The Law of Survival X and X So-Called "Art"

On a night three days later.

Qi Zhou had eaten less than half of the dry rations in his hand when he suddenly frowned.

Someone was approaching.

Extremely fast.

That couldn't be... The place he had chosen was already a long way from that settlement-

Qi Zhou rushed out of his garbage nest, and the next second, a mountain of trash came crashing down on him.

Countless pieces of trash smashed into the spot where Qi Zhou had been standing. After landing, he fixed his gaze on the man standing atop the garbage heap that had been leveled.

The man wore a white shirt and jeans. He looked at Qi Zhou with a vicious gaze, his eyes filled with the interest of someone who had spotted prey and the excitement of a hunt.

Qi Zhou's heart sank.

The man said, "Not bad, kid. You've got Nen at such a young age-that's a surprise. No wonder Old Ghost and the others died."

This man had mentioned "Nen."

Qi Zhou's expression darkened.

"Gyo."

After gathering aura in his eyes, he saw the "Ten" enveloping the man.

"Ah, I wonder how long you'll last, brat." A bloodthirsty look flashed in the man's eyes. "This is really... exciting!"

Bang!

Before the man had finished speaking, he appeared in front of Qi Zhou. He was so fast that Qi Zhou couldn't react even with Gyo. He only had time to raise his arms to block the blow before he was sent flying backward into the garbage heap behind him.

"Cough, cough... cough, cough..."

The garbage heap collapsed with a crash, burying Qi Zhou.

"Ah, this place makes a decent grave for you. Trash should die in a garbage heap, after all."

The man's voice drifted over.

A fireball hurtled toward him, but he dodged it with ease.

The man jeered, "Kid, was that a firework you just set off? Pretty! Hahahaha!"

Clenching his fists, Qi Zhou dug his way out of the garbage heap that had buried him. Looking at the firelight in the distance, his expression grew graver than ever.

"...My Nen attacks are slower than I am... There's no way an attack like that could work."

And from just that one punch, he could tell that the man's physical abilities and combat experience were absolutely beyond what he could handle right now.

The man stared at Qi Zhou, savoring his grave expression, and the corners of his mouth curled up. "What, is the fireworks show over?"

"Then it's my turn to attack-"

The instant those murderous words reached him, the man vanished from where he stood.

Qi Zhou's pupils contracted sharply. In an instant, Nen gathered inside him and burst outward, the blast of aura flattening the nearby garbage mountains and pushing the man, who had been a hair's breadth away, back.

In the next instant, Qi Zhou concentrated Nen in his legs and sped off in a certain direction.

"Kid! Where are you running?! Be good and die! I'll leave your corpse intact-hahahaha!!!"

The man behind him gave chase at an incredible speed, laughing cruelly.

As he ran, Qi Zhou set the surrounding garbage heaps ablaze, then used Nen to send burning trash flying through the air. He used the shadows of the unburned garbage to conceal himself.

But... no matter how dazzling the flames filling the sky were, the man stayed a little over twenty meters behind him, enjoying the thrill of pursuing his prey.

In less than a minute, Qi Zhou had run a full kilometer.

Qi Zhou gradually slowed down-as though he were exhausted.

The man shouted with a vicious grin, "Kid! Tired from setting off fireworks? Keep going! I haven't had my fill yet!"

Gasping for breath, Qi Zhou once again set the surrounding garbage alight and sent it flying. Trash filled the sky, trailing flames everywhere.

"The same trick again?! Kid! No matter where you hide, it's no use!"

He ignored the flames filling the sky. All that flashy stuff couldn't affect him at all. His eyes held the bloodthirsty look of a cat toying with a mouse. To him, the Nen around Qi Zhou was the best guide to his location.

He leaped up, then vanished, grabbing Qi Zhou out of the air and landing heavily on the garbage mountain beneath him.

But what he felt in his hand was nothing like-

The man's expression changed abruptly. All he had in his hand was a wooden plank longer than a person...

The garbage mountain beneath his feet began to shake. Before he could react, a column of fire shot into the sky, and the violent explosion sounded as though it could be heard throughout Meteor City.

After the thunderous blast and the column of fire, charred fragments of garbage slowly drifted down. The entire garbage mountain where the man had stood had been blasted flat, leaving only a round crater.

Qi Zhou stood on another garbage mountain, looking at the deep crater nearby.

Qi Zhou had found more than a dozen empty nuclear waste drums, removed their tops and bottoms, and welded them together with fire.

Then he stuffed the drums with all kinds of rotten fruit and vegetable leaves, every dead animal carcass he could find, and chemical waste picked up from District Twelve, throwing the whole mess inside.

Next, he heated the outside of the drums with fire to speed up the decomposition of their contents. He added polluted water from the river in District Twelve, found a thin sheet of metal, and sealed the drums.

Finally, he buried the whole container in a garbage heap, packed hard trash tightly around it, and piled dark, heat-conductive garbage on top, leaving it exposed to the sun for three days.

Qi Zhou guessed that the man could use Gyo to pinpoint his location, perhaps by looking not at him, but at the Ten around him.

So Qi Zhou had kept using Nen to sweep up garbage and set it alight, using the flames filling the sky to hide his position. He knew it was useless, but his real aim was to make the man think that was his only trick and that he had no idea Nen could be suppressed.

Next, he picked up a plank roughly the same size as himself and coated it with Nen. It was a skill he had learned over the past few days, though he could only cover it with a thin layer, which wasn't much use.

Finally, as he threw the plank, he completely suppressed his Nen.

If the man focused only on the Ten around him, then amid the firelight and the burning garbage flying everywhere, his habitual thinking would make it impossible for him to tell what was actually covered in Ten.

Qi Zhou admitted he had taken a gamble. Even the most meticulous plan could go wrong, but fortunately, his luck was good this time. The man sped toward the plank just as he had before.

To reduce the chances of the plan failing, Qi Zhou had also dropped enough hints during his escape: slowing down, coughing, gasping for breath. Everything was meant to amuse the man, suggesting that the game was ready to end and letting excitement take over his mind, so he wouldn't think too carefully.

Just as Qi Zhou had hoped, the man grabbed the plank and naturally landed on the garbage mountain.

Meanwhile, Qi Zhou took advantage of the few seconds the man spent stunned after discovering he had caught only a plank. He coated a stone in Nen fire and used Gyo on his wrist, giving the stone enough force to pass through layers of garbage, pierce the container, and ignite the methane inside.

After the flames shot skyward, the dust settled, and the outcome was decided.

Qi Zhou looked into the deep crater. The man inside had been blown beyond recognition.

Qi Zhou used Gyo and stared at the man in the crater for a long time. Only when he saw no sign of the man's Ten did he jump down without worry and slowly walk over to him.

"He's definitely dead, all right."

After examining the corpse, Qi Zhou stared at him and murmured softly.

He had thought he would throw up when he got close to the corpse, but unexpectedly, he didn't.

Knowing someone wanted to kill him, how could he have made no preparations at all?

He had prepared, so he knew-either he would die, or he would kill someone.

Ah, this time, he really had killed someone.

But why... didn't he feel... disgusted or upset at all?

Qi Zhou thought that was probably because, just like this world, he was broken.