What's going on?
Can the bad luck triggered by the black feather "attack" a target so directly?
But the previous manifestations of Luck all relied on external factors...
Or could it be that after accumulating several instances of good luck, it would indeed trigger an extremely intense bout of bad luck?
As his consciousness blurred, Morrow's thoughts raced.
The shouts of his teammates in his ears grew more and more distant, fainter and fainter, until endless darkness completely submerged him.
But in the next instant, the darkness before him was abruptly drawn back like a curtain. A hazy, distorted, and rippling scene, like the surface of water, filled his entire vision.
Within the constantly wavering ripples, he could vaguely make out the flickering of a fire and several abstract human silhouettes.
For a moment, Morrow thought he had already died and had completed a rewind with his Tree Rings ability.
But when he managed to make out the distorted images of the cave, the burning grass fluff, and the blurry figures of his teammates, he realized he wasn't dead.
He was still in the cave.
But for some reason, though he could feel his consciousness, he had suddenly lost all physical sensation and couldn't hear a single sound.
The distorted, watery ripple before his eyes was like a barrier that completely separated his consciousness from his body.
He could only watch, unable to do anything.
Just then, his vision suddenly shook.
It seemed his body had sat up from the ground.
Through his distorted, rippling vision, he saw several figures nearby, their mouths opening and closing, clearly speaking.
Morrow wanted to respond, but it was like sleep paralysis; his mind was clear, but his body was completely unresponsive.
He tried to break through the restraint with his willpower, but it was useless.
Could I be under some kind of Manipulation ability?
Morrow tried hard to recall what had happened before he lost consciousness.
But no matter how he thought about it, everything had been perfectly normal.
At most, he had just been soaked by a sudden downpour.
Besides, judging from the distorted, wavering scene before him, everyone else was unharmed.
It seemed that he had suddenly ended up like this because he had drawn the black feather representing bad luck.
But he couldn't immediately determine whether the black feather had attacked him directly, or if it had used some external condition he hadn't noticed, causing him to unknowingly fall into a predicament similar to a Manipulation ability.
As Morrow pondered the reason, the distorted vision before him shook again.
His line of sight suddenly dropped downwards.
His body had probably just lowered its head.
Immediately after, Morrow saw "himself" slowly raise an arm to his mouth and, without warning, bite down viciously before frantically sucking the gushing blood.
The action was so savage it was as if he had been starving for a long time. As he sucked, blood continuously spattered from the corners of his lips.
Seeing this, a flash of insight seemed to strike Morrow's mind.
Zobae, the Immortality Disease?!
The posture of lowering his head to suck blood from his wrist instantly reminded him of Zobae, the Immortality Disease, one of the Five Threats known to humanity.
Beyond had encountered it back then, which led to his defeat and retreat.
Could it be that the plant they had collected from the treetop forest was truly the legendary Alchemy Plant Metallion?
And because of the power of the black feather's bad luck, he had been so incredibly unlucky as to contract this Immortality Disease without even realizing it?
So the Immortality Disease separates and traps a person's consciousness?
Morrow could only watch as his body single-mindedly and crazily sucked his own blood.
Under the effect of Zobae, the Immortality Disease, this act of sucking his own blood would cause his body to enter a never-ending cycle.
In other words, through this self-sufficient method, his body would no longer need to sustain its life through other forms of consumption.
It was like a mindless robot, repeating the same action every day.
Morrow had originally thought that Zobae, the Immortality Disease, was similar to another calamity, Brion, in that they both destroyed a person's consciousness before replacing and controlling the body to manifest their calamitous power.
But now it seemed Zobae was significantly crueler.
After attacking a human, it would actually preserve the victim's consciousness intact, then control the body to achieve an "immortal" effect by sucking its own blood.
In this way, the consciousness, imprisoned in the body like a person in a vegetative state, could only watch as Zobae drove this body to "live" on forever.
And there was nothing it could do, nothing it could change.
It was also a form of immortality.
Compared to the positive effects of Nitro Rice, Zobae, the Immortality Disease, was simply the other extreme.
If I can't do anything like this, and time drags on past the rewind cycle, then even if I'm lucky enough to die later, after the rewind, I'll probably still be controlled by Zobae, the Immortality Disease, just like now.
Realizing he had likely contracted this Immortality Disease, Morrow instantly felt the situation was far more serious than he had imagined.
