"Are you out of your mind?! Were you trying to kill me?!"
Leorio, who had managed to dive backward just in time, stared at the doorway in absolute terror. He scrambled to his feet, cursing loudly. For a split second, he had felt an overwhelming, lethal pressure radiating from the blond teenager's outstretched hand. It felt incredibly dangerous.
Kurapika completely ignored Leorio's outburst. He stepped calmly into the ruined apartment, his sharp eyes scanning the layout of the messy room. He could feel the aura gathered in my hand, but his reaction was sloppy and unrefined, Kurapika thought to himself. He clearly lacks basic Nen fundamentals. A total novice. Most likely, he is just an ordinary person whose aura nodes were forcibly forced open when Liam possessed him with that Star Mark.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Heavy, padded footsteps echoed from the hallway. A massive, silver-white tiger crashed out of the bedroom, entirely unbothered by the tense atmosphere. Two young girls were riding on its broad back. The little one with short red hair was laughing, playfully wrestling with the tiger's thick fur, while the older girl with blue braids sat behind her, watching happily.
"Hey! Kid, are you deaf or just blind?" Leorio shouted, stepping directly into Kurapika's path to block his view of the apartment.
"I am not here for you," Kurapika said, his voice cold and flat. He did not even spare Leorio a glance. Instead, his eyes locked onto the giant tiger playing with the children. "So. What exactly do you want from me, Liam?"
Lumos paused his playing. He raised a massive paw, gently pinning Aoi in place so she wouldn't fall off, and looked at Kurapika. "How did you know it was me right away?" the tiger asked in perfect human speech.
"Misery Moon tigers are a highly protected, incredibly rare species," Kurapika noted, his brow furrowing slightly in surprise as the beast spoke. "It is highly unlikely to find one wandering around a suburban apartment. Why can you talk?"
"Because he is a magical monster," Akane, the girl with blue braids, chimed in helpfully. "That is why he talks."
"No, sister, I think it is a superpower," Aoi corrected her.
Kurapika felt a headache forming. He glanced at the three strangers in the room. "You taught these three how to use Nen? Is that why you called me here? Do you want me to act as their teacher?"
"Wait, this kid is a teacher?" Leorio blurted out, looking Kurapika up and down, though he sounded entirely unconvinced.
"He has superpowers too?" Aoi muttered, her eyes going wide.
Lumos ignored the peanut gallery and focused on Kurapika. "Why do you look so exhausted? I haven't seen you in a while, but you look like you haven't slept in weeks. You have changed a lot."
"Is this your idea of a casual reunion?" Kurapika asked drily.
"Is the hunt for the eyes not going well?" Lumos pressed.
Kurapika exhaled a long, heavy breath. The cold tension bled out of his posture, leaving him looking incredibly tired. He walked over and sat down heavily on Leorio's dusty sofa. "I foolishly believed that if I just had enough physical strength and Nen, I could track them down quickly. But without a formal Hunter's License, the logistics are a nightmare. There are private auctions I cannot access, secure databases I cannot hack, and high-level brokers who refuse to even meet with me."
Looking for eyes? Glasses? Leorio thought, completely lost.
Lumos paced slowly across the floor, his voice dropping an octave. "I called you here for two reasons. Let's start with the first."
"How many pieces has it been split into this time?" Kurapika asked, staring blankly at the ruined ceiling.
"Why don't you ask what it originally was?" Lumos countered.
"I can guess. You are currently possessing a Misery Moon tiger. It is a highly protected, heavily monitored animal. You probably want me to help you smuggle it across borders to wherever your real body is," Kurapika said, finally looking at the tiger. "I am afraid that is not going to be easy. Like I just said, I do not have a Hunter's License. Smuggling a protected beast through international customs is nearly impossible for a civilian."
"It is incredibly easy if you have enough money," Lumos replied simply.
A few seconds after the tiger finished speaking, Kurapika's cell phone vibrated violently in his pocket. He pulled it out, unlocked the screen, and stared at the notification. His brow furrowed deeply. "Liam, you don't need this much money to bribe customs. Please tell me you didn't just transfer your entire life savings to me."
"Tch!" Lumos flicked his tail dismissively. "Your boss is filthy rich now! That little transfer is just pocket change to me."
Seeing that Kurapika was still staring at the phone screen in shock, Lumos continued, shifting to a much more serious tone. "Now for the second reason. I have a question for you. If someone put out a massive hit to kill a Spider, and they invited me to tag along... would you be interested in joining?"
Kurapika's grip on his phone tightened until his knuckles turned white. He looked down, his blond bangs shadowing his eyes. "I do not enjoy killing people."
"But you are interested, right?"
