Hunter x Hunter: The Strongest Zoldyck

Chapter 134 The Shadow Beast

At night, the neon lights in downtown Youkexin turn the streets into an unreal red and green.

In the stifling street, a white-haired boy stood quietly in the shadow of a building, his back against the cold wall, his silver-gray pupils peering through the crowd at the brightly lit building across the street... the entrance to the underground auction.

The main gate across the street was tightly closed, and two men in black suits stood at the entrance, with earphones on their ears, their wandering eyes scanning back and forth among the crowd.

He was clearly not an ordinary person; his steps were steady, his center of gravity was low, and his waist was bulging, as if he was hiding something...

They must be members of the Ten Old Men's gang.

Roy stared at them for a long time, then looked away and glanced at the pedestrians coming and going on the street.

A lady in an evening gown, a businessman wearing a gold watch, a middle-aged man carrying a briefcase, and a few well-dressed, arrogant young people.

Who among them has an admission ticket?

Blinking, Roy observed carefully.

He can't just grab anyone and take it from them.

They grabbed the wrong thing, alerting the enemy.

If you manage to steal the right thing, the other party might have connections, making it difficult to investigate.

He needs a target; someone who acts alone; someone who seems to have no connections; and someone who actually has a ticket to the game.

The night was long, and Roy waited for a long time.

When a group of young people with dyed yellow hair walked over from the street corner, five or six of them, wearing flashy shirts, some with cigarettes in their mouths and others carrying bottles of liquor, they swaggered through the crowd.

As they passed by Roy, the blond guy at the front suddenly stopped, tilted his head, and looked at Roy's face.

Roy was wearing a dark coat and carrying a black backpack. His white hair shone faintly silver under the neon lights. He had pale skin and delicate features, looking like a young man from out of town who had just arrived in the city.

"Hey, are you alone, buddy?"

The blond-haired man leaned closer, exhaling a strong smell of alcohol from his mouth.

"He's quite handsome. Want to grab a drink with us guys?"

Roy showed no extra expression, his hands hanging at his sides, his fingers slightly curled, his silver-gray pupils coldly sweeping across the blond man's face, as if looking at an object that did not need to be cared about.

Just then, the red-haired guy next to the blond guy also came over and reached out to put his hand on Roy's shoulder.

"Don't be so cold, come on, it's my treat..."

'

Before his hand could even touch Roy's shoulder, he suddenly froze on the spot, unable to put his hand down.

Because Roy's gaze shifted slightly, just slightly.

His gaze shifted from the blond-haired man to the red-haired man's face.

His silver-gray eyes were expressionless, devoid of anger, murderous intent, or even indifference.

There was only one emptiness, like a clean mirror, reflecting Red Hair's face, which gradually changed from laughter to fear.

Red Hair's hand hung in mid-air, his fingers trembling.

He didn't know why he was afraid. His brain hadn't received the fear signal yet, but his body had reacted before his brain could: his knees went weak, his palms were sweating, and his jaw was chattering.

The feeling was like being choked by an invisible hand, or being stared at by a wild beast that emerged from the darkness.

It's not the danger of "potentially dying," but the certainty of "already dying."

Yellow Hair noticed it too.

Instantly, he sobered up considerably, and the playful smile on his face vanished as if slapped away, leaving only pale lips and slightly dilated pupils.

He wanted to say something, he wanted to say...

"Who the hell are you?!"

"Don't push your luck!"

But for some reason, those words got stuck in his throat, and he couldn't squeeze them out no matter what he did.

Roy looked away from them.

He turned his head again to look across the street.

A middle-aged man in a gray suit stepped out of a black sedan, holding a gold-embossed card in his hand, and walked alone toward the entrance of the auction.

"Got it."

Muttering to himself, Roy strode over, not towards the group of blond-haired men, but simply walked past them indifferently.

Shoulder to shoulder, backpack to arm; roughly pushing them aside.

Several thugs stood there, their legs trembling unconsciously.

Yellow Hair's pants were slightly wet, but he didn't care. He was just panting heavily, like someone who had just been pulled out of the water.

To cover his embarrassment, after watching Roy's figure disappear into the distance, the blond-haired man shouted in a restrained voice, "Damn... what the hell... stop pretending."

