Pampas: Huh?

Time flew by as Su Wu immersed himself in progress, until Pampas's sudden appearance made him dazedly realize he'd been in Meteor City for a while now.

He'd always been a study fanatic, often losing track of time while solving problems—back in the day, he'd grind from morning till midnight, only stopping when his family called him out.

The only headache was that everyone assumed he already knew Nen, so no one bothered to teach him, let alone show him how to use it.

Su Wu couldn't just tell them, "I really don't know Nen," because then how would he explain blasting his way from District 13 to District 1 by breaking doors, or pulling off that instant movement?

For now, he'd have to figure out Nen on his own. He'd heard that besides proper training, there were other methods—like learning through getting beaten up?

Maybe he could pick it up during training.

It should work similarly to Cursed Energy. Cursed Energy came from negative emotions; Nen was life energy.

When Pampas showed up, Su Wu had just finished a training session and was resting.

It was afternoon, but Meteor City's sky looked unchanged—no bloody sunset, only black smoke that seemed eternal.

Every day, massive amounts of trash were burned, sending thick smoke into the sky, so no matter when you looked up, the sky on Meteor City's outskirts always looked the same.

Gloomy, murky, as if even sunlight couldn't pierce that haze to reach this area.

The blond man suddenly appeared before Su Wu, who was sitting alone.

"It's been a while. How'd you end up like this?" His eyes carried a faint assessment and a hint of surprise.

It must be because he looked a bit ragged right now, Su Wu thought.

Every day, the bruises and wounds from training healed by the next day, which only made Sid's training methods harsher.

What started as adding weight once a month had changed to adding weight whenever Su Wu adapted to his current Weighted Rings.

By now, Su Wu had gone through six weight increases. He didn't know the exact load—every time, Sapp just touched the rings on his body, and the weight got heavier.

But the feeling of growing stronger step by step was just too wonderful, like when he used to compete in math contests, solving problems one by one, beating opponents one by one, claiming the top spot.

Thinking of that, a hint of pleasure crept into Su Wu's smile, and his tone was light: "Just daily exercise."

Daily exercise that left him like this?

Pampas looked at the boy's face, recalling their first meeting—that flawless appearance that left no room for criticism.

Even when he acted arrogant and off-putting, he was still so good-looking it made people involuntarily marvel at his natural advantage.

Now, with that grimy face barely recognizable, Pampas felt like calling it a waste of a gift.

That face was so stunning that even if Su Wu offered to sell himself for ten billion Geni, Pampas would buy him without hesitation.

Because he was confident he could sell that face for even more.

But seeing how hard Su Wu trained every day only made Pampas think—his initial choice was right.

This kid was bound to become a strong one in the future.

It wasn't for nothing that he'd deliberately held back the Vulture Gang, other Meteor City families, and the other elders to place the boy in his District 12.

"Where's Sid?" Pampas looked around but didn't spot him, so he asked Su Wu.

"Him..." The white-haired boy gave a slightly gleeful smile.

"Changing clothes at the Church," he said lightly.

"Changing clothes in broad daylight? What kind of mess did he get into?" Pampas headed toward the Church.

As he moved, the kids playing by the Church entrance spotted him.

"Lord Pampas, you're here to play with Lord Sid again!"

"Lord Pampas, I'm first this time!"

"Lord Pampas..."

The blond man seemed to have great prestige among the kids of District 12, who adored him.

The moment they saw him, they eagerly crowded around, chattering warmly.

Dirty, sweaty, dusty little kids surrounded Pampas in layers.

Pampas handled them with ease, responding to each one.

"Yeah, Sid and I are good friends."

"First place, huh? Guess I'll have to consider letting you join the Church." His smile was kind, never ignoring a single child's voice.

"But cutting your training short like this—watch out, you might get scolded." He pointed at the other priests around the Church, his tone gentle in warning.

The kids reluctantly left his side and resumed their interrupted training.

With no one blocking his way, Pampas strolled into the Church.

"Changing clothes in broad daylight—did you do something awful?" He knocked on a door, raising his voice with a teasing tone.

"I don't have time for anything else." Sid opened the door, his voice low.

"Just training—that brat got my clothes dirty." He'd changed into a sleeveless vest, the same style as the kids' but much larger, showing off his sharply defined muscles.

"You trained with him?" Pampas' tone lifted, as if he'd heard something funny.

What was going on? He had assumed Hill was training on his own—why would Sid be acting as his sparring partner?

"That kid was so weak before, Uvogin could stand still and let him hit him, and he couldn't even budge him. I just couldn't stand watching anymore..." Sid seemed to have endless things to say about Mist, but in the end, he only shared part of it.

Still, he couldn't suppress his burning curiosity, and he studied Pampas with probing eyes: "So I really can't figure it out—why did you let him join the Church back then? Is he really your son?"

The confusion in Pampas's eyes nearly materialized into a question mark.

Hill was so weak that even Sid couldn't stand watching?

Were they talking about the same person?

After all, this was someone who could detect his tailing and even injure his controlled puppet through his Nen from a distance.

What ordinary kid could pull off something like that? There's no way his strength could be called weak.

Since when did Sid's standards get so high?

"You're saying he's so weak you can't stand watching? Because he fought the Spiders before?" Pampas extracted the key point from Sid's words and asked in return.

"Yeah, just the day he arrived in District 12, Shalnark and Uvogin came by to deliver something, and he volunteered to fight Uvogin." Sid explained frankly.

"I see..." Pampas said thoughtfully.

First, there was no way the other party's strength was as weak as Sid's "can't stand watching" implied.

Second, him volunteering to fight Uvogin was also a bit strange.

Did he know about the Phantom Troupe's existence?

"Have you ever considered what would happen if he showed overwhelming strength, or if his ability was interesting enough, or even if he beat Uvogin?" As a smart man, Pampas looked at his not-so-smart friend Sid and asked patiently.

The Spiders were a notoriously troublesome existence.

"You mean he's hiding his strength? It didn't look that way to me..." Sid muttered, scratching his head in confusion.

After all, during training, he really hadn't shown any ability to fight back.

"...In short, he's really not as weak as you think." Pampas patted Sid on the shoulder and explained.