Kavasa City. As one of the V5's important port cities in the Kukan Emirate, its domestic status was pivotal—arguably one of the most crucial cities. The headquarters of the Tedolka Family were located here.
On this dark and windy night, Pairo sat quietly on the rooftop of a dozen-story hotel, guarded by several armed gang members. He kept his eyes closed, focusing on something unknown.
In another part of the city, the Dingfeng Hotel—the city's largest landmark building—stood tall in Kavasa City. On the hotel's rooftop resided the patriarch of the Tedolka Family.
At this moment, in the hotel's ground floor reception hall, three figures—one large, one medium, and one small—entered. The smallest appeared to be only a few years old. These three were the Zoldyck Family's assassin group.
"May I help the three of you—" The receptionist's words were cut short as a Nen needle pierced his head.
Seeing this, Silva frowned slightly. He had always somewhat disapproved of his eldest son's assassination methods. In the Zoldyck Family, assassins adhered to the principle of not adding extra kills; killing anyone beyond the mission target was like making a losing business deal. They were assassins, and making losing deals was unacceptable. Whether it was himself, his father, or the existing elders in the family, they consistently upheld this principle.
However, his eldest son, Illumi, always disregarded this rule. Normally, Silva would turn a blind eye, as he wouldn't overly interfere with his children's actions. But today was different—he was taking his youngest son, Killua, on his first job.
"Don't waste energy killing people unrelated to the target," Silva said softly.
Hearing his father's words, Illumi, with his lifeless eyes, glanced at his father, then at the excited Killua, and uncharacteristically did not retort. Thus, the receptionist, with the Nen needle in his head, led the three upstairs like a puppet.
The scent of blood began to subtly permeate the hotel.
In the distance, Pairo waited quietly. Until fire appeared in the vision he was "watching."
"A child?" In his stolen gaze, a white shadow flashed, and in the final moment of the attack, he clearly saw the assassin's face. It was a white-haired boy, his face full of excitement, his right hand clasped together, piercing the enemy's heart like a blade.
"So young?" Pairo was very surprised. This child, who looked several years younger than him, was one of the Zoldyck Family's assassins?
Before he could observe further, the vision connected to this eyeball was cut off. He still had three eyeballs that could provide different visions. He quickly shifted his sight, only to find that only two eyeballs still had a visual connection. In the vision of one of the eyeballs, a needle appeared, followed by a tall, black-haired figure.
"Is this another assassin?" Pairo thought. Unfortunately, the target died too quickly this time; he couldn't even get a clear look at the assassin's specific appearance.
Until, in the vision of the last eyeball, a burly, white-haired man, exuding power, slowly approached. The man's aura was incredibly strong, rendering the target of Pairo's stolen vision immobile. Those eyes were a combination of a venomous snake and a fierce wolf, seemingly piercing through Pairo's gaze.
"He's looking at me?!" Pairo was greatly alarmed and immediately disconnected the visual link. He gasped for breath, his mind repeatedly echoing: Was he looking at me? How did he do it? Was I discovered just like that? Is this the power of top-tier experts? The gap is truly too vast—
In that instant, he seemed to begin to understand the peak power of this world.
"Young Master Pairo?" The gang member guarding him knelt, asking about his condition with concern.
Pairo shook his head. "It's nothing. Let's go. They should be finishing the mission soon." He knew that with such powerful individuals present, the Tedolka Family was no match at all. Those eyes staring at him left him with lingering fear. Top-tier Nen users, indeed.
At this moment, the top three floors of the hotel were filled with a strong smell of blood; all standing individuals had fallen. The patriarch of the Tedolka Family, one of the Ten Old Men—an old man dressed in expensive pajamas—sat slumped on the sofa, his eyes vacant.
Silva was staring at the corpse of a gang member lying on the floor by the door. Killua and Illumi, who had finished dealing with enemies elsewhere, walked over.
"Dad?" Killua asked doubtfully, looking at the corpse his father was staring at, finding nothing special about it—it was just an ordinary gang member.
"Mission complete." Illumi said mechanically, then picked up his phone and took a few photos of the surroundings, preparing to send them to the client.
"Are you going to wait here for the client to inspect?" Illumi turned and asked.
Silva simply responded calmly, "The client has already seen us."
Illumi's eyes narrowed slightly, looking at the corpse on the ground. He seemed to glean some information from that sentence. But Silva clearly had no intention of explaining further.
Not long after, the express elevator arrived.
The surveillance cameras throughout the entire hotel and surrounding streets had already been dealt with. Pairo brought only a few gang thugs. He instructed his subordinates, "Don't speak when you see them later." Afterward, he walked through the corpses lying on the ground.
All these bodies were killed with a single blow, the methods clean and precise, and blood splatter was minimized. These traces all represented two words: efficiency.
