What Are You Waiting For?

His confident judgment, his swift response to the slightest hint.

It was really irritating...

It was like accidentally showing a corner of your underwear, only for someone to guess its exact style.

And the other party was just a kid.

But that was precisely the problem—

What exactly had happened to this kid?

A strong sense of incongruity rose within Zazan, followed by a quietly surfacing Killing Intent.

The mission and his duties were certainly important, but he could not stand sudden developments filled with "strangeness and the unknown."

It was irritating, and unsettling.

Should he kill him...?

As Zazan fell silent, he glanced at Moro's bleeding knee and frowned.

This "blood pack" had high priority. He would observe for now.

After all, he had already cut him open. That was barely enough to satisfy the activation conditions for his ability; he merely had to "wait" a little longer.

Then he would patiently wait a few more minutes.

Once the Data Flying Knife's ability took effect, he could directly control Moro.

In that brief span of time, Zazan had felt Killing Intent, suppressed it, and finally decided on a course of action.

"People say never more than three times. I think that applies here."

Zazan reined in his emotions and casually fiddled with the flying knife in his hand, his voice growing colder. "So don't think about running. That way, you might still have a chance to live."

"Mm. People also say that listening to advice keeps you well-fed. I think that applies here too."

Moro stared intently at the fluctuations of Zazan's aura and said calmly, "So I wasn't planning to run. That way, you might still have a chance to catch me."

"..."

Zazan's mouth twitched.

If not for the constraints of his so-called duty, and the need to wait in order to fulfill his ability's conditions...

The flying knife in his left hand would have already been headed for Moro. Why would he still be standing here trading barbs?

Ever since jumping out of the truck, Moro had been observing Zazan's aura.

Certain thoughts and emotions sometimes revealed themselves through fluctuations in aura.

Naturally, skilled people would not allow their aura to expose such information.

But Zazan clearly had not reached that level.

Moro had seen the change in his Killing Intent just now with perfect clarity.

That meant Zazan's operational principle of "do not harm the cargo" could be adjusted according to circumstances.

Thus, Moro believed Zazan's statement was sincere and completely abandoned the idea of exploiting Zazan's reservations to find a chance to escape.

After all, being pursued by someone holding back and being pursued by someone not holding back were risks on entirely different levels.

He could only... solve this head-on.

Moro deliberately spread his manifested aura evenly across his entire body.

Though he had opened his aura nodes in haste, his adaptation was not slow. The synchronization between his body and aura was steadily locking into place.

At the current rate, he should not have to worry about an unexpected "delay" in the synchronization and feedback between his aura and body.

This is important... My margin for error is very low.

Moro kept his eyes on Zazan as he thought to himself.

Both sides had reason to "wait," and so the rugged mountain road beside the cargo truck suddenly became somewhat quiet.

Moro was waiting for the coordination between his body and aura to adapt, thereby reducing the chance of mistakes.

After seizing the initiative, Zazan preferred to resolve the matter without bloodshed.

Thus, amid this somewhat bizarre atmosphere, neither side even tried to break the silence, maintaining their strange mutual understanding.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

As time passed, both Moro's and Zazan's mindsets began to change.

Zazan believed he held the upper hand and the initiative, so when he saw Moro staying still, he did not waste much thought on it.

All he had to do was wait for his ability to activate. Then he could resolve everything immediately.

Moro was different. He had more to consider.

In terms of the obvious advantages in strength, the other party was undoubtedly stronger.

Yet after the flying knife attack, Moro had realized that his opponent did not seem pressed for time.

That was the problem.

I'm waiting until I have the strength to fight. So what is he waiting for?

Moro's gaze swept over the left hand gripping the flying knife.

Left-handed people had a high probability of being Conjuration specialists, but that was only something to consider.

Another characteristic of Conjuration specialists was that they unconsciously gathered more aura in their dominant hand.

But the accuracy of that judgment depended on whether the Conjuration specialist had not yet used his ability.

When Moro jumped out of the truck and immediately turned back to stay on guard, the other party had already been holding a flying knife.

