Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• As dawn begins, an unnatural blackness spreads across the sky, plunging the city back into night. Infected residents emerge throughout the streets, and the city erupts into panic.
• Bai Zhu realizes the infection can make monsters devour, merge with, and evolve from one another. The darkness may be trapping the city like a sealed breeding ground.
• With no clear way to find the paper-thin creature behind the outbreak, Hisoka suggests killing everyone. Bai Zhu instead proposes gathering the infected and forcing them to merge into one powerful “king,” hoping its creator will reveal itself.
• Bai Zhu accepts the danger, alluding to the Rose as a last resort if the monster becomes uncontrollable. He assigns himself to herd the infected, asks Hisoka to eliminate weak candidates, and keeps Milluki under his protection.
• Hisoka eagerly sets off. Bai Zhu uses White Lightning to kill an infected attacker, then leads Milluki toward two monsters already fighting, intending to encourage their evolution.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu moves from alarm to cold resolve, choosing a calculated but extreme plan rather than indiscriminate slaughter. His pursuit of the system’s reward also influences his willingness to accept the risks.
• Hisoka quickly recovers from his confusion and treats the crisis as an exciting game. He enthusiastically embraces Bai Zhu’s plan and agrees to cull weaker infected.
• Milluki voices practical doubts about finding or catching the hidden creature and fears the consequences of creating a monster they cannot control. Bai Zhu reassures him indirectly by invoking the Rose, and assigns him a protected role.

Significant themes

• Escalation and control: The protagonists try to manage an outbreak by deliberately intensifying it, risking the creation of a threat beyond their control.
• Moral compromise: Bai Zhu’s plan treats infected people as potential raw material, while Hisoka openly favors mass killing.
• Hidden forces and calculated risk: The spreading darkness and concealed infection source suggest a larger intelligence at work; the group plans to force it into the open, even at catastrophic cost.

Plot points and events

• Bai Zhu and Milluki evacuate civilians into a square as infected monsters attack. Bai Zhu kills one with White Lightning, then uses four Dankū barriers to seal the crowd inside and protect them.
• Milluki’s Mechanical Ants locate Camilla hiding alone in a watch shop. Her guards are missing, and she is clinging to a silver combination-lock case.
• Camilla tells Bai Zhu that the researcher with a limp fused with the experimental subject. The thin red figure they encountered earlier was only one part of that creature: it can flatten itself into scraps of red paper, infect people when eaten, and multiply inside hosts while consuming nearby life.
• Camilla escaped after being killed and revived repeatedly by her Nen ability, Million Reincarnation Cat. Several guards sacrificed their abilities to help her get away; most of the others were infected.
• Camilla says a black curtain encloses the city. Nen users may be able to break through it, but it traps ordinary people—apparently as part of a process intended to produce a powerful survivor for the main entity to possess.
• When Bai Zhu asks what the silver case contains, Camilla recoils. He senses danger and reaches for his Zanpakuto.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu takes command decisively, using intimidation and careful barriers to keep civilians safe. He remains suspicious of Camilla’s account and probes for inconsistencies.
• Milluki supports the rescue with his Mechanical Ants and drones, helps monitor the crowd, and notices Camilla on the surveillance feed.
• Camilla has lost her former arrogance and appears frightened and physically exhausted. She clings to Bai Zhu for protection, but her guarded reaction to the case suggests she is concealing something.
• Bai Zhu’s questioning and Milluki’s follow-up draw out the danger Camilla faced and the mechanics of the infection.

Significant themes

• Protection amid chaos: Bai Zhu prioritizes civilians, even when they panic or resist.
• Survival and sacrifice: Camilla’s repeated deaths and her guards’ efforts show the extreme cost of escaping the outbreak.
• Hidden threats and deception: The infection can conceal itself as tiny scraps of red paper, while Camilla’s case raises a new unanswered mystery.
• People treated as resources: The city-wide trap appears designed to force mass consumption and cultivate a “strongest” host.

Chapter Summary: “Just What I Wanted!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu notices Camilla’s silver combination case and realizes she is hiding something important. When he prepares to leave without questioning her, Camilla panics and reveals that the case contains a device created by the Creation Society.
• The device can forcibly retrieve the Final Experimental Subject, extract its Nen ability once it reaches its completed form, and transplant that ability into another Nen Beast.
• Bai Zhu decides to take the device for himself, intending to use the experimental subject to fulfill his unresolved system task involving the “[Third Knife Name].” Camilla, having lost her power and protection, follows him because staying with Bai Zhu is her best chance of survival.
• Outside, Milluki reports that the number of monster signals has dropped from more than two hundred to fewer than forty. However, the remaining creatures are rapidly increasing in size and converging on the same location.
• Bai Zhu, Milluki, and Camilla return to the square protected by Dankū, where hundreds of civilians remain trapped inside while mutated humans slaughter one another outside.
• Hisoka arrives after fighting through the weaker monsters. He explains that Bai Zhu’s strategy worked: the “flavorless” creatures have been eliminated, leaving behind a far more powerful and desirable opponent.
• The central monster emerges. It is an enormous mass of fused body parts, apparently formed after consuming all the “fruits” it created. Atop the mass is a flat sheet of red human skin resembling the red paper figure from the dimensional gap.
• Bai Zhu identifies the red figure as his target and claims it for himself, while allowing Hisoka to fight the massive flesh body beneath it. Hisoka enthusiastically accepts the arrangement.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu: Demonstrates his calm, manipulative nature by pretending not to care about Camilla’s secret, forcing her to reveal it voluntarily. He immediately recognizes the device’s usefulness and quietly aligns the situation with his own larger objective. His confidence grows as he prepares to confront the final monster.
• Camilla: Her arrogance and political leverage collapse completely. After losing her guards and realizing her Nen Beast is ineffective, she becomes frightened and submissive. She abandons her pride, reveals the Creation Society’s plan, and follows Bai Zhu in hopes of surviving.
• Milluki: Continues serving as the group’s information source through his terminal. Although visibly terrified, he remains useful by tracking the monsters and identifying the abnormal growth and convergence of the remaining signals.
• Hisoka: Appears badly wounded but exhilarated rather than weakened. Hisoka has followed Bai Zhu’s plan successfully and is thrilled by the prospect of battling the most powerful remaining creature. His predatory enthusiasm becomes even more pronounced.
• The Final Experimental Subject: Reaches a terrifying, seemingly completed stage after consuming the creatures it created. Its transformation establishes it as the chapter’s main threat and the likely culmination of the experiment.

