When he came out of the hotel, Qiao Lun checked the time. It was already noon.
Qiao Lun had already set the mechanical watch on his wrist to the correct time, but it was still early. He did not plan to head straight to the Semetary Building with Kurapika. Instead, he intended to take care of his own affairs first.
Identification, a bank card, a phone-he needed to get all of those sorted out.
Also, judging by the timing, Gon and Killua would be captured while tracking the Phantom Troupe today and would not find a chance to leave until evening.
Looking at it that way, the Phantom Troupe's way of doing things was rather contradictory.
Sometimes they slaughtered people without a second thought, while other times they let people go on strict principle.
"Do you have any money?" Kurapika took out his wallet and simply handed it to Qiao Lun. "As for identification, I can actually help you get that too."
Qiao Lun took the wallet and asked in puzzlement, "What have you figured out?"
"I went to ask Feitan this morning. After thinking back carefully, he said you'd appeared rather abruptly." Kurapika studied Qiao Lun intently.
"I was teleported here." Qiao Lun was telling the truth. As for where he had been teleported from, he did not intend to say.
Kurapika did not press him any further.
Qiao Lun breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "I'll leave the identification to you, then. Sorry for the trouble."
"All right, don't worry. It should be ready tomorrow, but you'll have to apply for a bank card yourself. Preferably one from the Five Great Nations. Safe and reliable," Kurapika reminded him.
"I know." Qiao Lun waved and was about to leave.
"Oh, and thank you." Kurapika's voice came from behind him, sounding somewhat awkward.
Qiao Lun looked back. "For what?"
"Thank you for trusting me," Kurapika said. "And thank you for helping me get revenge."
Qiao Lun smiled. "You trust me quite a bit too, don't you? So we're even."
Kurapika smiled too.
With the identification issue out of the way, Qiao Lun went straight to an internet café after parting with Kurapika.
The level of technological development in the Hunter x Hunter manga corresponded to the late 1990s, when computers were just beginning to become widespread and technology was undergoing rapid development.
There were some differences, though. What flew through the sky were not airplanes, but airships, which should have been phased out.
In the world Qiao Lun had lived in before crossing over, these things had long since been phased out in 1937 because of safety hazards and major accidents.
Back then, everyone had believed airships would have a place in the skies of the future. Unfortunately, after that 245-meter-long flying behemoth took to the air and suffered a major accident, everything changed.
But in this world, airships were the mainstream. While walking through the city, one could occasionally look up and see enormous airships flying overhead.
These airships looked more like the Kirov Airships from Red Alert. Whenever their massive bodies passed overhead, they gave the people on the ground an immense sense of pressure.
Qiao Lun's phone no longer worked, not just because it could not connect to this world's cell towers, but also because its screen had shattered at some point.
Flip phones and brick-like phones were still in fashion, so Qiao Lun could only choose a beetle-shaped phone.
Using it to look up information online was practically impossible. Its memory could not handle it.
The Hunter License he had borrowed from Feitan before leaving proved more useful. All he had to do was swipe it on a machine at the internet café to log into the professional hunters' website.
Qiao Lun wanted to establish the Phantom Troupe's location. If possible, he would not mind making contact with Killua and the others. After all, this time, Uvogin was not the only one who had died; Machi had died too. No one could say for sure whether the Phantom Troupe would vent their anger on Killua and Gon for following them.
If his crossing over really caused Killua and Gon to die at the Phantom Troupe's hands, he would feel some regret.
After all, he quite liked Killua.
That morning, the bounty posted by the Ten Dons had already been pinned to the most prominent spot on the hunter website's homepage.
Clearly, a bounty totaling over ten billion and involving Nen users had attracted considerable attention on the hunter website.
Qiao Lun browsed the pages and soon found what he was looking for.
It was a secretly taken photo of Nobunaga and Feitan drinking coffee at a streetside shop. But after glancing at the photo's posting time, Qiao Lun gave up.
It had already been two hours.
Nobunaga and Feitan were probably baiting people, with more Phantom Troupe members hidden behind them. Any pursuers who dared to keep following after they left the stall were bound to come to a bad end.
Qiao Lun brought up a city planning map of Yorknew City on the computer and cross-referenced some information he found to identify the location of the shop where Nobunaga and Feitan had been drinking.
Qiao Lun shut down the computer, put away the Hunter License, left the internet café, and headed straight for the abandoned building closest to the shop.
He was not necessarily going to rescue anyone, but he could offer some help if needed. Besides, if he remembered correctly, according to the plot, Nobunaga would be the only one left in that abandoned building tonight to guard Killua and Gon.
In other words, this was an excellent opportunity to take out Nobunaga while he was at it!
Kill him now, and he could collect another bounty tomorrow while he was at it. Perfect.
And so, the hunt began!
Meanwhile.
Dalzollene had also delivered Uvogin's and Machi's bodies to the Semetary Building.
After verifying the identities of the one and a half corpses, the mafia paid up without any fuss.
The Ten Dons were all somewhat surprised when they received the news.
But this suited them perfectly.
"Before the auction starts tomorrow night, hang that one and a half corpses at the entrance to the Semetary Building. Let everyone coming to the auction know what happens to those who oppose us."
One of the Ten Dons, a vicious-looking man with a scar on his face, gave the order to the mafia boss responsible for affairs at the venue.
"Yes!"
"Good. It's about time we let the underworld know who its true rulers are."
Although the Phantom Troupe's operation had failed to steal any of the Ten Dons' merchandise, the deaths of so many auction guests had still been a slap in the mafia's face.
The two Phantom Troupe members' bodies they had now obtained were the best way to assert their authority.
That four billion Jenny had been well spent!
Elsewhere, in the abandoned building, Nobunaga was already sitting opposite Gon, ready for an arm-wrestling match.
Everything was following the original script, except that Machi's intuitive predictions were absent, leaving only Pakunoda's searches through their memories.
But Pakunoda, the beautiful, aloof secretary, had found nothing in Killua's or Gon's memories related to the Nen beast user or the chain killer.
With his injured ankle still bleeding, Killua watched the match nervously. He likewise had no idea who the Phantom Troupe was looking for.
What he had heard was simply too vague. It also gave him the impression that the Phantom Troupe had deliberately picked a fight, only to run into someone tough and get beaten up, leaving them to rage helplessly and search for the culprit.
But the more that seemed to be the case, the more Killua understood the danger he and Gon were in.
Because, unable to find any leads, they might well lash out in humiliation and anger-like that sinister fellow who was barely taller than him.