Late at night, the torrential rain poured down.
Yorknew City, Sewerside Street.
Rain, like a beaded curtain, gathered into streams, flowing along the city's street network.
The streetlights flickered erratically, yet one antique shop was brightly lit.
Above the antique shop hung a common electronic screen, displaying a line of red text slowly scrolling:
[Buying antiques, miscellaneous items, and handmade artworks — June 22, 1997]
Inside the antique shop, display cases lined the walls.
Bathed in an orange glow, various antique artworks were displayed, their true value hard to discern.
Deeper within the shop, a solid wood table rested against a wall, with a desk lamp perched at its corner.
Under the concentrated lamplight, a red wooden doll sculpture, roughly fifty centimeters tall, stood silently.
Suddenly, a pair of hands reached into the light, enveloping the unremarkable wooden doll.
The hands belonged to a handsome young man in casual clothes, with neat black hair and sharp features.
Crack.
The young man's fingertips exerted slight pressure, and cracks immediately appeared on the wooden doll's surface. Threads of white faint light, distinct from the desk lamp, seeped from the cracks.
Immediately after, the wooden shell shattered and fell away, revealing a jade figurine enveloped in a faint glow of Nen.
On the translucent surface of the jade figurine, there were faint greenish, fish-like patterns, shimmering brightly under the lamplight – clearly of considerable value.
Shattering the wooden shell, turning waste into treasure.
This scene was observed by a burly man wearing a dog-head mask, who stood by the antique shop's entrance.
However, the man seemed to be aware of the young man's abilities, showing no surprise at all.
He crossed his arms, his gaze fixed on the young man, and spoke in a steady, powerful voice: "Moro, why did you refuse the gift Morena prepared for you?"
"A gift?"
The young man, called Moro, suddenly looked up, meeting the dog-headed man's gaze, and gave a helpless smile.
"Dog-Brother, asking me to kill twenty-one unrelated people, is that really a gift..."
"Of course it's a gift. As long as you kill them, you'll immediately advance to Level 21. Afterwards, barring any surprises, you should be able to gain another Nen ability that suits your needs. Even if the final outcome varies, you'll at least be able to increase your aura capacity through this."
The dog-headed man's voice remained steady and powerful. After a pause, he continued:
"Moro, Morena needs feedback on the Nen ability's effects as soon as possible, so don't disappoint her. Besides... just killing a few people to get stronger, that kind of thing is all benefit and no harm for you."
"..."
Moro fell silent at his words.
Just killing a few people, huh...
This is how the mob operates.
Or rather, in this world called Hunter x Hunter, disregarding life and trampling on individual existence isn't uncommon.
Moro had personally experienced this when he transmigrated here a year ago...
He silently gazed at the dog-headed man.
As a transmigrator, he was familiar with the plot and characters of Hunter x Hunter.
The dog-headed man before him, and Morena who saved him a year ago, were both characters from mafia families who appeared in the Kakin Royal Succession Contest arc.
Setting aside Morena's identity as a Kakin royal illegitimate daughter and her future role as the boss of the Ai family gang, what impressed Moro the most...
was always the Nen ability Morena displayed in the original work.
It was a Nen ability that allowed others to upgrade and grow stronger by killing...
"Getting stronger by killing, sounds so easy."
Moro suppressed his thoughts, a hint of an inexplicable smile playing on his lips, yet his eyes were so calm that no ripples could be seen.
"Dog-Brother, Nen abilities are hardly such superficial things. With a system like Vows and Restrictions... Although I don't know how Morena unearthed this ability, one thing is certain."
At this point, Moro suddenly averted his gaze, looking down at the jade figurine on the table, and said faintly: "That is risk, immense and unknown risk."
"..."
Hearing Moro's words, this time it was the dog-headed man who fell silent.
Silence, sometimes, amounts to acquiescence.
However, he didn't forget his stance because of this. He quickly broke free from his silence and asked bluntly: "So, your answer is no?"
"How could it be... This wretched life of mine, Morena gave it to me."
Moro's eyelids drooped. He gave a self-deprecating smile, but in his mind, Morena's bottomless dark eyes flashed.
After a pause, he looked up at the dog-headed man again and said softly: "Give me one day."
"Alright, I'll tell Morena."
The dog-headed man nodded at Moro upon hearing this, then turned and left decisively.
Just as he was about to push the door open and leave the antique shop, he suddenly paused, as if remembering something.
"Oh, by the way, Morena said she hasn't decided on the name for her Nen ability yet. She wants you to help her name it."
"..."
Moro was startled for a moment, and involuntarily thought of some fragmented scenes from the original work.
「Love Etude」
That was the name of Morena's Nen ability in the original work.
As for why a Nen ability filled with destructive meaning would have such a name...
Moro didn't know.
Thinking of this, Moro gave his answer almost without thought or hesitation, directly following the information from the original work: "Let's call it Love Etude, if Morena doesn't dislike it..."
"Hmm?"
The dog-headed man was a bit surprised. He hadn't expected Moro to suggest a name of this style.
However, he didn't dwell on it, waved his hand at Moro, pushed the door open, and strode out into the night rain.
Moro's expression was calm as he watched the dog-headed man leave.
Creak—
The heavy door shut closed.
A few minutes later, Moro slowly withdrew his gaze, turning instead to the translucent jade figurine standing amidst a pile of wooden shell fragments on the table.
"Looks like I'll have to run away..."
There were things he was unwilling to do, and with no room for negotiation, Moro decided to leave Morena's circle.