Cutting through the freezing, high-altitude winds, a massive passenger airship flew steadily across the sky, heading out over the vast, dark ocean.
Sitting alone by a window seat, Liam idly twirled the blank, customized Greed Island card between his fingers.
The Zoldyck family estate was located on Kukuroo Mountain, within the Republic of Padokea. To reach his destination on the Yorbian Continent, he had to cross an entire ocean to the southwest.
"When I first washed ashore with Kite and the others, we were actually on the Yorbian Continent," Liam muttered to himself, watching the clouds roll by. "But we only explored the western coastline before moving on. Now, I am heading right back."
He balanced the blank card on the tip of his index finger, giving it a quick spin.
A few hours later, the heavy airship began its descent, landing smoothly at the designated airport.
A long, transoceanic flight like that would usually leave an ordinary person feeling jet-lagged and exhausted, but Liam felt perfectly fine. Despite his stamina, he still took the time to visit a high-end mall near the airport, purchasing a fresh set of clothes. He booked a room at a nearby hotel just to take a hot shower and change.
Standing in the hotel room, Liam looked down at the pile of dirty clothes he had just taken off. He extended his right hand, splitting a dense ball of aura from his palm and molding it into his Jade the Nen Beast.
Jade's sleeves were technically only designed to capture and store living creatures, which was slightly inconvenient for luggage. To bypass the rule, Liam simply had the nun use her physical hands to gather up his dirty clothes, kneading the fabric together like dough. Under the intense, crushing pressure and high temperature of her condensed aura, the clothes were rapidly pulverized and burned into fine, untraceable ash.
"Ever since I learned how bizarre and intrusive some Nen abilities can be, I don't even dare throw my dirty laundry in a hotel trash can," Liam sighed, shaking his head. "Is this what happens when you survive in the Hunter world? The longer you live, the more paranoid you get?"
He dismissed the Nen beast, grabbed his new jacket, and left the hotel.
Using a tourist map he had picked up at the airport, Liam walked at a brisk pace toward the coastline. After covering roughly twenty kilometers, the spectacular, towering silhouette of his destination became visible against the horizon.
The World Tree.
Rooted deep in a massive valley between two coastal mountains, the World Tree was an unimaginably colossal plant that absolutely dominated the skyline. It was a genuine miracle of the natural world, drawing millions of tourists, pilgrims, and adrenaline junkies from across the globe just to witness its scale or attempt to climb it. Over the decades, a bustling tourist economy had naturally formed around its base, resulting in a vibrant settlement known as World Tree City.
The moment Liam stepped across the city limits, he heard the cheerful, looping audio of a tourist bureau broadcast playing from speakers mounted along the streets.
"Welcome! The World Tree stands at a staggering 1,784 meters above sea level, reaching a height far beyond the capabilities of modern human architecture!"
"While the local authorities do not explicitly prohibit free-climbing, all visitors must either take the designated elevator or use the reinforced stairs to reach the official checkpoint at the 500-meter mark. At the checkpoint, all climbers must pay the mandatory climbing fee and sign a strict liability waiver. Climbing beyond the 500-meter mark is an extreme, life-threatening activity, and a life-and-death contract must be signed to waive the city of any responsibility!"
"Every year, approximately 3,000 brave individuals attempt to summit the World Tree. Statistically, 94% of climbers abandon the attempt before reaching the 1,000-meter mark. Another 4% are forced to pay exorbitant emergency rescue fees to be airlifted off the trunk. Tragically, 1% of climbers fall to their deaths."
"On average, fewer than 30 elite individuals successfully reach the summit and survive the descent each year!"
Listening to the looping statistics, Liam navigated through the dense crowds until he finally stood at the absolute base of the World Tree.
The trunk was so impossibly thick that from his vantage point, it looked like a massive, curving wooden wall stretching endlessly to the left and right. Looking straight up, the towering bark seemed to lean forward, giving the dizzying illusion that the entire tree was about to collapse and crush the city below.
Thousands of tourists swarmed the base, snapping photos, buying overpriced souvenirs, and pointing up at the canopy. Only a small, dedicated trickle of people were actually attempting to walk up the zigzagging, wooden staircase built into the lower trunk.
Liam ignored the stairs. He took a slow, deep breath.
The ambient aura radiating from his body suddenly shifted. It transitioned from a visible, glowing white shroud into a completely formless, colorless state. The air around him began to warp and twist, wrapping around his limbs like a localized whirlwind.
He dropped into a low crouch. The airflow around him spun violently, kicking up dust. With a deafening bang that cracked the pavement, Liam launched himself upward. To the surrounding tourists, he simply vanished out of thin air. Two seconds later, the displaced, turbulent air rushed back into the empty space, causing several people to scream in shock.
