Chapter 13: Negotiation and Wishes
With that, things became simple. Su Xiao could fight to a draw with Maha Zoldyck, so in Maha's mind, Su Xiao was qualified to stand on equal footing with him. Between them, it was communication, not orders—mutual probing, mutual exploitation, ultimately reaching mutual negotiation.
With this foundation, was triggering a hidden mission still difficult? The answer was: not really. In other words, the second method to trigger a hidden mission was to fight Maha and reach a level of strength that Maha acknowledged but did not fear.
Being strong enough brought benefits from all sides, especially when negotiating with an assassin family like the Zoldycks. Don't forget, at the very beginning, Silva had poisoned Su Xiao's food. That was a gamble on probability—if Su Xiao confidently ate that food, it would have been an unexpected bonus for Silva.
When dealing with a family like this, if you weren't strong enough, you needed very high Charm attribute. With Su Xiao's 8-point Charm attribute, he would only get poisoned in his food—what a "warm" welcome.
With the opportunity to reap substantial benefits, Su Xiao temporarily established a cooperative relationship with Maha. Now they just waited for one person to return, or rather, for that person to be brought back.
With the commission completed and cooperation established, Maha Zoldyck was in a good mood. A smile appeared on his wrinkled old face, successfully illustrating what it meant to smile uglier than crying.
Although Maha Zoldyck called Alluka Zoldyck a freak, Maha didn't want to eliminate her, nor did he want to eliminate the other existence inside Alluka's body, Nanika. Instead, he wanted to sever some kind of connection.
It was worth mentioning that the Zoldyck family's fourth child, Alluka Zoldyck, was quite interesting.
In all the Zoldyck family photos, Alluka never appeared. The reason was simple: whether it was Maha, Zeno, or Silva, father and son, they all believed Alluka was an unlucky thing, a darkness.
Saying that was somewhat one-sided. In truth, Zeno and Silva didn't actually dislike Alluka; they even had some care for their descendant. Although they locked Alluka away, they fulfilled most of Alluka's requests, such as providing toys, fine food, and so on.
What they truly detested was the other thing inside Alluka's body, namely Nanika.
At the end of the day, Alluka was just a somewhat special child, only 12 years old. The only unusual thing was that she wore girls' clothes and dressed like a little girl.
The reason Alluka was like this wasn't a personal preference. Little boy Kalluto wearing women's clothes—that was a hobby, as well as fulfilling some expectation of his mother. Kikyo had given birth to four sons and inevitably hoped for a daughter, so the cross-dressing big shot Kalluto appeared. Kikyo forcibly obtained a "daughter"—that was the style of the Zoldyck family's daughter-in-law.
Alluka's feminine appearance was because the Nanika inside her was female.
Nanika was something from the Dark Continent. From Maha's words, it could be heard that this was something Maha brought back from the Dark Continent after his death and resurrection, and through genetic means, it directly appeared inside Alluka's body.
Nanika had two abilities. First, if three of her requests were fulfilled, she would grant the other party's wish, commonly known as wishing. But wishing had enormous aftereffects and risks. Moreover, things obtained by wishing from Nanika did not appear out of thin air; instead, existing things were "delivered" to the wisher in various ways. This was different from the Holy Grail in the Holy Grail World.
This kind of wishing was not an all-powerful wish machine, and the side effects could be extremely exaggerated. When fulfilling Nanika's requests, depending on the difficulty of the wish, Nanika would demand corresponding "items," such as the wisher's organs, limbs, or even brain. All of these were possible.
If Nanika's requests were not fulfilled four consecutive times, Nanika would become very unhappy, even cry. The wisher themselves would be twisted into a "pretzel" by a bizarre ability. That was still the best outcome. A more severe result was that everyone related to the wisher would be twisted into a "pretzel" and die on the spot.
This was Nanika's first ability. The second was healing—healing seemingly impossible injuries or removing certain powerful negative effects.
Compared to healing, Nanika was better at destruction. The Zoldyck family had learned this through bloody lessons.
As for what Nanika was, Maha hadn't explained yet, and Su Xiao wasn't curious about that. From the current situation, Nanika posed no threat to him and might even become an allied force.
Of course, expecting Nanika to fight was unlikely. Her destructive power only targeted those who made wishes, and Nanika wasn't omnipotent—there were many things she couldn't do.
More importantly, Maha had clearly stated earlier that Nanika would be very afraid upon entering Kukuroo Mountain, so afraid that she would tremble and hide inside Alluka's body.
Su Xiao and Maha returned to the Zoldyck family's castle. The other Zoldyck family members had already started their own activities. As soon as Maha returned to the castle, he summoned Zeno, Silva, and Illumi.
In the castle's meeting hall, Maha sat in the main seat, while Su Xiao sat to the side, his legs propped up on the conference table, resting. The earlier fight with Maha had consumed some of his stamina.
Soon, Zeno and the others arrived. Seeing Su Xiao's sitting posture and Maha's expression, the grandfather, father, and son trio were all stunned. In their impression, Maha Zoldyck was a rigid person.
"White Night, everyone's here."
"Oh."
Su Xiao yawned and lowered his legs from the conference table.
"I called you here this time for an important matter. Silva, Illumi, you two father and son go bring Killua back."
"This..."
Silva hesitated. He had promised Killua before.
"This matter concerns the family's survival. You two have no right to refuse. Bring him back within two days. That's it."
"Yes."
Silva and Illumi could only agree. Some things, they had no right to refuse. Silva didn't want to bring Killua back because he had promised Killua to let him do what he wanted. Illumi, the brother-obsessed one, was more than happy to bring Killua back.
Zeno sensed something was wrong. After thinking quickly, he suddenly realized something.
"Could it be that matter?"
Zeno knew that Maha was living by taking the lifespan of his relatives, but he had no resistance to this, because that taking was not led by Maha. Maha was also a victim, the biggest victim.
"That's right."
"I'll also enter the depths of Kukuroo Mountain."
Zeno clenched his fist. He also hoped to break the Zoldyck family's curse of short lifespans.
"No."
Maha refused quite bluntly.
"White Night and I can each protect at most one person. Two slots are full. Do you want to go and die, or do you want to drag us down?"
Maha scolded Zeno, the old man, like he was scolding his grandson. It seemed that Zeno really was Maha's grandson.
"If Netero were willing to come, our chances would be even greater. Unfortunately."
Maha sighed. He had invited Netero many times, but the other party had always refused.
"By the way, when we enter Kukuroo Mountain this time, these two will come along too."
Su Xiao pointed at Amu behind him and Bubu Wang, who was sitting on a nearby sofa eating ice cream.
"Is that okay?"
Maha didn't know the details of Bubu and Amu.
"Of course. If Bubu and Amu both have to die inside, then we won't be able to get out either."
Su Xiao's affirmative attitude made it hard for Maha to say anything more.
The team members were confirmed. Now they just waited for Killua to be dragged back. With Silva and Illumi's efficiency, it wouldn't take long.
When Maha proposed bringing Killua back, Su Xiao wondered if those two father and son would also bring back the other little brat. Those two little brats always helped each other, regardless of life and death.
Fortunately, the two children of destiny in the Hunter World were not righteous companions. One of them, though passionate and straightforward, was calm in handling matters and knew how to assess the situation. When encountering an unbeatable enemy, he wouldn't power up; he would turn and flee, or directly "darken." The other was easier to handle—he was a little assassin.