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Chapter 69: The World Never Lacks Geniuses
"Suyan~!"
The moment Shizuka saw Suyan walk in, her eyes lit up like stars.
Instantly shedding the sluggish, wilted aura she had been projecting all morning, she seemed to spring back to life. She trotted eagerly toward him, mumbling, "Quick, give me a hug! I need to recharge my Suyan Energy."
Bouncy. Incredibly bouncy. Even though the blonde, airheaded beauty was wearing a loose, oversized casual shirt, it did absolutely nothing to conceal her massive assets. With every step she took, they bounced violently, looking as if they might burst free from her collar at any second.
Before Suyan could even react, a wave of sweet fragrance assaulted his senses. The next second, two impossibly soft cushions completely enveloped his face.
A mild, not entirely unpleasant sense of suffocation washed over him.
Yes. Completely off guard, he had once again been violently fouled by Shizuka's 'dribbling'.
"What's going on?" Suyan forcefully pulled his head out from the suffocating valley and looked at her, his curiosity piqued.
"Suyan, I'm burning out~" Shizuka took a deep, aggressive sniff of Suyan's hair, then looked at him with a pitiful, teary expression. "Rika is driving me insane. Can you please find someone else to teach her?"
"Please! I'll do anything!" To emphasize her plea, she pressed her hands together in prayer, blinked her big eyes at him, and shot him a dramatic wink.
Suyan extended an index finger and lightly flicked her forehead. "You really only ever think about yourself, don't you?"
"Nonsense! I do not!" Shizuka puffed out her cheeks, instinctively arguing back. "I clearly…"
"Clearly what?" Suyan challenged.
"Clearly…"
Clearly I helped you conquer Rika… But Shizuka swallowed the words before they could escape. Rika was sitting right there; if she heard that, she would definitely find a new, more torturous way to punish her. No good deed goes unpunished, Shizuka grumbled internally about her best friend.
"Alright, let me see what the situation is first," Suyan said, gently pushing her away.
He was genuinely curious. It had barely been any time since lunch. Was Shizuka really about to snap already?
Logically speaking, almost everyone possessed a latent desire to play the role of a mentor. When Suyan had taught Shizuka, Saeko, and Rika, watching them slowly grasp and master new... knowledge... had filled him with an indescribable sense of satisfaction.
But Shizuka was built differently.
She was just purely, unequivocally lazy.
Suyan shifted his gaze to Rika. The dark-skinned elite operator was sitting cross-legged on the bed, deep in meditation. She was so hyper-focused that Suyan's arrival hadn't broken her concentration in the slightest.
He tilted his head toward Shizuka. "Is she doing mental conditioning?"
"Mhm." Shizuka nodded and quickly explained her teaching methodology.
Suyan had previously told them that the only way to awaken Nen without an external forced opening was to first forge the physical body, and then temper the will. Only by achieving a perfect state of mind-body unity could one begin to sense and command their aura.
Once Rika heard this, her approach was aggressively straightforward: she relentlessly sparred with Shizuka. Whenever she hit total physical exhaustion, she would immediately sit down, empty her mind, and try to sense the Life Energy bleeding from her fatigued muscles through sheer meditation.
Which meant Shizuka was living in absolute hell.
Every fifteen to twenty minutes, she was forced to fight a high-intensity sparring match against an incredibly hyperactive special forces operator.
"Shizuka, you're teaching her the wrong way," Suyan said, reaching out to gently stroke her soft blonde hair.
Was it actually possible for someone in this zombie-infested world to awaken Nen without external assistance or a Nen Seed?
Suyan believed it absolutely was.
Because the core essence of Nen was simply a living creature's ability to manipulate its own Life Energy. In theory, as long as something was alive, it had the potential to learn Nen. Even a stray cat or dog.
So why were there no Nen users in this world?
Simple. Because the concept of Nen didn't exist here.
It was like nuclear weapons. Before the concept of a nuclear bomb was proposed, human civilization progressed for thousands of years without anyone ever inventing a weapon of mass destruction on that scale. Yet, the moment the first nation successfully detonated one, several other major powers replicated the technology in a terrifyingly short amount of time.
Nen followed the exact same logic.
Take the Chimera Ants in Hunter x Hunter. That species had evolved in the Dark Continent—a place overflowing with aura—for god knows how many generations, yet not a single ant had ever naturally developed Nen. It wasn't until they migrated to the human world and Neferpitou ruthlessly dissected the brain of the unfortunate Hunter, Pokkle, that they learned the concept of the Nen system. From there, the power spread through the entire colony like wildfire.
The world never lacks geniuses. It only lacks the initial spark of inspiration.
Of course, it was entirely possible for "natural" Nen users to exist. But anyone who awakened Nen without systematically learning the principles would strictly fall into the Specialization Type. And a Specialist who hadn't learned the fundamentals of aura control was less of a "Nen User" and more of a spontaneous "Esper." They wouldn't know how to manipulate their aura properly, let alone how to force someone else's Aura Nodes open.
The complex, branching Nen system in Hunter x Hunter was the result of a massively long historical process, built brick by brick over generations of dedicated practitioners. It didn't just appear overnight.
"Eh? Why?" Shizuka looked at him, completely bewildered. "But I did exactly what you said to do!"
"Because Rika isn't a pure martial artist," Suyan shook his head. This was a simple issue of an information gap.
For a traditional martial artist like Saeko, Shizuka's method of mind-body unity and ascetic meditation would be perfectly viable.
But Rika? She was an adrenaline junkie. Could anyone realistically expect a woman who craved high-octane stimulation to achieve Zen-like tranquility?
Right on cue, hearing Suyan's assessment, Rika could no longer maintain her calm. Her eyes snapped open, and she vaulted off the bed, rushing up to him. "What exactly is that supposed to mean, you little brat?"
"It means this method fundamentally clashes with your nature. Forcing yourself to do it will only yield half the result for twice the effort," Suyan explained smoothly.
"Then what method does fit my nature?" Rika demanded.
Suyan paused, thinking it over before answering. "Let's try this. Think very carefully: is there anything you absolutely love doing? Something that brings you intense thrill and joy, something you could do for hours without ever feeling tired?"
"Something that pulls you in completely, makes you lose track of time, and leaves you desperately craving more even after you're finished?"
"Making l—"
Rika's mind instantly flashed back to the wild, unrestrained hours she had spent in bed with Suyan that very morning. The words nearly slipped off her tongue.
She managed to bite down on the second syllable just in time.
A faint, barely noticeable blush spread across her dark, tanned cheeks. Grinding her teeth, she glared at Suyan and snapped with crude aggression, "You little bastard! If you want to fuck me again, just say it! There's no need to play these twisted little mind games!"
"Do you honestly think I'd say no to you?"
Hearing this, realization dawned on Shizuka's face.
A wicked, teasing smirk spread across her lips. She poked Suyan directly in the cheek and sing-songed, "Suyan You're so ecchi!"
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