she subjectively considered lifeless. Moreover, the last thing it swallowed could be spat back out.

If Shizuku had been beside him when he faced the Lord of Crows a few days ago, she could not only have supported Gelman during the battle, but also recovered the Lord of Crows' corpse afterward.

With that, what Gelman was about to auction was no longer the "Lord of Crows' Monocle," but the "Lord of Crows' Corpse." Its value had increased by who knew how many times.

Gelman fell silent for a while, tempted. Then he asked, "Shizuku, have you joined any organization or faction?"

"No." Shizuku lowered her head to look at her phone. Only after counting the zeros after the amount in the Text Message did she look up. "What is it?"

"If I hired you as my teammate and took you somewhere extremely dangerous, would you be willing?"

Shizuku looked absentminded, but at that moment, she blinked shrewdly. "How much are you planning to pay me?"

"That depends on what we gain after we return," Gelman replied. "Right now, there are only the two of us in the team, so we can split it evenly. If more people join later, they will split it evenly with us as well."

"Where are you taking me? What's the danger? And what are the gains?" Shizuku asked seriously.

"I can't tell you until you agree to join and sign a contract."

"I see..." Shizuku placed a finger against her lips and lightly tapped it. "Don't say anything yet. Let me think."

Thanks to Anxi Shi for the reward.

Thanks to the readers for their monthly tickets and recommendation tickets.