Chapter 154: The Blasphemer Roy x Meeting the Sandworm Again x The Army of Division Commanders
Gods... Cockroaches...
Roy read silently, a phrase surfacing unbidden in his mind: And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God said let all sins fall into darkness, and there was Hell...
If God decides humanity's life, death, and reincarnation based on whim, then... who decides God's?
[Because among us "cockroaches," as the eras change, a small group of "non-believers" and "blasphemers" always emerges. Lacking reverence in their hearts...]
[Unable to provide "Faith" as nourishment for the Gods, they are naturally unwelcome. However...]
[Humans, being highly intelligent creatures, provide exceptionally high "Faith" value when they worship devoutly. Thus... the Gods, forced to consider their human followers, didn't exterminate these "blasphemers" entirely. Instead, they banished these "faithless" and "disrespectful" heretics to the Lower World...]
[As far as I know, there are at least seven other places like the [Lake Mobius Islands] on the Dark Continent... exile zones designated for "heretics" by the Seven Great True Gods...]
[This is the premise—]
Whoosh~ The afternoon sun shone through the clean glass window onto the boy. Roy's heart surged like the tide. He had gained his first general understanding of the unknown Dark Continent.
First, there really were [Gods] on that continent. Whether based on "Stats" or "Rules," they held immense [Authority]...
Second, it was a "Land of Faith." It was foreseeable that there must be human kingdoms worshipping these so-called "Seven Great True Gods"...
Third, because they were despised, there would be "Gatekeepers," "Calamities," "Magical Beasts," and so on... preventing these banished "blasphemers" of the Lower World from returning to the Dark Continent...
Roy stared blankly at the "Preface." After a moment, he rubbed the back of his hand. If... all humans living on the Lake Mobius Islands are descendants of "heretics" or "blasphemers," then... what about someone like me, directly cursed by a [God]?
Will I be discovered the moment I land and become wanted across the entire Dark Continent?
His mood grew heavy. Roy realized he had oversimplified things. To kill a God, he might first have to overcome the Divine Kingdom He built. In other words... he wouldn't be facing just one person, but an entire nation!
In the original story, even the Ant King, a B+ Rank creature with millions in Potential Aura, had to succumb to the "Poor Man's Rose," a nuclear bomb built by nations like the V5... First blown to the brink of death, then poisoned to death even after reviving by consuming Shaiapouf and Youpi... It proved one thing—
Unless personal power rose to a level that commanded absolute awe and reverence, it would be... worthless before a "collective" organized as a nation, especially a Divine Kingdom with a [Deity] and "Divine Power"!
So, the question is... what did Grandpa Zzigg do back then to make a [God] attack him across Lake Mobius?
Roy thought of the "Gaseous Lifeform Ai," of his yet-unborn brother Alluka and Nanika. Frowning, he turned the page and continued reading. A hand-drawn map met his eyes...
[Map of the West Continent]
The map marked nearly a hundred regions, large and small... some were nations... some were forests... some were seas. Roy noticed at a glance that the West Continent was dominated by forests and seas. The territories belonging to [Human Kingdoms] seemed to make up less than twenty percent of the continent.
Meaning, compared to [Humans], the Dark Continent was generally more suited for "Magical Beasts," "Rare Beasts," "Phantom Beasts," and all sorts of incredible "Calamities." And... Roy surprisingly discovered...
Grandpa Zzigg had circled these forests and seas far from human kingdoms with a red pen, adding a note...
[The world of man belongs to humans; the world of beasts belongs to beasts. Where there are no humans, the tentacles of [God] cannot reach.]
So... it seems "Faith" is crucial to [Gods]. Where "Faith" cannot reach, even a [God] can do little...
Roy focused on those forests and seas. His gaze drifted to the bottom left corner. Between two nations named the [Duchy of Samir] and the [Kingdom of Hoyn], south of a forest, he found... the landing point where Netero, Linne, and Grandpa Zzigg, supported by the Kukanyu Kingdom, had searched for "Trinaqua" years ago...
The territory where the Sandworm—[The Great Devourer]—once roamed—[Uzuki Great Forest]!
