[Dead creatures also have nen. If the monster uses nen, then the dead will definitely have nen too. The will of such unknown beings to survive might even be stronger than that of humans. If by chance it works, it would push the ability to its limits and slow down the energy's breakdown. That would be the safest method to keep this cluster of energy stable.]
Is there really a chance? Even now, Saiki Kusuo had only heard of the concept of the dead's nen—he had never actually seen it. Could that kind of thing really be trusted?
[I want to try my idea first. Hopefully the world won't blow up before that. Yare yare, if only someone could immediately start using energy to build our Dark Island. Who could it be?] White Saiki Kusuo sent through telepathy.
Me, being ordered around? Saiki Kusuo's first reaction as the original.
Dark creatures are still creatures. For Saiki Kusuo, who can hear the voices of all living things, every being is made up of bones and inner thoughts. The difference between intelligent beings and humans isn't that big after all. Using living creatures for experiments like this… this clone really does carry a cruel streak.
Saiki Kusuo felt a strange unease, but he didn't have time to dwell on it.
And Kusuo was right—if they didn't do something about the energy, the world would blow up. Kusuo didn't want to summon another clone before his current thought was fully worked out, and besides, he could only use a clone once a day. He couldn't just swap them out for a more obedient one.
He had to deal with it himself.
Make something like Greed Island, but as a Dark Island…?
Saiki Kusuo took one-ninth of the energy mass in front of him and unleashed his powers. His range instantly covered sixty thousand square kilometers around him, an area twelve times larger than the Greed Island map!
In the next moment, illusions, health bars, stats, and experience points appeared beside many Dark Continent creatures.
The creatures within those sixty thousand square kilometers of the Dark Continent were now passively included in the structure of this game, becoming part of the templates!
Cities, buildings, and scenes from countless books he had read before appeared out of nowhere, shaped by his imagination.
Since the game was also focused on collecting rewards, he opened large spaces across the map to store them!
To avoid trouble, he temporarily stripped the Dark Continent creatures of their powers.
The more complex, the better. The more complex, the more his psychic energy would be consumed in unpredictable places!
"…As expected of a clone, doing something so easily that I could never pull off." Kusuo dragged over the body of a giant eyeball monster with tentacles.
Why did I even summon you? If you had called two more clones, this would've gone much faster.
"Yare yare, the fewer clones the better if we can handle the situation, right? This giant eyeball will be our nen beast from now on. It's strong—though it spits out whatever it eats—but it can barely manage to hold our power inside itself with time-stop control."
Saiki Kusuo: The poor eyeball.
"You should restore him too. He looks like he's about to die again."
Saiki Kusuo: This eyeball won't live much longer. So, what's the next pet?
Even so, Saiki Kusuo quickly used his restoration ability to rewind the eyeball by seven years. Since Kusuo had also restored it earlier, together it was rolled back fourteen years in total.
But Dark Continent creatures have extremely long lifespans. They don't even seem like beings that have a natural end. Restoring them fourteen years was about the same as restoring an ordinary human back by a single day—just recovering some stamina and energy.
Saiki Kusuo's restoration could only rewind matter through time. Memories wouldn't change, and nen wouldn't be altered. So, while the eyeball's body was healed, it still faced the threat of death once again. But with its body revived, its survival instinct flared back to life. Nen of the dead welled up inside it once more, but this time it could finally hold the power safely within its body!
"He's got talent. As long as he survives the day, this perpetual engine can exist forever." Kusuo cheered the eyeball on through telepathy, specifically by filtering out the distracting noise in its thoughts so it could focus entirely on survival.
Saiki Kusuo: The poor eyeball.
"From here on, leave this place to me," Kusuo said. [If anything unexpected happens, I'll summon a clone to restore it.]
Saiki Kusuo was surprised by what that meant. He didn't need help anymore?
"You still have to finish your deal, don't you? And you need time to get used to wearing your wristband again. You just used your full power to build this whole structure."
After going all out, then switching back to using the wristband, the sudden difference in strength would take time to adjust to.