Significant Themes

• Power and dependence: Camilla’s rapid shift from controlling royal claimant to desperate follower shows how completely power determines relationships in the succession conflict.
• Manipulation and strategic cooperation: Bai Zhu does not need to threaten Camilla directly; by simply walking away, he pressures her into revealing the truth and choosing dependence on him.
• Transformation through consumption: The monsters grow by devouring others, suggesting themes of unchecked evolution, corruption, and power gained through destruction.
• Predation and survival: The scene is structured around competing predators—mutated creatures, Hisoka, Bai Zhu, and the Creation Society—each trying to exploit or consume the others’ abilities.
• Humanity overwhelmed by monstrosity: The trapped civilians and ruined streets emphasize the collapse of ordinary society as the experimental creatures become too powerful to control.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu deliberately pressures Camilla by showing no interest in the case, prompting her to confess its purpose. He then accepts her continued presence without offering reassurance, making their relationship one of necessity rather than trust.
• Camilla follows Bai Zhu after realizing she can no longer compete with him or survive alone.
• Milluki provides Bai Zhu with critical information about the monsters’ movements and physical growth.
• Hisoka credits Bai Zhu’s method for creating the current confrontation, showing respect for Bai Zhu’s strategy while maintaining his own selfish agenda.
• Bai Zhu and Hisoka divide the impending battle between them: Bai Zhu takes the red paper-like entity, while Hisoka claims the gigantic flesh mass. Hisoka’s delighted response confirms that this arrangement is exactly what he wanted.

Plot points and events

• Bai Zhu attacks the enormous stitched-together flesh monster with Ryujin Jakka, quickly burning through its limbs and carving into its body. He realizes it is strangely weak—more like a target than a serious opponent.
• Seeing Hisoka face a faster, more dangerous long-limbed monster, Bai Zhu interrupts their fight. The two agree to switch opponents: Hisoka takes the giant flesh mass, while Bai Zhu fights the long-limbed creature.
• Bai Zhu kills the long-limbed monster with three strikes. Hisoka discovers that the flesh mass is equally unimpressive and complains that Bai Zhu traded him a “rotten” opponent.
• When Hisoka refuses to finish the fight, Bai Zhu incinerates the flesh mountain and the Red Paper Figure in one enormous blast.
• The victory raises a troubling question: the mass could not have grown naturally so quickly, given the city’s population and the short time since the black curtain appeared. Bai Zhu concludes it was bait sent out to draw their attention.
• He suspects the real creature is intelligent, hiding its presence while it grows stronger. Hisoka is excited by the prospect; Bai Zhu is concerned and wonders where the true threat is concealed.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu is decisive and powerful, but also observant: rather than celebrating an easy victory, he notices the mismatch between the two monsters and reasons out the deception. He trades opponents with Hisoka and ultimately ends the fight himself.
• Hisoka remains thrill-seeking, eager to test himself against dangerous prey. He is irritated when Bai Zhu deprives him of a challenging fight, then becomes excited at the idea of a more elusive monster.
• Milluki helps assess how long a mass of infected creatures would need to form such a monster; Bai Zhu uses his estimate to expose the setup.
• Camilla recalls that the Red Paper Figures are common “roundworms,” supporting Bai Zhu’s deduction that this one was merely a component or decoy.
• The banter between Bai Zhu and Hisoka—especially their dishonest “trade” and Hisoka’s complaints—provides comic relief amid the danger.

Significant themes

• Deception beneath appearances: The imposing flesh mountain is a disposable decoy, while the real enemy remains unseen.
• Instinct versus investigation: Hisoka’s ability to detect enemies by scent may fail against a creature that can suppress its presence; careful reasoning becomes essential.
• Power and threat are not the same: The largest monster is weak, while the smaller, faster creature proves more formidable.
• Uncertainty after apparent victory: Destroying the visible enemy does not resolve the danger; it leaves the group facing a hidden, intelligent adversary.

Key plot points and events

• After the group’s earlier attack, the city falls silent. Milluki’s sensors show that the monsters have not vanished: far more are present, but they have suppressed their sounds and hidden. Bai Zhu realizes the earlier destruction was likely bait.
• The group discusses splitting up. Milluki explains that Hisoka’s efficient fighting style conserves Nen, unlike Bai Zhu’s powerful but draining attacks. Bai Zhu makes Hisoka, Milluki, and Camilla invisible with Kyokkō, then uses a tracking spell to draw the monsters out.
• A newly evolved monster emerges and proves able to absorb Reiatsu—and even swallow Bai Zhu’s tracking sigils. It also absorbs most of his lightning and heals itself by eating infected creatures, turning the encounter into the kind of prolonged fight Bai Zhu is poorly suited for.
• Bai Zhu lures it toward a concentration of Reiatsu and traps its retreat with Dankū. Milluki’s mechanical beetle detonates a tiny bomb inside its body, disrupting its absorption long enough for Bai Zhu to strike its core with lightning and kill it.
• The dead monster expels partially digested Reiatsu containing a strip of red experimental tissue. Meanwhile, Hisoka reports that several monsters are consuming his Nen but cannot see him. Milluki’s map reveals that the creatures are moving underground toward the city center.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu recognizes his vulnerability in a battle of attrition and adapts by using a trap and coordinated teamwork rather than relying on repeated heavy attacks. He also remains cautious about Camilla’s request for the Experimental Subject, saying he will decide based on circumstances.
• Milluki demonstrates the value of his sensors, tactical analysis, and mechanical insects. He bluntly criticizes Bai Zhu’s limited stamina, though his information helps shape the plan and defeat the monster.
• Hisoka remains playful and eager to hunt, but his relaxed report shows that he can operate independently and efficiently. He is also intrigued by whether the monsters might evolve enough to detect him.
• Camilla quietly asks Bai Zhu to give her the Experimental Subject. His noncommittal answer leaves tension between them unresolved.
• The group relies on coordinated roles: Bai Zhu draws and traps the monster, Milluki disrupts it, and Hisoka scouts separately.

