"Young Master..."
"Young Master..."
In the basent, having not seen him for a few days, the one-eyed, scar-faced guard stationed at the iron grated door bowed respectfully with his right hand over his heart upon seeing Roy again.
They pulled open the grated door from the left and right, revealing the dark passage leading to the secret room.
"Mm." Unsmiling, Roy gave them a brief nod, resud his steps, and entered the passage. Soon, treading under the dim yellow light, he walked to the airtight door.
The pot of yellow chrysanthemums placed in front of the door was well cared for. Transitioning from spring to sumr, it was exactly their blooming season... The petals were in full bloom, just like life, withering and blooming again, blooming and withering again, cycling endlessly without an end in sight.
Tap...
Roy paused his steps, gently stroked the [Curse] on the back of his hand, took a deep breath, and said, "Grandpa, I've co to see you."
Rumble~ The airtight door forged from refined steel suddenly burst open. The [Demon Eye] abruptly extended a tentacle, and just as before, wrapped around him and dragged him into the secret room... As his consciousness sank, he heard the familiar voice again.
[re: Ga of the Dead] activated!
The boy was dazed for a mont. When he opened his eyes and looked closely... the world before him had changed. He had arrived in a lush, verdant forest ford by towering trees whose heights could not be seen at a glance.
The Uzuki Great Forest...
Long ti no see...
A gust of wind blew, bringing the fragrant scent of the soil...
Roy closed his eyes, took a deep breath of the fresh air rich in negative oxygen ions, and his mories returned to the past...
The [Bunker] Frank Bege and the [Storm] Archbishop behind him... After Benjamin's [God's Descent], the "Lightning Spear" he raised his hand to throw still seed vivid in his mind...
The boy flipped his hand, condensing specks of fluorescent light, and using [De-Conjuration], materialized the [Strategy Map] given by Silva into his hand. Moving his feet, he left behind afterimages, like a phantom, treading with perfected "Shadow Step" containing a hint of the [Shunpo] rhythm, sprinting towards the "Outcast Settlent" — "Colorless Ho", Bandle City. With the [Curse] present, countries and territories controlled by the Seven Righteous Gods, such as the Principality of Sar and the Kingdom of Hoin, were obviously off-limits. Furthermore...
Roy still didn't know which existence he had angered, or... what exactly Grandpa Zzigg had done to drag him into this ss... The boy felt that in the current situation, the best strategy was to lay low in the Outcast territory, gathering intelligence while preaching and secretly accumulating power.
Swoosh... Moving like an arrow piercing the wind, map in hand, marking it while using [Magnetic Field Control] to navigate...
Along the way, he conveniently dealt with so magical beasts... updating the [Magical Beast Encyclopedia], panel prompts...
["Life Energy" 10 15 20...]
[Magical Beast Encyclopedia record complete...]
[One, Plague Bat: D-Rank Magical Beast. (Note: Ratings are based on Chira Ants. Elite Squad Leader is D, Squadron Leader is C, Royal Guard is B, Ant King is B )]
[Manifested Aura Volu: D (9741/10000)]
[Potential Aura Volu: C- (1250/100000)]
[Innate Nen Ability: "Plague" (Note: When attacked, the Plague Bat can spread a plague to induce illness in enemies, thereby escaping)]
[Prompt: "Plague" has been extracted... suspected to be highly compatible with the [Spider Venom] originating from Lower Rank Five, "Rui"... Host [Poison Resistance] 10... [Venom Implantation] ability 10...]
[Two, Earth Eel: C-Rank Magical Beast. (Note: Ratings are based on Chira Ants. Elite Squad Leader is D, Squadron Leader is C, Royal Guard is B, Ant King is B )]
[Manifested Aura Volu: C- (4715/100,000)]
[Potential Aura Volu: C (72540/100,000)]
[Innate Nen Ability: "Laser" (Note: Earth Eel... a snake-like eel moving along the surface. When attacked, it will react on the spot, stimulating its compound eyes to form a laser beam to kill enemies...)]
[Prompt: "Laser" has been extracted... suspected to highly overlap with [Eye of Revelation]... now upgraded to [Laser Eye]... [Yang Release] 10...]
Three, Man-Eating Vine, Innate Nen Ability "Camouflage", highly overlaps with [Deceit]... Four, Howling Crayfish, Innate Nen Ability "Voice of Despair", Note: A pincer-type magical beast that feeds on "sound". Through howling, it can intimidate humans or magical beasts and all life forms with reproductive consciousness, forcibly triggering depressive emotions deep within the opponent, causing their will to beco sluggish or even depressed... losing the hope to survive, until... suicide...