Kusuo gazed into the distance. "This Dark Island isn't what I imagined. Yare yare, it can't even be called a cheap copy anymore."
Saiki Kusuo: You can't just outright plagiarize, you know.
The wristband from seven days ago was handed to Saiki Kusuo, and he put it on.
For better control, the fewer clones the better. The situation now was much better than he expected, as long as this Dark Island kept running normally.
Saiki Kusuo sat on a sofa made from psychic power, starting to feel his strength.
Was it because he no longer had the power limiter? Or was it because he grew up in such a dangerous world like this one? After using his full power once, he felt his psychic ability growing much faster than in his original world.
...
At the same time, all the strange phenomena around the world disappeared.
The people who had panicked slowly went back to their own business, everything returning to its original path, except something was quietly happening on the Dark Continent.
Four days passed quietly.
Yorknew City.
On August 31, Neon gave a prophecy for the mafia. The mafia's Shadow Beasts sent someone to take away all the treasures from the auction. Before this, Kurapika had already joined as one of Neon's bodyguards.
On September 1, the auction was held as planned. The Phantom Troupe appeared and killed everyone at the venue, only to find that all the auction treasures were gone. That night, the Ten Dons sent the Shadow Beasts to surround the Troupe, but Uvogin defeated four of them before being taken away by the Chain User. When the Troupe tried to get Uvogin back, they wiped out all the Shadow Beasts and confirmed the Chain User wasn't one of them.
On the night of September 2, the Troupe rescued Uvogin. Uvogin, however, wanted revenge on Kurapika and left the group alone. The two agreed to fight in a remote area.
Also on September 2, Saiki Kusuo arrived in Yorknew and met Milluki at a restaurant.
Saiki Kusuo felt something was off.
"How is it, big bro? This pork rice is amazing, right?" Milluki was a little glutton. For this trip, he had made tons of plans. This was the first place he wanted to eat at, and it was ranked at the top.
[It tastes good, but something feels wrong.] If he remembered correctly, the auction was supposed to be on September 10. Coming more than a week early should have been fine. Now, he just needed to gather some information, then after the Troupe's first massacre at the auction…
"Don't worry, big bro!" Milluki said. "I've planned everything out. On the 10th, there'll be two copies of Greed Island for sale—that's our best chance! I just got news that there will also be one copy each on the 6th and the 8th. That means even more chances! Two hundred billion! I don't believe anyone could buy all of them with that much money!"
Saiki Kusuo had no interest in Greed Island. Not to mention that another version of himself was already making a similar game, he had seen all the internal data of Greed Island. He had long lost the curiosity to explore it. Besides, if he wanted to go there, it was just an island in the real world. Couldn't he just teleport there?
…Wait a second. What did Milluki just say?
[What do you mean the 6th, 8th, and 10th?]
"Huh? Big bro, what's wrong?" Milluki looked confused.
Saiki Kusuo heard more details from Milluki's thoughts.
The 6th event, the 8th event, the 10th event—there's more than one auction?!
Saiki Kusuo suddenly started listening closely to the thoughts around him.
Passerby A: [What's going on? Why is today's auction suspended? Can't the mafia handle this?]
Suspended? No way…
Passerby B: [Sigh, a 10-day-long auction, and everyone disappeared on the first day. Are we still going to the rest? Seriously.]
Disappeared? They were all killed! The Phantom Troupe has already made a move?!
Saiki Kusuo stood up, a bad feeling lingering in his mind.
[Milluki, the auction lasts ten days? From which day to which day?]
"From the first to the tenth, but the first five days are underground auctions. Nothing to do with us. Just messy stuff like human organs… Bro, what's wrong?"
Milluki froze. He had followed Brother Kusuo for half a year and had never seen him show such a terrible expression.
"W-what's wrong, bro? The experiment didn't fail, did it? The money you promised me…?! Bro!"
Saiki Kusuo had already teleported away, not even caring that there were still people in the shop.
Yare yare, what a hassle. Seriously a hassle. He didn't even know the most important thing—the auction isn't just one event, it lasts ten whole days!
