Chapter 135: Do Nen Glyphs Count as a Kind of C Language for Nen Users?
Ross was genuinely curious about what Ging was engraving on Castlevania's wall bricks.
The original story's references to "Nen Glyphs" were actually quite sparse. Wing had engraved "snaps if you use Nen" inside the Rope of Vows. Ging had engraved "releases the seal upon Nen injection" inside the iron rod of the box sealing the Greed Island ROM cartridge and game ring. Ross also suspected that Dalzollene, the head of the Nostrad family's bodyguard corps, had something like Nen Glyphs on his long sword: a man who had briefly projected a genuinely impressive presence and even showed off his piano skills, only to immediately deflate because the young lady needed managing.
In Ross's fairly basic understanding, Nen Glyphs were probably something like a programming language specifically for Nen users. Write the specific glyph, inject Nen, and you execute a particular function.
You might not even need a corresponding Nen ability. As long as you pre-constructed the Glyph architecture for the desired function, it could achieve the intended result directly.
The underlying logic of Greed Island's spell cards might actually run on Nen Glyphs.
And Ross remembered: modifying Greed Island's spell cards wasn't particularly difficult for the game's creators.
The teleportation card, for instance: Ging had a collaborator specifically set up an exclusive effect for Gon. "If Gon activates the teleportation alone, he goes to Ging's location. If Gon activates it with others, they go to Kite's location."
A man who presents as tough to the outside world and gets embarrassed when it comes to personal matters. Ging in one line.
What Ging was currently engraving and what function it was meant to run, Ross couldn't guess. If it were himself, his first choice would be something teleportation-related, for convenient back-and-forth research.
But Ross's interest was only in what Nen Glyphs demonstrated, not in learning them himself. This was clearly a field with an extremely high learning cost and a heavy dependence on natural insight. Given the same time investment, grinding experience and finding cartridges was obviously a more efficient and better-suited choice for him.
Knock knock knock knock knock. Knock knock knock knock knock.
While Ross was using the ancient art of phone-to-screen photography to document what Ging was engraving, rapid knocking started outside his door. It had begun with some restraint, but was now hitting an urgent pace, as if whoever it was had no doubt he was inside.
Still sitting cross-legged in front of the TV, Ross let his aura stir and expand outward from himself as its center point.
En.
Ten and Ren combined, the aura spreading outward to cover and probe the surrounding area.
The technique itself wasn't particularly difficult. The hard part was Nen volume and precise control of the aura. For Ross, though, it wasn't a real obstacle. The Spirit Wave Style's cellular-level body tempering had done more than raise his Nen capacity. It had also sharpened his sensitivity to aura.
As his aura spread, he caught the familiar small silhouette outside the door immediately.
A brief pause, then he walked quickly to the door and opened it.
"What's going on? You're knocking like your soul is trying to escape."
Looking at the familiar white hair, Ross's face was full of genuine puzzlement.
Killua had completely lost his composure. When he saw Ross, his expression showed the conflict of someone who had spotted a lifeline but wasn't certain whether they should reach for it.
Worth noting: Gon still wasn't with him. Ross recalled that the last time they'd run into each other, Killua had been operating alone.
Without having met Gon himself, Ross could roughly piece together what had probably happened. The kid had barely learned the most rudimentary Nen and had gone to the arena, gotten seriously worked over by Todo or someone, and was almost certainly still recovering.
"I... I genuinely don't know who else to go to."
Killua's body was faintly trembling as he said it. Not the kind that came from facing a strong opponent. More like someone who had lost something precious.
"...Gon's dead?"
"He is NOT!!!"
The moment Ross said it, Killua reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, instantly going up in flames.
"Or did something happen to Kurapika or Leorio?"
"No!" Less force this time, but being knocked out of the spiral by the deadpan teasing had helped him collect himself a little.
After a silence, Killua began very carefully choosing his words.
"I just got a call from home. A very important person in my life has suddenly disappeared. I have no idea where they've gone. But I heard you have some kind of navigation arrow with a targeting function, and I thought maybe it might have a way to locate a person..."
Killua was trying to lay out his logic clearly, but there was a faint throb at the center of his forehead and his chest was in genuine pain.
He was in a state of intense self-blame. Why had he forgotten about them, to the point where only a phone call from home snapped him back to it?
"Missing?"
The word caught Ross off-guard for a moment, but he worked it out quickly.
The only person in the entire Zoldyck family who Killua would call a "very important person" was clearly not his narcissistic elder brother. It was the Zoldyck family's fourth son: a special being who housed something from the Dark Continent within their body. Alluka Zoldyck.
The reason Killua had forgotten about someone this important to him was entirely Illumi's doing. By covertly planting a Nen needle, Illumi had made Killua temporarily forget everything connected to Alluka.
According to the original story's trajectory, Killua would only sense and remove that troublemaking needle through his own power during the Chimera Ant arc, after which everything would come back to him.
But a single phone call from home had broken through the seal directly.
Which made sense: Alluka was too particular a case. Special enough that even the Zoldyck family's own bloodline had opted to confine her deep underground, in a vault room behind five consecutive ten-digit passcode doors, completely severing all contact with the outside world. For a child of about ten years old, that was a cruelty that defied description. But the Zoldycks had done it without hesitation, for the sake of what resided within her.
"How did she disappear? Did she leave on her own, or was she taken by someone?"
Ross already knew who Killua meant, but he couldn't say it directly. This was the Zoldyck family's most carefully guarded secret, and playing the "information broker" card casually here would be genuinely dangerous. An assassin family was willing to actually kill people.
"Based on what the butler put together: a white-haired middle-aged man whose every movement was like a high-ranking noble of the Ochima Federation, dressed very ornately. He appeared from nowhere, and with one sweep of his cape, took her. And Gotoh also said the man looked somewhat like Father-"
Ross choked on his own saliva.
He already knew who the "noble" Killua was describing was. He had already roughly guessed why Old Drac had taken Alluka.
Old Drac. The ultimate shut-in finally leaves his castle, and it turns out he went looking for a wishing vessel.
Which led to the real question.
Which wife was Old Drac planning to resurrect?