Probing x Awareness

The feared event has occurred.

What's more, it was a blatant act of aggression, completely disregarding the passengers' reactions and their lives.

The moment that aura erupted, Moro's first instinct was to head to the airship's cockpit to assess the situation.

Upon reaching the vicinity of the cockpit, he heard a colossal noise that could be heard throughout the entire airship.

Moro had no intention of investigating the cause of the massive sound, nor did he wish to be drawn into it.

He was only concerned with whether the airship could land safely.

However, through his "En," he realized that the airship's crew, including the captain, were likely under control.

This was probably the worst-case scenario.

"Sir, please return to your room immediately and await further instructions..."

Suddenly, an urgent female voice called out from the other side of the corridor.

Moro turned his head in the direction of the voice.

He saw a young woman in an air hostess uniform, walking quickly towards him with a look of anxiety on her face.

Moro's gaze quickly swept over the air hostess. She appeared normal, but...

He suddenly raised his hand, extending his index finger, and condensed a marble-sized, stable Nen orb at its tip.

Without waiting to see the air hostess's reaction, he flicked his finger abruptly. The white Nen orb shot towards her.

The very instant the Nen orb left Moro's fingertip, the air hostess's movements froze. She then tilted her head back slightly, rolling her eyes upward.

Seeing this, Moro narrowed his eyes.

The next moment.

The Nen orb flew past the air hostess's ear and struck the wall at the end of the corridor with a soft sound.

This was just an ordinary Nen orb, meant for testing...

While it could harm a normal person, it was unlikely to penetrate basic Nen defenses.

Moreover, Moro had no intention of hitting her from the start.

However, the air hostess's reaction surprised Moro greatly.

Thump!

The air hostess, still rolling her eyes, tilted and fell to the ground.

Moro, who had been observing the situation, keenly noticed that before she hit the ground, her shadow, illuminated by the lights, had vanished into thin air.

As her shadow disappeared, the air hostess's life force was extinguished, turning her into a corpse.

"Manipulation."

Moro instantly confirmed his earlier suspicion. His peripheral vision flickered towards the cockpit door not far away, then back to the corpse on the ground.

The ability that controlled the air hostess seemed to have some connection to shadows.

Furthermore, those who were controlled, both in their actions and the natural dissipation of their aura, showed no difference from normal people.

If not for the air hostess's almost instinctive reaction just now, he would have had to resort to the ruthless mindset of "better safe than sorry" to uncover her true nature.

However, it was precisely the air hostess's instinctive reaction that made Moro very curious.

The advantage of an Emitter ability user is usually to utilize the controlled person to do various things.

In other words, they don't need to care about the life or death of the controlled person.

Because apart from suggestive and contractual types of Manipulation abilities, other types, such as forced Manipulation, essentially strip the target of their life when exerting control.

Therefore, the situation just now felt strongly incongruous.

Why would someone, who didn't need to worry about the life or death of the controlled person, so decisively withdraw their ability just before an attack was about to land?

It was as if...

They were concerned about or feared a certain outcome?

For example, would damage inflicted on the controlled person be directly reflected back onto the ability user?

So, was it a type of Manipulation ability similar to soul invasion...

This type of ability could directly occupy the target's body, allowing for perfect disguise and fulfilling real-time demands for sensory feedback and speech functions.

Conversely, in terms of limitations, there might be the risk of "direct damage."

If this were the case, it could somewhat explain the situation just now.

To further confirm this hypothesis...

Moro suddenly condensed another Nen orb at his fingertip and flicked it.

Swish—

The small Nen orb hit the corpse's head with a soft thud.

A moment later.

Blood seeped from beneath the corpse's head.

"The ability has indeed been withdrawn."

Moro turned his gaze back to the cockpit door, thinking to himself: The attacker was targeting Kang Jae, but they sent the flight attendant to stop me... Was it to seize an opportunity to attack me, or simply to prevent me from entering the cockpit?

As he pondered, Moro released his En and walked towards the cockpit door.

Fortunately, he was an Emitter, which made it easier for him to learn applied techniques like "En," allowing it to play a crucial role at this moment.

The reason he had tested the flight attendant earlier was due to the commotion caused by the attacker, and because he had first used En to scout the situation inside the cockpit...

"Two people, still no reaction."

Moro broke the cockpit door's lock and pushed it open.

With a single glance, he saw two people in captain's uniforms standing before the airship's control console. They should be the captain and first officer of this airship.

Moro silently observed the captain and first officer, noticing a small amount of Nen aura surrounding their bodies.

Then, his gaze dropped to behind them.

Under the illumination of the cockpit lights, their shadows, which should have been there, were missing.

Tap, tap—

Moro shifted his steps, moving to the side of the cockpit.

To his arrival, the clearly controlled captain and first officer showed no reaction, as if they had become mere automatons following a script.

Moro stopped. From his angle, he could see the captain and first officer operating the airship's navigation as if on autopilot, their eyes showing only whites...

This was clearly the effect of an ability that controlled individuals through commands.

"Two operating modes?"

Moro stared at the two puppets in front of the airship's control console.

One was a soul invasion method that gained dominant control over the host's body, offering perfect disguise but seemingly carrying immense risk.

The other was turning a person into a puppet that acted according to commands, but the puppet's white eyes and the phenomenon of being shadowless directly exposed information.

"If they weren't showing themselves, it would be really hard for me to find them."

Moro frowned.

En was an excellent tracking technique, but it consumed a lot of mental and physical energy.

With a battle already underway on Kang Jae's side, it was unrealistic to use En to gradually search the airship for an Emitter ability user hiding somewhere.

If only he knew how to land the airship, things wouldn't be so complicated...

In a cabin on a lower deck.

A person was tied to a chair, in a deep coma.

Light cast down from above, stretching a long shadow onto the floor.

Suddenly.

A person emerged from the darkness, it was Kawahara.

"I've been detected..."

Kawahara's expression was grim.

If there hadn't been any unexpected developments, with his ability, he could have slowly gained control over all the ordinary people on the airship, turning the entire vessel into his domain, "Shadow's End."

Then, at the opportune moment, he could have activated the control switches one by one, capturing Moro in one fell swoop.

He never expected that two other groups would start fighting on the airship.

This unexpected turn of events had completely disrupted his plan, and moreover...

The target was sharp, possibly already aware of the effects of the "Shadow's End" ability.

The difficulty of capturing the target alive had undoubtedly increased.