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206 HxH: The Strongest Assassin
🕑 Added 2024-12-27 06:00:05 +0000 UTCThe dark atmosphere still blanketed the town, a foreboding tension lingering in the air.
Kaizen and his companions entered a small shop.
"Hello, what do you need?" the shopkeeper asked with a polite smile.
The three glanced at each other, silently turned around, and left.
"Guests, please come again," the shopkeeper called after them.
Back on the street, Kaizen stopped a passerby to ask for directions. The person patiently answered all of his questions, even enthusiastically describing the town's local delicacies and nearby tourist attractions. Despite Kaizen's efforts to draw out any peculiar reactions, none came.
Half a day later, Kaizen regrouped with Dominica and Wendy. They found themselves back at the same shop.
"Hello, what do you need?" the shopkeeper greeted once more with the same warm smile.
"Did you notice anything unusual?" Dominica asked, glancing between Kaizen and Wendy.
Wendy shook her head. "I visited several stores. All were operating normally. The shopkeepers were uniformly polite, no matter what I said—even when I complained or acted difficult."
Dominica frowned. "It's unsettling. People have their own personalities. It's unnatural for them to behave like programmed machines."
Kaizen reflected on his earlier encounters. Everyone he'd spoken to displayed the same unsettling uniformity, their demeanor reminding him of something.
"It's like the old area of Meteor City," Kaizen muttered. "The people there act cold and robotic, but even they show some humanity. Here, it's worse."
Dominica raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"The people here lack any emotional variation. It's as if they're completely disconnected from reality."
Kaizen turned to his companions. "Dominica, have you ever played video games?"
"No. Why?" Dominica's tone was curious but wary.
Kaizen shifted his attention to Wendy. "What about you?"
Wendy hesitated, glancing at Dominica before nodding. "A little. Why?"
Kaizen smirked. "Don't they remind you of NPCs from a game?"
Wendy froze, her expression shifting from confusion to realization. "Now that you mention it, yes! They're exactly like game NPCs. It's so obvious now."
"But they're real people," Dominica interjected. "This isn't some illusionary trap."
Kaizen stood abruptly. "Let's test this theory." He walked in and out of the shop repeatedly, prompting the shopkeeper to repeat the same phrases over and over.
"Guests, please come again."
"Hello, what do you need?"
The shopkeeper's words, expression, and tone never wavered. His demeanor remained unnervingly consistent, almost mechanical.
Dominica activated her En, her aura spreading outward to encompass the area. "These people are alive," she confirmed, "but they're behaving like puppets."
Wendy frowned. "If they're being controlled, why don't we see any signs of manipulation with Nen? Even your En hasn't revealed anything."
Kaizen leaned against the shop's doorway, his eyes narrowing in thought. "I've been thinking about that. It's not that we didn't see anything unusual. It's that we were looking at it the wrong way."
"What do you mean?" Dominica's voice sharpened.
Kaizen explained, "The entire town is steeped in a miasma of death. That overwhelming aura masks the smaller abnormalities. We've been trying to find black dots on a black canvas."
Dominica's eyes widened in understanding. "So the real issue isn't their behavior, but the environment."
Kaizen nodded. "Let's confirm it. We need to remove one of them from the town."
Dominica's gaze snapped to the shopkeeper. Without hesitation, she launched an attack. The shop collapsed with a deafening roar, dirt and debris scattering around them. The four figures—Kaizen, Dominica, Wendy, and the shopkeeper—stood amid the rubble.
The shopkeeper's expression didn't change, even as the walls crumbled. Dominica manipulated the earth with her Nen, trapping the shopkeeper in a cocoon of soil. Suddenly, a single strand of black hair emerged from the cocoon, extending outward like a sinister thread.
The moment the strand snapped, the shopkeeper's life force vanished entirely. His body crumpled to the ground, lifeless.
A voice echoed in Kaizen's mind, filled with rage and despair.
"Why? Why? Why?"
