Hunter x Hunter: From Obtaining the World to Beyond Heaven

But it won't take 24 hours anymore. If I keep eating like this, my consciousness will probably dissipate soon, and I'll turn into a predatory monster or something.

It doesn't matter. After that, no one in this building will survive. I'm just sorry to Kantigara...

Boom! ——

A sudden, violent tremor pulled Qi Peixin back to his senses, making him instantly realize that he had been attacked.

But where is the enemy?

Two meridians extending from the back of Qi Peixin's head connected to the brain of the "Strange Fish." As the meridians trembled, he seemed to enter a transparent world.

All external disturbances will be reflected here.

However, Qi Peixin could only sense the vibrations of the surrounding fish and the seemingly out-of-the-box telekinetic projectiles.

'Is it an enemy's ability? Let's try a different perspective...'

At this moment, Lakshya, who was standing still, calmly kept throwing out Nen bullets, each one hitting the belly of the [Leader Catfish] with precision.

Based on previous experience, this beast can only be killed by destroying its head, but its strangely structured skull almost completely surrounds its brain.

After being killed, these Nen Beasts would simply disappear, leaving Lakshya no time to analyze their skulls and find their weak points.

But the abdomen is different; it's extremely soft and doesn't have the strong protection of bones, something he had already discovered before.

and……

Lakshya recalled the scene of the first appearance of the man who called himself Qi Peixin—

He crawled out of the fish's mouth; in other words, he was hiding inside the fish's belly!

There is another possibility: he might be hiding in a different dimension inside the fish's belly, but Lakshya believes this possibility is low.

To give this type of automated spirit beast the ability to advance or retreat at will, the requirement for [Talent] will be quite high.

Suddenly, Lakshya seemed to see the [leader catfish] glance in his direction.

This startled him, because he dared not move an inch while standing still to avoid being detected by the vibrations of his footsteps.

This is completely different from tracking the fish in the corridor earlier. Back then, the fish were automated mind-controlled beasts, so he could use mind-balls to attract attention and conceal his footsteps.

But the fish in front of them was clearly being handled by someone, and his footsteps would not be overlooked.

But he quickly forced himself to calm down, thinking it might just be a coincidence and he shouldn't panic.

Yes, it's just a coincidence.

But the next moment, he overturned his conclusion. The [leader catfish] suddenly turned around and charged towards Lakshya at high speed.

It was discovered!

But why?

Lakshya had no time to think about the sudden change. Faced with the surging Nen beasts, he instinctively transformed [Training] into [Firmness].

At the same time, Lakshya decisively bent his knees, gathered his strength, and leaped backward, preparing to widen the distance.

As if it had suddenly gained sight, the [Leader Catfish] bit at Lakshya in mid-air without hesitation!

It's okay, at this distance and speed, they shouldn't be able to bite me!

Lakshya's extensive combat experience allowed him to accurately judge the enemy's attack range. With the distance and speed of his retreat, he should be able to just avoid the enemy's bite.

However, things on the battlefield often turn out differently than expected.

The giant mouth of the [Leader Catfish] seemed forever unable to cross that tiny distance, but the next moment, a bloody humanoid figure with peeling skin suddenly emerged from that giant mouth!

Lakshya's pupils contracted as he saw the humanoid figure gather Nen in its hand and swing a fist toward his head at a speed he couldn't dodge!

It's hard!

Can it be blocked? Can it be dodged?

No, that's too fast! It's at the speed of an Enhancement-type character!

Lakshya realized with despair that he had no way to dodge the punch.

The opponent clearly developed an automated Nen beast, so logically they should be a [Emission] type ability user who leans towards manipulation. However, the [Hard] in front of us has speed and strength that are completely at the [Enhancement] level.

His "flow" simply couldn't achieve the transformation of his entire body's "firmness" into the "hardness" of his head before that punch landed.

There wasn't even time to pull the thread that Marol had given him!

In other words, we're doomed...

Lakshya watched in despair as the red, humanoid creature drew ever closer, seemingly sensing the approach of death.

boom! boom! boom!

Suddenly, gunshots rang out.

Three bullets were suddenly fired, and the thick fog immediately split open with three holes. Silver streaks of light flashed through the air at high speed, shooting towards the bloody humanoid creature.

'What?!'

Caught off guard, Qi Peixin hurriedly dodged, but was still shot.

His right arm, which he had swung out, was blown in two, and blood splattered in mid-air.

Lakshya snapped out of his daze, flipped in mid-air, landed firmly, and then suddenly looked up and decisively threw out a Nen bullet!

