Chapter 262: From Cocoon to Butterfly x The Man Stepping out of a Poker Card
[Prompt: "Swordsmanship" +1]
[Current "Swordsmanship" Level: LV4: 87,431/100,000]
Two sets of "Ten Thousand Swings" filled with "gratitude" were completed.
In the training room, watching the morning glow rise and the evening sun set, concluding a day of sword swinging training, Roy's face wasn't flushed, and he wasn't panting. His strength was not exhausted, and his Nen aura was brimming without a hint of fatigue. With a flip of his hand, he used the De-Conjuration method to store the [Snow Walk] into his Unconscious Domain.
Hearing the harsh "1" from the panel's prompt, he closed his eyes and entered a meditative state. Leaning against the floor-to-ceiling window, blowing the mountain breeze, he thought carefully for a moment. He suddenly realized that as his strength gradually increased and the levels of some skills gradually rose, it was almost impossible to reap the "same experience value" through the "same training volume" as before.
The so-called "a miss is as good as a mile," the further up you go, the harder it is. It's nothing more than this.
Thoughts churning, Roy let out a long breath and opened his eyes. Two rays of divine light suddenly burst from those amber pupils. His intuition told him... between LV4 and LV5, there lay an almost insurmountable chasm...
Just like an ordinary Sharingan compared to a Mangekyou, a Mangekyou compared to a Rinnegan, a Byakugan compared to a Tenseigan, possessing the power of destruction and creation... Roy casually pinched a ray of the setting sun. He could faintly feel that once "Swordsmanship" reached LV5, it would bring him unimaginable surprises. So, "Nen" in essence is "idealistic." Even though there are the "Law of Equivalent Exchange" and the "Law of Risk and Reward" emphasizing specific internal logic as constraints, how strong a person can ultimately become internally, aside from the limitations of their own aptitude as a [Human], relies entirely on imagination, that is... human [Visualization] and [Cognition]...
Just like Kurapika and his "Chains of Vengeance,"
Hisoka and his "Texture Surprise" and "Bungee Gum,"
Netero borrowing Buddhist maxims to create the Shingen-ryu, alternatively condensing the martial arts dharma idol "100-Type Guanyin," breaking the shackles of an "Enhancer," with one move "Zero Hand" of "Emission" nearly swatting Meruem to death...
Roy looked up and saw Kikyo pushing Killua for a walk in the garden, achieving self-realization. Compared to the natives of this world, his most important and only advantage was—transmigration and rebirth.
Thus, this gave him "insight" and "cognition" that everyone else couldn't even imagine.
Buzz~ The "Gate of Cognition" vibrated, seemingly matching Roy, and seemingly responding to him. At the right time, Tsubone pushed the dining cart in. Seeing him sheathe his sword, she called out softly, "Young Master, it's time to eat."
Roy gave a noncommittal "Mm." His gaze swept from Kikyo and Killua to Illumi buried in the pit, and Milluki collapsed on the lawn, withdrawing it one by one. Turning around on the spot, he had his dinner in the training room.
"Young Master, I also prepared some for Gotoh," Tsubone stood respectfully to the side, asking tentatively: "I just don't know if I should feed it to him."
"You're thoughtful," Roy smiled at the old butler who had dedicated her life to the Zoldycks, "Leave him be,"
"He is fine."
The boy forked a piece of steak and sent it into his mouth. With a thought, he called up Gotoh's "Believer" panel...
[Believer: Gotoh (Note: Overflowing Loyalty)]
[Current Status: Evolving ing...]
[Physique +1+1+1+1...]
[Current: 335 compared to before evolution has increased by a hundred points -> 435 (Note: Continuing to increase)]
[Manifested Aura Volume: C-(9,754/100,000) -> C (37,415/100,000) (Note: Continuing to increase)]
[Potential Aura Volume: C- (8,712/100,000) -> C+ (14,578/100,000) (Note: Continuing to increase)]
[Nen Category: Emitter]
[Initial Nen Ability: Coin Guessing]
[First Embrace Nen Ability: Currently awakening...]
[Evaluation: C]
[Note: Referencing Chimera Ants, your believer "Gotoh" already possesses the level of an ordinary Chimera Ant Squadron Leader, and is advancing towards the level of a top-tier Squadron Leader]
Top-tier Squadron Leaders like Leol the lion and Zazan the scorpion who fought Morel, peak Feitan and Uvogin level. And today is only the first day, there are six more days... Roy silently felt the karmic thread with Gotoh thickening and strengthening. His gaze then swept down, pulling to the bottom of the panel—
[Controllable Status—Absolute Domination]
Roy's mind cleared. He knew deeply that as long as he wanted to, he could completely replicate how Muzan treated other demons, determining their life and death with a single word, and possessing the ability to view, flip through, and delete the other party's memories at any time.
