Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 256 (Patreon)

Chapter 256: Nowhere to be Seen

Knowing full well there was no chance of victory, he still staked his life in the battle. As a result, Hisoka, who had prepared in advance, luckily survived.

However, Hisoka, like Gon years later, although suppressed by Luo in the fight, did not understand what "fear" meant.

After facing Luo head-on once, Hisoka roughly gauged Luo's strength and wouldn't trouble Luo for some time.

He vaguely saw the heights he needed to reach, and would strive to become stronger to reach the level where Luo was, though he wondered how much stronger Luo would be by then.

Illumi glanced back at the unconscious Hisoka and pulled several bead pins from his clothing, promptly inserting them into his head and face. In a few seconds, his features completely changed.

This was a recently developed ability of his, allowing for facial transformation, an excellent skill for an assassin, though maintaining the transformation was quite uncomfortable due to its novelty.

Thus, he removed the bead pins during his wait in the corridor, and now that he was about to leave, naturally, he had to reinsert them.

Unfortunately, this method could deceive anyone but Luo, as the bead pins were too conspicuous.

Inside the venue, Luo was unaware that Hisoka had been taken away by Illumi. Facing numerous questions from the journalists, he paused before finally giving an answer.

"Antomu."

With a bland tone, he announced the name of the next Floor Master he would challenge.

Hearing Luo's response, the journalists nearly went mad. It was a perfect assist from the gods!

Challenges against Floor Masters were always among the highest highlights at the Heavens Arena, with each result potentially leading to a change in rulership.

A year ago, Antomu had lost three fingers and upon returning, many challengers who had qualified to challenge the Floor Master thought to strike while he was weak.

However, Antomu, with his rock-solid physique and strong martial arts, tenaciously held onto his position. Afterward, during a post-match interview with journalists, Antomu had said, "He will come."

Then, a youth named Luo finally arrived.

The initial reports targeted Luo but were speculative. Now, however, it was different.

When Luo confirmed the name of the Floor Master he would challenge, it created a logical link to what Antomu had said earlier.

"Right after achieving ten wins, Luo chose his challenge target on the spot!" The commentator exclaimed in surprise.

At that moment, Antomu, in his room, watched this scene on the internal broadcast but showed no reaction.

He had waited long enough; the account of the three fingers would soon be settled.

Inside the venue, knowing Luo's challenge target was Antomu, the audience began to buzz with discussion.

Seeing that the time was almost right, Luo crossed the journalists at a speed hard for the naked eye to catch, heading towards the corridor Hisoka had left through.

By the time the journalists realized, Luo was already gone, leaving them stunned in place.

As Luo exited, Bisky and a few others also stood up, heading towards another corridor.

Less than three minutes, that was the time since Hisoka had entered the corridor.

Luo dashed into the corridor, gazing towards the distant exit, seeing no one.

"Already gone?"

With such injuries, Hisoka couldn't have moved that fast, and Luo was certain of it.

At that moment, a black cat emerged from the back of Luo's hand, keen on joining the excitement, as Hisoka had occupied a page in its book, and it strongly supported Luo in eliminating Hisoka to add another page.

"What are you doing out here?"

Luo quickly glanced around, then sprinted forward.

The black cat floated in the air, closely following behind Luo, saying, "Helping you."

Hearing the black cat's words, Luo glanced at it and retorted, "Besides eating, what else can you do?"

The black cat, feeling offended, could only prove itself through actions.

Though it had no nose, it mimicked the action of sniffing, then said, "A few minutes ago, there were four scents here, one of them Hisoka's."

"Four?" Luo frowned.

Including the two staff members and Hisoka, there should only be three, and given the speed at which the staff members caught up with Hisoka, it would be impossible to leave the corridor in three minutes.

As Luo thought, even if the staff members had put Hisoka on a stretcher, they couldn't have left the corridor in three minutes. However, the power of a Manipulator is so illogical.

After being pricked by Illumi's needles, what was previously a hundred-meter sprint in ten seconds became five seconds. This wasn't an enhancement, but rather a desperate extraction, much like the controlled Nen users in Staj

y's tomb.

"Didn't you notice? There was a lingering murderous aura not far into the corridor," the black cat disdainfully remarked. It seemed to mind Luo's earlier comment, as if it had been treated as useless.

The barely perceptible murderous aura was left by Illumi controlling the two staff members, and today's him was far from flawless.

"No," Luo shook his head slightly. He indeed hadn't noticed.

"Tsk, such an obvious murderous aura and you didn't notice? How thick are your nerves?" The black cat took the opportunity to mock, calling the faint aura "obvious" to enhance the insult.

Luo ignored him, eager to exit the corridor quickly to see if the staff's efficiency had led to his prediction error.

Soon, the duo exited the corridor, then looked around, finding nothing.

"Gone..."

Luo furrowed his brows, recalling the black cat's words.

"Scents of four people? Murderous aura? Are you sure?" Luo tilted his head to look at the black cat sitting on his shoulder.

Once out of the corridor, there were quite a few people in the hall, and the black cat became much more low-key, no longer floating but sitting on Luo's shoulder.

"Believe it or not." Hearing Luo's skepticism, the black cat huffed.

"If you were a dog, your credibility would be much higher." Luo said, heading towards the medical room.

Upon hearing this, the black cat instantly retorted angrily, "If the rules allowed, do you believe I'd tear you apart right now?"

"Cut the chatter, just help me check the medical room."

After walking a considerable distance, Luo suddenly stopped. If Hisoka had already been taken to the medical room, he couldn't blatantly approach it. Moreover...

He looked around at the people glancing over, feeling helpless.

He wasn't some entertainment star, nor should there be any fans here, but as a participant in the Heavens Arena, he now had some fame as a combat star.

At that moment, people saw Luo and instinctively crowded around.

"This is the poison of the Vulture Spider, keep it safe."

With no other choice, Luo had to leave the matter to the black cat. He used his ability to directly extract about five drops of light blue toxin from a vial through the glass, and fed it to the black cat.

The black cat swallowed the poison but didn't act immediately, instead pushing further, saying, "Tell me, what else can I do besides eating?"

Seeing this, Luo looked at the black cat with the eyes of someone evaluating ingredients, which made the latter pout and head towards the medical room.

The poison from the Vulture Spider, obtained from Geru, needed only one drop to put the severely injured Hisoka to sleep for seven days and nights; five drops would have an even stronger effect.

If the black cat found Hisoka in the medical room and administered the Vulture Spider's poison into Hisoka's body, there would be plenty of ways to kill Hisoka afterward.

Watching the black cat leave, Luo looked at the nearly hundred people crowding around him and sighed softly.

Luo barely managed to get away, and at the same time, he received a call from Machi.

He used the excuse of going to the bathroom to stall for a bit before hanging up Machi's call and meeting up with the black cat returning from the medical room.

"Not in the medical room?" Luo pinched his chin, his eyes reflecting thoughtful contemplation.

The black cat was full of regret. In its view, giving it the poison was superfluous; if it had seen Hisoka in the medical room, it wouldn't have used the poison and would have killed Hisoka outright, regardless of others' presence.

"Where did he go?"

Luo's brow furrowed, then he looked up at the cameras above the columns.

There was another way to find out how Hisoka had left: by checking the surveillance footage.

Thinking of how badly he had beaten Hisoka, Luo considered taking this opportunity to finish him off to avoid future complications, but things seemed to have gotten more troublesome.

To avoid future troubles, even if it was difficult now, he had to follow through.

In reality, as long as he was always stronger than Hisoka, things would be simple.

Hisoka... always relished the joy of battle, always facing it head-on!

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