On the surveillance screens, the reactions varied wildly.
Babimyna stood perfectly still in his Ferris wheel cabin, hands behind his back, posture rigid. Military discipline. He looked like he could stand there for hours without moving.
Dago and his crew had no such composure. Some sat slumped against the walls, faces pale. Others kicked at the Nen script on the floor, frustrated and panicking.
Alain pressed the intercom button. "Stop kicking. If you break it, you're paying for repairs."
"Hey! What the hell is going on?!" Dago's voice crackled through the speaker. "Let us out!"
"What did you do to us?!"
"Why are we forced into Zetsu without using it ourselves?!"
Their shouts overlapped, distorted by the cheap speakers. It wasn't hard to understand why they'd lost their composure. Being forced into Zetsu was bad enough when you chose it. But passive Zetsu? That was nightmare fuel. Even ordinary people had a thin layer of aura protecting them, naturally flowing through their bodies. In Zetsu, there was nothing. Zero defense. They were more fragile than civilians. One good hit would kill them.
Babimyna, still standing at attention, glanced at the surveillance camera in the corner of his cabin.
Alain ignored the complaints. He held the intercom button down, speaking calmly. "You're aware that rumors about King Wangu's treasure have been circulating recently. Treasure hunters keep showing up on this island, chasing half-true stories. But as you've seen, there's no treasure here. Just ruins. And I'd prefer not to be disturbed constantly."
He paused, letting that sink in. "You're all Nen users. You understand why the contents of that tomb can't be made public, right?"
Another pause. "So. After I count to three, your phones and any devices with storage will be automatically formatted."
He released the button.
On the screens, Dago and his crew looked stunned. Then furious. Then resigned. They started yelling at the cameras, silently cursing since Alain had cut the audio.
Alain turned to Menchi, Liam, and Shizuku. "You should delete the footage on your phones too."
"Already planning on it," Menchi said.
"Or," Alain added, "you can use the materials I've prepared. Photos of the ruins that don't involve Nen. Should be enough to satisfy your employer."
"Works for me," Liam said. "But there's a problem."
"What?"
"I don't have a phone."
Alain burst out laughing. "That's easy to fix. Our company has a mobile development division. It's rare to meet someone Haku likes, so I'll give each of you the latest model. On the house."
A free phone. Even Menchi, who wasn't exactly hurting for money, looked pleased.
She glanced at Shizuku, who was staring at Alain with clear curiosity.
"What's King Wangu's treasure?" Shizuku asked.
Alain leaned back in his office chair, fingers steepled. "King Wangu Hui Guo Rou, who ruled four hundred to three hundred years ago. The mainstream historical narrative says he nearly unified the entire Azian Continent. A legendary conqueror."
He paused. "But according to the research Ging and I conducted, Wangu Hui Guo Rou almost unified all six known continents."
Liam, whose thoughts were still on the Dark Continent, barely reacted. Shizuku's expression didn't change. Menchi's jaw dropped.
"Oh," Alain added casually, "when I say 'almost,' I mean he planned to. Specifically."
Menchi groaned. "You scared me! So it was just ambition?"
Alain shook his head. "Not just ambition. Based on fragments we found in various ruins, Wangu Hui Guo Rou was fully prepared. He could've launched his campaign at any time. Ging said that if he had acted, success was inevitable. In other words, if history had gone differently, we'd all be Kakin citizens right now."
Menchi struggled for words. "That's... really..."
"Distant," Liam finished. "Too far back to feel real. Just an exaggerated history lesson."
"Then why didn't he do it?" Shizuku asked.
Alain spread his hands. "No idea. All we know is that he gave up at the last moment."
"Is that why he locked himself in a tomb and wrote crazy nonsense on the walls?" Liam asked.
"Possibly."
Liam glanced at the surveillance screens. Dago and his crew looked furious and defeated in equal measure.
"Is this really necessary?!"
Dago and the others stumbled out of the Ferris wheel cabins one by one, eyes bloodshot, voices hoarse. They wanted to yell. They settled for muttering curses under their breath.