Significant themes

• Adaptation and escalation: The monsters have learned to hide, absorb energy, heal, and move strategically, making them more dangerous than before.
• Teamwork versus individual strength: Bai Zhu’s power alone is not enough; Milluki’s technology and Hisoka’s scouting help compensate for his limits.
• Uncertainty and competing interests: The red tissue hints at a larger experiment, while Camilla’s request and the monsters’ advance toward the city center leave the group’s next choices unsettled.

Key plot points and events

• Hisoka’s wound heals, but the scent of the creatures disappears. Milluki’s sensors show many more anomalous signatures across the city, though they have gone silent and hidden.
• The group investigates a dark financial tower suspected to be occupied by the “Poop Monsters.” Inside, they find corpses with no visible injuries, their bodies apparently drained from within.
• A dead receptionist, controlled by strands of red liquid, identifies the three intruders and says, “Central level…” Bai Zhu has Milluki destroy the liquid through the electrical wiring.
• In the underground passages, smaller, eyeless creatures feed on Bai Zhu’s leaking Reiatsu. One imitates Milluki’s equipment and sends a false self-destruct command, destroying many of his mechanical insects.
• Hisoka lures a group of monsters into a narrow shaft, where he and Bai Zhu contain and eliminate them. Hisoka senses that the creatures are drawn toward something awakening deeper below.
• The team finds a disused cafeteria used as a decoy. Bai Zhu spots a trail of shed red membrane leading farther underground and realizes the test subject evaded his senses by leaving no Reiatsu behind.
• Red markings appear beneath Bai Zhu’s feet, all sensor contacts vanish, and a second heavy heartbeat sounds from deep within the tower.

Character developments

• Bai Zhu remains observant and cautious, rejecting Camilla’s proposal to destroy the tower because an explosion could let the target escape. He pieces together the false trail and the creature’s method of concealment.
• Milluki provides crucial surveillance and technical support, but the monsters’ ability to mimic his equipment reveals a serious vulnerability in his network.
• Camilla tries to cooperate with Bai Zhu but yields when he rejects her plan; the encounter with the receptionist visibly unnerves her.
• Hisoka stays playful and predatory, using his invisibility and Nen to turn the monsters’ behavior against them. His attention shifts from feeding creatures to whatever is waking below.

Significant themes

• Predation and consumption: The creatures feed on Reiatsu and perhaps life itself, while even the tower’s dead seem hollowed out.
• Deception and hidden threats: The tower, cafeteria, surveillance data, and apparent absence of Reiatsu all conceal what is really happening.
• Escalating uncertainty: The creatures may be only followers or symptoms of a larger presence now stirring beneath the city.

Character interactions

• Bai Zhu challenges Camilla’s preference for immediate destruction, and she reluctantly follows his lead.
• Bai Zhu directs Milluki’s technical support, including cutting power to stop the receptionist’s red-liquid controller.
• Hisoka rescues Milluki from an ambush, then works with Bai Zhu to trap and defeat the monsters.
• The group’s cooperation is practical but tense, as each depends on the others while the threat grows harder to understand.

Plot points and events

• Milluki’s map suddenly loses every monster signal. Bai Zhu concludes that the Devouring-type Monsters and the Flesh Mountain were distractions: the hidden Experimental Subject had used them to gather abilities, then reclaimed its Paper People and may now be able to move through the city in an almost impossibly thin form.
• Bai Zhu suspects the financial-center tower is an obvious decoy, but decides to head there anyway, reasoning that the creature—or whoever is behind the events—may expect them to investigate it.
• Milluki discovers that the tower’s advertising screen and low-frequency signal were activated hours before the disaster by a command from Camilla’s silver lockbox. Camilla insists she never opened it. Bai Zhu drops the interrogation, recognizing that the competing factions may have been involved from the start and that the Recovery Core was planted in the city as part of a larger trap.
• The trio enters the financial center’s underground maintenance passages, now empty of the monsters that had occupied them. A living red membrane blocks the route and speaks in Bai Zhu’s voice, while an identical voice also comes through their earpieces.
• Hisoka appears, fascinated and wary, and suggests the creature is learning from Bai Zhu. An enormous, cloudy eye opens within the membrane. Then a supposedly powerless freight elevator activates and starts descending to an unlisted level: -9F.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu shifts from tracking a monster to suspecting a coordinated scheme involving multiple factions. Though he confronts Camilla about the lockbox, he prioritizes moving forward over assigning blame.
• Milluki uncovers the crucial evidence linking the lockbox to the signal, but the discovery makes him visibly uneasy.
• Camilla is frightened and defensive, denying responsibility for the lockbox’s activation and seeking protection behind Bai Zhu.
• Hisoka drops his usual playful detachment for a moment, showing genuine excitement and caution as he studies the threat—and Bai Zhu.

Significant themes

• Deception and misdirection: The monsters, the tower’s signal, and even the apparent escape may be parts of a larger trap.
• Identity and imitation: The creature’s perfect copying of Bai Zhu’s voice makes it difficult to know what is real.
• Factional conspiracy: The planted Recovery Core suggests the city’s disaster may have been engineered by one or more powerful groups.
• Adaptation and evolution: The threat has moved beyond relying on hosts and appears capable of learning from its opponents.

Chapter summary

Key plot points and events

• Hisoka chooses to remain above ground, suspecting the lower levels conceal something, while Bai Zhu, Camilla, and Milluki descend.
• The elevator unexpectedly reaches a hidden basement level nine. Milluki determines that a powerful ability had concealed it so thoroughly that even Gyo revealed no trace.
• The team finds a freshly drilled tunnel with unnaturally dry pipes. A red membrane inside the drainage system has absorbed the moisture and left traces from repeated journeys, suggesting the tunnel is part of a creature’s regular route.
• Milluki’s map shows that the tunnel connects with subway infrastructure and converges near the Financial Center with the streets above and the Observation Tower, where Hisoka is investigating.
• Hisoka reports finding shoes whose owners are missing. Meanwhile, the team spots scratches in the tunnel and hears something moving through the pipes. They glimpse the red membrane; it knows they are there, but they continue onward.
• At the Observation Tower area, Hisoka encounters a bus full of unharmed people chanting “Hungry.” They exit at a seaside plaza and walk toward the shore in a synchronized line.
• A group in protective suits emerges from a convenience store, places black devices into the people, and collects blood from one of them. A Rotten Meat Monster ignores the suited workers. Hisoka concludes that these people are new arrivals and reports their activity to Bai Zhu.

