Six-Eyed Sukuna, starting from Hunter x Hunter

Chapter 26 All roads are man-made

The final passage leads directly to a space filled with mirrors.

When he stepped into this space, the passage behind him disappeared, and there was only one road in front of him.

And the end and both sides of that single road were also made of mirrors.

"That guy really did get away through the back door by taking advantage of his status as a game administrator," Su Wu muttered, standing there and rubbing the back of her neck.

All the mirrors in this space are broken; some are even so shattered that only one or two pieces remain, stubbornly clinging to their spots.

Each broken mirror has its own unique charm.

The ground was covered with fragments and even debris.

Amidst countless mirrors and fragments, he performs the same action.

"Could it be a jigsaw puzzle?" He bent down to pick up a piece from the ground, touching its sharp edges, and looked thoughtfully at the broken mirrors around him.

This mirrored space is approximately 150 square meters in size.

The number of broken mirror fragments on the ground is conservatively estimated to be tens of thousands, and they are all irregular fragments with no discernible pattern.

Even with jigsaw puzzle pieces marked on the back, numbering in the tens of thousands, it's not something that can be completed in a short time.

"Ah... I'm going to die from blood loss..." Su Wu looked at the broken mirror and the shards on the ground around her, and grabbed a piece of paper to plug her nose in advance.

He then carefully tidied up the fragments on the ground, arranging them neatly according to their different sizes. He noted the shape of all the fragments, including even the tiny, barely visible bits and pieces, which he carefully picked out and set aside.

This process took him quite a bit of time.

Then came the long and tedious jigsaw puzzle part.

Since there were no markers and no way to mark the fragments, the only way to quickly recall them was to remember the shape and size of each fragment from memory.

This is a very complex undertaking for the brain.

Unbeknownst to him, the white paper he used to plug his nose had turned dark red, but he didn't care at all. His eyes were fixed on the shards of mirror in his hand, pressing them one by one in front of the mirror.

Once the fragments touch the wall, they seem to be held in place by invisible glue or something else, so there's no need to worry about them falling off.

Faster, even faster.

He didn't know if there would be any other challenges ahead. If there were, he had to reach the port of Banato before January 1st. Considering the travel time and the time allotted for contingencies that might occur along the way, he simply didn't have much time to waste here.

The faster his brain worked, the steadyer his hands became.

Soon, it seemed that a mirror would be pieced together in his hands, but he stopped.

"There isn't a suitable piece in this spot..." He looked at the mirror, which was just one piece short of being complete, and then at the pieces scattered on the ground.

He had memorized the size and shape of all the fragments, so he was certain that none of them on the ground matched the final missing fragment.

He lowered his eyes, replaced the tissue he had used to plug his nose with a new one, and began piecing together another mirror again.

This time, a gap has appeared that cannot be pieced together.

Or rather, it's not that it can't be pieced together, but that a piece is missing.

Hundreds of mirrors were pieced together one by one with his movements, but each of them had a missing piece.

The blood-stained papers in the corner were piled up into a small mountain.

"Ugh—" He suddenly stopped what he was doing, put down the shards in his hand, and lay on the ground, gagging rapidly.

My body felt numb and I felt ice cold all over.

The side effects of excessive blood loss, mental strain, and hypoglycemia were amplified in him.

After a series of rapid and intense gasps, he lay flat on the cold ground, his chest heaving violently, his face pale, and blood streaming from his nose. His lower face and the collar of his clothes were covered with dried bloodstains and fresh, viscous blood.

He looked disheveled, as if he had been beaten up repeatedly.

"Hahahahaha..."

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha..." His laughter was extreme and hysterical, and even glistening tears overflowed from his pale blue eyes.

This game is pretty good.

Sixty-four thousand eight hundred and ninety-two fragments.

It could be made even more difficult; why not just set the number of fragments to hundreds of thousands?

Seemingly exhausted from laughing, he sat up halfway and listlessly rummaged through his backpack for bread and an apple, quickly eating them.

"162891 seconds have passed since I started the puzzle..."

"It's been less than two days, it should be the 27th now."

"There should still be time." After finishing his food, he closed his eyes to calm his breathing, stood up again, and burned the blood-stained crumpled paper next to him.

He stepped into the only passage and reached out to feel around in the mirrors on either side. Suddenly, he heard a click, and the mirrors retracted, revealing a small space behind them.

