"How much progress have we made in conquering this world?"
Xiang Nan fell silent, lost in thought.
It felt as though…he had just discovered a phenomenal new way to play the game.
"So this is how you take over other worlds?"
Before he could dig deeper, the blood in his veins suddenly grew restive.
A powerful force traveled with his circulation, seeping into every bone and meridian.
His flesh became denser and tougher, even the very structure of his skeleton compressed—his bodily durability jumped a full tier in an instant.
By Xiang Nan's own reckoning, his greatest short‑term weakness was his physical body. He had never seriously considered using outside aids to strengthen it; the plan had always been old‑fashioned tempering and training. After all, in the ordinary environment of Hunter × Hunter, external resources are scarce.
He never expected that this trial run of the Reincarnation Dimension would reward him with Riot of the Blood.
Vice's "Power of Death" is an all‑round physical enhancement that suppresses ordinary story characters. Her fighting style differs from others in that it hinges on wrist strength and sweeping strikes. Xiang Nan had only tested her skills briefly, yet he had already sensed the rules behind the "Power of Death":
It bestows overwhelming destructive force and damage, while granting superb vitality and resilience, making its bearer hard to bring down. With that buff in place, Vice becomes a bulldozer, crushing everything—against weakened or frail opponents her attacks carry an outright execution effect.
All of that is the buff from Riot of the Blood.
"Paired with her temperament, it's no wonder they call it the Power of Death…"
Those combat perks mattered to him far less than one thing: Riot of the Blood could harden his own body. It was a prize he had earned for himself, a gift crafted specifically for physical enhancement.
A curved hand‑blade, dark as a shadow, lashed out and sliced the ship's metal mast beside him into several neat segments that splashed into the sea. He had used no Nen.
That strike was pure bodily strength.
"Power, burst, speed—every stat is clearly higher now… even defense and stamina."
He clenched his fist, satisfied.
A thought: Nen flared again.
"Mm…now that my raw physique is stronger, my Nen volume has jumped by more than half."
"There are eight portions of Riot of the Blood. What I've acquired is only one shard and I've barely tapped its depths. With this boost my body will grow faster than ever in Hunter × Hunter, and my eventual ceiling is much higher."
"No side effects, either…"
"If I could absorb every share of Riot of the Blood held by the Hakkesshu…"
One idea led to the next.
He had expected some Will of Orochi to appear in his mindscape and try to wrest control, but nothing of the sort happened. Perhaps the System erased that drawback—he had paid dimensional coins for it, after all.
Besides, in King of Fighters canon many of the Hakkesshu can resist or ignore Orochi's will; half want to resurrect Orochi, half do not. People who cannot host Orochi power either implode or go insane, but for a Nen user like Xiang Nan, body‑and‑spirit cultivation is standard practice, so that risk hardly exists.
"Only two hundred dimensional coins left… they disappear fast."
He glanced at the funds column on his System panel, newly aware of how vital this mechanic might be.
No wonder the Kengan Ashura player who invaded Hunter × Hunter chose a frontal clash with me and Manman instead of stalling for time, even after sensing the danger.
The hull behind him shook violently.
Looks like the fight inside had reached a critical moment.
A few minutes later, Mature—an imposing blonde in her prime—rode a hidden elevator up and slipped through a passage to the rendez‑vous point she had arranged with Vice.
What greeted her chilled her to the bone:
Vice lay lifeless in a pool of blood on the deck.
Beside the body stood a man with his back to her.
Xiang Nan turned, meeting Mature's stunned gaze.
She recognized him at once—Xiang Nan was, after all, a member of one of the top‑four teams.
Shock gave way to icy calm; her voice deepened.
That dread she'd felt for the past hour—here was the disaster it foretold: Vice.
"Isn't it obvious from the scene?"
Xiang Nan spread his hands, smiling.
Words were pointless. Mature blurred forward in an instant.
So fast! Xiang Nan narrowed his eyes.
Mature's Beast Power was tailored for speed—not just in movement and reflex, but in attack. Closing on Xiang Nan, she unleashed a flurry of hand‑blades, too quick to track, each fingertip slicing the air into dense wind‑blades. A violent aura surged around her—Vice's death had left her incandescent with rage.
In a flash Xiang Nan's black coat took another beating; after Vice had torn off both sleeves, Mature's storm shredded the torso into tatters.
Yet Xiang Nan stood unmoved, shrouded in Nen—he had cast Ten for defense. He didn't dodge because he was studying the nature of Mature's Beast Power, the same way he had analyzed Vice's Death Power.
In the canon, only Iori Yagami can match Mature for speed and agility; few others come close (Goenitz, the Wind of Destruction, doesn't count). At top speed she became a ripping phantom—impossible to see—engulfing Xiang Nan in mere breaths with countless slashes.
But none of it worked.
"A completely different power form…quite an impressive one, too."
Mature heard the man's calm voice mid‑onslaught—and froze. Her attacks were having no effect. As she tried to leap back, an overwhelming psychic pressure locked her in place. Pupils dilated, body seized…a large hand clamped easily around her pale throat and lifted her off the deck. Fingers tightened; color drained from her face as air fled her lungs.
"Hardly a higher‑dimensional strike," Xiang Nan said softly. "By raw setting, your world's power ceiling may even surpass that of my own. But on the King of Fighters stage, you story characters constitute almost the entire pool of combat strength—no hidden masters, every faction's abilities on full display. In my world, figures like you are only a tiny slice of what's out there.
"As performers bound to a timeline, none of you have fully matured yet. Though a few nightmares exist, they haven't appeared. Right now you're cubs without adult lions to shield you; in the face of a true predator, you should be hiding and running, not baring your fangs."
Releasing his grip, he let her limp body fall.
[System: Ding! Congratulations, player. You have killed a story character of this world. World conquest progress: 2 %.]
"Seems ordinary means won't get me more shards of Riot of the Blood; as a visitor I'll have to clear special hidden quests." He glanced at Mature's corpse, thinking.
He wasn't worried the Riot of the Blood inside her would vanish on death. The Orochi legacy passes by reincarnation; another Beast‑Power host will arise sooner or later. As long as he can find the opening, he can claim that power—provided no players from other worlds or the Main World beat him to it.
"But this conquest percentage…"
Xiang Nan's eyes flashed. After a brief pause, he stepped over the corpse and left.
The System timer showed less than twenty minutes until his return to Hunter × Hunter. With so little time he could do only so much. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ NoveIꜰire.net
So—he would go straight for Kyo Kusanagi and Rugal. His initial goal had been Vice alone, but the appearance of conquest percentage had upended his plans. Now he wanted to see how much the counter would rise if he eliminated those two story characters.
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