Kill, Save, or the second option? (Hunter x Hunter)

Chapter 50 - Bargaining Chip

After eating a hearty breakfast made by María, Friday and the children settled on the first-floor living room to commence the first lesson.

Unless the children passed his judgment at the end of the trial period, Friday made up his mind not to teach Pietro and Leorio Nen. He also decided to never teach the two of them the art of assassination.

Crossing those two subjects out, Friday was left to teach the one remaining expertise in his arsenal: Computer Programming. Another pair of hands to aid him in his technological conquest would surely benefit him.

Friday cleared his throat, "There's a tradition in my family where we would train people with potential. We would teach them everything we know. In return, those apprentices would serve us for ten years."

In Friday's mind, addressing the position as "apprentice" instead of "disciple" held significant importance. Unlike being an apprentice, being a disciple means taking on a new identity and serving a master for all of eternity...He doesn't want that.

Sitting on an old couch, Leorio raised his hand, "What are you going to teach us?"

Friday grinned, "Computer programming!"

Those two words sounded foreign to the two kids, only responding to Friday's enthusiasm with a blank look.

He continued, "During the six months, I'm just going to evaluate your aptitude. You two won't learn anything fun until much later...If you passed, that is."

When Friday's computer finally arrived at María's house, that was the first time the children had seen a computer up close. In their own opinion, it was just a heavy piece of equipment that showed pictures on a screen. María's old T.V seemed more entertaining for them since it could play cartoons.

Seeing no response, Friday gave a small, rueful laugh. Not wanting to explain that technology is the future, Friday proceeded by handing each of them a book titled "How to Become Literate for Dummies (with Pictures)."

"After you're done with that, both of you read this stack of books over here." Friday smiled while thinking how much effort it took to gather all of these resources for the children. "Ask me if you have any questions. I'm sure that it would only take the two of you three weeks to read everything, right?"

The children looked at Friday incredulously. Pietro observed the tower of books and frowned after realizing the titles barely made any sense to him: " Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software," "Make Your Own Neural Network," etc.

Friday didn't pick up anything wrong since this was basically how Wednesday taught him anything. He even felt like he was going easy on them since back then, Wednesday only gave him a week and a half to finish the same task. He shuddered, remembering the times when he got nosebleeds from constantly being pushed to the limits.

Beatrix also began teaching him this way after realizing that he could quickly learn the subject just by reading the books. However, unlike Wednesday, Beatrix doesn't give him due dates and allows him to take his time. Though, it confused the little lady that for whatever reason, Friday's quick learning doesn't apply to business-related subjects.

"I'll test you guys by the end of three weeks. After that, I'll let you two operate a computer to do hands-on training. I'll let you two do some reading now. Have fun~!" Friday gave them a thumbs up before running upstairs in excitement, thinking:

Finally~. My dear computer~! My love~! Let's lose ourselves in each other and cause havoc in this world~.

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"There's something wrong with that man's head," Leorio leaned back on the couch and reluctantly opened the book. He thought that Pietro would also complain, but the older boy next to him stayed silent, already immersed in reading.

Luckily, before being abandoned by his parents, they taught Pietro the basics of reading. The book in front of him was just a review. After spending an hour and a half flipping through the book, Pietro stood up from the sofa to finally start with the other books.

On the corner of his eye, he saw Leorio with the book covering his face. The soft snoring in the background made it evident that the boy had fallen asleep out of boredom.

Shaking his head, Pietro took the book on the very top of the book pile before sitting back on the couch.

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On the second floor of the building, slender fingers tapped the keyboard at lightning speed. Beatrix's words echoed inside Friday's mind: "Knowing your own strengths is also a strength."

At first, Friday tried to earn money to obtain the item in legal means. However, after hearing Beatrix's advice, Friday wanted to slap himself for being an idiot. Beatrix was essentially telling him to stick to what he was good at.

Who am I? Aren't I Friday? Since when did I ever try to do things legally?

Starting up a business and raising 5.8 billion Jenny in less than a year to obtain Greed Island would be something to brag about...But to go through all that process would be impractical.

He knew he could always hack into the bank and steal the money, but Friday knew he could do better than that. Besides, the last time he'd rob a bank, he got beaten up by Wednesday. "You are an assassin, not a thief!" the man yelled at him while pulling tightly on his ear. The psychological shadow that Wednesday left him taught him to never steal unless it was the only choice.

Though, Friday found that bastard's morals were kinda ironic. What are assassins? Aren't they also thieves? They steal the lives of people.

After looking at the long line of code, Friday nodded to himself, satisfied. It was all coming together quite nicely. He estimated that it would only take him a couple more weeks to finish this beautiful seed of chaos.

If another expert saw what was on the computer screen, they would immediately choke Friday before asking if he was crazy!

Friday was definitely crazy. The code in progress was actually a "worm," inspired by the infamous malware, Mydoom. Like Mydoom, it would spread like wildfire through emails. In his previous world, Mydoom caused about $52 billion damage around the globe. Thinking about the still-developing computers in HunterxHunter, Friday estimated that if he released this virus, the damage would be more catastrophic.

However, even though Friday was crazy, he's not that crazy. It wasn't in his plan to release the virus in the first place. It would simply act as a bargaining chip. If you're wondering, with whom is he going to negotiate?

It would be none other than Ickshonpe Katocha, one of the creators of Greed Island. 

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Author's Note:

Thanks for the very nice compliments. They really give me fuel to write the chapters. Hehe. 

Technically, it's only speculation that Ickshonpe Katocha is one of the Game Masters of Greed Island...But oh well. Heads up, I might take a stroll on non-canon territory in the future. Also, Mydoom is a real virus. 

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Thanks for reading and all of the support!