The room was fully furnished with tables, chairs, and benches, and there was even a skeleton in the corner, holding a small, exquisite box in its arms.

It resembles iron but is not iron, yet it is extremely hard and requires a password to open.

Of course, it should be possible to open it with a single shot.

But the contents inside will probably crumble along with the box.

Thinking of the missing pieces on the mirror outside, Su Wu instinctively knew she couldn't violently break the box.

He stroked the box and felt a string of small, uneven characters on the bottom.

How many mirrors are there in total?

How many mirrors are there? Do individual fragments count as mirrors? If not, how many complete mirrors are there?

"The password is... a five-digit number, so the answer should be..." Su Wu reached out and turned the password.

The total number of pieces, both on and off the ground, is 66,666.

These are numbers that the devil would love.

Most people probably wouldn't bother counting the number of fragments.

With a snap, the box popped open.

Su Wu looked down and saw a fragment in the box.

Memory quickly matched the fragment with the chipped hole in one of the mirrors outside.

"So, there should be another fragment like this in the other rooms waiting for me to find..." He put away the fragment, left the room, and stepped into another room.

The bottom of the second box wasn't engraved with words, but rather with four strings of letters from the Hunter x Hunter world.

The password is four digits.

It's very simple. Write down the complete table according to the original alphabetical order of the Hunter world, and then connect the four strings of letters at the bottom of the box with lines. That will give you the answer.

2733.

The second box was opened successfully.

The third box contains a graphic of unknown meaning. Attempts to overlap and cancel it out failed. A second attempt at splitting and moving it succeeded.

The bottom of the fourth box is engraved with twelve patterns, and the password is a four-digit number.

This only requires grouping different symbols together to form a four-digit number.

Without pausing for even a second, they stepped into another room.

The fifth, the sixth, the seventh...

Finally, he walked through all the rooms, carrying the fragments he had obtained, and returned to the starting point to fill in the gaps one by one.

After all the mirrors were complete, the wall began to move.

They rotated and rearranged themselves, the original passage disappeared, the mirrors that had become complete also disappeared, and a huge door appeared in their place.

The door was huge and heavy, but the keyhole was tiny, and... there was no key.

"After solving the puzzle, is it time to find the key?" Su Wu looked at the door in front of her, a nonchalant smile playing on her lips.

This time-wasting ordeal is never-ending!

"Well, let's see if my skills have improved..." He released his Nen from his fingertips, forming a thin thread, and then inserted the Nen thread into the keyhole. He pressed his ear against the door, using Nen to enhance his hearing and listen for any sounds.

Using a psychic thread as a wire, what he's doing now is... picking locks.

To cosplay Osamu Dazai, who was known as the "King of Lockpicking in Yokohama," he specifically learned lock-picking skills. Wire, hairpins, cards, stiff paper... all of these could be used as lock-picking tools in his hands.

With a click, he pushed the door open completely.

"I'm out." He picked up his backpack and stepped inside.

There was no exit behind the door as expected, only an empty lobby.

"...No matter what level it is, I have no interest in playing anymore." Su Wu looked expressionlessly at the lobby where there was no way out, and immediately changed into a clean set of clothes without bloodstains.

"You have to walk your own path. Since that's the case—" He suddenly flashed an extremely wicked smile and raised his hands.

"Azure—"

In an instant, a dark blue energy glow filled the entire hall. This pitch-black underground space seemed to be subjected to an endless bombardment, with artillery fire repeatedly striking the surrounding walls and destroying all obstacles in its path.

Fine sand flowed into the underground labyrinth through the cracks, and with a series of cracking sounds, the walls collapsed completely. The yellow sand that had been kept out of the labyrinth continued to pour in as the walls collapsed, threatening to submerge the labyrinth.

"Wow." Su Wu said expressionlessly, and immediately launched himself into the air.

Using Cang's teleportation ability, he braved the heavy yellow sand and managed to climb up.

He paused in mid-air, patted the dust off his hair and clothes, looked down at the swirling collapse below, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh dear, I almost got forced to be buried alive and given a proper burial by myself." He muttered to himself with a relaxed and cheerful look, as if he had just escaped a disaster, and subconsciously used one of the otaku's catchphrases—"Oh dear."

"What have you been doing down there?!" A voice filled with doubt and disbelief came from not far below.

The tour leader, who had always presented himself as an optimistic and wealthy middle-aged man, finally lost his carefree demeanor befitting someone with money, leisure, and status.

