Investment and a promise fulfilled

Chapter 43: Investment × A promise fulfilled

"If possible, I'd like you to keep this secret for me," Joey said, voicing his thoughts.

No one in the house objected. None of them were the type to blab, after all.

Over the following hours, however, Biscuit pieced together the clues and realized that the trace of life-infused Specialist Nen did not belong to Joey himself.

That had surprised her quite a bit, and hearing about Ming only made her even more interested in Joey.

Now, she looked at Joey as though she had cut open a rough stone and unexpectedly found imperial green jade inside.

That deep gaze, brimming with greed and desire, had Joey inwardly crying that he couldn't take it.

Killua and Gon, meanwhile, kept snickering on the sidelines.

They had experienced Biscuit's teaching themselves!

But since that trace of Nen did not belong to Joey, Biscuit also gained a new perspective on his persistence.

He didn't seem so much persistent as stubborn to the point of being utterly single-minded.

No wonder he was an Emission user, Enhancement's best friend.

At midnight, Joey stopped pushing himself to stay awake. He really wasn't in any condition to keep going.

He had also realized that he had spent the entire previous day asleep.

Biscuit had arrived the previous evening after Palm called her over.

He didn't go back to his room to sleep, though. Instead, he took a shower, brought his bedding into the living room, and waited until Biscuit summoned her ability, [Magic Esthetician Cookie-chan], to give him a massage before crawling under the covers and falling asleep.

Of course, he hadn't asked for the massage service. It was Biscuit's investment in him.

Seeing promise in Joey's future, Biscuit had openly told him that she wanted to invest in him.

Her frankness made Joey feel acknowledged, so he agreed without hesitation.

As for what return she expected, Joey wasn't entirely sure. It might be friendship, or perhaps help in the future.

In any case, while Biscuit was investing in Joey, wasn't Joey also investing in Biscuit?

This arrangement benefited them both-a win-win!

Cookie-chan's massage service could eliminate Joey's fatigue, freeing up more time for training.

At the same time, Biscuit imposed a strict program of basic Nen Ability training on him.

Joey kept the Wallet close to his body at all times, so even while he slept, aura rich in vitality continued flowing into him.

While Joey slept, Killua and Gon continued practicing Ren.

According to Biscuit, they had to maintain Ren for at least three hours before they qualified to fight Knuckle.

Generally speaking, extending the time they could maintain Ren by another ten minutes required a month of dedicated training.

To reach three hours, subtracting the roughly one hour Gon and Killua could barely manage now, they still needed another two hours-a hundred and twenty minutes.

Converted into months, that could mean twelve months of training.

This was where Biscuit's ability truly shone. Her magical masseuse could compress the recovery normally provided by eight hours of sleep into a mere half hour.

In other words, after an exhausting training session, they needed only half an hour before starting the next day's training.

It squeezed out every possible moment for training.

Of course, this kind of training depended heavily on talent.

Even someone with potential couldn't increase their latent aura reserves rapidly without limit.

And without sufficient latent aura reserves, they naturally couldn't maintain Ren for long.

Waking half an hour later, Joey watched Killua and Gon and fell into thought.

Going by Kite's method of quantifying aura reserves,

Joey still consumed aura while using Ten, at a rate of around one to two points per second.

Yet from what he had observed, Killua and Gon consumed only about one point of aura while using Ren.

That was the gap between their foundations in training.

Joey even noticed that Gon and Killua consumed almost no aura while using Ten, thanks to their monstrous stamina.

Improving his physical fitness was therefore crucial for Joey right now.

His body had already been awakened to Nen. As long as he trained seriously, his stamina would enter a period of dramatic growth.

The most common way to train the body was, naturally, weighted exercise.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much equipment here. Joey shook his head, stood up, and began another round of training by releasing his Nen.

Although his goal was to develop "Gold Experience" as soon as possible, constantly releasing Nen also served as practice in Ten and Ren.

The days that followed consisted of monotonous training, eating, massages, training, massages, training, eating...

It felt as though he had fallen into a loop. On Joey's third day in town, Shiping called him.

Morel had fulfilled his original promise.

At the news, Joey froze for a moment, then his breathing grew considerably heavier.

He knew all too well what that news meant!

Turning around, he dashed outside. "Killua, Gon! Kite's back!"

The moment he finished speaking, he felt the two of them scoop him up, and the scenery around him began racing backward.

Outside the NGL checkpoint, Joey and the other two jumped down from the truck and saw Shiping wheeling Kite toward them.

Kite sat in a wheelchair, his body swathed in bandages. He was missing an arm and a leg, and even one of his eyes was covered in gauze.

Still, his overall condition didn't seem too bad. At least, when he saw the three of them, the corners of his mouth lifted into a rare smile.

"Kite!" Huge tears rolled down Gon's face as he threw himself toward him.

After meeting Kite's gaze and exchanging a nod, Joey looked behind him, but Morel and the others were nowhere to be seen.

"Her name is Neferpitou. She's powerful. I misjudged things this time." Kite gave them the name of the Chimera Ant who had taken his arm.

"No, Kite, we were too weak!" Killua's expression was filled with frustration. "If we hadn't been there..."

Kite shook his head. "I really was no match for Neferpitou. Even without you there, things wouldn't have turned out any better."

As he spoke, Kite's gaze fell on Joey's severed wrist. "I also owe Joey a great deal for his ability and the Map. Without those two helping me, I might already be dead."

They then helped Kite onto the truck and listened to the story of his escape.

In truth, the whole story was quite simple.

After Joey lost his hand, the unleashed Heartbreaker Attack went on a rampage. Contact or proximity-as soon as its conditions were met, Heartbreaker Attack would immediately explode.

Its power was also greater than when Joey had been controlling it.

It was as though it contained an infinite store of Nen.

But during his fight with Neferpitou, Kite gradually realized that Chariot's existence was the product of some kind of vows and limitations.

Its explosions weren't powered by an infinite store of Nen. They were the result of fulfilling a certain condition.

Now, seeing Joey's missing hand, he understood.

That condition was the loss of Joey's hand.

Even without knowing that at the time, Kite had instantly identified ways to stop Chariot's explosions.

First, kill Chariot's owner, Joey.

Second, destroy Chariot completely.

Third, perform Nen exorcism on Chariot.