Hunter: I became stronger even after I died.

Chapter 280 This human, just who is he?
As far as Moro knew, the Nen ability to transform into other people...

They are Peelerev, Illumi, Morel, and Shayapov, one of the three guards of the Chimera Ants.

Among them, Mo Laowu can transform "smoke" into the appearance of other people. It is called transformation, but it is actually a kind of mimicry ability.

Peel-Lev's transformation and Illumi's disguise are both quite powerful transformation abilities.

Although the former is limited by body size, it is flawless.

Without the help of the magic needle, the latter's ability to disguise and transform can only last for a few hours.

Compared to these transformation abilities created through the Nen system, magical beasts like the ferocious fox rely on innate abilities to achieve their transformations.

Moro was curious about how creatures like the ferocious fox and the human-faced ape mobilized their innate abilities, and whether "life energy" was involved.

The original work devotes very little attention to these details.

Moro had few reference materials, and now that a research subject had come to him, he naturally wouldn't let this opportunity pass him by.

The unidentified creature, disguised as a weak woman, was startled by the sudden aura released by Moro and turned to flee.

But the next second, Moro appeared like a ghost and grabbed him.

"squeak--!"

The woman, disguised as an unknown creature, was restrained. In her terror, she suddenly let out a sharp cry, her entire face contorting and changing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Seeing this, Moro immediately stirred up an even stronger killing intent.

For a moment, the surrounding air seemed to freeze.

The sounds of insects chirping and other noises that could be heard before fell silent at this moment.

The intense killing intent emanating from Moro, amplified by his aura, pierced the head of the unidentified creature disguised as a woman like countless sharp needles.

Its ability to think was instantly stripped away, leaving only the most primal fear, and even its voice was stuck in its throat.

Moro took the opportunity to observe its changes.

A thin layer of spiritual energy gradually appeared on its face and even the surface of its entire body.

Or rather, it is the life energy of the organism itself.

Under the influence of this energy, the human face began to distort and dissolve, like a faded canvas, eventually revealing its true form: a pale monkey face.

The monkey's face has almost no nose, its eyes are surrounded by scarlet lines, and its mouth is unusually wide, revealing fine, needle-like sharp teeth when it is slightly open.

"Not a human-faced ape?"

Moro was slightly surprised.

He originally thought this guy was a human-faced ape, but it turned out to be another kind of creature.

However, he can at least be certain of one thing.

These creatures usually maintain a state of "absolute" dormancy, but once they use their innate abilities, they will instinctively mobilize the life energy within their bodies.

Despite the involvement of life energy, the transformation ability just now was more of a change between muscles and bones.

More accurately,
It is life energy that drives the changes in muscles and bones.

"never mind……"

Moro didn't care about the species of the creature in front of him. After seeing through the details of its talent and abilities, he planned to imitate it.

"Starlight Convergence"

Under the terrified gaze of the white-faced monkey, Moro's Nen shattered into starlight.

Immediately under his mental control, the starlight became denser, surrounding the white-faced monkey.

"You should be able to understand human speech, so... could you please change your expression again, um, not the same one as before?"

Moro's eyes seemed to be shrouded in black smoke, and his voice exuded a chilling, inexplicable aura.

The white-faced monkey's eyes were wide open, its mouth was involuntarily agape, its whole body was trembling like a leaf, and liquid was already seeping from its lower body.

It has eaten many people.

In its perception, humans are indeed powerful, but they are nothing more than the most delicious food.

But now, sensing the aura of the human before it, it realized that the humans it had eaten before were not qualified to represent the strength of a race.

"If I'm not mistaken, that face you just saw was that of a female human you ate. And the fact that you're wearing a men's watch and belt means that you've eaten more than one human."

Moro stared at the white-faced monkey's face and said calmly, "Then just pick another face. My patience is limited."

"..."

The white-faced monkey had completely lost its ability to think. Under the suffocating and terrifying aura of Morro, it could only stare blankly with wide eyes, instinctively activating its innate abilities once again.

A thin aura of energy appeared on its body like mist, causing its facial muscles and bones to twist and deform, and its skin to writhe and reorganize like melted wax.

A moment later, the face of a young man with a scar on his lips replaced the previous monkey face.

Moro used his ability to condense starlight to read the information when the white-faced monkey changed its face.

The previously formulated one-year capacity improvement plan, in terms of final results, still failed to meet expectations.

Ultimately, the ability to replicate the precision of Nen control is still too conceptual.

To imbue this conceptualization ability on the original basis is ultimately not something that can be achieved through mere effort.

However, the process of improvement was not without its gains.

The accuracy of reading starlight condensation has been improved to an unprecedented level.

