When Xiang Nan returned to find Manman, she happened to be in a fierce fight with the player called Old Biao, their battle already nearing its climax.
But it was clearly drawing to a close. Old Biao's suit had been shredded into strips, and his entire body was covered in knife wounds.
Sensing Xiang Nan's arrival, Old Biao's expression changed. He realized that his two companions were likely already dead.
Consequently, his fighting style shifted from stalling for time to attempting an escape. Yet for Manman—who had awakened her second personality and had not received a signal that her danger was over—she would not let any nearby living being go free.
Two minutes later, Old Biao was eventually stabbed in the back by Manman's dagger. But just as she pinned him to the ground, preparing to stab again, Xiang Nan suddenly appeared behind her. He grabbed her wrist, preventing the kill.
"Leave one alive. I need him."
Xiang Nan smiled.
However, his words obviously had no effect on Manman in her berserk state. The strength in the girl's arm kept surging, as though trying to shake him off. But with her physical strength alone, there was no way to overpower Xiang Nan. On top of that, Xiang Nan released a Nen aura of warning. At last he managed to restrain her.
"An operation‑type ability, huh…"
He noticed the bizarre transformation on Manman's body: the white dress she was wearing had partly turned into some sort of female professional uniform. Coupled with the scuffle just now, that half–formal–half–dress state looked extremely out of place.
Apparently…this was Old Biao's Nen ability.
"Let's go. Their people should come soon to retrieve the bodies. There are quite a few of them. We'll head back to the hotel, then return to Heaven's Arena."
With that, Xiang Nan grabbed the unconscious middle‑aged man and strode away. Manman sat there in a daze for a moment, then trailed after him once he was nearly a hundred meters ahead.
…
A few hours later, Xiang Nan treated and bandaged both their wounds.
Their injuries were simultaneously "light" and "serious." But, to Xiang Nan's medical expertise, neither was an issue.
After sending Manman off, he began his "routine interrogation"—in other words, opening up Old Biao's head. In just a few minutes, via Old Biao's testimony, Xiang Nan had grasped the rough situation of that player group.
Altogether, the organization had twenty‑two players. Most of them were at the "Extinction 5" level, with a few at Extinction 4. Any newcomer players wanting to move freely in Heaven's Arena had only one choice: to serve that group. Even then, there was a threshold requirement.
One had to have sufficient "value"—for instance, a notable Nen ability or having collected some world/ system knowledge since arriving in the "Hunter x Hunter" world, or an identity that brought them certain advantages (including one's profession in the previous life). Otherwise, they would be quietly eliminated by this group, thereby keeping the overall elimination rate in check.
Xiang Nan also obtained an important detail:
According to Old Biao, that group's boss once revealed a rumor: if the players' elimination rate decreases, the difficulty of the Extinction Tournaments would also fall.
This made Xiang Nan dubious. The survival rate was linked to mission difficulty? That clearly ran contrary to the system's ultimate purpose.
The system wanted to shape a "godlike" existence from the vast field of players—to quickly produce a designated representative binding with this world.
If the elimination rate became too low and each wave of entrants had numerous survivors, the server would soon be "overcrowded," prematurely entering a late‑game state. That would lead to a drop in the overall standard of players. Even if someone managed to finish all ten rounds, their strength might not be top‑notch.
"So, once the server is jammed with players, the system is bound to carry out a massive purge. But before that happens, the environment for the participants remains relatively mild.
Although for newbie players it may not matter, for the more advanced it's beneficial. That is, the mission difficulty lowers, allowing them to build up strength more easily.
Then eventually, the system's major purge kills them all in one swoop. If the system were operating in its normal 'raising a swarm of parasites' pattern, we wouldn't see such an artificially low elimination rate; the highest‑quality survivors would be left."
"But maybe there are other rules at work I don't know about. Otherwise, this slow suicide approach is too foolish."
"They might be stalling for time to do something else…like acquiring enough power in the meantime to avert that 'death' outcome?"
Xiang Nan mused silently. As for the "Star" boss, Old Biao had never met him. The leader remained mysterious, only giving commands by phone.
Only two people in the group—someone named Fuke and someone named Ruitali—had laid eyes on him. At least at the Extinction 6 or even Extinction 7 level. After all, the top fighter in the Hunter x Hunter world is at Extinction 8, so it's plausible.
One certain fact: that man is not in Heaven's Arena. He already passed the newbie protection period. Another few key bits of intel: the Stars' boss is apparently a "Floor Master" in the Arena. While climbing the tower, he even came into contact with a storyline character: Chrollo from the Phantom Troupe. Meanwhile, there's a dangerously famous figure in Heaven's Arena at the moment—Hisoka.
Yes, that bastard is currently above the 200th floor. Also, according to the story, Kastro had just been defeated by Hisoka. Right now, Kastro still hasn't awakened Nen. This final detail let Xiang Nan fully confirm the current timeline: about two years remain until the main story begins.
"Kastro trains for two years, then re‑challenges Hisoka. In the manga, that's after the main characters pass the Hunter Exam. Gon and Killua appear in Heaven's Arena around two months after the exam, then spend about five months there. Eventually, in July or so, Gon fights Hisoka. I recall it's roughly that timeframe."
Xiang Nan narrowed his eyes. Though he tried memorizing the original story, it'd been quite a while. He wasn't fully certain. Because references to major storyline details are usually system‑blocked, but at higher levels, the block is weaker. Also, player‑to‑player communications aren't jammed.
Hence Xiang Nan asked another question:
"It's certain that above the 200th floor, there's no system 'protection' for advanced players. Many terrifying characters are lurking. For them, an unprotected player is easy pickings." This includes certain storyline heavies like the Phantom Troupe, Illumi, and so on.
From Old Biao's confession:
"We can sense them, and they can sense us, in a way. Even if we're still in the newbie protective phase, story characters of that caliber can perceive small hints and find us interesting—like Hisoka. Word has it, at least two or three mid/high‑tier players have already died to him. He probably knows quite a bit about us by now. He's not leaving Heaven's Arena just yet because he's waiting to hunt newly unprotected players… This is no secret among older players."
"Hisoka…"
Xiang Nan recited the name.
Indeed, flipping through the entire storyline, the character that most unsettles him is not the main protagonists or the official Hunters. By comprehensive unpredictability, three stand out:
Chrollo, the Phantom Troupe's brains,
Illumi Zoldyck, cold and merciless,
And that insane deviant fruit‑enthusiast: Hisoka.
All three share one trait: they act purely by personal rules, not bound by any external moral or legal constraints, and can be dangerously capricious. Others, even the mightiest, do have some kind of baseline principle. These three simply do not.
"Ugh…this is going to be tricky."
~~~
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