[Hunter x Hunter] Scamming My Way to the Top

[Tonyloco]

I just binge watched this one, its a good story but sadly it's not the kind of story that a lot of people would read.

Still Tompa is a great SI, not the usual type we get here but he's more believable than most stories I seen lately.

The system feels more like someone watching his antics and having fun at his expense, than an automated thing.

For example the more attention he gets and powerful enemies he gets will sooner or later have someone investigate on his past, and discover his lies...

Unless whoever is messing around with him actually makes them real, and retroactively or by some other way actually makes his the son of a family of thieves with special nen abilities.

That's would be such a fuck up moment for him is someone reads his past and it's more or less the lies he created.

Looking forward to more.

 

[Pollyamorous]

Could always blame the previous #4, Omokage. Honestly considering the lie it even seems like something he would do.

Click to shrink...

Hm, would it be better to blame him directly, or just stay silent? Because if he stays silent then the other Spiders would probably come to that conclusion on their own, but it also puts him at some risk if they come to the conclusion he's lying. But if he describes him directly then it could make the belief more firm but also put his current lie of "my trauma makes me unable to remember his appearance" at risk of being unraveled.

...Though with how Tonpa is spinning his tales, he might just try and come up with another entirely new lie that ends up making him dig himself even deeper in his pit of criss-crossing lies.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 80: Suspicious Generosity

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​

The Status Panel finished forming before Tonpa's eyes. He slowly stood and cast one last glance at his companions.

Gon was asleep near the embers, one hand resting on his bag. Leorio lay on his side, while Kurapika had chosen a position that would let him see the cave entrance the moment he opened his eyes. Killua remained against the wall, so still that Tonpa suspected he might be pretending to sleep too.

He waited several breaths.

No one moved.

His offer to keep watch had finally put an end to their questions. He wanted time to examine his rewards and upgrade his stats without someone interpreting every smile as another symptom of poisoning.

He returned his attention to the panel and forgot about the entrance.

[Level: 4]

[Experience Points: 10,770/5,400]

[Strength: C] [Upgrade: 10,000 Nen Points]

[Speed: C] [Upgrade: 10,000 Nen Points]

[Flexibility: D] [Upgrade: 1,000 Nen Points]

[Endurance: C] [Upgrade: 10,000 Nen Points]

[Intelligence: D] [Upgrade: 1,000 Nen Points]

[Talent: E]

[Nen Points: 9,130]

[Free Stat Upgrades Available: 2]

Tonpa's eyes passed over the stats once, then returned to the top.

Strength, C. Speed, C. Flexibility, D.

Endurance…

He stopped.

Leaning closer to the panel, he read the line again.

[Endurance: C]

He did not trust what he was seeing. Before deciding his eyes were lying to him, he selected the stat.

A small window expanded beneath it.

[Endurance has naturally advanced from D to C.]

Tonpa's finger froze in front of the letter.

The last time he had checked his status, Endurance had been Rank D. He checked his remaining Free Stat Upgrades, then his balance, before looking at the bite marks on his arm.

'Were those spiders trying to train me? They could have charged less.'

[Reason for Advancement: The Host's body was exposed to a large quantity of venom, resisted its effects, and successfully recovered.]

[Trait Acquired: Poison Resistance.]

[Reduces the effects of poisons on the Host, depending on their type and potency.]

Tonpa read the last line slowly and felt an almost childish urge to laugh.

The experience had left him with more than pain. It had given his body something permanent.

'I was poisoned and gained Poison Resistance. By that logic, will throwing myself off a mountain give me Falling Resistance?'

He buried the idea before the System could hear it and turn it into a quest.

Raising Endurance from D to C would have cost a thousand Nen Points. He had obtained it because the spiders had nearly killed him.

Even so, he could not stop his excitement from growing. Stats were not doors that could only be opened with points or rewards. His body had advanced a rank on its own.

Before he could begin asking his usual questions of a System that never answered, another notice appeared.

[Stats can advance naturally through sufficient training, repeated use, or adaptation to harsh conditions.]

[The requirements for natural advancement increase with rank.]

Tonpa's smile widened.

Points were not the only way.

They were merely a shortcut.

He could train his Speed, strengthen his body, and practice the Finger Sutra until his stats improved without having to pay every time. For the first time, the System seemed a little less like a shop keeping his future locked behind its prices.

He immediately began considering the possibilities. Running every day might improve his Speed. Strength training would benefit both his body and the Finger Sutra. Even Flexibility could be improved without waiting to collect another thousand points. He did not know how much training it would take, or whether the System measured progress gradually or only acknowledged it once a stat crossed into the next rank. But simply knowing another path existed changed how he viewed every hour he spent outside combat.

Until now, he had thought of training as a punishment strong people inflicted on themselves because they did not have a System. Apparently, they might have the better financial strategy.

Then he looked at the bite marks on his arm, and his smile faded a little.

'If ordinary training takes time, and the fast version requires nearly dying, the System has managed to sell me on points again.'

At least he was more resistant to poison. That did not mean he could drink it instead of water or sleep among spiders, but he might have a better chance of surviving if another applicant tried to poison him.

More importantly, he had saved a thousand points.

Tonpa reopened the Free Stat Upgrade menu.

His gaze paused on Speed.

He was satisfied with it for now. It had not made him the fastest person on the island, but it had allowed him to snatch Badges and escape opponents he preferred to avoid.

The problem came when he had to hit someone.

He remembered his fist striking Hisoka's stomach. The pain traveling back into his wrist. The body that had not even bent. Without the distraction before the punch, he would have gained nothing worth mentioning.

'I reach my opponent, punch him, and somehow I'm the one in pain. That arrangement needs work.'

He moved to Strength.

He could improve Speed later. Right now, he wanted his punches to do more than inform his opponents that he was angry. The Finger Sutra gave him another reason. He was not going to endure the humiliation of its movements for a weak attack.

Two upgrades would take Strength from C to B, then from B to A.

Ten thousand points saved on the first. A hundred thousand on the second.

A full hundred and ten thousand points.

He looked at his balance, then back at the number of Free Stat Upgrades.

'Finally, a reward I can put to proper use.'

He focused on Strength.

[Would you like to use a Free Stat Upgrade?]

[Upgrade Strength from C to B.]

[Yes/No]

He selected Yes.

His entire body seized at once.

Tonpa clenched his jaw to keep from making a sound. A dense pressure spread from his bones into his muscles, nothing like the gentle warmth of his previous upgrades. It felt as though every tendon in his body were being pulled to its limit, then secured back in place, stronger than before.

His knees bent, and he lowered himself until one rested on the ground. As the pressure began to ease, he placed his palm against the stone to steady himself.

A faint sound reached his ears.

Tonpa froze, then lifted his hand.

