Larry didn't move forward right away. Instead, he stood still on the grassy field, quietly waiting. A few minutes later, Menchi appeared just as expected, coming down the same spiral staircase he had used earlier.
"So this is Greed Island?" she asked, her eyes scanning the breathtaking scenery. "It's incredible… it really feels like a real place."
Larry nodded. "It is amazing. But here's the thing, this isn't a game world."
"…What?"
"This is the real world."
Menchi blinked, caught off guard by the sudden revelation. Larry's voice was calm but firm, revealing a truth known only to a select few, the game world of Greed Island wasn't virtual at all. It was an actual location hidden somewhere in the real world, and aura was used to teleport players here.
"So, it's like a transport mechanism… using aura to move people to a specific spot in the world?"
"Exactly."
The realization slowly sank in, and everything began to make sense to Menchi. The vivid scenery, the breeze, the smell of the grass, it wasn't an illusion. It was all real.
"Normally, players have to spend time collecting cards first," Larry said, casually glancing around. "They're crucial to progressing in the game. But…" He paused, a smirk tugging at the edge of his lips. "Looks like we might be skipping that part."
Just as he finished speaking, a streak of white light flashed from the sky and crashed down like a falling star, landing just a few meters ahead.
From the fading light emerged a sleazy-looking man with messy dreadlocks and a mustard-yellow outfit. His eyes locked onto Larry and Menchi.
"Fresh meat, huh? Wonder what kind of cards they've got on them," he muttered, spitting to the side with a sneer.
Larry didn't reply. He just stared, his eyes sharp and cold.
Menchi, standing calmly beside him, remained silent as well. She watched them with mild disinterest, as if looking at a bug that hadn't realized it was about to be squashed.
"Tch. Whatever, let's check their cards."
The man raised his hand, summoning a book in front of him. It materialized with a shimmer, the signature card book every player used to manage and store spell and item cards. But before he could even open it, his pupils suddenly dilated.
His breath caught in his throat. Literally.
A blue-furred Lucario stood behind him in a blur, one paw wrapped tightly around his neck. "Getting a little too cocky, aren't you?" Larry said, walking forward with a mocking smile. "You know the difference between hunter and prey now, don't you?"
The man's eyes widened in horror as he struggled to breathe, unable to even whimper. Larry casually approached, reaching past the helpless man to flip through the floating card book. He started transferring every card into his and Menchi's books.
This was the reason Larry hadn't killed him outright, yet. There was still something to take. The sleazy man trembled, his eyes full of regret. He had always preyed on newbies, never thinking he'd one day stumble into a monster in disguise.
But now it was too late. He couldn't speak, couldn't move, and couldn't activate any cards. The moment Larry was done looting him, he would be nothing more than a forgotten corpse.
The game's mechanics were brutal. If a player died, every card in their book vanished. That's why the smart ones always used force to suppress their opponents first, silence them, extract the cards, then finish the job.
"Pathetic. No wonder… Just a small-time thug surviving by bullying rookies."
Larry calmly sorted the man's collection. Most of the cards were low-tier junk, basic movement abilities like Magnetic Force or Return, and shady tools like Trace and Snatch. Cards meant to peek or steal from others, not fight head-on.
In Greed Island, cards were ranked by acquisition difficulty, from SS (most difficult) down to H (easiest). Most of this guy's collection hovered around the C or D ranks, common cards that were easy to obtain and not particularly valuable. He had maybe one or two B-rank cards, but nothing that would make a seasoned Hunter take notice.
The card book had 100 fixed slots for designated cards and 45 free slots for everything else. Leave a card out of the book for too long, and it'd materialize into a real item, making it unusable in card form again.
With the last card stored, Larry turned and walked away. The man, still locked in Lucario's grip, watched his last chance vanish.
Then, flash. A clean puncture opened at his neck. Blood poured out in a steady stream, soaking the grass below. His body weakened, growing colder with every heartbeat.
Lucario hadn't even used a special technique, just a single sharp strike. The man's body finally gave out, collapsing face-first onto the ground with a dull thud.
The weight of his corpse flattened the grass beneath him. He never even got the chance to scream. The green grass was stained with blood.
Larry's figure flickered and vanished, leaving behind only a lifeless body that was already beginning to go cold. Moments later, the corpse of the sleazy man disappeared too, vanished completely from sight.
In Greed Island, when a player dies, their cards vanish, and their body is automatically teleported back to the login area. Larry gave a passing glance at the spot where the man had been, then called out his trusty Arcanine. He was headed to the nearest city, and riding was the best option.
Cards like [Return] could only take you to places you'd already been, and [Magnetic Force] only let you warp to players you'd already met. It reminded Larry of the Fly move from Pokémon, you couldn't just go anywhere; you had to unlock the place first.
He remembered that Gon and the others had entered the game on September 10th. Checking the date, he realized it was only the 8th. That meant he had arrived two days before them.
Luckily, the sleazy man had a map card. Larry could just follow it to get to the next city, even without using [Return]. It'd be a bit slower, sure, but nothing the Arcanine couldn't handle.
There was a [Drift] card too, one that could send you somewhere new, but unfortunately, the guy didn't have it. Even if he had, there'd be no way to guarantee it would drop Menchi and him in the same place.
Before long, they arrived at the closest city, Antokiba, also known as the City of Prizes.
Larry shifted his attention away from the gestation bar in his head, which had appeared the moment he entered Greed Island, and took in the view. While it was called a "city," Larry thought "town" would be more accurate. Most buildings were only two or three stories tall, and there weren't many high-rises.
Walking deeper into Antokiba, the architecture gave off a distinct western vibe, stone taverns, bulletin boards filled with bounty posters, adventurers going in and out of buildings with purpose. It definitely lived up to its name as a bounty city.
He even spotted a flyer promoting the upcoming monthly competition. In the original story, Gon and the others had joined that event and won the [Sword of Truth]. But Larry and Menchi had no interest in that.
They hadn't come to Greed Island to collect powerful cards or complete the game. Their real goal was much simpler, enjoy the food, travel around, and breed Pokémon.