Liam initially assumed these creeping players had somehow figured out they held clues to Razor's level. That was not the case at all.
Most targeting spell cards on Greed Island had a strict twenty-meter range limit. These men had been stalking the group simply to get close enough to cast their cards on Liam and the girls. But whatever grand robbery plan they had concocted fell apart the moment Lumos, the massive crescent-white tiger, turned his head and locked his predatory gaze on them. The ambushers froze in their tracks. Their hands trembled so violently they could not even stutter out the activation spells.
Bisky rolled her eyes at the pathetic display.
Before the men could take a step back, Liam disappeared from his spot. He brushed through their ranks like a sudden, violent gust of wind. He casually tapped each of them, leaving his invisible Star Marks behind, and returned to his starting position just as the wind settled.
"You guys are so low-level," Bisky sighed, crossing her arms. "How do you ever expect to succeed at robbing people with those pathetic methods?"
She did not even bother dropping her voice or acting like a pitiful little white rabbit in front of such obvious amateurs.
"There is nothing we can do," one of the men wailed. Suddenly, all the men collapsed into the dirt, bursting into synchronized, ugly tears.
Shizuku tilted her head, her face blank. "Wait, why are they crying?"
"Take a closer look at them," Liam suggested, gesturing lazily toward the weeping group.
Shizuku stepped forward and looked closely. Sure enough, she spotted strange, mechanical lumps attached directly to the men's flesh. They looked exactly like heavy explosives, clinging to the backs of their hands, their shoulders, and their abdomens.
Liam had walked right through the center of their group and naturally noticed the bizarre attachments immediately.
"If we don't help the Bomber gather enough cards, he is going to use these to blow us all to pieces," one of the men choked out.
Between wet sobs, the men spilled their incredibly unfortunate story. It turned out they were all professional players hired by the billionaire Battera over the past few years to clear the game. Everything had been fine until a month ago. A player named Genthru approached them, claiming Battera had terminated their contracts.
The large alliance had fractured in despair. Some planned to leave the game, while others decided to stay and play for themselves since they were already there.
But just as they were holding a final meeting to officially disband, an older, trusted member of the group, also named Genthru, stepped up. He claimed the first Genthru was an insidious villain known as the Bomber. This "fake" Genthru, under the guise of delivering Battera's message, had supposedly planted delayed bombs on every single one of them.
Panic had erupted among the clearing team. They frantically searched themselves and found the dormant bombs.
Then, the "good" Genthru offered a lifeline. He claimed he possessed a unique Nen ability that could destroy and eliminate foreign Nen. The catch was that his energy was limited, so he could only exorcise the bombs one person at a time in absolute secrecy.
Believing their good brother possessed the rare skill of Nen removal, the group was overjoyed. Around ninety members of the clearing team lined up to visit Genthru privately. They listened carefully to his instructions during these isolated sessions. He warned them that the Bomber's Nen was incredibly stubborn and that the removal process was complex and physically draining. It sounded as though he was working himself to the bone to save them.
The reality was entirely different.
Once he had met with every single person, Genthru simply pushed up his glasses and offered a slight smile. He announced that he could perform the final step of the exorcism on everyone at once. However, to prevent the technique from failing, he explained exactly how he had planted the Nen during their private sessions.
Over ninety people gathered, listening with growing suspicion as Genthru prepared for the so-called final step. Nobody expected the bastard to suddenly burst into wild laughter. He spread his arms wide and proudly announced that he was the Bomber all along. He mocked them for being as stupid as pigs, laughing at how they had willingly lined up to let him attach the explosives to their bodies.
Then, Genthru explained the exact mechanics of his Little Flower bombs. The moment he finished explaining the rules, the conditions were met. The bombs materialized on everyone's bodies, already ticking.
Bisky nodded slowly as the weeping men finished their tale. "It is a conditional ability."
She rubbed her chin, her eyes sharp. "The main component has to be Conjuration. However, the Emission proficiency of a typical Conjurer is usually quite low. This island is roughly the size of a small country. Being able to walk freely around the map while keeping these bombs attached to ninety different targets is obviously way beyond the limits of ordinary Conjuration. That proves Genthru is not working alone. He has accomplices, and there is definitely more than one."
She began pacing a tight circle. "One of his partners must be an Emitter to handle the range. As for the others, there might be Enhancers or Manipulators involved."
She paused, looking closely at the explosive device strapped to a sobbing man's stomach. A digital number clicked down precisely in time with his racing heartbeat.