Fine cracks spread beneath the spot where his fingers had pressed.

He stared at them, his mouth slightly open.

'I didn't even hit it.'

He raised his head toward his companions.

The sound did not seem to have woken anyone.

He carefully moved his fingers. Suddenly, the sleeping bodies around him looked far more fragile than he wanted them to.

When his Strength had risen from D to C, the improvement had been obvious. This time, the difference felt immeasurable. He had more than greater strength now. He would have to be careful not to apply the same effort he was used to in the wrong situation.

The confirmation appeared.

[Strength: B]

[Free Stat Upgrades Available: 1]

He rose carefully, relying on his legs and avoiding the use of his hands for support.

Then he selected Strength again.

If B had done this, what would A do?

His smile began to widen as he waited for the confirmation prompt.

A different window appeared.

[Unable to perform upgrade.]

His smile stopped.

[Advancing Strength to Rank A requires Endurance of Rank B or higher.]

[Current Endurance: C.]

[The Free Stat Upgrade has not been consumed.]

Tonpa stared at the message, then read it again.

'Damn you. You waited until I was reaching for those hundred thousand points to mention this?'

His gaze shifted to Endurance.

He could use his remaining upgrade to raise it to B. Then his body would be ready for the Strength he no longer had a free upgrade to obtain.

He pressed his lips together.

He needed two more upgrades.

He had one.

'Where was this requirement when I upgraded my stats before?'

No answer appeared.

He moved his hand in irritation, and his eyes stopped on the cracks beneath his feet.

His earlier upgrades had never made him afraid to lean against the ground. Even the jump from D to C had not produced such an enormous difference. Perhaps the smaller increases had been within what his body could handle. The power beyond B might require more than muscles capable of producing it.

He looked at his palm and slowly closed his hand.

'Wonderful. I can have the strength, provided I buy a body that can survive using it first.'

There was another solution.

He was only eight hundred and seventy points short of buying the Endurance upgrade. He could hold on to the free reward until he earned them, then raise Strength to A as planned.

He considered that for a moment.

Then his gaze moved to Speed.

He had been satisfied with it when it accompanied his previous Strength. But his fist could now inflict greater damage. Reaching an opponent faster would help him use it, as would getting out of the way before the counterattack landed.

His new Strength would not make up for missing the opportunity to hit someone.

He looked at the cracks again.

'Smashing the rock my opponent was standing in front of a moment ago won't do me much good.'

Waiting would save more points. There was no doubt about that. But until he earned the rest, it would leave him with his new Strength and his old Speed, on an island where he had already nearly died more than once.

Upgrading Speed now would give him a better way to use that Strength—and a better fallback if it proved insufficient.

He exhaled through his nose, irritated by where the calculation had led him.

'Ninety thousand points in savings, given up so I can be better prepared for the next disaster. It had better take its time arriving.'

He selected Speed.

A stronger punch, a better chance of landing it, and faster feet if it failed to produce the desired result. He would need training to learn how to use the two together, but he preferred to start now.

'And if he doesn't like the punch, I won't stay to hear his complaint.'

[Would you like to use a Free Stat Upgrade?]

[Upgrade Speed from C to B.]

[Yes/No]

He selected Yes.

Heat surged into his legs, then traveled up his spine to the back of his head.

A tingling sensation ran down both legs and vanished.

He moved one foot to test it. It responded faster than expected and nearly struck a rock in front of him. He pulled it back at once, but the second movement was faster than the first.

He stood still after both movements, stunned by a body that had corrected its mistake before he fully understood it.

'If this is Rank B Speed, I've spent my entire life standing in a queue.'

[Speed: B]

[Free Stat Upgrades Available: 0]

Tonpa carefully closed and opened his fist.

He felt as though he were overflowing with power. The body he had awakened in—weak, heavy, and complaining after every run—now possessed both Strength and Speed at Rank B.

His frustration over the upgrade he had missed eased a little.

And he was not finished.

He focused on Flexibility.

[Would you like to upgrade Flexibility from D to C?]

[Cost: 1,000 Nen Points.]

He accepted.

[Flexibility upgraded from D to C.]

Tonpa slowly rotated his shoulder. The joint moved with unfamiliar ease, but he stopped when pain pulled at his side.

He remained still for a moment, then tried a smaller movement. The injury had not disappeared, but his body offered noticeably less resistance. He bent his knees and lowered himself slightly, careful not to strain his side. A position that had once required effort now felt easier.

He straightened, his eyes wide with surprise.

'Excellent. I can now escape trouble at more angles.'

He moved to Intelligence.

[Would you like to upgrade Intelligence from D to C?]

[Cost: 1,000 Nen Points.]

He accepted again.

[Intelligence upgraded from D to C.]

The day's details passed through his mind at once: the cave's location, the number of Badges, the lie about his brother, the System's rewards, and the flaws in his plan.

These were not new memories, but he could see them arranged through connections he had not noticed before.

His eyebrows rose.

'Wonderful. I can now understand my bad decisions with scientific precision.'

He looked at Talent.

[Talent: E]

[This stat cannot be upgraded directly.]

'Of course. Letting me buy perfection all at once would have upset you.'

He summoned his full Status Panel again.

[Level: 4]

[Experience Points: 10,770/5,400]

[Strength: B] [Upgrade: 100,000 Nen Points]

[Speed: B] [Upgrade: 100,000 Nen Points]

[Flexibility: C] [Upgrade: 10,000 Nen Points]

[Endurance: C] [Upgrade: 10,000 Nen Points]

[Intelligence: C] [Upgrade: 10,000 Nen Points]

[Talent: E]

[Nen Points: 7,130]

[Free Stat Upgrades Available: 0]

[Trait: Poison Resistance]

Tonpa read the list slowly.

Only hours earlier, he had been unable to stand. Killua had needed to catch him before he hit the ground. A few days before that, his best plan for danger had been to run until he found someone slower.

Now, he felt as though he had replaced his entire body while keeping the same face to continue ruining his reputation.

The changes did not feel as separate as he had expected. His new Strength inhabited a more flexible body. His fatigue had eased, and the differences had become easier to follow and understand. Even standing felt different. He was lighter on his feet, steadier through his shoulders, and better able to go from stillness to movement.

For a moment, he had the strange feeling that the body he had awakened in was finally becoming his. It was no longer merely a miserable vessel he had found himself trapped inside. It was a tool he had rebuilt, one rank at a time.

Tonpa closed his fist, feeling enough power to turn his smile into something more sinister.

Hisoka's face appeared in his mind.

'I'm coming for you. And I'll skin you with my own hands.'

His courage lasted two seconds before he remembered that he had not tested Rank B Strength, had not mastered the Finger Sutra, and still could not use Nen beyond a rudimentary Zetsu that might fail if he sneezed.

