No. 100, Island Map, G-400, priced at 20,000 Jenny. Description: A blank map showing only the outer coastline and rough outline of the island. Content automatically fills in on the magic map after physically visiting locations and gathering local information.
No. 101, Island Map, D-70, priced at 650,000 Jenny. Description: A highly detailed map accurately recording all current city and place names. Includes extensive, up-to-date information on local specialties, dangerous attractions, special hidden shortcuts, and more.
Sitting prominently in the brightly lit glass display window, perfectly side by side, were two distinct products that looked almost completely identical at first glance. They were both game cards.
The so-called general store turned out to be nothing more than a fairly standard, well-stocked large supermarket when you actually walked inside. What made it highly unusual was the fact that every single product displayed in the windows, glass counters, and long aisles was a numbered, two-dimensional item card from the game system.
Every single card featured a clean, standardized layout consisting of five key elements: the assigned number, the official name, the rarity grade, a colorful diagram, and a brief, helpful description.
Take the two map cards Liam and the others were currently examining through the glass. The assigned numbers were 100 and 101 respectively, which conveniently happened to be the two specific cards immediately following the 0-99 designated targets strictly needed to clear the game.
Although both cards were simply named "Island Map," their specific rarity grades heavily distinguished them from one another. The label G-400 meant that the absolute difficulty of obtaining this specific card out in the wild was Rank G, and there was a strict, hard-coded maximum limit of exactly 400 copies allowed to exist on all of Greed Island simultaneously. Similarly, the label D-70 meant Rank D difficulty, with a much stricter maximum limit of only 70 copies allowed in circulation. The inherent difficulty of obtaining these specific cards was intuitively and accurately reflected in their exorbitant selling prices.
"You three must be brand-new arrivals to the island. Are you looking to buy a reliable local map?"
Liam and his group had probably been standing silently in front of the display window for a while when a young waitress with a highly practiced, sweet smile approached them from behind the counter. She asked enthusiastically, "Which one would you like to purchase today? Map No. 101 gives you an instant, comprehensive understanding of the complex geography and diverse culture of the island. It is a truly excellent, time-saving travel tool! However, if you prefer the thrill of exploration and raw adventure, then this No. 100 map is absolutely perfect for you. You can literally use your own eyes and feet to fill in the blank spaces bit by bit. Just think about how exciting it is, permanently writing your own personal footsteps onto the magic map!"
She is pretty damn good at sales... Bisky thought to herself, crossing her arms and watching the NPC work.
Shizuku simply reached into her pocket, pulled out a thick, heavy stack of physical cash bills, and said flatly, "I want both of them."
The bright smile of the waitress didn't waver for a single second. "I am terribly sorry, but our store absolutely does not accept outside, real-world currency. You can only purchase items here using official, carded Jenny." As she spoke, moving smoothly as if she had flawlessly performed this exact demonstration countless times before, she skillfully reached into the pocket of her work clothes and pulled out a glowing card.
No. 607, Jenny, H-∞. Description: The standard, highest denomination bills circulating in Greed Island. They are completely identical to international currency after being de-carded. However, while inside the borders of Greed Island, non-carded physical bills are entirely worthless.
Shizuku took a second, closer look at the card in the hand of the waitress and suddenly understood the strict local economy. She put her useless stack of physical cash back into her pocket.
Bisky nudged Liam with her elbow. "How many of those specific cards are currently sitting inside your album?"
She was, of course, referring to the incredibly generous newbie bonus package that had been violently delivered directly to their doorstep earlier. Liam had ruthlessly searched through all the stolen cards of the fat player, and she distinctly remembered seeing several Jenny cards mixed among the loot.
"BOOK," Liam called out clearly, raising his hand.
A heavy, floating card album materialized instantly in a puff of smoke. He flipped it open, turning the thick pages until he reached the free card slot section. Shizuku leaned over his arm and quickly did the math. She saw exactly ten Jenny cards sitting in the slots: six cards worth 10,000, two cards worth 5,000, and two cards worth 1,000.
Added all together, his grand total was only a measly 72,000 Jenny.