"Is this the renown of the Zoldyck Family? Truly impressive." Pairo had to admit that spending this money to hire them was indeed worth it.
Pairo and his group arrived at the top floor and met the three who were already waiting there.
"Your work was very professional." Pairo glanced at the three, politely bowing slightly as he praised them. "As compensation for troubling you, I will give each of you an additional 300 million. Consider it a token of my gratitude for the honor of meeting the three of you."
Upon hearing of the extra money, the expressions of the three softened considerably. The subtle hostility they had felt earlier vanished without a trace. The price was very reasonable—Silva no longer pursued the matter, and Illumi instantly cast aside his previous dissatisfaction. After all, this price was somewhat higher than the market rate.
Pairo couldn't help glancing at Killua again; the child looked only seven or eight years old—truly too young. Under these circumstances, not observing Killua would seem a bit strange.
Feeling Pairo's scrutinizing gaze, Killua wrinkled his nose.
"You're truly amazing, so powerful at such a young age." Pairo praised him sincerely. A hint of pride immediately appeared on Killua's face.
Looking at the white-haired little guy in front of him, so swift in his movements and so young, Pairo suddenly froze, memories flooding his mind like a tide. He recalled the information about the outside world his father told him in his final moments, and the arena battles Uncle Kevin had mentioned. Pairo's emotions were uncharacteristically stirred. "You, you wouldn't happen to be Killua, would you?"
This question slightly surprised both Silva and Illumi.
"You know me?" Killua was both surprised and happy, not expecting a stranger to have heard of him. Did he have a reputation outside?
"Yes, I heard about you from my father and my uncle."
"Your father? Uncle?"
"You might not be familiar with my father, but my uncle is named Kevin. He mentioned you."
Hearing this, Killua smiled.
Illumi's face darkened. So that was it—a connection through Kevin. He now knew how this client came to be. Silva observed his two sons' expressions, roughly understanding the situation.
Pairo suddenly realized this was a good opportunity. He picked up three pre-prepared boxes—silver, gold, and black—and handed them to Killua, Illumi, and Silva respectively. "These are my uncle's pharmacy membership cards. He instructed me to give them to suitable people when I met them."
Thinking that his uncle had made the connection, and the other party might know his uncle, Pairo added, "No side effects." Only then did Illumi accept it. He had already had someone test the medicine Kevin had given him before, but there had been side effects at that time.
The three took the boxes. By now, Illumi had lost patience, as Killua's expression was clearly not in his favor. Evidently, Killua still had questions he wanted to ask. Illumi directly stated, "The work is done, and the transaction ends here." After speaking, he left directly. Silva also nodded to Pairo, then departed. Killua still wanted to say something, but could only follow the two and leave.
Watching the three leave, Pairo was somewhat confused. He always felt that the atmosphere between these three was a bit subtle, especially after he mentioned his uncle. Did something happen between them? Never mind, time is short. Pairo stopped thinking and quickly led the gangsters behind him to search the room.
The entire floor was well preserved; though there were bodies lying everywhere and some walls had bullet holes, the items in the room were almost completely undamaged. The reason he came here in person, even after hiring assassins, was naturally because of the prophecy. Because there was something his "family" needed here—otherwise he wouldn't have come himself. He needed to find out what they wanted now.
The Spiral organization's no-man's-land base. This name was learned from the head researcher. The representative symbol was actually a double helix—very simple and unadorned.
Kevin and the others stood at the base entrance, watching the airship flying overhead. A flock of birds descended, carrying several people. As the birds dispersed, three figures emerged. Leading them was a fair-skinned, lightly dressed, beautiful woman, whose attire was entirely composed of bird elements.
Kevin took one look and determined that she was Gu Gu, the Rooster. Because her attire bore a striking resemblance to Kite, who was known as Dog. Kite's outfit had obvious canine elements, matching her animal title. And the Rooster before him was the same. Kevin couldn't help wondering: Is this a mandatory requirement for the Zodiacs? His thoughts drifted.
Behind Gu Gu followed a burly man with bandaged eyes and an ordinary-looking bespectacled man, seemingly an engineer.
Gu Gu walked forward, hands on her hips, staring at Begetto, who looked indifferent.
Clearly, the two knew each other.
"How could you force him to die? Now all the clues are gone!" Though Gu Gu was a beautiful woman, her temper seemed a bit volatile.
Begetto shrugged indifferently, spreading his hands. "Your message came too late. By the time your bird delivered the information, that guy was already dead. And with your Nen ability, you even let him escape—you were too careless."
This time, the hot-tempered Gu Gu just crossed her arms and snorted. It must be said, she did bear some responsibility for this. But being annoyed was still being annoyed.
"So annoying!" Gu Gu yelled in frustration. "Take me inside and see if we can find any useful information." It wasn't time to give up yet.
Begetto led them into the research base, all the way to the chair where the body was placed. This body was none other than Rak, who had died last night. The manner of death still looked somewhat tragic.