That thing suppressed me so hard I couldn't even lift my head just with its Ren. I wonder what rank of creature it is. The [Magical Beast Encyclopedia] needs to be expanded... The boy rubbed his temples, glanced at the sky, and temporarily closed the Record of the West Continent. He decided to go explore Grandpa Zzigg's memory himself.
After all, he had promised to teach Gotoh the "Breathing Style" that evening. Time was tight; he couldn't delay.
But before that... The boy pushed back his chair and stood up, taking off his pajamas and walking into the bathroom... to absorb the accumulated "Life Energy" first.
[Notification: "Physique" +71]
[Current "Physique": 242.8 → 313.8]
The familiar pain struck... When "adding points" became routine, it didn't hurt as much. At least not like the first time, when he almost passed out from the pain.
Yesterday's "old body" withered and decayed; today's "new body" was reborn in fire... In less than a minute, the boy emerged. His height didn't seem to have increased much, but the tight, sculpted muscles didn't lie.
Roy crossed his arms and stretched towards the sky, rotating his waist, moving his body, gradually adapting to his current physical strength. He put on a training suit. The previously well-fitting suit was noticeably tighter again, straining at the seams. It looked like... he needed to change clothes again.
"Better get a larger size."
That way, he wouldn't have to change clothes frequently after adding points next time... Roy planned to tell Gotoh this evening. He opened the door and walked out...
Tap... tap...
Footsteps echoed in the mottled, age-worn corridor of the Zoldyck castle...
The boy walked towards the basement, bathed in sunlight. At one point, he turned his head toward the garden... After the intensive repairs by the butler team, Silva was strolling with Kikyo as usual. Her belly was huge; she was due in two months.
Two months... When that tuft of silver hair appeared, the next heir of the Zoldyck family would be decided.
"So fast..." Roy extended a hand, catching a falling leaf as it spiraled down. Last year, he was worried about his "Physique" stagnating; now, he was rushing about for a bigger worry... the "Curse."
Unknowingly, he had stopped caring much about "heir" or "family head"...
At that moment, Silva sensed something and glanced at Roy.
"Caw!"
With a thought from the boy, the Golden Crow spread its wings, bursting from the top of his head. It opened its beak and spat a stream of fire, burning the leaf in Roy's palm to ash...
As if complaining that he hadn't been called for the good food at lunch.
Heaven have mercy... I was drained of Nen then, I didn't have the energy. Please forgive me.
Roy smiled and smoothed the golden tuft on Goldie's head. The fat crow pecked him in retaliation, then settled back down on his head as usual.
Silva watched quietly. Seeing the boy and the bird laughing together, disappearing around the corner... He snapped back to reality as his sleeve was tugged. It was Kikyo calling him.
"This one will definitely have silver hair," the woman said.
Silva withdrew his gaze, giving a noncommittal hum. This was the five hundred and sixty-fourth time she had said this to him since showing.
In silence, he supported her and walked forward...
3:00 PM. The sun slanted westward.
"Young Master..."
"Young Master..."
Not seen for a month, One-Eye and Scarface guarded the basement door. Seeing Roy approach, they bowed in greeting.
"Long time no see." Roy smiled.
"Long time no see." Scarface and One-Eye opened the door for the boy, revealing the deep, silent tunnel behind it.
Since learning that [Re: Game of the Dead] connected to the real Dark Continent, Roy felt a surge of emotion upon seeing Zzigg again. He stood silently at the door for a moment, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.
Scarface and One-Eye bowed him in. The footsteps faded into the tunnel... They exchanged a look and closed the door once Roy was out of sight.
"The Young Master has changed."
"He's gotten stronger... and also... I can't quite describe it..."
"He seems to have something on his mind."
"Having something on his mind means he's grown up, matured..."
"Like Master Zzigg?"
"No... he's not the Master... but the Master seems to like him very much..."
A few whispered sentences drifted away on the wind...
Roy walked through the tunnel, treading on the faint yellow light, and arrived slowly at the airtight door. He glanced at the chrysanthemums out of the corner of his eye. The early spring chrysanthemums had withered, no longer brilliant as they were in late autumn. He took a deep breath, raised his hand, and knocked. Knock... knock...
"Grandpa Zzigg, I've come to see you."
Whoosh.