And judging from the bulging outline beneath his jacket, he most likely had several flying knives hidden inside.

Also, after getting out of the truck, Moro had specifically checked the situation inside. That flying knife was still there...

While it could not be ruled out that there were multiple conjured items, based on the information currently available, the possibility that his flying knives were conjured items was very low.

That also allowed Moro to rule out the possibility that the conjured items possessed special abilities, meaning he could temporarily stop considering the risks involved—such as using wounds as a trigger to achieve some desired ability effect.

Judging from the results of his analysis, although things leaned toward the more optimistic possibility...

Throwing himself into the treacherous antique trade had not only given Moro the opportunity to develop the ability Deceptive Flying Stars, but had also taught him something.

When two sides stood opposed over shared interests, any thought or goal the other party revealed through words and actions was inevitably an outcome his own side did not want to see.

So even though Moro could not obtain more useful intelligence from the information at hand, he realized that the benefit of continuing to wait would most likely be lower than the risk.

With the current level of synchronization, I should be able to skip the step of laying a solid foundation and use Deceptive Flying Stars smoothly, right?

I should... be able to, right?

Moro was not actually one hundred percent certain, but when the wind was against him, where would he find a chance to test it?

As his thoughts turned and he made his decision, Moro first locked onto the handgun lying on the ground closer to him, then gathered aura in his right palm with his current level of aura.

A faint fluorescent green glow emerged softly, like a seed sprouting.

Beside the cargo truck.

A flash of shock passed through Zazan's eyes.

A Nen ability...?!

He had only just opened his aura nodes...!

In an instant, alarm bells blared in Zazan's mind, and the shock in his eyes was replaced by Killing Intent.

At that moment, Moro successfully used Deceptive Flying Stars.

A fluorescent green Nen Bullet the size of a marble shot from his palm, flying straight toward Zazan's chest.

Uncertain of Moro's specific ability, Zazan saw that the flying star was not particularly fast and sidestepped it.

At the same time.

Moro picked up the handgun from the ground, aimed it at Zazan, and pulled the trigger repeatedly.

Bang, bang, bang...

Eleven bullets flew at Zazan in succession.

Zazan's gaze turned cold. He leaped sideways again, avoiding the incoming bullets.

"P922. Twelve rounds."

After dodging the bullets, Zazan slightly raised his flying knife. As he slowly walked toward Moro, he said coldly, "You fired eleven shots just now. Did you deliberately save one because you thought you could turn this around? But what I'm more curious about is..."

At this point, the Killing Intent in Zazan's eyes grew even stronger.

"You're very familiar with firearms, and you have a Nen ability too... So who exactly are you?!"

Bang!

Moro answered Zazan with the final bullet in his gun.

But at the same moment the gunshot rang out, Zazan threw his flying knife.

The bullet carrying scorching energy and the flying knife wreathed in aura crossed paths in midair, each speeding toward its target.

Zazan remained expressionless. If it was only one bullet, he was confident he could withstand it with his body. And he was confident the thrown flying knife would kill Moro.

The situation had already surpassed all expectations. He no longer cared how he would explain this to his superiors. With cold eyes, he watched the flying knife streak toward Moro's life while mobilizing his aura to block the bullet.

Thud—

But before he could see the flying knife pierce Moro's body, pain suddenly erupted in his back. The ensuing impact instantly clouded his consciousness, and a large amount of blood sprayed from his mouth.

"W-what...?"

The sudden attack greatly shook Zazan's mind even as his consciousness blurred.

On the other side.

The tip of the aura-wreathed flying knife had already pierced Moro's skin.

Yet it could advance no further. In an instant, it transformed into something like smoke and slowly dispersed into the air.

"Haa."

With the dust settled, Moro lowered the arm holding the gun.

Even now, he could not determine Zazan's Nen ability type.

But he was fortunate that the person he faced at this moment was someone like Zazan.

If it had been a Nen user with a different personality, he would probably have had to die one more time.