Chapter 51: Call Me Brother
Sensing the sudden appearance of Nen behind him, Mord swiftly turned around and saw a green serpent formed from Nen energy emerge from Aoba's corpse before vanishing in front of everyone.
After absorbing Aoba's life energy, Mord's character attribute panel underwent changes as well.
[Name: Mord]
[Nen Ability Level: C+]
[Nen Ability: Zanpakutō]
[Awakened Attributes]:
[Pierce, Gonryōmaru! – Freely add lightning damage during Nen ability attacks (LV2: 2427/5000, Shikai unlockable)]
[Crush, Gegetsuburi! – Possesses immense destructive power (LV2: 823/3000, Shikai unlockable)]
[Benihime (Not Awakened, Required Energy ???)]
Previously, after killing the evil monk Mierji and meeting the conditions to extract a Zanpakutō attribute with Manipulation-type energy, Mord hadn't hesitated and chose to extract directly.
Following the extraction of Gegetsuburi, he incredibly drew Benihime this time, the Zanpakutō of the shopkeeper. Unfortunately, he couldn't unleash its abilities, and the excess Manipulation-type energy was entirely absorbed by Benihime.
This meant that, from now on, this sword would become a bottomless pit, devouring the life force of any Manipulation-type Nen user.
In return, all Mord received was a change in the appearance of the Zanpakutō in his hand, which left him quite frustrated.
Mord glanced at the panel—Gonryōmaru's experience had increased significantly, indicating that Aoba was a Transmutation-type ability user. The remaining excess Nen energy was converted into aura and absorbed by Mord, allowing him to break through to the C+ level in one go.
This trip to Heavens Arena had been quite fruitful. Now that the mission was perfectly completed, there was no need to linger here any longer.
With his strength exposed, any 200th-floor contestants would have to be out of their minds to challenge Mord to a duel. At this rate, he'd probably only get one duel arranged in about 90 days—hardly worth the effort.
As Mord walked toward the group of 200th-floor contestants, the crowd automatically parted to make way for him. No one dared to block his path, and they simply watched as he left.
...
Republic of Padokea, International Airport.
An elegant man in a white shirt and glasses, accompanied by a young boy in a martial arts dojo uniform with thick eyebrows, had just disembarked from an airship. They passed by Mord, who was boarding a flight to leave.
"Master, is there something wrong with that person?" Zushi noticed Wing's gaze and also looked over.
It was a young man.
With black hair, black eyes, dressed in a common black hoodie and casual pants.
He seemed somewhat lazy, but Zushi didn't notice anything else particularly special about him.
Wing shook his head and said, "Your grand-teacher once mentioned him. I didn't expect to see him here. Let's go, we need to head to Heavens Arena to continue your training."
Someone Grand-Teacher paid attention to?
After hearing Wing's words, Zushi looked at Mord very seriously, firmly memorizing his face.
Then he withdrew his gaze and jogged to catch up.
Mord had naturally noticed Wing and his disciple as well, which meant Gon and Killua would soon be coming to Heavens Arena for training.
What Wing had just told Zushi, while not deceptive, wasn't the complete truth either.
The main reason he brought Zushi here at this particular time was to wait for Gon, teach him Nen abilities, and complete the final assessment of the Hunter Exam.
As for how Wing knew about Gon's itinerary—that wasn't difficult to figure out.
Gon and Killua had booked their flight tickets online, and anyone with the right connections could easily find out who was traveling where and when.
Hisoka later used this same method to follow them here.
After all, with entities like Hacker Hunters around, using public facilities was equivalent to exposing one's whereabouts.
"It seems I'll have to get a few fake IDs from the black market," Mord thought to himself as he boarded the flight back home, unaware that from another direction in the airport, a young girl had just disembarked from a different plane.
The girl appeared to be only around eighteen or nineteen years old.
She wore a practical short shirt resembling a martial arts uniform, paired with black tight shorts that revealed her pale thighs. The girl had a delicate and pretty appearance, with pink hair tied into a single ponytail.
Muttering under her breath, she wore a cold expression, clearly in a bad mood.
"Why does it have to be me delivering this message? I really don't want to see that despicable guy."
...
Aftab City.
Having been away for nearly a week.
Returning to his residence, Mord once again saw the little girl from next door.
As usual, the girl was in front of her house, with arguing voices coming from inside.
This time, however, she didn't seem to be in good condition—bruises were visible on her face, clearly indicating she had been beaten.
Noticing someone approaching, the girl looked up and glanced at Mord, but her gaze remained fixed on the box of fried rice in his hand.
Mord sighed inwardly, walked over, placed the fried rice he had bought on his way back in front of the girl, and then turned to leave.
Behind him, the arguing in the house continued.
"...Thank you."
The girl raised her head and spoke softly, her voice timid. Summoning all her courage as she watched Mord's retreating figure, she asked, "Uncle, is life always this hard, or is it just when you're a child?"
Mord stopped in his tracks and turned to look at the girl.
What he saw was a microcosm—there were many children like her in Meteor City. He paused for a moment before replying, "It's always like this. And it's 'brother,' not 'uncle.'"
Life was always difficult, and often, it made no sense.
It was just that in childhood, people still held illusions about life. As they grew older, they stopped asking so many "whys," much like the children in Meteor City who picked up weapons at an early age.
If you didn't want to compromise, you had to fight back.
After returning to his house.
The couple next door was still arguing. From the sound of it, the man had done something extremely dangerous and hidden something secretly.
Mord eavesdropped briefly, but the specifics weren't mentioned.
In Mord's view, what could an ordinary gang member like that possibly have that was remarkable? He quickly lost interest. If it weren't for the little girl, he wouldn't have even bothered with this extra effort.
Mord shifted his focus, turned on his computer, logged into the official Hunter website, and collected the 5 billion bounty for the Murderous Miracle Doctor, Pierre Izzie.
Then, through a black market trading site, he purchased several fake IDs.
In the future, he had no intention of using his Hunter License to enjoy free benefits.
Mord had plenty of money and didn't care about such small expenses. What he cared about more was ensuring his whereabouts wouldn't be tracked by those with ill intentions.
Even with these preparations, however, determined individuals could still uncover his tracks—it would just be far more complicated than before, like comparing an egg to a rock.
It would require a significant amount of time.
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