Hunter x Hunter: The Sun Breathing Zoldyck - 135

Chapter 135: Schrödinger’s Reality × Botobai’s Record Broken

"Total Concentration!"

"Sun Breathing - Third Form: Raging Sun. Sun Breathing - Fifth Form: Fire Wheel. Sun Breathing - Ninth Form: Setting Sun Transformation."

Bright Red Blade in hand, Roy chained techniques together in a storm of flame.

The heavily wounded Pig-Headed Man, Sagin, gritted his teeth, grabbed his axes, and flanked Roy with Gul'dan from left and right.

Up in the trees, two Scouts and a Rogue loosed arrows and thrown weapons whenever they found an opening. Using the interface, Roy Appraised each of them, confirming their roles in this elite squad. Both hands gripped the cane-sword as he handled Sagin and Gul'dan’s assault. Magnetism guided the short blade, intercepting projectiles from above.

His focus stayed razor sharp, never relaxing his guard against the presence lurking deeper in the forest.

At one instant, he deliberately turned his back and used Ten to hard-tank a strike from Gul'dan. Twin suns flared in his eyes. With the Eye of Shattering Delusions, he read Sagin’s next attack a tenth of a second early. He let the axe skim past and drove his blade into the blood-slick wound at Sagin’s neck.

Pig-Headed Men had thick hides and heavy flesh. Relying on Enhancer-type high attack and defense, they often ignored injuries.

That just made it easier for Roy to "finish you while you are down."

"Sun Breathing - Eighth Form: Sunflower Thrust was the fastest thrust among all the sword techniques Roy had learned."

Even faster than "Water Breathing - Seventh Form: Drop Ripple Thrust."

A single spark bloomed into a sudden flare. Blood burst from Roy’s back as he stepped in and drove the short blade like lightning straight through Gul'dan’s neck wound. The rent in its flesh tore open.

The blade punched clean through its throat.

Sagin tried to scream, but no sound came. His hands scrabbled for the blade.

His strength vanished. His vision blurred. His head lolled to the side, and he crashed to the ground.

[Prompt: Swordsmanship +50]

[Life Energy +10]

Too bad it was not a living—

No. Where did "Life Energy" come from?

Roy froze.

This was clearly Grandfather Zigg’s memory, not the actual Dark Continent. The interface had flagged it as "consciousness." How could Life Energy be gained and spent here?

The boy’s boots were planted on the Pig-Headed Man’s chest, blade still buried in Sagin’s neck.

That one stunned heartbeat was all it took.

Shouts rang out. "Sagin!"

Broadsword, arrows, and morningstar came howling in, a wave of fury crashing over the boy.

Everything went black. The "recording" of the memory froze at three minutes and seventeen seconds—the moment Sagin died.

Crash. Waves shattered against the reefs of his Cognition Sea, spraying into fine mist.

Roy’s inner world.

Specks of light came together and formed a humanoid silhouette.

He exited re: Game of the Dead. As the interface had indicated, Roy had not been booted back to reality like the other candidates upon "dying." Instead, through the Dark Continent Gate bridging the illusion, his consciousness had been "reborn" on the soft sand of the Cognition Sea.

He opened his eyes, arms and legs sprawled out, staring blankly at the blue sky.

He called up the interface and confirmed: [Life Energy +10]. For a moment, he could not tell illusion from reality.

One thing was certain: Great-grandfather had told him to hold a memorial for Zigg fully expecting that there was no better "practice ground" for growth than Game of the Dead.

He had known from the start that this was just a false scene, "rewound" from Zigg’s memories by Nen. It should have contained no tangible entities that could be seen, touched, smelled, or carried into the real world—only a place to polish skills like martial arts, swordsmanship, the Four Major Principles, and other advanced Nen applications.

And yet, killing Sagin had yielded ten points of Life Energy. The value sat there on the interface, bright and undeniable.

A constant reminder to Roy that this was not merely a "false" memory, but also a "real" world.

So which was it—illusion or reality?

Or was it Schrödinger’s reality—something between the two?

His head ached. Thoughts tangled like threads in a knotted skein, impossible to cut cleanly.

Roy rolled over and pushed himself to his feet. Fine. Enough thinking.

If there was Life Energy to be had, then he would take it. Illusion or reality could wait.

He drew a deep breath and walked to the Dark Continent Gate floating beside the Demon Slayer Gate. He gripped the cane-sword in his left hand, conjured the short blade in his right, and dove headfirst into the rift connecting to Zigg’s memories.

re: Game of the Dead resumed.

Time, frozen, started to move again.

With Sagin down, three remained: the Barbarian, Gul'dan; the Scout, Dassault; the Rogue, Valen.

And the one who never left its lair deep within the forest.

The Bright Red Blade burned red once more. White-hot light flared bright enough to hurt the eyes.

Roy’s lips curved into a faint smile. "Again."

He flashed toward Dassault. If you only knew how to shoot from the back, he would lop your pig’s head off first.

Swish, swish, swish. Arrows, reinforced by Shu, streaked for Roy’s face.

The clash reignited in an instant.

Ting. Ting. Ting.

Cuckoo. Cuckoo. Cuckoo.

Four minutes. Five. Six. Seven.

Outside.

In the underground corridor.

As time flowed on, those who waited showed all kinds of expressions.

Gotoh stayed right at Roy’s side, not taking a single step away. Rika massaged Sol to ease the confusion and unease it felt from having its connection to Roy cut off.

Kite and Illumi each found a corner. One dug a hole and buried himself up to the neck. The other folded his arms and leaned silently against the wall.

Only Kanzai paced, yanking his hair in frustration as he wore a groove in the floor. Finally, he could not hold it in anymore and stalked over to Gel. "You sure you did this right?"

The blond jabbed a finger at Roy. "That guy did go up against the Pig-Headed Men, right?"

It was not that Kanzai refused to believe someone could be stronger than him. He just could not swallow the fact that this kid, who looked so young, had lasted this long—far, far longer than he had.

"You are an Enhancer, right?" Gel glanced at him.

Kanzai nodded honestly. "Yeah. Why?"

"No wonder you have no brain." Gel did not bother to hide the disdain in her tone. "The Bewitching Cedar’s scent has been filling the air this whole time. If you do not believe it, loosen your mind and go back in. You will see soon enough."

"Either way, there is only one reel. Everyone is watching the same 'movie.'"

"For real?"

"Try it."

Kanzai shot her a suspicious look, then actually did as she said. He "voluntarily" relaxed his guard and let the Bewitching Cedar’s scent in, entering the illusion a second time.

This time, he did not even make it to fourteen seconds before Sagin, twin axes in hand, chopped him right back out.

"Enough fooling around." Botobai’s big hand reached out, hauling him aside.

Kanzai, future Tiger of the Zodiacs, thrashed. "Let me go! Ever heard of 'if at first you don’t succ—'"

A fist to the head shut him up. Kanzai went limp.

The Dragon shot Gel a glare. "For types like him, one beating is enough. No need to make exceptions."

Gel checked the time and changed the subject instead. "Ten minutes."

The future Snake’s eyes fixed on Roy, her gaze deep. She took a breath. "Botobai, your record has been broken."