Chapter 3: This Is Way Too Interesting!
In his previous life, Ray had been stuck at home due to the pandemic and, out of sheer boredom, had been binge-watching shows and catching up on anime. Naturally, he hadn't skipped Hunter x Hunter—a heavyweight classic among classics despite being an eternal hiatus pit. So his memory of this world's settings was still fairly clear.
In the Hunter World, every person's body contained life energy—"Aura."
Ordinary people had no awareness of Aura and simply let it dissipate. But those who could sense Aura's existence and learn to harness this power were called Nen users.
Nen users, depending on individual differences, belonged to different ability categories.
Nen Abilities were divided into six major categories.
The identification method known as "Water Perception Method" involved placing a leaf on the surface of water in a cup, then bringing your own Aura close to the cup. Based on various changes to the water or leaf, you could determine your type:
Leaf moves on the water's surface → Manipulation Type
Water changes color → Emission Type
Water volume changes → Enhancement Type
Water's taste changes → Transmutation Type
Impurities appear in the water → Conjuration Type
Any other change → Specialization Type
"..."
After briefly recalling this information, Ray sat up straight, looking at the cup of water before him with the leaf floating motionlessly on its surface. He extended both hands.
The tiger lay nearby with its front legs crossed. Because they were inside the ship's cabin, the glow from its striped fur was somewhat dim. The tiger yawned, tilting its head to watch this human child, not quite understanding what he was doing. Why not drink the water instead of just staring at it?
Ray naturally had no idea what this tiger was thinking. He was focused on channeling "Aura." Perhaps because he'd already used his Nen Ability several times, despite having basically zero fundamentals, he quickly felt the Nen Aura and successfully gathered it in both palms, bringing them close to the cup.
Then, the previously still leaf on the water's surface slowly began to move...
As expected, he was Manipulation Type.
Ray had already anticipated this, so he wasn't too surprised.
The six Nen categories, when arranged systematically in a connected circle, went: Manipulation Type → Emission Type → Enhancement Type → Transmutation Type → Conjuration Type → Specialization Type → Manipulation Type.
There was a general rule—not necessarily accurate, but roughly applicable:
Emission Type, Enhancement Type, and Transmutation Type typically relied more on conventional combat methods—hand-to-hand fighting, energy blasts, and various property transformations of Nen Aura;
Among the myriad of Nen Abilities, there existed some that, once successfully triggered, were essentially rule-like and unstoppable. These abilities appeared more frequently in Manipulation Type, Specialization Type, and Conjuration Type.
Among these, in the Hunter World, any Nen user with enough street smarts should know: Manipulation Type abilities generally had a "first-strike wins" effect.
In other words, if you let a Manipulation Type enemy successfully apply their ability to you, you were simply screwed!
It was that cheap.
Ray's rose-gold Pentagram mark had this characteristic. Once the mark was successfully placed on a target, he could control them at will.
"So my ability... I'll give it a proper name later. For now, let's call it 'Star Mark.' My 'Star Mark' ability—what exactly are the activation conditions?"
Ray picked up the floating leaf, pondering. Just that brief moment of focusing Aura had already made him tired. Clearly, this young body that had never undergone physical training had pathetically little Nen Aura. No wonder activating Star Mark once earlier had completely drained him.
Ray shifted his gaze to the wolf he'd been controlling, looking at the small rose-gold Pentagram mark inside its ear.
"Speaking of which, if I want to remove this mark, how do I..."
He reached out, his fingertip touching the rose-gold Pentagram inside the wolf's ear. Instantly, the Pentagram dispersed.
"Woo!"
The wolf, freed from Ray's control, immediately let out a panicked cry.
But right behind Ray came a low tiger's growl. The tiger, its striped fur glowing like jade, circled around Ray and pounced, pinning the struggling wolf to the floor.
This Glowing Tiger stood over one and a half meters tall on all fours. Its massive, heavy frame pinned down this wolf—which had already been wounded and bled for Ray—making the wolf look utterly weak and helpless.
