April 23
In a house on the outskirts of Momo City, Togiri stepped out of the shower, a towel wrapped around his neck.
Earlier that day, he had visited the Shadow Squad, the elite first unit of the Phantom Society. After distributing pills and instructions to them, he indulged himself at three all-you-can-eat buffets—only to be kicked out of each for excessive eating.
Togiri's food intake was immense. Recovering the energy spent running down the mountain required as much as a regular person would consume in two or three months.
Of course, he could easily purchase a fasting pill from the shop for just 10 points and satisfy his need for food for a few days, but why waste points when he was rich?
He opened his system window and reviewed his status.
Status:
Name: Togiri
Age: 13
Strength: 30.01
Agility: 30.01
Vitality: 33.00
Aura: 103,000
Body Cultivation: First Layer of Organ Refining (Entry Level)
'Just improving my Aura and physical strength makes my combat power weak,' Togiri thought, opening the skill tab.
Skills:
Nen (entry-level)
Mastery:
Ten 36%, Ren 22%, Ken 18%, Zetsu 32%
Gyo 12%, In 3%, En 12%, Shu 21%, Ryu 8%
Ko 5%, Hatsu 10%
Nen Ability:
Phantom Pages (entry level)
Max Pages: 4
Phantom Book (entry level)
Phantom Warrior: 0.59 (STR, AGI, VIT)
Time limit: 3 minutes
---
'There's no point in training or using points to improve my Nen ability in the short term,' Togiri mused.
He needed to quickly raise his strength, but his points were only declining. For his secret plan to work in the future, he was still far too weak.
Points:
Existence Points (EP): 440,089
Shop Points (SP): 0
Reviewer Points (RP): 0
'The gangsters probably all know about me now, so continuing to spread the Blue Demon identity is useless. Should I start targeting bigger gangs instead?'
Over the last two weeks, Togiri had taken on small, weak gangs of fewer than ten members, with each gang worth 60 to 80 points.
He had eliminated several dozen of these gangs. But after a few days of this, the smaller groups either disbanded or merged into larger organizations.
'I already tasked the second and third squads with gathering intel on the local gangs, strong criminals, and hidden fighters.'
Togiri walked over to his desk, crawled beneath it, and opened a hidden compartment. He pulled out three thick black books with plain white titles: Gangs / Nen Users / Wanted Criminals.
He opened the book labeled Gangs and flipped through the pages until he stopped at one particular entry.
The Slashers
Members: 100-200
Crimes: Rape, drug trafficking, human trafficking, loan sharking, sex trafficking
Nen users: 3
Boss: Zeik (Nen ability unknown)
Right Hand: Elara 'Venom'
Ability: Neurotoxin spit that can paralyze or control victims if it enters through an open wound. She's a Manipulator trained in assassination but is weak in head-on combat.
Left Hand: Garrick 'Bulldozer'
A giant with immense strength, likely stronger than Zeik. He's an Enhancement-type Nen user and a significant threat.
Togiri jotted down a few more notes, then called Kaizen, issuing orders to prepare for battle in a month.
He estimated that, rather than 100 gang members, there would be closer to 150 to deal with. Togiri could eliminate dozens himself using the Phantom Society's weapons and devices, but direct combat with so many would be risky.
The Phantom Society's four squads were diverse in skill levels:
First Squad (Shadow Squad): 5 Nen users, all stronger than Togiri.
Second Squad: 20 members, with only 3 able to use basic Nen and the captain recently created his Nen ability.
Third Squad: 30 members, most of whom had trained for long.
Fourth Squad: Over 100 trainees, mostly teens, young adults, and even children.
Since meeting Amber, a girl from the orphanage, Togiri had started sponsoring orphanages across Momo City.
He gave the children a choice: stay in the orphanage and live a normal life, or devote themselves to him and face hardship in exchange for what mattered most—strength.
Trainees and third squad members could opt out of the Phantom Society and still receive compensation.
Togiri knew that fear or respect alone couldn't ensure lasting loyalty. Only benefits could do that.
Kaizen was the only one truly loyal to Togiri—fanatically so. The other four members of the first squad would die for him, but not with the same devotion as Kaizen.
Battle Plan:
Kaizen: Fight Garrick.
Togiri: Fight Zeik, since he could heal himself using Existence Points.
Haruka: Deal with Elara, who was skilled with hidden weapons.
Ryuha: His whip could handle several dozen members.
Jinrai: His revolvers would take down a few dozen more.
Tsuchi: His warhammer would block the biggest escape route.
The second squad, with its limited Nen users, would take on 30-40 gang members, thanks to the Phantom Society's weapons. The third squad, although weak, could manage about 20 members if armed with the Society's devices.
Togiri thought hard, calculating how to minimize casualties on his side. Suddenly, he facepalmed. 'Just because I've been fighting the small gangs head-on doesn't mean I have to use the same tactic this time.'
He grabbed an empty notebook and began writing rapidly, a devilish smile crossing his face.
