Liam and Shizuku spent two days wandering the streets.
They'd been drifting at sea too long. They needed to experience human city life again. Feel like actual people instead of shipwreck survivors.
The seaside town wasn't prosperous, but it had character. Two movie theaters, neither particularly large, but they existed. Not many shopping malls. Not many big brands either, but Liam didn't care about consumer products in the Hunter world anyway. The weird Hunter Association symbols printed on packaging gave him a sense of alienation. Like looking at a foreign language he could read but never truly understand.
Shizuku had been born in Meteor City. Her standards for consumer goods focused on utility over brand names. Except for jewelry. She liked shiny, precious things. Everything else just needed to be usable or edible.
Although there were no Eternal Library chain stores, they found several secondhand bookshops. Liam browsed casually. Shizuku bought books by the basket. When they left, she stuffed them all into Blinky like a squirrel hoarding for winter. She looked genuinely satisfied for the first time since they'd landed.
In the evening, they ate dinner at a snack bar.
Shizuku had already finished. Now she sat across from him, flipping through a Gungi book. She noticed Liam staring at her for a while and raised her head. Her glasses slid down the bridge of her nose. Her big eyes showed mild confusion.
Liam slurped the last noodle into his mouth and swallowed. "I'm curious, Shizuku. If you forget everything after reading it, how long would it take you to relearn—"
"Why would you say that?" Shizuku looked even more confused. "It's just an introductory book on military ritual Gungi. How hard can it be?"
She lowered her head again and turned a page. "Liam, do you want to learn?"
"Hmph." Liam said nothing.
"Who learns faster?" Shizuku raised her eyes. No expression as usual, but she looked good. She scooted over and patted the seat beside her.
When the waiter came to clear the dishes, he saw a peculiar scene. The handsome out-of-town guy and the beautiful girl sat shoulder to shoulder, head to head, reading the same book together. Their eyes were actually focused, carefully studying the words and diagrams on the paper.
In reality, Liam was multitasking.
He was indeed carefully reading the introductory book on military ritual Gungi with Shizuku. But he had more than one brain at the moment. He had multiple heads. Multiple perspectives.
His consciousness attached to the tiger Lumos on that distant island across the ocean, Liam continued wandering through the jungle, trying to find Biscuit Krueger, who'd vanished for days.
He wanted to tell Haku following him to help look around and pay attention. But when he opened his mouth, only tiger roars came out. Speaking was impossible. He mentally rolled his eyes.
The ghost boy—Haku—looked at the big tiger strangely, a little confused.
Liam came out of the bathroom wearing sandals and a pair of newly bought loose pants. No shirt.
Shizuku was no longer reading the Gungi book. She was practicing. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, her aura integrated perfectly with her body. After Liam emerged, it suddenly spread outward in all directions, expanding into a hemisphere with about a five-meter radius.
Liam stepped into Shizuku's En. "Range expanded?"
"Yeah." Shizuku kept her eyes closed. "Almost two meters, four meters in diameter."
Liam smiled.
In the past, because of his condition, he'd rarely measured his height and weight. It might change at any time anyway. Plus, he wasn't willing to see results so different from his previous body's data. Like reminders that this was a different world. That he was no longer himself.
But now things were better. Not only had the hidden danger of death energy been removed—his body would no longer grow uncontrollably—but his current physical condition, while far superior in fitness and strength to his previous life, was at least close in height. Similar to his past life.
Moreover, he didn't know if it was his own illusion or if memories from his previous life had begun mixing with this one. He always felt his current face had some shadow of his appearance from before.
Maybe it was the aura. Maybe it was Nen.
Probably some mysterious phenomenon like "appearance follows the heart." His subconscious shaping his body toward the image in his self-perception.
After all, the Conjuration system—one of the six Nen types—involved areas like clones, physical transformation, and creation from nothing.
Bisky could transform into her muscular true form. What was so strange about subtle facial development?
What's more, his current talent limit for Conjuration had reached a full 81%.
It wouldn't be surprising if someday a Conjuration ability automatically manifested. At least there was precedent—his Manipulation ability had automatically derived itself.
In short, Liam happily accepted this development.
After Shizuku went to bathe, Liam also started practicing. His En only had a seven-meter radius. He had to keep practicing. Couldn't lose to Shizuku.
Oh, right. There was still one last bit of death energy to digest.
