Encounter in the Beautiful Town

Before the formal story begins, let me explain that I didn't know how to write the first three fast-paced opening chapters, so I hope everyone can be a little patient. Because I really like Hunter x Hunter, but there are too few fan-fictions of it on the market, and none that I like, I decided to write one myself. Please don't bash if you don't like it; this is purely a personal novel—a failed novel that was even rejected by Qidian.

Kakin Kingdom, Sankara Town.

This was a place perpetually shrouded in gloomy clouds.

The damp slate roads, Gothic spires, and the pious yet somewhat numb expressions on the townsfolk's faces all gave the entire town an indescribable sense of oppression.

Bai Zhu sat in the cafe at the corner of the street, listlessly stirring the already cold coffee in his cup.

His gaze had been locked on the magnificent and eerie church in the center of the town for three consecutive months.

Damn it, how on earth do you trigger the last achievement?

Bai Zhu muttered silently in his heart.

He was a transmigrator.

Before transmigrating, he was a super-fat otaku who was 1.6 meters tall and weighed 160 kilograms. Aside from a wealthy family background, his life had almost no highlights, and his biggest hobby was dating pretty young ladies to play around with expensive and saucy cosplay.

As a result, the moment he closed and opened his eyes, he arrived in this world of Hunter x Hunter.

Of course, there was also the standard "achievement system" that came with transmigration.

[Name: Bai Zhu]

[Reiatsu: 4500]

[Owned Kidō: Hado #1: Sho; Hado #4: Byakurai; Bakudo #4: Hainawa; Path #33: Angel's Glance]

[System Inventory: 5/5]

[Achievement Points: 450]

This was all his worldly wealth after transmigrating for a year.

This world was full of dangers, but fortunately, his core philosophy had never wavered—

As long as I don't court death, I won't die!

Relying on the bug-like healing ability of "Angel's Glance", as long as he wasn't instantly killed on the spot, he had the capital to act recklessly.

Yet this damned system always issued all sorts of bizarre achievements, forcing him to test the waters right at the edge of courting death.

Take right now, for instance.

In his field of vision, a semi-transparent panel that only he could see was floating.

[Regional Achievement: Sankara Town]

[Achievement 1: Fresh Off the Boat (Completed)]

[Achievement 2: Town Gourmet (Completed)]

[Achievement 3: Business Genius (Completed)—Successfully sold ten "firewood sticks"]

[...]

[Achievement 67: Church Bell (Unlocks)]

He had already farmed the first five or six achievements, leaving only this very last one!

This grey achievement icon was like a hidden quest in a game that could never be accepted, driving anyone with obsessive-compulsive disorder crazy.

For the sake of it, Bai Zhu had stayed in this godforsaken little town for a full three months.

Every day he was either scouting around the church or pretending to be a pious believer going in to pray, practically polishing the church floor tiles until they had a patina.

Yet this damn achievement simply refused to trigger!

Whatever, time to slip away.

Bai Zhu put down his coffee cup and made up his mind.

It was just a regional achievement, and the reward provided was probably only a few dozen points; it wasn't worth wearing himself out to death here.

Heaven and earth are vast, but one's little life is the greatest.

After transmigrating, he had managed to drop his weight from 160 kilograms down to 80 kilograms, turning into a clean-cut and handsome young man, and he hadn't even had the chance to properly enjoy this lifetime's new life yet.

However, the moment he stood up and prepared to leave—

The system prompt appeared.

[Hidden/Easter Egg Achievement Triggered: The Early Bird Gets the Worm?]

[Quest Objective: Pick up the 'sparkling' thing at the central fountain of Sankara Town.]

[Reward: 1 achievement point.]

The long-dormant system suddenly popped up with a prompt, and Bai Zhu instantly perked up.

He looked over in the direction indicated by the system prompt.

In the distance, a plump figure was slumped beside the dried-up fountain basin.

A chubby little fellow wearing overalls had his left shoulder strap already slipped down to his elbow. His butt was stuck way up in the air, and half his body was plunged into the pile of fallen leaves and dirty water at the bottom of the pool, paddling away for dear life.

It looked like something was being fished out of this small fountain pool.

At a glance, Bai Zhu's immediate reaction was, What the hell, is this guy coming to steal my job?

"Let go of that shiny thing!"

Bai Zhu's habit of guarding his food flared up instantly. Even the tiniest achievement was meat! He took a vicious bite of the steamed bun in his hand, broke into a sprint, and rushed over.

