Chapter 74: Muscle vs. Aura
The young muscle-man shook out his aching arms, his face flushed with embarrassment. He turned to Kai, trying to save face. "Look, little bro, we should just listen to the guide. Let's ask the security guard for the key. It's safer."
Kai spared him a single, flat glance. "Bro, take my advice. Do not ask for the key. That's a death sentence."
What's his problem? The man scowled. Rude kid. He shook his head, dismissing the warning, and marched back to the security booth.
Inside, Zebro sighed, rubbing his bald head. The tourists were relentless. "Fine, fine. If you insist on going in, I can't stop you. But I'm warning you: there is a very real danger of death. How about this? One person goes first—"
Before he could finish, the young man snatched the key from his hand. He twirled it on his finger, grinning at his friends. "Stop trying to scare us, old man! We came all this way, just let us see!"
"Hahaha! Yeah!" The group cheered, rushing to the small, unassuming door next to the massive gate. The key slid in, the lock clicked, and the door swung open easily. The young man stepped inside, bold and confident.
BOOM!
At the exact same moment, Kai took a deep breath. He didn't use a drop of Aura. Relying purely on the raw, physical strength of his new body, he slammed both palms against the Testing Gate.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!"
A blood-curdling scream erupted from the small door.
The young man, who had been third in line, froze in the doorway, his eyes bulging with terror. The tourists behind him gasped, confused and frightened.
Inside the wall, a nightmare was unfolding.
A massive beast, easily three meters tall at the shoulder, stood over the remains of the first two tourists. It looked like a wolf, but it was too big, too intelligent, too wrong. Its fur was matted, its claws were like scythes, and its eyes... they were colder and more indifferent than any wild animal.
In one massive paw, it held the mangled remains of a human body.
In a split second, Mike, the Zoldyck guard dog, had reduced two people to nothing more than a meal.
The young man stared at the monster, knowing he was next.
But just as he braced for death, the beast stopped. Its massive head turned, looking away from the intruders and toward the main gate.
GRRRRRRRR....
With a deep, grinding roar of stone on stone, the massive Testing Gate began to move.
The young man, paralyzed with fear, turned his head slowly.
He saw the layers of the gate sliding open. Not just the first set. The second set of doors was moving with them.
And pushing them open, veins popping in his arms but his face calm, was the boy in the baseball cap.
...
In the chaos that followed, most of the tourists fled back to the bus, screaming for the driver to leave. Only Kai and the young muscle-man remained.
The man stood frozen, staring blankly as the giant wolf casually tossed the stripped skeletons of his fellow tourists out through the small door like gnawed chicken bones.
"Ah... Mike ate something other than his kibble again," Zebro muttered, walking over to clean up the mess. He yelled through the door, "Hey! Mike! If you get fat, don't blame me!"
He locked the small door and turned around. The young man was staring at him with hollow eyes.
"What... what just happened?" the man whispered. "The boy... he's in danger! There's a monster in there! Why aren't you doing anything?!"
"That... that wasn't an animal," the man continued, shivering uncontrollably. "I saw its eyes. It's a killing machine..."
"Don't worry," Zebro said, lighting a cigarette. "The boy is fine. Mike won't attack him."
He exhaled a cloud of smoke. "Mike is the Zoldyck watchdog. He only kills intruders. I'm not a guard; I'm just the janitor who cleans up Mike's leftovers. That small door... we only put it there because people like you kept bothering us."
"So... you put it there so we could kill ourselves?" The man's voice trembled with rage, but he had no strength left to act on it.
"If you had the skill to enter through the front door, like that boy, you'd be safe," Zebro said calmly. "Anyone who opens the Testing Gate is considered a guest of the Zoldyck family. That boy just opened the second door. That's 8 tons of force. Someone with that kind of power deserves respect. Mike knows that."
"He didn't even look at the small door," Zebro added, ashing his cigarette. "He knew the rules. He's not like you people, looking for a thrill without understanding where you are. He's... different."
Crushed by the truth, the young man laughed bitterly. When his legs stopped shaking, he limped away down the mountain road, defeated.
Zebro stood alone, smoking silently, staring at the massive gate.
He pushed open two doors... Zebro thought, impressed. Scary kid. I've been training for ten years just to avoid getting eaten by Mike, and I can barely open the first door. The second door? Never.
Just then, the Testing Gate moved again.
GRRRRRRR...
Zebro blinked. He watched, stunned, as the massive stone slabs began to grind open once more.
But this time... it wasn't just the first two.
The third set was moving.
And the fourth.
"Impossible..."
The cigarette dropped from his slack fingers, unnoticed.
...
A few moments earlier.
Kai gritted his teeth, his muscles burning. With a final, explosive shove, he forced the second set of doors open wide enough to slip through.
"Damn, that was heavy. So that's what 8 tons feels like?"
He slapped the dust from his hands and rubbed his aching arms. That had been close. His raw physical strength was almost exactly 8 tons. Any heavier, and he wouldn't have budged it.
He walked through. Behind him, the massive doors groaned and slammed shut automatically.
Outside, he could hear the faint screams of the fleeing tourists, but he ignored them.
He turned his head.
He was face-to-face with a giant, nightmarish wolf. Mike was staring down at him with soulless eyes.
"What are you looking at?" Kai waved his hand dismissively. "Haven't you ever seen a handsome guy before? Shoo."
If you weren't the Zoldyck's dog, Kai thought, I'd slap a Flying Star Bubble on you and make you sit.
Mike shifted his weight, a low growl rumbling in his chest. He took a step forward.
Kai's eyes narrowed. His Aura exploded outward, a terrifying wave of Ren.
"I said... shoo. Okay?"
...
Deep within the Zoldyck Estate.
In a dark room filled with figurines, computer screens, and empty snack bags, a chubby young man with a bowl cut was munching on potato chips.
"Two doors?" Milluki Zoldyck muttered, squinting at a monitor. "Is Killua back? No way. He couldn't even open one when he left. There's no way he got strong enough to open two..."
He chugged a soda and started typing furiously, pulling up the feed from the main gate.
...
Mike, sensing the overwhelming pressure of Kai's Ren, whimpered. The giant beast backed away, lying down on the grass a safe distance away, watching Kai warily.
Kai ignored the dog. He turned back to the gate.
He focused.
Ren!
He poured every ounce of his Aura into his body, containing it with Ten to form a dense Ken. Then, using Ryu (Flow), he shifted the vast majority of that energy into his arms and legs.
SLAM!
Kai drove his glowing palms into the stone.
With the massive boost from his Aura, his strength skyrocketed. The sensors inside the gate registered the new force instantly: 30 tons!
And it was climbing!
Kai watched the third door slide open, but the fourth door was hesitating. It shuddered, but didn't open fully.
Come on!
Annoyed, Kai dug deep. He snarled, channeling every last scrap of power he had into his arms, his hands, and his feet, anchoring himself against the ground.
ROAAAAAR....
Slowly, agonizingly, the massive fourth door began to slide open.
Through the gap, Kai saw the stunned face of the bald janitor, Zebro, staring back at him in disbelief.
(End of Chapter)