HxH: Ryomen... Satoru?

One day later, in the same corner of the lounge, Cyr sat alone on the sofa, calculating his assets once again.

"Finally, I've scraped together a billion." Cyr spread out his hands and leaned back, sighing in relief.

It hadn't been that long, really, but earning this much felt like a monumental task.

"System, I'm ready to spend. Give me the Storage Curse." Without hesitation, he spent the entire amount.

The money barely lingered in his possession for even a minute.

[Storage Curse has been issued.]

On the empty space beside Cyr appeared a 1.3-meter-long creature. Its entire body was a segmented mass of dark purple and black, its protruding eyes giving it a dopey look. It resembled a giant caterpillar—awkward, grotesque, and strange.

Yet no one around him seemed to notice its presence.

"Come on, come on," Cyr said, patting his thigh to beckon it closer.

The caterpillar-like creature raised the upper half of its body. Its massive head, with those protruding, vacant eyes, stared at Cyr. Its sausage-like mouthparts wiggled as it opened its mouth:

"M…Mama…"

There it was again—that familiar feeling. Why did it call everyone "Mama"?

Being called "Mama" felt so weird.

But since it was Storage Curse, Cyr decided to let it slide. Ugly and slow as it was, it was practical.

Besides, this was how this thing behaved in the original anime too. Cyr decided to tolerate it.

"Alright, hurry up and get on." Cyr urged it.

Storage Curse slowly crawled forward, inch by inch, until it climbed onto Cyr's body, wrapping itself around him in two loops. Its tail coiled around his waist while its head rested on his shoulder.

Just like how it looked in the anime, in that one scene with Toji.

Cyr grabbed his backpack with one hand and used the other to pry open Storage Curse's mouth. He shoved the bag inside.

"Glug glug—" The creature made swallowing noises as it devoured the backpack.

"Good boy, good boy," Cyr said, patting its head like one would a dog.

He stood up and began walking out of the corner. If anyone used Gyo—enhancing their vision with aura—they would see him surrounded by a thick, ominous aura of dark purple energy.

"Come to think of it, do I look like some kind of malevolent energy user to others now?" Cyr mused as he walked.

Of course, that would only be the case if those people were aware of what malevolent energy was.

Nen was life energy, while malevolent energy was its opposite. If anything, it was closer to cursed energy.

Wasn't malevolent energy born from anger and hatred? Cursed energy also came from negative emotions, right?

"But malevolent energy is only a setting from the movie series. I wonder if it exists in the real Hunter x Hunter world."

If it does exist, then Cyr could indeed call himself a malevolent energy user.

"This one, this one..." He walked to the merchandise section of the Heaven's Arena and casually pointed to a whole shelf of items.

"I'll take all of these. Have them delivered to my room." He nonchalantly instructed the Heaven's Arena staff.

After all, it wasn't ideal to shove things into Storage Curse's mouth in front of everyone.

Though, to the ordinary person, it would just seem like he was putting things into thin air.

"Of course, sir." The staff nodded with a cheerful smile, unfazed by his request.

Clothes, food, toiletries...

After getting the SC, Cyr turned into something of a nouveau riche, going on a shopping spree. Or rather, after meeting the conditions to have a personal space, the hoarding instinct deep within his rabbit soul had awakened.

He bought a ton of things, ensuring that, even if he ever ended up stranded on a deserted island, he wouldn't lack food or clothes. Afterward, he happily patted SC's big head.

Back in his room, however, he found Maro standing at the door. His face was bruised, yet his excitement was impossible to hide.

"Master! I figured out how to develop my abilities!" Maro exclaimed, voice full of excitement.

"Look—" He extended his right hand, and suddenly frost appeared in the air.

"Ice...?" Cyr raised an eyebrow.

Well, well, well… You really are the Uraume of the Hunter x Hunter world.

"How did you come up with using ice?" Cyr asked, feigning interest.

"Because I fought an opponent from the 200th floor today..." Maro scratched his face, a little discouraged.

After learning how to use Nen and actively attack, fights below the 200th floor became very easy for him. Today was his first match on the 200th floor.

"My opponent was a guy who used a spinning top..."

"At first, I got hit by the top a lot, and couldn't even get close to him. Then I thought, what if the tops didn't move?"

"At first, I was thinking about using cement, but I didn't know how, so I came up with the idea to freeze the tops..."

"That way, they wouldn't move anymore..." Maro shared his thought process during the match.

"And then? Did you win?" Cyr impatiently interrupted, asking for the result.

"...I lost." Maro lowered his head, his shoulders slumping in disappointment.

His idea was good, and he did manage to pull it off, but as for the battle result...

He successfully froze his opponent's top, but when he got close to attack the opponent directly, the opponent surprisingly started spinning just like the top...

And his ability couldn't freeze the opponent.

So, the result of the first match... he lost.

"...As expected." Cyr spoke knowingly. "I knew you'd lose, so I bet on your loss."

Maro looked stunned. "...Ah... Should I say, as expected of you, Master? You really have the ability to foresee things. Or should I say it's all my fault for being so useless, and you never thought I would win..."

"Don't worry, don't worry. Not long ago, you got beaten up by exam candidates who didn't even know Nen. Now you've made it to the 200th floor. It won't be long before these guys get knocked down by you. Then you'll realize, they—" Cyr waved his hand indifferently, lazily lifting the corner of his lips.

"Are super weak." He lowered his brows, speaking with disdain.

So cool...

That self-confident, natural arrogance! As expected of Cyr! So cool!

"Mm!" Maro nodded eagerly, eyes sparkling.

"Let's go. From now on, just keep focusing on developing your ability." Cyr said in a calm tone.

"No need to stay here any longer." He entered the room and started feeding things into SC's mouth.

"Not staying?" Maro asked, somewhat confused.

"Because there's no more money to be made here..." Cyr's expression was slightly complicated.

When he went to place bets today, the staff behind the counter had said to him, "I hope I won't see you here again next time. You should stop cheating with your abilities."

They probably couldn't see his Six Eyes ability, and they probably thought his Nen ability worked in this way...

After that, the staff drew a simple sketch right in front of him, a little figure with white hair, blue eyes, and black tattoos. They then stuck it on the wall next to the window.

It said, "This person is banned from approaching."

That meant he'd been blacklisted by the staff at that window.

Clearly, it wasn't an official ban, but rather a personal action from the staff. After all, the notice was drawn by them on the spot.

The Heaven's Arena staff were really free-spirited.

Just a few days ago, he'd seen an elevator girl beat up two guys who were trying to flirt with terrible pickup lines...

°°°

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