"Look at me, an actual real-world billionaire, completely stumped and broke over a measly 650,000 Jenny..." Liam muttered, clenching his fists in mild, ironic frustration.
He looked up at the attendant and asked her in a highly complicated, defeated tone to please take down card No. 100 from the window display. He would have to settle for the cheap, blank map that forced adventurers to manually explore the fog of war themselves.
Interestingly enough, when he actually stepped up to the counter to pay, the attentive clerk reminded him of a crucial system rule just in time.
"Do you want to use these two specific cards to settle your bill today?" The counter clerk smiled warmly and pointed a polite finger at the open card album still floating in front of Liam. She specifically indicated the two 10,000 Jenny cards securely embedded in the free card slots. "After you verbally confirm your purchase, please hand them over to me as soon as physically possible. If an item card isn't safely stored inside the album, it will automatically de-card and permanently turn into a physical object within exactly one minute of resting in your hand. And as I mentioned before, physical bills cannot be used for checkout."
This is essentially just a hard-coded rule specifically designed to heavily limit arrogant, pay-to-win players from stockpiling infinite wealth... Liam thought to himself, quickly reaching into the book, pulling out two 10,000 Jenny cards, and handing them over before the timer ran out.
The counter attendant accepted the payment gracefully with both hands and presented the No. 100 map card they had just purchased. At the same time, she helpfully reminded them, "If the card you just purchased isn't going to be used immediately, please ensure you store it safely in your card album right away. Or, if you prefer, we can easily provide a free, complimentary packaging service for all newly purchased item cards."
"Packaging? What exactly do you mean by that?" Liam asked, leaning forward curiously.
The counter attendant simply smiled, reached under the wooden counter, and pulled out a small, perfectly cut sheet of transparent plastic. With practiced, deft movements, she smoothly applied the plastic film to both the front and back of the No. 100 map card.
They are actually laminating it! Liam realized, his eyes widening slightly.
He reached out and took the freshly laminated map card No. 100 from the counter, handing it over to the highly curious Shizuku to touch and examine the texture. With that thin, magical layer of protective coating applied, even if the card stayed out in the open hand of a player for a long period of time, the system timer would be paused, and it wouldn't automatically de-card itself.
Bisky smirked, leaning against the glass counter. "I'm guessing this incredibly useful lamination film isn't actually for sale anywhere on the island, right?"
"That is correct. This is strictly a complimentary service securely included with a product purchase, and the film itself is absolutely not sold separately," the counter clerk explained, her bright smile never changing a single degree. "However, please be aware that once the laminated card is stored back inside a card album, the lamination will instantly disappear. Additionally, even with the protective lamination applied to the surface, it won't negatively affect a player's normal ability to use the cards."
In other words, even with a physical layer of plastic film sitting between them and the magic, if Shizuku simply shouted "GAIN" right now, the system would still register the command. The card would instantly de-card and irreversibly turn into a physical prop: a massive, entirely blank map full of nothing but fog of war.
"I can't even begin to imagine just how much complex code Ging had to write just to make this tiny layer of film work properly," Liam sighed, shaking his head.
Of course, he knew this code was actually written entirely at the esoteric level of Nen and aura. It was a testament to the incredibly complex, flawless rule design established by the eleven genius people who had originally participated in creating the Greed Island game.
He leaned against the counter and asked casually, "I also want to ask you something else. Where exactly do the game designers live?"
"I am sorry, but I do not understand what you are referring to," the attendant replied, her smile perfectly polite and unbothered.
Liam quickly tried a slightly different, more in-universe approach. "The ultimate bosses of this island. Where do they live?"
The smile of the attendant didn't change, but her scripted dialogue triggered perfectly. "Do you wish to know the exact location of the main castle? That specific piece of information costs exactly 10,000 Jenny."
"Is that really it? That cheap?" Liam scoffed, waving his hand over his book and quickly pulling out another 10,000 Jenny card. He slapped it onto the counter. "Where are they hiding? I want to find them."
