Plan Three X Vincent X Battle

Qi Zhou quickly surveyed the basement. There were no blind spots or obstacles, yet he couldn't see a single person.

Not only was the man who had just spoken nowhere to be seen, but Bayer and his subordinate, who had entered earlier, were also nowhere in sight.

"How could this be...?"

The situation was so far beyond reason that Qi Zhou's entire body tensed in an instant.

The man's mocking voice drifted into his ears. "Looks like the White Eagle Society is running out of people and about to fall apart. You're even taking in a little brat like this?"

Qi Zhou ignored him and slowly concentrated his Ten, guarding against a sneak attack that could come at any moment. As he gathered his strength, he pondered, Could it be an invisibility ability?

As he thought, his ear twitched. A gunshot rang out, and a bullet whistled through the air from behind him at an angle, heading straight for his temple.

In the next instant, Qi Zhou gathered his strength and stepped aside to dodge. The bullet flew past him and struck the wall.

Qi Zhou's gaze darkened. He stomped the floor to pieces and darted to the spot where the shot had come from. Nen fire gathered around his fist, and he slashed out fiercely with his palm-

A streak of fire shot from his knife-hand, trailing a long tail. It exploded with a bang, as if it had hit something, and as the Nen fire burst, there was a dull thud like something striking the wall.

But Qi Zhou stared at the spot where the thud had come from and still saw nothing.

I definitely hit something. But... there's no blood, and I can't see what I hit, or the dirt that should have fallen when it struck the wall.

Qi Zhou stared at the distant wall, then looked back at where the bullet had landed. Likewise, there was no bullet hole where one should have been.

"It's not invisibility." A cold glint flashed in Qi Zhou's eyes as he reached a conclusion. "If it were just invisibility, it couldn't possibly change what I see."

A sharp, chilling voice came from behind him. "Oh my, not bad."

"Judging by that look on your face, have you figured something out? What a shame. I can't keep playing games with you, then."

The moment the words reached his ears, Qi Zhou's left eye turned silver-blue. His fist, wreathed in Nen fire, swung out again and slammed hard into something.

The recoil forced him back a small step, but he also heard something that had likewise been knocked back strike the wall.

"Ugh..." The man grunted, recovered, then let out a sinister laugh full of killing intent. "Oh my, the little guy's fists pack quite a punch. I'm starting to get a little interested."

Qi Zhou surveyed his surroundings again. This time, he used Gyo, but still saw nothing.

...This is troublesome. I still can't find him even with Gyo. Is it because he withdrew his Nen?

Qi Zhou shook his head, dismissing the idea. No, that can't be right. He shouldn't be able to withdraw his Nen and use a Nen Ability at the same time.

So what kind of ability does this person have?

In a flash, Qi Zhou considered countless possibilities, but in the end they all came back to one point-

Ever since he entered the basement, he hadn't seen Bayer or his subordinate. Even if the two were already dead, it was unlikely their bodies would have vanished without a trace in such a short time.

Besides that, he had struck the enemy twice, yet had seen no trace of the fighting.

So this man's Nen Ability-

It isn't invisibility, but creating illusions. He erases what I see and replaces it with whatever he wants me to see.

Qi Zhou held his breath, sensing for the next attack, which could come from any angle.

So my perception has already been affected by the illusion. Even if I'm looking straight ahead, it could be changed to what's behind me. There was nothing in the direction I used Gyo to look in to begin with, so there was no way I could see him.

"Oh my, looks like you've figured it out."

The man's chilling voice sounded beside his ear. "In that case, I can't keep playing with you."

As he spoke, a flash of a blade, as chilling and vicious as a venomous snake and filled with bone-deep killing intent, slashed down at Qi Zhou's back.

Qi Zhou raised a hand and threw a fireball to block it. But the fireball passed through the flash of the blade and hit empty space, exploding with a bang.

This is bad!

Qi Zhou was shaken to his core. He felt the shadow of death closing over him and stomped hard enough to shatter the stone tiles beneath his feet. Using the force to twist aside, he narrowly dodged the blade descending from above, though its edge left a long, narrow cut in his coat sleeve.