As for why it was shiny, who cares? If it glowed, what else could it be besides gold?

The fat guy whipped his head around, still clutching a pitch-black object in his hand. Seeing Bai Zhu look like a ravenous wolf, he seemed to realize something and shouted at the top of his lungs,

"Big brother! We've been exposed..."

Big brother? Where did a big brother come from?

The thought had just popped into Bai Zhu's mind when his foot landed on the accumulated snow, making it impossible to stop. With a bang, he crashed solidly into the little fat guy.

The expected spectacle of both of them tumbling over and falling into the stinky pool did not happen.

The little fat guy's base was absurdly stable. Instead of falling from the impact of Bai Zhu's eighty-kilogram frame, he actually grabbed Bai Zhu by the arm to help him steady his balance.

"Thanks, you're not a bad guy," Bai Zhu muttered casually.

Regaining his footing, Bai Zhu patted the snowflakes off his clothes and raised his eyes to look at the person before him.

The instant he saw those features clearly, Bai Zhu's heart hammered wildly.

The signature bowl cut, the roly-poly cheeks, paired with this otaku-exclusive pair of overalls...

Milluki Zoldyck!

In a fraction of a second, Bai Zhu connected all the clues together.

Opposite them was the Creation Society's church.

The red-name exclamation point that hung year-round on the system map.

The absurd bounty on Silva Zoldyck posted by the Creation Society on the black market.

It all matched up.

Since the person before him was Milluki, that shout of "big brother" he had just let out was definitely for the terrifying, emotionless assassin with off-the-charts control issues—Illumi!

Had these two brothers taken a job from home and come to wipe out the Creation Society, or were they just passing by out of curiosity when they saw the bounty?

This was deadly! Had he just stumbled upon a lurking assassination scene by the Zoldyck family?

Yet Bai Zhu was not afraid of the two Zoldyck brothers at this moment. Are you kidding me? There were still eight years until the start of the main storyline. No matter how powerful or gifted Illumi was, he was still small potatoes right now. As for Milluki, Bai Zhu had never taken him seriously.

Even so, Bai Zhu still wanted to complete the achievement, so he put on a foolish expression and pointed at Milluki's tightly clenched fist.

"Hey, fatty, what were you just fishing out of this water pool? Could it be some kind of shiny golden treasure?"

"You're the fatty! Your whole family are fatties!"

"Hey... now that you mention it, you really shouldn't say that, I actually used to be a little chubby."

Milluki was left speechless by Bai Zhu's remark, his face turning dark. He opened his mud-stained palm and shoved it right under Bai Zhu's nose.

"Who cares about something shiny, what I fished out is this thing."

In the mud-mixed palm lay a metal cockroach.

Naturally, though, Bai Zhu still put the task abruptly issued by the system first,

"Hey! Fatty, what were you just fishing out of the fountain? Was it some kind of shiny golden thing?"

"Ah! No, what I fished out is this."

At that moment, Milluki raised his wet hand in front of Bai Zhu, revealing a cockroach exuding a metallic luster in his palm.

The metal shell was covered with withered yellow leaf fragments, dirty water constantly oozed from the waterproof seams, and a "bzz-bzz" short-circuit sound issued from inside from time to time.

Bai Zhu took the cockroach and brought it closer to inspect it.

Exquisite workmanship.

The joint parts were extremely delicate, the carapace texture was lifelike, and even the tiny barbs on the tips of the antennae were perfectly replicated.

He had to hand it to him, how old was this fat guy? He could handcraft a micro-reconnaissance drone of this precision?

Before he could finish marveling, a translucent prompt popped up in the lower right corner of his vision.

[Hidden/Easter egg achievement completed: The early bird catches the worm?]

[1 achievement point being distributed]

Immediately afterward, the text on the panel rolled and shifted.

[Unlocked hidden series achievement: Ella's Suffering Holy Infant]

[Current progress: 1/?]

A series achievement!

Bai Zhu's heart gave a violent twitch, desperately suppressing the corners of his mouth that were trying to curve upward. He curled his lip in feigned disgust and handed the mechanical cockroach back to Milluki.

He knew all too well the value of that red-name exclamation point.

During the past eight months in the small town, he sneaked into the Creation Society several times and even went to attend a few services. Aside from discovering that they had adopted a few orphans born with Nen abilities, he found nothing. Originally, he intended to finish collecting this money from selling pelts, do some more investigating, and if he still couldn't unlock the achievement, he would simply dust off his pants and leave to take the Hunter exam.

