Chapter 3 New Membership Is an Accomplishment

"German."

Kuroro finally spoke, his cold voice held a convincing magic.

"You have passed two trials of the Phantom Troupe."

"You brought back the 'Promised Jewel' and withstood Paknotta's 'Memory Reading', which is enough to prove your compatibility with the Phantom Troupe."

"Congratulations, you are now one of us, the 8th member of the Phantom Troupe."

"I need to make it clear in advance that the Phantom Troupe does not have many disciplines or restrictions. If there is a conflict between members, they usually use the pros and cons of a coin to decide how to deal with it."

"You can do whatever you want to do and go wherever you want to go in normal times, but you should be present at the 'assembly'."

Kuroro said, smiling and nodding at German.

It was neither joy nor satisfaction, it was just that he needed to smile like that in this situation.

German listened to Kuroro's words quietly, then raised his hand to take off his black triangular hat and bowed slightly to Kuroro and the others.

"I understand."

As he bent down, he blinked and recalled his memories from not long ago.

The "promised gems" are two valuable rubies. When placed together, they will emit a faint glow, but when they are separated by a certain distance, the glow will disappear.

The original German obtained them from the gem merchant by robbing and gave them to Kuroro.

As for Paknotta's ability to read memories, he remembered that it was a telepathic ability that could extract memories just by touching others.

It's terrible.

However, Paknotta was still sensible and only confirmed part of the original body's memory, confirming that his life experience was true and that he had no grudge against the Phantom Troupe.

If he saw more, such as what the telepathic ability was and what the weaknesses were, the original body would definitely not be willing. Paknoda didn't see much either.

It is precisely because of this ability of Nen that Germann cannot refuse to join the Phantom Troupe on the spot.

Because he didn't have sufficient reasons to convince the Phantom Troupe, he simply didn't want to join, not for any other reason.

Germann's past in Meteor Street and the world of professional killers cannot be faked, and it will become clear once you check.

Likewise, his original desire to join the Phantom Troupe could not be faked.

So why did Germain suddenly change his mind?

This is quite strange.

The Phantom Troupe can reasonably infer the following possibilities.

For some purpose, Germann, under the influence of a special mind ability, modified his memory and was even able to deceive Paknotta, thereby perfectly blending into the Phantom Troupe's gathering.

Now, this goal has been achieved, or it cannot be achieved. Germann has awakened his "real memory" in some way, so he chooses to quit.

As long as they come to this conclusion, there is no way the Phantom Troupe will let him leave before they get to the "truth".

The entire interrogation process must be led by Feitan.

German didn't want to go into such a future.

Theoretically, German had already passed the test before, so now he just needs to be careful and not arouse suspicion.

If you want to quit the Phantom Troupe, you should do it when the conditions are right, and definitely not tonight.

clap clap-

At this time, Kuroro took the lead in applauding.

The others looked at him and began to applaud sparsely.

After the applause died down, Kuroro glanced at everyone before speaking again.

"In addition to letting you meet the new No. 4 member Hisoka and the new No. 8 member Germain at tonight's gathering, there is one more thing I want to explain."

"Next year, we will have a 'group event'."

It turned out to be the case.

Everyone suddenly realized it at this moment.

Kuroro rarely convened a meeting between old and new members to get to know each other. It turned out that the focus was on next year's collective activities.

German was surprised to find that this was another activity that shouldn't exist.

In the original timeline, after 1996, the Phantom Troupe had small-scale gatherings, but there was no full reunion.

It was not until 1999 that they all showed up for their collective activity of the year - robbing the largest underground auction in Youkexin City.

However, this collective activity was actually brought forward to 1998, which was beyond German's expectations. Moreover, it was obvious that this collective activity would be a bloody and violent killing feast.

The original Germain might have been interested, but the current Germain doesn't like it.

Chrollo hadn't finished yet.

"I will inform you of the specific meeting place and time one to two months in advance next year. I hope you will come, regardless of whether you have important matters at hand or not."

When Kuroro said this, he suddenly looked at Feitan and Hisoka, the two repeat offenders who were absent from the small gathering, with a smile on his face.

Feitan said nothing, but simply nodded.

Hisoka slowly raised his hand to his lips, and gently pinched a poker card from his mouth with his fingers.

"Uh-huh, Chrollo, are you saying this just for me?"

Hisoka's tone and gaze always have a sticky feeling.

"It's an honor. I seem to feel your love for me..."

"Yes." Kuroro admitted the former without hesitation, "I said this specifically for you to hear."

"Ah... This is really wonderful... If you can meet some of my small requests, maybe I will agree to anything you ask for..."

Snapped.

Kuroro ignored Hisoka, but clapped his hands and glanced at everyone again.

"Then this is the end of tonight's meeting. Adjourned."

Chrollo stood up and finished cleanly.

He nodded to everyone and walked towards the stairs of the bell tower, with no intention of staying here to reminisce.

"It's so boring..."

Hisoka licked his lips and smiled, then waved his hand and followed Kuroro away.

Everyone gathered tonight, including No. 8 who had just joined, could only be said to be somewhat interesting, but, as expected, Kuroro interested him the most.

The other members of the Phantom Troupe looked at each other and stood up from their seats one after another.

They could tell that Hisoka had some sort of malicious obsession with Kuroro, so there was no way he would leave the two of them alone.

The eleven members of the Phantom Troupe, each with their own purpose, walked down the stairs one after another and disappeared into the night.

The whole process took less than three minutes, and the hall inside the clock tower fell into silence.

German put on his black tricorn hat again, stroked his chin, and sank into deep thought until a familiar voice woke him up again.

"I said, have you decided yet?"

Machi stood in front of him, crossed her arms, raised her head slightly, and looked into his eyes coldly, with no intention of retreating at all.

"What to decide?"

"Of course, it's deciding where the tattoo is going to be placed."

Tattoo?

Ah... Come to think of it, all members of the Phantom Troupe have a tattoo of a spider with twelve legs, and the member number is also on the spider's abdomen.

Now that it has come to this, just pretend it to the end. After all, there will always be a way to deal with things like tattoos in the future.

Germain looked down at his left leg and pointed at it: "It's on the thigh."

"Ah."

Machi remained undeterred and took out two needles that shone coldly under the bright moonlight.

She raised her chin and motioned for Germain to show her thigh so that she could complete the spider tattoo.

Is this how spider tattoos are done? Germain wondered.

At Machi's reminder, he sat on the cold floor and rolled up his trouser legs, revealing his rather strong thighs.

Machi held a needle in each hand and stabbed it into Germain's thigh without warning.

Chi chi chi——

The speed was so fast that German could only see messy afterimages with his naked eyes.

Germann felt a tingling sensation on his thigh skin, and then he could see the outline of the twelve-legged spider tattoo appear.

(End of this chapter)