Humans as a species—
Were especially prone to developing twisted desires.
And from the foundation of "pleasure," they went on to create all manner of ways to satisfy those twisted desires.
By unspoken agreement, they called such behavior revelry.
Torture and murder, cannibalism...
Such things were everywhere in the corners of the Hunter x Hunter world where sunlight could not reach.
Some people did them in secret, while others had an overwhelming urge to share.
And with the success of the information revolution, as comprehensive communication infrastructure was established around the world and mobile phones and computers grew increasingly advanced,
People could use the internet as a platform for real-time communication and interaction across vast distances.
Thus, gray areas of the internet that could not stand the light emerged, providing platforms for those with twisted urges to share and display their acts.
The video Argo had found came from one such website dedicated to sharing acts of torture and murder.
This video all but confirmed Moro's suspicions.
If he had not happened to run into Molena after crossing over...
Without any ability to resist, he might have ended up in an even worse state than the person in the video.
But what truly angered him was that the person behind this "menu" intended to wipe them all out.
A surge of fury rose within Moro.
If he had not exploited the restriction mechanism of Deceptive Flying Stars—
With his current level of Nen ability mastery, how could he possibly have taken out a sniper a thousand meters away?
And if he had not relied on the tactics devised around the flying stars, how could he have smoothly killed the Nen user beneath him despite being at a disadvantage due to his Nen ability being countered?
If there had been even the slightest deviation along the road of fate, he might not have lived long enough to answer Argo's call.
That fact made him immensely grateful that he had initially chosen to focus his Emission-type development on Manipulation rather than Enhancement.
If he had focused on pure Emission-type attack power, he would never have had any room to maneuver in the early stages...
Much less been able to use Manipulation to avoid ability counters and secure victory through tactical application.
After this battle, and with another enemy now added to the list, Moro became even more certain that he needed to follow the path between Emission and Manipulation to the end.
After all, Emission Enhancement was far too straightforward. It only had one direction—boosting power—and left no room for anything else.
If he could develop safely into the middle or even later stages, then Emission Enhancement would naturally be more aggressive.
Conversely, if he could not safely get through the early stages, Emission Enhancement would lack the flexibility that was extraordinarily important to Moro personally.
That was precisely why it did not suit his personality or way of thinking.
And once the flying stars' ability system was complete, he could use the experience gained in this area to derive abilities involving mobility.
That was something Emission Enhancement found comparatively difficult to accomplish.
Besides, as for Emission Enhancement's advantage in raw power, he could fully make up for it through Flying Star Swallow Return's double-power mechanism.
In short, take it slow.
The road had to be walked one step at a time, and meals had to be eaten one bite at a time.
With Nen abilities, the greatest taboos were rushing recklessly ahead and taking things for granted...
Like building blocks, he needed to gradually refine it and carefully choose every step.
Then, on that basis, he had to make the fullest possible use of Growth Rings' leveling ability.
Moro's thoughts drifted outward before gradually drawing back in as time passed.
He lowered his gaze to the back of his hand—
Lv.5
He had killed two people, yet his level had risen from Lv.2 to Lv.5.
Because he had leveled up by defeating stronger opponents, Moro could clearly feel the increase in both his manifested aura and potential aura.
"Looks like leveling efficiency is directly related to the target's strength."
This result of leveling up by defeating stronger opponents was both understandable and unexpected.
That was why his previous plan to forcibly open Nen had ended in failure.
And the Nen user beneath him was considerably stronger than the earlier one who had used throwing knives, whether in manifested aura or the completeness of his Nen ability.
That was why he had obtained the result of leveling up by defeating a stronger opponent.
Moro raised a hand and lightly pressed on the Growth Rings tattoo.
It was the capital that allowed him to ignore innate factors such as talent and continue onward with unwavering determination.
Suppressing the roiling emotions in his heart, Moro picked up his phone again. After hesitating for a moment, he still chose not to delete the deeply disturbing video. Instead, he dialed Argo's number again.
By the time the call connected, Moro had already risen to his feet.
Facing the evening wind blowing across the plains, he said, "Argo, I need to dispose of some trash now. As for the information on the other man, Clyde, please organize it into text and send it directly to me."
"No problem."
Argo's voice from the other end had grown somewhat low.
To investigate this matter, she had watched quite a few videos saturated with cruelty.
After a brief pause, Argo said as calmly as she could, "There's also progress on the Phantom Troupe bounty notice. I'll compile that and send it to you too. But there's something I need to make clear first."
"Go ahead. I'm listening."
"Big spender, when it comes to intelligence work related to the Phantom Troupe, even if I investigate deeply, I probably don't need to worry too much about my safety. Those people operate differently from normal people. They don't seem opposed to someone specifically buying intelligence to hunt them down. But the mafia is different..."
Argo's tone gradually revealed wariness, something she had not displayed when she took on the Phantom Troupe job.
"The mafia holds grudges over the smallest slight, and their methods for dealing with enemies are even more brutal. They kill family and friends along with them, then post videos of the corpses' horrific condition online. You can think I'm scared if you want, but when it comes to the mafia, I won't investigate any further."
"..."
Moro fell silent for a moment, with no intention of forcing her.
"All right. Do what you can."
He answered, then hung up.
After putting away his phone, Moro bent down and picked up the corpse, preparing to dispose of it.
After all, a corpse could reveal information.
An experienced Nen user might be able to glean information from a corpse, such as its Nen attribute or certain characteristics of its ability.
Though Moro did not think any of Nolan's subordinates could compare to a seasoned Nen user like Biscuit.
Still, destroying a corpse and erasing evidence was always a good habit.
Carrying the corpse over to the sedan engulfed in roaring flames, Moro suddenly thought of something.
What if the corpse was wearing a real-time camera, a listening device, or something similar...
"I overlooked that..."
Moro frowned, tossed the corpse onto the ground, and carefully inspected it.
After a thorough search, he found no devices such as listening equipment.
Moro breathed a sigh of relief and reminded himself to be more careful in the future.
The main reason was that Argo's call had come right after he killed the enemy.
So he had simply sat on the corpse while speaking with Argo, without immediately considering the possibility that it might have been carrying a listening device.
If his conversation with Argo had been monitored...
Leaving aside anything else, Argo would likely be in trouble.
Moro gave a slight shake of his head, tossed the corpse into the flames, then went to find the sniper's corpse and disposed of it as well.
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