Mistaken Identity x Moonlight Assassination

"Benjamin's aura output is probably around Lv40..."

Retreating into the forest, Moro immediately turned around and quickened his pace away from the lake.

The Nen users he had encountered after his rebirth, and the changes in aura output with each level-up, had given Moro a relatively clear understanding of "levels."

Using his own aura output as a reference, he estimated Benjamin's level to be around 40.

Experienced Nen masters had their own ways of assessing an opponent's strength.

Some would use mission ratings to initially determine an opponent's level, while others used the most direct numbers, or in-game monster classes...

Everyone had their own methods.

But the commonality among all these methods was that the person doing the assessing possessed rich experience.

And what Moro lacked most right now was experience. The only reason he could arrive at an assessment was because his Growth Rings had quantified his aura output level.

With his own level data as a reference, he naturally had a general direction for his assessment.

Moro's assessment of Benjamin was Lv.40. As for how accurate it was, he wasn't sure, but he was certain that Benjamin's aura output was a level higher than his own.

Although the strength of aura output couldn't completely represent a Nen user's actual combat power...

It was the most basic information that could be directly observed with the naked eye before the two sides made formal contact.

In Moro's eyes, Benjamin had appeared calm and collected since his arrival, yet the Nen flowing from him showed no signs of relaxation, remaining in a powerful state.

It was precisely this point that led Moro to label Benjamin as hypocritical.

Not wanting to cause any unnecessary trouble, he naturally had no intention of lingering there.

However, the knife Benjamin had used to trim the corners did make Moro quite envious.

It wasn't entirely because of the Nen entwined around the red crystal blade, but also due to the sharpness of the boning knife itself.

Moro was certain that Benjamin hadn't used "En" to enhance the knife's strength when he was trimming the corners.

This was enough to prove the quality of that boning knife.

Moro mused that if he had the chance in the future, he might carry a small knife of similar quality.

Creak—

Stepping on the damp rotten leaves and branches, Moro moved through the forest, glancing back at the lake occasionally.

Due to Benjamin's sudden appearance, he hadn't been able to choose his path carefully at the time and had to retreat into the forest based on the situation.

Now that he was in the woods, he might as well continue along this route.

After walking quickly for several kilometers, as the tree density increased, the visibility in the forest decreased noticeably, making it difficult to see even a sliver of moonlight.

Moro took a flashlight from his backpack and continued forward.

He had to admit that the appearance of a few poachers had solved his most pressing problem, allowing him to not worry about survival supplies and various practical tools for the time being.

One shouldn't underestimate the wilderness areas of this world, especially regions like forests, mountains, grasslands, and deserts that humans hadn't fully explored, as they were all filled with a sense of danger.

Not to mention the various surrealistic magical beasts and animals, even an inconspicuous poisonous insect could silently take your life.

In such an environment, professional knowledge was often more important than Nen abilities.

Moro had virtually no experience with wilderness survival; after transmigrating, he had spent a great deal of time managing his antique shop.

After dealing with clients who could lie with a straight face, he had once thought that these creatures with a human facade were the ones who truly knew how to devour a person whole.

But now, in the dense forest filled with wildness, he genuinely worried about being devoured.

The flashlight beam pierced the nearby darkness, only to be swallowed by the darkness in the distance.

The information his eyes and ears received was nothing but dimness, dampness, and dead silence...

It was uncomfortable.

Moro felt the need to get out of this forest as quickly as possible, and unconsciously, he kept picking up the pace.

While moving, he maintained constant vigilance and intermittently released "En" to better scan his surroundings.

His En radius was only twenty meters.

Furthermore, En was a technique that consumed a lot of stamina and energy, and it couldn't be used continuously at high intensity.

By using it intermittently, Moro could keep his stamina and mental state stable.

After an unknown amount of time, moonlight finally began to appear through the gaps in the tree canopy, indicating that the tree density was decreasing.

Bathed in the silvery light, Moro sped up again, and soon saw more light through the sparse trees ahead, as well as the faintly visible surface of the lake.

Then, Moro involuntarily slowed his pace and turned off his flashlight.

"Did I circle back?"

Seeing the lake again, Moro wondered if he was lost and had circled back to the original lake.

To confirm the situation, Moro deactivated his aura nodes and entered "Zetsu" state. Then, he treaded as lightly as possible, slowly approaching the edge of the forest.

In the distance, the silver light shimmered on the lake's surface, and as the evening breeze blew, the water rippled with faint light.