'Impressive. Arrogance alone jumped from E to S.'

He looked at his hands and laughed inwardly.

He had not expected to be this talented.

Then he corrected the thought with a small measure of honesty.

'Talented, and funded by nine thousand points, two rewards, and a thorough poisoning.'

Excitement kept urging him to move. He wanted to leave the cave, find a distant rock, and test his Speed, Strength, and Finger Sutra far from the sleeping heads around him. He carefully headed toward the entrance but stopped after his second step.

An option was blinking at the edge of his vision.

[Level Advancement Available.]

He had nearly forgotten it while absorbed in his stats.

His Experience Points exceeded the requirement by more than five thousand. All he needed to do was accept, and he would advance from Level 4 to Level 5.

He returned to his place beside the wall and slowly sat down.

At Level 3, he had received a Free Stat Upgrade and the Skill Upgrade System. At Level 4, he had received another free upgrade and Spatial Storage. If the System continued being this generous, Level 5 might give him another upgrade.

His eyes moved to Endurance.

One more free upgrade would raise it to B and satisfy the requirement that had ruined his plan. It would not immediately grant him Rank A Strength, but it would save him ten thousand points and bring it closer.

Some satisfaction returned to his face.

He had not forgotten that every previous gift had come after a risk or a requirement the System had failed to explain properly. But at that moment, he was too wealthy and powerful to let caution do its job.

'Come on. Change the number, wait a little, then pretend you've remembered the gift. I know your routine now.'

He focused on the option.

[Level Advancement Requirements Met.]

[Would the Host like to advance to Level 5?]

[Yes/No]

He eagerly selected Yes.

The panel disappeared.

He waited for heat, pain, or the strange pressure that had accompanied some of his previous upgrades.

Nothing happened.

'Here we go again.'

Ding!

[The Host has advanced to Level 5.]

[Experience Points: 10,770/16,200]

[The reward for reaching Level 5 has been determined.]

Tonpa leaned forward, waiting for the words he remembered from his previous two Level Advancements.

Golden light gathered beneath the message.

[The Host has obtained…]

His smile began to widen. He could almost see the words Free Stat Upgrade before the message was complete.

But what appeared next was not a stat upgrade.

[Item…]

His smile froze.

The line finished forming before his eyes.

[The Host has obtained an extremely rare item.]

Tonpa forgot to breathe.

'…An extremely rare item?'

_______________________________

Bonus chapter after 2 Hour

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 81: Talent in a Capsule

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa kept staring at the notification, momentarily forgetting the rock he had intended to go outside and smash.

[The Host has obtained an extremely rare item.]

The System was not usually generous. When it finally decided to be, it chose the middle of the night, with Tonpa surrounded by four people—one of whom might wake up if a speck of dust breathed too loudly.

Another window appeared beneath the notification.

[Would the Host like to receive the item?]

[Yes/No]

Tonpa raised an eyebrow.

'No. Keep it until I find someone more deserving.'

He selected Yes before the System could realize that its question was too stupid to deserve an answer.

Ding!

[Item Received: Nen Elixir.]

Tonpa stopped breathing for a moment.

'Nen… Elixir?'

The window moved closer, and another line appeared beneath the name.

[Rarity: Extremely Rare.]

[Effect: Raises the user's Talent by one rank.]

He read the line once.

Then he read it again, slowly, making sure his excitement had not supplied the words he wanted to see.

It raised Talent by an entire rank.

He reopened his Status Panel, and his eyes settled on the one stat that had mocked him ever since the System appeared.

[Talent: E]

[This stat cannot be upgraded directly.]

A few minutes earlier, he had looked at that line and reluctantly accepted that Talent could not be bought. Now the System had announced a reward capable of doing what his Nen Points could not.

The corners of his mouth lifted before he remembered the sleepers around him and lowered his head, pretending to examine the marks the venom had left on his arm.

'Over seven thousand points, practically a new body, and now better Talent. If the System keeps being this generous, I'll start looking for the trap beneath the gifts.'

A red light flashed in his palm.

When it faded, a small glass capsule rested between his fingers. It was no longer than the tip of his thumb and contained a dark red liquid that moved sluggishly, thicker than water and clearer than blood.

He raised it toward the glow of the embers, then looked back at the name suspended before him.

[Nen Elixir.]

'At least if it's poisoned, I gained Poison Resistance a few minutes ago. An excellent plan, provided the reward doesn't have a sense of humor.'

He turned the capsule between his fingers, then glanced at Killua. The boy's eyes remained closed, his back against the wall. Neither Gon nor Kurapika moved. Leorio let out a brief snore that quickly stopped.

There would be no better opportunity.

Tonpa carefully opened the capsule and brought it to his nose. It had almost no smell, apart from a faint trace of something like herbs after rain.

'If I'd tried selling this in my previous life, I would have needed a sales page longer than my fake family history.'

The rim touched his lips.

He hesitated for a single moment.

Then he swallowed all of it.

The liquid was cold in his mouth, but it turned pleasantly warm as soon as it reached his throat. The sensation flowed through his chest and stomach, then slowly spread into his limbs. It felt nothing like the intense pressure of raising Strength to B, or the heat that had surged into his legs when he upgraded Speed.

It was gentler.

And deeper.

He sent the empty capsule into Spatial Storage, then rested his hand on his knee.

It felt as though something inside his body had finally loosened. Until now, all he could do with his aura was shut off its flow through a rudimentary Zetsu. Now it felt clearer at the edges of his awareness. Not stronger, but easier to sense, as though the hinges of a heavy door had been oiled for the first time.

Tonpa closed his eyes, enjoying the relief.

The pleasure lasted three seconds.

Then the smell reached him.

His eyes snapped open, and he looked at his arms. A thin film of dark sweat had appeared on his skin. Sticky gray impurities gathered around his neck and on his palms, giving off a stench that made him turn his face away from his own body.

Tonpa silently cursed the original Tonpa, then cursed the body that managed to turn every upgrade into a cleaning project.

'What was the original Tonpa doing with this body? Eating out of the applicants' garbage?'

'Fine, some of the damage might be recent. But I'll blame him out of respect for chronological order.'

Gon stirred near the embers, his nose wrinkling.

Tonpa froze.

The boy remained asleep.

Tonpa tore a piece from the hem of his ruined shirt and quickly wiped his neck, palms, and arms. He folded the cloth around the grime and immediately sent it into Spatial Storage, leaving the problem of cleaning it to a future version of himself who would be less pleased with the reward.

The smell faded enough for him to breathe again.

Ding!

[Nen Elixir successfully consumed.]

[Talent: E → D]

Tonpa fixed his eyes on the new letter.

D.

For the first time, his Talent was no longer stuck at Rank E. He had not become a Nen prodigy, and aura had not erupted from his body. But he had officially escaped the rank that had always seemed like the System's polite way of calling him hopeless.

