Chapter 43: The Final Battle of Greed Island.

Chapter 43: The Final Battle of Greed Island.

*Author's Note*

Bet you weren't expecting this.

Chapter 43 The Final Battle of Greed Island.

Razor said he'd leave the lighthouse for a few hours, and if they wanted to get the card, they'd have to return to the girl who gave them the quest at that time. If they delayed or tried to wait too long, the pirates would return to the warehouse anyways, and they'd have to do the quest all over again.

After using the Quiver of Frustration to cast Leave on all the extras, Rayleigh led the group over to the woman who asked them to get rid of Razor and his fourteen devils and told her that the pirates had been defeated and chased from the lighthouse.

Hearing this, the woman started walking to the lighthouse, presumably to check if their word was good. Upon seeing that the structure was empty, the woman entered anyway and found the stairs to the top of the lighthouse.

The woman explained, "It's always darkest under the lighthouse. The entrance to Poseidon's Cavern was right in front of them this whole time, in this very lighthouse."

Once they reached the top, they saw a view of the whole ocean and the coastline extending into the distance. The woman picked a window and bent half over the side to reach something on the outer wall. When Gon and the rest peeked over another window to see what she was doing, they noticed that she was pressing a hidden switch.

The bright ray of the lighthouse condensed into a line and pointed at a specific location off the coast.

The woman looked out the window and seemed rather nostalgic for a moment before she continued, "The beam of light makes a spot on the ocean floor where the underwater cave will be. But unlike the rumors, there was never any treasure. It's a Holy Cave and only a few select fishermen knew of its location. That legend about the treasure is nothing but an exaggerated myth."

The woman leaned against the window and shook her head with a sigh. "Of course, Razor's pirates didn't believe this. I always wanted to tell them the truth, but they'd just think I was lying. Not that I ever could. It's a holy place to us. Those of us who were born from the ocean cannot do anything that would defile it."

Gon looked melancholic about the situation, but Killua and Rayleigh rolled their eyes at his reaction since this was just a video game scenario and no one actually died.

The woman finished, "I can finally look out at the sea again. The sunrise, the ships docking, and the ocean surface reflecting a rainbow of colors. To me, this ocean view is better than any treasure."

And with that line, the woman vanished in a puff of smoke and turned into a card.

The card was quickly placed into Killua's Book Goreinu and Demon Hunter both used Clone with Killua as the target. Since his Imposed Slots were empty save the card, both copies of Clone turned into Plot of Beach.

As the card was taken from Killua and placed in Gon's book, Goreinu suggested, "Since you have the original copy, you can use Fake to transform it into another card. That way if someone checks the contents of your book, it will look like a different card and you can hide the fact that you have it."

That was only true for the original. If an original card was turned into something else using the spell card Fake, it would revert back if touched by someone wearing Paladin's Necklace. But if a card copied with Clone was touched by someone with Paladin's Necklace, it would be destroyed. So only this method of hiding cards could only be done with originals, not copies.

Rayleigh shook his head. "No need. Why collect the other Imposed Slot cards when the collectors can come to us? Now we have the perfect bait. You might wanna stick around for a bit before heading off Goreinu."

Goreinu paled a bit at the implication. Since his copy could not be hidden with Fake, he was an easy target the moment he was on his own.

Rayleigh then asked Demon Hunter, "Want to stick around for a bit and see the effects of Staff of Judgement?"

Demon Hunter laughed and answered, "You Jedi are really good with negotiation. Yeah, alright. Let's see what happens."

Killua asked, "You are really sure Genthru will show up to take our cards?"

Biscuit answered for him, "Why wouldn't he? We look like easy pickings, right?"

Gon gritted his teeth and said, "Genthru is mine."

The Players collectively rolled their eyes at the main character and Biscuit said, "You probably won't be able to take him on your own, so Rayleigh will be your backup."

Ray nodded and replied, "I'll use telekinesis to hold him in place when he tries to use Little Flower, so you can use that chance to hit him. Though I will cut him into bite-sized pieces if you let your guard down."

Rayleigh's Force Stasis could, for the moment, be negated through the use of a strong Ren over the whole body, but according to Biscuit, when Genthru used Little Flower, he had to concentrate a lot of aura into his hands to protect themselves from the impact of his own technique. This meant less aura over the rest of his body, making him more vulnerable to Force Stasis.

The group left the lighthouse and casually walked out of the port city. Everyone maintained battle readiness.

Right on time, a shot of energy descended from the sky carrying three players and landed before them, one of whom was the familiar glasses-wearing schemer.

The man poured out his killing intent and said, "Hello there kiddies. Why don't we make a deal? You give me Wild Luck Alexandrite and Plot of Beach, and I guarantee that you'll keep your lives."

Gon shouted, "There's no way we'd agree to that, you bastard!"