What on earth did that white-haired kid do in the desert maze?! Why did it collapse?!

And he came out way too fast! Even if he really thought highly of this kid's strength, he still thought the game shouldn't have ended so quickly.

You should know that the exam venues in the desert are so difficult that no candidate has ever passed them since they were designed...

But the other party actually came out! And it hasn't even been three days yet!

As the team leader ran, he inwardly raised a multitude of questions.

"Well..." The white-haired boy suddenly disappeared from mid-air and reappeared beside him, putting his hands behind his head and running away with him on his own two legs.

While the team leader was running away, he also turned around and gave the other party some attention.

"Because I was too lazy to play puzzle games, I just blasted a path open."

"Speaking of which, I don't have to pay for the damage to the exam venue, right?"

The white-haired, blue-eyed boy had an extremely bright smile on his face, making no attempt to hide his arrogance and... malice.

The demonic and malicious quality revealed in his smile overshadowed the divinity in his appearance.

It just makes one think that this is a... complete and utterly... bad kid.

The commotion behind them finally subsided, and the two stopped moving their legs.

The team leader glanced back, and the desert was still the desert, with nothing but yellow sand as far as the eye could see.

"An unconventional approach..." The team leader scratched his head, seemingly troubled.

Oh well, there are plenty of hunters who don't follow the usual path.

"No compensation is needed; the Hunter Association will cover all losses incurred during the exam." He sighed, but still answered the boy's question.

Anyway, the issue of funding is not something he needs to worry about.

"Then there's no problem. By the way, do you know how to get to Banato Port?" Su Wu nodded, asking naturally and confidently.

Although he knew from the map that the Gordo Desert was east of the port of Bathona, but...

He didn't know where he was in the Gordo Desert.

"...The port of Bathona is over there." The tour leader pointed in a direction.

As a guide, it's perfectly fine to point out the direction for test takers.

"I understand, then bye-bye." The white-haired boy glanced in the direction he pointed, nodded slightly, and then his figure suddenly disappeared again.

"I'm starting to look forward to seeing this kid as a hunter." The team leader shook his head with a smile, his words full of anticipation, even though he hadn't seen the boy's disappearing figure.

……

Using Cang, Su Wu crossed the Gordo Desert in the shortest possible time and arrived at the nearest city.

"It is now... December 28th."

There are three days left until January 1st.

"Hmm... there should be transportation to the port of Banato..." he thought to himself, as he walked into a jewelry store in the city and went straight to the counter, dumping all the "trash he had picked up" from his bag onto the counter.

The gold and gemstones shone brightly under the store's lights, exuding an air of dazzling brilliance.

"What does the customer mean?" The lady behind the counter was slightly surprised, but quickly regained her composure and spoke politely.

"Will you accept it?" The white-haired boy's impatience was almost palpable.

"This..." After the saleswoman made a phone call, a man in a suit quickly arrived.

Three minutes later, Su Wu left the jewelry store and headed straight for a hotel that looked very expensive.

I booked a luxury suite, washed up, changed into brand new clothes, and stood in front of the half-length mirror looking at myself.

White hair, blue eyes, snow-white skin, and black facial markings.

Apart from the facial features, which still retain some resemblance to his former self, everything else has changed drastically, making him completely unrecognizable as the same person.

"It still looks great." He looked at himself in the mirror while brushing his teeth and nodded in satisfaction.

As expected of him! A cosplayer with over a million followers!

While it's true that cosplay isn't all about looks, both appearance and quality are essential for becoming popular. If someone isn't good-looking, they won't be able to gain millions of followers.

While it's possible to use photoshopped images for fraud, for example, some of his lists were completely unrelated to the photos, but they were so similar that you wouldn't recognize them.

Su Wu shook her head, sat down on the edge of the bed, and used the phone on the bedside table to call the front desk downstairs.

"I'd like to order breakfast service and have it delivered to my room tomorrow. Also, could you please book me a bus ticket or some other transportation ticket to Port Banato for tomorrow?" he instructed as he turned on the TV in the room.

After hanging up the phone, he immediately lay down on the bed and fell asleep.

PS: [Today's chapter is also a two-in-one chapter.]

Wuwuzi: I'm done playing! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

P.S.: Please shower me with recommendations, investments, and monthly tickets, and also increase your readership!

When will we be able to invest a hundred? Two digits seem a bit meager.

(End of this chapter)