Rotting leaves and damp soil squelched beneath their boots as Xiang Nan surveyed his surroundings.
This was indeed a truly deserted island, never touched by development.
Aside from an occasional birdcall, there was not a trace of wildlife in the forest.
"Look," Manman whispered, clapping a hand over her mouth in fright.
Not far away lay eighteen corpses, crawling with maggots.
Because the trees shaded them, the bodies had not yet fully decomposed; they had died only recently.
A physician by training, Xiang Nan needed only a glance to gauge roughly how each of them had met their end.
In less than fifteen minutes of climbing, the pair had already encountered many bodies in every conceivable posture of death—mafia, mercenaries, and others of uncertain origin.
Players were clearly among them.
"Only a small fraction of all players are high-level," Xiang Nan muttered as he slowed his pace instead of rushing for the summit. "Most of these dead must be the helpers those players brought along…"
The Mustang Island incident had driven the player count, as shown in the system, from four hundred down to about three hundred fifty.
By Xiang Nan's rough math, once you subtract the low-level players who had died naturally in the meantime, the rest of the eliminations were almost all high-level players who had come ashore—at least thirty of them.
Do not underestimate that figure: it was nearly a tenth of all remaining players.
If the original four hundred included only a few dozen players of Extinction Level 5 or higher, half of that elite corps had now been wiped out.
The dead were the very top tier of the current player community.
The strongest known player in the world was only Extinction 8; extrapolating from that, there might be perhaps twenty players at Levels 7-8. The rest would be Levels 5-6—and the higher the level, the fewer the people. By that logic, most of the corpses here belonged to Level 5s, with Level 6s making up the balance.
"So strange… not a single living soul," Manman murmured.
With so many players and their retinues landing on the island, could they really all be dead? They had not seen a single survivor. It felt as though setting foot on the island meant certain death—no hope of leaving alive.
The boats that still drifted offshore seemed to confirm it: some force was erasing every living thing that tried to land.
"Come on," Xiang Nan said, unmoved.
Manman clutched his sleeve, uneasy.
…
Before long they reached the mountaintop.
"What is that…?"
Up the slope stood a ruined structure, overgrown with vines and greenery.
It resembled a small palace. Judging from the exposed stonework, it was ancient, weathered by countless years.
"Boss!" Manman gasped. Could this be an archaeological site?
If this battered ruin pre-dated human society as they knew it, it might really connect to the Dark Continent. Xiang Nan even suspected that human civilization on Lake Island had suffered a "break"—perhaps migrants from the Dark Continent had settled here first.
Expressionless, he stepped closer, parted the clinging plants, and examined the outer wall.
Carved into the stone were strange murals: tiny figures representing humans, the sun and moon, and the sea.
In the water loomed a huge beast—an animal's head on a human torso—its maw gaping wide as though to swallow the surging ocean and the humans alike.
Bare-footed people dashed across the sea's surface, fleeing the monster's devouring jaws, while the foremost figure knelt as if in worship, holding aloft some object—vaguely, it looked like a small serpent.
The instant he saw it, Xiang Nan involuntarily thought of the Dark Continent; his breathing paused a beat.
These primitive motifs were strikingly similar to scenes hinted at in the original manga. The players who had dared land here were, after all, seeking the Dark Continent's power.
The entire vine-shrouded "palace" was barely ten meters across—more a solitary relic than the grand ruins of a city.
After circling halfway around, the two of them found an entrance. Xiang Nan pushed aside the curtain-like vines draping the doorway and stepped inside first.
…
The hall was dim and smelled of damp. Xiang Nan had no time to look around before a jolt of danger flared in his mind.
From the darkness a blade flashed; he whipped up a surgical scalpel to parry, knocking the attacker's long sword aside and, without hesitation, yanked Manman backward, bolting out of the building.
Someone's here!
Bursting through the hanging vines, Xiang Nan landed outside, eyes narrowed. Good thing I stayed alert, he thought; otherwise he would have walked straight into a trap. Ordinary players, desperate for Dark Continent power, would have plunged into the ruin head-first and lowered their guard the moment they were inside—giving the enemy the perfect opening.
"Well, you actually dodged it… unbelievable."
The assailant strode out, long blade in hand, sounding astonished. He wore something like a Japanese samurai outfit, hair disheveled, a patch over his left eye so that only the right one seemed sound.
For him to hide his aura that thoroughly, his mastery of Zetsu had to be superb—clearly a high-level player.
"Your reactions are impressive," the man said. "You're the first who hasn't been instant-killed by my draw technique. Judging by your skill, you've cleared at least Stage 6, right?"
"You tell me," Xiang Nan replied lightly, spinning the gleaming scalpel between his fingers. Then he glanced at the ruin, confirming his suspicion.
"So the rumor about a 'shattered statue' was just bait—your trap?"
"Not mine… ours," the man laughed.
At his words Xiang Nan whipped around. Somehow another figure had appeared behind him and Manman: a person in a black cloak and face veil, their features unreadable.
"Only players truly understand other players," Xiang Nan said coolly. "The two of you set up this elaborate snare and even had the power to slaughter everyone who landed. Don't tell me you've reached Extinction 7 already—veteran players, are you?"
"Can't say for sure," the swordsman chuckled. "Level and time of arrival aren't equal. Maybe you came to Hunter × Hunter before us—just grew slow and cleared stages too leisurely."
He raised his blade. "Looks like the two of you are probably going to die here."
"Before we do," Xiang Nan sighed softly, "could I ask you a few questions?"
~~~
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