Rayleigh calmly replied, "How about this? We all take out our books and kick the crap out of each other. The winner gets all the cards in the loser's books."

Genthru and his comrades all shook at the suggestion. They couldn't help it. Each one started laughing. Not that Rayleigh could blame them. The only adults were Biscuit, someone skilled at looking defenseless, and Goreinu, who already looked like he would run at his first chance. The rest of their group consisted of six twelve-year-old children. They were about as intimating as a stuffed teddy bear.

Gon's patience wasn't high enough to wait for the villains to stop laughing and continue their threatening monologue. He directly jumped over to smash Genthru's face in.

The seasoned killer opened his palm and positioned it to grab Gon's face, but before Gon came into range, he felt as if both of his arms and torso were being held in place by multiple vice grips.

Gon had complete faith in Rayleigh's abilities and did not waver in his charge. Using the opening Ray provided, Gon avoided the outstretched hands and smashed his K covered fist into Genthru's face.

Genthru's comrades also had faith in their friend and didn't move to defend him. Neither expected the upset as their response to Gon's straightforward charge was to laugh harder, not put up their guard.

Killua and Biscuit attacked the pair and Ray kept pace with Gon's charge to cover his friend's back while the other trio of Players watched with amusement. Green Lantern had already gotten out a card that turned into a bag of popcorn.

Rayleigh had long since formed his eighth Will, but the ninth was proving very troublesome to form. He knew it was better not to rush though since forcing something without understanding the consequence was a recipe for disaster. Still, that meant in a fight he had eight separate minds to use simultaneously. He only needed one to move his body so the other seven could be used to stack multiple instances of Force Stasis or use other skills together.

Rayleigh had one use Clairvoyance to pay attention to the surroundings, one to use Battle Precognition to recognize any danger in advance, one to use Force Valor to make his body move fast enough to keep up with the fight, and three others to use Force Stasis on Genthru to prevent him from attacking or defending while Gon pummeled him.

Rayleigh also kept his Lightsaber in his hand to amplify his connection to the Force and to use it if needed.

It only took Genthru a moment to understand that someone was using a method of control to impede his movement, so he used a full-body Ren to break free of Ray's restrictions and dodge Gon's next blow, and prepare to counter. However, Rayleigh mixed up his Force Stasis with random bits of telekinesis to shift Genthru's balance, cause him to miss Gon, or cause him to fail to dodge. Gon had no problems making use of them and continued to pound his face in.

From an outside observer, it looked like Genthru was an amateur fighter getting his ass kicked by a twelve-year-old, but that wasn't true in the slightest. It was just a terrible matchup.

None of the Force Skills Rayleigh frequently used caused any damage. What they did was impede or hold the opponent while predicting their next action in advance. Such skills shone brightest when used in tangent with another fighter who was willing to inflict injuries on his opponent. I'll hold him, you punch. And since Genthru had no way to stop Rayleigh's interference, he could only try to outguess the choices of half a dozen independent minds creatively messing with him.

Of course, Rayleigh could allow Genthru to damage him three times. Then he could use a combination of Force Stasis and Telekinesis he came up with to twist the Bomber's joints into pieces without the Force caring. But Genthru wasn't the type of person you want to give even a single free shot to, much less three free shots and Gon wanted to smash Genthru's face in personally.

At this point, Genthru was actually panicking. He accepted that he had completely misread the situation and that these kids were a serious threat. Gon was someone he considered an amateur at moving his aura, but his own level was brought down to Gon's due to Rayleigh's interference, leaving him no way out. Like all successful killers, Genthru was a prudent man and didn't consider it cowardly to run away and ambush his target later.

Genthru got some distance and said, "Book!" causing his book to appear. He picked up a card from his free slots and tried to use the Return Spell, but no sound came out of his mouth. Rayleigh had just used Force Muffle on him.

Gon used the opening to smash Genthru's face into the ground. Gon immediately landed next to it and smashed his face in three more times.

Rayleigh shouted, "Gon, stop!"

Gon held his fist back when he realized that Genthru was knocked out. If he killed him, all his cards would vanish. Gon was still inexperienced at threat recognition and continued to beat Genthru down because he thought the man was still a danger to his life when he wasn't. It was something to work on.

Rayleigh continued, "Let's finish this quickly. Get out your book, we'll move all the cards from Genthru's into yours before he wakes up."

Gon had calmed down already and agreed. Biscuit and Killua were still fighting, but neither was trying to win. Delaying the opponent until the cards were transferred was the win condition.

One by one, Rayleigh flipped through each page of Genthru's Book and passed over every card that Gon didn't have in his own book.

Rayleigh smiled quite broadly when he saw the first page of Genthru's book. This really was a calamity for the Bomber. Two days ago, they learned that Genthru needed cards 002, 009, and 075. But now, on the first page of his book, number 009 was there. This meant that Genthru really did only need numbers 002 and 075. Unfortunately, all his hard work was now for nothing.