Character developments

• Bai Zhu remains cautious and observant, noticing the tunnel’s unnatural cleanliness and directing the group forward despite the danger.
• Milluki uses his machines and technical expertise to investigate the hidden level, the red residue, and the tunnel network. He is frustrated by the concealment ability and its implications.
• Camilla stays alert with her pistol and identifies signs that someone—or something—has passed through the tunnel.
• Hisoka acts independently, following his suspicions above ground. His curiosity grows when he discovers the chanting crowd and the suited team; he marks one person with Nen so he can track them.

Significant themes

• Concealment and uncertainty: A powerful ability hides an entire level, while the red membrane and missing people point to threats the team cannot yet fully understand.
• Investigation under pressure: The characters rely on observation, technology, and cautious exploration as they piece together clues.
• Dehumanization and control: The unharmed passengers move and speak like a collective, while outsiders insert devices into them and draw their blood without resistance.

Character interactions

• Bai Zhu and Hisoka exchange a brief, teasing discussion about Hisoka staying behind; Bai Zhu cloaks him and tells him to signal if he meets an enemy he cannot defeat.
• Bai Zhu, Camilla, and Milluki work together underground, sharing findings and responding to the movement in the pipes.
• Hisoka stays connected to the team by headset and reports his discovery of the suited group and their devices, though their purpose remains unknown.

Key plot points and events

• Bai Zhu, Milluki, and Camilla reach a vast chamber beneath the observation tower. Its wall is lined with dried-out “poop monsters,” apparently emptied after the final test subject reabsorbed its offshoots.
• Hisoka reports from the tower that its sealed top floor is guarded by fearsome creatures, while at least thirty others crowd the lower and middle floors without approaching him. Bai Mu infers that they fear whatever is at the top.
• Outside, Hisoka discovers people in protective suits, including a likely leader carrying a silver box identical to Camilla’s. Camilla denies any connection to them.
• Camilla says only two boxes should exist: one owned by Queen Unma and one made by her researcher. Unma’s box was reportedly destroyed, so the newly discovered box points to faulty information or a concealed faction.
• Bai Zhu recognizes that the newcomers know more about the test subject than Camilla and that the box may be their means of joining the struggle over it.
• Hisoka suddenly reports that the creatures in the tower have noticed him despite his use of Zetsu and Bai Zhu’s concealment. The chapter ends on this unexplained threat.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu investigates the dried specimens, keeps Camilla under suspicion but provisionally clears her, and grows increasingly troubled by the expanding number of factions involved.
• Camilla is frightened and defensive, but provides information about the boxes and tries to prove she has no accomplices.
• Milluki questions Camilla’s account and points out that the creatures should not be able to detect Hisoka.
• Hisoka begins with playful disappointment, then becomes genuinely surprised and excited when the tower creatures sense him. His discovery heightens the danger for the group.

Significant themes

• Hidden powers and unreliable knowledge: The supposedly known inventory of boxes proves incomplete, suggesting that factions are concealing information.
• Escalating danger: The conflict grows beyond the Creation Society and Kakin Royal Family as another knowledgeable group emerges.
• Unsettling mystery: The creatures’ ability to detect someone using Zetsu challenges the group’s assumptions about their capabilities.

Key plot points and events

• Hisoka reports that unseen watchers can detect him even while he is using Zetsu. Bai Zhu concludes the creatures are tracking a biological marker, not Nen—possibly a signal spread through the island’s air, water, or sound.
• Bai Zhu orders Hisoka to stop engaging the monsters and follow the people in protective suits, whom he considers more promising targets. Since Hisoka has been spotted, Bai Zhu and the others abandon their plan to enter the Observation Tower and turn back.
• At the tunnel’s specimen wall, Milluki suggests the dried bodies may have been “optimized.” Bai Zhu dismisses the idea that they might revive by smashing one apart.
• Bai Zhu finds unusual powder beneath rubble. Milluki identifies it as a specialized industrial lubricant used extensively by the port’s gantry cranes, giving the group a lead: the experimental subject had been to the Port District.
• As the group leaves, a tiny red light briefly flashes on the silver lockbox Camilla carries, unnoticed by everyone.
• Hisoka then reports that the people in protective suits appear to be planting something in people.

Character developments

• Bai Zhu shows quick, practical reasoning: he recognizes the biological-tracking possibility, changes course when Hisoka is exposed, and turns a trace of lubricant into a new lead.
• Hisoka shifts from playful amusement to focused fascination as he investigates the suited figures.
• Milluki remains technically sharp, rapidly analyzing the sample, but the grotesque specimens visibly frighten and disgust him.
• Camilla is shaken by the wall of corpses and worries they may come back to life. Her lockbox may also be connected to the unfolding mystery.

Significant themes

• Surveillance and vulnerability: Even Zetsu cannot conceal someone from a non-Nen form of detection.
• Experimentation and bodily control: The “optimization” of specimens and the suspected planting of something in people suggest invasive biological manipulation.
• Investigation through evidence: A small, seemingly misplaced trace of lubricant redirects the group toward the port.

Character interactions

• Hisoka reports his discovery to Bai Zhu, who gives him new orders.
• Bai Zhu’s blunt response to the specimen wall contrasts with Milluki’s fearful reaction and Camilla’s distress.
• Milluki’s technical skill complements Bai Zhu’s instincts, helping them identify the lubricant and establish their next destination.

