At the same time, inside the Zoldyck Family mansion on Kukuroo Mountain in the Republic of Padokea.
Silva finished reading the information on the Phantom Troupe in his hands and rose to head out for work.
If Kikyo hadn't taken Killua out on a job two days earlier, he could have brought her back to Meteor City with him this time, then stopped by to visit his mother along the way.
Silva stroked Mike's huge head as he walked out, contemplating the missed opportunity with some regret.
So was it all down to family upbringing?
It seemed Illumi had inherited his thriftiness and knack for making the most of everything from Silva!
Meanwhile, in Meteor City, the Troupe members who had received Shalnark's message had been returning to their home base one after another.
But every one of them came to take a look at Lola when they returned, as though she were some rare animal.
Then, with enthusiastic recommendations from the other Spiders, they all joined the growing army of people ordering food.
As a direct result, A Luo spent more and more time in the kitchen, until she had become the Phantom Troupe's little cook through and through.
As for their leader, he still spent every day poring over all sorts of hefty books, turning his sleep schedule upside down.
He seemed to have lost interest in investigating A Luo!
Seeing this, A Luo assumed he had believed the explanation she had given last time, and the hardworking little cook couldn't help secretly rejoicing.
Only that baby-faced Shalnark still looked at her with eyes full of curiosity!
It left A Luo feeling that none of her little schemes could possibly escape his notice.
So whenever she could, A Luo tried her best to avoid Shalnark.
A few days later, No. 8, who had yet to return, was targeted for assassination the moment she set foot in Meteor City.
If Shalnark hadn't warned her beforehand, prompting her to prepare plenty of substitute puppets with her Nen Ability, things would have been different.
She would definitely have died there!
That was like sounding a battle alarm.
Whenever the noncombatants-Shalnark, Pakunoda, and Kortopi-went out to do anything, they traveled with at least two other members.
As for Feitan and Phinks, no one knew what the leader had sent them to do... They hadn't been seen at the dinner table for three or four days.
That evening, in the Troupe's candlelit base, their leader finally gathered every member and began to speak.
The handsome young man surveyed the Troupe members in the base with his deep-set eyes!
In a somber voice, he first announced the attack on No. 8, then told them they had been targeted by the legendary family of assassins, the Zoldyck Family.
The Spiders reacted differently to the two pieces of bad news Chrollo delivered.
Most of the Spiders met the attack on No. 8 with indifference, treating it as none of their concern. Only Shalnark sounded a little regretful as he remarked:
"No. 8 lost so many substitute puppets in one go!"
For a moment, A Luo couldn't understand their indifference toward a companion.
They had clearly cared a great deal about Uvogin's death during the anime's Yorknew City arc!
They had even orchestrated a grand massacre as a requiem in his memory!
Why were they so unmoved by the news about No. 8 now?
A Luo didn't understand at the time. Only much, much later would she gradually come to grasp how the villains before her thought.
The Troupe came from Meteor City, and they possessed its people's most distinctive trait: they had no concept of good or evil.
Perhaps that extreme environment had shaped their personalities. To survive and obtain what they wanted, the people here murdered, burned, and ran wild without restraint!
And when it came to death and companions, they had their own unique understanding.
There was Uvogin, who committed atrocities knowing full well that vengeance might follow, and who never betrayed the other Spiders, keeping silent until his death.
There was Chrollo, always prepared for vengeance, walking the line between life and death and ready to accept his end at any moment, whose heartbeat had nearly driven Melody mad.
And there was Pakunoda, cold on the outside but tender within, who would die to save Chrollo.
Outsiders could never understand, let alone intervene!
Soon, the Spiders launched into an in-depth discussion of the Zoldyck Family's assassination attempt.
A Luo stayed quietly off to one side, not daring to interject throughout.
But she hadn't listened for nothing. After hearing the whole discussion, she finally understood that the Zoldyck Family's pursuit of the Spiders had nothing to do with their past atrocities. It was because of Meteor City's own Council of Elders.
Meteor City might have been filled with garbage, a waste dumping ground with a long history.
But wherever there were people, there were power struggles!
People lived here, and plenty of them. Naturally, various factions had carved out their territories.
The largest factions had close ties to the mafia in the outside world, with both sides benefiting from the relationship.
The Council of Elders was the institution those factions had formed.
They sheltered Meteor City's children, providing the supplies they needed to grow up and ensuring that the children here wouldn't starve to death.
But that was all.
In particular, there were disagreements among the council members themselves. The few who colluded with the outside mafia were driven purely by profit.
To generate income, they had actually chosen to work with the mafia.
After all, everyone in Meteor City was undocumented, and apart from the Spiders, who aspired to be thieves, and a handful of formidable figures, most had few options.
The majority of people here struggled to make a living once they reached adulthood.
So those council members signed agreements with the mafia outside: they would supply talent, and the mafia would provide goods.
It was like the employment agencies from A Luo's previous life.
The Council of Elders acted as a middleman, providing the mafia and certain specialized jobs with talent such as enforcers and assassins, then collecting placement fees from the mafia. They profited from both sides!
The unique environment here produced outlaws perfectly suited to those organizations. Moreover, since Meteor City's people were undocumented, even if something happened, it wouldn't bring any trouble.
They were simply the ideal choice for those professions!
As a result, the Troupe's rise had also attracted those factions' attention.
At first, they had actually wanted to recruit them.
Unfortunately, every one of those powerful bastards was arrogant! And these Spiders were the biggest bastards of them all!
Only Chrollo had the ability to bring such a group together.
If he told them to pluck the stars, they wouldn't stab the moon; if he told them to head east, they wouldn't go west!
Anyone else could try and see what happened.
The Spiders would roll them up and devour them like prey!
Moreover, even with Chrollo as the Troupe's head, its spider legs retained a great deal of freedom.
Their operations were a perfect example!
Most involved members participating voluntarily. Only on very rare occasions was everyone summoned for a major operation.
So when the Council of Elders first tried recruiting them, those arrogant bastards rejected the offer without the slightest regard for their dignity.
Not only that, the Spiders were outrageously brazen in everything they did!
They seized resources, committed crimes outside, and stirred up trouble, showing respect to no one!
Seeing this, the other people of Meteor City naturally followed their example.
Once people stopped falling in line, they became hard to lead!
Those members of the Elders' Council couldn't swallow the insult, so they decided to teach the Troupe a lesson.
Who could have known the Troupe would be so tough to handle, and so dangerous to touch!
Every single Spider was as prickly as a cactus!
Several ambushes failed, and worse still, the Troupe retaliated viciously more than once, inflicting devastating losses.
Left with no other choice, the Council of Elders paid an astronomical price to bring in professionals.
They commissioned the Zoldyck Family to assassinate every member of the Phantom Troupe.
Quite a few of the Zoldyck Family's apprentice butlers came from Meteor City, and the family head's wife had once lived there too. Naturally, the Council of Elders, as a brokerage organization, had the Zoldyck Family's contact information.
Feitan and Phinks had gone out earlier on their leader's orders to investigate this matter.
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