The bespectacled engineer walked forward, squatted beside the body, and examined it carefully. Clearly, he must be the one capable of probing memories. "The method of death is the same as those before, except he controlled the larvae in his brain to devour himself to death."
As he spoke, a laptop materialized in his hand, and he inexplicably pulled a wire from thin air, plugging it into the other party's head, which had no port. Kevin and Locke exchanged glances; their knowledge in this area was relatively limited, and seeing this scene, they couldn't help communicating with their eyes. To some extent, the objects materialized by the bespectacled man were somewhat similar to Locke's Nen ability—both were technological products, but the bespectacled man's technology seemed more advanced.
"Fortunately, it wasn't completely devoured, so perhaps some clues can be gathered." The bespectacled man's words sparked a glimmer of hope in everyone's hearts. After all, this time the other party controlled the worms in his own mind, so it was impossible to issue absolute control commands as with other worms. Unlike previous individuals whose brains were completely eaten away, his wasn't empty. This gave him some opportunity.
After quite a while, the bespectacled man pushed up his glasses, a smile appearing on his face. "Done. I found information about the organization's headquarters in his mind."
"What good luck." This thought flashed through everyone's minds simultaneously. It just so happened that information about the headquarters was left, which was of utmost importance.
The bespectacled man directly showed the information on the laptop to Gu Gu. Gu Gu rushed over, looked at it carefully for a while, and her expression changed from joy to irritation.
"What is this! Who wants this information!" She frantically scratched her hair, looking like an enraged rooster.
"What's wrong? Haven't we already found information about the headquarters?" Begetto asked, puzzled.
Gu Gu pointed at the screen and said, "The information on this screen was already obtained from other sources yesterday. Long has already captured the enemy's headquarters. The problem is those documents—those leftover genetic engineering products! If we don't find them before those politicians do, who knows what kind of trouble they'll cause later, and we'll have to clean up their mess."
This was indeed the crux of the problem. The reason this matter had dragged on for so many years, with all parties at a stalemate, was precisely because various forces and some ambitious politicians had a demand for these genetic engineering products. Though they had received the mission and special access granted by V5, even within these major countries, different organizational departments had their own differing ideas. It was hard to tell if this was some internal political struggle within certain countries.
The key now was to see who could get there first. If they could first find the crux of the problem, destroy those dangerous items, and apprehend the mastermind, the problem might be solved. But the troublesome part was that although the mastermind was caught, he used some means to evade memory probing. According to intelligence, Long had killed the opponent in battle, leading to a complete loss of relevant important information, and some documents and products had already been transferred.
"Sigh." Gu Gu sighed helplessly. The mission assigned by V5 was accomplished, but the mission assigned by the Chairman was only half-completed. The Chairman of the Hunter Association was never someone who would simply clean up messes.
"All important items such as data and biological samples have been transferred." This sentence echoed repeatedly in Kevin's mind.
What should we do then? Is the Golden Chicken among them too? There's no other way—I can only see if I can ask Neon for a divination. Kevin thought to himself.
Just then, Kevin's phone rang. In this quiet moment, the phone's ringtone was particularly jarring, and everyone's eyes turned to him.
"Excuse me, I need to take a call." Kevin saw it was Pairo calling, so he turned and walked aside, creating some distance from the others before answering.
Pairo's voice came from the other end, recounting the events in detail. Since the information here was cut off, Kevin had nothing else to do, so he listened quietly, occasionally offering his own opinions.
"The Member card was delivered without issue—"
"I didn't expect Killua to have to start working so young—alas, life is truly unpredictable."
"Mm-hmm, well done. Since you've hired assassins, just ensure your own safety."
"...No need to kill them all. If the leader dies, the people below will naturally scramble to climb up, and there are others still coveting the position." After all, they were all gangsters.
Kevin chatted with Pairo while catching up on their recent situation.
"Why did you still go to see it yourself at the end?"
"Because there was an important prophecy?"
"What prophecy?" Kevin frowned, his expression becoming serious.
After listening to Pairo's account, Kevin was stunned.
"Wait a minute—did you find any data records or special items at the scene?"
"A Golden Chicken specimen with Nen residue and a golden egg?"
Could this be the breakthrough? Kevin thought to himself. He didn't expect it to be here. The Golden Chicken specimen was understandable—after all, Begetto hadn't won it at the auction back then. But why was there an extra golden egg?
The Tedolka Family was one of the important families controlling the underground world, so if they had some cooperation with this mysterious organization, it would make sense. Now that he thought about it, wasn't the Tedolka Family responsible for handling the underground affairs in this area? And why did one of the important cadres teleport here specifically when escaping? Why set up a portal in such a place?
"Quick, send me the information or data records you found—"
"No, where are you? Kawasa City? Good, it's not far—we'll be right over."