The Nen-coated blade struck the ground, cracking large stone slabs and sending fragments flying.

"Tch." The man's sinister voice echoed. "You're pretty good at dodging, kid. But how many times can you dodge?"

Qi Zhou answered with silence.

The enemy in the dark could change the direction from which the "attack" appeared to come, then sneak attack him from the exact opposite direction.

Even if the enemy's attacks weren't particularly fast, if this continued until his energy was exhausted, he would still fall beneath the enemy's blade.

What should I do...?

Qi Zhou thought, suppressing his stray thoughts and his fear of death. He focused completely on every change and sound around him, alert for the blade that could appear at any moment.

Gyo can see Nen, but I have to use my eyes. Is there a technique that would let me see Nen without using my eyes?

When Ten covers the surface of my body, my body's perception is greatly enhanced. What if I expand the range of my Ten?! Could I sense things within its range too?!

Was there anything among the techniques he had mastered that could increase the range of his Ten?

Something occurred to Qi Zhou. Then he closed his eyes. With his sight abandoned, his Ten became more sensitive instead.

He used Ten, then released the Nen inside his body, as if inflating a balloon, until the balloon was full and round, reaching the limit of what he could manage.

He stood at the center of this balloon, which was about one meter in diameter. Within the area filled with aura, just as he had imagined, he could "see" everything more clearly than he could with his eyes.

His eyes were closed, yet he "saw" a conspicuously bright Nen behind him, about to draw near-

"What's wrong, kid? Why aren't you struggling anymore?"

Along with the chilling voice, a flash of a blade slashed straight down at his face.

Qi Zhou suddenly opened his eyes and faced the attack without moving an inch.

The flash of the blade reached him in an instant, but when it landed on him, it vanished in the blink of an eye like snow falling on hot coals. Just as he had sensed, the attack was nothing but an illusion.

The corners of Qi Zhou's mouth curled up, and he smiled.

The illusory blade had slashed down at him head-on, forcing him to retreat. If he had actually stepped back, he would undoubtedly have run straight into the real blade, just as the man wanted.

"Got you!"

Qi Zhou shouted, his fist, which he had kept at his side while gathering strength, filling with all the Nen in his body and igniting with Nen fire. He smashed it viciously to his side.

His fist struck empty air, yet a red-haired man flew backward out of the void and crashed heavily to the floor. Even as he lay there, badly wounded and coughing up blood, he still couldn't understand why the ability he was so proud of had been overcome by this child in an instant.

The red-haired man's blade fell to one side, but he had no attention to spare for it. His narrowed eyes fixed viciously on Qi Zhou, his face full of shock, anger, and unwillingness. Then, when Qi Zhou looked at him indifferently, deep fear appeared on his face.

He wanted to get up, but his body was so badly injured that he no longer had the strength to rise, or even to speak.

Qi Zhou stood where he was and surveyed his surroundings again.

The scene before his eyes changed the moment his enemy was gravely wounded and defeated.

Bayer's subordinate, the first to enter, lay in the middle of the basement, shot between the eyebrows, his eyes still open in death.

Bayer, who had entered second, had been shot in the shoulder and lay in a corner, his life or death unknown.

Qi Zhou looked away and slowly walked over to the red-haired man, looking down at him.

He bent over and, under the man's terrified gaze, reached toward his neck and made a light slash.

Blood spattered.

Qi Zhou withdrew his hand, stood up, and stared at the man he had killed.

There was no helping it. This man had tried to kill him, and he had gravely wounded the man.

They had already become enemies. Though he had considered sparing the man for an instant, in the next second his own naive idea made the corners of his mouth curl up.

If he let the man go, the man would take revenge, and Qi Zhou would have to kill more people to stay alive.

Even if it was just self-comfort, he would treat it as saving the people this man would send to kill him.

Qi Zhou slowly stood up, silent.

A moment later, he turned his head and formed water at his fingertips, washing away the flecks of blood on them.

He gave a self-mocking smile. He was growing more accustomed to the rules here.

Vincent's Nen Ability: [What I Imagine, You See]

Type: specialization

Ability: within an area no larger than 10 m × 10 m × 10 m, it can make people who enter the area see images he imagines