Ronin's waist injury healed quickly. As for his broken arm, it looked like it would be completely fine in about another week.
That probably had something to do with the fact that he was an Enhancer-type ability user. His self-healing was greatly boosted. Unfortunately, his Sharingan hadn't evolved far enough yet—if he could use A-rank ninjutsu, he'd probably recover even faster.
His first fight after arriving at Heaven's Arena didn't interest Ronin much. The opponent was simply too weak.
He barely had to try before the other guy was sent flying off the ring.
The easy win put him in an even more relaxed mood.
"Contestant number 2025."
The referee's voice came from nearby.
Ronin turned his head and was informed that he would advance directly to the 50th floor.
On the way up, he also collected the prize money for his first victory: 152 Jenny.
Basically enough to buy a drink.
After winning, Ronin was also eligible to fight one more match that same day.
Heaven's Arena arranged matches so that if a fighter won, they could fight again that day as long as they agreed.
In other words, a competitor could fight at most two matches per day.
At this pace, Ronin could reach the 60th floor today. To make it to the 200th floor would take exactly a week—assuming nothing went wrong.
Ronin planned to use this place to seriously polish his combat experience.
The fight on the 50th floor also went smoothly. Unfortunately, he didn't make it to the 100th floor yet, so he had to rent a room inside the arena himself.
He was running low on cash.
Thankfully, winning on the 50th floor earned him a prize of 50,000 Jenny.
Ronin didn't bother trying to save money. When you can easily earn hundreds of millions of Jenny, a few tens of thousands really isn't worth stressing over.
Over the next few days, Ronin split his time between researching the world online and rapidly climbing the floors.
Little by little, he became a rising star in the arena.
After all, he had already reached the 170th floor without losing a single match. Even though he didn't always finish opponents instantly, every victory was clean and decisive.
As the floors got higher, Ronin noticed that his opponents all had solid combat experience.
That was exactly why he didn't go for one-hit knockouts. He wanted to learn more fighting techniques through real exchanges.
In fact, when he reached the 150th floor, he even considered joining a martial arts gym to formally study combat skills.
But he eventually dismissed the idea.
If the instructors had been Nen users, that would've been fine—but after checking out a few places and finding that they were all run by ordinary people, he lost interest.
That afternoon, Ronin arrived at the waiting room on the 170th floor.
When he received his match notice, a look of surprise crossed his face—the opponent was someone he knew.
"Mr. Ronin, Mr. Killua, please proceed to Arena A on the 173rd floor."
Hearing that name, Ronin froze for a moment.
By this point in time, Killua should only be eight years old… but then Ronin remembered something Killua had once mentioned.
When Killua accompanied Gon to Heaven's Arena, he'd said that he first came here at the age of six and spent two years climbing the ranks.
Back then, he made it to the 190th floor.
That lined up perfectly.
However, as Ronin headed toward the ring, he spotted someone waiting for him in the hallway.
The man was dressed in a well-tailored tuxedo, with a small mustache on his chin and inverted triangular glasses perched on his nose.
When he saw Ronin approach, he gave a perfectly measured smile.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Ronin. My name is Gotoh. I am the butler of the Zoldyck family, young master Killua's household."
Ronin narrowed his eyes slightly. "What do you want?"
"Yes." Gotoh still looked completely harmless. "In the upcoming match, I hope you will refrain from using Nen. As compensation, I am prepared to offer you ten million Jenny."
Ronin didn't hesitate for even a second before nodding. "Deal."
Ten million for free—there was no reason to refuse.
And Gotoh's appearance here confirmed Ronin's suspicion: the Zoldyck family clearly had a structured plan for Killua's training.
Otherwise, there was no way Killua could stay in Heaven's Arena for two years without ever being exposed to Nen.
Gotoh smiled in satisfaction, pulled out a card from his pocket, bowed slightly, and stepped aside.
As Ronin passed by, he casually accepted the card and nodded back at him.
When Ronin finally stepped onto the ring and looked at the small figure across from him, he felt something oddly surreal.
Eight-year-old Killua was just a little over three feet tall. The moment Ronin entered the ring, Killua bristled and immediately took a combat stance.
Clearly, even without attacking, Ronin's Nen—maintained in a state of Ten—was already putting enormous pressure on him.
Ronin had no intention of losing, and no intention of breaking his promise.
Even without using Nen, he was confident he could beat Killua.
So the moment the referee announced the start of the match, Ronin exploded forward, instantly appearing behind Killua.
Killua reacted incredibly fast. As Ronin closed in, he spun around and crossed his arms in front of himself.
Bang.
Ronin's knife-hand strike slammed into Killua's arms, the sheer force knocking him back several steps.
As Killua steadied himself, Ronin noticed a subtle change in his hands—and a sharp killing intent flashed in Killua's eyes.
The next second, Killua surged forward.
But his movements were completely transparent to Ronin. With a slight sidestep, Ronin let Killua rush past him and chopped toward the back of Killua's neck.
The strike missed.
Killua burst forward with sudden speed, narrowly dodging, and reached for Ronin's heart.
Ronin twisted aside, avoiding the lethal grab, then snapped his leg up and kicked Killua squarely in the torso, sending him flying.
Before Killua could recover, Ronin leapt up and smashed his fist into Killua's back at the peak of his arc, slamming him hard into the ring.
As Killua hit the floor, the referee immediately began counting.
The crowd erupted into thunderous cheers.
Ronin, however, saw Killua's body twitch—he was about to get up.
After a moment's thought, Ronin stepped back several paces. At that instant, he sensed a wave of killing intent—not from Killua, but from the audience.
Following the source, Ronin glanced into the stands and saw a pale, expressionless young man whose face was covered with embedded pins.
Illumi.
Ronin quickly withdrew his gaze and refocused on Killua.
When the referee reached five, Killua pushed himself back to his feet. His face was filled with frustration, and his killing intent burned even stronger.
His pitch-black eyes stared at Ronin without a shred of emotion—cold and empty.
The training methods of an assassin family really are insane, Ronin thought.
As the referee announced the fight's continuation, Ronin spoke calmly, "Just give up. You're not my opponent."
Losing this match would only drop Killua to the 160th floor. With his strength, as long as he didn't run into Ronin again, climbing back to 170 would be easy.
And one loss really wouldn't mean much to Killua at this stage.
After all, the fact that it took him two years to reach the 190th floor meant he must've lost plenty of times along the way.
Killua stared at Ronin for a long time before finally withdrawing his killing intent. He shoved his hands into his pockets and struck a cool, casual pose.
"Fine. You really are stronger than me. I give up!"
Ronin nodded. He had no intention of getting acquainted with Killua, and turned to leave the arena.
But Killua's voice rang out from behind him again.
"There's a disgusting, creepy aura on you that I really hate. I'll challenge you again someday—and when I do, I'll figure out what it is!"
"If you can make it up there," Ronin said with a casual wave, "I won't mind."
At Killua's current level, the 200th floor was completely out of reach.
So Ronin wasn't worried at all.
That said, when he spoke those words, the killing intent coming from below the ring grew noticeably stronger.