We have higher aspirations. We raided the Zone 10 general store.
We have noble character. We only took two silver coins.
We have lofty ideals. We want to enter the central district.
Zone 5 is the commercial district. You have to pay an entrance fee in silver coins to get in. It houses all sorts of shops selling various goods. Security is tight because organizations that regularly collect protection money from shops maintain order. If you try to mess with a shop in Zone 5, you'll definitely face consequences. We didn't dare take that risk. We only window-shopped in Zone 5, and after satisfying our curiosity, we headed straight for Zone 4.
Zone 5 is enclosed by barbed wire, but Zone 4 takes it a step further with electrified barbed wire.
When you hear "electricity," you might think, "Oh, this is that familiar old friend from the Zoldyck family's interrogation training, like two old pals meeting and getting teary-eyed," and yes, that's what we thought at first.
To our surprise, the voltage of this electric fence was a bit over the top. When I touched it, I was numb. Illumi was numb too.
Isn't Meteor City supposed to be lacking in resources?! Is it really okay to waste electricity like this?!
Earlier, while pilfering in the factory, we discovered that Meteor City's electricity source comes from the thermal energy generated by burning garbage.
Meteor City accepts garbage from all over the world. The world is constantly producing vast amounts of waste, so Meteor City's garbage volume is practically limitless.
In that case, Meteor City doesn't lack electricity; it lacks consumers who need electricity. After all, most residents of Meteor City don't use electricity. They live their lives contentedly, working from sunrise to sunset, and have no need to spend extra money on electricity bills.
Unlike in the "real world," where household electricity at a mere 220v can be fatal, in the original setting, a voltage as high as one million volts is said to only knock everyone out. In the story, twelve-year-old Killua can withstand it directly due to his extensive training... it makes no scientific sense. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
Currently, Illumi and I have shallow cultivation. The highest voltage we can withstand is four hundred thousand volts. We can't compare to Killua in this regard. Killua is the chosen one, the most talented character in the Zoldyck family's history. Comparing our talent to his is overestimating ourselves.
While intermittently re-experiencing the familiar "family warmth" of the Zoldycks through the electric fence, we considered various methods of entering Zone 4 through the main gate.
The guards at the main gate of Zone 4 are stronger than us. A direct assault is unrealistic and would lead to future trouble, so we ruled it out first.
The second method is to obtain an entry pass for Zone 4. Based on our observations, those with passes are no ordinary people. In any case, no children would have one. Even if we managed to snatch a pass, it would be useless. If we were to coerce someone with a pass into taking us into Zone 4, there are too many unknown factors and the risk is too high. This is clearly a last resort.
The third method is infiltration, by hiding inside trucks heading into Zone 4. This method seems to be the most feasible.
I rejected Illumi's proposal for method three. I believe that our inability to get through the outer electric fence of Zone 4 is a silent warning, indicating that the areas ahead should be explored later. If we can break through the electric fence, and then find the situation inside Zone 4 to be unfavorable, we can retreat at any time, cross back over the fence, and make a clean getaway.
The Zoldyck family taught us countless principles, besides "how to kill," it was "how to survive." Illumi, as an excellent student of the Zoldyck private school, is always exceptionally cautious when facing danger. His occasional "impulsive actions" are due to miscalculations. For example, the strength of the shopkeeper in Zone 12; he misjudged it.
Illumi has seen the quality of the combat personnel in Zones 6, 5, and 4. Who knows what kind of treacherous situation awaits in Zone 4. With a little reminder from me, Illumi abandoned his idea of entering Zone 4 early.
With the arm strength of tons, tearing open the barbed wire of Zone 5 is not a difficult task. It's too uneconomical to pay a two-silver-coin entrance fee every time we enter Zone 5. We only paid the entrance fee the first time. After that, we resorted to damaging the barbed wire late at night and squeezing through the holes. Of course, we have our techniques for damaging the barbed wire. After crawling through, we would pull the wires back into place, so no one would discover the breach.
Zone 5 is a tough nut to crack for ordinary people, and Zone 6 is probably still after us. We can't gain experience or items in these two areas. After completing our anti-electricity training at the electric fence of Zone 4, we must carefully and stealthily pass through the barbed wire of Zone 5 and the area of Zone 6, and then go to the public hunting grounds outside Zone 6 to snatch supplies from others to sustain ourselves.
Speaking of robbery, it's a business where risk and reward are proportional.
In harsh environments, most people learn to huddle together for warmth and operate as teams. If you're going to rob, you have to face the entire team. There are also individuals who act alone, but those people naturally have the strength and confidence to do so. They are often more troublesome to rob than a team, and I call them "elite monsters."
The public hunting grounds are a scene of constant robbing and being robbed. My activities aren't the only ones. Who doesn't love a quick, no-capital-involved business?