But no one responded to him; they didn't even dare to turn around and look at Roy's back like Huang Mao did.

A few steps later, Roy followed behind the middle-aged man in the gray suit, keeping a distance that was neither too close nor too far.

The middle-aged man walked very fast, while Roy walked at a moderate pace.

His steps were perfectly synchronized, and each step landed silently.

This is precisely the Zoldyck family's basic assassination technique... Dark Step, a type of silent killing technique.

Turn the corner, walk past the signs, into an empty alley...

Roy put his hand on his shoulder.

"Huh? Who?!"

The middle-aged man turned around abruptly, his eyes wide with surprise as he looked at Luo Yi.

"I'm sorry... could you please do me a favor?"

Roy's lips curled up slightly, revealing a warm smile.

Then..

Boom!

A chop to the back of his neck struck him, and before he could even scream, everything went black.

pat..

With her right hand gripping the middle-aged man's neck and her left hand supporting his waist, Roy gently and slowly dragged him into the depths of the alley, then gently placed him on the ground. She took out the gold-embossed admission ticket from his pocket, turned it over and glanced at it. There was a number printed on the back, but no name.

Thank you.

'

Roy smoothed out the wrinkles in the middle-aged man's clothes and thanked him politely.

Then he stuffed the admission ticket into his pocket and took off the middle-aged man's coat and put it on himself.

It's a bit big, but that's okay.

Click... Click...

After a series of bone-grinding sounds, the thin, white-haired boy began to sway and twist, growing from less than 1.5 meters tall to 1.8 meters tall, filling out the slightly oversized suit.

"The bone-shrinking technique... it's really useful."

Nodding up and down, Roy looked himself over and, finding nothing amiss, quietly slipped out of the alley. He then casually hid his backpack behind a trash can in the alley, covering it with a few rags.

A moment later, he arrived at the entrance to the auction.

The bodyguard in black at the door glanced at him, his gaze lingering on his face for a moment before settling on the admission ticket in his hand.

I look relatively young...

'

From the bodyguard's gaze, Roy sensed a hint of suspicion. Without needing to say more, he knew why: it must be his handsome, youthful face that had aroused the bodyguard's suspicion. So he added a sentence.

The bodyguard glanced back and stared at Roy for a while, but for some reason, he finally accepted the ticket and stepped aside to make way for her.

Click!

Roy pushed open the door and went inside.

The corridor was long and dimly lit. Several oil paintings hung on the walls, depicting landscapes, but they were hazy and indistinct, making it impossible to discern where they were taken.

At the end of the corridor was a double wooden door, and a buzzing voice could be heard coming from behind it.

Roy pushed open the door. The hall was large, with dozens of round tables covered with white tablecloths, on which were placed number plates.

Quite a few people were already seated, chatting quietly in twos and threes.

Roy found a corner seat, placed the admission ticket on the table, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.

It wasn't a rest, it was listening.

He was listening to what those people were saying.

They were trying to find even the slightest clue about Number Four.

Unfortunately, he listened for a long time but couldn't find any clues that might be related to Number Four.

They were all businessmen and collectors, discussing the value of each item at auction and which competitor hadn't come today.

I opened my eyes and glanced around the hall.

In a corner of the hall stood several men in black suits, with earphones on their ears and bulging waists, dressed like the bodyguards at the door.

But these people had a completely different demeanor from the security guards at the entrance.

Their postures were different; their center of gravity was more stable, their eyes were sharper, and their gazes swept across the crowd like a few hunting dogs that had caught the scent of their prey.

Roy's gaze swept over them, but didn't linger for long.

But he had already memorized the position, posture, and orientation of each of them.

There were five people in total, scattered in the four corners of the hall and on the side of the stage in front of them.

The stance wasn't like that of a typical bodyguard, ready to charge at any moment; it was more relaxed, more like the casual way someone would stand in their own living room.

But that casualness hides something beneath, like a lion lying in the grass. You see it yawning with its eyes half-closed, but its paws are out and its claws are showing.

And their hands... none of the five men had their hands in their pockets, nor did any of them have their hands hanging down at their sides.

Their hands were placed in front of their bodies, with their fingers interlaced, or gently clenched into fists, or resting on the belt buckles at their waists.

