After leaving the alley and making several turns to be sure he wasn't followed,
Conrad returned to the same small coffee shop he had visited earlier.
This time, he had changed his clothes on the way nothing dramatic, just enough to look like a different traveler.
He ordered another black coffee and sat at the same window seat.
At first, everything felt normal.
He drank slowly, watching people pass by outside, letting the tension fade from his shoulders. The deal was done.
The money was already in his account.
Then, out of habit, Conrad tried to review the last few hours in his mind.
The alley.
The entrance.
The black merchant.
And that was when he froze.
His fingers tightened slightly around the coffee cup.
"…?"
He frowned.
He could remember going somewhere. He could remember selling the Red Diamond.
He could remember the money appearing in his account.
But the details
They weren't there.
Conrad tried again, more deliberately.
The alley's layout?
Blurred.
The gray door?
Gone.
The exact location?
Missing.
He tried to recall the woman behind the counter.
Nothing.
Just an empty outline where a person should be.
His heartbeat picked up.
"That's unexpected," he muttered quietly.
He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, focusing.
He tried to remember the password he had spoken.
He knew he had said something but the words themselves were gone.
Like they had been erased cleanly, leaving only the knowledge that something had existed.
Cold ran down his spine.
"I can't remember the place," he whispered.
"I can't remember the woman or individual, I am not sure what to say... I can't even remember the password."
For a moment, excitement and fear mixed together in his chest.
"Really…?"
Then understanding hit him.
Conrad let out a short, humorless laugh and lowered his head.
"So that's how it is."
It wasn't confusion. It wasn't stress.
It was Nen.
Not his Nen.
Someone else's.
"The deal. The rules. The confirmation," he thought slowly. "I didn't see it, but it was there."
He replayed the interaction in a new light.
No names.
No stories.
No explanations.
Rules he had accepted instantly, without questioning.
That wasn't just business practice.
That was a condition.
"The password," he realized.
"The guard. The merchant. The location."
All of it had been part of a Nen ability.
"A joint-type nen ability most likely..."
"Once all conditions were met and the transaction completed, payment transferred, item handed over his memories related to them were removed."
Conrad exhaled slowly, a cold breath leaving his lungs.
"That means they're extremely careful," he thought. "And extremely experienced."
This wasn't a simple manipulation trick.
This was a well-constructed ability with clear activation conditions and a specific effect.
It protected the merchant, the location, and everyone involved at the cost of the client's memory.
"Most likely, it involves severe limitations, such as not to cheat when trading and do not harm the targets that have arrived and so on..."
And Conrad had walked straight into it.
He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.
"In the end," he said quietly, "I'm still an amateur."
He had theoretical knowledge.
He understood Nen systems.
He could analyze abilities after the fact.
But real experience this kind of thing couldn't be learned from books or discussions.
He hadn't noticed the activation.
He hadn't sensed the condition being applied.
He hadn't even considered the possibility seriously enough.
"That could have gone much worse," he admitted to himself.
If the merchant had wanted more than just protection if the ability had included compulsion, delayed effects, or tracking Conrad wouldn't have known until it was too late.
The fact that the ability was only memory removal meant something.
"They're professionals," he thought.
That didn't make it comforting.
It made it more dangerous.
Conrad opened his eyes and looked at the reflection in the window.
His face was calm again, but his gaze was sharper than before.
"I need to be more careful," he said softly.
Nen wasn't just about power levels or flashy abilities.
It was about rules, contracts, hidden effects, and preparation.
The strongest abilities weren't always visible.
Sometimes, you only noticed them when something was missing.
Like memories.
He took another sip of coffee, grounding himself.
The money was real. He checked his phone again to be sure.
That hadn't been erased.
Which meant the contract had been precise.
Only specific memories were removed. Nothing else.
"Clean work," Conrad admitted internally.
He finished his drink and stood up.
This experience had cost him nothing tangible but it had taught him something valuable.
Power without awareness was a liability.
From now on, Conrad knew he would treat every unknown Nen user as a potential threat, no matter how harmless they appeared.
Especially the ones who seemed organized, calm, and prepared.
As he stepped back into the street, his excitement returned but it was tempered now.
"This world isn't forgiving," he thought. "And Nen even less so."
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- Nen Ability - (Imagine, this writing here to be the "Narrator" in the anime -
The Blind Spot Market (Missing Point) is a Joint Nen ability coordinated between the Guard and the Black Merchant.
It functions through a multi-stage mental contract that begins when a target voluntarily recites a specific keycode to the Guard.
This action establishes a manipulative link, allowing the Guard to lead the target to a hidden location that remains undetectable to the uninitiated.
Once the trade begins, the Merchant secures verbal consent from the participant to abide by the rules of the house.
This consent serves as the final condition to lock the ability.
Thirty minutes after the transaction concludes, the Missing Point activates, surgically erasing the target's memory of the Guard's identity, the geographic location of the shop, and the specific details of the deal.
The target is left with only the physical item and the vague recollection that a successful trade occurred, ensuring the market remains an untraceable void in the minds of its customers.