As for individuals, there's no need to mention them. Teams also compete for territory and spoils. The people of Meteor City are accustomed to this internal competition and don't hold grudges particularly. If they lose something, they only blame their own inadequacy—what a positive and simple-minded populace.
To be safe, we try to avoid killing when robbing teams. Once blood is shed, if the person we kill is a popular character within the team, the entire team or some members might relentlessly pursue us, forcing us to fight back for self-preservation. Even without considering our own casualties, losing a team that we could rob represents a material loss for us.
We need to control the hatred value of the wild monsters towards us. Thus, we are like nomadic peoples, moving from one district to another day and night. Our stamina and speed have improved significantly, and the time we spend traveling has gradually decreased. After hunting ordinary teams or elite monsters to ensure our daily living supplies, we finally had the leisure to investigate the supply transportation routes in various districts of Meteor City.
There are no fixed routes or times for material transportation within Meteor City. The vehicles look exactly the same as those used for transporting garbage. Recently, we discovered the secret of the vehicles. It turns out that the trucks that truly transport supplies have their cargo compartments divided into two layers. The upper layer, the part we can directly see without any obstruction, is still piled with common garbage, while the lower layer contains the supplies. By staking out outside a church, we successfully witnessed the scene of trucks "collecting garbage openly, transporting supplies secretly," and then we finally understood the intricacies.
As the saying goes, "hiding a tree in a forest." The supply transport trucks are mixed among the many garbage trucks that come and go every day. If they don't unload, you can't tell, and they've been operating right under everyone's noses all along!
We followed that supply truck all the way until the presence of the electric fence and guards in Zone 4 stopped us. The most important supplies indeed came from the districts within Zone 4. It must be bountiful inside, and equally dangerous.
Unable to enter the source, our only remaining option is to rob them midway.
Superficially, there's no difference between supply trucks and garbage trucks, but their weight differs. Trucks coming out of Zone 4 have empty cargo compartments because their job is to transport garbage collected from other districts for trading or power generation. Therefore, a truck that is slightly heavier than other empty trucks will leave slightly different tire tracks on the ground. Recognizing that difference allows us to identify the target.
Meteor City has developed to this day with a population of eight million and a mature social operational mechanism. The human history here spans at least several hundred years. The people of Meteor City are not fools. We are definitely not the first to discover the secret of the trucks and attempt to rob them. The drivers of the target vehicles are not to be trifled with, and they have a co-pilot, meaning they operate in pairs, effectively preventing opportunistic tactics like "luring the tiger away from its den."
If "entering the central district" is the final exam for the Meteor City instance, then "robbing the supply transport trucks" can be considered the mid-term exam, and defeating the "Zone 12 shopkeeper" was the monthly test.
When grinding in public hunting grounds, small groups need to consider accumulating hate value. When grinding for elite monsters, one needs to consider whether the level is appropriate. The final conclusion is that at our current stage, Illumi and I should adopt a sparring mode to improve each other's combat abilities.
We spar first, then summarize. I excel in physical ability, while Illumi excels in technique. With each having our own strengths, the wins and losses are about half and half, not one-sided. This is very beneficial for training for both of us.
Silva said that he let me and Illumi compete, and his intention was for us to progress together.
He wasn't wrong. A good opponent is indeed the greatest asset.
Especially Illumi, the model student. He's very enthusiastic about helping his classmates, endlessly teaching me techniques and details I hadn't noticed.
At times like these, I am fully aware of the gap in our thinking. He can infer one thing from another and achieve twice the results with half the effort. I have mediocre aptitude and cannot infer; I can only learn one thing at a time.
Being mentally hit by the intellect of an underage prodigy every day, experiencing the feeling of "the forewave dying on the beach," is severely damaging to my spirit.
Currently, my height and physical ability are temporarily superior to his, allowing me to fight him on even terms. However, given his much faster growth rate and a mind infinitely better than mine, it's a certainty that he will surpass me. I'm unwilling to imagine how difficult my future days will be.
Perhaps it would be better to die sooner.
While I'm still in decent condition.
Depression x1
Naturally, I can't reveal that I know I'm inferior to Illumi. While listening to Illumi impart his experience, I have to pretend I'm not depressed. Alas, my heart is bitter.
Depression x2
My low mood continued until the moment the mid-term exam was completed. The sense of liberation was comparable to the instant after the college entrance examination ended. The burdens of over a decade were lifted. However, just as after the college entrance examination, one needs to check their scores and face judgment, we still need to figure out how to get rid of the half-stolen supplies and cover our tracks.
