Xiang Nan picked a spot with a perfect view and settled in to enjoy the brawl unfolding before him.
Although the Muka family had the numerical advantage in Nen users, his eyes told him their overall power was nowhere near that of the Shadow Beasts. It wasn't just the amount of aura they possessed; it was the quality—the very nature of their life‑energy.
To Xiang Nan, the life‑force radiating from the twenty‑odd Muka fighters lacked the "solidity and purity" displayed by the Beasts. That, in turn, reflected a gap in both mind and body.
The Shadow Beasts were hardly top‑tier masters in the world of Nen—they usually fought on the "lower tables"—but endless blood‑soaked battles in the criminal underworld had tempered them in ways ordinary Nen users could not match.
Owl made the first move. With a flourish he unfurled a huge crimson cloth, striking the pose of a bullfighter; as his silhouette flashed past, three Muka Nen users were immediately wrapped up. The cloth shrank to a thumb‑sized pouch, and in mere seconds the Muka side had lost three combatants.
Xiang Nan's gaze shifted to Rabid Dog and Bat. Compared with Owl, their kill‑speed—or rather their efficiency—was noticeably lower. The Muka fighters clearly knew something about the Beasts' abilities and fought with deliberate counters.
Rabid Dog snapped his jaws at vital points—limbs, heads—but every bite was narrowly evaded. Indoors, Bat's ability was also hamstrung; this wasn't the open field, and the concrete floor beneath them was barely two meters thick.
A terrifying wave of sound erupted in the hall as Bat screeched; every window and door on the floor shattered at once. Xiang Nan calmly plugged his ears with a fingertip.
Leech's Nen was ill‑suited to head‑on combat; he preferred darting through chaos, finishing off the wounded, and planting parasitic eggs. But that required prep time and absolute control of the target—otherwise he could be counter‑attacked.
Even so, a seasoned man like him still had fundamentally higher Nen skills and taijutsu than most. Hurting him would not be easy.
Xiang Nan's eyes moved again.
Fish and Hedgehog were also harvesting lives. Fish's spindly fingers and knuckle bones were sharp as sickles; each agile flicker of his body left another corpse sliced apart in a shower of blood.
Hedgehog's Nen was primarily defensive: when struck, the spines on his body automatically fired back toward the attacker's aura source, reflecting the blow and baffling the Muka fighters.
The scene grew ever more violent and chaotic.
After watching for a while, Xiang Nan drew a cigarette, lit it, and took a slow drag.
He doubted the battle would end so simply—there was still a player present.
Any woman who could hold status or influence in Hunter × Hunter was certainly a veteran player and understood the current state of the world. Her Extinction Level had to be at least 6—maybe 7 or even 8.
She wouldn't try to ride the Muka family to power without a plan. Despite her precautions, though, it looked as if the Muka were doomed—unless they had another card to play.
Xiang Nan's prediction proved right: in less than five minutes every Muka Nen user lay dead, each in a different pose. Only the lone female player remained.
From start to finish she had done nothing—merely observed, just like Xiang Nan. Yet he sensed something odd about her.
As soon as the fight began she had forced herself into Zetsu, cutting off her aura and appearing utterly ordinary. And each time a Nen user was killed, her Zetsu seemed to lengthen by another minute.
"Interesting…" Xiang Nan smiled.
A player's edge lies not only in knowing the plot and characters but also in understanding the power system. With that knowledge they can design Nen abilities perfectly suited to them.
Amid the chaos—and thanks to her Zetsu—the Beasts subconsciously ignored her, while the Muka fighters had actively protected her.
"So it's over? Pathetic…"
"Trash. I thought you'd at least warm me up."
The scattered Beasts regrouped, grumbling. Rabid Dog flexed his fingers, killing intent written all over his face.
"All right, bitch—only you're left. How do you want to die?"
Owl said nothing, eyes locked on the woman; he had sensed the anomaly. Of all the Beasts he had the best record, personally dropping six or seven enemies.
"Careful—her Nen is strange," he warned, eyes narrowed.
"Tch!" The others brushed him off. One woman left—how bad could it be?
Suddenly the woman glowed; blocks of flickering data pulsed over her skin, and odd sounds spilled from her lips. She stepped out of Zetsu.
