Liam still lost.
He had grown significantly stronger over the last half month. His total aura reserves had swelled by several thousand, bringing his capacity to a solid forty thousand. That massive increase naturally boosted the intensity of his offense and defense. The sheer force behind his punches and kicks was undeniably better than it had been two weeks ago. But during the chaotic blur of his battle with Bisky, Liam genuinely felt like his progress was a complete hallucination. It felt as though his aura, his strength, and his durability had not improved at all. If he had actually gotten stronger, how was it that every strike he threw still hit nothing but air, while every counterattack hit him like a freight train? Compared to half a month ago, the gap between them felt exactly the same.
Bisky, meanwhile, didn't even look out of breath.
Of course, this time she was not holding back. She had released her true form, the Princess Seal. She towered over him, her muscles and bones expanding with terrifying ease. The muscle fibers across her massive frame twisted together tightly, looking less like human flesh and more like braided steel cables. But even more suffocating than her immense physical strength was the heavy, violent aura exploding from her body.
She had not been lying earlier. She was giving it her all.
That surging aura transformed seamlessly into a slick, viscous Nen oil. It allowed her to move faster than the eye could track, making her entire body impossibly slippery. Whenever Liam managed to land a desperate attack, his fists just slid off her hardened muscles, the force completely deflected. Then, she would retaliate with a strike that hit like a thunderbolt. It was brutal, bone-crushing, fist-to-flesh combat. If the Star Mark on the back of his neck had not been constantly working to keep him alive, he would have been beaten into a pulp within seconds.
Liam tried to pull away, gasping for air. But Bisky's long legs, thick and unyielding as iron pillars, closed the gap instantly. She pressed in close, shrinking the distance to nothing, and mercilessly pounded him directly into the dirt.
She knew his tricks far too well.
Even Shizuku, watching quietly from the sidelines, understood the dynamic perfectly. Bisky had figured out the basic mechanics of the Star Mark. She had watched Liam develop the Universe in the Sleeve ability for his Nen beast with her own eyes. The only thing she truly needed to be wary of was a rule-based instant kill. Since she knew the conditions for his abilities, she could safely close the distance and force him into a brutal melee brawl.
In the realm of close-quarters combat, Liam was simply outmatched. Even with his Flowing Star Strike allowing his body to react automatically via the Star Mark, he was still fighting a seasoned martial arts master. Summoning the Yin Nen Sword provided no advantage either. Bisky's aura was completely saturated with her slick Nen oil, and it seemed to reproduce itself endlessly, flowing like a rushing river. Liam felt that even if he grew to the size of a giant, he still wouldn't be able to drain her reserves faster than she could replenish them.
Liam groaned, rolling his eyes toward the sky as he lay flat at the bottom of a freshly made crater. Through the settling dust and his own blurred vision, he watched the massive, imposing figure standing over him slowly begin to shrink down. He raised a bloody, trembling hand into the air.
"Counter," Liam wheezed, his chest heaving. "A complete and total counter. I am so done. I am absolutely done."
Knowing exactly how his powers worked, he had essentially asked for a beating by challenging a master who could crush him with raw, overwhelming strength. To make matters worse, she came equipped with an endless stamina buff. Calling her a complete counter to his fighting style was not an exaggeration in the slightest.
Shizuku slid gracefully down the sloped edge of the crater, her shoes crunching softly against the broken earth. She crouched beside Liam and poked his bruised shoulder with a pale finger. Instantly, the Star Mark flared to life. The self-healing function kicked in, and the gruesome bruises fading at a speed visible to the naked eye.
No matter how many times she witnessed it, Bisky still found the sight remarkable. The sharp ends of broken bones that had pierced through the boy's skin automatically dragged themselves backward, clicking neatly back into place before the skin knit itself shut. It was a terrifyingly efficient healing factor.
"Actually, I am much better at defense than I am at offense," Bisky said, her voice returning to its usual high-pitched, childlike tone as her transformation finished. She smoothed down her pink dress and raised a single finger. A wisp of soft, glowing aura floated from her fingertip, expanding until it took the shape of a life-sized beautician doll holding an array of spa tools.
Miss Cookie hovered gently down to the ground.