Plot points and events

• Hisoka sends Bai Zhu, Camilla, and Milluki footage of suited operatives implanting tiny devices in sleeping civilians. Milluki identifies them as stolen Zoldyck “Hive” nanobots, which turn each civilian into a biological signal station for locating and analyzing the final Experimental Subject.
• The group investigates the port. In Warehouse No. 7, they find Queen Unma’s damaged retrieval case, contradicting reports that it was being repaired, along with a broken encrypted storage board.
• Milluki connects the board to his terminal and narrowly stops its self-destruct program. He recovers the title of a report: “Chimera” Project · Biological Weapon D-04 · Extreme Environment Stress Test Report.
• Bai Zhu concludes the island is a deliberately sealed testing ground: the monster is meant to feed, mutate, and merge while researchers observe it. The suited operatives are evaluators, not rescuers.
• The report bears an unfamiliar emblem—an anvil encircled by a planet. Before the group can learn more, Hisoka reports that the implanted civilians’ stomachs have all split open.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu stays pragmatic and focused, pushing the group to investigate rather than dwell on family politics or uncertainty. The report makes him more wary and eager to find a profitable opportunity before escaping.
• Milluki is shaken to find his family’s stolen technology in use, but his technical skill proves crucial: he identifies the nanobots and defeats the board’s destructive security measures.
• Camilla grows increasingly anxious about the threat and what it implies about the royal family’s compromise. Bai Zhu dismisses her concern about returning to the succession struggle, prompting her to turn away angrily.
• Hisoka begins with his usual amused detachment but ends on an unusually grave note, signaling that the situation has sharply escalated.
• The group’s exchanges reveal their differing priorities: Milluki reacts personally to the Zoldyck technology, Camilla worries about political consequences, and Bai Zhu concentrates on immediate survival and evidence.

Significant themes

• People reduced to instruments: Civilians are used as living sensors without their knowledge or consent.
• Scientific cruelty and observation: The island’s population and environment are treated as a laboratory for testing a biological weapon.
• Hidden power and compromised institutions: Stolen family technology and apparent access to Kakin resources suggest a wider, well-connected conspiracy.
• Survival amid uncertainty: The group faces escalating danger with incomplete evidence, and the final revelation suggests the experiment has already turned on its subjects.

Key plot points and events

• Milluki discovers that the contract authorizing the theft of experimental embryo D-04 bears his brother Illumi Zoldyck’s approval, though it is missing from the family’s records.
• The recovered contract reveals that Illumi retrieved D-04 from a Kakin laboratory for Mystery International, the company that owns the Financial Center. The payment is enormous.
• Bai Zhu realizes the island crisis was engineered around the embryo: the group’s pursuit of the retrieval device and the city’s use as an incubator were all part of a larger trap.
• Hisoka warns that the enemy’s forces are heading for the Financial Center. A masked person activates the Hive Network, using biological beacons to locate D-04.
• The network’s signal triggers reactions across the city. Nanobot marks heat and vibrate, red tissue retreats through the infrastructure, and the hidden monster cries out in pain.

Character developments and interactions

• Milluki is shaken to learn that Illumi may have betrayed the family and concealed a major contract. Bai Zhu urges him to set aside the family dispute and keep decoding the data.
• Bai Zhu connects the contract, Mystery International, and the island’s events, concluding that he and Unma were manipulated into doing someone else’s work.
• Camilla reacts to the contract’s staggering payment, briefly stunned by its scale.
• Hisoka interrupts the discussion with a taunt and supplies intelligence about the approaching enemy.
• The chapter shifts the characters from uncovering a hidden betrayal to facing an immediate threat: the Hive Network is closing in on D-04 and provoking the creature.

Significant themes

• Betrayal and concealed loyalties: Illumi’s apparent role exposes deception within the Zoldyck family itself.
• Manipulation and exploitation: The protagonists discover they have been used as unwitting agents in a carefully arranged operation.
• Surveillance and control: The Hive Network can track biological signals across the city, including those of civilians and infected people.
• Consequences of experimentation: The network’s activation causes a violent reaction in both the nanobot-implanted population and the hidden organism.

Key plot points and events

• A citywide biological resonance field overwhelms Bai Zhu’s senses, making it difficult to distinguish people, monsters, and ordinary surroundings.
• Milluki hacks into the signal network and discovers that the operation is tied to Future Technology, a powerful Kakin conglomerate and client of his older brother.
• Using the corrupted heat map, the group traces the resonance to the container yard in the old port. Bai Zhu realizes the creature has been hiding in a shipping container and moving with the port’s cargo machinery.
• Hisoka intercepts an order confirming that the target has been locked down. The company intends to capture it with high-voltage equipment and liquid nitrogen, while treating Bai Zhu and the others as expendable “testers.”
• Bai Zhu leads Milluki and Camilla to Sector B-7. There, they find a team in protective suits surrounding a bloodstained refrigerated container. Something inside is forcing its doors open, and dark-red slime begins to seep out.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu stays focused on survival and finding the target, dismissing the political implications of Future Technology and Camilla’s status. He recognizes how the creature has used the port’s logistics system to evade detection and decides to confront the operation’s trap.
• Milluki demonstrates his technical skill by breaking through the resonance network and identifying the company behind it. The discovery unsettles him because Future Technology is his brother’s powerful client.
• Camilla is shaken by the realization that her own empire’s company is conducting secret biological experiments—and may regard her as disposable.
• Hisoka relays the enemy’s orders and relishes being dismissed as a mere test subject.
• Bai Zhu, Milluki, and Camilla work together to trace the signal and approach the container yard, while Bai Zhu takes the lead.

Significant themes

• Power and exploitation: A corporation with immense political influence uses civilians and the protagonists as experimental material.
• Technology and loss of control: The resonance network both disrupts perception and turns implanted civilians into signal transmitters.
• Predator and prey: The company believes it controls the hunt, but Bai Zhu and Hisoka refuse to remain passive subjects.
• Concealment and misdirection: The creature’s use of shipping containers and cargo movement shows how ordinary systems can hide extraordinary threats.

