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Chapter 134: Kurapika's Ambush
Having the Shadow Clone avoid using Nen was a final precaution. Ronin wasn't worried about failing to kill the man; he was worried the man's Nen might transform into Post-Mortem Nen upon death, bringing unnecessary trouble. Even if the probability was extremely low, necessary precautions had to be taken.
How is this possible?! That was the last thought of the Nen user hiding among the guards.
Thud.
As the corpse hit the floor and blood pooled out, no Post-Mortem Nen materialized. The only thing that happened was the Nen fading from the surrounding men in black, proving Ronin had easily dispatched the source.
This was what happens when an Enhancer engages other Nen types. As long as you catch the true body and secure a quick kill, you don't need to worry about whatever tricky abilities they might be hiding.
As for the ordinary guards, Ronin had no intention of dealing with them. Nor did he think they stood a chance against the performers of the Freak Show Troupe. These performers seemed to have adapted to their hardships; every single one of them possessed impressive combat strength. At the very least, they could completely dominate ordinary people, even professional bodyguards. Some of their physical abnormalities even yielded unexpectedly effective results in combat.
The battle ended so quickly that the few remaining Nen users in the theater looked at Ronin's Shadow Clone with entirely different expressions. One frontal clash had instantly crushed an Enhancer, proving his overwhelming strength. A surround-and-ambush tactic had resulted in the instant death of their hidden comrade. Two strikes were enough to prove he was not someone to be trifled with.
Consequently, the remaining Nen users made a unanimous decision: they ignored Ronin's clone and simultaneously retreated. Preserving their forces when necessary was a right granted to the Glam Clan's Nen users.
The retreat of the Nen users left the bewildered ordinary guards as cannon fodder to cover the rear. Gunfire became the dominant sound in the theater. But after Norman the Centaur and Abaki with her rocket launcher launched their counterattack, the roles of attacker and defender quickly reversed. The Freak Show Troupe gained the upper hand, and Ronin's Shadow Clone didn't even bother intervening anymore.
The battle didn't last long. With the Nen users fleeing, the focal point of the conflict shifted. Anyone with half a brain could see that the sudden intruder was targeting the man behind the curtain, Petter Glam.
The retreating Nen users didn't pursue Ronin, nor did they move too far from the theater. Clearly, they were cautious not to expose Petter's location with their movements.
Outside the theater, the corridor was littered with the bodies of the guards, alongside the audience members who had been killed initially. Ronin was gone, but Shizuku and Neon remained. They were locked in a standoff with the Nen users who had safely evacuated the theater.
.....
While monitoring Petter through the crystal ball, Kurapika had also assumed Petter was physically inside the theater. Because eyes cannot lie. But after Abaki launched her attack, Petter was revealed to be a dummy.
There were a few logical explanations for this. First: The real Petter had been watching the performance, but swapped places immediately after it ended. However, Petter's subsequent speech contradicted this theory. It was too "Petter"—it didn't look like an act.
Second: Someone had tampered with Petter beforehand. By the time Abaki attacked, the real Petter had already left.
Does Abaki's attack hit what she sees, or does it track the initial target she locked onto?
The crux of this theory lay in the spatial attribute of Abaki's ability. Meaning, once she locked onto Petter, her attack would track him regardless of where he teleported. Yet, the dummy took the hit, and the real Petter was nowhere to be found.
Then there was a third possibility. The teleportation ability belonged to Petter himself. But before he activated it, a trap had been laid on him. The sequence of events would be: Petter finishes his speech, teleports, and leaves a dummy behind. The dummy inherits Petter's status. Abaki's attack arrives, triggering the ability on the dummy and forming the erosion marks.
In conclusion, Petter's ability was instantaneous teleportation while leaving a dummy in his place. No. More accurately, it should be a counter-active Nen ability that assesses and triggers the moment he is attacked. The effect seemed to be creating a dummy to absorb the damage while his real body teleported away. Judging by how the dummy triggered the erosion-tracking ability after being hit, the constructed dummy likely inherited certain states from the original body.
There were two critical questions now: How many times could Petter trigger his ability, and what was its maximum range?
For abilities like this, there were two possibilities. The teleportation destination was either random, or predetermined. Kurapika leaned toward the latter. It aligned with his motive for locking down the entire theater; otherwise, a random teleport could drop him straight into a deathtrap. The risk was too high. To lower that risk, the ability's effect would naturally have to be weakened.
The teleportation range wouldn't be too far, and it had to be somewhere he could observe the theater. The closest location was the security room! Kurapika had already investigated the hotel's layout before arriving, so he rushed straight to the security room.
When Ronin left the theater, he immediately noticed Kurapika was missing. He activated the [Telescope Technique] right away. After locking onto Kurapika's position, Ronin sprinted down the corridor, disappearing in a blur of speed.
Petter was indeed in the security room. His face was thunderous. The monitors displayed Ronin's Shadow Clone easily suppressing his guards, completely ruining his plan and turning the tide of the battle. He didn't know who this mysterious intruder was, but he knew the man was definitely coming for him.
Standing up from the sofa, Petter strode toward the door. He couldn't stay here! The intruder was incredibly strong. If he lingered and the man found him, even if he dodged the attack with his ability, there was a chance he would be cornered within the hotel. After all, he had only set five teleportation waypoints.
Those five waypoints were five guests staying in the hotel. The moment his ability triggered, these guests—who had met his conditions and fallen under his control—would sacrifice their lives to become his dummies.
Right now, a corpse was lying on the floor of the security room. The arm of the corpse was torn open, perfectly matching the injury the dummy sustained from Abaki's hook! The corpse was also slightly shriveled, a result of the blood lost during the erosion's spread.
But as Petter opened the door, a chain silently rose from the floor and rapidly coiled around him!
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