Chapter 2: Water Perception Method
Hearing wolf howls from all directions, Ray's controlled wolf bristled all over.
Was there no end to this? Heaven was cutting off his escape!
Ray struggled to strip a black suit off one of the corpses and barely managed to roll onto the back of his controlled wolf, draping the oversized suit over himself.
He hugged the wolf's body tightly, burying his head under the black suit. By cutting off his own vision, he could focus entirely on the wolf's perspective.
"Ray-Wolf" sprinted on all fours, nimbly leaping through the corpse pile, cutting through the towering dense grass like a black arrow.
Whoosh!
The wolf shadow streaked through the dim twilight, quickly bursting out of the tall grass, but those green wolf-eyes suddenly contracted.
Thump. "Ray-Wolf" landed on all fours, growling as it slowed down. Ray, having been jostled dizzy on the wolf's back, looked through his controlled wolf's perspective at the pack closing in from both flanks.
Pairs of wolf eyes glowed with ghostly green light, like approaching will-o'-wisps... Damn dogs, they were even using flanking maneuvers? Were they studying military tactics now?
"Ray-Wolf" growled low, backing up slowly against the oppressive, murderous atmosphere of the approaching pack.
Must buy more time...
If his main body could recover some strength, maybe he could use the strange Pentagram-marking superpower a few more times...
If he could successfully control a few more wolves, there might still be hope for survival...
Ray felt truly exhausted. Transmigrating for no apparent reason into a bare-bottomed little brat was one thing, but waking up in a pile of corpses and being hunted by a wolf pack to this point—what kind of situation was this? Couldn't he get a moment to catch his breath? He really didn't want to die as a confused ghost.
Just then, the wolf pack apparently ran out of patience. Howling at each other, they lunged at Ray and his wolf one after another...
Ray took a deep breath and had "Ray-Wolf" decisively arch its back.
The wolf's hind legs kicked up, pushing his sliding self back into the grass behind.
"Ray-Wolf" let out a fierce howl and collided with the attacking pack.
In an instant, it felt like countless claws slamming down on his body, countless fangs gnawing, biting, and tearing at his legs, skull, and back...
Projecting his consciousness into that wolf meant truly feeling the agony of being torn apart by the pack. Ray, lying at the edge of the tall grass, quickly withdrew his consciousness from the wolf body, no longer paying attention to the nearby pack's carnage. Exhausted and numb, Ray plucked one of his soft fuzzy hairs. Whether it would help or not, he couldn't just close his eyes and let these damned dogs eat him. He had to at least try.
But soon, the sounds of tearing and fighting faded, replaced by uneasy growling. The pack seemed to have encountered something dangerous...
Ray barely managed to turn over and carefully parted the grass, staring dumbfounded.
The wolf he'd been controlling lay on the ground covered in blood, while around it, the pack slowly retreated, all looking in the same direction—opposite them stood the beast from the high slope Ray had first spotted.
Faint moonlight made this approaching creature look like a celestial beast.
Up close, he could see this beast stood over a meter tall, its pure-colored fur reflecting the pale moonlight with a mesmerizing jade-blue glow. Especially its forehead, where a pattern resembling the character for "king" similarly gleamed like blue jade.
"Roar..." The tiger with its strangely glowing stripes growled at the pack.
With each step it took forward, the wolves fearfully scattered further back. Once the distance was sufficient, they fled in all directions.
It's just one tiger! With so many of you wolves, what are you afraid of?!
Ray was frustrated with their cowardice, wishing he could personally control those fleeing wolves to swarm this strange tiger and at least fight to mutual destruction!
That way he could escape in the chaos...
The tiger looked toward Ray.
Its tiger eyes were like precious jade, complementing the literally glowing king-pattern on its forehead. Truly beautiful... Of course, it would be even more perfect if it would stop walking toward him.
The tiger's furry but truly terrifying huge head slowly approached Ray... The jade-like glow from its forehead pattern reflected in Ray's pupils, growing closer and closer... Finally, the tiger tilted its head and gently nuzzled Ray's head. Ray froze. Was this Glowing Tiger showing goodwill?
Did he have some kind of royal aura? Or had his name brought him luck?
Though Ray found it baffling, he figured he wasn't losing anything, so his anxious heart settled back in his chest.
After nuzzling for a while, the tiger extended its furry tail, wrapped it around Ray, and placed him on its broad back.
"The jacket," Ray reminded instinctively.
The Glowing Tiger picked up the scattered suit from the ground, turned its head, and Ray dazedly reached out to take it, putting his thin arms through the sleeves.
Ray looked at his blood-stained fingers, hesitating whether to take the opportunity to draw a Pentagram pattern on the tiger's back...
A cool night breeze blew past. Ray pulled the suit tighter and abandoned the idea.
If the ability failed to activate and instead angered my tiger bro, turning this inexplicably established friendship sour—the consequences might be a little bit unpleasant...
Sitting up on the tiger's back, Ray looked up at this desolate plain's conspicuously protruding grass thicket, knowing it was full of corpses inside. Until he figured out the situation, this place wasn't safe to stay.
Time to bolt first!
Ray lightly patted the tiger's back and pointed toward where the night wind seemed to carry the sound of water.
The Glowing Tiger headed unhurriedly in the direction he pointed. Along the way, Ray spotted a shadowy figure skulking about—apparently the wolf he'd been controlling earlier. This guy hadn't been torn apart by the pack?
Earlier, he'd withdrawn his control because he was afraid of the pain. He hadn't expected this injured wolf to take advantage of his lapse and escape too.