The airtight door swung open. A thick tentacle shot out, wrapped around Roy, and dragged him inside...
At the same time, the panel notification sounded in Roy's ear as expected...
[Magical Beast Encyclopedia... Recording...]
[Demonic Eye: B-Rank "Rare Beast"]
[Aura Output: 177,851/1,000,000 (Note: Benchmark is Chimera Ant. Elite Squadron Leader D, Division Commander C, Royal Guard B, Ant King B+)]
[Potential Aura: 177,851/1,000,000 (Note: This is an artificially modified "Demonic Eye." Growth potential exhausted. Suspected to be used as a "memory" carrier, "original consciousness" obliterated)]
No doubt... it's Grandpa Zzigg's doing. Roy suddenly remembered what Zeno had told him... that Zzigg's "Nen Beast," the "Biscuit Soldier," had brought the Demonic Eye home. His mind wavered, his consciousness went black, and when he came to...
He was beside Grandpa Zzigg again, seeing the young Netero and Linne in profile...
"ROAR!" The towering Sandworm erupted from the ground, its unparalleled Ren sweeping in all directions... Roy looked past the group. Before him, towering trees intertwined to form a lush forest. Behind him, waves crashed against reefs, spraying countless drops of water...
Correct. This was the landing point where his grandfather, Netero, and Linne had first set foot on the Dark Continent years ago—the South Coast of the Uzuki Great Forest!
"What are you spacing out for, kid?"
"Get down!"
The familiar warning came...
Unlike before, this time, Roy chose... to stand!
"No... I want to see this monster in full!"
[Magical Beast Encyclopedia... Expanding...]
The boy rejected Zzigg's suggestion. With a thought, he gathered his aura in front of him, forming a sturdy shield wrapped in "purple magnetic energy"... Zzigg, with his silver hair standing on end like a hedgehog—unlike Silva's smooth locks, resembling the soon-to-be-born Killua—looked over in surprise. He hadn't expected...
This unknown boy beside him could proficiently use the advanced Nen technique—Ken.
He muttered to himself, "Whose kid is this? Got some talent."
Bang... bang... bang... Flying sand and rocks... The Sandworm's Ren became a wind, destroying heaven and earth... scraping the ground, destroying ships... trees, sampans, and rudders constantly crashing over...
This time, relying on the bonus of nearly "300 points" in physique, Roy glanced at his aura quantity...
[Aura Output: D+ (6874/10000 → 9825/10000)]
[Potential Aura: C- (1542/100000 → 22580/100000)]
It had increased many times over since he left for the Hunter Exam!
"Hoho... good kid, standing pretty straight..." Netero was next to Zzigg, and on the other side was Linne.
Both looked at Roy in surprise. One had a Buddha's light in front of him, the other a large iron pot... looking far more relaxed than Roy...
Young Linne wore two pigtails and a red Lolita-style dress. She conjured a spatula, bonk, smashing a piece of sampan flying at her, and turned to Roy. "Boy, what's your name? Which faction do you belong to?"
Young, and proficient in Ken. A talent. He might be of some help in exploring the Dark Continent...
"Roy." Roy blocked a flying rock with his shield, offering no further information.
According to the intel Netero revealed in the Milsy Wetlands, the group was separated upon landing, clearly encountering something... uncontrollable!
Speak of the devil. The towering Sandworm stirred the wind and clouds. Looking down, it noticed a few "little bugs" still standing firm...
Seemingly unimpressed by the destruction it had caused...
In a rage... it roared at the sky!
Its massive body shook, shedding countless scales. As they hit the ground, they transformed into lice more than three times the size of a human. Their abdominal legs wriggled, forming an endless army of lice, charging straight for the group...
Roy's scalp tingled. A message flashed on the panel, entering his mind...
[Magical Beast Encyclopedia... Recording...]
[Frenzied Louse: C-Rank Magical Beast]
[Aura Output: C- (2451/100,000)]
[Potential Aura: C (14280/100,000)]
[Note: Parasite. Strength varies significantly depending on the host. As they feed on the "host's" Nen, they form a symbiotic relationship and are often driven by the host...]
Summary...
Rushing towards Roy and the others was... an army of "Frenzied Lice," each at the level of an Ant Squadron Leader!
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