"Specialist," Xiang Nan noted, curious how far she could push it.
Her aura multiplied by the second, its nature shifting.
An idea flashed through Xiang Nan's mind—something the Beasts might miss but a fellow transmigrant would not.
"A game… She's modeled her Nen on a final‑boss mechanic."
He almost applauded. Indeed, talented players were plentiful.
Raw talent and physical strength aren't everything; Nen is the core of power in this world. With enough creativity a user can compensate for shortcomings—or even break past natural limits.
By the look of it, her ability worked like clearing game levels: defeat the minions, then the boss appears. Time, the number of small fry, even the battlefield itself probably set the boss's difficulty. The tougher the "stage," the stronger she became.
Such abilities carry heavy restrictions, but once triggered the temporary boost is immense. Those dead Nen users' auras were laced with the same signature—part of a shared mechanism.
As the "players," the Beasts could clear the boss… or be wiped out.
Only a Specialist could create something so twisted.
"One…" Xiang Nan glanced at a Beast and whispered.
As if on cue, the woman erupted. Before anyone could react she crushed a Beast's skull with one kick, then twisted and back‑kicked. Rabid Dog tried to dodge but was half a beat slow; her high heel became a lightning‑fast warhead.
Boom! He was blasted into a wall, limbs embedded, blood pouring from every orifice—gravely wounded.
Terror replaced the Beasts' earlier arrogance.
"Scatter!" Owl barked.
But the woman was already on the slowest Beast. She chose her targets with care: Rabid Dog and Leech were the most documented, and Leech's Nen was helpless at close range. She had been observing the whole fight and now knew everyone's condition and abilities.
Crack! A dark‑skinned Beast with white twin‑tails had her arm snapped, but the woman didn't finish her—other attacks were incoming. She vaulted away, evading Bat's sonic blast, and vanished.
"Kill the weakest first, thin the herd, then wound the rest—that's how she leverages her surge," Xiang Nan analyzed. "Her boost must be limited; she can maybe drop one or two, but she'll die in the end. Still, if she prepared an escape route beforehand, she might get away."
If his "game‑boss" theory was right, she herself couldn't exit the scene unless all "player characters" died—or she did. Subjectively she couldn't flee, but if an ally with an escape‑type Nen pulled her out, it might work.
In Xiang Nan's eyes, her evolution wasn't absurd yet, but Specialist abilities could be scary.
"Where is she?" Bat missed and scanned the room.
"Porcupine!" Owl suddenly shouted—aimed at Xiang Nan outside the melee.
A murderous aura shot toward him. The woman wanted to reduce Beast numbers and catch them off guard. She knew the Beasts, but Xiang Nan was a stranger—possibly not a Beast at all, and thus an easy kill. Even if he was, he looked marginal and hadn't fought.
The Beasts braced, unable to assist in time. The woman's cold eyes locked on the man in the corner, casually smoking, utterly detached.
"Good call," Xiang Nan chuckled at Owl's warning.
He looked up, met the woman's charge, and smiled—instantly giving her a bad feeling. Too late: she was already in striking distance.
Before her devastating leg strike could land, her eyes bulged—his knee rocketed into her abdomen faster than she could imagine. A wave of numbness, then blinding pain flooded her nerves.
"You're calm and methodical—I can tell you've followed your plan every step. Sadly, your mistake was picking me." His light words made her pupils shrink.
She tried to thrust a hand at his face—only for her forearm to bend at a right angle, bone bursting through skin.
"Aaagh!"
Xiang Nan's refined aura‑sight, honed under Linne, let him read her movements in advance; her Nen control was too crude.
Bang! Like Rabid Dog before, one more knee strike sent her flying in a straight arc, slamming into the wall and sliding limp to the floor.
"..."
The Beasts, Owl in front, stared in shock.
"Just lucky—no need to gape," Xiang Nan shrugged with a grin. "She'd attacked several people already. I'd have been an idiot not to prepare. She's strong, but not ridiculous—don't let her scare you."
Even as he spoke, Owl darted over and, with a swirl of red cloth, wrapped the barely moving woman and stuffed her into the twisting pouch.