If he could just die right now, he could use the rewind power of Tree Rings to get a chance to start over.
But what if he couldn't even die?
Once more than a week passed, it would truly be irreversible.
But the problem now was there was no way his teammates would let him die right now.
This is trouble.
Morrow's heart sank to the depths.
This Immortality Disease, which separated his consciousness from his body, was, in a sense, the perfect counter to his rewind.
He could do nothing now but let Zobae, the Immortality Disease, control his body.
If there was any hope left for him, it might be Sanbica's ability.
If Sanbica could find a way to cure Zobae, the Immortality Disease, then he had a chance of recovery.
As long as he could regain control of even one hand, he could use his rewind within the cycle to change this predicament.
—--
At this very moment, inside the cave, the grass fluff was burning fiercely.
But the flickering flames could not dispel the chill that was quietly gathering in everyone's hearts.
From Morrow's sudden collapse to his abrupt, stiff sit-up, only a few seconds had passed.
Everyone had thought that perhaps Morrow had overexerted his mind and, coupled with being soaked by the rain, had temporarily lost consciousness.
But they never expected the Morrow who sat up would suddenly bite his own wrist with near-savage force, then lower his head and frantically suck the gushing blood.
"Morrow!"
Biscuit reacted extremely quickly, unhesitatingly reaching out to stop Morrow's self-harming act.
But the instant her fingertips touched Morrow, Morrow jerked his head up. His blood-stained face was as ferocious as a demon's, his pupils shrunk to pinpricks, and the whites of his eyes were wide.
In that moment, his malice and anger solidified into a tangible aura, erupting with an aura amount of Lv. 125.
Boom! Crack!
He just swung his arm, the speed so fast only an afterimage could be seen, and Biscuit was sent flying.
Although Biscuit had sensed danger from his twisted expression the moment Morrow looked up and had immediately condensed a solid Nen defense at the point of impact, Morrow's attack power was too terrifying!
Even with her defense at its peak, the moment she was hit, her entire arm was severely fractured. Pale bone fragments pierced through her skin, and blood instantly splattered.
Thud!
Biscuit's body slammed heavily against the cave wall, the deafening thud echoing throughout the cave.
This sudden turn of events made the others' faces change drastically.
What on earth had happened to Morrow?
Looking at his ferocious and twisted expression, like that of a demon, Menchi, Kalluto, Ponzu, Sanbica, and Gel all felt a violent tremor in their hearts.
They didn't understand why Morrow had suddenly become like this, but their experiences over the past few days had tempered their minds to be sufficiently resilient.
So much so that even with their minds in turmoil, they still made a decision in an extremely short amount of time.
No matter what caused Morrow to become like this, the most urgent thing right now was to stop him from continuing to frantically suck his blood!
Otherwise, if he lost too much blood, it would really be too late!
Gel was the first to act. Her right arm instantly transformed into a black snake Nen beast, striking from Morrow's blind spot.
As long as the Nen beast could bite him, it could immediately inject a paralyzing toxin.
But to do this, she had to abandon all thoughts of defense and pour all her aura into the black snake Nen beast.
Only then would it be possible to break through Morrow's Nen defense.
But this also meant that at this moment, she would be completely exposing herself to danger.
However, out of absolute trust in her companions, she acted on the thought without a shred of hesitation.
Swish!
The snake head, tied with a bow, slithered like a phantom to the back of Morrow's feet and bit down precisely.
In the next instant, the pair of fangs filled with venom suddenly hit empty air.
Morrow's figure had vanished.
No, his instantaneous burst of speed was too fast, so fast it was as if he had evaporated into thin air.
So fast!
Gel's attack missed, and alarm bells screamed in her mind. A cold Nen pressure washed over her first, like an invisible hand suddenly gripping her throat.
In that split second, a nimble figure darted in from the side.
It was the familiar spirit Neferpitou, controlled by Kalluto.
It shoved Gel aside with lightning speed.
Gel only felt her body shift sideways, and in her vision, a blurry figure suddenly solidified.
It was Morrow, appearing where she had just been, his form fully revealed.
Immediately after, she saw Morrow's blood-stained palm thrust brutally toward Neferpitou.
Splat!
A dull impact sound.
It wasn't the sound of fists and feet meeting, but the chaotic echo of power tearing through flesh and blood.