The normal climbers trudging up the wooden stairs only felt a sudden, violent gust of wind and caught a blurry flicker in their peripheral vision as Liam rocketed past them.
"Hey! Hello?! Get back here, you haven't paid the fee yet!"
At the official checkpoint pavilion, situated exactly 500 meters up the trunk, the exasperated administrator was currently leaning out the window, screaming at the empty sky.
A panting climber, who had just finished signing his liability waiver, put the pen down and laughed nervously. "Uncle, who are you yelling at? How could someone possibly..."
Before the climber could finish his sentence, a massive gust of wind blasted from above, nearly knocking him off the wooden platform.
Liam had overshot his jump, soaring to an altitude of roughly 800 meters before gravity finally caught him. He fell in a smooth parabola, plummeting right back down toward the 500-meter checkpoint. Just before he smashed into the wooden deck, a cushion of highly pressurized wind erupted beneath his feet, negating his momentum entirely. He landed with a soft, silent tap.
He casually walked up to the administrator's window, pulled out his blackened Hunter's License, and slapped the required Jenny on the counter. Liam was in no mood for small talk; he had plenty of money to burn. He quickly scrawled his name on the life-and-death waiver, dropped the pen, and stepped back to the edge of the platform.
The whirlwind wrapped around him once more, and he launched himself directly up the vertical face of the World Tree, looking like a man falling upward into the sky.
"I..." The climber who had just paid stared up at the rapidly shrinking black dot that was Liam. He swallowed hard. "You know what? I think I am just going to go home."
"I warned you," the administrator sighed, organizing his paperwork. "Your life is not a toy."
High above, Liam spread his arms wide, soaring up the sheer vertical drop.
He converted his aura entirely into wind, making his body feel weightless, as if he had literally melted into the atmosphere. His second massive jump carried him effortlessly from the 500-meter mark all the way up to 1,500 meters.
As his upward momentum finally began to stall, he reached out and casually grabbed a thick, protruding fold of the rough bark. Using it as a springboard, he kicked off again, launching himself higher with minimal physical effort.
He repeated the process, bounding up the side of the World Tree like a feather caught in an updraft. In the blink of an eye, he was approaching the absolute summit.
The narrowing trunk of the tree was capped by a massive, shadowy structure. Liam recognized it from the canon; it was a colossal nest built by a species of giant bird that lived exclusively at the top of the World Tree. The nest was so large it looked like a wooden temple.
Liam clung to the underside of the massive nest, climbing horizontally along the woven branches until he reached the edge. With a final, powerful push, he channeled his aura outward. Jade materialized in mid-air, her large sleeves fluttering in the high-altitude wind. She reached down, grabbed Liam by the collar, and hauled him over the lip, dropping him safely into the center of the giant nest.
He had reached the summit.
"I have to say, watching you basically step on your own feet to fly up here feels completely unreasonable!" a voice called out.
Liam, currently sitting on the floor of the nest, looked up. Standing a few feet away was a massive, five-meter-tall baby bird. And stepping out from behind the giant chick was a woman with spiky, light-green hair. She was wearing her signature fishnet top, a tight camisole, and denim hot pants. It had been a while, but Menchi still looked as youthful, wild, and uninhibited as ever.
Liam smiled, dusting off his new pants. "Nen abilities are inherently unreasonable, aren't they?"
"Fair point!" Menchi laughed, nodding in agreement. She walked over and circled Jade, inspecting the construct with keen interest. "Does using a Nen beast to literally pull you over the edge still count as a legitimate summit?"
"If it doesn't count, then it doesn't count," Liam shrugged indifferently. "Besides, how do you know my Nen beast isn't just a physical extension of myself? It can be retracted and released freely. It has multiple special abilities. And honestly, it's aesthetically pleasing."
"Nobody asked for a sales pitch," Menchi pouted, crossing her arms.
Liam looked past her, scanning the massive nest. "Where is Shizuku? Why hasn't she come out yet?"
"Oh, she is probably just mentally preparing herself," Menchi said, a deeply evil, mischievous smirk spreading across her face.
"What does that mean?" Liam asked, suddenly feeling a spike of genuine concern.
A moment later, Shizuku finally stepped out from behind the giant bird. She looked exactly the same as always—gentle, quiet, and perfectly composed.
But instead of offering her usual blank greeting, she walked directly up to Liam, stopped a few feet away, and bowed deeply and respectfully.
When she straightened up, she spoke in a soft, incredibly delicate voice. "Welcome back, Master. I have recently learned how to prepare a new dish under Menchi's guidance. Would it please you to give it a taste, Master?"