The final card, number 099, which Gon did not have was skipped for the moment. Rayleigh continued to turn Genthru's book and found some other good things, like two more copies of Angel's Breath.

[017 Angel's Breath SS-3

She cures one person of all wounds and ills, restoring them to perfect health. She will only appear once.]

Such things were nice to have.

After taking everything of value from Genthru's book, the last card was placed into Gon's Book.

At that moment, a ringing sound came from the books. Even those without their books out found that their books had suddenly appeared. From the book, a familiar woman's voice sounded out.

[Attention all players! As of today, there have finally appeared players who have collected 99 cards in their imposed slots. To commemorate this event, in ten minutes there will be a trivia game open to all players on Greed Island. There are 100 questions in total! All questions will be on the cards within the Imposed Slots. The player with the highest score will win a prize. The prize is card no. 000, Ruler's Blessing! Everyone please open your books and wait a few minutes.]

"Genthru!" Bomber's comrades got past Biscuit and Killua and ran toward Rayleigh and Gon once they realized they had been duped.

Rayleigh motioned for Gon to step out of the way as they found the brutalized Genthru and checked to make sure he was still alive.

They took a calm expression only for a moment when they found his pulse, but that calm turned into rage when they understood the state of their comrade.

"YOU BASTARDS!"

Each pill makes you physically younger by one year. You will retain all knowledge and memories. Beware, as you will die if you take more than your age. One vial contains 100 pills.]

Rayleigh even turned around so that Biscuit could take the card from her book without him seeing it. Genthru had nine in his Free Slots and one in his Imposed Slot to ensure no one else could get the card.

Rayleigh honestly had no idea if Biscuit took the pill bottle and some of the pills or not. That was her secret forever more. Due to her transformation technique, she could get away with taking as many as she wanted without anyone noticing. While she was making her decision, Rayleigh used the copy of Angel Breath on himself. Biscuit was surprised to see him do so and asked, "Why'd you use that?"

Rayleigh answered, "The card description says it cures all wounds and restores to perfect health. I have no idea if any of the crazy stuff I did when I was younger caused some permanent damage, so why not use it to be sure? I do feel lighter."

Biscuit considered it and decided to use the last copy for herself as well. If anyone had damage from a misspent youth, it was her.

The pair would keep this a secret between themselves and after settling up, they headed for Limeiro and met up with Killua outside the castle.

Gon returned after half an hour and said there would be a parade for them all. He also showed them the gold case they could put three cards into and take back to the real world.

That was when Rayleigh revealed to the group that Battera didn't want the cards anymore, but was only paying them 40 Billion instead of 50.

They all still had a lot of money from Heaven's Arena, so they didn't care too much about the money. The cards, on the other hand, were something they were interested in.

Gon asked, "So what cards do you want?"

Biscuit said, "Blue Planet! I want Blue Planet!"

Gon then asked Rayleigh, "What about you?"

Rayleigh looked thoughtful. That was the question. The only card he was really interested in was Paladin's Necklace for its ability to reflect curses. Since this was technology and not a virtual game, that meant that the necklace could even work on attack spells outside of Greed Island.

At first, he intended to just convert the necklace directly into an inventory item, but the cost of doing so was 5000 Mission Points. Even with all the Missions he'd done since coming to this world, he only amassed 3252 points at the moment. That meant if he wanted to get the necklace, he'd either have to stay here and collect more points, or take it off the island so he could have more time to collect Mission Points.

Rayleigh answered, "I really like Paladin's Necklace."

Gon then turned to Killua, who shook his head and said, "I'm not really interested in any cards. What about you?"

Gon smiled, "Well, actually..."

The parade was held that same day, and the group of four sat on a float that carried them through the capital city to the cheers of the various players and NPCs. At the end of the parade, a great feast was held in the castle, where there was drinking, karaoke, dancing, and merriment of every kind.

After the party ended and farewells were shared, the group of four headed for the waystation to leave the game.

Since they didn't need to see the lawyers or Battera, they left the game from a node near a town Biscuit was familiar with.

When Gon arrived, he looked around for a moment in a daze. He then lifted his ring and said, "Book."

Rather than the now very familiar book, a gold case appeared containing three cards.

[022 Toraemon A-22

A beast on the verge of extinction has a habit of stuffing things in its 4-D pocket. You never know what kind of treasures it could have picked up.]

[081 Blue Planet SS-5

A unique blue jewel. Its composition does not correspond to any known mineral, so it was given this name to mean "a gift from space."]

[084 Paladin's Necklace D-60

A player wearing this will reflect curses cast upon him, and be able to undo curses placed on cards he touches.]

Biscuit picked up Blue Planet and said aloud, "Gain," turning the card into a deep blue, sparkling, iridescent marble with an otherworldly shimmer and shine.

