A few kilometers from Heavens Arena, there was a park. On a grassy slope beside a small river where no one appeared.
Kurapika had been thinking about the information revealed by this boy named John Smith the entire way.
After thinking it through again and again, he took advantage of Liam preparing to speak and said, "Before you tell me information about the Phantom Troupe, I want to make it clear in advance: I probably won't agree to your so-called request to join your organization."
Shizuku asked curiously, "Why?"
Kurapika said, "I have things that must be completed in my life."
"Kill all the Phantom Troupe?" Liam sat down on the grass. "I don't hate those people enough to want them dead immediately. But they are some extremely vicious criminals. If I can help deal with them, I won't mind at all. We don't have any disagreement on that point, right?"
Kurapika lowered his eyes.
Shizuku said unexpectedly, "It seems you don't want to kill them at all."
"I don't want to kill anyone. Killing between people is the most tragic thing in the world." Kurapika closed his eyes. "Because of this, I hate the Phantom Troupe so much. How cold-blooded do you have to be to do something like that..."
There was sad anger in his tone.
Shizuku was unmoved. She commented, "If all the Kurta Clan was as merciful as you, it's no wonder they were easily killed by the Phantom Troupe."
"What did you say?!" Kurapika's only sore spot was touched. His eyes immediately turned red like burning flames, glaring angrily.
"This is how Shizuku talks. Relatively straightforward." Liam raised two fingers, pointing at Kurapika, then at his own eyes. "Hey, hey! Don't look at her, look at me. In our organization, I'm the boss. Come on, look at me. Let's continue the topic we were discussing."
"Join us and accept me as your boss, and I'll tell you the information you want and provide good help." Liam said. "I'm not kind enough to give free gifts to strangers."
Kurapika was silent for a longer time. He closed his eyes and rubbed them. When he opened them again, the fiery red color gradually faded.
He also sat down and looked at the calm water of the river.
"I came to Heavens Arena a year ago. On one hand, I wanted to hone my combat skills and prepare to obtain a Hunter License in the future. On the other hand, I also wanted to contact as many people from around the world as possible and collect any possible information about the Phantom Troupe. A month ago, I reached the 120th floor. Although there were stronger fighters above, I finally gave up. After reaching the 100th floor, players become more and more unscrupulous to keep the preferential treatment of the 100th floor tier. Some people even poisoned their opponents secretly. One week ago, I left Heavens Arena. I won't challenge anymore."
"Because I can't die." Kurapika put his hands into his somewhat messy hair. "The eyes of each corpse of the Kurta Clan are empty. Their souls cannot rest in peace."
He raised his head. Tears welled up in his eyes.
This made Liam realize that the Kurapika in front of him was not the same person from the Hunter Exam four years later.
The Kurapika in front of him was a thirteen-year-old boy who'd lost all his relatives and friends a year and a half ago and been abandoned in a completely unfamiliar world.
"I want to find all the eyes my tribe has lost."
Kurapika took a deep breath. His eyes became firmer. "I will never stop until I complete this mission. Not even for the Phantom Troupe."
He said to himself with pain, "If nothing can be done in the future, I'll probably stop chasing their phantoms. Like I stopped on the 120th floor of Heavens Arena."
Liam couldn't help but think of the manga. Kurapika tried every means to disband the Phantom Troupe but finally found it was impossible. After that, he no longer actively tracked down the Troupe's traces. Instead, he devoted himself to retrieving all the stolen Scarlet Eyes of the Kurta Clan. He mixed into the underworld and reached the position of second-in-command. When he prayed before the Scarlet Eyes in the mourning hall, there was no sense of dissonance at all with a mafia BGM playing.
"So please forgive me for not agreeing to your request." Kurapika calmed down and said sincerely to Liam. "If possible, I'll pay any other conditions I can in exchange for your information. If that still doesn't work, then I have no choice but to continue on my own path. Work hard to become a professional Hunter and make other plans later."
Since he'd put it like that, it seemed Liam had no need to force the issue beyond accepting his refusal.
However, Liam said, "Have you never thought about resurrecting your dead tribesmen?"
The words struck Kurapika like a bolt of lightning. He was stunned. In fact, not just him—Shizuku didn't expect Liam to say that either.
Kurapika's eyes turned red with anger again. But Liam had already stood up and patted his rear.
Liam raised his hand toward Kurapika. Strong aura was released.
For a moment, Kurapika's blazing red eyes widened in shock.
He intuitively felt the atmosphere around Smith and around himself suddenly change drastically.
The person who'd just been ordinary and impossible to read suddenly seemed to transform into a beast in human form. Giving off an indescribable and powerful sense of oppression. As if any of his next movements could easily take Kurapika's life.
"Kurapika, this world is big. And there are many miracles you can't imagine."
Liam pointed his finger at Kurapika. A sphere of aura the latter couldn't see spun and condensed rapidly.
With his Scarlet Eyes active, Kurapika's intuition had become extremely sharp. Every cell in his body, every nerve in his brain, was roaring and sending out extremely dangerous signals. As if he was walking naked through ice and snow. No sense of safety at all. So terrifying that his body couldn't move, like he was paralyzed by fear.
Liam snapped his fingers and released.
An invisible but intense warmth grazed Kurapika's cheek, leaving a shallow wound.
An explosion rang out behind Kurapika. A two-meter-diameter circular crater was blown out of the grass on the slope.
Kurapika looked back at the smoking round pit in disbelief. "What did you do?"
Kurapika looked at Liam's hands in shock. He was wearing short sleeves. There couldn't be any mechanism hidden in his arms or palms.
"This is the extraordinary power called Nen. Not only me, but every member of the Phantom Troupe has this power."
Liam said slowly. "In the world of Nen, everything is possible. And it doesn't just have to be used to destroy things like I just did. Nen can create objects and heal lives. So I was wondering: could the power of Nen be used to resurrect the dead?"
"Kurapika, do you think it's possible?" he asked. "Even if there's only a slight possibility, is it worth everything you have to pursue it?"
Kurapika's face changed from disbelief to shock, to slowly frowning and falling into deep thought.
Shizuku looked at Liam exploiting the psychological weakness of the Kurta Clan member to deceive him. Then she turned to look at the large hole Liam's Nen bullet had made in the slope grass. "With that much destruction, won't people from the park come looking for trouble?"
"Uh..." Liam sweated. He said to Kurapika, "Let's talk somewhere else?"