Misfortune is what fortune depends upon; fortune is where misfortune hides beneath. Everything has a contradictory side.
Although [First Embrace] is powerful, it cannot escape the laws of nature and the grand Dao.
For his last glance, Roy focused on the [First Embrace Nen Ability] column, curious and anticipating... After [Coin Guessing], what kind of new Nen ability the young butler would awaken.
He calmly closed the panel and swallowed the remaining steak in one bite.
Approaching 7:00 PM, the last sliver of the setting sun was reluctantly dragged below the horizon. Dinner finished, Roy took the tissue Tsubone handed him, wiped his mouth, and nodded slightly to her: "Thank you for your hard work."
He then stood up, leaving the old butler to clean up the dining cart. A few steps out of the training room, as usual, he headed straight for the basement.
Tap... tap... Footsteps echoed in the mottled corridor dense with the aura of time... With his beautiful silver hair swaying, the boy passed the garden and saw a cluster of white chrysanthemums blooming under the window frame. Roy suddenly remembered Yoriichi Tsugikuni instructing him to pay respects to "Uta" and his child who died at the mouth of an evil demon before reaching one year old, when the Spider Lilies were in full bloom. Pausing his steps, he reached out and plucked a few flowers, roots and soil included. Taking another step, he appeared at the basement entrance, in front of Scarface and One-Eye.
"Young Master,"
"Young Master,"
"Give this flower to Grandpa Zzigg..." Roy separated a yellow chrysanthemum and handed it to Scarface.
"Yes," Scarface took it with both hands. With a glance, he saw Roy still had three flowers in his hand. Kindly offering to help Roy plant them together, who knew he was bluntly refused by Roy.
The boy stopped in front of the iron barred gate, facing the portal to the Dark Continent, and said deeply: "These remaining flowers are for old Mark, Maddie-kun, and Mrs. Nora..."
Scarface was stunned. He and One-Eye looked at each other in dismay. Lowering their heads, they agreed, not asking a single question more, and reached out to pull the door open for Roy. "Young Master, please."
The door opened, revealing a gloomy, dark underground tunnel. As usual, sickly green lights were lit beside the tunnel, stretching endlessly to who knows where... Roy took a step, crossed the iron barred gate, and with his back to Scarface and One-Eye, fell silent for a moment and said, "If the family asks, about old Mark, Maddie-kun, and Mrs. Nora... just tell them the truth,"
"I am paying tribute to the silent majority among all living beings..."
As his words fell, Roy slightly lowered his eyelids, preventing Scarface and One-Eye from seeing the longing and reminiscence in his eyes. He silently added a sentence in his heart... "And the former me."
Then, with a flash of his figure, he merged into the sickly green candlelight and vanished before Scarface and One-Eye.
It was a cold basement at this moment, while the other side of the corridor was a hot, dog-day summer night. Scarface and One-Eye stood stunned for a long time, repeatedly reciting this sentence in their hearts. For some unknown reason, a rare warmth grew from the depths of their hearts...
"Someone remembers the Master, and someone remembers us... One-Eye," Scarface smiled and said to his buddy beside him, "When you die, maybe the Young Master will send a chrysanthemum to your grave..."
"Heh heh heh..." One-Eye laughed with suppressed volume.
After a long while, he glanced towards the dark tunnel and sighed, "Where there's me, there's you. Although I really don't want to admit it, after Master Zzigg, this is only the second person who said they would care about us~"
One-Eye's tone was mixed with emotion...
"It's just that I didn't expect this person... to be Young Master Roy..."
"Perhaps, soon we'll be calling him... Master," Scarface pointed meaningfully at One-Eye. "Don't forget, now, he also has silver hair!"
One-Eye froze slightly, then fell into a long silence until... they could vaguely hear the airtight door opening deep in the tunnel and the unique rubbing sound of tentacles extending and scraping against the door leaf. After some consideration, he slowly but firmly shook his head: "No, I feel Young Master Roy's heart is very big, it won't be confined to one family or one place."
"Bigger than Master Zzigg's?"
"Hard to compare, but since you asked," One-Eye looked at Scarface faintly, "It means you already have an answer in your heart."
Scarface: "..."
For a moment, he was left utterly speechless.
On this approaching night, along with One-Eye, he once again fell into a long silence.
Whoosh Entering summer, the mountain wind no longer had the chill of winter.
Deep in the tunnel, the airtight door opened. Seeing the [Tentacles] again, Roy crushed the chrysanthemums in his hand, using the De-Conjuration method to materialize them into his Cognitive World in advance. Looking up, he locked eyes with the [Demon Eye]. This time, just as his drowsy consciousness was about to sink, he seemed to see a human figure in the opponent's massive pupil...
