BOSS Appears

"You can't do it. Once you've been hit by my Dark Grief, forget killing anyone—even staying on your feet will be extremely difficult." Maha's aged, raspy voice rang out again. For the first time, the alien-looking old man revealed a confident smile.

"There's no such thing as impossible in my dictionary. I'm taking both your arms." Clutching his wound, Meruem gritted his teeth. A black, crystalline substance had already appeared over the earlier wound.

So this is the Dark Grief Maha mentioned? Meruem could tell that, despite Maha making it sound so sinister, this thing did not possess the power to kill him.

The moment Meruem finished speaking, he launched an attack on Maha with incredible speed.

"Then let's see if you can." At the same time, Maha vanished into thin air. I may be unable to face you head-on, but if all I have to do is evade, then as the world's strongest assassin, I'm confident I can manage that. Die in endless humiliation, monster.

Is this the legendary Shadow Escape ability that all assassins possess?

"Nothing but a cheap trick. Besides, even if I can't kill you, do you really not care about Zeno and Silva's lives?" Meruem continuously searched for Maha's trail. The instant he found even the slightest trace of him, Maha would be dead.

Yet Meruem's threat received no reply. Maha seemed to have truly disappeared.

"For so-called assassins and killers, every mission is carried out with the mindset that we may be killed at any moment, so long as we can complete it. Trading our lives for yours is no losing deal." Hearing Meruem's threat, Zeno mocked him.

Willing to sacrifice their lives as long as they completed the mission? Meruem might have believed that from an assassin family in another world, but the Zoldyck Family had the nerve to talk about integrity? If their morals were worth trusting, they would not have assassinated their own employers, the Ten Elders, during the Phantom Troupe incident.

"Found you." Meruem pushed his Five Senses to their limit and vaguely sensed a trace of disturbed breathing near his shadow.

When all was said and done, this so-called world's strongest assassin was old, just like Netero. His strength was not even half of what it had been in his prime.

"I'll be taking your two arms." Meruem drifted down beside Maha like the wind and tore off both of his arms with lightning speed. "I told you—I would cripple both your arms. I always keep my word."

"Ancestor! Watch out!" Zeno's shout only reached them after it was all over. But it was too late.

"You old bastard, you've got some backbone." Even after Meruem tore both his arms apart, Maha did not make a sound. He merely glared at Meruem. If looks could kill, Meruem might already have died a hundred times over.

"I should finish all of you sooner rather than later. This has dragged on far too long." Afraid that another accident might occur, Meruem finally decided to stop playing around. Villains often had the tables turned on them in the end because they talked too much and dragged things out. He should have done this long ago.

Meruem's figure darted continuously among them. Their arms and legs were all crippled, and they were barely clinging to life. They could no longer attack. Meruem's combat power at full strength was simply terrifying.

"Die beneath Netero's signature technique—100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva - Ninety-Ninth Hand!" The enormous Guanyin Statue appeared once more, countless massive palms slamming down again and again. This time, Zeno and the others were the targets. Meruem had truly gone in for the kill. As the Buddhist palms descended, their lives finally came to an end. Simple and brutal—the lives of several of the world's strongest people had finally ended at Meruem's hands.

"Finally, it's over." After finishing everything, Meruem let out a long breath. Then he suddenly felt as though something was missing. It seemed he had forgotten something important.

"Yo, kid. You finally noticed? Remember now?" A Bearded Uncle wearing a top hat approached Meruem head-on, his frivolous voice ringing out at the same time.

"This guy was the one with Beyond and the others! Strange, why hadn't I noticed him before? It was as if I'd subconsciously ignored him." Only then did Meruem remember the strange man who had faced off against Pitou while he fought Beyond and the others.

"Right, Pitou!" Meruem hurriedly looked around and finally spotted Pitou not far away. But she looked strange. Why was she just standing there without moving?

"You're the one behind this. What exactly did you do?" Meruem frowned deeply as he stared at the Bearded Uncle. This man was definitely not simple. Not only had Meruem overlooked him, but even Zeno and the others who had arrived with him seemed to have subconsciously ignored him in the end. What kind of ability was this? It was so bizarre.

