"Young Master…"
"Young Master…"
In the basement, after not seeing Roy for several days, the one-eyed, scar-faced guards stationed at the iron gate placed a hand to their chest and bowed.
They pulled the bars open from both sides, revealing the pitch-dark corridor leading to the inner chamber.
"Mm." Roy's expression was flat. He gave them a brief nod and stepped into the passage. Not long after, under the dim yellow lights, he strolled up to the airtight steel door.
The pot of yellow chrysanthemums placed beside it had been well cared for. Spring had slid into summer—right in chrysanthemum season. The petals were in full bloom, like life itself: blooming, withering, blooming again—endless cycles, no visible end.
Tap.
Roy stopped, rubbed the curse on the back of his hand, and drew a deep breath.
"Grandpa… I came to see you."
Rumble—! The airtight door of refined steel swung open. The Demon Eye shot out a tentacle as always, coiling around him and dragging him inside.
His consciousness dipped—and that familiar voice rang out again:
[re: Game of the Dead] activated!
Roy's vision wavered. When he opened his eyes again, the world had already changed.
A forest—lush, towering trees so tall you couldn't see their tops, stretching forever.
The Uzuki Great Forest…
Long time no see.
A gust swept past, carrying the rich scent of soil.
Roy closed his eyes and took a long, hard breath of air thick with negative ions—so fresh it almost hurt.
Memories flashed: Frank Becky, and the Storm Archbishop—Benjamin—after God Descent, hurling that "thunder spear" like it was still right in front of him…
Roy flipped his hand, gathered a few sparks of light, and used reverse-manifestation to bring out the map—the "strategy" sheet his father had given him.
Then he moved.
His feet left afterimages like ghosts as he launched into Perfect Silent Gait, now laced with a faint rhythm he'd stolen from Shunpo, racing toward the outcast settlement—
Bandel City, "Home of the Colorless."
With the curse on him, places like the Samir Principality or the Hoin Kingdom—territories directly controlled by the Seven True Gods—were clearly off limits.
And besides…
Roy still didn't know which existence he'd offended, or what Grandpa Zigg had done that caused Roy to be dragged into the fallout.
Given the current situation, the safest play was obvious:
Stay in outcast territory, gather intel, preach quietly, and build power in the shadows.
"Whoosh—!"
He shot forward like an arrow tearing the wind, marking the map as he went and using magnetic field control to keep his bearings.
On the way, he casually cleaned up a few monsters to expand the Monster Codex, and the panel chimed:
[Life Energy +10 +15 +20…]
[Monster Codex entry complete…]
1) Plague Bat: D-rank magical beast (ratings benchmarked to Chimera Ants; Elite squad leader = D, Division leader = C, Royal Guards = B, King = B+)
Manifested aura: D+ (9741/10000)
Potential aura: C- (1250/100000)
Innate Nen: Plague (spreads sickness to force pursuers into onset and escape)
Notice: Plague extracted… highly compatible with Lower Moon Five Rui's Spider Poison…
Poison Resistance +10… Poison Implant +10…
…
2) Earth Eel: C-rank magical beast
Manifested aura: C- (4715/100000)
Potential aura: C (72540/100000)
Innate Nen: Laser (stimulates compound eyes to fire a laser beam)
Notice: Laser extracted… highly overlapping with Eye of Truth-Breaking… upgraded to Laser Eye…
Yang Release +10…
…
3. Man-Eating Vine — innate Nen Camouflage, highly overlapping with Deception…
4. Howling Crayfish — innate Nen Sound of Despair: a clawed beast that "feeds" on sound; its howl drags up depression inside any breeding-instinct lifeform, crushing willpower until… suicide.
That one's kind of like the Heart Worm swallowing negative emotions…
The notifications kept coming as Roy neared Bandel City, killing strange beasts and extracting what he could. His gaze lingered on Laser, the upgrade born from Eye That Shatters Illusion.
Unlike the Sharingan—which needed hateful, twisted stimuli to drive Yin and evolve—
Laser was pure Yang.
Like the sun: you can't stare at it.
A hot red glimmer stirred in Roy's eyes. The more he tasted it, the more it felt like it belonged to him—especially with his visualization object: the Sun.
"Whoosh—!"
Blade in hand, one grotesque monster after another dropped at his feet.
He wove through the giant trees, harvesting life energy—
And then, abruptly, he stopped.
His En—spread nearly over a two-hundred-meter radius—caught something that made his scalp go tight:
A beast with a tiger's body and a lion's head was tearing into an old woman.
Half her body was already gone.
What remained—one arm—was still being held by an old man.
The man was so thin he was practically skin over bone, clinging to her like a shadow.
And as his wife was eaten alive…
He just stood there.
No screaming. No running. No tears.
He looked like a meal waiting on a plate, calmly awaiting his own turn.
That "person" was obviously alive—yet his whole body gave off a thick sense of death.
Roy's brow furrowed.
Why aren't you reacting?
You're just watching your wife get eaten—aren't you devastated?
Roy had a thousand questions, but the moment he opened his mouth, none came out.
His past life had drilled the "three rules" into him for dealing with a rotten world:
Respect other people's fate. Drop the savior complex. Don't self-righteously move yourself to tears.
Especially here—on the Dark Continent—where danger was everywhere:
Don't listen to what you shouldn't. Don't look at what you shouldn't. Don't ask what you shouldn't.