Moro stood behind a tree, observing the situation on the shore. He didn't see Benjamin or the poachers' bodies, and the surrounding terrain and vegetation were different.

This is another lake.

Moro relaxed slightly, then his expression immediately tensed again.

On the shore of the lake stood a weeping willow tree covered in vines. It was about two hundred meters from his current position.

Moro stared intently at the tree, its vines trailing down, and could clearly see seven figures standing motionless, as well as one person sitting against the trunk.

"That's..."

His pupils contracted slightly as Moro slowly approached along the edge of the woods.

As he got closer, he could see the Nen radiating from the seven people even more clearly.

Very weak aura...

And the seven people looked somewhat strange, like lifeless puppets.

This was Moro's first impression.

Just as his gaze dropped, preparing to observe the person in front of the tree, he suddenly noticed something unusual.

Under the moonlight, the seven people standing still had no shadows.

Seeing this, Moro's expression changed. In an instant, he confirmed the identity of the person in front of the tree.

The phenomenon of shadowless manipulation could only be the Manipulator controlling the passengers on the airship.

Moro focused his gaze on the Nen flowing like water around the Manipulator, and thinking of the opponent's targeted actions, a hint of killing intent flashed through his mind.

He hadn't expected that the route he was forced to take to avoid Benjamin would lead him to encounter the same Manipulator who had also crash-landed in the forest.

It was truly a twist of fate.

Moro suppressed the urge to get closer, as it might expose him.

Although the current distance exceeded a hundred meters, he could utilize the return mechanism of Flying Star.

"Deceptive Flying Stars"

After finding the right angle, Moro could no longer suppress the urge to act. He immediately channeled his Nen and shot two Flying Stars behind him.

A short while later.

The returning Flying Stars passed by Moro, who had just made a dodging motion, and sliced through the moonlight towards the figures in front of the weeping willow tree.

In front of the tree.

Kawahara's eyes snapped open, and he looked in the direction from which the Flying Stars were coming. A glint reflected in his agitated eyes.

At almost the exact same moment.

The seven puppet humans, who had been instilled with protection directives, all rushed in front of Kawahara, forming a thick wall that blocked the path of the Flying Stars.

The next moment.

The two massive Flying Stars collided with the human wall and exploded.

With a violent roar, the human wall, which had been tightly packed, was literally torn apart.

In an instant, severed limbs mixed with a large amount of blood scattered across the grass, and the thick blood crushed swathes of grass blades.

Kawahara looked at the scattered remains, his pupils trembling.

The puppet humans he had worked so hard to protect were so easily shattered.

As his emotions surged, Kawahara stood up and drew his sword. His gaze swept towards the woods, but he quickly calmed down.

As his emotions were brought under control, the Nen emanating from him gradually became less chaotic and scattered.

"Hmm?"

Then, Kawahara saw Moro step out from the woods. He was surprised at first, but then his expression turned cold: "I haven't come to find you yet, and you've come to my doorstep..."

"Ninja?"

Moro walked bathed in moonlight, and upon clearly seeing Kawahara's attire, he felt a sense of surprise.

A black hood and mask, and a black, cinched, tight-fitting outfit...

These were clothes with a distinct ninja style.

But this individual, who appeared to be of ninja origin, was wielding a samurai sword.

Facing Moro's appraising gaze, Kawahara no longer intended to speak. He held his sword horizontally in front of him, adopting an offensive stance.

The activation prerequisite for Shadow's End was the presence of ordinary people in the vicinity to serve as material for the ability.

In a place like this, there were naturally no ordinary people, which meant Kawahara couldn't use the Shadow's End ability.

Often, the inherent restrictions of a Nen ability would bring trouble to a Nen user.

Although one could consciously avoid them, or even utilize the restrictions to their advantage...

There would always be times of bad luck, or situations where enemies with prior knowledge set traps.

Since Kawahara couldn't use his ability, he had to revert to a more primitive combat style.

However, a question flashed through his mind: why had the opponent's aura suddenly become so much stronger?

He suppressed this doubt the moment it arose, pouring all his focus into the mission assigned by the leader.

The next second.

Kawahara pushed off the ground and charged, his body like a sharp blade aimed at Moro, who stood before the forest.

The fate of the puppet human wall gave him a basic understanding of Moro's Nen Bullet lethality and directly determined Moro's Nen type.

In this situation, closing the distance to engage in close-quarters combat became Kawahara's only option.