"Let me correct that," Bisky said. "To ensure the bomb is lethal regardless of the distance, they absolutely need an Enhancer to boost its destructive power. As for controlling the detonation... since it is designed to go off automatically with a set countdown, it does not require the precise, real-time control of a Manipulator. So, the Bomber is at least a trio."
Liam shoved his hands into his pockets and offered a careless smile. "It doesn't matter how many people are in their little group. It is none of our business anyway. You guys, go to sleep."
He pointed a finger at the crying clearing team members. The invisible Star Marks resting on their skin flared to life, instantly hijacking their brains and forcing them into a deep slumber. The men collapsed into the dirt one after another, their snores mixing with the gentle rustle of the leaves.
Bisky put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Why are you saying it is none of our business?"
"I heard your analysis just fine," Liam said.
"I wasn't saying it just to hear myself talk. I meant it for you," Bisky scolded, her tone stern. "Even when you have very few known conditions, you must try your absolute best to analyze an opponent's unknown Nen abilities. You need to develop this kind of rapid analysis into a permanent habit. It needs to become instinct, anytime and anywhere. If you don't, you will eventually fall straight into someone else's trap and end up completely helpless."
Shizuku nodded in agreement. "Oh. That makes perfect sense."
"Hey, watch this," Liam said, extending his right hand.
A massive sphere of dense aura, roughly five thousand units in volume, separated from his body. It floated in the air for a second before stretching and weaving itself into a solid form. Out of thin air, he sketched the figure of a beautiful woman with a jade-like complexion, dressed in a flowing green Taoist robe with wide, fluttering sleeves.
With a simple thought, Liam raised his hand again. The Yin Nen Sword materialized in his grip, the thirty-three divine characters glowing faintly along its dark blade.
He tapped his fingers against the hilt and flicked the blade sharply. Five of the glowing divine characters immediately dimmed, their light fading into the metal. Instantly, the five thousand units of aura Liam had just spent to summon his Nen beast rushed back into his body, replenishing his reserves to full capacity.
He casually tossed the heavy sword through the air. The green-robed Taoist nun raised a graceful hand and caught it perfectly by the hilt.
Bisky watched the exchange, her mind racing. His personal Nen ability can also be wielded by his Nen beast? If that is the case, the tactical applications for his beast just expanded exponentially.
The Taoist nun stepped forward, her wide sleeves snapping in the wind. She raised the Yin Nen Sword and began slashing at the sleeping men on the ground. Her movements were a blur, executing hundreds of precise, rapid strikes in mere seconds. She did not cut their flesh. Instead, the heavy bomb Nen attached to the men shrank, faded, and finally dissolved into nothingness at a speed visible to the naked eye.
As the bombs vanished, two of the five divine characters on the sword's blade that had just dimmed suddenly flared back to life, filled with absorbed energy.
Liam raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised. "The aura consumption required to maintain these bombs is that low?"
It made perfect sense now. No wonder Genthru could install explosives on nearly a hundred people in a single afternoon without breaking a sweat or showing any signs of aura depletion.
It seemed that whether dealing with modern technology or the mystical arts of Nen, bombing was simply a highly efficient, low-cost, and high-destruction craft. At the very bottom rung, it was the perfect tool for harvesting average players on Greed Island. And at the absolute pinnacle, a miniature rose bomb could send even the almighty Ant King straight to the afterlife.
"In ten minutes, you will all wake up and walk to the nearest town by yourselves. Wait there for my next instructions," Liam said aloud.
The sleeping men, now completely freed from the bombs, did not stir, but the commands locked securely into their manipulated subconscious.
At the exact same time, Liam reached out with his mind. He activated the dormant Star Marks that Jaku had secretly placed on people in several other seaside towns during their journey around the island. Through the mental link, he issued the exact same order. He commanded those distant people to gather in the towns and wait.
They would serve a purpose while he focused on perfecting his Nen beast.
There was also the matter of the rock bird's Transmutation ability to deal with. High above the forest canopy, "King Jaku" looked down at Liam, Shizuku, Bisky, and the massive tiger Lumos as they walked deeper into the woods side by side. A sharp light gleamed in the bird's small, dark eyes.
By tapping into Jaku's mind, and the minds of the dozens of people currently marching blindly toward the towns, Liam effectively created a network of external CPUs. With so many hijacked brains at his disposal, there was absolutely no need to worry about the mental strain of multitasking. He could actively develop Jaku's Transmutation ability without it delaying the refinement process of his own Nen beast for even a second.
That was the true beauty of being a Manipulator. As long as you had the targets, you could run multiple threads simultaneously without ever slowing down.
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