"Yes." Gon seemed quite guileless. "I want to find my dad, and the new clue I found pointed to Greed Island.
But the price of the game Greed Island is just too high. Earning several billion or even tens of billions of Jenny in just a few days is really too hard."
Over the past few days, Gon and Killua had tried just about every method they could, and even Leorio had put in considerable effort. But compared to the price of Greed Island, the money they had earned was only a drop in the bucket.
On the professional forum, obtaining access to the game Greed Island was clearly only a G-rank mission. Yet when they actually tried to do it, the difficulty felt nowhere near as low as its rating suggested.
"Even ten billion or more wouldn't be enough." Qiao Lun shook his head.
"Huh?" Gon and Killua exclaimed in surprise at the same time, then both slumped onto the sofa.
Scraping together ten billion was already incredibly difficult. If even ten billion wasn't enough, that really was rather despair-inducing.
"Making money isn't difficult for Nen users. Given enough time, they should be able to earn ten billion. But earning that much in a short time is difficult." Qiao Lun himself was something of an exception.
After all, not everyone had the ability to eliminate members of the Phantom Troupe and happened to do so just when the mafia was offering a huge sum for it.
"I know someone, the tycoon Battera. He's been buying up copies of Greed Island all this time. Even if the price of Greed Island gets driven up to thirty or forty billion at auction, he'll bid for it without hesitation. So you should give up on raising the money sooner rather than later." Qiao Lun shared the information he knew from the manga.
"Something like that is actually happening? But what does he need so many copies of Greed Island for?" Gon was somewhat astonished.
Killua, however, had already thought of something. "Do you mean...?"
"Yes." Qiao Lun nodded.
Gon looked at the two of them in confusion.
Kurapika and Leorio, who were nearby, caught on quickly, but Killua was still the one who voiced Qiao Lun's idea.
"Battera is recruiting players who can clear Greed Island, right?" Killua's eyes shone.
"Yes." Qiao Lun gave an affirmative answer, but then added, "He does have requirements for his players, though. Being a professional Hunter-or rather, mastering a Nen Ability-is only the minimum requirement.
After all, mastering Nen is the basic requirement for entering Greed Island. Having the strength to pass the test is what matters."
Killua immediately understood what Qiao Lun meant. "You're saying we aren't strong enough to pass Battera's test yet?"
"How do you know?" Gon was somewhat indignant.
He practiced [Ten] and [Ren] every day without slacking off for even a single day. Though he might fall a little short against members of the Phantom Troupe, he was confident he could win a few matches against the experts on the two-hundredth floor of Heavens Arena.
"You probably haven't started training [Hatsu] yet," Qiao Lun said, hitting the nail on the head.
"You mean a special move." The aura that had burst out around Gon quickly subsided.
"Yes."
Killua said thoughtfully, "Kurapika gained the strength to fight the Phantom Troupe before we did because he developed his special move, though he has to bear a heavy price and risk for it."
"That's right," Kurapika agreed.
However, he hadn't told Killua everything about his abilities, at Killua's own request.
During the time Killua had been captured by the Phantom Troupe, he had discovered that one of its members could read other people's memories.
Since he wasn't sure whether he might be captured by them again, the best solution Killua could think of was not to learn everything about his companions' abilities.
"I know Battera will hold a screening at the Southernpiece Auction House on September tenth to select people qualified to enter Greed Island. It's already the third. If you really want to enter Greed Island this way, you'd better hurry," Qiao Lun reminded them.
"Are you going too?" Gon noticed something.
"Yes." Qiao Lun nodded.
After coming to this world, he hadn't had any particular goals, and he had even less interest in things like the Dark Continent.
How could a place like that offer any sense of safety?
In fact, if he could, he would rather return to the Jujutsu world.
After all, once Sukuna was dealt with, the Jujutsu world would be a relatively safe environment for the next sixty-eight years.
In the world of Hunter x Hunter, according to what Ging said in his later analysis of the Five Calamities, it was an outright miracle that humanity had not yet been wiped out.
So what Qiao Lun needed to do now was find and add ways to make himself safer, while staying within safe limits as much as possible.
Improving his strength and acquiring more life-saving items would be his pursuits from here on.
And Greed Island was an extremely suitable place for beginners to train their Nen Abilities. More importantly, there were also plenty of useful items there.
For example, "Archangel's Breath" gave him more leeway to survive mistakes, though its effects might not be as good as Reverse Cursed Technique.
There were also items like the "Witch's Rejuvenation Potion," which could extend his life when he grew old, the "Gushing Spring" and "Tree of Plenty," which would ensure he never had to worry about food or drink, as well as the "Elder's Stamina Booster," "Mad Scientist's Muscle Enhancer," and so on.
However, even after clearing the game, he could only bring out three cards. So if he really got the chance, he would have to carefully select from among the many cards.
"Let's not rush into talking about training. Let's talk about the Phantom Troupe first." Killua steered the conversation back.
"Tonight is the key." As Qiao Lun spoke, he looked at Kurapika.
Assigning tasks still had to be left to Kurapika, and Qiao Lun knew Kurapika should have made some preparations as well.
"If you really want to do something, go with Melody later. Once the Phantom Troupe members appear, keep watch and report their locations promptly. But be careful: as soon as you notice any danger, withdraw immediately." Kurapika decisively made the arrangements.
Qiao Lun silently nodded in approval.
The abilities Melody had demonstrated early on were extraordinarily keen hearing and performances with a powerful influence on listeners.
That influence not only had a soothing power that could restore Kurapika to normal from his agitated Scarlet Eyes state, but could also draw people's consciousness into a world of music, completely cutting their awareness off from the outside world for three minutes!
With her there, as long as Gon, Killua, and Leorio didn't actively court death, none of them should be in danger.
"All right."
Having already decided to help Kurapika, Killua and the other two naturally chose to follow his arrangements.
With that settled, the group went on to chat about things like the auction and com-
bat.
Killua and Gon were very curious about Qiao Lun's battle with Nobunaga yesterday, while Leorio was talking about something with Kurapika.
When Qiao Lun checked the time again, it was already past three in the afternoon.
It's about time. As that thought crossed his mind, Qiao Lun noticed Kurapika's phone ringing. The caller was Dalzollene.
He told Kurapika just one thing: Miss Neon had disappeared!