But—
As a human…
As someone who'd promised Great-Grandpa to become a sliver of light in someone else's heart…
Roy stepped out.
A flick of his hand—
A hundred-meter blade shot forward like a spear and punched clean through the lion-tiger beast.
[Life Energy +30…]
[Monster Codex updated…]
Lion-Tiger Beast: C-rank magical beast — slain.
Innate Nen "Ferocity" extracting…
Extract complete.
Ferocity: prepay "sanity" to massively boost aura output; the more vicious you are, the stronger you get—also the more insane you become.
…
So which came first—eating people made it mad, or being mad made it eat people?
Roy used one arm to whip the corpse away like trash. It slammed through several trees before stopping.
Then, as trunks fell with booming cracks, Roy walked out of the dust and stood over the half-eaten old woman.
He crouched, extended a hand, and fed a thread of Nen through Scorching True Intent, turning it into fire.
He wrapped her gently.
Cremation.
"Dust to dust. Earth to earth. Clouds and moon to clouds and moon.
Lady Nora Lawrence… may you find peace. If there is a next life, may you live under sunlight your whole days—never again touched by darkness and filth."
"Whoosh—"
Roy blew softly.
The fire surged and swallowed the body completely.
Beside him, the old man—still numb, still wooden—finally moved.
He turned his stiff neck and stared at Roy… then at his wife dissolving into light.
His throat bobbed.
With a voice so weak it barely existed, he asked:
"How do you know her name?"
Old Mark could swear he'd never seen this young man in his life—never.
"You can ask her," Roy said quietly.
"She told you herself."
The flames crackled. The light danced.
Roy didn't even look at Mark, letting the Scorching True Intent finish the job.
When the last fragment of bone turned to ash—
A hunched figure appeared in the firelight.
An old woman with kind eyes—like any neighbor granny.
She lifted her skirt and gave Roy a polite curtsy.
Then she turned, smiling at Mark the way she had when she was young—when they first met, first knew, first loved.
Mark's numb heart twitched.
And at last—
The face carved with deep ravines of age couldn't hold it anymore.
Two lines of tears finally fell.
"So that's how it is…" Mark rasped, smiling through the tears.
"I was wondering who it was… Nora, you were the one who told him."
The old woman only smiled. She lovingly reached out to touch Mark's face—
And her hand passed straight through him.
A fire had separated life and death forever.
"Heh… don't rush," Mark wheezed, tears still pouring.
"I'll be with you soon…"
He lifted his head, still smiling through grief, and looked at Roy.
"You killed that beast… and now I can't die, kid."
"So do me a favor."
"Kill me instead."
He forced his neck forward, veins bulging.
Roy turned to look at him.
Silence wedged in his throat like a bone.
Because Roy could tell—
Mark wasn't joking.
He meant it.
And that was exactly why Roy couldn't speak.
Across three worlds—Hunter, Demon Slayer, Naruto—Roy had only ever seen people clawing to live.
This was the first time he'd met someone begging to die.
Roy stared at the old man.
Then, finally, he forced out a single word:
"Why?"
Mark tried to clasp his wife's spirit's hand. She met his gaze and smiled.
Then he answered, softly:
"No reason. Just this."
"If we die… our granddaughter, little Maddy… gets to live."
Maddy…?
Roy's En expanded.
A Heart Worm slid along the nearest causal thread and burrowed into Mark's heart.
Under this broken sky, Roy stood still and watched—
He saw little Maddy: a girl with hair like dead straw, dim and lifeless.
And he saw Mark and Nora's entire life:
Dreaming of getting a "permit" to move into Bandel City and escape the shantytown…
Working themselves to the bone for crumbs of pay, then getting "taxed" by the city guards for every excuse under the sun…
Their son dying because medical care was too expensive…
Their daughter-in-law forced into the city's flesh trade… then vanishing…
Their granddaughter, their friends, their whole existence—
A massive tapestry of hell.
This hell was the norm for the outcasts.
Roy walked along the cracked ridges of Mark's heart, silent, until he found the final answer—
Bandel City had an unwritten rule, a "mercy" the city's security force granted to outcasts:
If you don't get into the city before forty, you should die.
And you must die inside a beast's belly.
Once your death is confirmed, your descendants get one chance to take the city's entry exam.
Mark and Nora were buying Maddy a "life" with their own deaths.
At least if she got in, she might find real work.
Maybe—just maybe—she could even find her missing mother.
Then Mark and Nora could die without regret.
The tapestry ended there.
Roy's chest tightened.
Inside Mark's heart, Roy felt something he'd almost never felt:
"Happiness."
A wish that Maddy might live better.
A hope.
Crack—
The life-tapestry stopped.
The Heart Worm had eaten its fill of negative emotion. It belched, wriggled back into Roy, and the panel chimed:
[Negative Emotions +300%… auto-stored in "Unconscious Domain"…]
Roy exhaled.
Back in reality, Mark still held out his throat, begging to die—
Roy lifted his blade—
And in the same motion, slashed down—
Not at Mark.
At the arrow that was about to pierce Roy's back.
A chakra-reinforced bolt wrapped in Shū snapped in half mid-air.
From the shadows behind the trees came a giggling voice:
"Heeheehee… what wild little monkey crawled out of the bushes?"
"Picking a fight with the security corps?!"
Roy's eyes went cold.
~~~
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