A Bloody Start

After blasting through the gate to District 11, a dense barrage of gunfire greeted him head-on.

The Six Eyes could perceive the presence of Nen, so he could tell that most of those behind the gate were people without Nen abilities, with only a few possessing it, none of whom seemed particularly strong.

But every single one of them was holding a firearm.

If he could use Limitless, Su Wu wouldn't care about this at all, since bullets could never touch him while it was active—but he hadn't yet obtained Limitless or the Reverse Cursed Technique.

So he had to be careful to dodge; otherwise, if he took too many hits, he would die.

"Good, this makes it more fun. I don't like boring games either." The white-haired, blue-eyed youth curled his lips into a wild grin, the markings on his face adding a touch of sinister charm.

The Six Eyes could track the trajectory of the bullets, allowing him to evade them.

At first, he found the game of dodging somewhat amusing.

But as time dragged on, endless evasion only grew tiresome.

Unwilling to keep avoiding, the only alternative besides weathering the storm of bullets was—

To kill all the enemies holding guns.

But he needed to wait a little longer.

Almost there, his Cursed Energy hadn't fully recovered yet.

The white-haired figure moved nimbly through the dense hail of bullets, weaving through the storm of gunfire without a scratch.

The Six Eyes' three-hundred-and-sixty-degree field of vision let him avoid attacks coming from behind.

They were a very useful pair of eyes.

Except... they were exhausting.

The strain the Six Eyes placed on his brain was higher than he'd imagined—a splitting headache, like a saw diligently working inside his skull.

And the intermittent nosebleeds forced him to raise a sleeve every so often to wipe them away.

So annoying.

He bit his tongue, swallowing the blood that welled up, and when he tasted that sweet, coppery flavor, he sensed that his Cursed Energy was finally sufficient. The grin on his face grew even wilder as his hand shot up.

"Blue."

"Dismantle."

"Blue."

Without pausing, he unleashed two attacks in quick succession, instantly cutting down most of the surrounding attackers. Some, due to Blue's effect, didn't even leave intact corpses behind.

But the third attack wasn't an offensive move—he used Blue for high-speed movement instead.

He broke through the encirclement and charged into District 11.

Then came District 10, District 9, District 8...

His already pale skin seemed to grow even whiter, and his body was covered in many new wounds.

His originally white hoodie had been almost completely dyed into a bloodstained garment.

"Tch... persistent little tagalongs." He looked at the inverted pentagram that had appeared on the back of his hand, his tone annoyed, his expression cold.

It was something a dying enemy had carved into him before death.

This thing was what allowed those people to keep tracking him relentlessly.

He hated anything that others forced onto him.

District 2.

Unlike the districts behind it, this place boasted exquisite, luxurious architecture, completely on par with high-end residences in the outside world.

Inside one of the mansions, voices were murmuring in quiet conversation.

"I heard a new ability user appeared in District 13, causing quite a stir."

"Oh?"

"They say he's already reached District 7, smashing through the gates all the way here by brute force."

Upper District 3, Middle District 6, Lower District 4—thirteen districts in total.

District 7—he'd already made it to Middle District 6.

"How strong is he?"

"The Vulture Gang sent six hundred people to hunt him down, and they still couldn't catch him."

"Are they all ability users?"

"No."

Meteor City had a population of over eight million. The Vulture Gang had more than ten thousand members, seventy percent of whom were spread across Lower District 4.

As for Upper District 3... the Vultures didn't exist there at all.

At the end of the day, in the eyes of Upper District 3, the Vultures were nothing more than lowlifes who couldn't even make the cut.

"The commotion's gotten too big. Tell the Vultures to rein it in, and... that new ability user—try to recruit him."

"If he won't listen, just kill him. He's nothing but a troublemaker anyway." The figure hidden in the shadows spoke with the contempt of the upper class toward those beneath them.

"I understand..."

"Boom—" A violent explosion rang out. The building they were in was pierced by a beam of light from an unknown source, and the face of the man hidden in the darkness was illuminated by the light streaming through the hole.

"...What happened?" The man froze for a moment, then erupted in fury. "Who is it?!"

How dare they...

"That new ability user who broke into District 7—he's already reached..."

"District 2." The subordinate who had been reporting immediately looked into the distance and said at once.

Which was exactly the district they were in.

"What about the Elder Council?! With such a huge disturbance, aren't those bastards going to do something?" The man angrily drew the gun at his waist, raising the barrel to aim at the so-called new ability user.

Only to find that his naked eye couldn't even track the target.

"The Elder Council is already on the way..." the subordinate reported nervously.

"That bastard has already charged into District 1!" The man raised his hand and pointed fiercely in one direction.

The gate leading to District 1 was blown apart with a roar, eerily similar to how the building they'd been in had been blasted through.

"I haven't seen a scene this grand in a long time." The man's expression darkened, and he laughed in sheer fury instead.

The last time someone was this arrogant was over a decade ago.

Back then, it was also a few young ability users, charging all the way from the Lower District into the Upper District.

They even massacred several families in District 3.

But... in the end, those people weren't punished. Instead, they became a new untouchable force entrenched in District 3.

"This isn't a bad thing, sir," the subordinate reminded him cautiously.

"A new powerful ability user appearing will shift the situation in Meteor City. The Vultures chased him all the way from the Lower District to the Upper District. That ability user's strength qualifies him to be in the Upper District. What right do those Vultures have to set foot here?"

"Someone has to take the blame for this commotion."

A powerful ability user won't face any punishment. Instead, they'll be courted by Meteor City's factions.

And the weak Vultures... will obviously become the scapegoats.

"You're right. Have our people make a move." The man nodded, his smile deepening.

The Vultures' existence was tacitly permitted.

But the authority to manage them belonged to the Elder Council.

