When Su Wu saw all these suspicious, criminal-looking people, he had only one thought: This is in the bag. 💥👺 🎉👻
They might be candidates just like him, planning to take the 286th Hunter Exam.
Every member of the escort team looked vicious, their whole bodies radiating menace. Some even had bloodstains on their clothes and weapons.
When a kid like Su Wu, whose style clashed with everyone else's, joined the group, they showed no displeasure or surprise.
After all, everyone had seen what happened not long ago...
But neither the Gordo Desert nor the small town on its edge belonged to any country. The area was full of all sorts of shady people, and aside from a few unwritten rules, anything went.
Nobody would stop them, so gang members and bandits often showed up in the local bars, inns, and brothels. Sometimes, after drinking too much, they'd cause trouble.
That was why caravans traveling here needed escort teams.
After seeing what Su Wu could do, no one would underestimate him because of his appearance.
Even if... his style was anything but serious. He was busy playing with the camels and didn't look like a proper guard at all. He made everyone else look like they were escorting some young master.
The group packed up quickly. Su Wu sat on a camel, which carried the caravan's luggage and waterskins.
His weight was no burden to the camel.
The others mounted their camels too. The group soon left town and entered the desert, their long caravan heading toward the sun before disappearing into the blowing sand.
The caravan trudged slowly across the desert. Su Wu sat on his camel, swaying with its movements. He wore a long white robe wrapped around him, which was soft rather than rough.
It was all because of the scorching sunlight and... the sand blowing everywhere.
Even opening his mouth risked getting a mouthful of sand.
The gritty grains stung as they scraped across his cheeks.
Su Wu could use Nen and Cursed Energy to shield his entire body, but neither was as convenient as Limitless.
"My Limitless..." Su Wu longed for the Limitless skill more than ever, but he was still forty percent short of the required compatibility.
Without the system unlocking it, he couldn't use the skill even though he understood how it worked.
It was Gojo Satoru's exclusive skill, after all.
If he could learn skills on his own, he wouldn't need to follow the system's instructions and grind out so-called compatibility.
Was the system planning to raise his compatibility only after someone stabbed him in the neck, just like Gojo Satoru?
Nen ability was the only thing that belonged to him, but... he still didn't have much control over it.
The Reverse Cursed Technique he could obtain came from Sukuna, and he couldn't learn it on his own either.
As for Black Flash... the system hadn't counted it as a skill. Maybe that was because it came down to personal luck.
The system had already stated that it reserved the right to interpret everything, so there was no arguing with it.
With that thought, Su Wu continued training his Nen.
The caravan had been traveling across the desert for most of the day, and the horizon still seemed endless, when someone heard a faint cry.
"Crying in the desert? Could it be some kind of magical beast trying to lure people in?" someone from the escort team guessed.
"It's a human. From the looks of her, she's a little girl about my age." Su Wu lifted his eyes listlessly, his voice cool.
Of course, he was only talking about her appearance. As for who she really was...
She might fool everyone else, but she couldn't fool the Six Eyes. She was definitely no ordinary little girl.
She had even gone out of her way to disguise herself as an ordinary person, letting her aura slowly leak from the top of her head. There was no sign that she was using Nen.
But the Six Eyes didn't identify people by their appearance. They saw through the surface and perceived what lay beneath.
"A little girl?!" The people in the caravan were surprised. Only the leader reacted differently. He'd looked doubtful at first, but quickly put on an expression of surprise much like everyone else's.
"How could there be a little girl in the desert?" Everyone voiced the same question.
Su Wu yawned, his expression impassive.
Right. Surely nobody actually believed that a cute, helpless little girl would be waiting in the desert for someone to come to her rescue?
They might as well believe that a whole bunch of Medusas lived in the desert.
"Could you send someone to take a look?" the merchant leading the caravan asked the escort team.
By convention, when something might be dangerous, the employer wasn't expected to face it personally. Otherwise, why hire an escort team?
They were there for moments like this.
The escort team had dozens of members. They glanced at each other, exchanging looks, but no one wanted to be the one to step forward and risk getting hurt.
Watching them, Su Wu had a thought—
Could this be part of the test too?
A test of kindness? Courage? Responsibility? Or vigilance?
If it was a test, what was he supposed to do?
As he considered it, Su Wu climbed down from his camel. "I'll go take a look," he said casually.
"Hey, kid, what are you...?" The leader eyed the white-haired boy suspiciously.
The boy's cool expression and indifferent, piercing gaze seemed to say, I'm going to kill her, rather than I'll go see what's happening.
"We should check in case it's a trap, but someone has to go. What if..." Su Wu paused, his tone turning teasing.
"There really is a helpless little girl waiting for us to come save her?" A faint smile curved his lips.
He didn't look like he pitied some unknown girl. He looked more like he was... making fun of something.
"We'll go with you." Three more guards climbed down from their camels and horses and joined Su Wu.
Perhaps they were genuinely kindhearted, or perhaps they shared Su Wu's suspicions and thought this might be part of the test.
Su Wu didn't mind either way. He walked toward the sound, deliberately slowing his pace.
He wanted to let whoever was pretending to be a frail little girl keep up the act a bit longer.
If she liked pretending to be a weepy, helpless little girl, then she could cry to her heart's content.
As time passed, the girl's cries grew louder, until they turned hoarse.
When he heard her start coughing between sobs, Su Wu was finally satisfied and picked up his deliberately slow pace.
In just a few strides, he reached the source of the sound.
A girl of about twelve or thirteen, with blonde hair and big eyes, wearing a red cape and a little dress, sat in the sand with her hands covering her face as she cried.
She'd probably run out of tears, which was why she had to cover her face with her hands.
Su Wu was inwardly laughing at the show, but outwardly he asked, "Who are you? Why are you here?"
"I... I'm Lu Qi..."
"My father brought me here and told me to wait for them, and then they left..." the blonde girl said slowly, her voice choked with tears.
The three adults exchanged glances, piecing together a few things from the little girl's words.
If her story was true, then her parents had abandoned her.
They'd deliberately left their child in the Gordo Desert, probably so she would disappear for good.
At night, the magical beasts came out to hunt. A helpless little girl would obviously be their first target.
"What do we do?" The three adults instinctively looked to the white-haired boy. They blurted out the question before realizing something was wrong.
They'd actually taken it for granted that this boy was in charge!
As if she understood that the white-haired boy had the final say, the blonde girl sprang to her feet, crying as she stretched out her arms to hug him around the waist. "Please, I don't want to stay here. The magical beasts will come out at night and eat me..."
The next second, her expression froze.
"Stay away from me." The white-haired boy frowned. As she tried to lunge at him, he instantly retreated several meters, putting distance between them. At the same time, an invisible slash fell on top of her head.
Something light and flimsy seemed to drop into the sand.
Biscuit, the blonde girl, looked down slowly and saw half of her braid lying on the ground.
She only had one pigtail left.
This...
Uncute brat!!!
Su Wu: catlike sidestep √
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