Before he could enjoy that for long, the Nen section of his Status Panel flickered.

The red numbers that had appeared when he reached Level 2—and had irritated him whenever he remembered them—began changing one after another.

[Ten: 0%] [10% → 28%]

[Zetsu: 2%] [10% → 28%]

[Ren: 0%] [10% → 28%]

[Hatsu: 0%] [10% → 28%]

Tonpa's eyes widened.

Twenty-eight percent.

The System had never confirmed that the red numbers represented the limits of his Talent, but he had suspected it ever since they appeared. Now, the moment his Talent rose by one rank, all four numbers had jumped from ten to twenty-eight.

The increase had not granted him free mastery. Three techniques remained at zero, and Zetsu was still at two percent. But the change strengthened his suspicion that those numbers were connected to his Talent and what he could achieve through training.

If he was right, the capsule had opened a wider path without sparing him the effort of walking it.

'Thank you.'

He waited a moment, then added silently:

'Don't get used to hearing that.'

He dismissed the elixir's window but did not close the System yet. Remembering the looks the others had given him after he woke up, he opened the Trust record to see how much had changed since he last checked.

No chime sounded. The names appeared quietly before him, each accompanied by its previous and current percentage.

[Gon Freecss's Trust: 30% → 38%]

[Killua Zoldyck's Trust: 19% → 27%]

[Kurapika's Trust: 20% → 28%]

[Leorio's Trust: 25% → 33%]

Tonpa remained still, then looked at the sleepers one by one.

Eight percentage points from each of them.

The increase had not come from the story about his brother. No new Trust notification had appeared afterward. Those percentages had already risen before he told it.

When he approached the corpse guarded by spiders, suffered their bites, and lost consciousness holding the antidote Leorio needed, they had seen something entirely different from what had been going through his head.

'I said I had a plan, let the spiders eat me, and passed out. Apparently, the difference between sacrifice and stupidity depends on where you're watching from.'

Killua's jump from nineteen to twenty-seven explained the quest completion notification that had been waiting when Tonpa woke up. The other three had moved even further beyond the requirement.

'All that earlier nonsense paid off in the end. It just needed real venom and several hours of unconsciousness.'

He closed the panel, then carefully stood.

He needed to test the body he had spent a fortune on before anyone began to stir—or Killua woke up and decided to watch him. He moved slowly toward the cave entrance, choosing spots clear of loose stones.

As he passed Killua, he stopped.

The boy's breathing had not changed.

Tonpa shut off his aura with Zetsu.

This time, it responded more quickly. He did not have to chase down the small leaks around his shoulders and arms as he usually did. His Zetsu remained far from perfect, with mastery still at only two percent, but his aura drew inward so smoothly that he understood the effect of his improved Talent for the first time.

'So I didn't pay the price of that smell just for a prettier letter.'

He took short steps, maintaining his concentration until he passed through the entrance.

The cold night air greeted him, carrying the remaining smell away from the cave. About ten seconds after he started moving, he felt aura begin leaking around his arms again. He stopped beside a rock and let the attempt end before trying to fix it distracted him from his surroundings.

Shutting off his aura had become easier. Maintaining it while moving still needed practice.

He stood there for a few moments, listening to the trees and the darkness. He saw no other fires and heard no human footsteps, but the island still held applicants hunting one another for Badges.

Even when Zetsu worked, it concealed his aura—not his body, his footsteps, or his new smell.

He moved carefully between the rocks, following a winding route through their shadows without going far enough to lose his way back. Rank B Speed urged him to break into a run, but he resisted until he found a suitable place.

A rocky slope stretched before him, surrounded by scattered trees. Stones of various sizes covered the ground, and he could see no fresh footprints in the dirt.

He waited a full minute.

Nothing moved.

He chose a large rock near the bottom of the slope. It reached roughly to his waist, with half of it buried in the ground. He estimated that the exposed portion alone weighed about half a ton.

He stood before it and stretched his fingers.

He did not want to use the Finger Sutra yet. First, he needed to know what his new Strength could do with an ordinary punch.

He planted his feet and turned his waist slightly.

Pain pulled at his side, stopping him.

He looked at the bandages showing beneath his shirt, then let out a short breath through his nose.

'Right. The wound didn't get its share of the rewards.'

He adjusted his stance, reduced the twist, and drove a straight punch into the middle of the rock.

The crack of the impact rang across the slope.

Fractures branched out from his fist, and the rock broke apart into several large chunks. Two slid across the dirt as smaller stones scattered around his feet.

It was louder than he had expected.

Tonpa pulled his hand back and immediately turned toward the route leading to the cave. He listened to the darkness, cursing his enthusiasm, while a small fragment rolled to a stop beside his shoe.

He heard no movement or approaching footsteps, but the irony did not escape him.

'Rank B Strength is excellent. My ability to conduct a secret test just dropped to F.'

He waited a little longer before looking back at his fist.

His skin was not bleeding.

His knuckles were intact.

He had not even felt the pain he had expected from hitting stone with his bare hand.

He opened and closed his fingers once, then looked at what remained of the rock.

A laugh rose in his throat. He swallowed it before it could carry through the trees to the cave.

'I smashed half a ton, and the only casualty was my old opinion of myself.'

He stepped back several paces and tested his legs.

Choosing two rocks a considerable distance apart, he fixed his eyes on the second and launched himself forward.

The first vanished from beside him.

The second approached faster than he expected.

He planted his foot to stop, but his momentum carried him past the point he had chosen. At the last moment, he swerved around the rock, swinging several meters wide before he could slow down.

His foot slipped on loose gravel. He spread his arms, regained his balance, and stood staring at how far he had overshot.

His eyes widened.

Rank C Speed had not been slow. It had made him faster than most ordinary applicants and allowed him to escape situations in which the original Tonpa would have needed a slower victim.

Rank B was something else.

'Wonderful. I can reach the rock before I remember how to stop.'

He tried again, using less force this time and starting to slow down earlier. He stopped closer to where he intended, though he still needed an extra step to steady himself.

For the next attempt, he chose a route between three widely spaced rocks.

His improved Flexibility helped him turn, but the first corner took him wider than he intended. He slowed before the second, then rounded the third more carefully.

His body could make the movements.

The problem was that his judgment of distance and timing still worked at his old speed.

After several short attempts, he stopped on a low rock. His breathing remained steady, but the last turn had brought the ache back to his side. He rested a hand over it and waited for it to ease.

He did not need to reopen the wound to prove that his upgrades worked.

He looked at the rocks he had been weaving between, and excitement began crowding out caution again.

He suspected that, in raw speed, he might no longer be far behind the fastest applicants. Killua, Hisoka, Illumi, and Hanzo came to mind, but he had not measured his speed against any of theirs.