He opened the death energy panel. A single gray stream circled the gray figure sitting cross-legged with a sword on its knees.
As soon as his mind moved, the gray air exploded into dots of gray light, blending into his limbs, bones, meridians—every part of his body.
Even, it seemed, every part of his soul.
Each bit of gray light merged with Liam's own aura and released surging power.
It was unbelievable. This bit of death energy had just been contributed by a hapless sea beast strangled by Shizuku's chainsaw while they drifted at sea. Not a person with strong Nen ability. How could such a small bit of death energy contain so much power?
Thinking carefully, it seemed the death energy generated by Kakin King's Nen-using soldiers after death wasn't much different from the death energy generated by ordinary sea beasts.
Life goes out like a lamp.
Not much difference between humans and animals. Between Nen users and ordinary life.
Whether a Nen user died or a kitten or puppy died, there was only a little bit of death energy. Neither more nor less.
Liam had some realization in his heart.
Death energy, even though he called it that, wasn't equal to—at least not completely—conventionally known aura.
For example, the cult leader who'd kidnapped Kurapika. The lingering Nen beast left by Sky Master. They were both stronger thoughts after death. Aura that didn't dissipate after death. But they could only be regarded as twisted energy, nothing more. Not truly alive or real people. Even if eliminated, it could at best be called eradication of Nen, not killing. They wouldn't produce death energy again. In Liam's heart their former physical bodies were dead and their lives disappeared. So they were already dead.
Death energy was related to something deeper. More essential.
With life. With living and dying. With cause and effect. With things Liam currently had no way of exploring.
Liam pondered while practicing silently.
He concentrated wholeheartedly, trying to retain every ounce of power bred by the little bits of gray light, integrating it with his own aura and using it. The Ken on his body swelled slightly. Wisps of heat visible to the naked eye overflowed like boiling steam.
The numbers on the little gray figure's chest climbed bit by bit.
The next day, Liam and Shizuku left their temporary hotel and headed to the port. They boarded a small sightseeing ship headed to the abyss whirlpool where the so-called Eye of Death was located.
On the boat, most passengers were tourists holding up phones to take pictures at the railing facing the sea. Some locals with nothing better to do chatted with tourists from other places.
Liam and Shizuku walked around. In the crowd, they noticed a few backpackers. Based on body shape, muscles, limb movements, and most importantly the state of aura on their body surfaces, you could tell these people meant business.
Even if they weren't here to challenge the Maelstrom, they were close.
Liam admired extreme challenge enthusiasts.
He took out his phone and continued searching for information. Shizuku sat beside him reading a book.
Liam had visited two local hospitals several times over the past two days. He didn't know whether to call it bad luck or good luck. He hadn't encountered any accidents. No one happened to die. The small town wasn't that big. Emergency frequency wasn't high. Liam wandered for two days without encountering any accidents like car crashes, so he gained nothing.
As for slaughterhouses... Liam had walked around several times and found no similar place. The smell of the wet market—he really didn't want to go there. Local fishermen seemed more accustomed to ocean fishing, so Liam walked along the coastline. Apart from meeting a few old fishermen, he didn't gain much. He and Shizuku had waited at fishing spots for a long time but no fish bit. He got impatient, rolled his eyes, and left.
Now thinking about it, if he looked carefully for slaughterhouses, there might be results. There had to be places where fish, chickens, and pigs were killed in the wet market. The smell was just an excuse.
Maybe he was simply unwilling to take the path of squatting at the door of a pig-killing shop every day until his skills maxed out like some cultivation novel protagonist.
Pretty hypocritical. He'd rather stay in hospitals but not wet markets.
But thoughts were like this. No reasoning with them. Couldn't argue himself into submission.
Clear thoughts were important.
Therefore, Liam now only searched for large hospitals. Forget about slaughterhouses and wet markets. If he passed by accidentally, consider himself lucky and check it out. Actively go squat for death energy? Forget it.
And if it's a hospital...
Just in time. Convenient for practicing the ability he wanted to develop next.
At that moment, the crowd on deck suddenly burst into noise.
Some shouted excitedly, "I see it! The whirlpool!"
Others exclaimed, "That's the Eye of Death..."
Liam and Shizuku were both drawn by the sound. They followed it and looked. Sure enough, the sea surface not far to one side suddenly collapsed downward, revealing half the true face of the abyss whirlpool.
