Combat strength assessment

To drive up the price of their headline auction item as much as possible, auction houses would usually begin building anticipation and publicity months in advance.

This was a common practice.

But such promotional efforts would attract the covetous attention of plenty of criminals.

They would assess the situation before deciding whether to make a move on whatever had caught their eye.

And if they did, they had to strike before the Yorknew Auction began.

Once the Yorknew Auction was underway, the Ten Old Men, who controlled the gangs across the Six Continents and Ten Districts, would summon elite gangsters from around the world to build a formidable security force.

This barrier, which had stood for years, was enough to deter the vast majority of criminals.

The Phantom Troupe, however, was one of the very few criminal groups that had no need to worry about the gangs' defenses.

Still, they did not take an Enhancer's fists-first approach. Before every operation, they carefully considered their strategy to minimize its risks and difficulty.

This was an approach they had gradually worked out through the setbacks they had faced since their debut.

For now, Chrollo had yet to decide whether to act.

That was because he had something else, something more important, to do.

The room was so quiet that a falling pin would have been audible. Only the faint breathing of the tortured man could barely be heard.

Chrollo looked down at the man in silence.

"Feitan went too far."

Suddenly, a woman's voice came from outside the door.

Pakunoda and Feitan immediately turned toward it and saw a woman with long pink hair and captivating blue eyes leaning against the doorframe.

Looking at the blood-soaked man before Chrollo, she said flatly, "Before you send him to the hospital, you'd better let