"Kid, don't be so fierce. I'm just here to borrow something from you." At some point, the Bearded Uncle had changed into a pitch-black Evening Dress. Even his image had shifted from that of a sleazy, worn-out middle-aged man into a handsome uncle.

A disguise? This look feels like something I've seen somewhere before. And why can't I sense even the slightest trace of Nen from him? Forget Nen—even this man himself feels ethereal and unreal, as if he doesn't exist at all.

Meruem could not figure out the strange man before him. This person had not existed in the original story, had he? Could he be some hidden character FJ had yet to draw?

"What do you want to borrow? Don't tell me your next line is going to be that you want my life?" Though Meruem spoke casually, he had already become alert in secret. This man's allegiance was unclear. Still, he probably was not a member of that so-called Chimera Ant extermination force. Even when Zeno and the others had been taken out by Meruem, this guy had not said a word. Damn it, Pouf and the others' battle must be nearing its end too. Hopefully, not too many of his subordinates had died.

"No, no, no. I would never do something so tasteless." The Bearded Uncle chuckled and pulled his top hat lower, just enough to hide his eyes. His expression was completely obscured, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

"Then what do you want?"

"Nothing you need. Just that treasure which can let you leave this world!" As the Bearded Uncle spoke, an inexplicable chill made every hair on Meruem's body stand on end. He had never told a single outsider about this.

Not even the Royal Guards knew. This was his greatest secret. Why did this man know? Though he called it a treasure, anyone could tell that he meant the system!

"Who exactly are you?" Meruem asked in a low voice. Yet before his words had even finished ringing out, he launched an attack at the Bearded Uncle. No matter who he was or how he had learned of it, once he knew Meruem's secret, he had to die. This man was far too dangerous.

"Oh my, kid, you really are violent." As though he had foreseen Meruem's attack, the Bearded Uncle evaded it with ease.

"I'm only borrowing something from you. But if you refuse to lend it to me..." The Bearded Uncle tilted his top hat slightly to the left, revealing a glowing red right eye and a mouthful of shark-like teeth.

"Then I'll just take it myself." A clawed arm reached for Meruem.

The Bearded Uncle was incredibly fast, but Meruem narrowly dodged. Still, five bloody marks were torn across his chest. Even Netero at full strength had been unable to break through Meruem's defenses, yet this Bearded Uncle had injured him so easily.

That speed, that attack power... this guy probably isn't human.

"No matter who you are, you die today! Hundred Demons Parade—Lord of Monsters and Demons!" A hundred ghosts and monsters of different kinds emerged behind Meruem, then fused together to become that enormous shadow with exposed eyes.

Meruem immediately attacked the Bearded Uncle again. This time, he was going all out.

"Wow, wow, wow. I thought this move looked cool before, but seeing it up close makes it even cooler." The Bearded Uncle exclaimed as he examined the giant black shadow. Yet the instant the shadow attacked him, it passed through his body as though it had struck an illusion.

Then that illusion-like thing gradually vanished from Meruem's sight.

"Where are you aiming, kid?" The Bearded Uncle's voice rang out from elsewhere, and his figure appeared along with it.

It was not a Spatial Ability. Meruem had not sensed even the slightest spatial fluctuation. What kind of move was that? He continuously searched his mind for a way to counter it. But how could he respond when he did not even know what the opponent's ability was? For a time, Meruem and the Bearded Uncle remained locked in a standoff.

"Ticktock, ticktock, ticktock. Kid, since you aren't attacking, then it's my turn, right?" The Bearded Uncle gave Meruem a sinister smile.

Damn it, who is this guy? Why do I keep feeling like I've seen him somewhere before? And I have a bad feeling about this. Damn it, how much longer until I can travel to another world? For the first time in this world, Meruem felt danger—extreme danger.

"Move, move! Hurry up and move! The King is in danger!" Not far away, Pitou sensed the same danger the Bearded Uncle posed to Meruem. She desperately tried to regain control of her body. At last, through sheer effort, a faint sensation returned to her fingers.

"Good, then! Puppet Master's Serenade!" A demon clown-like figure appeared behind Pitou. Numerous black threads emerged like puppet strings and attached themselves to her body. This was Pitou's Nen ability—Puppet Master's Serenade.

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