And what had happened at the second rock did little to convince him that arriving quickly amounted to a complete fighting skill.

'A few days ago, I picked someone slower so I could survive. Now I need someone faster to find out where my limits are.'

He stepped down from the rock and headed toward the far end of the slope.

A larger mass of stone stood there, joined to the mountainside itself. Breaking it with an ordinary punch was not what he had come to test.

He stopped before it.

Slowly, he raised his right hand.

The knowledge transferred from the book returned in clear detail: the placement of his feet, the angle of his arm, and the index finger at whose tip the power was meant to gather.

Then he remembered the movement that came before all of that.

His smile faded.

He looked behind him, then toward the trees on either side of the slope.

He saw no one.

'God damn whoever created this art—and the System for deciding I was the right person for it.'

He was prepared to accept pain, exhaustion, and even the possibility of failure.

Shaking his backside in front of a rock to gather power in his finger, however, remained difficult for his dignity to embrace.

He clenched his jaw and pointed his index finger at the stone.

He had come out here specifically to try it. He was not going back now just because some nameless man had invented a martial art that could not be practiced with dignity.

He planted his feet, then cast one last glance behind him.

'You'd better be worth the humiliation.'

Only the rock stood before him.

That, at least, made getting started a little easier.


_______________________________

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[Winmantis]

This chapter was quite frustrating. We are supposed to assume he is capable of long term planning while regularly forgetting important details(like his potential free upgrade point from levelling up) and impulsively wasting opportunities. The annoying part is that the author has shown that he can plan and think these things through so the hand of the author in nerfing his MC is even more obvious.

 

[Boumargood]

This chapter was quite frustrating. We are supposed to assume he is capable of long term planning while regularly forgetting important details(like his potential free upgrade point from levelling up) and impulsively wasting opportunities. The annoying part is that the author has shown that he can plan and think these things through so the hand of the author in nerfing his MC is even more obvious.

Click to shrink...

Fair point about checking the level-up reward first. That would have been the smarter order, and he got carried away with the stat upgrades.

The Speed choice itself was deliberate, though. He explicitly considers waiting until he can afford Endurance B and then using the free upgrade for Strength A. He chooses immediate mobility and a better chance of surviving instead, knowing he's sacrificing long-term value.

Asnous was an ordinary online scammer, not a trained strategist. He can plan, but he can also get frightened, excited, and overlook things. That said, I understand why repeated oversights could start to feel like the author holding him back. Those mistakes still need to feel believable.

 

[Winmantis]

Fair point about checking the level-up reward first. That would have been the smarter order, and he got carried away with the stat upgrades.

The Speed choice itself was deliberate, though. He explicitly considers waiting until he can afford Endurance B and then using the free upgrade for Strength A. He chooses immediate mobility and a better chance of surviving instead, knowing he's sacrificing long-term value.

Asnous was an ordinary online scammer, not a trained strategist. He can plan, but he can also get frightened, excited, and overlook things. That said, I understand why repeated oversights could start to feel like the author holding him back. Those mistakes still need to feel believable.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I made a point to call it frustrating, not bad because it is still a great story. And you have done a good job so far in making the protagonist very clever in most areas.
The biggest frustration is not that he occasionally overlooks things, but that the things he overlooks are so often related to getting more powerful. I feel like just about any smart person given all of the time he has had to think so far(assuming he is capable of thinking of screen) would at this point have a well developed plan for which stats to prioritize and not leave it up to the last minute as he seems to do every time.

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 82: One Finger

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa remained before the mass of rock, his index finger pointed at it as the details of the Finger Sutra rose to the forefront of his memory.

Pointing his finger was not enough.

Ten full shakes.

He lowered his eyes to his waist, then looked back at the rock.

'Couldn't that bastard have chosen clapping? Even shouting would have left me some dignity.'

He planted his feet as the knowledge instructed and bent his knees slightly. He began the motion, then stopped before completing it.

The rock stood before him. The trees stood behind him. And there he was between them, preparing to shake his backside so he could fire an attack from his finger.

He did not need an audience to feel humiliated.

He closed his eyes and slowly exhaled.

'Damn the creator of this art, and the System for choosing it for me. I have a feeling those two know each other.'

He let the details settle into order, setting his irritation aside.

The Finger Sutra was an offensive martial art with ten levels. The first used a single finger of the practitioner's choice. The second added another, and each subsequent level continued the progression until all ten fingers could be used together.

Within the art, the index finger was no better than the little finger, nor was the thumb stronger than the ring finger. What determined the level was the number of fingers carrying the power when it was released.

With each additional finger, that power did not simply divide between them.

It increased, demanding more energy in turn.

As for the shakes, they were not merely some ridiculous requirement he could bypass once he understood the trick.

A beginner needed ten properly executed shakes to fully charge the first level. As his control improved, he could gather and contain the same power with fewer, until a single shake was enough.

Stopping at the ninth shake did not count as progress.

It meant an incomplete charge.

Once he mastered charging and releasing the attack with a single shake, he would be qualified to begin learning the second level, where he would start again with ten.

Tonpa looked at his finger, then curled the others more tightly.

'So surviving the humiliation once isn't enough. I have to master it.'

The knowledge carried a warning clearer than the rest of the instructions. Attempting a higher level before mastering the previous one could cause the accumulated power to run wild inside his body instead of traveling toward the target.

It was more than an attack failing.

The energy could tear through the tissues along its path, or erupt before he released it and kill him.

Mastery was only one requirement. His body also needed enough energy to support the level he used. Knowing the method did not give him the resources to perform it.

Tonpa loosened his fist a little.

One finger, then.

He had made enough bad decisions for one day.

He reviewed the stance for releasing the attack and the path the power would follow. The Sutra did not require him to use Ten or Ren. What the knowledge called "internal power" was his body's energy, gathered through the required motion and directed through his waist, back, shoulder, and arm until it settled at his fingertip.

The instructions were precise about gathering, concentrating, and releasing that power.

But none of the knowledge he had received taught him how to dodge a punch or evade a knife. The Sutra contained no evasive footwork or movement style he could follow in combat.

Tonpa looked at his feet, then at the rock.

Nothing in the instructions required him to remain in one place. Perhaps he could perform the shakes while moving, provided he maintained the proper motion and the flow of power.

That was more bearable than standing here silently shaking his backside.

'I'll move as though I'm dodging an attack. At least it'll look like I'm having trouble with an opponent, not my trousers.'

The idea was not part of the Sutra. It was his own attempt to make using it less embarrassing—and perhaps less dangerous if he ever had to charge it in front of someone trying to kill him.

Ever since he woke up in Tonpa's body, his problem had been greater than weak stats. Upgrades had given him Strength, then Speed, Flexibility, and Endurance, but he had never possessed a real way to combine them in a fight. He could punch, run, and set traps. Someone like Bodoro, however, could read his stance before he even raised a hand.

