Lord: Sequence Master

Not long after Rosen issued his orders to acquire Poor Man's Roses, one of his professional managers came back with an expected rejection.

The problem wasn't purchasing arms—Yorknew City's black market was more than capable of delivering weapons. The issue was the Poor Man's Rose itself. Despite its simple construction and wide availability, the Poor Man's Rose had become highly restricted due to the V5, the powerful alliance of the five largest nations in the Hunter x Hunter world.

In the past, smaller nations had seen the Poor Man's Rose as their answer to nuclear deterrence. While its destructive range wasn't as large as a nuclear bomb, its compact size made it incredibly dangerous. One person could easily carry it into the heart of any V5 nation's capital and unleash untold devastation.

Initially, the Poor Man's Rose had tipped the balance of power, allowing small countries to stand against the larger V5 nations. But its frequent use in wars between smaller countries led to catastrophic casualties, far beyond what conventional weapons could achieve.

In a world filled with Nen users, death didn't always mean the end—it could be the beginning of something far worse. The Poor Man's Rose, with its mass casualties, generated vast amounts of lingering malice and post-mortem Nen. While ordinary people left little behind after death, the collective rage and despair of thousands who died in explosions formed a potent source of spiritual energy.

This mass of malice eventually manifested as a dangerous Nen tool—a cursed Poor Man's Rose with two powerful effects. First, it allowed V5 to track any use of the Poor Man's Rose. Second, it suppressed the weapon's deadliest feature—its toxic aftermath. These measures gave V5 control over the weapon once again, preventing its uncontrolled use.

Acquiring a Poor Man's Rose was still possible, but it would be nearly impossible to avoid detection by V5.

After careful thought, Rosen decided to shelve his plans for now. Acquiring such a weapon would be much easier once he controlled a small country of his own. While V5's Nen tool could deter small nations, they couldn't prevent desperate countries from using the Poor Man's Rose in a last-ditch effort for survival.

With that settled, Rosen turned his attention back to Spiral Port.

By this time, Spiral Port was in disarray. The deaths of tens of thousands of Grey Rats had crippled their logistical support, allowing the Pirate Alliance to regain momentum.

Initially, the Pirate Alliance had been pushed back by both the Grey Rats and human superhumans. However, as the rats struggled to keep their forces supplied, the tide of battle began to shift in the pirates' favor.

In theory, the human superhumans could have easily crushed the Pirate Alliance if they truly committed. But they had paid to enter the Spiral Sea Battle spiritual realm for resources and rewards, not to risk their lives fighting a war. Their primary focus remained on survival and gaining treasure, rather than fighting to the death.

Seeing this, Rosen chose to blend in with the crowd, biding his time until the real looting could begin.

He knew that the true rewards would come when the pirates' ammunition ran out, forcing them into ground combat. That's when the human superhumans would strike, looting the pirate ships for valuable resources.

But Rosen wasn't planning to wait that long. Slipping away from the main action, he ventured deep underground into the Spiral Port tunnels.

The Grey Rats were in such chaos from their losses that they were severely understaffed, leaving many areas poorly guarded. Using his Enhanced Senses and Shadow Sneak, Rosen skillfully navigated the maze of tunnels, avoiding patrols until he reached the resource warehouse.

Inside the warehouse, he found a vast collection of supplies. The Grey Rats weren't short on resources—they simply lacked the manpower to transport them to the front lines.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Rosen began pilfering materials. The warehouse was protected by space-restricting barriers to prevent theft using spatial storage items, but Rosen's Secret Study could bypass these defenses. He quietly funneled the supplies into his Divine Territory for safekeeping.

For two days, Rosen stole resources undetected, methodically targeting extraordinary items and spiritual crystals. He avoided taking large amounts of any one resource, but his repeated thefts eventually triggered alarms. A Sequence 7 Grey Rat was dispatched to oversee the warehouse, forcing Rosen to halt his operations.

By then, however, he had already amassed a considerable haul. The spiritual crystals alone were worth over 300,000 units of spiritual energy, and the other materials—rare plants, magical minerals, and processed goods—were worth more than a million spiritual units in total.

Rosen carefully distributed the loot within his Divine Territory. The extraordinary minerals were planted in the soil, the rare plants in the herb garden of his Alchemical Castle, and the remaining resources in the treasure vault. The spiritual crystals, however, were set aside to be used for future transactions in the Hunter x Hunter world.

Now trapped in the warehouse by the presence of the Sequence 7 Grey Rat, Rosen shifted his focus to training and refining his Hunter Sequence skills. He knew he couldn't leave until the final battle between the Grey Rats and the Pirate Alliance.

Elsewhere in Spiral Port, a gathering of powerful human superhumans was underway.

Nine individuals stood in an underground lair, their eyes cold and calculating. The weakest among them was a Sequence 8, while the strongest three had reached Sequence 7.

For warriors of their caliber, there wasn't much to gain from a low-level spiritual realm like Spiral Sea Battle. Rewards scaled based on the level of the enemy, and defeating weaker foes yielded little. A Sequence 7 killing a Sequence 9 would earn almost nothing, and even fighting a Sequence 8 resulted in only half the normal rewards.

Clearly, these nine individuals weren't here for the battle's spoils. They had come for something else entirely.

(End of Chapter)