The supplies in the cargo compartment were water, food, and some daily necessities. The water was bottled water, with a capacity of 5 gallons, about 19 liters, just like in the "real world." We each took a piece of bread and put it in our pockets. Using the rope we had prepared, we tied the narrower openings of the buckets together, combining two buckets into one. Each of us carried three buckets (that's all there was in the vehicle). We were no less happy than if we were carrying six buckets of gold... Oh, water is indeed as precious as gold in desert regions.
The robbery operation, from planning to execution, took nearly three months to complete. It can be considered a major event.
My mood was so good that seeing Illumi felt like seeing a relative. (Illumi: ...I am your relative.)
We transported the water buckets to our temporary base, prepared more than two weeks ago, located in the highly polluted area of the garbage mountain. Although it's called a "base," it's more like a ruin. We just cleared a small open space, tidied it up a bit, and dug out a makeshift shed at the foot of the garbage mountain, or rather a cave. It doesn't make much difference, as long as there's a "roof" overhead.
Even in a highly polluted area, the exploratory spirit and tenacious vitality of Meteor City residents continue to surprise us. After taking down an intruder, we had to be even more cautious, always leaving one person to watch our surroundings.
Illumi told me to wash first, and he would keep watch. Oh, he actually has gentlemanly manners like "ladies first." It shocked me at least a hundred years.
For this bath, we were very well-prepared. We hung a roughly sewn piece of cloth at the cave entrance as a curtain, brought out the pot stolen from the factory, poured in the newly acquired water, and used the matches exchanged from the general store to light the old books and wood we had painstakingly collected. While the water was heating, I started scrubbing the dirt off my body with the water.
Ah, I remembered the difference between how northerners and southerners bathe in the "real world." The south is humid and warm, so people bathe frequently. A touch of body wash and a rinse, and it's done. In the north, it's cold and dry, so people bathe less frequently. They don't call it "bathing," they call it "soaking." They soak in hot water first, then scrub themselves to achieve the same level of cleanliness.
I am from the south in my "real world" and prefer showering. However, due to limited conditions, I don't scrub, so I probably can't truly get clean.
The water went from cold to warm, then to scalding. At each stage, I took some water to scrub myself and replenished the pot as needed. If it weren't for the limited water resources, I feel like I could scrub until the end of time.
Shampoo is sold in Zone 5, but it's expensive, and we can't afford it. As a compromise, we exchanged half a bar of soap at a general store in another district to use as a shampoo substitute.
After scrubbing myself from head to toe, I poured the perfectly heated water over me. Wow, the feeling was like my soul leaving my body, instantly ascending to heaven.
It was worth it.
My life was worth it.
Even if I died immediately, it would have been worth it.
Still feeling unsatisfied, I dried my body and hair with the towel stolen from the factory, put on the clothes stolen from the factory, and felt reborn. With a blissful expression, I lifted the "curtain." To make an inappropriate comparison, it was as blissful as a forty-year-old bachelor experiencing his wedding night.
Moving the used water buckets and other clutter outside to the side, I took out the marbles I had been collecting in my pocket and threw one towards Illumi's elbow, as he stood with his back to me.
As the marble fell, Illumi turned around, took a step forward, and caught it.
"This is the first time I've seen sister this happy," Illumi said, a slight smile curving his lips. It was rare for him to smile so purely, without any ulterior motive. "Yes, I've been looking forward to this for a long time."
He tossed the marble back to me, and as he passed me, I took his previous position and began to keep watch.
The feeling after bathing and washing my hair was so comfortable, like shedding a thousand pounds of heavy armor. My whole body felt light. I narrowed my eyes slightly, stretched lazily, and imagined how perfect it would be if there was a soft bed for me to lie on.
Illumi would probably take a long time to wash too. Waiting aimlessly for a long time is boring, so I closed my eyes, cleared my mind, and let my thoughts wander.
The surrounding garbage mountains created many obstructions to my vision. Closing my eyes, I could better keep watch by sensing the surrounding aura.
A slight ripple slowly reached my feet. I threw a marble I had been holding in my palm backward. The marble hit a broken pot on the ground, making a small but clear sound. This was a signal to Illumi that someone was approaching.
Before the echo faded, in the shadow of a garbage mountain in front of my field of vision, a child of about my height walked out. He held his hands up, palms open, indicating he had no hostile intentions.
"Hello, I'm here to negotiate peacefully with you," he said, stepping out of the vast black shadow of the garbage mountain. He was slender and looked frail.
However, I couldn't help but gasp softly and tense my nerves.
This is the worst possible scenario!
I don't have much literary talent, so I don't know how to describe the image imprinted on my retina at this moment. He's the type who looks ordinary and delicate, but possesses an indescribable subtle and special aura. This black-haired, black-eyed boy must be the future leader of the Phantom Troupe, Chrollo Lucilfer. No, no, no, the butterfly effect must be prevented!
"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Chro..."
I raised an index finger, making a "hush" gesture, and shook my head at Chrollo.