The Sutra might give him a dangerous attack.

Staying out of his opponent's reach until it was ready was something he would have to learn himself.

He moved several steps away from the rock.

He drew a slow breath.

In his imagination, Bodoro appeared before him, standing straight with both fists steady. Tonpa remembered the punch the old man had thrown at Karto, how it had driven forward from his shoulder without a wasted movement.

The imagined fist shot toward his face.

Tonpa moved his right foot back, pivoted on the ball of it, and lowered his shoulder. The phantom attack passed beside his cheek, and he followed the dodge with the motion the Sutra required.

Or tried to.

He had cut it too short, merely turning his hips as he stepped.

Nothing gathered.

He stopped and gritted his teeth.

The instructions told him exactly what he had done wrong. Shifting his feet was no substitute for the required shake, however much more respectable it looked.

'Even cheating at shaking my backside is forbidden. Strict rules indeed.'

He reset his stance, then replaced Bodoro with an image of Karto. A short knife drove toward his ribs, followed by a quick turn aimed at his neck.

Tonpa ducked beneath the imagined blade, but twisted further than his injured side allowed.

Pain pulled at the wound.

He stopped at once and pressed a hand over the bandages.

The pain lingered briefly before easing. It was not sharp enough to bring him down, but it reminded him that his new body still carried an old injury.

He adjusted the distance between his feet and reduced the twist of his torso. He could take an extra step instead of forcing his waist into a painful angle.

He tried the dodge again.

This time, he attempted to escape the phantom knife's path with two crossing steps, but his heel caught behind his other leg. He awkwardly untangled his feet and had to take another step sideways to keep from falling.

For a moment, he stared down at them.

Rank B Speed let him move, and Rank C Flexibility allowed the necessary angles, but imagining a dodge was not enough to master it.

'An opponent from my own imagination, and I nearly fell before he touched me. A promising start.'

He slowed down.

There was no real opponent forcing him to hurry.

He returned to his starting position, keeping his right index finger extended while his other hand rested near his chest.

He imagined Bodoro's punch.

He stepped back at an angle and completed a full shake as his feet settled.

'One.'

A faint tension formed in his lower back, distinct from the pain in his side.

He moved left, then repeated the shake before shifting his weight to the other foot.

'Two.'

The absurdity had not disappeared, but it was less obvious between the steps. He could imagine it as an unusual dodge if he avoided looking at the part doing the actual work.

On the third, he felt a faint warmth begin to gather.

He continued.

He slipped beneath an imagined blow without ducking as low as before and completed the fourth. Then he moved away with a short step and followed it with the fifth.

The steps themselves did not build the charge. Each time he completed the required shake, he felt power gather. When he merely changed position, the sensation remained unchanged.

'Five. Don't stop now. You've already paid half the price in dignity.'

He completed the sixth and seventh, keeping his breathing steady.

Pressure gathered in his lower back, then began flowing toward his right shoulder. No light appeared around his body, and the rocks before him did not change, but his arm grew a little heavier with each correctly executed motion.

On the eighth, his curled fingers trembled.

On the ninth, he felt the pressure reach his wrist.

He looked up at the rock.

The mass jutted from the slope, joined to it along its left edge. He shifted a step until he faced the protruding section. Beyond it lay a narrow gap, then a tree among the rocks.

He fixed his aim.

One shake remained.

He performed it as he shifted his weight onto his leading foot.

'Ten.'

Power surged into his index finger.

The skin tightened, as though something too large for it were trying to pass through.

The knowledge told him he could disperse the power now and end the attempt without firing.

He looked at the rock.

'I came here to find out what you can do, not learn how to retreat from my own finger.'

He adjusted his shoulder, avoiding a broad twist that would pull at his side. Keeping his other fingers curled, he aimed his index finger at the middle of the protruding section.

He thrust his arm forward.

His index finger stiffened. Pressure crowded into its tip until he thought the skin might split.

'Out.'

He released the power.

Snap!

A sharp report tore through the silence. Dust split before his hand, and a narrow wave shot through it, warping the air along its path.

It struck the rock.

CRASH!

Fragments burst from the point of impact, and a cloud of dust erupted behind the stone. The sound echoed among the rocks as Tonpa's eyes widened.

The wave had not rebounded.

It had gone through.

It crossed the gap to the tree behind the rock and struck the middle of the trunk with a muffled boom. Bark flew, and the branches shuddered violently.

CRAAACK!

The sound of tearing wood split the air. A crack spread across the trunk from the point of impact, and the upper section tilted under the weight of its branches.

Torn fibers held it in place for a moment.

Then they snapped.

The tree crashed backward. Its branches struck the ground in a succession of cracks, leaves flew over the rocks, and small stones tumbled down the slope.

Tonpa remained with his arm extended.

It had taken only moments, but his eyes kept moving between the rock and the tree, trying to catch up with what had happened.

As the dust thinned, the hole appeared.

Round. Narrow. Roughly the size of a coin.

He stared at it, then shifted slightly until he could look straight through.

Beyond it, he saw what remained of the trunk.

'I… did that?'

He slowly lowered his hand.

That was the result of the first level.

One finger.

A smile spread across his face before he could stop it.

'If one finger can do that, what does the tenth level do? Punch through a mountain and demand an apology from the rock behind it?'

He turned toward another mass of stone, excitement beginning to erase what remained of his caution. He wanted to repeat the attempt, then learn to gather the power with fewer shakes and find out whether he could release it while moving.

He lifted his foot to return to his starting stance.

His leg gave out.

His knee hit the ground, and he had to plant his palm among the loose stones to avoid falling on his face. His breath abruptly caught. Exhaustion flooded his muscles all at once, as though he had run the entire First Phase without stopping.

His eyes widened as he tried to get up.

His body did not respond at once.

His right arm was heavy, and his index finger would not stop trembling. He felt no tearing pain in it, but the strength that had filled his limbs moments earlier was gone, leaving an aching emptiness and a wave of nausea.

'What is this? I used one finger. Why does my body feel as though I donated the rest of my organs?'

The warning returned to his mind, clearer now than when he had read it in his excitement.

The Sutra did not create power from nothing.

The shakes gathered his body's energy and allowed him to compress it, but they did not pay the cost of the attack for him. Completing the required number let him release the technique. It did not automatically make him efficient at using his energy.

His body was far stronger than it had been, but he had not trained it to handle this flow of power or learned to regulate how much he sent through it. He had been so focused on successfully building the charge that he poured more into the attack than he could comfortably bear.

'Wonderful. I got a bullet, but the gun uses me as ammunition.'

He raised his head toward the hole.

If he tried using two fingers now, losing control would not be his only problem.