Under that push, Neferpitou's chest shattered like fragile pottery, and her upper body instantly exploded into a shower of blood and gore, splattering across the rock wall and ground in front of them at an astonishing speed.
Gel's pupils contracted violently.
If Kalluto hadn't controlled Neferpitou to save her in time, the one who had just turned into that mist of blood would have been her.
And the reason Kalluto was able to make such a precise judgment had nothing to do with combat sense or reaction speed.
It was purely out of an almost stubborn belief deep in his heart.
From the very beginning, Kalluto believed more firmly than anyone that Morrow was the strongest.
Under this pure filter, Kalluto had never even considered the possibility of misjudgment.
It was this absolute trust that had, in that critical moment, forcefully pulled Gel back from the brink of death.
However, in these few short seconds of confrontation, whether it was Gel who had borne the brunt of the pressure, or Ponzu, Sanbica, and the others who had witnessed it all, they all experienced Morrow's terror for the first time as his "opponents."
This was not a combat drill, but a true life-and-death struggle.
They couldn't help but feel a sliver of understanding and empathy for the opponents who had once been defeated by Morrow.
So this is what it feels like to truly stand against Morrow. Such suffocating helplessness.
Ponzu and Sanbica, who were not skilled in combat, also wanted to stop Morrow's self-harm, but they clearly understood that they absolutely could not rely on a momentary burst of courage to withstand this despair-inducing pressure.
The two decisively retreated, getting as far away from the eye of the storm as possible.
This action, seen by Biscuit who had regained her footing, actually made her secretly sigh in relief.
There was no need to feel guilty about it.
It was the most correct and wisest choice at this moment.
Biscuit, who had unhesitatingly transformed into her Muscle Barbie form in the critical situation, ignored the severe injury to her right arm. Her thick legs stomped hard on the ground, creating a dull thud, and she shot toward Morrow like an arrow released from a bow.
And as she moved, Menchi, at the instant Morrow's palm shattered Neferpitou's upper body, seized the fleeting opening and circled behind him like a shadow.
She wanted to use joint locks to restrain Morrow's movements.
At the same time, Kalluto also controlled the familiar spirit Ant King to approach Morrow from the front, attempting to draw his attention.
However, perhaps because the process of "self-sufficiency" had been interrupted repeatedly, the aura around Morrow suddenly erupted with extreme rage.
This rage, wrapped in a surging Nen pressure, swept through the entire cave like an invisible storm.
The sheer intensity of the spreading aura slammed into Menchi's and Kalluto's minds like a heavy hammer, causing a fatal, slight hesitation in their movements.
This wasn't because their wills were weak.
It was because Morrow's Nen pressure was simply overwhelmingly terrifying.
"Drop your intent to attack!"
At this critical juncture, Biscuit's sharp cry pierced through the aura and reached their ears.
Menchi and Kalluto almost reflexively aborted their attacks and completely retracted all intention of striking.
This action actually caused Morrow's violent aura to calm down somewhat, and he also seemed to abandon his intention to attack the two of them.
He just stood there, lowered his head again, and began to frantically suck the blood that was gushing from his wrist.
Everyone retreated some distance away. As they looked at Morrow, their expressions were all filled with gravity and worry.
Biscuit had also aborted her attack.
Relying on her vast experience, which far surpassed the others, she had keenly perceived the trigger for Morrow's counterattacks during her brief charge.
Morrow's targets were undoubtedly those who showed clear intent to attack him or attempted to interrupt his blood-sucking.
So when Biscuit noticed Menchi and Kalluto were stunned by that terrifying aura, she immediately shouted a warning.
Otherwise, even that momentary pause would have been enough to put Menchi and Kalluto in a desperate situation.
"We have to face a reality. Even if we team up, we are no match for Morrow in a single exchange, let alone restrain him."
Biscuit slowly exhaled and said in a low voice.
Hearing these words, the feeling of powerlessness in everyone's hearts grew even heavier.
They had all consumed several stalks of Nitro Rice, and Biscuit, in particular, had used it to reach her maximum aura amount.
But even after increasing their aura to such a degree, when they faced Morrow directly, all that awaited them were the words "utterly powerless."
"So we can only stand here and watch?"
Menchi clenched her fists, unable to hide her anxiety.
Sanbica, however, was carefully observing Morrow's condition, looking thoughtful.
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Bonus chapter @200powerstones and next one @400