The night deepens.
Moses returned to his room.
Turning on the light, the bright glow made him realize that Hawk had replaced the old fixtures.
The room's furnishings were the same as before, but it had been cleaned thoroughly. Under the light, there was hardly any dust to be seen.
Moses walked to the window, pushed it open, and faintly heard Hawk's hearty laughter and Menchi's responses coming from the other side of the courtyard.
From the sound of the laughter, it was clear that Hawk was in high spirits.
Moses stood by the window, thinking for a moment, then decided to keep his plan to find Nitro Rice on the Dark Continent a secret from Hawk.
'I definitely can't do this alone.'
Turning off the overly bright light, Moses sat on the bed.
The Dark Continent's environment was extremely harsh, filled with countless unknown dangers.
To travel in such an environment, one needed professional skills to handle various situations.
Moses lowered his gaze, and the images of Menchi, Biscuit, Kanzai, Morel, and others flashed through his mind...
He needed help, but not everyone would dare to challenge the Dark Continent.
That is tantamount to walking through a mountain of knives and into a sea of fire, with death lurking at every turn.
More importantly-
Everyone had different pursuits.
There are actually not many people like Ging and Beyond, who are determined to reach the Dark Continent.
Moses hunched over, clasped his phone with both hands, and stared at the floor in deep thought.
He is hesitating...
In any case, he would wait for Ging's call back.
Before that, the only thing he could decide was how to use the Nen Space Cornerstone, Vow Effect, and Memory Capacity rewards.
Originally, he was more inclined to use this set of ability materials on 'offense'...
But if he really was going to the Dark Continent, then he would clearly need a shadow space similar to Knov's Hide-and-Seek.
…
Azian Continent.
The sky was cloudy and windy, and neither the stars nor the moon were visible.
In a remote mountain forest, a slender figure with pale naked body was fleeing.
If Moses were here, he would immediately recognize this figure as Mammon, whom he hadn't seen in a long time.
But at this moment, Mammon looked particularly haggard, even tragic.
There was a wound on his waist and abdomen that looked like it was caused by a sickle, and blood was oozing out of it.
His right arm hung limply at his side, swaying like a rootless duckweed as he ran. The bat-like wings on his back were also badly damaged, with one completely severed at the base and the other side only having a small half left.
Suddenly-
A streak of light wrapped in Aura descended from the sky, landing in front of Mammon.
Seeing the stream of light falling, Mammon's face twitched, and he was forced to slow down and stop.
The light dissipated, revealing Ging's figure.
He looked at the severely injured Mammon and suggested tiredly: "You can't escape. Given the current situation, negotiation is your only chance to survive."
"…"
Mammon remained silent, and his face, with only one dark eye remaining, looked a little ferocious.
At that moment, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky.
The sudden burst of light illuminated a figure in the distance behind Mammon.
It was Kite, who, along with Ging, had formed a pincer movement to trap the fleeing Mammon.
Ging's gaze pierced through the darkness, landing on Mammon as he spoke in a negotiating tone: "We're giving you a chance to negotiate. It's up to you whether you accept it or not."
"Guh, guh, guh…"
Mammon's shoulders trembled slightly as he let out a strange, mocking laugh.
From Ging and Kite's perspective, the laughter was filled with scorn and ridicule.
But the two of them remained unfazed and patiently waited for Mammon's response.
After a few seconds-
Mammon slowly stopped laughing and looked at Ging with cold eyes. As for Kite behind him, he hadn't even glanced back once.
The reason he was so severely injured and reduced to this state was largely due to the man in front of him, who was now proposing negotiations.
"That so-called negotiation... Is this just a way to make the process of forcing me to accept the 'Monster Management Regulations' more formal?"
Mammon's tone was dripping with sarcasm: " Why be so hypocritical? You know very well... once I'm driven away from human settlements, I'll lose my most basic protections."
"At least you'll be alive."
There was a hint of complexity in Ging's eyes as he looked at Mammon.
Using coercive measures to restrict the living environment of a creature was a very cruel act.
But as humans, they had no reason to allow Mammon to build its living environment on human life.
More importantly-
As Pro Hunters, they had a duty to uphold the responsibilities given to them by the Hunter Association.
Hearing Ging's words, Mammon's face grew even more ferocious, and his voice suddenly became hoarse and low: "Then what's the difference between that and death?"
"…"
Ging fell silent upon hearing this.
Mammon's chest heaved violently as he spoke word by word: "I know how to survive better, which is why I've never killed a single human."
"But many have died because of you."
Ging didn't agree with Mammon's statement and refuted it immediately.
Mammon didn't argue but instead said coldly, "Their deaths were caused by their inability to control their own greed."
"You have the right to argue that point. It could be one of your negotiation chips."
Ging's expression remained calm. He didn't point out Mammon's ability to incite greed, but instead reminded Mammon that he could use this argument in the negotiations.
This was Ging's attitude and concession toward the situation, as well as his goodwill toward the act of 'seeking survival'.
However, Mammon didn't accept Ging's goodwill.
His face twisted, and a dark Aura mixed with faint black strands emerged from his pale, bloodless body.
"Even if those humans died because of me, weren't they all people who deserved to die? A human I know once told me..."
"Will you accept the negotiation?"
Ging interrupted Mammon.
He knew that the human Mammon was talking about was Moses, but he had no interest in listening to Mammon continue to justify his actions of harming humans.
Getting Mammon to accept negotiations was a prerequisite for further discussion.
At this moment, Ging was actually a little glad that he didn't insist on asking Moses to come along.
Otherwise, given Moses's Blacklist Hunter style and his attitude toward deciding the life and death of 'criminals', he might have ended up siding with Mammon.
"…"
Faced with Ging's repeated mention of negotiations, Mammon suddenly fell silent, then he sneered silently.
If he accepted the Monster Management Regulations and was confined to a demonic zone similar to a no-man's-land, it would be a slow death for him.
Moreover, he knew that humans' concessions toward non-humans were limited.
Mammon understood that the human in front of him clearly had the ability to kill him, but he was still offering him a chance to negotiate. This was already an act of goodwill.
But he didn't want to accept this kind of charity.
"In one of your human religions, there's a concept called 'the Gates of Hell'."
Mammon didn't respond to the negotiation, but instead mentioned things that had nothing to do with the matter.
Ging's eyes flickered slightly, unsure of Mammon's intent..
Mammon suddenly reached up and plucked out his black onyx-like eye, held it between his narrow and sharp fingers, and then crushed the black eyeball without hesitation.
"I will open a passage. For you humans, it should be the Gates of Hell."
Sand-like powder spilled from his fingers as Mammon's eyes became hollow and black, as if hiding an unfathomable malice.
Immediately afterwards, a surge of dark Aura erupted from Mammon's body.
Ging and Kite's expressions changed, and they instinctively prepared for battle.
'It seemed he wasn't going to accept the negotiation. In that case, we had no choice but to...'
Ging and Kite thought in unison.
However-
Just as they were preparing to fight, they saw Mammon, who is enveloped in the surging Aura, begin to crumble like a weathered statue, turning into fine sand that was slowly blown away by the wind.
This phenomenon seemed to be the result of expending all his strength to activate some kind of ability.
Recalling Mammon's earlier mention of 'opening a passage' and the 'Gates of Hell'...
"…"
Ging's brow furrowed.
He didn't know what Mammon had just done, but he had a vague, uneasy premonition.