Hunter's Notebook

"I'm... still alive?"

Maud opened his eyes and abruptly sat up, stunned to find himself lying on a crude wooden bed.

Before he had time to look around, a sudden stabbing pain struck his head.

Images covered in fine cracks spun rapidly through his mind like a revolving lantern.

Strange.

Clear.

Blurred.

Countless memories had become tangled together, seemingly triggering the stabbing pain in his head.

"I clearly had already been..."

Amid the pain, confusion filled Maud's eyes.

He clearly remembered that, during the incident in the Hunter Association's main hall, he had unfortunately been caught in the power of the Wish Machine from the Zoldyck Family.

Including him, even the protagonists of Hunter's World and many of the Hunter Association's powerful figures had failed to escape unscathed.

Before that unreasonable power, which seemed capable of breaking through the dimensional wall, he had done absolutely nothing and still been caught in the crossfire while lying down.

Almost in an instant, without even a chance to resist, his body had been twisted into a rope.

The change had come swiftly and suddenly, but the intense pain had remained, forming a shadow of death that shrouded Maud's thoughts.

In a daze, he could still faintly feel the tearing pain coming from his skin.

Only after a long while did the negative sensations brought by the shadow of death slowly disappear.

He was still alive.

That was enough.

Only then did Maud have the time to inspect his surroundings.

It was a wooden room measuring less than ten square meters, with a faint moldy smell permeating the air.

Visible cracks covered the wooden walls and even the floor.

The furnishings in the room were exceptionally sparse. Aside from the single bed Maud was lying on, there was only a wooden table and chair set without a single ornament, along with a mirror hanging on the wall.

A low-wattage incandescent bulb hung from the ceiling, providing the room with a limited light source.

Other than that, there was nothing else in the room—not even a window.

His gaze slowly swept over the dust-covered table and chairs before finally settling on the mirror beside them, which was coated in a thin layer of dust.

Reflected in the mirror was an unfamiliar black-haired boy.

The boy in the mirror appeared to be around fifteen or sixteen. His features could not be called handsome, but they were delicate and pleasing to the eye.

Blood-stained bandages were wrapped around the boy's forehead. His face was as pale as though he were ill, and he looked frail and delicate.

Maud stared blankly at the "self" in the mirror as the unfamiliar memories in his mind gradually became clear.

After briefly experiencing those unfamiliar memories, Maud endured the stabbing pain, and the uncertainty in his eyes grew increasingly pronounced.

"So that's how it is..."

He had transmigrated again.

And this time, it was not his body but his soul that had crossed over.

That was how he had survived.

Slowly exhaling, Maud was in no hurry to get out of bed and investigate the place he was in.

Instead, he closed his eyes and slowly accepted the memories remaining in this body, attempting to extract useful information from them.

After a long while, Maud opened his eyes. Fine beads of sweat had quietly appeared on his pale face.

"A Slave Ship and a pirate ship..."

Using his index finger to lightly wipe away the sweat on his cheek, Maud lowered his head and muttered to himself.

He had figured out this body's origins.

His predecessor had been born into a merchant family and had unfortunately been raided by pirates during a cargo run.

Aside from low-aged youths like his predecessor, all the adults aboard the merchant ship had been slaughtered by the pirates, including his predecessor's parents.

Afterward, his predecessor had been sold to a Slave Ship and locked in a room with a group of young captives. The floor was covered with dried grass.

A few days later, the Slave Ship suddenly came under attack, and a cannonball blasted open the room where his predecessor was being held.

The recent memories ended there.

After that...

Maud touched the bandages around his forehead. The wound did not hurt much.

He had no memory at all of how he had arrived in this room.

But having escaped disaster in this manner, Maud felt nothing but relief and joy.

"Pirates, pirates... Could this be the world of One Piece?"

Maud pondered.

He was somewhat uncertain.

But the only thing he could confirm at present was that everything would have to start over.

"If only my ability is still intact."

Maud thought silently.

As the thought arose, a thin black notebook suddenly appeared in his hand out of nowhere.