Just like now, every fiber of the white-faced monkey's facial muscles contracting and every reorganization of its skeletal structure appearing in Moro's mind like a slowed-down image.

Strictly speaking, even the Zoldyck family's limb manipulation technique that can transform their hands into claws, or the magical fox's innate ability to enhance its claws and teeth...

Moro can now also read the entire process of change through the condensation of starlight.

"Just give it a try."

After integrating the information he had read, Morrow withdrew his ability to condense starlight and instead controlled the muscle fibers and bones of his face with the increased power of manifested energy.

Click, click——

Unlike the White-faced Monkey, who changes his appearance silently, Morrow makes a series of teeth-grinding sounds when he manipulates muscles and bones.

The sudden sound gradually brought the white-faced monkey's blank stare back to focus.

When it saw what was in front of it, a distorted expression of horror and disbelief immediately appeared on the human face.

"!!?"

The white-faced monkey squeezed out an off-key vibrato from its throat.

In its gradually widening pupils, Moro's face was clearly reflected.

That was clearly the human form it was using.

only……

The face that Moro conjured up clearly looked strange.

His left eye was slightly higher than his right eye, his mouth was unnaturally crooked, and the muscles of his entire face presented a strange sense of distortion.

Although it is recognizable as the face that the white-faced monkey is using, it looks like a human skin mask that has been randomly pieced together by a child, exuding an air of incongruity.

"It's a bit of a hodgepodge, but it's the first time I've ever imitated it."

Moro saw the monkey's unnatural face reflected in the monkey's pupils, but he wasn't disappointed.

He was already very satisfied that he could replicate this technique.

The only concern is that differences in biological structure may prevent this face-changing technique from being mastered precisely through practice.

If that's the case, it's not perfect.

However, Moro also plans to study the magical beast, the ferocious fox, hoping to gain some new insights.

"Thanks for your hard work."

Moro pulled himself together and looked at the white-faced monkey in his hand.

The white-faced monkey noticed the change in Moro's tone and thought that Moro was going to spare its life, a glimmer of hope flashing deep in its eyes.

however,
A crisp sound of bone cracking suddenly rang out.

The white-faced monkey felt a sharp pain in its neck, and the glimmer of hope that had just appeared in its eyes froze.

Moro crushed the white-faced monkey's neck and then casually tossed the corpse onto the ground.

"Hmm? After death, the muscles and bones that changed during life are retained? That's somewhat similar to the residual characteristics of the thoughts after death."

Looking at the scarred face of the white-faced monkey, Moro was slightly surprised, but a glimmer of light flashed in his eyes as he thought of a certain possibility.

If one uses Nen abilities to change their appearance or body shape, then after death, it is possible that under the influence of post-mortem Nen, they will continue to retain the changed appearance and body shape.

"Never mind, I'll stop thinking about these things for now."

Moro withdrew his gaze from the white-faced monkey and turned to look at the Shimeile Wetland shrouded in thick fog ahead.

The grayish-white mist flowed slowly among the treetops, breathing out a damp breath like some kind of living thing.

After familiarizing ourselves with the terrain and environment of the Shimeile Wetlands, we will then visit a river called the Scythe in the Biscayne Forest.

During this season, the river welcomes the spawning migration of silverfish. These sea fish travel thousands of kilometers upstream to eventually spawn in the river.

Menchi chose sushi as the second challenge precisely because of this.

Although……

She certainly didn't expect the test takers to understand this.

Since Moro knew this information, he would naturally make preparations in advance.

If familiarizing himself with the Shimele Wetlands was preparation for killing Illumi, then familiarizing himself with the Gorge Serpent River was to ensure he passed the Hunter Test.

These preparations are all necessary.

Moro strode forward, his figure gradually disappearing into the thick fog.

a few days later.

Somewhere in the Xiashe River.

Moro held a sea fish whose entire body was covered in silver scales.

Based on the information he had found beforehand, he simply slaughtered the fish, extracted the roe, and ate it raw with the fish meat. It tasted sweet and slightly salty.

"If I use this fish to make sushi, it should pass the test, right?"

Moro thought to himself, then tossed the remaining fish into the air.

A dark shadow swiftly attacked, snatching the fish into its mouth in the blink of an eye—it was the tail and mouthparts of a chimera.

The chimera ate the silverfish, probably because it rarely eats sea fish, so much so that it stared longingly at the river not far away, and could see streaks of silver light on the surface of the river.

"Eat something else."

Moro leaped onto the chimera's back and patted it with his hand.

He knew the chimera's appetite, and just in case, he certainly couldn't let the chimera catch the silverfish and eat it.