"Take care of your physical injuries yourself," Bisky instructed, crossing her arms. "But if you are feeling physically and mentally exhausted, I will help you out."
Bisky's Nen ability, Miss Cookie the Beautician, used her specialized Transmutation Nen oil to care for the skin, melt away deep muscle fatigue, and rapidly accelerate the body's natural recovery.
Shizuku blinked her large eyes, watching the doll get to work. Considering how brutally Bisky had just beaten Liam while in her massive form, her aura didn't look depleted in the slightest.
"Isn't your offense incredibly strong?" Shizuku asked, tilting her head. "Is your nature really biased toward defense?"
Bisky rolled her eyes, letting out a heavy sigh. "If you had been beaten black and blue by a mean-spirited, fighting-obsessed old man from the time you were a child all the way into adulthood, your defense would be top-tier too."
Liam let Miss Cookie work her magic for a few minutes. The sweet-smelling lotion seeped into his skin, and the heavy, aching exhaustion deep in his bones vanished entirely. He felt completely refreshed. He rolled over, pushed himself into a sitting position, and grinned up at the small blonde girl.
"So, your amazing Nen ability is just the result of being beaten up by Netero for years?" Liam teased.
"Are you jealous?" Bisky fired back, cracking her knuckles with a wicked, entirely un-childlike smile. "Because even though I am apparently not good at attacking, I am more than happy to help you practice some more."
Liam held his hands up in surrender. "You already declared me a Manipulator, so I have to keep my focus on that. But seriously, to reach your level of control... Bisky, have you reached the absolute peak of Transmutation?"
Bisky just snorted, turning her head away, completely ignoring the question.
After properly testing the massive gap between his current strength and an all-out Bisky, it was time to get back to the actual business at hand.
Liam summoned his Nen beast. The ethereal Taoist nun floated quietly beside him. He gave her the mental command to start crafting talismans using the peach wood sword.
With a swift, practiced motion, the wooden blade plunged directly into Shizuku's chest. She did not flinch. Her chainsaw ability possessed incredible lethal force, making it an extremely useful tool. Liam had realized recently that he severely lacked standard weapon-based attack methods. He usually fought with his bare hands, aura bombs, or by relying entirely on the rule-based instant kills of his Star Mark.
He watched closely as the glowing shape of a chainsaw slowly condensed at the tip of the wooden sword. A satisfied smile crossed his face.
"Shizuku calls her version Chainsaw Woman," Liam mused aloud. "So, if I am the one using it, I suppose I should call it Chainsaw Man."
The finished talisman fluttered lightly through the air and tucked itself neatly into the Taoist nun's wide right sleeve. As the Nen beast raised the sword to stab Shizuku a second time, Bisky leaned in, watching the process with sharp interest.
"Can you really condense a second one from the same ability?" she asked.
"Of course," Liam replied easily. "They are just one-time use consumables. Why wouldn't I stockpile a few extras while I have the chance? There is a catch, though. The time it takes to extract the exact same Nen ability grows exponentially. The first talisman takes five minutes. The second takes ten minutes. Then twenty, forty, eighty, one hundred and sixty minutes, and so on."
"It doubles in sequence," Bisky noted, nodding thoughtfully. Then, a sudden, mischievous smile spread across her face, and she clapped her small hands together. "Wait. If you condense one talisman and immediately use it, and then condense another one to use right after, doesn't that reset the time limit? That would completely bypass the restriction."
Liam stared at her for a moment, letting out a quiet grumble. "You are entirely too good at finding the bugs in my system."
They spent the next half hour waiting. By the time they were done, three identical chainsaw talismans had been extracted from Shizuku and stored safely away in the Nen beast's sleeve.
Next, the Taoist nun turned her unblinking gaze toward Lumos. The massive white tiger sat perfectly still, eyes wide with anticipation, as the sword pierced his thick hide. After a few minutes, Liam secured several Seventy-Two Transformations talismans.
As Liam inspected the newly made paper slips, his eyes drifted over to Jaku, the small gray rock bird perched on the tiger's back. An idea struck him.
"I wonder if I can extract half-finished Nen abilities," Liam muttered.
He honestly wasn't sure. Scratching the back of his neck, he walked over to the bird, speaking softly to calm it down. He told Jaku not to be afraid, to keep its feathers flat, and to stay perfectly still.