Key plot points and events

• As the refrigerated container door strains to burst open, the protective-suit squad leader reveals himself as the Overseer, a manager of Anvil Enterprises’ Project D-04. He calls Bai Zhu, Milluki, and Camilla “beta testers,” explaining their ordeal has supplied combat data for a more advanced project.
• The container door blows off, and a grotesquely mutated clone of the Creation Society’s Pope emerges. Bai Zhu recognizes it as the clone he killed in Sankara Town—and spots a blood-red Paper Person attached to its back, identifying that hidden specimen as the true experimental subject.
• Bai Zhu briefly produces the Pope’s original head. The head is shocked to see its former clone transformed into a monster, but Bai Zhu dismisses the revelation as an absurd “nesting dolls” situation.
• The Overseer orders a forced-retrieval protocol, but the creature attacks first. It spreads fleshy growth across the concrete, uses tentacles to seize and devour several squad members, then swells into a rapidly growing mound of flesh.
• Bai Zhu prepares to fight it with his flaming sword, Ryujin Jakka. The Overseer activates an emergency measure, and a stealth aircraft drops a metal cocoon into the battlefield.
• The cocoon opens to reveal a heavily armored, scythe-wielding mechanical figure. Its red sensor scans the flesh monster, then fixes on Bai Zhu, setting up a confrontation whose outcome is not shown.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu remains combative and quick-witted under pressure. He recognizes the Paper Person’s role, confronts the monster, and reacts to the Pope clone’s transformation with disgust rather than fear.
• Camilla is furious at learning that the group—and the Kakin Empire’s Royal Family—were used as test subjects.
• Milluki stays beside Bai Zhu and Camilla, visibly tense, while the Overseer addresses them as valuable sources of data.
• The Overseer shifts from smug politeness to alarm when the specimen exceeds its planned parameters, then takes desperate action by summoning the Scavenger.
• The Pope’s original head is horrified by what has happened to his clone, exposing his ignorance of the experimental transformation.
• The mutant clone’s religious fanaticism persists: it calls for its “lord” to be reborn and urges others to become flesh and blood for that purpose.

Significant themes

• Human beings reduced to data: The “beta testers” reveal the cruelty of treating people as instruments for research.
• Uncontrolled experimentation: The hidden specimen has merged with the clone and escaped the Overseer’s planned containment.
• Identity and corrupted survival: The clone has returned in a radically altered form, while the true experimental subject has used it as a host and shield.
• Escalation and uneasy alliances: The arrival of the Scavenger introduces a new force whose attention to both the monster and Bai Zhu hints that the danger may not be limited to the creature alone.

Key plot points and events

• The Scavenger mech arrives and immediately attacks the Pope’s enormous Flesh Mountain, cutting through its tentacles with a spectral-blue scythe.
• Bai Zhu blocks the mech’s next strike, protecting the Pope duplicate because his quest still requires the red-paper object attached to it.
• The mech’s scans classify Bai Zhu as a negligible threat. His Forced Zetsu appears to fool Anvil Enterprises’ technology as well as Nen users, allowing the Scavenger to ignore him.
• Bai Zhu tries to seize or destroy the red paper, but the supervisor activates a field that forcibly pulls it off the Pope duplicate and stores it in his case. The supervisor identifies it as “Experimental Subject D-04,” a successfully retrieved core sample.
• Bai Zhu realizes the Scavenger is recording the fighters’ techniques and performance data—not simply fighting—so Anvil can use them to improve the mech. He warns Milluki.
• Hisoka restrains the Scavenger briefly with Bungee Gum, then withdraws. Without its core, the Flesh Mountain becomes inert and begins to rot.
• The supervisor thanks the group for serving as testers, then declares them unnecessary and orders their elimination. The Scavenger targets Bai Zhu.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu moves from confidence that he can exploit the mech’s blind spot to frustration when the core is taken, then quickly shifts to analysis and warns Milluki about the mech’s true purpose. His apparent invisibility to scans becomes a tactical advantage—but may not protect him now that the supervisor has ordered his death.
• Milluki is initially thrilled by the mech, then turns pale as he understands that the group has been used to generate combat data.
• Hisoka watches the battle with amusement, briefly fights the Scavenger, and restrains it without trying to destroy it.
• The supervisor remains courteous and composed while directing the retrieval and revealing Anvil’s willingness to exploit and discard its “testers.”
• The Scavenger ignores Bai Zhu when its scan labels him harmless, but later turns on him under the supervisor’s command.

Significant themes

• Surveillance and data extraction: The battle is a live experiment, with the mech recording its opponents.
• Dehumanization: The supervisor treats powerful fighters as disposable test subjects.
• Misclassification as protection: Bai Zhu’s Forced Zetsu lets him evade detection, though that advantage has limits.
• Control versus agency: Bai Zhu’s carefully timed plan is defeated when the supervisor’s retrieval system takes the core, shifting the scene from a contest over the prize to a fight for survival.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• The Overseer halts the Scavenger before it can kill Bai Zhu, deciding to gather one final set of combat data. He releases the red-paper Experimental Subject D-04 under the master case’s control, intending it to attack the group while he studies its performance.
• D-04 breaks into countless blade-like fragments and slips through Bai Zhu’s Dankū barrier. It targets Camilla, whose replica case makes her register as another “master.” Bai Zhu’s Raikōhō fails: the creature absorbs the energy and grows more vivid.
• The Scavenger keeps Hisoka occupied, while D-04 devours Milluki’s mechanical insects. The group is forced onto the defensive.
• Camilla discovers that her replica case interferes with the Overseer’s master case. Though she initially wants to keep this advantage for her own political ambitions, Bai Zhu persuades her to use it. She pushes the replica to maximum output, briefly disrupting D-04’s suppression.
• Milluki fails to hack D-04’s heavily protected network but secretly plants a data marker and learns the location of the master case’s highest control node.
• Bai Zhu exploits Camilla’s opening and strikes D-04 with Ryūjin Jakka. The creature is terrified by the heat, but the Overseer forcibly recalls it and begins an accelerated Refining Process, announcing a three-minute countdown.
• Bai Zhu responds by pulling the head of the Creation Society’s Pope from his backpack, setting up an unexpected next move.

Character developments

• Bai Zhu stays composed under mounting pressure, coordinating the group and recognizing that Camilla’s discovery must be used immediately. His effective fire attack reveals a vulnerability in D-04.
• Camilla shifts from self-preservation and political calculation to taking a dangerous, decisive role. Her replica case becomes crucial to the group’s survival.
• Milluki demonstrates technical ingenuity despite failing to take control of D-04. His covert data marker and stolen location information may prove valuable.
• The Overseer loses his calm for the first time when his control system is disrupted. He responds by recalling D-04 and accelerating the process.
• Hisoka is held back by the Scavenger, limiting his ability to assist the others.