Two Chinese characters in standard regular script, outlined in silver patterns, appeared on the cover of the black notebook: Hunter.

Beneath the two characters were four blank parallel silver lines, while a quill without ink was tucked into the notebook's spine.

Staring at the black notebook and quill that had materialized, Maud's eyes widened.

He clearly had no Nen, yet his ability had activated.

And...

Maud looked at the blank spaces on the parallel silver lines.

There should originally have been four types of text reflecting his needs, but they had now been cleared.

Maud opened the notebook.

What met his eyes was still a complete blank.

Rustle—

He turned to the second page, then the third...

Still blank!

The original pages had recorded the results of his four years of low-key hunting in Hunter's World, but now everything was gone.

"Was it reset? No wonder I can't feel any 'buffs.'"

Although the results of his hunts had been erased by the reset, the fact that his ability remained was enough to make Maud ecstatic.

Hunter's Notebook was a growth-type ability Maud had painstakingly developed in the world of Hunter x Hunter, designed to maximize a transmigrator's information advantage and convert information into strength to the greatest extent possible.

Activating the ability required completing five steps:

Set the hunting requirements → find a hunting target → make hunting preparations → complete the hunt → harvest the results.

The first step was to record four different needs based on one's requirements on the silver lines. The four needs Maud had originally recorded were: Nen ability techniques, Heartbeat Listening, Latent Aura, and Manifest Aura.

But in the world of One Piece, those needs clearly would not work.

However, some needs could be shared between worlds.

For example, physical combat, swordsmanship, physical strength, experience with Devil Fruit abilities, and experience with Haki...

After recording the requirements, he only needed to write the target's name on the notebook page and form an image of the target in his mind to complete the second step: finding the hunting target.

The third step, preparing for the hunt, involved recording accurate information about every aspect of the hunting target's abilities.

The more detailed the recorded information, the richer the results he could harvest after personally killing the target.

With his ability still intact, he could grow at the fastest possible speed even if he had to start over.

Maud was excited, but he quickly calmed down.

He realized there was a problem.

Although Hunter's Notebook remained, he was not sure whether it would work in the current world.

If it did not, then all his excitement would have been for nothing.

Slowly closing Hunter's Notebook, Maud said to himself, "At least it's a good start. But for now, I still need to figure out the current situation as soon as possible."

The moment he finished speaking, a gunshot suddenly rang out outside.

Maud's eyes narrowed. He instinctively rolled off the bed and warily looked toward the tightly closed door.

The gunshots soon became increasingly dense, like fireworks repeatedly blooming in the distance, though they were still some distance away.

Having determined that the source of the gunshots was not inside the house but somewhere outside, Maud did not relax his guard. He subconsciously tightened his grip on Hunter's Notebook.

With his current body, if he encountered an emergency, he would only be meat on someone else's chopping block, entirely at their mercy.

The gunshots outside continued on and off for a full five minutes before gradually subsiding, and Maud stared at the door for more than five minutes as well.

The gunshots had given him a preliminary sense of the chaos in this world.

Clutching Hunter's Notebook tightly still failed to bring him the slightest sense of security.

Because Hunter's Notebook could now be said to be useless. Only after successfully completing a hunt could he obtain any tangible buffs.

Thud, thud—

Not long after the gunshots stopped, Maud heard footsteps approaching from outside the door. His pupils contracted slightly as he dismissed Hunter's Notebook.

He then quickly rose, lightened his steps, and pressed his back against the wall to the right of the door.

Without knowing what was happening, staying to one side of the door was actually more advantageous than crouching beside the empty wooden bed.

Soon, the footsteps drew near.

Maud tilted his head and stared intently to the right, holding his breath as he waited.

Creak—

The wooden door was pushed open, producing a harsh, grating sound.

But no one entered the room. Instead, a pitch-black gun barrel extended through the opening.

That gun barrel was aimed at Maud from a bizarre angle.

In an instant, Maud's heartbeat skipped.

With his body in its current state, one bullet would be enough to finish him.