"This point is sowhat similar to the [Heart Worm] inhaling and exhaling negative emotions..."
Ring ring ring...
The prompt sounds were continuous. As Roy approached "Colorless Ho" Bandle City, the boy slew peculiar magical beasts one by one, conveniently extracting their "Nen abilities" to supplent himself. He paid special attention to [Laser], a skill derived from [Eye of Revelation], giving it a few extra glances.
Unlike the Sharingan... which relies on the stimulation of [Evil], [Twisted], and many other negative emotions to activate [Yin Release] and further upgrade...
[Laser] is entirely pure [Yang]... just like... the sun that cannot be looked at directly. A scorching red glow surged deep in Roy's eyes. As he carefully savored it, he felt this skill suited him extrely well, especially his "Visualization Object"... the Sun!
Swoosh... Sword in hand, bizarrely shaped magical beasts fell at Roy's feet one by one. The boy shuttled through the towering dense forest, continuously harvesting "Life Energy". At a certain mont, his footsteps paused. His [En], spread out to cover a radius of nearly over two hundred ters, clearly captured a scalp-tingling scene. It was a magical beast with a body very much like a fierce tiger but with a lion's head, incessantly tearing and biting an old woman...
Half of the old woman's body was already gone, leaving one hand, which bizarrely was held by another old man... This old man was skin and bones, chest sticking to his back. Facing his wife being eaten, he just watched numbly and quietly, neither fleeing, nor screaming, nor shedding tears, just like... a plate of food served on the table, quietly waiting for the "fate of being eaten" to arrive...
That "person" was clearly alive, yet his entire body was perated with a thick [Sense of Death], causing Roy's brow to uncontrollably furrow!
"Why are you so indifferent?"
"Watching your wife being eaten like this, aren't you sad or heartbroken?"
Roy had many questions to ask, but when he opened his mouth, he couldn't say a word... His past life had taught him that in the face of the world's perils and the unpredictability of human nature, one should strictly follow the "Three Decrees" of being human...
"Respect the fate of others, let go of the savior complex, avoid moving yourself to tears", especially now, in the crisis-ridden Dark Continent. Do not listen to what should not be heard, do not look at what should not be seen, do not ask what should not be asked. But...
As a [Human], as a [Human] who resolved and promised his Great-Grandfather to be a ray of light in the hearts of others, Roy stepped forward... With a flick of his hand, a suddenly extending "hundred-ter great sword" abruptly pierced through that magical beast, "tiger yet not a tiger", but with a lion's head!
[Prompt... "Life Energy" 30...]
[Magical Beast Encyclopedia has recorded...]
[Liger: C-Rank Magical Beast, has been killed!]
[Innate Nen Ability "Ferocity" extracting...]
[Prompt: Extraction complete...]
["Ferocity": Advance "reason" in exchange for a massive increase in "Nen volu"... The more "fierce", the stronger, and the more insane...]
No madness, no survival... Did this Liger go mad because it ate too many people... or did it choose to eat people because it was mad?
Roy caught it off guard, finishing the Liger with a single [Shinso]. With a flick of his arm, he tossed it away like garbage, snapping several large trees along the way. Then... accompanied by the roar of falling trees, he walked out of the rising dust and arrived in front of the half-eaten old woman...
Squatting down, he reached out a hand, conjuring a wisp of "Nen" coated with the [Scorching True aning], turning it into a ball of fire, wrapping her in it... cremating her...
"Dust to dust, earth to earth, clouds and moon to clouds and moon. Mrs. Nora Lawrence, may you be reborn in paradise. If there is a next life, may you live in the sunlight all your life, undisturbed by the dark mire..."
Whoosh~ The firelight instantly expanded with a gentle puff from Roy!
To the side, that numb and dull old man, like a fish on a chopping board waiting for the butcher's knife, finally seed to react. Turning his stiff neck, staring blankly at Roy and his gradually lting wife, his throat moved, and he asked weakly, "How do you know her na?"
Old Mark could swear on the [Storm], in his entire life, he had never seen this young man with thick, beautiful black hair before him.
"It was her... she told herself..."
The fire burned... the firelight danced...
Roy never glanced at Old Mark, letting the "Nen" coated with the [Scorching True aning] cremate the old woman in an instant... When the last piece of bone fragnt disappeared... a hunched figure erged in the firelight... She had kind eyes, just like a grandmother next door... Lifting her skirt, she bowed to Roy, then turned her head and smiled brightly at Old Mark, just like when she t, understood, and loved him in her youth... It caused Old Mark's numb heart to suddenly twitch, and his face, covered in deep wrinkles, finally lost control... two streams of tears flowed down...
