Chapter 5: The Heart and the Struggle
After leaving the previous battle site with Bubu Wang and Amu, Su Xiao began to formulate his plan for this derivative world as they walked.
First, he needed to confirm the current timeline. Checking the main mission was a good choice.
[Main Mission: The Ant King's Heart]
Difficulty Level: Lv.30
Mission Brief: Obtain the heart of Ant King Meruem by any means.
Mission Info: The Ant King has not yet been born. Estimated birth in 10 days.
Mission Time Limit: 20 natural days.
Mission Reward: 3 True Attribute Points, Soul Crystal (Large) x3.
Mission Penalty: Forced Execution.
Seeing the mission difficulty of Lv.30, Su Xiao knew the situation was grim. He couldn't yet gauge the full extent of the Ant King's strength, but he knew one thing: in a one-on-one fight, he was no match for Meruem.
Because of this, Su Xiao was heading to the Zoldyck Family. He had interacted with them before. Zeno Zoldyck was very strong, of course, but that was based on Su Xiao's assessment from his last visit to the Hunter World.
With his current strength, Su Xiao was confident he could take on both Zeno and Silva together. If all three fought to the death, Su Xiao could at least kill one of them, with the other having a high chance of escaping. If Su Xiao disregarded his own injuries, both father and son would die, with no chance of escape.
When Zeno and Silva had previously fought the Phantom Troupe leader, they hadn't been serious. They only exerted effort proportional to the employer's payment, and the Ten Dons' offer at the time wasn't particularly high.
Compared to these two, the older generation Zoldyck, Maha Zoldyck, was on another level. This old man, only 1.4 meters tall, was on par with the Hunter Association Chairman, Isaac Netero.
Chairman Netero, in his prime, had fought Maha Zoldyck to a draw. But one thing was certain: Maha Zoldyck was incredibly strong, at least a cut above Su Xiao's current self.
From the main mission's information, it was clear Su Xiao would have to fight the Ant King. Therefore, he needed to determine the gap between himself and Meruem.
In the subsequent storyline, Chairman Netero fought the Ant King and ultimately lost, forced to detonate the small dirty bomb inside him, the Poor Man's Rose, which nearly killed the Ant King.
Chairman Netero's current strength was only about half of his prime. As Nen users aged and their bodies rapidly declined, their power dropped significantly. If it were the Chairman at his peak, the outcome between him and the Ant King would be uncertain.
As someone who had fought the Chairman, Maha Zoldyck was a good benchmark. Both were Enhancement-type Nen users, so their rate of power decline shouldn't differ too much.
If he had a chance to fight Maha Zoldyck, Su Xiao could basically assess whether he could fight the Ant King head-on.
Su Xiao needed to confirm one thing: that the Ant King didn't have overwhelming power over him. As long as he wasn't completely outclassed, Su Xiao could find a way to kill him.
The Poor Man's Rose could nearly blow the Ant King to pieces. If the Ant King were caught in an Apollo explosion, he would be as good as dead.
Of course, fighting the Ant King involved many other factors, and the ten days before his birth were Su Xiao's preparation time.
Another crucial point was that the main mission required obtaining the Ant King's heart. Generally, missions requiring a specific item would have competitors—other contractors.
There were quite a few contractors entering the Hunter World this time. According to the derivative world contact platform, there were 206 contractors in total. Since this was a semi-open world, and the timeline was the climax of the Hunter World—the Ant King arc—many of these 200+ contractors had likely entered using World Keys.
Assuming the worst-case scenario, if all 200+ people had the same main mission to snatch the Ant King's heart, things would get very lively.
As Su Xiao pondered, he arrived at the airship station in Yorknew City. Transportation in the Hunter World was very convenient, unlike the Naruto World where travel was mostly on foot or riding Bubu Wang. Unfortunately, that fool Bubu Wang often crashed into trees; he would get distracted while running, and in his words: 'This Wang is contemplating the life of a dog.'
The airship station in the Hunter World was similar to an airport. Although there were security checks, they didn't prohibit carrying weapons, only firearms, explosives, strong chemicals, etc.
Su Xiao easily boarded the airship. The exterior was made of steel, but the interior was wooden, giving it a warm tone. The airship was 40 meters long and 30 meters wide, looking quite bulky, but the internal space was very large.
Su Xiao had bought a more expensive ticket, so he had a private room with all the necessary facilities.
There were several dozen passengers on the airship, all ordinary people, with no Nen users among them.
Noticing this, Su Xiao lay down on the bed and went to sleep. If he had free time in a derivative world, he used it to recover his stamina, because no one knew how long the next battle would last—a few hours, a few days, or even half a month.
The journey was somewhat boring. As Su Xiao was half-asleep, there was a knock on the door. He got up and signaled Bubu Wang to open it. Outside was a pretty, soft-spoken girl, informing him that they were almost at their destination. The entire trip had taken 10 hours.
Half an hour later, Su Xiao was sitting on a bus traveling along a rural road. The scenery was pleasant, and the air was exceptionally clear.
"Hello, dear passengers! Welcome aboard the 'Howling' sightseeing bus. It's an honor to serve you. From now on, this vehicle will head towards the stronghold of the Zoldyck Family, famous for assassination. Our final destination is the foot of Kukuroo Mountain..."
A female tour guide with curly red hair, holding a small megaphone, smiled as she introduced the scenery and legends of Kukuroo Mountain to the passengers.
That's right, the Zoldyck Family's stronghold, Kukuroo Mountain, was a tourist attraction. Of course, tourists could only reach the outskirts. The Zoldyck Family lived on the mountain, and ordinary tourists couldn't go up.
Although it was bizarre for an assassin family's base to be a tourist spot, the Zoldycks could earn a lot of Jenny from it. Why not earn a large income without doing anything? As for the risk, the Zoldyck Family didn't care about risks at all.
The minibus slowly moved forward. Su Xiao lounged lazily in his seat, looking half-asleep. As for Amu, that guy's size made it impossible for him to board the minibus, so he was currently running behind the bus on foot. This had initially scared the female tour guide, nearly causing her to call the police.
The bus slowly stopped at the foot of a large mountain. This was Kukuroo Mountain. The Zoldyck Family lived somewhere on the mountain, though the exact location was unknown.
The bus stopped because a giant metal door blocked the way. This was the Zoldyck Family's Testing Gate. Anyone who could push open this door was qualified to go up the mountain—whether for revenge or surrender, the prerequisite was to push open this uniquely constructed giant metal door.