"Thanks, tiger bro." Ray crouched by the tiger's paw and patted the pinned wolf's head. "Stop whining. I'm just running some tests. It'll be quick."
His Nen reserves were limited. How could he test efficiently?
In other words, what test targets were most urgent?
Ray thought for a moment, then took off the loose black suit and draped it over the wolf.
He plucked one of his own hairs and, through the suit, placed it on the wolf's body. Then he held his breath, channeled that familiar sensation, manipulated "Aura" to twist the hair into a Pentagram shape, and even pressed it tight against the fabric—the ability failed to activate.
Ray could feel this wasn't because he'd run out of Nen, but because the activation conditions hadn't truly been met.
He caught his breath, rested a moment, then pulled the suit aside and tried the same thing. Using Aura to control the Pentagram-shaped hair, he let it land on the wolf's back fur—deliberately only letting the hair touch the fur without pressing down firmly. The ability failed again.
"So the 'Pentagram' must be pressed directly against the target's 'skin' to activate successfully? Or rather, a proper Pentagram must be made on the target's 'body surface'?" Ray thought. "So preliminarily, there are three conditions: ① The Pentagram symbol; ② The symbol must be pressed against the target's body surface—through clothing doesn't work; ③ While the first two conditions are met, my Nen Aura must also cover it. All three conditions must be met..."
Ray wanted to keep testing but was completely out of energy—thirsty, hungry, and exhausted.
Ray picked up the cup of water and gulped down a mouthful, then asked tiger bro to keep the wolf pinned.
He searched around the cabin, finding plenty of emergency food—compressed biscuits, bread, chocolate, small cakes, and such.
While at it, he found pants and a shirt, rolled them to appropriate lengths, threw them on haphazardly, tied the waist with a rope, and finally didn't have to run around bare-bottomed anymore.
Thinking of the gangster corpses on shore, Ray naturally wasn't worried about this food being expired.
"Tiger bro, want some?"
Ray unwrapped what looked like the most delicious small cake and waved it in front of the tiger's big head.
The exotic beasts of the Hunter World were indeed quite intelligent. It shook its head, raised its paw, and pushed the cake back, as if urging Ray to eat it himself and not waste it.
As for the wolf, it was sat on by the tiger with no room to resist.
Honestly, although Ray was grateful this Glowing Tiger had helped him, he was also puzzled. Why was it so friendly to him? He hadn't paid for premium!
Ray wolfed down food—small cakes, chocolate, biscuits—and drank the remaining water in the cup.
Quiet night, empty cabin. Besides the wolf's low whimpering, only the sound of Ray eating remained...
While eating and resting, Ray casually retrieved the newspaper from earlier.
Although he couldn't read Hunter World text yet, at least he could look at pictures! The newspaper had plenty of photos.
And there were many numbers too—were these universal across all universes?
Ray made the best of a bad situation and felt quite content.
He noticed that beneath the incomprehensible text of the front-page news, there was a date-formatted number: "1994-11-29." After brief recall, he immediately figured out his current time point—according to Hunter x Hunter's timeline, the protagonist Gon Freecss left home to take the Hunter Exam in (Hunter calendar) January 1999.
In other words, this was probably late 1994 in the Hunter calendar, approximately four years before "the story begins"...
Ray's gaze stopped on a newspaper photo.
The photo appeared to be from some political event, captured by a news photographer on scene. In it, two parties were warmly meeting, shaking hands and facing the camera with politicians' smiles. More importantly, one of the people shaking hands... This was a chubby guy, looking somewhat simple, somewhat prosperous, yet with a hint of shrewdness. More importantly, Ray thought he recognized him!
Wasn't this the King of Kakin from the manga?
The guy whose royal surname was, bizarrely, "Hui Guo Rou"?
When Ray had rewatched the Hunter manga in his previous life, he'd read all the way to the Dark Continent · Black Whale · Kakin Succession War arc. Though he'd given up continuing because that part had increasingly ridiculous amounts of text—so much it made his head spin—he still had a strong impression of this King of Kakin, who was quite important to that storyline.