The Taoist nun drifted forward and thrust the sword. Given the bird's tiny size, the peach wood blade looked like it had impaled the creature entirely. Jaku let out a tiny, choked chirp, fell stiffly onto its back with its feet pointing straight into the air, and promptly fainted.
Five long minutes passed in silence. Finally, a small talisman materialized at the tip of the blade. Liam plucked it off and examined it. The character for wind was scrawled across the paper, but the handwriting was jagged, crooked, and incredibly ugly. It was honestly painful to look at.
"Can this even be used, or is it a dud?" Liam wondered aloud, turning the paper over in his hands. He shrugged and tossed it into the sleeve. "Whatever. It doesn't matter right now."
The important takeaway was that the talisman had condensed at all. It proved that the Transmutation training he had forced upon Jaku was actually working. Once the little bird finally developed its own proper Nen ability, Liam could directly speedrun the extraction process. It was a perfect setup.
After giving Jaku a few minutes to regain consciousness and shake off the dizziness, the group of three humans, one giant tiger, and one very stressed bird began their trek back to the seaside town of Soufrabi.
The five game players that Liam had violently exorcised half a month ago, along with the seven stragglers he had forcibly marked with Stars, were already waiting. As soon as Liam activated his control over the marks, the twelve players had marched straight to the dusty, sun-baked open space just outside the town limits.
Liam walked up to the group, his hands resting on his hips. He looked directly at the five former clearers, who were actively refusing to meet his gaze.
"Why are your eyes darting everywhere but at me?" Liam asked dryly. "Are you really that scared?"
Bisky let out a dry laugh from beside him. "You took away their free will and forced their bodies to walk all the way out here. How could they possibly not be terrified of you?"
"The other eight don't seem very scared," Shizuku pointed out, looking at the dull, relaxed faces of the stragglers.
"They are probably just used to the feeling by now," Bisky guessed, shrugging.
The five clearers swallowed hard, trying their best to force polite, flattering smiles onto their sweating faces. But before any of them could stutter out a greeting, Liam shook his head and snapped his fingers sharply.
Instantly, the atmosphere shifted. The fear and anxiety vanished from the five clearers, replaced by a cold, eerie calm. A faint, sapphire-like glimmer flashed across the eyes of all twelve marked players.
Bisky's sharp eyes caught the subtle change immediately. The physical postures of all twelve people had shifted in perfect unison. They were standing exactly the same way Liam stood, their weight distributed identically, their shoulders set at the same angle.
It was a direct, absolute physical override. She nodded slightly to herself. It certainly saved a lot of time.
Liam pulled his card collection book from thin air. He plucked a specific spell card from its slot and held it up between his fingers.
"Use Accompany," Liam commanded clearly. "Target destination: Soufrabi."
Following his unspoken will, the twelve controlled players stepped forward in absolute synchronization, forming a tight circle around Liam, Shizuku, Bisky, and the two animals. A bright, blinding white light erupted from the spell card, enveloping all eighteen of them in a glowing dome.
With a loud, rushing boom, the light shot directly up into the sky, tearing through the clouds. A split second later, the streak of light crashed back down to the earth with a heavy thud, depositing the entire group onto the paved road leading into Soufrabi.
They had landed barely a dozen meters away from where they had just been standing.
The twelve marked players stood in a perfect line. Suddenly, the first player opened his mouth.
"This," the first player said blankly.
"like," the second followed.
"this," said the third.
"should,"
"not,"
"be,"
"like,"
"last,"
"time,"
"that,"
"we,"
"return," the twelve player finished.
Liam didn't miss a beat, grinning as he completed the sentence for them. "Success, right?"
Bisky watched the bizarre, disjointed display with genuine amusement. It was a very fresh way to use mind control.
"Let's just go inside and take a look," Shizuku suggested mildly, entirely unfazed by the synchronized speaking. "Then we will know for sure."
The large group turned in unison and marched directly toward the massive, imposing lighthouse fortress standing on the edge of the sea. It was the exact same building they had investigated on their previous visit.
When they reached the heavy iron doors at the base of the lighthouse, Liam didn't bother hesitating. He pushed the doors open and led the group deep into the dark, damp corridors of the fortress. He navigated the winding halls easily, eventually stopping in front of a familiar set of double doors. He pushed them open, stepping into the blindingly bright, echoing expanse of a massive indoor gymnasium.