The chimera let out a low growl of grievance, suppressing its appetite, and flapped its wings to fly into the air.

12 month 15 number.

The full moon hangs high.

On a mountain near Saba.

The chimera's massive body slowly descended, and as its enormous fleshy wings unfolded, shadows engulfed the silvery light in the forest like waves.

As it approached the ground, the creatures in the forest seemed to smell the scent of death.

In an instant, flocks of birds took flight and beasts fled in terror.

Even the insects cowered in the soil, too afraid to chirp.

As the rulers of this territory, the fierce foxes immediately sensed something was amiss.

Several ghostly black shadows swept through the tree shadows, silently moving among the branches and converging in the direction from which the tremor came.

"What kind of creature was that, and...!?"

A ferocious fox lay crouching in the treetops, its narrow, beastly eyes squinting as it stared intently at a terrifying behemoth in the distance, and then at the creature leaping from its back...

Humanity? !
On the flat ground, Moro leaped down from the back of the chimera and directly scanned the tree canopy where the fierce foxes were hiding.

He could clearly sense the hostility of these magical beasts.

His undisguised scanning behavior was tantamount to letting the fierce fox know that they had been exposed.

The fierce foxes were all tense, as if facing a formidable enemy.

About one or two minutes later.

An old, fierce fox appeared and looked at Moro warily.

Moro was also sizing up the fierce fox.

Its body stands upright like a human's, with well-defined and smooth muscle lines.

As its name suggests, it has a fox-like face, two feather-like ears on its head, and claws as sharp as hooks.

Morrow remembered that the fox possessed the ability to grow larger and extend its claws, an ability that was very similar to the mutated hand techniques that Killua had shown in the original work.

His purpose in coming here was not only to replicate the ferocious fox's transformation ability through the condensation of starlight, but also to learn the technique of mutating limbs.

If he can master it, his lethality in close combat will be slightly improved.

of course.

If conditions permit in the future, he will still look for another cold weapon with Nen attached.

After all, when using the Starlight Condensation technique, only a portion of one's spiritual energy can remain on the body.

Therefore, items like the Red Jade Bird Knife, which possess inherent spiritual energy, can exert greater value.

After a brief silence in the arena.

The older, fierce fox sensed something in Morona's inquisitive gaze, quickly suppressed his inner turmoil, and asked directly, "Human, what are your intentions?"

"Do not be nervous."

Moro met the other's wary gaze, his tone calm yet carrying undeniable weight: "Since you have accepted the registration and management of human society, you will naturally be protected by law, and I have no reason to harm you."

At this point, he noticed that the other person's expression had not changed at all, so he paused for a moment before getting straight to the point and stating his purpose.

"I came here specifically to ask for your help. Of course, I will offer appropriate compensation."

The words fell.

Moro unleashed his maximum power, instantly generating an astonishing aura that swept outwards, sending the surrounding fallen leaves flying everywhere.

This action is intended to increase the weight of one's words.

Sensing the powerful aura emanating from Moro, the older, fierce fox's pupils contracted sharply, and its kind hidden in the tree canopy became even more restless, all involuntarily revealing human-like expressions of fear.

No wonder that ferocious beast...

They will submit to this human.

The fierce foxes were deeply shaken.

Moro observed the older, fierce fox's reaction and patiently awaited his answer.

After a while.

Then the older, fierce fox asked in a deep voice, "What if I refuse?"

"I'm sorry, this is not a request."

Moro said calmly, "And what I can guarantee is that your lives will not be harmed."

"..."

The older, fierce fox fell silent.

Clearly, he had no right to refuse.

After half an hour.

Moro left the forest.

The ferocious fox clan watched Chimera and Moro depart, their fox faces all showing expressions of disbelief.

"Who exactly is this human...?"

The older, fierce fox was still reeling from the terrifying learning ability that Moro had just displayed.

------

Two days later.

On the outskirts of a town, there is an abandoned train station and a post office overgrown with vines.

Morrow pushed aside the drooping branches, walked into the dilapidated post office, came to a crooked mailbox, and opened the lid.

Inside was a brand new letter.

"Finally, some news."

Moro took out the letter.

This letter was placed by Jin.

Moro opened the letter; there were only a few lines of text on the paper.

"The Snake of the Snake covers the Lu River."

"Related information: A spirit beast formed from the thoughts of the dead, possessing the ability to petrify."

Contact code: XXXXXXX.

Upon seeing the name "Si She Gai Lu," Moro raised an eyebrow slightly and put the letter into his pocket.

Regardless of who the client is, he only wants to gather enough energy for the third ring of life before the Hunter Exam begins.

(End of this chapter)