Why, in the original story, did the Phantom Troupe only steal one auction? Was it because Chrollo got caught by Kurapika and they didn't continue? Then what was Chrollo's original plan? To rob ten auctions in the same place? That's insane!
No, forget how many there are. The most important thing is the current plot—where are we at now? It's night already. Has Kurapika killed Uvogin yet?
If he did, then fine. Save one Parker, clock out, go back and eat the special meal Milluki ordered for him.
…
After Uvogin dies, the Troupe will have that Requiem massacre, right?
…
But that's the original story. Even if he doesn't interfere, it'll happen. That's the fact of what would've happened without him here.
…
If it's not necessary, Kurapika actually doesn't want to kill, right?
Yare yare, such a pain.
Saiki Kusuo floated above Yorknew City. The night wind blew his white shirt all over the place.
His clairvoyance was useless. The last time he saw Uvogin was years ago. How could he possibly know what Uvogin looks like now?
Should he use telepathy? The range is too big. How can he quickly find Uvogin? Should he search in the city or the suburbs? Without a clear target, searching in such a huge area would be exhausting. His powers just stabilized—he doesn't want to take off his limiters and go full power again.
Is there anyone he knows who can contact either side?
Killua might have Kurapika's number, but calling him directly is too weird. They barely know each other. Suddenly reaching out would be suspicious, and popping up next to him would be super awkward.
So he can only consider the other side? Saiki Kusuo pulled out his phone and dialed Shalnark.
"Moshi moshi? Who's this?" Shalnark answered.
Saiki Kusuo didn't say a word and directly used his power.
He could teleport to the exact location of the person who answered the call using the communication signal. He had used this ability years ago to find Ging.
Saiki Kusuo teleported successfully and ended up inside a hotel room.
As soon as he landed, the first thing he noticed was a corpse on the floor.
…
Stay calm. He should've expected this. This is normal Troupe behavior.
So they took this guy's room?
[Yare yare, come on out.]
"Saiki?" Shalnark jumped out from behind the closet. "How did you find me? Was it from that call?"
[Yeah, and I brought the phone I wanted to give you.]
Saiki Kusuo pulled out the prototype phone from his pocket.
Shalnark had already seen the design plans before, but his eyes still lit up at the sight of the real thing.
Saiki handed the phone to him and walked straight to the only computer in the room, taking off his transparent gloves as he did.
Touch perception!
Saiki Kusuo closed his eyes and saw the scene.
[Uvogin, this map shows a few places where the Chain User might be. If you check them one by one, you should be able to catch him before dawn.]
Lucky to witness this moment—otherwise, he would have to trick him into talking.
As long as he asked Uvogin where he checked, Shalnark would figure it out.
Saiki Kusuo memorized the map's layout.
"Saiki-san, what are you doing?" Shalnark peeked over with his phone. After all, it was his own computer just now—was the other guy checking something?
[Yare yare, the interface is different.]
"Interface?"
Saiki Kusuo held up the cable he had just unplugged. [Yeah, this rare interface is the only way to charge that phone. You'll need to buy an adapter yourself.]
"Eh… couldn't they just make it like a normal phone interface?"
[Charging would be too slow. This phone drains power pretty fast.]
"True." [I'll buy one on the way back.]
Well, time to leave. Saiki Kusuo didn't want to stay a second longer—the air around a corpse was terrible.
He turned toward the body on the floor. Its eyes were wide open in death. Saiki Kusuo's expression darkened, but he still teleported out of the room in front of Shalnark.
"Tha—" Shalnark turned back after fiddling with the port, only to find the space behind him empty.
Shalnark covered his mouth with the phone. Should he report to the boss that this guy was in Yorknew? After all, the boss had warned that this person was dangerous.
But when Saiki Kusuo followed the location to Neon's hotel, he found that Kurapika, the bodyguard, was gone. The others were keeping Neon entertained while cleaning up and preparing to escape.
So, Kurapika had most likely already left with Uvogin?
Saiki Kusuo flew into the night sky again. The wilderness was much easier to search than the city—out here, with no one around, voices in his mind were far clearer.
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