The polished wooden floor of the basketball court gleamed under the harsh overhead lights. But the room was completely empty. There was no Razor waiting for them.
Liam scratched his chin, thinking back to the original rules of the game. If he remembered correctly, bringing a group of fifteen or more players to the town was only the first step. After meeting that condition, Gon and his friends had found a specific female NPC wandering around Soufrabi. She gave them the lore dump, which then triggered the appearance of the bloodthirsty death row prisoners in the pointed hats. Only after dealing with the prisoners did Razor finally show up.
Because this was fundamentally a video game, the quest line required a strict sequence of events.
The problem was, Liam had no idea where the lore-giving NPC was hiding in the town. And as for the prisoners in the pointed hats... Liam had dragged them into the real world half a month ago, where Razor had casually blown them to pieces with a few Nen spheres.
Liam let out a frustrated sigh, stepping fully onto the court. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted at the empty ceiling.
"Hey! I said, enough already! We have clearly met the player count condition to unlock this place, but the order of events got a little messed up. Don't be so stubborn about the sequence!"
Bisky and Shizuku walked onto the court behind him, their footsteps squeaking lightly against the varnished wood. The tiger, the bird, and the twelve silent puppets filed in after them, filling the quiet space.
Suddenly, a deep, resonant man's voice echoed from nowhere, bouncing off the high walls of the gymnasium.
"No way. The rules of the game are set in stone, and you must follow them. No one likes a player who refuses to follow the rules, right?"
Liam recognized the voice immediately.
At that exact moment, a brilliant shaft of white light pierced straight through the solid ceiling. It cascaded down like a spotlight, landing directly in front of Shizuku and Bisky. The light faded, leaving behind a young, pretty woman wearing a thick red headband. She had fair skin and a delicate figure, but her face was locked in an expression of deep, exaggerated melancholy.
The second her feet touched the floor, the NPC stared blankly at the wall and began speaking in a flat, rehearsed tone.
"It does not matter if I tell you the truth. It is said that somewhere in this treacherous sea area, there is a hidden undersea cave known as the grand residence of Poseidon. The only entrance leading to that treasure is the item known as Plot of Beach. A few years ago, a terrible man named Razor and his fourteen vicious demons heard this rumor. They invaded our peaceful town and have ruled it with an iron fist ever since. They tortured so many innocent people to death, including my beloved father and my brave brother, just to force them to reveal the location of Plot of Beach."
While she delivered her tragic backstory to the empty air, Liam and Shizuku tried to speak up and interrupt the monologue. But the woman didn't even blink. She was completely deaf to their voices, locked entirely into her pre-programmed dialogue. She finished reciting every last word without taking a single breath, gave a stiff, polite nod to the space between Liam and Shizuku, and immediately turned around, marching robotically toward the back wall of the stadium.
The instant she turned her back, the quiet, empty atmosphere of the gym shattered. It sounded exactly like a pane of thick glass breaking right next to Liam's ear.
Instantly, the deafening noise of a bustling crowd filled the room. The smell of sweat and tension hit the air. Directly across the gymnasium, several rough-looking men wearing strange, pointed hats materialized out of thin air, stretching their limbs and glaring across the court.
And standing directly in front of them, hands resting casually on his hips, was a towering, heavily muscled man with dark, spiky hair and a short-sleeved sports uniform. His eyes were narrowed into sharp, dangerous slits as he looked over the group of intruders.
The overlapping spaces had finally synced up. Bisky looked around, highly impressed by the sheer scale of the Nen emission required to maintain the illusion.
Liam smirked, stepping forward to close the distance. "Finally. We actually meet this time, Razor."
The towering man tilted his head slightly, his narrowed eyes studying Liam's face. "Oh? Have we met somewhere before?"
Liam let out a short, dry laugh. "Are you going to try and use an administrative card to fly us to the other side of the island again this time?"
Razor's broad shoulders relaxed, and a faint smile touched his lips. "That won't be possible. Even a game manager has to follow the established rules. Now that you have properly found this place, let's skip the small talk, get straight to the point, and start the game."
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