Just as Kawahara had closed more than half the distance, he suddenly noticed a fluorescent green Nen Bullet the size of a basketball flying out from the forest behind Moro.

"How can this be...?"

Kawahara was slightly startled, then watched as the Nen Bullet passed through Moro's body and flew towards him.

In a flash, Kawahara swung his blade at the Nen Bullet.

Using the solidified Nen wrapped around his blade, he managed to slash the Nen Bullet in half.

Bang bang!

The split Nen Bullets landed on the lake, creating two columns of water that shot skyward.

Meanwhile, Moro, taking advantage of Kawahara's action of slashing the Flying Star, remained stationary with his hands held out, not caring about Nen consumption, and continuously released one Flying Star after another.

Now at level 18, he saw a direct improvement in the release speed of his Nen Bullets, and as long as he controlled the size of the Flying Stars, he could consistently perform rapid-fire attacks.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh...!

In just one second, over ten Flying Stars were shot towards Kawahara, who was dozens of meters away.

"The power and size have decreased!"

Seeing over ten Flying Stars, each only the size of an egg, attacking him consecutively, Kawahara's eyes sharpened, but instead of retreating, he charged forward, meeting the barrage of Flying Stars.

Ching—

Kawahara swung his blade, slicing through the first two Flying Stars that came at him. Then, while charging, he shifted his position to dodge the remaining ones.

However, as he charged, Moro did not stop releasing his ability. Flying Stars continuously shot from his palms.

But the density and power of these Flying Stars were not enough to stop Kawahara in his tracks; they only slowed his charge.

30 meters, 20 meters...

The distance between them was steadily shrinking.

But Moro, being an Emitter, didn't seem to care about Kawahara's approach.

Based on common perception, Emitters are supposed to avoid being cornered by enemies.

In reality, this statement isn't absolute.

Take Franklin from the Phantom Troupe as an example; he is a Nen user who can unleash 100% of his Emitter and Enhancer abilities.

Therefore, even without the advantage of distance, he could hold his own against Nobunaga, also an Enhancer, in close-quarters combat.

Moro was different from Franklin; his Nen type leaned more towards a balance between Emitter and Manipulation.

However, when forced into close-quarters combat...

While Moro couldn't engage with the 100% Enhancer conversion rate for offense and defense like Franklin, he had a way to cope, which was...

The return of the Flying Stars.

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty...

Among the many Flying Stars, some were shattered by Kawahara's blade, but more were dodged.

And the Flying Stars that Kawahara dodged froze in mid-air behind him like stars.

Moro could freely adjust the return time of the Flying Stars between 1 to 5 seconds.

This meant that if he set the return time for all Flying Stars in decreasing order, he could achieve the phenomenon of all Flying Stars returning simultaneously after 5 seconds.

And the excessive number of Flying Stars causing their power to disperse...

This unavoidable mechanism within the Nen ability system could be compensated for through Vow and Restriction.

Under the Restriction of "Self-harm," the Flying Stars would gain double their power upon returning, which to some extent crushed the mechanism of power dispersal.

This was the unique characteristic of the Flying Stars.

And it was the direct change Moro experienced in combat after reaching level 18.

When the set time arrived, Kawahara finally entered the ten-meter range.

At this moment, the numerous Flying Stars suspended behind Kawahara all returned at an even faster speed, shooting towards Kawahara, who was on the same straight line as Moro.

In an instant, it was like a meteor shower!

By the time Kawahara realized something was wrong, it was already too late.

This was because Kawahara did not know the ability mechanism that "returning Flying Stars would harm Moro," and Moro had never stopped releasing them.

This was a pincer attack!

More critically, being unable to use Nen abilities for Manipulation was like a beast that had lost its claws and fangs.

Kawahara stopped abruptly, and as he turned back, his pupils reflected a starry sky.

Puff, puff, puff, puff...

Nen Bullets, like shooting stars, struck Kawahara one after another.

The continuous impact made Kawahara's body shake back and forth, and in just a moment, his entire body was covered in wounds.

"I... I actually failed..."

After the meteor shower, Kawahara fell to the ground, full of unwillingness.

Moro looked at Kawahara, who was lying on the ground, and instinctively moved to fire a few more Flying Stars, but upon seeing the change in the tattoo on the back of his hand, he stopped himself from delivering the finishing blow.

Lv.18 → Lv.22

He had leveled up by 4 in one go