"Thanks, Kaizen. I'll take this guy back first."
"Alright."
Kaizen watched as Menchi left with the middle-aged man, then returned to the restaurant.
At that moment, Tessia and the others were still waiting. The food had already been served.
"I thought I told you to start eating without me?"
"We were waiting for you," Tessia replied with a grin.
Kaizen sat down and said,
"Then dig in. If it gets cold, the flavor won't be the same."
Everyone picked up their chopsticks and began eating.
...
After the meal, Kaizen received another call from Menchi.
It was already getting dark by the time the four of them arrived at Menchi and Buhara's place.
Both Menchi and Buhara were waiting there, seemingly having returned specifically for this meeting. A few days earlier, they'd been away from Gourmet Paradise.
"Kaizen."
"Menchi-sama, Buhara-sama."
"Come sit. Let's talk for a bit?"
"Sure."
The group of six moved into a lounge—a tea room, where they scattered themselves around a long table. As Menchi brewed the tea, a rich aroma filled the air.
While pouring, she began to explain, "The cursed silver coins have actually appeared more than once in Gourmet Paradise."
"Whoever finds one of those coins faces two possible outcomes."
"If you manage to return the coin to its original owner within a set time, you receive a reward—."
"But if you fail..."
"You die. Just like that."
"Some people call them 'the evil god's silver coins.' But in reality, there are no such things as evil gods in this world."
"It's just an abnormal type of Nen."
"Linne-sama said the one behind this was once a Gourmet Hunter like her."
"He'd also been to the Dark Continent."
"But after returning to the Human World, he completely fell into ruin."
"No one knows where he is now."
"But there's no doubt he's connected to these cursed silver coins."
"The symbol engraved on them is one he used to favor."
"And the aura on the coin unmistakably carries his signature."
...
Kaizen's pupils narrowed slightly.
The Fallen—returning from the Dark Continent?
He wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the term "Dark Continent." In his previous life, when he'd followed Hunter x Hunter, the manga hadn't yet concluded. The latest serialized arc at the time involved the Black Whale.
A massive ship.
Constructed by the Kakin Empire to voyage to the Dark Continent.
Although little information had been revealed, what was known suggested one thing—the Dark Continent was unimaginably vast and mysterious.
In truth, the Human World was just a tiny piece of the puzzle.
Just a speck. A mere island in a vast lake.
The real continent... was the Dark Continent.
Kaizen had always been curious about that place—and wary.
That was the extent of his knowledge from his previous life.
Humans had attempted expeditions to the Dark Continent countless times.
The so-called Five Great Calamities were just some of the catastrophic consequences of those attempts—dangers that came back when people tried to bring home rare treasures or resources.
And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
There were far more dangers—creatures and forces that humans hadn't yet come into conflict with.
Even the Kurta Clan's scarlet eyes were said to be linked to a disease from the Dark Continent.
Then there were the Chimera Ants.
"Menchi-sama," Kaizen leaned forward, intrigued, "can you tell me more about this?"
Menchi nodded. "I'll share what I know, though it's not much."
"I've never been to the Dark Continent myself. Everything I know comes from Linne-sama."
"She said that man—before he fell—suffered a grave injury during one of those expeditions. When he returned, he could barely function. He spent years in the hospital."
"His body was... strange."
"Like he was half-alive, half-dead."
"There were even times when he welcomed the thought of dying."
"And then one day... he just disappeared."
"Not long after that, the cursed silver coins began to appear."
"A lot of people died."
"Linne-sama personally stepped in to investigate and suppress the incident."
"She was the one who deduced the mastermind—by the trace of aura left on the cursed coins."
"The same thing happened several times after that."
"But before this latest case, the cursed coins hadn't appeared in over ten years."
...
Kaizen asked, "Did Linne-sama ever say why he made the cursed silver coins?"
"To become stronger," Menchi said without hesitation.
"Stronger?"
She nodded. "Linne-sama said the coins carry a powerful will."
"The curse itself is actually a kind of contract."
"Those who enter into the contract—and survive—receive a Nen reward."
...
Kaizen was no stranger to the idea of contracts.
In the world of Nen, most people referred to them as restrictions and vows.
A restriction was a self-imposed condition—one that boosted your aura abilities the stricter it was.
An oath was more spiritual. A declaration of intent. A binding vow of the soul.
Kaizen's own Nen abilities were full of such limitations.
To create a beast, he had to observe and mimic one first.
To use the Lantern Ghost's Pain Sharing ability, four separate conditions had to be met.
And his Second Shadow ability amplified his beast's strength based on the number of contracts transmitted.
Still, when he heard Menchi say the word contract, something clicked.
Many of his techniques weren't simply the result of restrictions or oaths.
They were more like carefully crafted contracts.
In a broader sense, contracts could be seen as a more specific, structured version of restriction and oath—more deliberate, more binding.
...
"Kaizen," Menchi said seriously, "Linne-sama plans to personally take down the fallen one from the Dark Continent this time."
"But before she acts, Gourmet Paradise is assembling a search team to locate him."
"Are you interested in joining us?"
"The rewards will be excellent."
She said it knowing full well that Kaizen came from the Zoldyck family.
And Zoldycks lived by a simple rule:
No job without pay.
And they never worked for free.
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Fanfic is completed on patreon.com/FanficsHub (1047 chapters in total)