Behind me, I heard the sound of Illumi pulling back the "curtain." Close call. He interrupted Chrollo's introduction just in time.
Chrollo's face was among the cleaner ones in Meteor City, suggesting he was doing reasonably well. According to the original setting, he should be a year older than me, but his height is about the same as mine, indicating that his living conditions weren't particularly good either.
"You're as beautiful as your necklace," Chrollo said, his gaze shifting to Illumi, who had walked up to me. "You're from outside Meteor City, aren't you? Using so much water to bathe is a very luxurious thing here."
While bathing, I also washed my whistle. Since the whistle needed to dry, I didn't put it in the innermost layer of my clothes. When Chrollo mentioned the whistle necklace, I raised my hand to cover the whistle on my chest.
My action of protecting the whistle was a warning. Chrollo's eyes darkened slightly, his deep black pupils becoming even more profound, as if blending into the black shadow of the garbage mountain.
The robberies and being robbed along the way taught me to recognize the eyes of a robber. Perhaps Chrollo didn't want it that much initially, but the more unobtainable something is, the more it ignites his greed. Yes, he's a born thief, specializing in stealing people's cherished possessions. Once bored, he discards them like rubbish. He's a formidable contender for the "scoundrel champion" title, competing with Illumi.
I glanced at Illumi from the corner of my eye. His clothes were dry, but his hair was completely wet. He went in after me. He washed his hair first, and his hair wasn't dried much, still dripping.
It's evident that Illumi is in a bad mood. No wonder. After working hard for three months to finally be able to bathe and wash his hair, only to have his good time interrupted. Who wouldn't be in a bad mood?
Illumi touched my shoulder. Like an arrow released from a bowstring, he lunged towards Chrollo, aiming directly for his heart.
It doesn't matter if the base's location is discovered; it's crucial if the spoils from robbing the supply truck are discovered. This involves Meteor City's official forces, and it cannot be treated lightly. Without further ado, eliminating the witness on the spot is indeed the best option.
If Chrollo dies here, the world will be rid of a great scourge. Kurapika, one of the four main protagonists in the original work, wouldn't have to face the tragedy of his clan's annihilation. I prefer Kurapika to Chrollo. Let the butterfly effect happen. Perhaps my birth itself is a butterfly effect. The original plot might have already been ruined long ago. Moreover, killing Chrollo feels incredibly satisfying. Ah, yes, I'm a fan of Chrollo's fanfiction, especially the plots where Chrollo fails. My apologies, Chrollo.
As expected of the future leader of the Phantom Troupe, Chrollo's lips curled into a smile, appearing somewhat excited, even when facing Illumi's deadly attack.
Although Illumi was very fast, the distance Chrollo maintained was likely calculated as a safe distance. He took advantage of this distance to narrowly dodge Illumi's attack, only having his clothes torn.
Failing in his first attempt, Illumi did not pursue. He retreated to my side. He realized that Chrollo had the ability to escape his grasp. Rather than engage in a pursuit with an unknown outcome... Chrollo certainly didn't come to negotiate unprepared. He likely has companions providing backup from a distance and has laid traps. Before choosing to oppose Chrollo, it's better to hear his specific intentions and then make a decision.
"Incredible, you scared me," Chrollo said, lowering his head to adjust the tear in his clothes. When he looked up again, there was a curious glint in his eyes, the lively look of a boy discovering something new. "I think you'll get along well with us. Our goal is to enter the 'central district,' the best part of all of Meteor City... You, too, must want to go, right? Would you like to join us?"
We had received invitations from children's groups multiple times. Illumi had rejected them without hesitation every time. This time, Illumi paused for a second before uttering the familiar answer: "Please allow me to refuse. We do not need to join any group."
"Is that so?" Chrollo nodded. "Then I apologize for the intrusion. Rest assured, I will act as if I saw nothing."
He smiled, looked at us, and slowly retreated back into the shadows, his aura gradually fading until he disappeared.
"..." I let out a deep, deep sigh of relief.
Thank goodness, the butterfly effect has been avoided!
"Are you worried about him, Sister?" Illumi asked. "There's no need to be so tense. His escape ability and the existence of his companions are the only noteworthy aspects. If we attacked together, we could take him down."
I shook my head and pointed to the "curtain," gesturing for him to go back and finish his bath.
Illumi didn't move. "Or, perhaps we should chase him and take him down."
"It's better to have one less thing than one more," I said with my lips, "Don't cause unnecessary trouble."
Illumi looked into my eyes for a long time without speaking. Finally, he pointed to the whistle on my chest. "Put it away. It's not good if someone sees it again."
Wary of Chrollo returning with his companions or someone else coming, Illumi significantly shortened his bathing time.
After he put on clean clothes, we abandoned this base and hastily moved our location.