Significant themes

• Control and resistance: D-04 is forced to obey the Overseer but resists its leash; the group, in turn, searches for ways to break the Overseer’s control.
• Cooperation under pressure: The trio’s different abilities—Camilla’s equipment, Milluki’s hacking, and Bai Zhu’s combat strength—combine to create an opening.
• Self-interest versus trust: Camilla’s desire to reserve her discovery for future advantage conflicts with the immediate need to help the group.
• Power and vulnerability: D-04 appears nearly unstoppable, yet the interaction between the two cases and its fear of heat expose weaknesses.

Character interactions

• Bai Zhu pushes Camilla to stop hoarding her discovery and make her move, forcing her to choose between future leverage and present survival.
• Camilla’s interference creates the opening Bai Zhu needs to attack D-04.
• Milluki’s attempted hack cannot defeat the system outright, but his covert work complements Bai Zhu and Camilla’s efforts.
• The Overseer treats the group as test subjects; Bai Zhu’s attack turns that experiment against him and provokes the Overseer’s first openly hostile response.

Plot and key events

• Bai Zhu learns from the captured Pope’s head that Anvil Enterprises’ box is refining D-04 and the Pope’s clone. In less than an hour, it will extract and transmit the Pope’s research data through their link.
• The Pope reveals the box’s weakness: D-04’s core is a sheet of paper hidden deep inside its body, and extreme heat can destroy it. Destroying D-04 before refinement finishes would also ruin Anvil’s operation.
• Bai Zhu assigns three tasks: Hisoka will distract and fight the Scavenger mech; Milluki will disrupt the data-upload system using a backdoor he planted; Camilla will interfere with the refinement box using her imitation device.
• Camilla agrees in exchange for a share of D-04’s remains. Bai Zhu accepts, and the group splits up. Hisoka draws the mech away, while Milluki sends his Mechanical Beetles through an underground tunnel toward the server room.
• Camilla’s device disrupts the box’s scarlet patterns, allowing Bai Zhu to charge it with Ryujin Jakka. Just as he is about to strike, Milluki warns him to stop: he has found an encrypted S-class file in the upload stream. Its retrieval priority is higher than D-04’s, and it concerns an unknown energy sample from the Port District battlefield—the person whose scans registered as blank.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu stays practical and unsentimental, using the Pope’s panic for information and quickly turning it into a three-part plan. He negotiates easily with Camilla and coordinates his allies under pressure, but Milluki’s discovery makes him pause before destroying the box.
• The Pope abandons his former pride and begs Bai Zhu to save him, offering the box’s weakness and information about the data link. His fear reveals that his own allies in the Creation Society would discard him once he became useless.
• Hisoka eagerly accepts the chance to fight the Scavenger, treating the powerful mech as an entertaining opponent and potential source of copied fighting techniques.
• Milluki takes pride in his hacking and network access, but his confidence gives way to alarm when he discovers the unexpected S-class file.
• Camilla initially hesitates, recognizing that her imitation box is her leverage. She secures a share of the remains before agreeing to help.
• The team’s alliance is transactional but cooperative: Bai Zhu assigns roles, each member pursues a personal interest, and they act together against Anvil Enterprises.

Significant themes

• Pragmatism and survival: Bai Zhu focuses on useful information and achievable objectives rather than revenge or sympathy.
• Power through information: The battle is driven not only by physical threats but by data, hidden files, and control of the upload system.
• Self-interest and uneasy cooperation: The characters work together while negotiating rewards and pursuing their own goals.
• Escalating mystery: The S-class file suggests that the person scanned as a “data blank” may be a more important target than D-04, abruptly complicating Bai Zhu’s plan.

Key plot points

• Bai Zhu recognizes the red markings around the box as a system for collecting samples and realizes Anvil’s recovery team deliberately baited him. When the Overseer orders a live capture, Bai Zhu uses two spells to disable three pursuers, then escapes with Camilla rather than reveal more of his abilities.
• The Pope’s head explains that the rotting flesh is a catalyst needed to refine the box’s contents. Since Anvil must collect and transport it first, the refinement—and its one-hour countdown—will be delayed.
• Milluki reports that Anvil considers Bai Zhu’s seemingly absent power readings evidence of a hidden masking ability. The organization’s priority is the fire-bearing blade, Ryujin Jakka, which it believes is the true sample. Bai Zhu privately realizes they can never permanently take it from him.
• Milluki’s map of the infected points to the area beneath the Financial Center, not the Observation Tower, as their destination. The tower’s tip appears to relay the Hive’s signal, while the Financial Center is the source. Camilla adds that the box once needed a city-scale power grid; the Pope concludes the consort intends to use the city’s resonance field as furnace fire.
• The group heads underground toward the Financial Center. Bai Zhu blocks side passages and kills the most dangerous infected, protecting those still alive rather than clearing them all, despite Camilla’s impatience.
• In the Financial Center’s basement server room, Milluki discovers that 70 percent of the data has already been sent to Anvil headquarters. He proposes corrupting the remaining transmission, but needs higher-level access. While searching, he finds a directory named according to Zoldyck family conventions—specifically, the style used by his eldest brother, Illumi.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu proves cautious and strategic: he avoids a direct fight, guards his abilities, and turns toward the larger threat once he understands the box’s purpose. His concern for the infected shows compassion beneath his dry humor and self-preservation.
• Camilla questions his retreat and later argues that he should eliminate all the infected. Bai Zhu’s insistence on sparing those who can still walk changes her response; she drops the argument and follows his lead.
• Milluki provides crucial intelligence and takes the lead on hacking, but the discovery of Illumi’s directory visibly unsettles him.
• The Pope’s head clarifies the refinement process and helps the group understand Anvil’s plan, though Bai Zhu responds to its complaints with a slap to the backpack.
• The Overseer and recovery team treat Bai Zhu as a specimen to capture and study, rather than as a person.

