Dalzollene's call had no effect on Qiao Lun.
When Light Nostrade rejected his goodwill, he had already roughly anticipated what the Nostrade Family would face in the future.
He simply had not expected it to happen so soon.
It seemed Chrollo had probably begun to suspect something after leaving the Semetary Building.
And that suspicion could lead to only one outcome: the Nostrade Family becoming a thorn in Chrollo's side.
As long as Chrollo could confirm that he would not be leaving with the Nostrade Family, Neon was certain to fall victim to him.
In other words, there had only ever been one way for Neon to survive: seek him out herself and ask for protection.
But clearly, neither Neon nor Light Nostrade had considered that. Light Nostrade had even discarded another important card in his hand, Kurapika.
Professional Hunters like Dalzollene and Basho were completely outmatched against a Phantom Troupe determined to get what it wanted.
Still, after taking Neon away, Chrollo would probably discover that his ability to bring Hisoka along and corner him so precisely at the restaurant had little to do with Neon's fortune-telling ability.
There was no telling how Chrollo would interpret that.
Qiao Lun was also rather curious about the contents of Chrollo's fortune. Unfortunately, there was no longer a mole in the Phantom Troupe.
As for what would become of Neon and Light Nostrade, Qiao Lun did not care at all.
After hanging up, he merely kept Dalzollene's phone number. Dalzollene still had an interesting item on him: the longsword he carried.
It was a longsword engraved with special writing. Qiao Lun had once offered to buy it, but Dalzollene had refused.
It was not a matter of price. Dalzollene simply had no intention of selling a longsword that boosted his combat strength.
What interested Qiao Lun was not the longsword itself, but the special writing on it.
According to the information he had obtained from the manga, that should have been the first appearance of "God Script" in the manga.
Its showing had not been particularly impressive, though. When Dalzollene used the longsword to attack Uvogin, who had been bound and drugged with an anesthetic, the blade snapped outright.
The next appearance of God Script had been among the clues Ging left Gon to help him find Greed Island.
Qiao Lun had a theory: God Script was extremely closely connected to Greed Island. He even suspected that Greed Island itself was a testing ground for Ging's team to research God Script.
He did not deny the game developers' love for games, but that did not conflict with researching God Script.
Without God Script in the equation, he truly could not figure out how Ging and the others had created so many incredible abilities within the game Greed Island.
Days passed. Kurapika had been gone for a while, but Qiao Lun was not worried in the slightest.
On the morning of September 10, he headed to Nanpis with Gon and Killua.
Leorio, whose presence barely registered, stayed at the hotel to study. He was still working toward his dream of practicing medicine, and waiting for good news from Gon and the others.
With the auctions completely over, Yorknew City had grown considerably quieter over the past two days.
When Qiao Lun's group arrived at Nanpis, a hostess led them to the auditorium Battera had booked.
Quite a few people had already gathered in the auditorium. Every one of them was a Nen user; that was effectively the requirement for admission.
As for how strong they were, there was no way to tell.
Until the selections were finalized, everyone was a competitor, so most of those who came also chose to keep quiet.
By nine o'clock, Qiao Lun roughly estimated that nearly two hundred people had gathered in the hall.
The gathering of so many Nen users did not particularly surprise Qiao Lun.
Although there were currently only a little over six hundred professional Hunters registered with the Hunter Association, the number of Nen users outside those six hundred was a complete unknown.
The challengers on the two-hundredth floor of Heavens Arena, for instance, were all people who had mastered Nen. But mastering Nen did not mean they would choose to become Hunters.
Hunters enjoyed good benefits, but becoming a Hunter also meant responsibilities and constraints.
While Qiao Lun's thoughts wandered, a man in black wearing sunglasses walked onto the auditorium stage with a microphone.
"Sorry for the wait, everyone. The Greed Island player selection will now begin," the black-clad host said smoothly. "Mr. Battera won six copies of the game at auction. Those are what you are all here for.
"Everyone here is an expert who has passed the preliminary screening, and none of you would be concerned about the Nampis Auction's admission fee of twelve million Jenny.
"As I'm sure you already know, Nen Ability is indispensable for participating in this game. The screening method is therefore very simple: we will ask each of you to demonstrate your Nen Ability, then decide whether you pass."
Seeing no objections from the audience, the host stepped aside and announced loudly, "Your examiner will be the professional Hunter Tsezguerra."
The tall Tsezguerra walked onto the stage in his combat uniform.
Qiao Lun noticed that most of those seated below seemed to recognize Tsezguerra. It appeared that this man, who openly declared he took jobs purely for money, had earned most people's recognition through achievements sufficient to secure the title of One-Star Hunter.
"Then let us begin the screening immediately." Seeing that Tsezguerra had commanded the entire room simply by standing there, the host quickly made his announcement and left the stage.
Tsezguerra did not use the microphone at all, but his voice still reached everyone's ears clearly. "Please come onto the stage one at a time and show me your [Ren]. Iron doors and curtains will screen off the stage so no one else can see. Also, thirty-two people. Once that many applicants have passed, the screening will end."
As soon as Tsezguerra finished speaking, the Nen users who had long been waiting quickly formed a line.
Qiao Lun moved extremely fast. He had no interest in waiting, so he appeared outside the iron door almost the instant Tsezguerra finished speaking.
Tsezguerra was slightly surprised. So were Killua and Gon, who had been planning to watch for a while first.
"Qiao Lun really does whatever he wants." With his hands behind his head, Killua also walked toward the line. Yet in that brief interval, over a hundred people had already lined up.
"Qiao Lun has always had his own ideas. And he probably won't be working with us once he enters the game, either." Gon followed him.
"But he really is strong," Killua had to admit.
Over the past few days, Qiao Lun had said he would help assess them, but what he had actually done was throw two wolves at them.
Those seemingly gentle, adorable Divine Dogs were far beyond their ability to handle. When facing them, Killua even felt as though he were confronting members of the Phantom Troupe.
"Yeah," Gon sighed as well. "Are all Specialization users monsters?"
Kurapika was also part of the reason Gon thought that way, even though Kurapika had said his ability was so powerful-even to the point of letting him take on a Phantom Troupe member alone-entirely because of Vows and Limitations.
But without sufficiently high base stats, even with an ability's mechanics helping, defeating a Phantom Troupe member head-on would still be difficult.
"It's not that extreme. With Kurapika, it's more because of his Scarlet Eyes," Killua said, taking a more rational view.
Kurapika's stats were so high because of the boost his Scarlet Eyes state gave him, as well as his ability to use Enhancement at one hundred percent effectiveness.
It was not solely because of his Specialization ability.