This time, maybe they could try to carve off a bigger piece of the pie?

Meanwhile, at the District 1 passage.

"So this is District 1..." Su Wu walked unimpeded into District 1, his Six Eyes observing the surroundings.

Every passage had ability users guarding the gates, yet when Su Wu forced his way through, none of those ability users stopped him.

Even though he'd charged all the way from District 13 to District 1, he hadn't encountered any particularly troublesome ability users.

The only ones chasing him the whole time were the Vultures.

And by the time they reached District 5, they no longer dared to openly pursue him in full force.

Still, covert eyes lingered here and there.

Su Wu's goal had always been District 1, so he took this chance to rush straight there.

The eyes behind him kept following, but made no move to act.

How interesting. When would those hidden bastards decide to strike?

"I can't find an exit passage..." Su Wu scanned the area around him.

In District 1, garbage was almost nowhere to be seen. Instead, the place was filled with exquisite, luxurious residences. The people passing by were all well-dressed, and children openly ran around clutching toys or food, their smiles bright, showing no signs of ever having gone hungry.

At several intersections, figures dressed like priests stood around, seemingly maintaining order.

It was a world apart from the previous districts.

Come to think of it, should he give those hidden bastards a little opportunity?

With that thought, he stopped in his tracks, opened his Six Eyes to analyze the surroundings, and then...

Blood dripped from his nose as if on cue, making it look like he was suffering from ability backlash.

As if afraid of being caught off guard in his weakened state, he hurriedly ducked into a secluded alley.

The moment he stepped into the alley, a layer of shadow fell around him, darkening his field of vision.

At both the path ahead and the alley entrance he'd just come from, several figures appeared simultaneously.

"They led us around for this long, and now you finally stopped running?"

"Kid, if you kill our people, you'd better be ready to be killed yourself."

These few figures were exceptionally tall and sturdy, looking like Enhancement-type users.

"I have no interest in being killed by trash." Su Wu wiped the blood off his face, his tone arrogant.

"Blue." He poured all his remaining Cursed Energy into this single attack.

Invisible energy coalesced into a mass, launching like a bomb, blasting everyone in front of him away in one go.

It tore through several houses with the bodies, leaving a deep trench in the ground, finally stopping only when it slammed into a building.

The spire of that church hundreds of meters away seemed to tremble slightly.

When Su Wu walked out of the alley again, he was the only one there.

"Should I find someone to ask where the exit is?" he muttered to himself.

Come to think of it, there were still a few gazes following him, weren't there?

"You won't get an answer, because the door out isn't in plain sight." A low male voice rang out.

Su Wu turned around. A figure suddenly appeared from the void behind him.

It was like a teleportation or concealment ability.

"So you finally decided to show yourself." Su Wu's gaze was calm, his large, upward-slanting eyes like those of a feline, their look also revealing the calm and scrutiny of a beast sizing up its prey.

He had known someone was following him from the very beginning, all the way from District 6 until now.

Of course, it wasn't just this one person.

"Looks like you noticed me a long time ago." The man who had suddenly appeared wore a black robe embroidered with an inverted cross, with golden hair and green eyes, like a common priest or pastor in a church.

"Thanks to you, I got to watch a good show after more than a decade." The man clapped his hands leisurely, his tone appreciative.

So he wasn't a vulture. Right, if he were a vulture, he would have shown up in the alley together with the others just now.

Then those other gazes probably weren't vultures either.

Eyes from other factions in Meteor City?

It seemed the commotion he'd caused had indeed attracted quite a few people.

The white-haired, blue-eyed youth pressed his brows down, revealing a hint of menace.

"Want to know how to leave here? Don't rush..." The man hadn't finished speaking.

Su Wu stood still, seemingly bored, and extended his index finger, lightly swiping it.

The imagined sound of cutting and blood splattering never came.

The man remained standing there perfectly fine, only a few bloody gashes appearing on his body.

Dismantle had undoubtedly hit him, but it hadn't severed him.

That meant...

The other party was a Nen user of considerable skill, and had been keeping his body protected with Nen the entire time.

The level of Dismantle he was currently using couldn't easily cut through the opponent; it could only break their defense.

"You really are impatient..." The man looked at the youth across from him, lowered his head, and glanced at the fresh wounds on his body with lifeless eyes. A certain power seemed to linger on the wounds, constantly damaging them, causing blood to flow endlessly and making them hard to heal.

He had felt the several invisible slashes landing on him.

But he saw no trace of them, nor any conditions for their use.

With just a light swipe, he had been attacked.

"Looks like you're a capable ability user, someone worth talking to." Su Wu looked at the other party thoughtfully.

Six Eyes had indeed detected the presence of aura, but he had assumed it was something the other party naturally possessed. After all, almost every human in this world had [aura] within them, but ordinary people couldn't use Nen, causing their aura to leak out naturally—that was also why ordinary people didn't live as long as Nen users.

The Nen system was divided into six types: Enhancement, Emission, Manipulation, Conjuration, Transmutation, and Specialization.

Nen users could also disguise themselves as ordinary people through the phenomenon of aura leakage, so he hadn't paid much attention to the aura on people, thinking it was normal. But now it seemed the other party was likely a Manipulation-type user, and this body was probably just an ordinary person's body, with the strange energy in the brain being something a Manipulation-type user had attached to it.

"Come to the church and talk with me." The man continued.

After saying this, his figure vanished instantly from the spot, and this time, even the other party's aura could no longer be sensed.

Another highly advanced application of Nen.

This guy wasn't just moderately skilled; he was probably a Nen user of considerable strength.

Su Wu stood still, lifting his head to look into the distance.

The church was the tallest building in District 1. Unlike the somewhat old and worn-down buildings of District 13, the church in District 1 was exquisite and ornate.

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