She squealed, "Oh! I'm in heaven! What should I name you? Star-chan? Blue-chan? Doesn't Blue-chan sound good? Yep, that's your name now."

Ignoring their crazy comrade, Rayleigh took out Paladin's Necklace and used Gain on it as well before wearing it.

He checked to see if the cost of conversion remained the same and found something very interesting. Now that he was out of the game, the cost of converting Paladin's Necklace into an Inventory Item he could take to other worlds was now 2500 Mission Points. Taking it out of the game cut the price in half. He swore never to reveal this to the other Players.

The trio then looked over the third and final card with a sigh.

Of course, they had the idea of filling Toraemon's pocket with items and turning it into a card to smuggle extra items out. They were directly told that a Toraemon that appeared when Gain was used would have an empty pocket, and everything placed in there would be lost.

So the card was useless, it was just there for fun. And something more.

Everyone looked expectantly at Rayleigh as he picked up the third card from the golden case. The moment he did, the card's appearance changed.

[1039 Accompany F-130

Fly the caster and all players within a 20-meter radius of the caster to the location of the target city (limited to cities previously visited) or target player (limited to players previously met inside the game).]

That's right, it was a duplicate made with Mimic.

[1010 Mimic A-20

Transform a card into a copy of a target card that the caster already owns (it fails if target card's transformation limits is already exceeded)]

They could only place an Imposed Slot card into the golden case, so they used the spell card Mimic to transform an Accompany Spell card into an Imposed Slot Card. When a card transformed with Fake or Mimic was held by a player wearing the Paladin's Necklace, it reverted back into the original card.

Gon came up with the idea. In the list of people Gon has met, the very first name on the list was Nigg, an anagram of Ging. Rayleigh already told Gon that Ging once took Gon into this game, so it wasn't surprising to see Ging in the list of people Gon met. What Gon wanted to try, was using the Spell card, Accompany outside the game to take them directly to Ging's location.

Of course, Gon could have done the same with Magnetic Force, but that card only takes a single player to the target. According to Gon, he wanted not only to meet Ging, but also to show off his best friends to him.

Hearing such a sweet thing, both Killua and Rayleigh cringed while inwardly smiling. Biscuit started crying at how beautiful their friendship was.

Gon asked, "Do you want to come with us to see Ging?"

After collecting herself, she replied, "No, I have other things to do. Besides, I have no interest in a man who already has a son. If I keep following you guys around, I'll start to feel like a mom."

Gon smiled back and said, "Alright, take care of yourself."

Rayleigh said, "Have fun with your hobbies."

After the final farewells, Gon took the spell card and said, "Accompany On, Nigg!" causing a field of energy to surround them and send them high, high into the sky. Far higher than the spell had ever done before.

Mountains, oceans, and continents passed below them before they landed on a grassy field in front of a lake. Sitting on the edge of the lake was a hooded man with a fishing line.

Gon asked, "Ging?"

The man turned around and removed his hood to reveal a skinny man with slender features and long hair. "Isn't that Gon? You've grown up huh? So what are you doing here?"

Gon shouted, "KITE?!"

The man named Kite took out the fish he had caught and cooked them over a campfire while Gon explained what happened.

Kite stated, "Ah, now I remember. Ging was using a fake name when I saw him in the game. I forgot what name he used."

Rayleigh said, "He called himself Nigg, but it looked like he pranked Gon. The spell card that should have sent us to him, instead, sent us to you."

Kite looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding and saying, "That sounds like Ging."

Gon steamed, "Ahhh, he tricked me... How mean."

Killua added, "And I thought we'd finally see him this time."

Kite asked, "So why don't you tell me about your adventures?"

Gon began to explain his adventures with Killua and Rayleigh adding bits and pieces here and there. As they chatted, Rayleigh considered his next step and remembered that it had been one year since his promise not to teach Nen to any other players. It was time to accumulate a few favors.

*Author's Note*

For those wondering if someone really could get the money from Battera without winning the game themselves, Tsezguerra did the exact same thing. The only thing he did for Gon was delay the Bomber for a few days and in exchange, he took 36 billion of the 40 billion Battera gave for winning, even though there was no physical evidence that Tsezguerra had anything to do with Gon winning the game except hearsay. Well screw that guy. While Tsezguerra delayed the Bomber, said Bomber went on a killing spree and massacred loads of players. All of their lives were the cost of that several day delay.

Oh, and Biscuit did want the Witch's Rejuvenation Potion in canon, but since she didn't have a copy, she couldn't use it herself before leaving the island. So yes, she did take a few pills. I don't know how many. I won't ask her because I don't want to die.

Rayleigh will be skipping the first part of the Chimera Ant Arc and show up during the second part. After a lot of drafts, I've found this is the best way to handle the canon without plot holes and get to the action.