It was late at night, and everyone was lost in sweet dreams. Even the doctors and nurses at Aiboka Psychiatric Hospital slept especially soundly that night.
There was only one reason: tomorrow was the day the madman Cordis Paipai would be executed!
Cordis Paipai was a psychiatric patient of the twenty-first century who had repeatedly slaughtered innocent people in the name of justice.
Whenever children misbehaved, adults would frighten them with a lie.
"Sweetheart, if you keep crying like that, that devil Cordis will come and drag you down to hell."
Even the children passed around rhymes they had made up themselves.
"Cordis, Cordis, a demon crawled out of hell. Meet him, and he'll skin you and rip out your tendons~"
But fortunately, not long ago, some thrilling news had arrived!
Cordis Paipai!
That man had been caught two days earlier!
And tomorrow was the day that devil would be executed. The demon who slaughtered innocents indiscriminately had finally received the punishment he deserved. He would pay for everything he had done!
Everyone who heard the news shed silent tears. Even the priest at the church recited the Bible for three days straight after learning about it.
While everyone at Aiboka was still fast asleep, a piercing alarm rang throughout the psychiatric hospital, accompanied by an eerie red glow.
Everyone jolted awake, and the director's aged voice came over the loudspeakers.
"Psychiatric inmate number 221, name: Cordis Paipai, has escaped from his prison ward."
"Danger level: [data deleted]!"
"Bu’ao Du! Contact the prison guards, now!"
Bu’ao Du was the director's assistant and apprentice. The moment he heard the alarm, he had gotten fully dressed and contacted the prison guards before the director even gave the order.
Taking the handgun he always carried, he left his room. Beneath the flickering red lights, Bu’ao Du made his way to Cordis's prison ward.
The room before him was the highest-security prison on all of Blue Star. Its four walls were made of solid iron plates joined together, and the only way to see inside was through the surveillance feed in the control room.
Looking at the surveillance feed of Cordis's cell, Bu’ao Du could only find it unbelievable. How had that man escaped from a place like this?
Could it really be as those people said?
That man was a demon from hell, and hell had taken him back.
Bu’ao Du did not believe in ghosts or gods, but only a demon could explain what he was seeing.
Just then, several beams of light flashed behind Bu’ao Du. When they faded, an eyeball the size of a human head appeared behind him. Strangely, however, Bu’ao Du paid no attention to the enormous eyeball.
Or rather, Bu’ao Du could not see it.
The eyeball stared intently at the surveillance feed before it. When it found no one inside, a flicker of disappointment crossed its eye.
Then it dissolved into several beams of light and vanished again.
[Searching for Cordis Paipai...] [xx residential complex, unit x, building x]
In an instant, the head-sized eyeball appeared outside a small, elegant villa.
The villa's front door stood slightly ajar, and light from inside spilled through the gap onto the clean concrete outside. At the sight, the entire eyeball radiated an ominous air.
Ignoring the door, the eyeball passed straight through it. The first thing it saw was a muscular, blond-haired, blue-eyed man collapsed by the entrance with his neck twisted 180 degrees.
The shock he had felt in life still lingered on his face. Death had not even given him time to close his eyes.
The eyeball glanced impassively at the dead man by the entrance, then floated farther inside.
Upon entering the living room, it immediately saw a woman in pajamas pinned to the wall by several steel nails driven through her throat.
The woman appeared to still be alive. She struggled desperately to pull the nails out of her throat, but they had already pierced straight through her neck and were firmly embedded in the wall.
No matter how she clawed at them, it was useless.
Within a few seconds, the woman died on the wall with a wretched expression on her face.
The culprit behind it all sat on a nearby sofa in blue-and-white hospital clothes, swaying from side to side as he watched the television with relish, even chuckling every so often.
His silvery-white, shoulder-length hair swayed along with him.
His azure eyes, in particular, were so beautiful on their own. Yet somehow, paired with his face, they inspired an indescribable dread.
Both were exquisitely beautiful, so why did putting them together feel so strange?
[Cordis Paipai, due to your overwhelming strength, the higher-ups have decided:] [You will be permanently banished from the parallel world known as Blue Star.]
Those words caught Cordis's attention. He stopped swaying and turned his head, fixing his azure eyes on the eyeball.
Cordis grinned as he regarded the talking eyeball with fascination.
His gaze was so innocent and endearing. His snowy-white skin gleamed like a freshly polished precious gem.
Cute, innocent, pure-that was the eyeball's assessment of Cordis.
Though those descriptions were a little strange for a man.
But that was about the extent of the knowledge the eyeball had acquired since its birth.
"Where will I go after I leave?" Cordis asked.
[There are many parallel worlds in the universe: apocalyptic worlds, interstellar worlds, cultivation worlds, even worlds with Superman...]
Cordis got off the sofa and circled the eyeball several times. He reached out to touch it, only for his hand to pass straight through its body.
Apparently, the eyeball had no physical form.
Cordis raised a hand to his lips and said with a troubled expression, "But... I don't like any of those."
That left the eyeball in a difficult position.
"Then... which world do you want to go to?"
After thinking for a while, Cordis pointed at the television. "I want to go to that world." His azure eyes sparkled as he spoke.
The eyeball looked in the direction Cordis was pointing.
The Hunter x Hunter anime was playing on the television.
"Did you escape from prison just to watch this?"
"Of course! I'm a devoted Hunter x Hunter fan. That old bastard Togashi finally released an update, so I had to come watch it!"
Cordis blinked those eyes of his, which seemed capable of drawing out a person's soul, as he looked at the eyeball.
At the sight, the eyeball instinctively turned away. "Since you've made your choice, I'll transport you to Hunter x Hunter now."
"Good luck."
The moment it finished speaking, Cordis blinked and found himself in a dim alley.
An unpleasant stench of blood kept wafting through the air around him.
He looked down!
Around a dozen people lay dead on the ground, their faces contorted in horror.
Cordis found it utterly fascinating. He looked around, hoping to find the culprit behind all this.
"Oh my~ There's still a little apple alive~"
Yahoo! Hunter x Hunter!
Here I come!
Before you continue