---
*A Week Later*
Name: Togiri
Age: 13
Strength: 30.02
Agility: 30.02
Vitality: 33.01
Aura: 103,058
Body Cultivation: First Layer of Organ Refining (Entry Level)
Skills:
Nen (entry-level)
Mastery:
Ten 38%, Ren 24%, Ken 21%, Zetsu 33%
Gyo 13%, In 4%, En 15%, Shu 23%, Ryu 9%
Ko 7%, Hatsu 11%
Nen ability:
Phantom Pages (entry level)
Phantom book (entry level)
Max pages: 6
Phantom Warrior: 0.71(STR, AGI, VIT)
Time limit: 3 minutes and 10 seconds
Togiri stood in the large white room where he had first unlocked the system, breathless but satisfied.
"My physical stats only grew by 0.01 without using pills, and my Aura by about 600. Most of my Nen mastery increased by 2-4%, except for Hatsu, which grew only by 1%." He smiled, summoning the Phantom Book into his hand.
"It now only takes me 10 minutes to summon the Phantom Book, and I can summon six Phantom Warriors at once.
Their strength has improved from 0.59 to 0.71, and the time limit has extended by 10 seconds. These are my biggest gains."
Exhausted, Togiri sat down to meditate and entered the Training Simulator, where he fought full-power matches against an exact copy of himself.
Togiri focused on improving his Nen ability, Phantom Pages while awake, and his Nen mastery while meditating.
In the Training Simulator, he had no stronger opponents saved. Previously, he sparred with Fang or used Fang's physical avatar.
Now, despite everyone in the Shadow Squad being stronger, they were under Kaizen's orders not to retaliate, except for Ryuha, who ignored orders because he was as strong as Kaizen and crazy.
Hours passed as Togiri trained, battling himself in simulations. When he finally returned from his consciousness, he had recovered 70% of his Aura.
Creating the Phantom Book used to cost him a third of his Aura, but now it was less. Originally, summoning a page consumed nearly all of his remaining Aura, but now it only cost 10,000 Aura—about 10% of his total.
Togiri primarily focused on three aspects while training: summoning speed of the book, increasing the number of pages, and strength increase of his Phantom Warriors which directly correlates to the creation of a page.
Page creation used Conjuration, Transformation, Emission, Manipulation, and Enhancement.
He had adjusted his Nen affinity, decreasing his Conjuration efficiency by 20% and increasing Enhancement from 60% to 80%.
This increased his efficiency in utilizing Enhancement, making his mastery rise quickly. It also reduced his Aura loss, although it now took longer to create each page. His page creation speed was back to 6 hours again.
With six pages, Togiri could summon the book, tear the pages out, and focus the rest of his Aura on combat.
The more pages in the book, the longer it took to summon. Without any pages, Togiri would take under a minute to summon the book.
"I've recovered about two-thirds of my Aura. Let's go." Togiri opened his inventory and pulled out a cloak and a blue demonic mask.
The night sky was clear, with not a cloud in sight. The bustling city was asleep, and the clock struck 4 a.m.
---
[May 1, 04:00 - An explosion occurred at 145 Duyan Street...]
The young detective took a sip of his coffee, sighed, and leaned back in his chair.
"Togiri, what are you doing to this city?" Ryouichi Kael, 24 years old, a detective, stared at the report he was writing. As he brooded over his notes, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Good morning, Ryouichi. I heard about an explosion a few hours ago. What happened?" An older detective and friend of Ryouichi, his mustache trembling, asked curiously.
Ryouichi glanced at his coworker blankly. "We don't know. The roof caved in, and they've already found over 30 bodies. Excavations are still underway. No explosives or chemicals were found at the scene, but… someone spotted the Blue Demon again."
The older detective sighed, leaning back in his chair. "The Blue Demon, huh? We're not children anymore. Who goes around dressing up like that?"
Ryouichi stared at the report in front of him, then at the crude drawing of the Blue Demon a witness had made. "Yeah… who?"
---
Meanwhile, Togiri, having ditched his disguise, jogged through the city as if he were on a casual morning run.
He returned to his training room and, in a burst of frustration, hurled a water bottle he'd bought on the way. It hit the ground with a thud.
"Damn it! I wouldn't have killed them all with that roof collapse if I'd known I'd only absorb the energy from half of them. I should've gotten over 700 Shop Points from those 46 people. Instead, I only got 324."
Out of frustration he kicked the waterbottle on the ground, it exploded on impact "Great, now I have to clean this mess up."
He sighed deeply. "Tonight, I was supposed to earn more SP than what I get from wiping out ten small gangs. Doesn't matter. I've just eliminated a third of the Slashers' combat power."
Togiri's frustration faded as he regained his cold, stoic composure. He sat down to meditate, entering the Training Simulator in the process.
Earlier, his Ko punch had cost him 60% of his remaining Aura, leaving him with only 10% left.
He had misjudged his strength, blowing the entire roof off the building too strongly, making the police believe a bomb had gone off. The destruction was far greater than he had anticipated.
The rest of May 1st passed uneventfully.
That was how the day came to an end.
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Author note: I don't know how many words are too little or too much. The hunter exam arc was most of the time between 1-2k words. The last few chapters had 3-5k words.
What do you guys think? Do you want longer chapters, but less frequent updates or more chapters, but they are more fast paced and shorter?