"This outfit was bought with your clothes," the girl said, her tone flat. She crossed her arms and gestured at her white outfit.
"My clothes?" Morin blinked, looking down at his own attire.
His previous clothing was gone, replaced by a tattered hemp garment full of holes.
He realized now that his original outfit had been exchanged for the girl's attire.
As he observed her more closely, a name formed in his mind, overlapping with her image.
"Where am I?" Morin asked, his voice steady.
"Meteor City," she replied calmly, brushing her short hair aside.
"Meteor City," Morin echoed softly. "I see... I really ended up in quite the place."
Meteor City—an infamous landfill where nations dumped their waste, be it trash, corpses, or even unwanted children.
But Meteor City was special; it wasn't just an urban slum.
Though the area surrounding Meteor City was essentially a sprawling landfill, the streets inside were clean and orderly.
The architecture featured yellow and white tones, and the materials used weren't bad. If one ignored the garbage-filled outskirts, it could easily pass for a normal town.
The residents of Meteor City were all castaways—people discarded by the world, with no official identities or traceable records. They survived primarily by scavenging and repurposing what could be salvaged from the garbage dumps.
Despite relying on waste for their livelihood, the people of Meteor City lived with a kind of positivity and straightforwardness.
Of course, their way of life followed a set of rules entirely separate from the conventional moral codes of the outside world.
Survival of the fittest, natural selection—these were the predatory laws that every resident abided by. Simple, fair, and unyielding, these principles shaped the straightforward personalities and unembellished emotions of Meteor City's inhabitants.
Morin had never expected this. He'd planned to progress carefully and methodically in the Hunter x Hunter world, prioritizing safety.
But he hadn't anticipated starting off in such a dangerous place.
Hell difficulty—this was nothing less.
"If this is Meteor City, then you must be..."
Morin's gaze fixed on the girl in front of him, who had taken his clothes earlier.
Judging by her actions, she had taken his clothing, gone somewhere, and returned wearing the white martial arts uniform she now had on.
"What's your name?" Morin asked.
"Machi."
The lavender-haired girl replied calmly.
"And you?"
"Morin."
Morin gave a slightly awkward response.
It was her!!
He hadn't expected to encounter someone from the Hunter x Hunter universe so soon.
Meteor City, a girl with lavender hair, and the distinct outfit—there was no one else Morin could think of but that Machi.
Right now, Machi looked like an adorably petite girl—enough to spark a "surge of affection" in any self-proclaimed loli enthusiast.
But Morin wasn't into that sort of thing, and he was very aware that this cute, innocent-looking girl was anything but harmless.
This was the future member of the notorious Phantom Troupe, infamous for heinous crimes across the world. She was far from the innocent appearance she had now!
"Why...did you save me?" Morin asked curiously.
"Two reasons," Machi replied with an unchanged expression. "One: clothes. Two: instinct."
Straight to the point.
Morin understood.
"Instinct, huh?"
The matter of the clothes was self-explanatory, but instinct?
Machi's sixth sense was sharp—almost preternaturally so.
Her so-called "woman's intuition" was frighteningly accurate. It could practically function as a support ability.
"Anything else?" Machi asked, noticing that Morin was still lost in thought.
"If not, I'm going to sleep."
Sleep?
Morin blinked, then realized it was already late at night.
"I woke up at just the right time, didn't I?"
Watching Machi climb onto her hammock without sparing him another glance, Morin shook his head.
"I need to rest, too, or my brain's going to fry."
The series of events—his transmigration, the awakening of his Nen, and the flood of memories—left him mentally and physically drained, even with his newfound abilities.
Morin flopped back onto the rickety wooden bed.
"Looking at Machi now, she seems to be about eleven or twelve. In the original series, when the Phantom Troupe first appeared during the Yorknew City arc, she was twenty-four.
"That means it's around twelve or thirteen years before the main plot starts, right?"
"I wonder if the Phantom Troupe even exists yet. Judging by Machi being here on her own, it probably doesn't...right?"
Morin's eyelids grew heavier, and before long, he drifted off into slumber.
As for the future criminal mastermind resting in the hammock beside him, Morin didn't dwell on it too much.
He simply thought of her as a future Phantom Troupe member who, for now, was just a child.
TL: Every 50 Power stones = 1 chapter for now