Liam, Shizuku, and Menchi arrived just as the last cabin emptied.
"He already sent you the prepared materials, right?" Menchi said, waving her phone. "We got them too. It's enough to complete the mission."
"This isn't about materials!" one of Dago's crew snapped. "We had personal data on those phones! He formatted everything!"
"It's too much," another muttered.
Liam laughed. He couldn't help it. They wanted to curse Alain out but couldn't bring themselves to do it. Even ignoring his status as a Two-Star Relic Hunter, one of the elite in the Hunter Association, his position as one of the world's richest men was enough to crush them. Complaining about a capitalist with that much power? Pointless.
Babimyna, by contrast, looked unbothered. He studied Liam and the others. "Where were you?"
Since they hadn't appeared in the Ferris wheel, there was clearly another exit.
"Oh, Alain was kind enough to chat with us," Liam said breezily. "Talked about Hunter Association history. Ancient stuff. The good old days, you know."
Menchi frowned. Technically, Liam wasn't lying. But somehow, it felt like he was.
"Stop complaining and go find Slohe," Liam said, grinning. "Let's collect our pay. Shizuku, let's go."
"Calling it 'pay' sounds so crude," Dago muttered.
"Hunters don't get paid, we get compensated," another said weakly.
They followed Liam and the others anyway, defeated and tired. Babimyna lingered, glancing back at the tower.
Behind the top-floor window, Alain stood with a wine glass. He raised it in a silent toast.
Babimyna turned and walked away, expression cold.
Alain took a sip of wine, swirling the glass gently.
Why did Ging think Wangu Hui Guo Rou's plan would've succeeded?
Because the king had planned to use Kakin's national resources to universally teach Nen. Create an invincible army of Nen users. An unstoppable empire.
Kakin was already a major power. With the military technology of three to four hundred years ago, if Wangu Hui Guo Rou had succeeded in making Nen universal, world domination would've been inevitable.
But at the critical moment, the king gave up. Destroyed most of his records. Went mad in his later years.
That was the part Alain couldn't understand, even after years of exploring ruins with Ging.
"What's there to understand?"
Ging, barely in his early twenties at the time, had said it dismissively. "He couldn't universalize Nen the way he wanted. Simple as that."
"That's it?" Alain, who hadn't yet founded Blanchett Company, had been skeptical.
"That's it."
"But why? Why can't Nen be made universal?"
Ging glared at him. "If you can't figure it out, stop thinking about it."
"Teacher." Alain just looked at him.
Ging avoided the question, staring at the distant horizon. "The answer is simple. And boring. So I don't want to say it."
He looked back, his scarf fluttering in the sea breeze. "Alain. I think anyone with the same vision would reach the same boring answer on their own."
What kind of king was Wangu Hui Guo Rou? If even Ging admitted the plan could've worked, why did he stop?
Liam walked toward Slohe's residence, turning the question over in his mind. The "adequate preparations" the king had made four hundred years ago were obviously about large-scale Nen education.
But Nen couldn't be universal.
Why?
The answer was obvious if you thought about it. Liam had read the manga. He knew.
Nen awakening killed people. Not everyone. But enough. Opening your aura nodes wasn't a gentle process. It was violent. Dangerous. Most people didn't have the talent, the constitution, or the willpower to survive it. They'd die during initiation, or shortly after, unable to maintain Ten properly and bleeding aura until their bodies gave out.
And even if you survived awakening, Nen made you a weapon. A population of Nen users was a population of walking bombs. Conflict would escalate. Murder would become easier. Society would collapse under the weight of superpowered individuals with no oversight.
Wangu Hui Guo Rou had probably realized this. The mortality rate, the social collapse, the impossibility of control. His grand plan wasn't just impractical.
It was suicide.
Liam smiled grimly. So the ancient king locked himself in a tomb and went insane because he figured out Nen was too dangerous to share.
What a boring answer.
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