It wasn't that he was averse to killing, it was just that among the twenty-one people Morena sent, there were infants and children.
This had already crossed his bottom line.
Moreover, he knew Morena's true, hidden purpose better than anyone.
Destroy Kakin, destroy humanity, destroy the world, destroy everything...
This was what Morena sought.
So Moro would leave sooner or later; he just hadn't expected the day to come so quickly.
Over the past six months or so, the antique shop he managed had brought Morena considerable profits.
If circumstances hadn't changed, he actually intended to repay Morena's life-saving grace as much as possible through this method.
It should be enough, right...
Moro thought silently to himself, then raised his right hand and looked at the back of it.
There was a tattoo pattern resembling tree rings, composed of six hollow rings of different colors.
The colors of the tree-ring tattoo, from inside to out, from smallest to largest, were white, green, blue, purple, red, and gold, respectively.
In the very center of the tree rings, there was a tiny black infinity symbol.
Moro didn't know the origin or function of the tree-ring tattoo.
He only noticed the outline of the tree-ring tattoo suddenly appearing on the back of his hand a few days after he transmigrated, gradually solidifying from faint to deep.
Currently, the confirmed information was that others couldn't see the tree-ring tattoo on his hand, and the back of his hand covered by the tattoo seemed to possess the vowed effect of 'indestructibility'.
Furthermore, he could fill the hollow areas of the tree rings by absorbing Nen from antiques.
This was the fundamental reason he chose to operate an antique shop in Yorknew.
Over the past six months, he had absorbed a considerable amount of faint Nen from antiques and handmade artworks, and now the innermost white tree ring was almost completely filled.
Moro temporarily set aside thoughts of leaving Morena, focusing his attention on the jade figurine entwined with faint Nen.
As long as he absorbed the Nen from the jade figurine, he should be able to fill the white tree ring.
Even if it wasn't completely filled, the hardworking employees he sent out would bring back some antiques that might contain Nen tonight.
In the quiet antique shop, Moro reached out and covered the jade figurine.
No movement or fluctuation was apparent, yet the faint Nen from the jade figurine visibly flowed into the back of Moro's palm.
The tiny gap in the white tree ring was also filled, making it relatively complete.
Looks like I won't have to wait for the hardworking employees to return.
While thinking, Moro's gaze was fixed on the white tree ring on the back of his hand. After more than half a year of effort, he felt a slight sense of anticipation at this moment.
Because in his view, the tree-ring tattoo was very likely the 'transmigrator's golden finger' that people often talked about.
If it could provide assistance now, he would have even more confidence to break away from the Ai family.
Moro patiently awaited a change. However, as time ticked by, the white tree ring, filled like an energy bar, showed no unusual phenomena.
"The worst outcome has occurred."
Seeing the motionless tree-ring tattoo, Moro shook his head slightly.
In the current situation, there were probably only three possibilities.
One was that all the tree rings needed to be filled before the unknown ability would be revealed.
Another was that the filled tree ring required some specific condition to reveal the ability.
The last one: the tree-ring tattoo was not the 'golden finger' he had hoped for.
Moro was somewhat disappointed, but he didn't dwell on it too much.
Even if he could gain the 'golden finger' ability at this moment, for him, it would at most be an unexpected bonus.
His true confidence lay in the Emission-type Nen ability he had diligently refined since his transmigration.
The night deepened, and the rain showed no signs of letting up.
The dog-headed man walked through the heavy rain, arriving beside a black sedan by the road.
The rear window of the black sedan lowered, revealing a refined and elegant woman.
The woman's eyebrows were like willow leaves, her eyes like a phoenix's.
However, on her beautiful face were two parallel, hideous knife scars.
The scars ran from her hairline, across her left eyelid, and extended to her cheek, almost spanning half her face, a truly shocking sight.
"Morena."
The dog-headed man bent down, looking at the woman inside the car.
Morena raised her eyes: "A-Quan, what did he say?"
"Moro asked you to give him one day."
The dog-headed man replied truthfully.
Morena lowered her gaze, seemingly sensing something.
The dog-headed man waited for Morena's response, allowing the heavy rain to lash against his body.
After a while.
Morena habitually reached up to touch the scars on her cheek.
"Forget it."
She murmured softly.
The dog-headed man was slightly startled.
Morena lowered her hand, her gaze passing over the dog-headed man and directed towards the antique shop.
"A-Quan, do you know... there's something about little Moro that I truly dislike."
"What?"
The dog-headed man asked in response.
Morena's eyes were deep and dark, and her tone gradually turned cold.
"A bottom line."
"..."
The dog-headed man didn't know what to say.
Morena said indifferently: "My people cannot have such a thing."
The dog-headed man understood Morena's meaning. For a moment, he thought of trying to persuade her, but then held back and instead asked:
"Morena, the Phantom Troupe is tracking someone, and many gangs have been affected and massacred. It would be best to notify Moro..."
"No need."
Morena withdrew her gaze. "This is his own choice."
"Understood."
The dog-headed man sighed softly in his heart, then recited the name Moro had helped choose for the Nen ability.
Love Etude...
Upon hearing the name, a ripple appeared in Morena's eyes. Indeed, it wasn't complete enough...
Even if she could sense little Moro's loyalty in a deep kiss, if their 'goals' were fundamentally different, it was meaningless.
"Let's go."
Morena slightly lowered her head. Although she couldn't get the desired feedback, she had also discovered a flaw in her ability.
A-Quan looked at Morena, discerning a hint of wistfulness in her tone...
(End of Chapter)
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