The second level required more energy than his body currently possessed. Forcing himself to keep charging would not create what he lacked. It would drain what kept him moving and breathing, and might kill him before the attack was complete.

Even if he gained enough energy one day, he would not be able to skip the training. Power he did not know how to control could run wild inside his arm instead of leaving it.

He looked at his trembling index finger and kept the others out of any further experiments.

'Mastering one finger lets me learn to use two. Surviving it is another matter. Even dying has prerequisites.'

He slowly pushed himself up until he could sit on a low rock. The movement pulled at his side, so he kept a hand over it and waited.

Gradually, his breathing slowed.

The exhaustion did not disappear, but his legs began responding again. He tried moving the fingers of his right hand. They moved, though the index finger still trembled slightly.

The Sutra was not an ability he could fire off whenever someone annoyed him.

In his current state, a first-level attack might end a fight if it hit. If it missed, or his opponent had a companion nearby, it would leave him easy prey.

A surprise weapon, then.

He needed time to charge it, a target he could hit, and an escape route that would keep him from collapsing in front of someone else afterward.

'Either the attack hits, or I use what's left of my dignity to convince my opponent that kneeling is part of the art.'

He studied his finger with more cautious satisfaction.

He had finally found an attack that could do more than his ordinary fist. With training, he might waste less energy and charge it faster, until he no longer had to perform ten full shakes while his opponent waited for a reason to kill him.

As for the second level, he would need better control and more energy.

Not more enthusiasm.

He had tested the benefits of enthusiasm enough.

Ding!

The System's chime suddenly pierced his thoughts.

Tonpa raised his head, expecting a notification about successfully using the Finger Sutra or making progress in its mastery.

A small window appeared before him.

[Killua Zoldyck's Status: Confused.]

The smile vanished from Tonpa's face.

He read the name again.

A slow chill traveled from his neck down his back.

'Why is the System telling me his status now?'

He had heard no footsteps.

He had noticed no rustle of clothing or scrape of a stone behind him.

But a familiar voice reached him from among the rocks.

"You've finally stopped pretending."

_______________________________

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[Vinni_w]

Ah, a wonderful tale about a person, their ass and fingers.
Who'd ecpect some Freud here...

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 83: Behind the Cold Expression

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa slowly turned toward the voice.

Killua sat on a tall rock behind him, off to the left, with one knee raised and an arm resting on it. Moonlight caught his white hair, and a mocking smile sat on his face.

Tonpa had no idea how long he had been there.

That alone was a problem.

He had used Zetsu for his first few steps out of the cave, then continued cautiously after he could no longer maintain it. He had checked the path more than once and gone far enough, or so he had thought, to test his strength without anyone watching. Yet Killua had followed him undetected and settled on that rock as though all those precautions had been a brief performance staged for his amusement.

'Damn this brat. Are Zoldycks born with a mute button for their footsteps?'

Killua's eyes moved from Tonpa's trembling index finger to the hole through the rock, then to the shattered tree trunk behind it.

"That was interesting," he said lightly.

Tonpa did not answer.

Killua's smile widened a little.

"Did you need all that shaking just to fire one shot?"

Tonpa's expression stiffened.

'Of everything he saw, of course he decided to start with my ass.'

He lowered his hand to his side, as though that might help end the discussion about the rest of his body.

It did not.

"At first, I thought you were trying to shake a spider out of your pants."

Heat crept into Tonpa's ears.

'Damn whoever created this art. He should have included a chapter on killing witnesses.'

He opened his mouth to respond, but Killua's smile vanished before he found anything to say. The boy lowered his leg and dropped silently to the ground.

When he raised his head again, there was no trace of mockery left in his expression.

"What are you after?"

The words were quiet. That only made them more threatening.

Killua took one step forward.

"Have you had this strength all along?"

He kept his eyes fixed on Tonpa.

"I suspected you from the start. Then I started to think I might have been wrong."

He glanced at the hole in the rock again.

"Looks like you're still hiding plenty."

Killua's right hand hung at his side. His nails lengthened, and his fingers curled slightly, the sharp tips aimed toward Tonpa.

For a moment, Tonpa felt as though the blood in his veins had stopped.

He did not need his knowledge of the anime to understand what that meant. Killua's stance changed with the movement. His center of gravity lowered, his feet settled against the ground, and the distance between them became something he could cross before Tonpa finished inventing half a sentence.

'Wonderful. My index finger still hasn't stopped shaking, and he's about to show me what else fingers are good for.'

Tonpa tried to rise from the rock, but his legs protested immediately. He braced a palm against its edge and slowly pushed himself upright. He tensed his muscles to keep the trembling under control, but the nausea left by the Sutra rose in his throat.

Even at his best, he would not have been certain he could face Killua. His Strength and Speed had reached Rank B, but numbers had not given him the experience of an assassin trained since childhood. Now that he had compressed most of his body's energy into a single attack, Rank B Speed was little more than an impressive label attached to legs that refused to work.

And if Killua misjudged what his body could withstand and struck merely to incapacitate him, Tonpa might end up missing a body part before he had a chance to object.

He slowly raised both hands.

"Calm down. I'll explain."

Killua's shoulder moved.

That was all Tonpa saw.

The next instant, the boy was no longer in front of him.

'What—'

A light blow struck the back of his knee. His leg buckled before he could brace it, and the ground rushed toward his face.

Then his fall stopped with a violent jerk.

His shirt pulled taut at the collar, and his knee landed among the pebbles. The air left his lungs, but he had no time to draw another breath.

Something cold slid beneath his jaw.

He froze.

Killua's fingers were at his throat.

He had not seen the hand arrive. He had not heard a single footstep behind him. A moment ago, he had been raising his hands to calm the boy down. Now he did not even dare lower them.

The edge of a nail touched his skin.

A tiny sting.

Then a warm drop slid slowly down the side of his neck.

His eyes widened.

'Damn it… I'm done for.'

The hand gripping his collar tightened slightly, holding his head at an angle he could not change without brushing against those nails.

Killua's voice came close to his ear, terrifyingly calm.

"You can talk from there."

Tonpa kept staring at the place where the boy had been standing a moment earlier.

This time, he could not think of a joke.

The grip behind his neck did not loosen. The nails did not withdraw. He remained on one knee, his other foot planted in front of him, supporting as much of his weight as it could.

He lowered his hands very slowly until one rested on his raised knee.

Killua did not stop him.

But he did not let him go, either.

Tonpa considered calling for the others.

Then he felt the edge of the nail beneath his jaw again.

Gon would rush to him immediately, and Kurapika would not let the confrontation continue without hearing both sides. But getting here would take them far longer than that hand would need.

Even if he called them, they would find a rock with a hole through it, a shattered tree, and Tonpa pinned in Killua's grip, being made to explain himself. Instead of convincing one person, he would have to invent a story that convinced four at once.

