The Real Trump Card

"ROAR!!!!!!!!!"

Accompanied by an earth-shaking roar, the Red Dragon appeared in physical form, opened its jaws, and spewed a blazing mass of Fire of Life.

Under the scorching flames, Goz, who had suffered a fatal wound, instantly Curled Up into a ball. His entire body was enveloped in dense aura, shrinking smaller and smaller until he finally became an egg-sized "cocoon."

The Red Dragon showed no courtesy, swallowing the cocoon in a single bite. Its body immediately expanded by another two sizes, beginning to resemble a true Dragon Aspect in both bearing and majesty.

But it quickly dismissed its physical form and vanished once more before the referee and countless spectators, returning to an invisible state beyond the Naked Eye.

"Wh... what happened? Goz was actually eaten by a monster!"

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Did you all see that?"

"That was a dragon just now, right?"

"That's right! It was definitely a dragon! A red Great Dragon!"

"Unbelievable! How did he do that?"

"That was spectacular! I want to see it again!"

"Tomorrow! Allen has another match tomorrow! And one the day after tomorrow! Hurry up and buy tickets!"

"Right, right, right! Hurry and buy tickets! This time, I'm betting on him to win!"

For a moment, the spectators' enthusiasm was completely ignited as they eagerly discussed what had just happened.

For them, simply seeing the Red Dragon devour Goz had already made the expensive ticket worth it.

What was more, both men had put on an excellent display during the brief fight, and the final blow had pushed the atmosphere to its peak.

"Th... the winner is Allen!"

Amid enormous cheers, the referee finally Recovered from his shock and loudly announced the result of the match.

After securing his first victory, Allen quickly returned the Sword of Ravenholdt to his backpack, misleading everyone into believing it was a weapon created by his Conjuration ability. As he walked back, he checked the rewards from the battle.

Perhaps because Goz had used Restraints and Vows at the end to greatly strengthen his Nen abilities, Allen had received a full eight thousand Honor Points, along with one Talent Point.

Most importantly, the Red Dragon had finally swallowed its first cocoon. It could now steadily produce aura for its own consumption, so Allen no longer had to worry that once the stolen aura ran out, it would revert to its initial state.

Simply put, the aura obtained through contracts was like cash: once spent, it was gone.

The cocoons formed by devouring Nen users, on the other hand, were like making investments that generated returns at regular intervals.

Generally speaking, the stronger the devoured Nen user had been, the more aura the cocoon could provide each day.

In addition, the cocoon stored the devoured person's lifespan and Life Essence, which Allen could absorb to continuously strengthen himself.

At the same time, if all conditions were met, every Nen ability the cocoon's owner had possessed in life would be fully preserved after being swallowed by the Red Dragon. Allen could use them as he pleased and even develop them further beyond their original owner's limits.

However, if all conditions had not been fulfilled, he would not obtain the abilities with one hundred percent certainty. Instead, he would have to draw from five cards created by Nen, and for every restriction condition completed, one blank card would be removed from the draw.

To a certain extent, this Nen ability that symbolized plunder was his true trump card, possessing nearly limitless potential for growth.

When he stepped off the arena and returned to the contestants' passageway, Bodrō was the first to rush over and offer his congratulations. "Congratulations on such a splendid victory!"

"Thanks. Now I just hope the other two haven't been scared out of their wits and decided to forfeit." As he spoke, Allen turned and glanced at Rikudō and Rikudō, who were spying from a dark corner.

The two no longer had the arrogant appearance they had shown in the hallway. Their faces were now filled with fear and despair.

They knew that in terms of raw strength, they were not much weaker than Goz. At the end, Goz had even erupted with Nen more than ten times stronger than usual under the boost of Vow and Restriction.

But what did that change?

In the end, he had not even touched the opponent's clothes before a sword pierced through his chest, after which the terrifying Nen Beast turned him into a cocoon and swallowed him.

If running away would not have meant permanently losing the Nen abilities they had paid such a tremendous price to obtain, Rikudō and Rikudō would absolutely have chosen to flee without fighting.

After all, people like them had long since cast honor, dignity, shame, and courage aside. Their minds were filled only with how to exploit loopholes in the rules and become a Floor Master.

"Hmph! I suggest you don't place too much hope in rats accustomed to living in the Sewers."

Bodrō made no attempt to conceal the contempt in his heart, displaying it openly on his face.

As a Martial Artist, he had his own pride. During the Hunter Exam, he had even been unwilling to fight children like Killua and Gon, believing there was no glory in winning such a match. And when facing a powerful opponent like Hisoka, he had never backed down.

"Well, I still hope they'll find the courage to stand before me. No matter what, one more opponent is much better than one fewer. Come on, let's return to our room. As a reward for your diligent training lately, I've prepared a little game for you today. I hope you can complete it within the allotted time."

After saying that, Allen ignored the prying gazes from the shadows and led Bodrō away, disappearing into the end of the tunnel.

In a sense, he had truly become famous after a single battle, so it was inevitable that he would attract the curiosity of the fighters on the two-hundredth floor.

In fact, there were quite a few registered Nen users on the two-hundredth floor of the Sky Arena—roughly three to four hundred. More than forty of them lived there permanently, making it nowhere near as empty as it appeared in the anime.

Quite the opposite!

Since everyone was a competitor, whenever a fighter displayed formidable strength, they would immediately become the focus of everyone else's attention.

There were also those who loved fighting strong opponents. They would take the opportunity to observe a target's true caliber, and once the time was right, they would approach with an invitation to battle. It carried a hint of making friends through martial arts.

It was just that here, "making friends through martial arts" often came at the cost of crippling injuries or even one's life.

But for Allen, the Sky Arena was the best hunting ground available at this stage.

He had already decided that once he was close to reaching ten victories, he would deliberately register against a few of the weakest opponents with no hunting value, then stand them up and take four consecutive losses to start over.

As for becoming a Floor Master, he did not care about it in the slightest.

Rather than waste valuable time and energy on something so meaningless, he would rather search the Hunter website for intelligence and information on wanted criminals ranked B or above, then work directly as a Bounty Hunter.

At the very least, According to the Association's rules, criminals captured by Hunters were generally handled by the Hunters themselves, whether that meant locking them up or using terms of exchange to make them work for them.

Allen's method of handling them was naturally to turn them all into cocoons and feed them to the Red Dragon.

In his eyes, talking about human rights, humanitarianism, or tolerance to a group of murderers was simply desecrating innocent victims and trampling on justice and the law.

Only death—death alone—was the final destination such people deserved.

What was more, with the Hunter Exam over, the Chimera Ant crisis would erupt around this time next year, and Meruem, the symbol of the personal combat power ceiling of the entire Hunter x Hunter anime, would be born as well.

If he did not possess enough strength by then, he feared he would not even be qualified to watch the battle.

PS: Please bookmark and recommend this new book. Many thanks.