So he'd transmigrated to Kakin Kingdom territory in the Hunter World?
Thinking of Kakin Kingdom reminded him of Kite; thinking of Kite naturally reminded him of the Chimera Ant Arc storyline; thinking of the Chimera Ant Arc...
Never mind, forget it.
Bad luck! Ray tossed the newspaper aside. Feeling sufficiently rested, he continued using the wolf as test material for his ability.
But just then, Ray suddenly realized something abnormal he'd overlooked—this abnormality had been right under his nose this whole time, and he'd only just noticed.
This wolf...
Earlier it had nearly been beaten to death by the pack, down to its last breath. How was it now lively and kicking, without even any obvious wounds visible?
Was this wolf breed just superior with strong recovery, or...
Having this thought, Ray wanted to verify it immediately. He ran all over the cabin. The tiger pinning the wolf kept turning its head to follow him, until finally Ray couldn't find a suitable "weapon"—the kitchen knives were placed too high; he couldn't reach them! Helpless, Ray returned to the tiger. "Tiger bro, I'll have to trouble you to lift your paw and give this guy a swipe." He pointed at the wolf under the tiger's rear.
The tiger didn't hesitate at all. Paw up, paw down—amid the wolf's screams, it tore a bloody gash in the wolf's neck, warm blood droplets nearly splattering onto Ray's legs.
With tiger bro's suppression, the wolf couldn't break free no matter how much it struggled, let alone hurt anyone.
Ray safely watched from the side, carefully observing the changes in the wolf's wound.
But even after the torn wound's blood had dried, matting the fur dark red, there was no obvious sign of the wound healing.
Ray nodded thoughtfully. He dipped his finger in some wolf blood, parted the fur on the exposed bit of wolf belly, and pressed against the skin to barely draw a proper Pentagram blood pattern.
This time Ray didn't wrap Aura around the Pentagram as he drew it.
Only after finishing the drawing did he raise his palm, wipe his fingers, gather Nen Aura, and slap his little palm onto the Pentagram pattern.
"Star Mark" successfully activated!
A rose-gold Pentagram mark appeared on the wolf's belly.
Star Mark's hidden activation rule: You can pre-draw the Pentagram symbol on the target, then find an opportunity to apply your Nen Aura to it. They don't have to happen simultaneously—the ability still activates successfully.
Ray nodded in satisfaction, then turned back to observe the bloody wound on the wolf's neck.
The wound began healing at visible speed...
An ability meant for controlling opponents in one strike somehow had an extra side effect—creatures carrying Star Mark automatically gained powerful self-healing!
But Ray felt no disappointment or dissatisfaction. Instead, he smiled.
He deftly dipped his finger in the remaining wolf blood again. Before drawing, he thought for a moment, then turned around. Using "Ray-Wolf's" third-person perspective assist, he accurately drew a Pentagram pattern in wolf blood on the back of his own neck. On the final stroke, he gathered Nen Aura at his fingertip and infused it into the blood pattern, instantly covering the Pentagram.
Instantly, a rose-gold Star Mark formed on the back of Ray's own neck.
Perfect!
This way, didn't he also gain the powerful self-healing passive skill?
Moreover, as a Manipulation Type user, he had already "first-strike" manipulated himself. This meant that from now on, if he encountered other Manipulation Types, they couldn't successfully manipulate him at all. Complete defense!
The world of Nen Abilities was truly... way too interesting!
Ray was feeling pleased when suddenly, through the cabin porthole, a gunshot rang out from the distance.
Bang!...
In the silent, pitch-black night, this gunshot sounded so loud and abrupt, echoing in the sea breeze for a long time.
Were there other gangsters still alive nearby?
Ray was startled.
At the same moment, a stream of strange aura—cold yet hot—drilled into the depths of his heart!
Ray's vision went black, and he collapsed limply toward the Glowing Tiger...
(End of Chapter)