"So that's how it is,"
"I was wondering who it was... it was you who told him, Nora..."
The old woman smiled without a word, only gently stroking Old Mark's face with infinite love. Unexpectedly, her hand passed straight through his body... After a fire, they were already separated by life and death...
"Hehe... don't be in a hurry, I will go over and keep you company very soon..." Old Mark struggled to raise his head, bearing two streams of hot tears, and smiled at Roy: "You killed that beast, preventing from dying... young man,"
"You take the place of that beast and kill !"
The veins on Old Mark's stiff neck were visibly bulging... Roy turned his head and frowned at him, falling silent for a mont...
He knew the old man wasn't joking, he was serious... However, it was precisely because he was serious that it felt like a lump in Roy's throat, and a thick fog filled his heart...
He had lived two lives, whether in the Hunter World, the Demon Slayer World, or the Naruto World, he had always seen people struggling to survive. This was the first ti he had seen... soone eager to die.
The boy and the old man looked at each other silently. After a mont, he asked in a muffled voice, "Why?"
Old Mark tried to hold his wife Nora's hand with one hand, looked at her, and smiled at each other: "No reason. Only if we die, can our granddaughter, Little Maddie, live."
Little Maddie?
[En] released, [Heart Worm] squirming, along the close karmic thread, it plunged into Old Mark's heart...
Under this dilapidated and gloomy sky, Roy stopped and watched... He saw Little Maddie, a little girl with dull hair like dry grass... Similarly, he also saw the past of Old Mark and his wife Nora... There was their struggle for survival, their eager desire to obtain an "Admission Pass", to move into Bandle City, and thus the beautiful vision of leaving the shantytown... There was their desperate work, only to receive ager wages, and the helplessness of having to sell "Nen" to survive when they were "taxed" by the city lord's mansion for various reasons every month... There was the heartbreak of their son falling ill, and ultimately passing away because dical treatnt was too expensive... There was the despair of their daughter-in-law, forced to go into the city to sell herself to feed the family, never to be heard from again... There was their granddaughter, their friends, their everything... forming a massive picture scroll of hell...
This picture scroll was filled with nothing but suffering, which was the case for the vast majority of outcasts like Old Mark's family!
Hitting rock bottom... First abandoned by the Seven Gods for [Disrespecting the Gods], then squeezed by those big shots led by the "Colorless Ho" security force... Born to be expendables, nothing more!
Roy walked along the dry, dilapidated ridges of Old Mark's heart, silently observing his life, and finally at the end... found the answer to their single-minded desire for death.
"Colorless Ho" Bandle City had an unwritten rule, which was also... the "salvation" given by the security force masters in the city out of pity for the outcasts outside the city, who were fellow outcasts. That was—
[If you do not enter the city before the age of forty, go die]
[And you must die in the belly of a magical beast]
[Once death is confird, the security force will gather their descendants, granting them a chance to take the test to enter the city]
This was what Old Mark and his wife Nora aid for, trading their deaths for Little Maddie's "life". At least... once she entered the city, Little Maddie might be able to get better job opportunities, and even... if she could find her missing mother in the city, Old Mark and Nora would... die without regrets...
The picture scroll rolled up to the end... In silence, Roy saw Old Mark and his wife Nora smilingly trick Little Maddie into going out to pick mushrooms to make soup for her. After that, they left the shantytown without hesitation, left the protection of Bandle City, and resolutely plunged deep into the Uzuki Forest without looking back...
Roy felt a throbbing in his heart. Experiencing what they experienced, putting himself in Old Mark's shoes, he unexpectedly experienced "happiness" for the first ti in his life... That was the beautiful vision for his granddaughter, hoping she could live well in the city in the future... and also, hope!
Creak—
The picture scroll of Old Mark's life stopped there.
The Heart Worm absorbed enough "negative emotions", burped a "hiccup"... and squird back into Roy's body...
At that mont, the panel prompted—
["Negative Emotion" 300%... Automatically transferred to "Unconscious Domain"...]
Roy took a deep breath, regained his senses, faced Old Mark's exposed neck seeking death... and with a backhand motion, delivered a slash.
He cut down a sharp arrow wrapped in [Shu] that was flying towards his back!
"Hee hee hee... where did this wild monkey pop out from?"
"Daring to ddle in the security force's business?!"
☆☆☆
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