Chapter 144: Strategic Scouting
Ronin didn't act immediately. He decided to wait until Kurapika, Shizuku, and
Abaki had successfully entered the game.
As she was now, Shizuku was a formidable fighter, but taking on a seasoned
Phantom Troupe combatant in a fair 1v1 was still a gamble. However, with
Kurapika's tactical support and Neon's unique Specialist utility, they could
likely neutralize one Spider.
The remaining two would be Ronin's responsibility.
As for Abaki, the angler, Ronin hadn't assigned her a specific role yet. He
planned to let Kurapika integrate her into the strategy once the full team was
"online."
Greed Island added a layer of complexity to combat: Spell Cards. They had to be
extremely careful. One wrong move and a Spider could simply use a [Leave] card
and vanish before the killing blow could land.
While waiting for the others, Ronin wasn't idle. He needed to verify the
Troupe's exact headcount and condition.
He rounded up several veteran players who already had the Spiders' names in
their Binders. He forced them to use [Magnetic Force] to teleport to the
Troupe's location, catch a glimpse of their status, and then immediately use a
[Return] card to fly back to the starting point.
Ronin would be waiting at the starting tower.
If the Spiders followed the scouts back, Ronin would use his Telescope Technique
to observe them from a safe distance. Since he had already encountered Phinks,
Feitan, and Bonolenov, he possessed their aura signatures—satisfying the primary
condition for his remote scrying.
Distance was the only remaining variable.
If the Troupe didn't pursue, Ronin would have the proxies use a [Recollection]
card to return to the last place they met the Spiders.
If the Spiders had moved, Ronin would use Transformation Jutsu to scout the area
himself. If they were still there, the proxy would simply fly back to the start
again.
Ronin had a healthy stock of cards: four [Returns], two [Magnetic Forces], and
sixteen [Recollections].
It was more than enough to play a long game of hide-and-seek.
Since entering the game, the three Spiders had been obsessed with finding one
specific item: [Breath of Archangel].
Progress was slow.
Even though the game had been running for a decade, many cards still had unknown
acquisition paths. Breath of Archangel was one of the legendary white whales of
the game.
However, after a few weeks of "interrogating" NPCs and players, and coordinating
with Shalnark via their external comms, the group found a lead.
The clue was in the spell shops of Masadora.
The NPC shopkeeper gave them a hint after they spent millions of Jenny over ten
consecutive days, buying at least 40 spell cards per day: "Legend says that
those who collect every variety of Spell Card will receive the grace of the
heavens."
It was a simple riddle, but it set the foundation for their quest.
To get the Archangel, they had to collect all 40 Spell Cards.
Using looted cash, the trio cleared the initial hurdles. The current bottleneck
was the Rarity-S spells.
Common spells could be bought directly. But rare ones required purchasing
randomized "Spell Packs." Each pack contained three cards, but the pull rate for
high-rank spells was abysmal.
The Spiders adopted a characteristically direct approach: they occupied the
entrance of the Masadora Spell Shop. Every player who walked out with a purchase
was robbed.
This worked for exactly three days.
By the fourth day, the city of Masadora had flagged the three of them as "Red
Names"—hostile entities.
NPCs glared at them with open contempt. The city guards had tried to intervene,
but Phinks and Feitan had beaten them into pulp and converted them into cards.
More importantly, rumors of the "Demon Trio" spread. No one was foolish enough
to enter Masadora to buy spells anymore.
Faced with an empty shop, the Spiders pivoted.
They moved to Duliary, the City of Gambling. Through high-stakes theft and
intimidation, they secured a fortune in Jenny and a specific Restricted Slot
card: [Risky Dice].
Robbery was their fastest and most familiar method of generating revenue.
They returned to Masadora and began kidnapping players from the surrounding
wilderness, dragging them to the shop to buy packs for them.
Then, they forced the captives to roll the [Risky Dice].
If the roll was "Great Luck," they opened the packs. If it was "Great
Misfortune," they threw the player out of the shop and let them die from the
backlash.
Within a week, the outskirts of Masadora became a ghost town. The world of Greed
Island now knew that three monsters were operating with zero regard for human
life.
It was into this tense atmosphere that one of Ronin's "hired" players appeared.
He used [Magnetic Force] and materialized directly in front of the Spell Shop.
His sudden arrival startled even the Spiders. Shalnark (not present, but
Phinks/Feitan) looked up from watching a captive roll the dice, surprise
flickering in his eyes.
He recognized the player—a scrub they had robbed weeks ago.
The Spiders prepared to snatch him.
But the moment the player saw the scarred, bandaged monstrosity that was
Bonolenov and the bloodstained floor of the shop, he didn't even land properly.
He activated his [Return] card mid-air and shot back into the sky.
"Huh?" Phinks grunted, watching the streak of light.
They were running low on [Clone] and [Risky Dice] cards. Risky Dice was a Rank-B
card with only 30 copies in existence. Even with card duplication, they were
burning through their supply.
But they were close. After sacrificing seven "rollers," their collection of
unique spells stood at 36.
Only four remained: [Prison], [God's Eye], [Mimic], and [Leave].
The first two were Rank-S with only ten copies each. The latter two were rarer
than their rank suggested.
"What was that?" Bonolenov asked, his voice muffled by bandages. He radiated an
aura of pure, concentrated gloom.
"A scout, probably," Feitan shrugged.
They weren't subtle. In a relatively peaceful game, a trio of mass-murdering
outlaws was bound to attract attention from the major factions.
"We're running out of 'sheep' to roll for us," Phinks noted, cracking his
knuckles. "Want to chase him?"
"Why not?" Bonolenov summoned his Binder and pulled out an [Accompany] card.
He had recognized the player from the brief eye contact. To the Spiders, every
player in the game was just a free-range sheep—a resource to be sheared whenever
they were hungry for cards.
And it was time for a harvest.
☆☆☆
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