'No. If I have to bury this disaster, I'd rather not invite an audience to the funeral.'

"Start talking," Killua said. "I want to hear which lie you choose."

"Why assume it'll be a lie?"

"Because you're Tonpa."

The answer hit its mark more precisely than the Sutra's blast.

Tonpa struggled to keep his voice steady as Killua continued.

"I wasn't asleep. But you put on a good show, so I didn't want to interrupt."

Tonpa frowned.

"What show?"

A hint of mockery returned to the boy's voice.

"You started by checking whether we were asleep. You looked at Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika. Then you kept staring at me as though you were waiting for me to open my eyes."

He paused.

"After that, you started moving your finger through the air, and your expression changed every few seconds. Sometimes you smiled. Sometimes you looked shocked. Sometimes you looked like you were arguing with someone we couldn't see."

A headache began behind Tonpa's eyes.

'Wonderful. The brat even watched my fights with the System.'

Killua continued.

"Then your whole body tensed, and the ground cracked under your hand. Your foot nearly hit a rock. After that, you started rotating your shoulder and bending over, like you were testing a body you'd just received."

The mockery faded from his voice.

"Then a capsule appeared in your hand out of nowhere. You drank it, and the smell coming off you nearly woke Gon. Then you wiped whatever had come out of your skin onto a piece of your shirt and made that disappear too."

Tonpa's eyes widened a little.

Killua had not merely been watching.

He had been memorizing every humiliating moment.

"After that, your presence became fainter, and you left. I followed you. I saw you smash that rock with your fist, run faster than you ever have in front of us, then blast a hole through another rock with one finger and destroy the tree behind it."

Tonpa kept looking at the hole ahead of him. From here, the evidence he had left behind seemed more troublesome than impressive.

"So what were you doing to yourself inside the cave? And what was in that capsule?"

Tonpa bit the inside of his cheek.

The questions were annoyingly reasonable, and the nails resting at his throat imposed strict limits on what he could say aloud.

"You acted as though you couldn't use that Nen you told us about in the tower," the boy continued. "So what did I just see? A few hours ago, we were carrying you around unconscious because of the poison."

The hand gripping his shirt tightened a little.

"How much of that weakness was real? Was everything you did with us an act too?"

Tonpa opened his mouth, then closed it.

He had plenty of lies.

The problem was that Killua had seen more than any convenient lie could accommodate.

If he said his strength had appeared that night, he would have to explain why it had appeared, the capsule he had drunk, and how he had produced it out of thin air. If he claimed he had known the Sutra for years but had been unable to use it, Killua would ask who had taught him and what had changed.

Claiming he had been hiding his strength all along would bring them straight back to the worst question: Why had he not used it when their lives were in danger?

He did not just need an excuse for the hole in the rock.

He needed a story that covered everything Killua had seen, from his first movement inside the cave to the shattered tree behind the rock.

And telling him about the System was the worst option of all. Tonpa did not understand the System well enough himself to explain how it had turned an overweight con artist into someone who could shatter rocks in a matter of days. Even if Killua believed him, revealing its existence would put Tonpa's greatest secret inside the head of a professional assassin he had known for only a few turbulent days.

'Think. You've sold things that didn't exist to people who didn't need them. Losing to the truth in your first direct confrontation is unacceptable.'

He tried to assemble a story that fit what Killua knew, but exhaustion weighed on his thoughts. Every time he found the beginning of a lie, its ending ran into some detail the brat had witnessed himself.

The pebbles began to hurt his knee. He wanted to shift it, but he was afraid his neck would move with it, so he merely tightened his fingers against his other leg.

Killua said nothing.

He did not need to.

The lingering sting in Tonpa's neck was enough to remind him that he did not have unlimited time to negotiate.

Ding!

A notification appeared at the worst possible moment.

[Killua Zoldyck's Trust: 27% → 22%]

Tonpa stared at the new number.

Five whole percentage points, gone in minutes.

'You deduct Trust too? To raise it, I have to save someone's life. To lower it, all I have to do is train without permission?'

The window shuddered, and a second line appeared beneath it.

[Killua Zoldyck's Current Status: Confused, Concerned.]

Tonpa blinked.

Concerned?

He could not see Killua's face, but nothing he could perceive suggested concern. A calm voice, a steady grip, and nails that had not moved from his throat since the boy had forced him down. Without the System's help, Tonpa would have chosen "ready to rip out my guts" long before that word occurred to him.

'Stupid System. You lower his Trust in me, then tell me he's concerned, as if that gives me the points back.'

But the insult lost its bite before he finished it.

He read the line again.

Confused.

Concerned.

The notification did not tell him what concerned Killua, nor did it guarantee that the boy would not hurt him. The drop of blood on his neck was proof enough that concern did not make those nails any less sharp.

But Killua could have done far more than he had.

He had reached Tonpa's back before Tonpa could follow him with his eyes, brought him down, and restrained him. Then he had stopped his nail at a small scratch. He still held him, but he kept asking questions instead of increasing the pressure.

He wanted an answer.

And his last question had not been about the capsule or the rock.

Had everything he had done with them been an act?

Tonpa replayed the words in his head, then remembered what the boy had said before moving.

I suspected you from the start. Then I started to think I might have been wrong.

It seemed to Tonpa that Killua was trying to work out whether the man who had taken that risk inside the cave, helped them during the exam, and shared a meal with them hours earlier actually existed… or whether he was a mask concealing someone else who was getting close to Gon.

For a moment, the headache stopped crushing Tonpa's thoughts.

Perhaps Killua had not made up his mind yet.

Perhaps, behind that cold expression Tonpa had seen before being forced to his knee, the boy was looking for a reason to set aside his suspicions without putting Gon in danger.

And that was a distinction a con artist could work with.

Tonpa relaxed his fingers against his knee and kept his breathing shallow and careful. He did not try to turn around or raise a hand toward the nails.

Inside, however, a devious smile slowly began to form.

'If he wants an excuse to believe me… it would be rude not to sell him one.'

_______________________________

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[Tonyloco]

Poor Killua, in the end he's still a kid, and he probably wants to believe.

A wanting to believe a lie must be hard, this feels like one of those moments where it makes it or breaks it for the story.

Most of the abilities he has shown can actually be explained in HXH.

Having a secret place to hide and carry things make sense for a Thief, knowing about Nen and techniques that he wasn't able to use until recently also can be explained by nen.

His family threw him aside, or is testing him, in a way he's an older Killua, what might have happened to him without a Gon, one that has been failing so far.

He was under a geass or a curse and was unable to break it until recently and once he was able to do so, he was able to access treasures of his family or even a legacy given.

it's fun to guess where this one is going, looking forward the next chapter.