On the other side of the whirlpool was a crescent-shaped island. Liam visually estimated the island's length at three or four kilometers. It presented an arc that just "embraced" the large whirlpool. A truly unique natural landscape.
The sightseeing liner captain was obviously experienced. He drove the liner as close as possible to the large whirlpool. Close enough to make people wonder if the entire ship would be pulled down into the abyss by the fierce whirlpool water in the next moment. But it never actually happened. The effect caused passengers at the railing to shout excitedly, gasp, and exclaim frequently.
But obviously no warriors would just jump from here.
Liam felt regretful.
The two-hundred-meter-deep whirlpool was close at hand, like an abyss. If you took a second look, it seemed your mind and heart were being dragged into it, teetering on collapse.
The thunderous sound of the maelstrom made timid tourists weak. They couldn't help gripping the boat railing.
The sightseeing ferry sailed along the maelstrom's edge toward Crescent Island. The few backpackers Liam had been secretly watching stared at the maelstrom, eyes fixed, muscles tense. Nervous, mixed with excitement and eagerness.
As soon as the passenger ship docked, they almost immediately jumped off the deck and went straight to the simple official post on the island. After communicating with staff members, they prepared for the maelstrom one after another.
Six people total.
Five had safety ropes tied around their waists with staff help. But one didn't. He obviously planned to challenge barehanded without any safety measures.
Many tourists photographed the scenery and these challengers. Perhaps in their eyes, these challengers were also part of the scenery here.
Liam and Shizuku sat on the shore of Crescent Island, watching the six people jump one after another into the two-hundred-meter whirlpool.
Those who jumped closer fell into the whirlpool after dropping thirty meters. Those who jumped far—like the one without any safety measures—seemed to plunge into the maelstrom's center. Liam didn't see any splash until his figure disappeared into the Eye of Death.
The sea breeze blew. Wave sounds continued, mixed with tourist exclamations and distant seagull cries.
Shizuku's short black hair danced in the wind. She used Blinky to release a board and two boxes of Gungi pieces, placing them on a rock. She invited Liam to play.
She held black, moving first. Snap!
Snap! Liam followed with white.
Click, click, click...
Both moved quickly, going back and forth. Newbies pecking at each other.
As soon as Liam placed a piece, a wisp of death energy flew toward him. The direction deviated from the maelstrom by three hundred meters. Seemed like turbulence in the sea had thrown the body away.
The death energy merged into his heart. turned it into a gray stream around the gray figure on the death energy panel.
"The rope broke..." In the distance, staff looked at the broken rope floating back from the maelstrom's edge and shook their heads at colleagues.
Shizuku pondered over the chessboard for a long time. Finally pressed a piece, holding it with her fingertips. "Check."
"Really?" Liam looked twice, asking with a straight face, "What do the rules say?"
"I'm threatening your general, right?" Shizuku wasn't sure either. She quickly had Blinky spit out the introductory book. Then she heard Liam laughing uncontrollably across from her.
"So I did get check." She nodded.
Another stream of death energy escaped into Liam's heart, turning into a second gray stream wrapping around the little gray figure.
With a thought, Liam injected these two points of hot death energy into one corner of the hexagonal panel. Instantly, the numbers next to his Enhancement system changed.
Liam picked up a stone and used Shu to wrap Nen around it. They say plucking flowers and flying leaves can hurt people. Gravel blessed with aura could also be a murder weapon.
Liam made a cut in his palm. Blood instantly flowed out.
The star on the back of his neck immediately activated self-healing power.
Bleeding stopped instantly.
The wound on his palm healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This kind of skin injury healed in almost two breaths. By the third breath, the wound had healed until only a pink, shallow scar remained. Soon even this scar disappeared, as if he'd never been hurt.
Liam clenched his fist and cut his hand again with the aura-wrapped stone. But this time, he tapped the star on the back of his neck—the star suddenly vanished.
The wound opened. Blood flowed.
This time, the wound and blood showed no signs of stopping immediately.
Liam glanced at the 71.2% upper limit of the Enhancement system on his death energy panel. He recalled the feeling when the star's self-healing power activated just now. Thinking of Naruto's medical ninjutsu, treating it as some kind of ritual, he concentrated aura in his palm to form an invisible sphere and pressed it toward the wound in his other hand...
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