At first glance, the person looked a bit goofy, yet a head of silver hair standing up like a hedgehog spoke of his uninhibitedness and stubbornness.
As Roy looked on in shock, he grinned at him:
"The silent majority, well said, child..."
The person in the Demon Eye's pupil said with immense gratification, "With this awareness, you won't lose your way like your Grandpa..."
Lost... "Is that you, Grandpa Zzigg?" Roy's pupils contracted as he blurted out. A beep sounded in his ear...
[Beep... re: Game of the Dead has launched]
[Loading save file...]
Immediately, his vision went black, and he felt the world spinning. Finally managing to catch a breath and stopping, he opened his eyes again... and was already standing in a lush, towering forest.
By his feet, accompanied by a faint stench of rot, were the completely devoured remains of... old Mark and Mrs. Nora, leaving only two skeletons after scavengers had their fill.
[Prompt: Detected residual "Magical Beast" "scent"...]
[[Magical Beast Encyclopedia] unfolded, deducing...]
[Carrion Vulture]
[Rank: D]
[Innate Nen Ability: Corrosion, saliva is rich in "Nen" poison. Deduced to be similar to Lower Rank Five "Rui's" Innate Blood Demon Art "Spider Poison". Extraction can improve Host's poison resistance and poison application abilities]
Roy's heart silently tightened, increasingly confirming a fact.
[re: Game of the Dead]
Is not just a game, but... reality.
The so-called [Save File] was nothing more than Grandpa Zzigg using some method to teleport him back to the location he last appeared at... Just like a card Ging set up on Greed Island — [Accompany]
It can directionally "teleport" the spellcaster to a "designated target"... Roy frowned and looked to the side. Under the tall tree where he killed Andrew Cooper and the [Parry] owner, Longergon, there was clearly...
No sign of the two men's bones!
"According to the dietary characteristics of the Carrion Vulture, since it didn't take old Mark and Mrs. Nora's skeletons, there's no reason it would take Andrew Cooper's and Longergon's. So, there is only one possibility," Roy narrowed his eyes, suddenly letting out a cold gleam: "Someone collected them together!"
Recalling... Grandpa Zzigg he had just seen in the [Demon Eye], and those inexplicable words he said... Roy immediately confirmed it.
[re: Game of the Dead] only has "teleportation", no "fixed time", or at least for him... there is no fixed time! In other words... he was exposed!
The boy's silver hair swayed in the wind. He looked up at the sky, took a deep breath, and as he twisted his neck, he flicked his finger with a backhand motion. A high-temperature "Nen bullet" condensed with the "Scorching True Meaning" shot straight behind a tree resembling a cypress pine, a hundred meters behind him... Only to hear a piercing Whoosh!
The Nen bullet abruptly pierced the large tree, leaving a finger-sized hole in it. Looking through it, one could clearly see... a dark brown fedora with its brim lifted!
"Clap clap clap... Emitter?"
"What a sharp Nen bullet!"
"Friend, don't misunderstand... we're on the same side!"
The sound of applause came from beside the hole. Roy pointed his finger and turned around. From behind the towering cypress-like tree, a man strolled out. He looked to be around forty years old, wearing a fedora on his head, draped in a gorgeous, exaggerated trench coat. Spliced and branded on the trench coat were playing cards, from 2 to Ace, with the remaining Joker and King printed on his left and right chest... Two thick, black mustaches curled upwards like hooks... just like the King in a deck of cards... For a moment, Roy mistakenly thought someone's deck of cards had come to life and stepped right out of the King card!
"I don't recall having such a friend." Roy's silver hair swayed in the wind, staring expressionlessly at the man.
The man smiled and winked at Roy. With a flip of his hand, he pulled a leather flask from his jacket and said in a deep voice, "Although doing this is disrespectful to the dead, I think my friend should recognize this."
How could he not recognize it? How could he dare to forget?
Roy looked indifferently at the flask made from Maddie-kun's skin in the man's hand and said, "You are indeed disrespectful. She is not a flask; she is... three living... lives."
"You see, didn't I say we are friends?" The man smiled faintly, pointing a hand behind him to an uneven patch of grass not far away, and said, "I believe you are looking for them."
Just as the poker man's finger stopped, a sound of wind whistled past his ear. Immediately after... he watched in shock as a beam of light appeared! A "human-shaped light" merged into the sunlight, passed through his body, and appeared on the uneven patch of grass he was pointing at!
"Gosh!"
"What kind of speed is this?!"
☆☆☆
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