Chapter 96

Chapter 98: Find the Practitioner

Under normal circumstances, for a professional hunter of the Hunter Association to obtain a "star"...

The conditions for a professional hunter to advance from a professional hunter to a one-star hunter are to achieve outstanding accomplishments and contributions in a specific field.

The conditions for advancing from one-star to two-star are to personally mentor a professional hunter who can earn the one-star title.

The conditions for advancing from two-star to three-star are to achieve outstanding accomplishments and contributions in multiple fields, which can also be understood as a top-tier composite professional hunter.

In the Hunter Association, the number of composite professional hunters who can obtain three stars can be counted on one hand.

Among Nen users, those with multiple abilities, known as composite Nen users, are also few.

Masaaki is a composite Nen user.

"Psychological Counseling Room"

This is one of Satsuki's abilities.

He can materialize a door leading to a psychological counseling room on the wall of a semi-enclosed space.

Opening the door, one can see the interior of the psychological counseling room, including a hypnosis chair, venting equipment, a sandbox, and other tools used in psychological counseling.

As a qualified psychological counseling room, it also has many features such as quiet soundproofing, bright and comfortable lighting, easy access, and strong privacy.

After activating his ability, Satsuki can only bring one person into the psychological counseling room at a time.

Due to the strict requirement for maintaining silence in the psychological counseling room, the door cannot be touched by any external force, not even a light knock.

If this rule is violated, the ability of the psychological counseling room will immediately be interrupted.

Satsuki materialized a door leading to the "Psychological Counseling Room" on the wall of the room next to the monitoring room and successfully brought the girl, Xiaoduo, into the psychological counseling room.

Qiduo and Kangjae stood outside the door of the psychological counseling room, waiting for the results.

Inside the psychological counseling room.

"Xiaoduo, sit there."

Satsuki pointed to the hypnosis chair, and his voice seemed to carry a hypnotic charm that made people subconsciously comply.

Xiaoduo, who was curiously examining the sandbox in the psychological counseling room, obediently sat on the hypnosis chair after hearing Satsuki's words.

"Close your eyes and imagine that you are lying in a golden rice field, with a gentle breeze caressing your cheeks from afar..."

Satsuki's gentle tone, like invisible threads of Nen, gently merged into Xiaoduo's mind.

Xiaoduo closed her eyes, and her body was in a very relaxed state.

This indicated that the hypnotic ability with the characteristic of emission was taking effect.

Satsuki raised his hand, and the sandbox placed next to the door instantly teleported to his side.

"Xiaoduo, I want to ask you a question, okay..."

An extremely gentle voice echoed in Xiaoduo's ears.

Xiaoduo, whose consciousness was immersed in her imagination, slowly nodded.

"You don't need to answer; just think about it... let your thoughts drift with the breeze towards the golden, full rice stalks..."

After the necessary preparations were made.

Satsuki directly asked a question related to the spaceship.

Then—

The sand in the sandbox began to flow, as if it had its own consciousness, slowly forming images.

Satsuki gazed at the changes in the sandbox, and his mind instantly received clearer images.

About twenty minutes later...

Satsuki brought Xiaoduo out of the psychological counseling room and then hypnotized her parents.

After the final results were obtained, Satsuki deactivated his ability.

"How was it?"

Kangjae asked impatiently.

Satsuki materialized a video tape with a wave of his hand.

"You can watch it yourselves."

"Okay."

Kangjae preferred to understand the situation by watching the video tape rather than having Satsuki describe it verbally.

He took the video tape from Satsuki and immediately asked, "Where are the video player and TV?"

"..."

Satsuki looked at Kangjae and slowly said, "In the monitoring room next door."

"I thought you could materialize them with Nen."

Kangjae understood and muttered in disappointment, not caring about Satsuki's reaction, and rushed to the monitoring room.

Satsuki looked at the open door and shook his head with a sigh.

It was clear that using real-world video players and TVs was more practical than wasting Nen capacity on such things.

"Satsuki, I won't watch the video."

Qiduo also looked at the open door and then at Satsuki, saying, "I just want to know what you found."

"The woman is also a loyal fan of the Swamp Man, and she attended Davidson's book signing event, where she had physical contact with Davidson."

Satsuki narrated slowly, "Apart from that, there are no memories related to 'transformation,' and the same goes for the other man and child. This is consistent with the characteristics of an operation-type ability."

"Another book signing event... besides the few Swamp People whose identities we confirmed through surveillance, the highest priority targets in our investigation are those who attended the Swamp Man's book signing events."

Qiduo pressed her thumb to her chin and said solemnly,

"However, we currently have no reliable method to distinguish normal humans from Swamp People, so our results have been minimal. In the end, using other methods and means, we only confirmed '8' Swamp People, who are likely the first batch."