But the chanting was too late; the severely injured Qi Peixin had already instinctively retreated back into the body of the [Leader Catfish].

With a flick of its body, the giant fish used its massive tail to deflect the incoming psychic bullet, ignoring the mysterious bullet and continuing to focus on attacking the nearby Lakshya.

Clearly, Qi Peixin inside the big fish was not thrown off balance by the sudden attack, but rather understood the principle of concentrating firepower and focusing on the enemy in front of him.

This is a calm and experienced enemy.

In the thick fog, Diya silently observed.

Even before Lakshya threw the Nen Bullet, he had already secretly hidden in the fog, using the Ripple Radar and his Stand to carefully spy on the battle situation.

The bullet he fired just now was intended to allow Lakshya to survive for a while and help him wear down the enemy's strength.

Moreover, that was indeed a rare and excellent opportunity, and it would be a great pity to give it up so easily.

Chapter 40 Hidden agendas × Accelerated devouring

'Damn! How did this stupid fish even find me?! Does it have eyesight now?'

Lakshya narrowly avoided the monster fish's attack, his most proficient Emission-type attacks being at a significant disadvantage at this distance.

What he couldn't understand at all was why this "leader catfish" was able to find him.

Lakshya quickly glanced around. The smaller catfish seemed completely oblivious to the battle raging around them, and instead... began devouring each other?!

An ominous premonition arose in Lakshya's heart.

Big fish eating small fish is understandable, but what does it mean when small fish eat small fish?

'Is it a method to speed up the absorption process? I guess it comes at the cost of energy loss, shortening the digestion time.'

Lakshya gritted his teeth. He couldn't even handle the [Leader Catfish] in front of him, so where would he find the strength to kill those ordinary catfish?

I'm afraid I can only rely on that guy hiding in the fog. He probably doesn't have any good intentions either; he probably wants both of us to die...

In the thick fog, Dia suppressed the urge to go forward and kill the small catfish.

too early.

There were at least a dozen small catfish devouring each other on the field, and his marksmanship wasn't good enough to accurately hit the head of a dozen moving targets at the same time.

If you can't kill it in one go, the [Leader Catfish] will immediately retreat to defend, causing you to miss your chance.

These fish have no spirits, so in the best-case scenario, one bullet can eliminate one of them.

To maximize the results, Dia should fire as late as possible, allowing the small fish to devour each other until they reach a number that Dia can eliminate in a short time.

In an extreme scenario, when only one remains, Dia shoots and takes one away, leaving the enemy with no chance to devour it.

But would that [leader catfish] be foolish enough to let him slowly kill all the catfish?

He was waiting, waiting until the small fish had been mostly devoured before he ate them all at once.

Dia knew perfectly well that the only reason the [Catfish Leader] hadn't returned to defend was because he hadn't fired yet.

The enemy was very calm, knowing that this was a game of timing.

If Dia shoots the small fish first, the enemy will promptly retreat to eat the rest.

However, this would prevent him from quickly devouring the next fish during the digestion period, and Dia would definitely seize the opportunity to shoot down the smaller fish that he couldn't devour in time, ultimately leading to a significant loss of energy.

Nevertheless, the enemy was still able to eat most of the remaining small fish, but he couldn't estimate whether he could defeat Dia in the fog and the mercenaries in front of him after eating them.

However, if Dia doesn't fire prematurely but waits for the number of small fish to decrease naturally, the enemy won't be in a hurry to defend.

Therefore, what Dia needs to do is to fire as late as possible, but not to drag it out until the very end, otherwise the enemy will wipe them all out.

The enemy's logic is that he will definitely be able to come back and catch at least one small fish, which is entirely possible given his speed.

Preemptively retreating to devour the small fish will cause Dia to fire prematurely, killing the small fish that cannot be devoured in time.

Therefore, the later you return to defend, the better. However, if you delay until the very end, you risk being wiped out by the enemy.

In this way, the two of them kept their logic in perfect sync—just pretend they didn't see the little fish!

It seems that staying put is a win-win situation for both of them, so who loses?

It's me!

Lakshya was furious. He was holding up the game in the attacking third, but that guy in the fog was ignoring him. This dead fish was desperately trying to bite him to death.

The two of them seemed to be working together to target him.

The dead fish is the same; the previous mechanism has completely changed, and now it's definitely being located by some mechanism it doesn't know about.

If you can locate him, you should also be able to locate Dia in the fog, so why focus on killing Lakshya?

It's because he's nearby, of course...

At this moment, Qi Peixin was not as calm as the two people outside thought.

Since his arm was not protected by Nen when he used [Hard], the damage from Dia's shot was far more than just losing an arm.