After neatly collecting the payment, the attendant raised a hand and pointed directly north. "Travel straight north from here, passing entirely through a dense mountain forest, and continue heading north. Approximately 500 kilometers away from this exact spot, you will see a massive city. The grand castle of the city lord is built securely at the highest point of that city."
"GAIN."
Shizuku pinched the laminated map card between her fingers and called out the command clearly.
The card released a bright flash of light with a loud, magical pop, instantly materializing into a heavy physical object right in her hand. A massive, entirely blank paper map of all of Greed Island appeared. The only section showing any specific, legible details was the very middle area where they currently stood: the bounty city of Antokiba, marked clearly with a few lines of small, neat text annotations printed right beside it. If you zoomed in closely enough, you could even see the exact, pinpoint location of the general store they were standing inside right now.
Shizuku unfolded the massive paper map and spread it flat across the glass counter right in front of the attendant. "Point it out for me."
The attendant obediently lowered her finger, pointing exactly at Antokiba, the single marked location on the otherwise snow-white map. She traced her finger straight north across the paper. She tapped lightly on a massive, completely blank area near the top edge and drew a rough circle with her fingernail.
"It is located approximately within this region. Is there absolutely anything else I can help you with today?"
Oh, so those 10,000 Jenny could actually only buy that much vague information. Liam understood the scam now.
He sighed and was just about to turn and leave the store when he suddenly noticed Shizuku. She was pressing the paper map down with one hand, but she was entirely ignoring it. Instead, she was staring straight ahead, her dark eyes locked intensely onto the smiling attendant behind the counter.
Bisky noticed it too. She saw the eyes of Shizuku heavily condensed with a thick layer of aura. The girl was actively using Gyo to observe the other person incredibly carefully.
Bisky put a small fist on her hip and asked with a knowing, teasing smile, "Well? Did you manage to see any glaring flaws?"
By the way, Liam suddenly remembered a crucial fact. The vast majority of the helpful NPCs wandering around this island were most likely just highly advanced, mindless dummies created entirely by the game designers using Nen.
In other words, they were all just incredibly complex, Conjured dolls.
And the absolute, fundamental core element that determined the true power of all Conjuration training levels was simple: authenticity.
When Liam finally remembered this vital piece of lore, he almost instinctively focused a surge of aura directly into his own eyes, using Gyo to look closely at the smiling attendant standing behind the wooden counter.
There were absolutely no visible flaws anywhere on the body of the other party. She appeared to be made of real, warm flesh and pumping blood, exactly like any ordinary human person. There was even a highly realistic, thin layer of lifelike aura flowing naturally across the surface of her body, threading smoothly upward from the top of her head.
According to the strict lecture Bisky had given them before, if Conjuration training levels were broadly divided into five distinct stages, then the current Conjuration level of Shizuku was sitting firmly at Stage 2. At that level, the created items were completely invisible to ordinary people, but perfectly visible to other Nen users. To use a slightly imperfect, modern analogy, it was exactly like looking at a high-budget special effects blockbuster movie from ten years ago. Ordinary people were like the gullible audiences from ten years ago who genuinely thought the CGI effects looked quite real and impressive. Meanwhile, trained Nen users were exactly like the critical audiences from ten years later who could easily tell at a single glance that it's fake, or after taking a few more careful looks could always feel a deep, uncanny sense that it's just not real.
And if even the highly concentrated Gyo of a skilled Nen user couldn't find a single microscopic flaw in the construct, there was absolutely no doubt that the Conjuration training level of the creator was sitting at a staggering Stage 3 or above.
With a single, focused thought, Liam released a burst of aura from his body, rapidly expanding it outward into a perfect En sphere with exactly a two-meter radius. It was just large enough to completely cover the smiling attendant standing behind the counter. Seeing him take the initiative, Shizuku immediately followed suit, expanding her own En field to carefully feel the physical reality and density of the lifelike doll standing right in front of her.
Bisky just stood beside them, smiling knowingly.
