After Killua turned four, the white-haired talent of the Zoldyck family started to show. Not long after, their mother got pregnant again—probably still hoping for a daughter.

When Saiki Kusuo heard about the pregnancy, he let out a huge sigh of relief. He'd been worried the Zoldyck family had capped the number of kids at five for some mysterious reason. Ever since Killua was three and there was no sign of Kalluto, he'd started to get nervous.

Turns out they'd just been focused on raising three kids at once and were worried they wouldn't be able to handle more.

Even though Kalluto was born a boy, just like the rest, it almost felt like the family didn't even have another gender. After this, both Silva and Kikyo agreed—unless something unexpected happened, they wouldn't have more kids.

Which honestly made sense. If they had one more white-haired kid, who would inherit the family head position? It's like they always stopped after getting a white-haired one. The ones with white hair lived the longest too. In this generation, everyone else had random hair colors. Don't ask how I know this—from dad to grandpa to great-grandpa and great-great-grandpa, there were no uncles or cousins. Only white-haired retired family heads still around.

Anyway, the Zoldyck family had never been more stable—everything was going smoothly.

At six years old, Killua left home, cleared Heavens Arena, and raked in 200 million, becoming the richest of the younger generation. As for Saiki Kusuo, his various half-baked inventions actually boosted a bunch of the Zoldyck family's side businesses and brought weird growth in unexpected areas.

Surprisingly though—he was broke. Saiki Kusuo had less money than six-year-old Killua. Why? Because every project he invested in needed a huge amount of money. Anyone who's started a business knows: if you have 10 million, you try to raise 30 million in capital, invest all of it, and make that money back with interest.

Saiki Kusuo's high-tech projects followed this exact route. Since it was part of the Zoldyck family business, it didn't even follow normal financing rules—over 51% of the shares had to stay in the Zoldyck family's hands.

And of course, Kusuo didn't have the money for those shares. It was all borrowed from the family. Long-term, if he kept inventing and building companies like this, he'd be a billionaire one day.

But for now, Saiki Kusuo was a billionaire in debt. Tons of industries operated in his name, but he was deep in the red.

The worst part? Illumi would check in every now and then just to show him exactly how much he owed.

By the time Killua was eight, even the family gates couldn't stop him. He came and went as he liked. One of his favorite games was calling Alluka, Milluki, and Saiki Kusuo to watch him open two of the massive family gates in a dramatic show-off.

Saiki Kusuo could only sigh. The project wasn't done yet, but he still had to play along with this game. A 256-ton gate? Not even a challenge for him.

When Killua was eight, so were Milluki and Alluka. At this point, Milluki and Alluka had already veered far from their original paths in the story. Alluka was growing steadily and was a little healthier and stronger than most kids her age, with slightly better resistance to poison. But other than that, she didn't know any real combat.

Milluki, on the other hand, had become a nimble chubby kid—not nearly as overweight as in the original story, and even somewhat fit. Maybe because every time he wanted to dive into a new business idea, Kusuo would crush his enthusiasm with over-the-top competition, leaving him frustrated and forced to switch hobbies.

But Milluki still loved tech, games, and anime—something he and Saiki Kusuo had in common and could talk about.

Life stayed calm until Killua turned ten and entered his rebellious phase. The family suddenly laid down a rule that he had to stay home for a while. Shockingly, Killua actually listened—he trained, played with Alluka, competed in games with Milluki, and snuck into Kusuo's lab to peek at unfinished projects.

But even before this, Saiki Kusuo had started showing up in the lab less and less. Today, he wasn't there either.

Over the past few years, the Zoldyck estate had been rebuilt many times, and its tech level had become one of the best in the world. Everything was designed by Saiki Kusuo himself. If he wanted to leave the house without anyone knowing, it was beyond easy.

The reason he left this time was simple. Now that Killua was ten, Saiki Kusuo was fifteen—officially entering adolescence. Illumi's suppressive control over him was getting weaker. He had to start looking for other things in this world that might be able to keep his powers in check.

This time, he had a lead. Two years ago, while frustrated about his stalled progress, he had hacked into the Hunter website and met someone online. Through the connection, he found out that the guy was Ging.

The main character's dad—a solid powerhouse. Definitely someone you could count on.

Back then, Ging was building a game. When he found out Saiki Kusuo was the head scientist for a mysterious team, he invited Kusuo to help test the game. Kusuo agreed, but asked for something in return. Over the next two years, he helped Ging improve Greed Island. The game had technically been released in 1987, but constant bugs meant they were always patching it. Saiki Kusuo's help had made a huge difference.

So two years later, on a certain day, he received a message from Ging: "It's on the Small World Tree. It's a pain for the lab guys, but if I left it anywhere else, someone might steal it. What you wanted is there."

The Small World Tree was a stopped-growth version of the World Tree, and even then it was 1,784 meters tall. Since he'd never been there, Saiki Kusuo teleported to the nearest place he had been to, then took a spaceship to a nearby city.

Once he saw the tree, he could teleport the rest of the way. Honestly, if Ging could send a message, why couldn't he just send a picture too?

Saiki Kusuo hadn't been out in a while. He found his seat on the airship and sat down. It was only a three-hour ride, and he wasn't planning to eat.

Right now, he was basically a walking hazard—turning his head the wrong way might blow up the ship. He really hoped the thing Ging found was actually useful.

"Well, well, how surprising~ Didn't think I'd run into our little pink boy on the ship~"

Great. Wrong ship. He wondered if the one two kilometers away was the right one heading to Small World Tree. Saiki's face darkened.

"Oh? Not happy to see me? You won't even say hi to your brother's friend?"

Hisoka. Why is he here?

Saiki looked up with a sigh and met his gaze. Hisoka, with his dyed red hair, was leaning back against the seat. This was first class—single seats, no one on either side, but people behind. The person on the other end of Saiki's row had already been scared away by Hisoka.

"I didn't manage to get a seat ticket. Bit of a hassle. I was just checking if there were any empty spots in first class…"

Yeah, there is one. You scared the guy off. Go sit somewhere else and don't talk to me.

"So, why are you here, little pink? I remember il-chan saying you haven't left the house in six years. Hmm~ Don't tell me il-chan sent you…"

So full of yourself. I came for my own reasons.

Hisoka: [Should I report this to il-chan? Might get a reward. It's info about his little brother, after all.]

You seriously think Illumi would pay you?

Still, Saiki had run away from home—better to avoid being found. He sighed and instantly teleported behind Hisoka to give up his seat.

No choice. If he tried to squeeze past Hisoka's arm, one wrong move and the whole ship might blow. Teleportation was the safest, and thank God the cooldown was over.

The seat's yours. Sit. Just don't talk to me.

"Thump… thump… thump-thump-thump…" Hisoka pressed his hand to the wall, making heartbeat sounds as he slowly leaned closer.

Who the hell adds sound effects to their own heartbeat? Saiki stepped back, face dark.

"Hear that? Your heart's beating so fast. Why are you really out here, little pink? I'm getting more and more curious… ahh…"

Hisoka: [He's gotten so much stronger! I haven't even seen him fight and I can already feel it. Every little move is full of power… so exciting… hehehe…]

You're obviously just enjoying this. Compared to that, my reason for being here probably doesn't matter at all.

Wait a sec. Why is Hisoka here? There's nothing here that should interest him.

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