Illumi set down the camera in his hand, his eyes narrowing slightly within his neural mechanical helmet.
"Based solely on the incomplete content of a single memory card, it's impossible to determine exactly what kind of creature they encountered. But what we do know is that such creatures can burrow into human bodies and seem to feed on human organs."
"Judging from the performance of those soldiers, they only knew there was some kind of creature inside them, but they weren't sure how that creature entered the human body."
"And most importantly, something so large burrowing into a body the host couldn't possibly not notice. The only explanation is that these creatures burrowed in during their infancy and grew inside the host."
"Their growth cycle shouldn't be long. But how these creatures enter the human body is still unclear."
Illumi handed the camera to an Avenger soldier, who placed it back into the supply backpack.
"Drip."
Suddenly, a small image appeared on Illumi's helmet screen. The image showed a white mycelium covered in vibrant flowers and nerve-like tendrils, spreading across the walls.
The image moved, following the source of these mycelia and flowers downwards. What was connected to the white mycelia was actually a pair of straight-leg trousers and combat boots.
Not only that, the surface of the trousers was also covered with fresh flowers, and the inside was also full of white mycelia, including the combat boots.
Illumi's heart tightened. He walked towards the room shown in the video, with King Bradley and the other three Nen Beasts following closely behind.
With a harsh "creak," Illumi pushed open the wooden door of the room. Inside, two Avenger soldiers were currently conducting a search.
"Just like the stuff on the outside wall, this is also a mutation."
Pride sat on Sloth's shoulder, looking at the strange flowers and mycelia spreading across the walls like human nerves, his voice low.
"Take a sample."
Illumi instructed an Avenger soldier to take out a petri dish and collect some of the mycelia and fresh flowers. He would have them researched back at the company.
"Bang..."
The Avenger soldier was rough, directly pulling off a large handful of mycelia and fresh flowers from the wall. However, only a tiny bit ended up in the petri dish, the rest scattered on the ground.
As night fell, Beyond's group and Illumi's group gathered, all planning to set up camp and rest in the largest wooden cabin.
"This place is too strange. There isn't even a single bone left of human corpses. Could it be that those monsters ate all the human bodies?"
In the darkness, Beyond's group sat around a bonfire, eating the dry rations they were sick of, complaining about everything in this place.
Illumi sat among the crowd, silent. His teeth forcefully tore off a piece of jerky, holding it in his mouth and slowly chewing.
"Hmph~!"
Suddenly, Gina, who was eating her dry rations, groaned in pain, clutching her abdomen, drawing everyone's attention.
"What's wrong? Gina?"
Tessa quickly came to Gina's side, placing her left hand on her shoulder, her face filled with worry.
"It's nothing, just a bit of stomach pain. It'll be fine in a moment. Maybe my stomach problem flared up due to irregular diet and rest lately."
Gina waved her hand, her face pale, indicating she was fine. She ate the last bit of dry rations in her hand, then took Tessa's offered canteen and gulped down a large mouthful.
"Hah~ Much better."
Gina let out a long breath, her complexion recovering considerably.
"Tell me if anything's wrong." Tessa patted her shoulder, took back the canteen Gina handed her, and sat beside her, continuing to enjoy her cornbread.
After dinner, everyone took out their tents from their backpacks and set them up inside the wooden cabin. After greeting each other, they went to sleep.
1:20 AM.
Illumi lay in his tent. He had a dream. He dreamt he was on a dark, bloody ancient battlefield, and he himself was one of countless soldiers.
Accompanied by the sound of drums, he advanced, swept along with numerous soldiers, while opposite him, an endless, massive army charged towards him.
But after advancing a few dozen steps, Illumi suddenly stopped, no longer moving forward.
Then, Illumi directly sat cross-legged on the ground amidst the shouts of killing on the ancient battlefield, slowly closed his eyes, and entered meditation.
"Whoosh!"
Moments later, Illumi suddenly opened his eyes, looking around, his expression hardening.
He saw that within the current camp, apart from the Avenger soldiers and the Nen Beasts like King Bradley, everyone else, including Beyond, was in a deep sleep.
And through his emotion sensing ability, Illumi could see wisps of thick killing intent slowly rising and drifting out from within their bodies, hovering in the wooden cabin space. The entire camp was filled with dense killing intent.
"Hell's Bell..."
Illumi looked at the scene before him, instantly realizing that this phenomenon must have been caused by the monsters from the Marsh of Hell, Hell's Bell.
"But why aren't the Avenger troops and the remote sentinel weapon system reacting?"
Illumi thought to himself, immediately putting on the Ranger neural mechanical helmet beside him. He activated the shared vision function, carefully observing everything around the camp.
But strangely, neither the Avengers' perspective nor the remote sentinel weapon system detected anything.
"Can't rely entirely on technology."
Illumi took off his helmet, his expression grave.
After all, it was the Hunter X Hunter world, a world characterized by Nen abilities. Some things simply couldn't be explained by science.
"Greed!"
Illumi crawled out of his tent and stood up, calling out.
"Tch, I thought you were really going to sleep forever like those useless fools."
Greed's voice came from behind Illumi. He was seen with one leg resting on the window sill and the other dangling below, looking as if he had been waiting for a long time.
"Boss."
After Greed responded, King Bradley, Sloth, and Pride also emerged from the shadows. As Nen Beasts, they didn't require sleep.
Therefore, they had been on guard all this time.
Just now, when Greed discovered the anomaly, he immediately notified them.
"Wake them up."
Illumi commanded, then walked towards Beyond, directly pulling open Beyond's tent.
"Not there?"
Beyond's tent was empty. Illumi immediately activated his emotion sensing.
But at this moment, the camp was filled with endless killing intent. Besides killing intent, no other emotion could be sensed, making it impossible to find Beyond through emotions.
"En."
Since that was the case, Illumi immediately activated En. White, transparent Nen flowed out from him in large quantities, spreading outwards in an oval shape, quickly reaching a distance of twenty-five meters.
"Upstairs."
Illumi suddenly looked up. Beyond was currently on the roof of their large wooden cabin.
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