That's right, she thought. At the incredibly rare fourth stage of Conjuration mastery, the absolute standard was exactly this: even when actively using Gyo to meticulously examine Conjured items, there was absolutely no discernible difference between the construct and true, physical existence. Only an extremely keen, highly sensitive En field, or perhaps some kind of profound, special intuition, could possibly detect that something was slightly off about the creation.
Being intensely stared at and enveloped by the En of both Liam and Shizuku, the attendant behind the counter tilted her head and asked in a tone of mild, polite confusion if there was a problem. She received absolutely no answer. Reaching the end of her script, she completely stopped triggering conversation and simply stood there, smiling silently and perfectly still, letting them look as long as they wanted.
Neither Liam nor Shizuku sensed a single flaw or inconsistency within their En fields.
They even exchanged a quick, frustrated glance, both reaching into their clothes and pulling out their heavy jade pendants inscribed with complex divine script. With the powerful, superimposed blessing of the Cone technique actively enhancing their vision, it was exactly as if they had gained magical X-ray vision. They meticulously examined the smiling counter clerk in front of them repeatedly, scanning every inch of her, but they still couldn't see any hidden clues or unnatural Nen signatures.
On the contrary, Liam actually developed a highly paranoid suspicion based purely on his own failed observations. Could the attendant standing right in front of him actually be a real, living person hired by Ging and the other admins, secretly spread around the island just pretending to be an NPC?
Bisky watched them struggle and thought to herself: Among the eleven genius people who originally participated in designing the comprehensive, island-wide Nen ability covering this place, there is absolutely at least one single person who has successfully achieved the ultimate, absolute pinnacle level of Conjuration.
In the highly specialized field of Conjuration, when the training level has finally reached the absolute extreme stage, the resulting Conjured items are truly, terrifyingly flawless. They simply cannot be distinguished from reality by any known means. Generally speaking, at that god-like level, as long as the original ability user doesn't die, and as long as the ability user doesn't actively choose to remove the construct, it can continue existing independently in the world forever after being created.
Defeated by the flawless design, the three of them finally turned and walked out of the brightly lit shop. Lumos, who had been patiently wandering outside in the cool night air, walked over to meet them.
Liam looked around the town square and saw that it was already well past midnight. There were significantly fewer people wandering on the dirt street now.
"It is incredibly rare that I actually want to go fishing for trouble, but I am just not catching anything tonight," Liam sighed, reaching out and affectionately touching the massive head of the tiger. "Lumos, Lumos, your incredibly rare, legendary tiger hide just doesn't seem to be very popular around these parts!"
Suddenly, he had a sharp thought, and his vision instantly switched. He jumped into the perspective of his Flying Star Bubble, gaining a perfect, sweeping aerial view completely overlooking the quiet town of Antokiba.
Before they had entered the store, Liam had specifically asked Lumos to casually fish and enforce the law right at the shop entrance, hoping the sheer presence of the beast would lure out a few arrogant fools jealous of the Moon Tiger. Additionally, he had ordered Jaku high into the dark sky on active patrol, trying to scout the perimeter while keeping a watchful eye on the town.
At this exact moment, Jaku had discovered something highly unusual happening.
On the far eastern outskirts of the town, in a highly remote, abandoned area with absolutely no other people around, standing under the pale moonlight of the dark night, there was a vaguely familiar figure.
Jaku immediately flew closer, silently gliding through the air to observe the situation. From a safe distance, the bird could clearly see that the figure was Tsezguerra.
Tsezguerra was currently locked in a tense confrontation with another complete stranger.
The two of them seemed to be aggressively arguing about something, their voices hushed but angry. In the end, the feet of the stranger suddenly bounced away, launching him backward quickly like a fired bullet. Tsezguerra looked furiously angry, opening his mouth like he was yelling something after the fleeing man.
But almost instantly, before a sound could even reach the bird, a massive, incredibly bright fire erupted violently directly from the chest and abdomen of the Hunter.
The explosion was devastating. His entire body was brutally, instantly broken perfectly in half at the waist.
Only a second later did Shizuku and Bisky finally hear the faint, echoing sound of a heavy explosion rolling over the rooftops, coming directly from the east.