Morning came, and inside the room where Kaito was held captive, only Xiang Nan remained; Garo and the others had already left.
At this moment, Xiang Nan's expression was somewhat strange.
Kaito, who had served as Xiang Nan's experimental subject, was in a wretched state—completely reduced to a "lab rat." Even with some organs, and even parts of his brain, exposed, Kaito still hadn't died; Xiang Nan used various medical equipment and drugs to maintain the bare minimum of his vital signs. But that wouldn't last much longer.
"Interesting."
Xiang Nan used some special electrode device to stimulate a particular part of Kaito's brainstem. It seemed to make portions of Kaito's body release Nen. Xiang Nan himself couldn't sense Nen, but he was sure something was happening because the vital-sign monitors beeped wildly.
"So aura… if it's the direct manifestation of physical energy, then overall Nen ability appears linked to deeper brain functions."
"Could it be mental energy? Brain utilization?"
In the quiet room, Xiang Nan's voice occasionally broke the silence, puzzling out his doubts.
"Aura's quantity, like a 'blue bar'… depends partly on the physical body, but not entirely. Because drawing out more life energy, generating more aura, that rate of 'excavation'—or say training—clearly ties into mental factors as well."
"Physical energy plus mental energy… yeah, that matches the original story. But that same story talks about the quality of one's aura. If two people have the same amount, ignoring differences in Hatsu or technique, one person's aura can still be stronger; that also seems mental, or maybe deeper—like it's related to the essence of one's life."
"And remembering those Chimera Ants, that might imply some aspect of genetics. Huh, if I have time, I should look for some relevant books."
"So maybe mental energy affects how quickly aura is developed and how one expands their abilities?"
"Physical training is fairly straightforward. But how do you train mentally…?"
"There's a lot I want to know…"
"One test subject alone can't validate all my theories."
…
Time dragged on as Xiang Nan continued his tireless research. All of a sudden, a monitor beeped one last time and fell silent. Xiang Nan turned his head and saw that the readings had flatlined. Kaito was dead.
He tossed aside the instrument he'd been using and picked up needle and thread for suturing, calmly stitching up Kaito's remains. It was his professional habit as a doctor. As his first test subject, Kaito had provided immeasurable value and information.
Finally, Xiang Nan removed his gloves, turned, and left the room.
"Take care of the body—find a decent burial spot," he said to one of his teammates outside.
They hesitated, perplexed. Why treat an enemy's remains so kindly?
"On some level, he helped me. I intend to keep my word about fulfilling his final wish…I said I'd let him see the woman he loved," Xiang Nan explained, lighting a cigarette. Glancing out the window, he realized it was already midday. "Bury them together."
"Understood."
Though not fully grasping Xiang Nan's reasoning, the soldier simply followed orders.
Xiang Nan lingered in the corridor for a bit, smoking and organizing his thoughts. After finishing, he stubbed out his cigarette underfoot and gave a faint smirk.
"Wonder what he'll think when he finds out, in death, that the 'woman' he adored was basically some scummy man deep down," he muttered with a wry chuckle. "At least I granted him that 'reunion.'"
With that, he pocketed his hands and walked away, his coat swishing behind him.
…
That afternoon, having cleared the second round, Xiang Nan's group drove back to the military base. They'd lost one man in the squad, a cost Xiang Nan had anticipated. It boiled down to Alyosha being careless and ignoring Xiang Nan's plan to keep a safe distance. Overconfident in his own strength, Alyosha tried to overpower the target face-to-face and paid with his life. It was the price of not understanding the world's true nature.
During the ride back—just like after clearing the first round—Xiang Nan busied himself with a military laptop that had internet access, trying to find any special news around the globe tied to the Extinction Game's new wave. But there wasn't much. The information he could access was limited, even with the advantage of military resources.
"So I'm already Extinction Level 2, but still no privilege to unlock the storyline. Yet from Selena's experiences, I see that while we can't touch the main plot, the system isn't blocking players from learning about Nen or dealing with Nen users. It's possible someone in our batch is already a Nen user," Xiang Nan mused, watching the rolling mountain scenery through the window.
Back at the base, he'd tried using official channels to gather intel on the current world timeline, including data on certain story characters. But just like before, any text or videos regarding them were blanked out to him—he simply couldn't see or receive it. Meanwhile, Selena's "talent" may have been impulsive, but her starting point was actually solid—most people without a built-in advantage wouldn't find a Nen user in only half a year, let alone get them committed enough to risk life and limb.
"She totally wasted Kaito's potential," Xiang Nan concluded. "If I had a card like that, I could've used it far better."
Finally, Xiang Nan glanced back at the system screen. Though he'd just ranked up again, he wasn't excited—he was grim. He was starting to sense how brutal this "game" truly was.
[Current World: Hunter x Hunter]
[Progress: Story Not Initiated (No Extinction Level 10 player yet)]
[Host Level: Extinction Game 2]
[Current Player Total: 361]
[Highest-Level Player Now: Extinction 8]
[World's Total Combat Power: Human World (85607), Non-Human World (???)]
[World Rank: All-time Highest 16th, Current 55th
Max Player Power: 522]
[Historical "Cleared" Player Count: 2]
[Rounds of Extinction Games: 57,736]
When the new players joined, the total went from 1,000 down to 361—somehow these 361 survived. That's a slightly higher ratio than Xiang Nan's wave had. The "Human World Power" number, "Rounds of Extinction," and "Highest Player Power" changed slightly, but still tended to remain stable.
Among the newly unlocked data was info about the total number of "cleared" players—2.
Originally, Xiang Nan assumed "clearing" meant reaching Extinction 10, but that wasn't the case. It referred to two people who had once led the Hunter x Hunter world in a "Reincarnation Dimension Placement Match," ranking in the top 50. Yes, the new unlock referenced a whole new gameplay element: the "Reincarnation Dimension".
In short, it went back to what the blond "guide" in chaos-space said: players would be randomly sent to different worlds—each world counting as one dimension. The total number of these dimensions is incalculable. If Hunter x Hunter existed, that meant worlds even more terrifying existed as well. Each round of the Extinction Game brought nearly 1,000 new players, and over 57,000 rounds meant many millions of players had come through Hunter x Hunter across all cycles.
And only two people ever stood out enough to lead Hunter x Hunter to the top 50 in the Reincarnation Dimension ranking matches. The best of them got up to 16th place, as shown on Xiang Nan's system panel.
Such a horrifying funnel meant each of those two was an unthinkable genius among millions. But now, Xiang Nan realized those two had already died—they'd fallen in the Reincarnation Dimension matches. The system displayed an extra line:
"Due to the representative players and teams being wiped out, this world has undergone 499 times of reset-and-rebirth."
So, the Hunter x Hunter world Xiang Nan was in was effectively a "new server," having been rebooted 499 times. Whether that was 499 representative players each taking it to those matches or some other unknown cause, the logs weren't fully unlocked. Anyway, only two managed top-50 placements among countless attempts.
After those two, apparently no one else ever forced Hunter x Hunter back into the top 50, even if subsequent players were insanely powerful. One could only imagine how formidable the other top-50 worlds were.
So now, Hunter x Hunter was waiting for the 500th challenger who could lead it onward…
~~~
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