It's not intentional, it's a habit, a habit of being able to act at any time.

Just like a cat's claws are retracted when it walks, but they spring out when you touch it.

What's most remarkable is their breathing.

Roy was too far away to hear, but his assassin's senses, honed by the Zoldyck training, allowed him to perceive it.

The people were breathing at different frequencies; some were fast, some were slow, but they all had a strange rhythm: short inhalations and long exhalations, as if they were conserving energy for something.

It's not about saving air, it's about saving attention.

Their lungs are telling their brains: Don't get distracted, don't relax, don't blink.

The one leading these people, standing to the side of the stage, was tall and thin, with a long face, high cheekbones, thin lips, and a pair of narrow eyes that were half-open and half-closed, like a lizard basking in the sun.

Standing to his right was a fat man with a round face, round nose, and round belly, looking like a character straight out of a comic book.

But his eyes weren't round; they were triangular, with the corners drooping down like two scissors that weren't closed.

He stood there, his weight on his back foot, his body slightly leaning forward, like a ball that might roll over at any moment, but you could feel the weight of that "ball"—not flesh, but thought.

Countless streams of energy were compressed and accumulated within his body, like a volcano ready to erupt at any moment.

Reading? Lizard? Inverted triangle?

Three key pieces of information flooded into Roy's mind, and his eyes narrowed involuntarily as a certainty arose in his heart.

These people couldn't possibly be the Yin Beasts unit directly under the Ten Elders, could they?

Lost in thought, Roy blinked and looked at the tall man on the left side of the inverted triangle.

He was as thin as a bamboo pole, with long arms, slender fingers, and a long, thin neck, making him look like an elongated doll.

His posture was strange; it didn't look like he was standing, but rather like he was hanging.

His shoulders slumped, his spine bent forward, and his whole body looked like an upside-down... bat.

At the other end of the hall, near the entrance, stood two more people.

One was short and stout, the other tall and thin.

The short, stout one had a thick beard and very short hair, like a freshly pulled potato. The other one wore gold-rimmed glasses, and his eyes behind the glasses were very small, like two green beans.

The five people stood there, not speaking, not communicating, and not even looking at each other.

But in Roy's observation, he discovered that there seemed to be a tacit understanding between them, a tacit understanding that they knew where the other was, what the other was doing, and what the next step was without having to speak.

That's something only people who have been through countless life-and-death situations together can have—deeper than trust, stronger than habit, like it's ingrained in their bones.

call..

Roy exhaled, turned his gaze away from them, and looked down at the number plates on the table.

If it really is a Yin Beast, he'll be discovered if he keeps staring at it.

With her hands on her knees, she slowed her breathing and her heartbeat, and began to try her best to minimize her presence.

He can't rush things now.

Number Four hasn't appeared yet; he must wait patiently for Number Four to appear.

This way, he can pinpoint his target.

After all, he had never met Number Four.

A slight twitch at the corner of Luo Yi's mouth, and a bitter feeling welled up in her heart.

Five Yin Beasts... How is he supposed to deal with that?

well..

With a sigh, he composed himself, ready to strike at the perfect moment.

Just then, the leader of the Yin Beasts swept his gaze over, a cold, cautious, and cunning look as if he were confirming something.

Roy did not turn around; he remained in the same posture, with no change in his movements or expression.

After looking at Roy for two seconds, the director of the gaze finished confirming that he couldn't see anything different, so he looked away.

Sensing that the gaze had shifted away, Luo Yi tilted her head slightly and glanced at the man leading the Yin Beasts out of the corner of her eye.

The tall, thin man was no longer looking at him; his gaze was elsewhere, as if he were looking at the oil painting on the wall, or perhaps at something else behind the painting.

His lips were downturned, his arms were crossed over his chest, and his fingers were tapping on his cuffs.

Once, twice, three times.

It looks like a countdown.

After glancing at the man in the lead for a couple of seconds out of the corner of his eye, Luo Yi looked away to avoid attracting the man's attention. He then looked down at the number plate on the table and an idea formed in his mind.

He needed to infiltrate the Shadow Beasts' ranks... not to become a security guard, but to get close to them, to the Shadow Beasts' people... to the Shadow Beasts' intelligence network... and to have a better chance of finding Phantom Troupe Number Four.