"Right, I think... loyal readers, attending book signing events, owning a signed copy of the Swamp Man, and having physical contact with Davidson."

Satsuki's eyes showed a thoughtful expression as he speculated,

"These are the conditions for transforming the first batch of Swamp People. And whether it's the first or second batch, they can only spread their ability by 'personally ending the target's life.'"

"Satsuki, there must be more than four conditions."

Qiduo shook her head and said earnestly,

"There must be at least two more unknown triggering conditions; otherwise, the number of black human-shaped burn marks would have already become a disaster. Ultimately... any form of containment measures we implement is not as effective as quickly finding Davidson!"

At this point, Qiduo felt relieved again.

Fortunately, Moyou's timely reminder allowed them to take action quickly.

They have already taken strong measures against the loyal readers who attended the book signing events, hoping to gather more intelligence while suppressing the spread of Swamp People as much as possible.

On the other hand, they need to quickly confirm whether an exorcist can restore Swamp People to their original state.

The exorcists they invited to deal with the "Nen Space" issue may not have enough confidence to counter "Nen Space" and "Libra," but they can likely be useful in the Swamp Man incident.

But as she said,

Any response measures are not as effective as finding Davidson.

—

"So, you still haven't found Davidson?"

In a apartment in Laxiang City, Moyou looked at Bjorn and asked in confusion, "The Hunter Association has so many professional hunters; surely there must be someone with a 'find person' Nen ability, right?"

To fundamentally solve the Swamp Man phenomenon, the only method is to find the "practitioner."

Even if Moyou can sense the aura of Swamp People, he does not have the ability to stop the spread.

Come on...

The affected area is not just a city or an island but the entire world.

Moyou's aura sensing range is very limited, and it's impossible to keep up with the speed at which Swamp People are spreading globally.

Such a large-scale, worldwide malicious event can only be led by organizations like the Hunter Association or V5.

Moyou is aware of his limitations.

He is not so narcissistic as to think he will become a hero who saves the world from a catastrophic threat, nor does he believe he will be the key figure in resolving the disaster.

However, it cannot be denied.

If no one else can distinguish the aura of Swamp People, he is the most unique existence in this incident.

Although he has decided to hide this ability, Moyou ultimately agreed to Bjorn's invitation and joined the Swamp Man incident emergency response team.

Then he asked Bjorn the most critical question.

Why haven't you found Davidson yet?

Moyou knows that the Hunter Association has rare talents like Pom, whose Nen ability "Lonely Deep Sea Fish" is a highly efficient and valuable Nen ability for finding people.

With her Nen ability, finding Davidson should not be difficult, right?

Could it be that Pom is not yet a professional hunter at this time, or has not yet developed the "Lonely Deep Sea Fish" Nen ability?

Upon careful consideration, given Pom's normal appearance in the original story, she is likely in her early twenties.

Since the plot is six years away from starting, Pom is probably a girl between 15 and 19 years old now.

It is indeed hard to imagine Pom developing the "Lonely Deep Sea Fish" Nen ability at this age.

Thinking of this, Moyou reminded himself.

Although he is not clear about the trigger for Pom to develop the "Lonely Deep Sea Fish" Nen ability, he can be more attentive in the future and perhaps get ahead of Nobu to turn Pom, a rare and promising talent, into his ally.

"Kester, are you okay?"

Bjorn first gave a sarcastic remark, then picked up his phone and answered Moyou's question in a matter-of-fact tone,

"If the Association really had such talent, this trouble would have been resolved long ago, and I wouldn't have to travel so far to investigate these trivial matters!"

"Then, given the scale of the Hunter Association, they should now have a good understanding of the 'Swamp People' and have effective measures to suppress their spread, right?"

Moyou ignored Bjorn's sarcasm. He had initially assumed the Hunter Association had someone like Pom, which is why he asked the question that already had an answer.

Bjorn, hearing this, sneered, "Most of the time, Swamp People are just normal people, and we lack the ability to accurately distinguish them. It takes a lot of effort to find one Swamp Person, so how could we have effective measures to suppress their spread?"

"I see."

Moyou pondered for a moment and then asked, "Then, at least..."

"Wait!"

Bjorn suddenly put down his phone and said loudly, "I'm the one asking the questions, so why are you asking all the questions now?"

"Two people can take turns asking questions."

Moyou said calmly, "So, what do you want to ask?"

"Kester, why did the Swamp Person you killed turn into black swamp mud?"

"I don't know."

"???"

Today (5500/10000)

No all-nighter, I feel like it would kill me.