Significant themes

• Control and exploitation: Anvil seeks to classify, capture, and harvest Bai Zhu, the blade, and the infected.
• Strategic restraint: Bai Zhu survives by withholding information and choosing his battles rather than demonstrating everything he can do.
• Compassion amid crisis: His decision to spare the still-functioning infected contrasts with Camilla’s more pragmatic approach.
• Escalating stakes and hidden connections: The threat expands from a local refinement operation to a city-powered network and a data leak, while the link to Illumi hints that the Zoldyck family may be involved.

Key events

• Milluki confirms that Illumi secretly sold the Hive technology and left a hidden backdoor, while the family concealed the truth from him. The betrayal enrages him, and Bai Zhu urges him to use the backdoor against his brother.
• Milluki gains access to about thirty percent of the city’s Hive base stations and cuts their power, slowing the Main Box’s refinement process. He also prepares forged data packets to mislead the system, including fabricated Hisoka footage and a false trail pointing to the Mariana Trench.
• Camilla tries to copy data from her imitation box but cancels most of the transfer after Bai Zhu warns that Anvil Enterprises could detect it.
• The Pope explains that D--04 will be most vulnerable during the fourth stage of its six-stage refinement, when its core is removed and reinserted.
• Milluki uncovers “Plan B”: a purge protocol involving liquid nitrogen, the city’s power grid, and a low-orbit kinetic-strike satellite called Anvil. Whether the retrieval mission fails or the test ends normally, the plan would destroy the Port District, Financial Center, infected people, and the city.
• The Overseer detects the intrusion, recalls Scavenger to defend the Main Box, and orders nearby nanorobot-implanted civilians to form a human barricade.
• Scavenger abandons its fight with Hisoka. Hisoka, annoyed but intrigued, follows it toward the Financial Center using Bungee Gum.
• As Milluki prepares another data injection, the Overseer appears to notice the intruders through the surveillance feed and activates a physical switch. The purge countdown abruptly drops to ten minutes, and the summoned civilians stop and open their mouths in unison.

Character developments and interactions

• Milluki shifts from wounded disbelief to focused anger, using his technical skills against the system that excluded and deceived him. Bai Zhu does not console him; instead, he channels Milluki’s resentment into action.
• Bai Zhu remains observant and strategic. He notices Illumi’s recent login but keeps that information to himself, and he quietly warns Camilla that her copying attempt may expose her.
• Camilla prioritizes protecting her imitation box, but her attempted data theft shows she is still seeking information despite the danger.
• The Pope provides crucial intelligence about D--04’s vulnerability and bargains for a longer neck in return.
• Hisoka is irritated when Scavenger interrupts their fight, but quickly turns the disruption into an opportunity to pursue it.
• The Overseer responds to the intrusion with escalating force, moving from suspicion to a drastic emergency purge.

Significant themes

• Betrayal and exclusion: Milluki’s anger comes less from lost money than from being treated as an outsider by his own family.
• Control and resistance: The heroes exploit hidden access, forged data, and infrastructure weaknesses, while the Overseer counters with surveillance, coercion, and force.
• Disposable lives: The purge plan reveals that civilians and testers are considered expendable, and that the experiment’s apparent success would not guarantee anyone’s survival.
• Escalating time pressure: The refinement and purge deadlines leave the group with only minutes to act—and the sudden ten-minute countdown makes the danger immediate.

Key plot points and events

• The Emergency Broadcast announces that testing is over and all testers are to await disposal. With only ten minutes left in the Purge Protocol, Bai Zhu decides to head for the Core Furnace rather than preserve his strength.
• He leaves Milluki to keep feeding false data into the system and pushes through a corridor guarded by the Recovery Team. Bai Zhu easily defeats their traps, then tricks them into containing an empty case while secretly keeping his flaming sword. He freezes the squad by rupturing their liquid-nitrogen tanks.
• Camilla steals a Biological Beacon reader from a frozen team member. Back in the server room, she uses the imitation box to disrupt the Main Box, while Bai Zhu identifies the duplicate’s core as its still-human left chest. His lightning cannot penetrate the protective membrane.
• The Overseer shoots Camilla, but Bai Zhu heals her with a spell. Meanwhile, Milluki reports that Anvil headquarters has accepted the first batch of forged data as valid.
• A Scavenger mech crashes through the ceiling and attacks Bai Zhu. Hisoka intervenes, restraining the mech long enough for Bai Zhu to pursue the core; Hisoka claims the “new toy” for himself.
• Camilla disrupts the Main Box again. The duplicate’s eyes suddenly lock onto Bai Zhu, and the system finally visualizes him as an S-class sample. The Overseer watches him approach with renewed fanaticism.

Character developments

• Bai Zhu commits to the dangerous mission despite the cost, relying on quick thinking and precise spells rather than unleashing his most powerful ability. He also shows concern for Camilla by healing her immediately.
• Camilla acts under fire, using the imitation box to create openings and risking injury to help expose the core. Her theft of the beacon reader adds another useful tool to the team.
• Milluki successfully turns Illumi’s backdoor into a major advantage, deceiving Anvil headquarters with forged data.
• Hisoka eagerly engages the Scavenger mech, treating the fight as entertainment while giving Bai Zhu a chance to proceed.
• The Overseer shifts from contemptuous confidence to alarm and then renewed, dangerous fascination once the system detects Bai Zhu.

Significant themes

• Deception and misdirection: Bai Zhu’s empty-case trick and Milluki’s forged packets exploit the enemy’s reliance on its own systems.
• Power versus perception: Although the scanner reads Bai Zhu as having no energy, his abilities make him a threat the system cannot understand—until the duplicate begins sensing him.
• Sacrifice and urgency: The shrinking countdown forces the group to accept risk and act before they know whether their plans will work.
• Control and intrusion: The Main Box governs the hive network, but the team’s interference reveals vulnerabilities in that control.

Character interactions

• Bai Zhu delegates the data attack to Milluki while he heads toward the core; Milluki later reports the successful deception.
• Camilla and Bai Zhu coordinate their assault: she disrupts the Main Box, and he uses the brief gaps to inspect and attack the duplicate.
• Hisoka takes on the mech so Bai Zhu can continue toward the core.
• The Overseer’s attempts to track and eliminate Bai Zhu fail until the duplicate itself begins locating him, setting up a more direct confrontation.