Who could have expected that just wandering around for a small achievement before leaving would blindly trigger the main storyline's prerequisites!

Since Milluki was using mechanical cockroaches to conduct surveillance from across the church, Illumi must have been staring from some high vantage point nearby, or had already sneaked into the church, considering that guy could transform into other people.

Bai Zhu carelessly took a bite of a steamed bun.

A great opportunity delivered right to his door.

Rather than blindly crashing into the Creation Society himself, it was better to go with the flow and hitch a ride on the Zoldyck brothers' game.

This muddy water, he was wading in!

"Hey, fatty." Bai Zhu swallowed the last bite of his bun and patted the flour crumbs off his hands. "What should I call you? My name is Bai Zhu. I can't just keep calling you fatty."

Milluki rolled his eyes. With his shut-in traits acting up, he detested this kind of overly familiar extrovert. Yet, having holed up in Kukuroo Mountain playing video games for years, his social experience was basically zero, and he had no idea how to handle this.

"Milluki." He spat out the words with displeasure. "Milluki Zoldyck!"

Bai Zhu slapped his thigh suddenly, his acting skills completely natural.

"Holy shit! Zoldyck? Isn't your family in the assassination business?"

Milluki tilted his nose up toward the sky and snorted with extreme arrogance.

"Is an assassin this high-profile when going out? Without even throwing on a disguise, you just give your real name?" Bai Zhu leaned in half a step, his face full of gossip. "Does your family hang a sign out front that says 'Zoldyck Assassin Company'?"

"Idiot!" Milluki lost his temper, his round face turning red. "Everyone in the world knows where we live, and tour buses drive up to our front gate every day! Hiding your head and tail is a third-rate style. Please, I am a Zoldyck!"

He took the bait.

Bai Zhu chuckled inwardly and pushed his luck.

"Awesome! Arrogant enough!" Bai Zhu lowered his voice and nudged his chin toward the other side of the street. "Then you guys came all this way to this poor backwater place to investigate that Creation Society? Since they dared to put a bounty on your family in the black market, do they have some outrageous trump card?"

The air suddenly turned cold.

Milluki, who had been throwing a tantrum a second ago, stiffly turned his neck around.

A chilling, sticky aura overflowed from his body, and the snow beneath his feet quickly melted. The fallen leaves at the bottom of the fountain pool moved without wind, emitting a faint, rustling sound.

Nen.

Milluki's round, plump face lost all expression, his left hand hanging naturally at his side. His finger joints emitted a faint "crack" sound, and his neatly trimmed nails rapidly grew forward at a speed visible to the naked eye, instantly turning the little fatty's hands into zombie hands.

He had reacted, realizing he was being probed for information. As a Zoldyck, the optimal solution for dealing with trouble was elimination.

Locked onto by Nen carrying substantial murderous intent, Bai Zhu stood in place without moving an inch.

A normal person hit by this would definitely suffer a mental breakdown instantly. But Bai Zhu was as steady as an old dog in his heart.

The system had hit him with a permanent debuff of "Forced Zetsu", and he truly couldn't raise even a shred of Nen in his body. But the Reiatsu he had accumulated through sleeping in the open for the past eight months was no decoration.

A layer of formless Reiatsu, dense to the extreme, quietly spread out along Bai Zhu's skin.

The approaching chilling Nen was forcefully halted an inch in front of Bai Zhu, unable to advance a fraction further.

Bai Zhu brought his right middle and index fingers together, slightly bending them inside his sleeve.

He was weighing his options.

Should he use Hado #4: Byakurai to punch straight through this kid's shoulder, or use Bakudō #4: Hainawa to tie him up like a pig waiting to be slaughtered?

The distance was too close, and the piercing power of Byakurai easily caused fatal injuries, which might end up attracting the older generation of Zoldycks.

Hainawa was more useful.

Just at the zero-point-one second when the gunpowder smoke between the two of them was about to detonate completely.

A knuckle-protruding hand, so pale it lacked any trace of blood, reached out from behind Milluki without warning.

There were no footsteps whatsoever.

The surrounding snow didn't even have the marks of being stepped on.

That hand exerted a slight force.

The nauseating Nen on Milluki's body instantly dissipated without a trace. His extended sharp claws also obediently retracted.

"Milluki."