"Found her? That's great!"
Light Nostrade received the call from Valtz. Upon learning that Neon was safe and hearing his daughter's voice on the other end of the line, the stone weighing on his heart finally lifted.
He had made a decision. After this... no matter what requests Neon made in the future, he would absolutely never allow her to travel far again.
Word was that the opposition had specifically hired an assassin from the Zoldyck family this time. If the white-haired hunter hadn't stepped in, Neon probably would never have returned in this lifetime.
Whether to express his gratitude or to try and win the man over, Light Nostrade ordered his secretary to wire double the agreed-upon fee to the account Yuu had provided.
He had intended to use this opportunity to invite Yuu for another chat, but unfortunately, according to Valtz and the others... the guy had left on his own immediately after dropping Neon off.
...
On the other side.
Yuu bid farewell to Neon, Valtz, and their group. His phone soon buzzed with the transfer notification.
2 billion Jenny.
No matter how you looked at it, that wasn't a small chunk of change.
Counting his previous savings, he now had over 6 billion Jenny stashed away. He was technically set for life, but as for what to do with it... he didn't have a clue.
Buy a house? A luxury car? Start a corporation? Yuu thought about it, but none of those options seemed to fit him.
He still preferred to travel the world. And for traveling, with a Hunter License in hand, keeping one or two hundred million should be more than enough.
"I guess... I'll just donate it."
As for where to donate... Yuu finally decided to give it to the most chaotic place on earth: Meteor City.
Although the people in that land didn't really use currency, the money could be used to buy food and build infrastructure...
Of course, he wasn't going to handle the logistics personally. After contacting a few reliable organizations through his connections, Yuu wired the money to them separately.
As for how many of them would actually fulfill their initial promises, that remained to be seen.
On the day of departure.
Yuu sat lazily in the airport waiting lounge, scrolling through the day's news reports on his phone. He noticed that it took a few days for the news of the Phantom Troupe members' deaths in the Kakin Empire to finally hit the headlines.
Maybe the investigators only released the results today. Either way, it wasn't a big deal.
Shortly after, Yuu received a call from Biscuit. Clearly, she had heard the news too. He didn't think much of it and picked up.
"Did you see the news?" Biscuit asked.
"If you're talking about the Troupe... yeah, I saw it."
Yuu's tone was a bit flat, even indifferent.
Biscuit couldn't help but feel a bit puzzled.
"Aren't you surprised?"
"Surprised by what? I'm the one who killed them, after all. And it's been a few days already."
"..."
At this moment, it was Biscuit who fell silent. After thinking for a moment, she asked, "Did you get hurt?"
"No, it was easier than I imagined... Anyway, after this incident, those Troupe guys probably won't dare to show their faces for a long while."
"Why didn't you choose to report the deed to the Association? For an A-List criminal organization like the Troupe, reporting it should give you a good shot at being promoted to a Single-Star Hunter."
"There's no need. That would only bring more eyes on me... eventually, it would just restrict me at every turn."
Hearing this, Biscuit somewhat agreed. Although most of the time, being a Star Hunter was just a title, occasionally you'd encounter trouble... like being specially commissioned by the Association for tasks ordinary Hunters couldn't handle.
Except for people like Ging who were not only strong but also thick-skinned, very few Star Hunters could comfortably refuse all the Association's requests.
Even she would occasionally have important matters delayed because of the Association reaching out.
Let alone once your strength and reputation reached a certain point, like Chairman Netero's level. No matter how thick-skinned you were, it was hard to shake off those so-called "responsibilities" and the "restrictions" that came with them.
"If there's nothing else, let's leave it at that... my flight is boarding soon."
Yuu spoke abruptly, preparing to hang up.
"If you hear news of those Troupe guys surfacing again later, you can let me know... Anyway, those guys and I are officially sworn enemies now. Even if I don't go looking for them, they'll come looking for me sooner or later."
"I'll keep an eye out for you. But I called today to remind you of one more thing... You've been anonymously bountied. The bounty amount is very high, so you need to pay close attention to your surroundings. I estimate many people will come to assassinate you for the prize money."
"Then they'd better weigh their own strength and see if they're qualified to take it..."
"Anyway, be careful."
"Mm."
Hanging up the phone, Yuu understood the situation. He knew the people putting a bounty on him were most likely the Troupe.
Soon, he also received a message from Biscuit. He glanced at it briefly and found that various parts of his body had been priced by the other party. On the website publishing the bounty info, the other listings were basically all related to organ trafficking.
Among them, the most eye-catching bounty was naturally the Scarlet Eyes, known as one of the "Seven Most Beautiful Colors in the World."
...
Meanwhile.
In a remote little town.
A blonde boy about fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing a traditional outfit that was primarily blue and looking slender, was currently tightly clutching a newspaper from that day, walking head-down through a dense crowd.
Kurapika broke away from the crowd, turned into an unmanned alley, and finally slid down against the wall to sit on the ground, keeping his head down the whole time to avoid exposing his unconsciously reddening eyes.
As the sole survivor of the Kurta Clan.
After confirming that the culprits were the Phantom Troupe from Meteor City, Kurapika had never given up searching for traces of the enemy, while secretly improving his own strength.
And newspapers were just his most common means of gathering intelligence.
Now learning the news of the Troupe members' deaths, Kurapika's mood was more complicated than usual. His cold, lost heart rarely felt such waves, and his eyes couldn't help but tear up.
But Kurapika knew that only a perhaps insignificant member had died, while his goal was to tear the entire Troupe out by the roots.
To uproot the Troupe, he needed to train even harder, and also prepare for the Hunter Exam later.
After all, only by becoming a Hunter could he have the chance to gain more intelligence on the Troupe.
Just relying on internet searches and newspapers, he basically had no way to find any real intel.
And there was another important point: only after becoming a Hunter could he earn enough funds to buy back his comrades' eyes that had been scattered across auction houses.
...