The Wild Wolf clearly also noticed the approaching Glowing Tiger and the human boy on its back. Extremely nervous, it turned to run.
But Ray's heart stirred. Staring at the wolf's retreating back, he called out: "Come here!"
As his words fell, Ray faintly sensed that inside the wolf's ear, where the rose-gold Pentagram mark was located, something like invisible heat ignited and swept through the wolf's entire body... The wolf stopped fleeing, turned without hesitation, ran back to Ray, and circled around wagging its tail.
Sure enough, once this ability was successfully applied, using it consumed the controlled target's own energy... Ray confirmed another characteristic of his superpower.
Since that was the case, might as well do some simple testing along the way.
So, while riding the tiger, he thoroughly put this controlled wolf through its paces, eventually reaching preliminary conclusions.
The rose-gold Pentagram mark had three control methods:
① Ray could fully inhabit it, like a first-person game perspective. Perhaps because his consciousness was hosted in the target's own brain while possessing it, Ray could easily "dual-task"—his main body's actions and the controlled wolf's actions wouldn't interfere with each other at all;
② Ray could control the Pentagram-marked wolf from an observer's angle, like directing a game character;
③ Ray could command the target with verbal orders...
"First roll once, then hop forward twice," Ray ordered the running wolf ahead while riding the tiger.
The wolf immediately rolled on the spot, then hopped forward twice, then resumed its previous behavior, following Ray's earlier command to "scout ahead, check the situation, don't leave my line of sight," staying not too far and not too close while scouting.
Ray nodded in satisfaction. "So even if I give a new verbal command, it won't override the previous unfinished or unrevoked command..."
This ability was way too convenient. Wasn't he basically invincible?
Ray still didn't know if his superpower worked on humans too...
Speaking of humans... where exactly had he transmigrated to? Was this still Earth?
A tiger with glowing flashy stripes, his strange superpower...
As Ray was lost in thought on the tiger's back, the wolf ahead made some noise. It was sniffing the ground, apparently having found something.
As for what exactly, it was already very dark, and Ray didn't have night vision... Huh?
Ray's heart stirred. He switched directly to control method ①, immediately possessing the wolf ahead, gaining its vision. He could now clearly see a trail of dried dark bloodstains on the ground nearby.
Borrowing the wolf's nose to sniff, this blood trail... there was more ahead! Incidentally, the wolf's sense of smell also picked up a strong, humid sea-breeze scent in the night wind.
Was the sea ahead?
And these bloodstains... Ray imagined a scene of gangsters landing on shore, one side fleeing, the other chasing and killing...
Deeper night, brighter moonlight. The tiger Ray was riding, its body covered in stripe patterns that glowed like jade, became even more enchanting and beautiful in the darkness. Racing toward the coast at night, its form so elegant, its spirit so beautiful, it made the wolf ahead look like a stupid mutt in comparison.
Before long, Ray rode the tiger to the seaside.
From the direction of the dark, deep sea, waves crashed against the shore, bringing gusts of cool sea breeze. Using the wolf's night vision, Ray quickly spotted a small cruise ship that had run aground and was half-sunk. The side of the hull had been completely smashed open, with seawater flooding inside...
"Hope there's no one on board." Ray patted the Glowing Tiger. Its stripes were way too flashy—they'd be spotted from far away.
Ray signaled the tiger to back off temporarily, then continued using method ①, first-person controlling the wolf, which easily jumped onto the bow of the ship that had crashed into the shore.
"Ray-Wolf" landed on all fours, stepping on the wet deck, accidentally sliding all the way to the cabin entrance and easily pushing open the door. This door wasn't even locked...
First priority was checking if anyone was on the ship; second was finding food. Ray himself was starving... desperately needed to find something to eat for calories.
Inside the cabin, there were signs of chaos everywhere. The corridor had scattered objects, most room doors were open, empty rooms had varying degrees of messy beds and tables, and some places had bloodstains. Obviously there had been fighting inside too... "Ray-Wolf" searched for the ship's kitchen while carefully observing the situation. Suddenly there was a crackle under his feet. He looked down sharply—it was a newspaper.
By the faint moonlight slanting into the cabin and this wolf body's excellent night vision, he could clearly see the text and photos on the newspaper.
He couldn't read a single character.
However, these densely packed characters on the newspaper—looking like tadpoles, or like unknown totemic symbols—gave Ray a strong sense of familiarity...
Holy crap! Wasn't this the unique script from that pit of a manga, Hunter x Hunter?!
Had he transmigrated into the Hunter x Hunter world?
It was like lightning striking behind his head. All the strange experiences since transmigrating flashed before Ray's eyes...
That sensation of always feeling wrapped in something like weightless water—was that actually the life energy called "Aura"?
The rose-gold Pentagram he'd been using to control wolves—was that his awakened "Nen Ability"?!
Parting the fog, suddenly enlightened. Ray's main body on shore looked up at the moon, then looked left and right, dismounted from the tiger, picked up a leaf, and coaxed his tiger bro to carry him onto the ship.
Verifying the answer—whether this was really the Hunter World—was actually easy.
In the Hunter World, all Nen users had an innate category affinity, which could be quickly and visually identified through a method called the "Water Perception Method"—all you needed was a cup of water and a leaf.
If he could successfully identify it, then there was little doubt...
The Glowing Tiger stomped heavily into the empty cabin. Ray slid off its back, clutching the leaf, and dashed straight for his destination.
By the sink, "Ray-Wolf" was already holding a cup in its mouth, having scooped half a cup of clear water, waiting there.
(End of Chapter)