Heavens Arena was a renowned fighting paradise, attracting a massive number of tourists from abroad at all times.
One could say it was the city with the highest foot traffic in the world, bar none.
Therefore, Morena had designated it as a key target.
The first few Death Plague Bearers to arrive at Heavens Arena were merely the beginning of this calamity.
Morena had also deployed a sufficient number of Death Plague Bearers in the city's many bustling central districts, as well as its outskirts.
Like carefully placed Gungi pieces, they had a clear division of labor, surrounding the entire city.
Then, by gradually advancing toward the city center, they could ensure the power of the Death Plague would reach every single corner.
The purpose of this, naturally, was to completely eliminate all the ordinary people in the city.
As for the Nen users who could use their aura to resist the Death Plague, they would be handled by the Cyborg Legion.
Such a cold and meticulous arrangement made it clear that the intention was to turn this city, long known as a fighting paradise, into a city of the dead in a single day.
"Wh-what's going on?!"
Outside Heavens Arena, many spectators who had come for the fighting matches suddenly collapsed.
Inside the first-floor lobby, people were gathered watching live broadcasts of the matches. Some of them noticed the bizarre situation outside and were momentarily stunned. They hadn't heard any noise, let alone the sound of gunshots.
Yet, outside, swaths of spectators were suddenly falling to the ground.
This abrupt scene left people utterly bewildered.
Before the people in the lobby could figure out what was happening, the few Meteor City residents emanating the aura of the Death Plague had already stepped into the hall through various entrances.
The first-floor lobby of Heavens Arena was extremely spacious, with many thick, load-bearing pillars.
Large screens hung from each pillar, providing real-time broadcasts for spectators who couldn't get tickets, so the area was always packed with people.
When the Death Plague Bearers walked into the lobby, the power of death, as omnipresent as the air itself, silently invaded the body of every spectator, instantly snatching away their life force.
Thud, thud...
The countless spectators crowded around the pillars collapsed and died one after another without any warning.
Ordinary people were completely powerless in the face of this calamity.
After clearing the lobby, these few Death Plague Bearers immediately split up, taking the elevators to the upper floors.
Not long after they went up, even more Death Plague Bearers swarmed into Heavens Arena from the outside.
At this very moment.
Fighting matches were underway on every floor of Heavens Arena.
The contestants locked in fierce battle on the rings, as well as the people in the audience, were completely unaware of the impending disaster.
As the Death Plague Bearers advanced floor by floor, the people on each level died silently one after another, until they reached the 200th floor.
This power, capable of instantly stripping away life, finally met with resistance.
—--
In one of the arenas on the 200th floor.
The two contestants facing off on the ring had originally been focused on each other.
However, the sound in the entire venue suddenly vanished, causing both of them to startle.
The referee at the side was the first to notice the abnormality and immediately turned to look at the audience.
What's happening?!
He then saw a grotesque scene.
The spectators, who had been cheering excitedly just moments ago, were now all slumped limply in their seats.
Even the commentators were sprawled on their desks, their status unknown.
"Everyone... is dead."
One of the contestants noticed that the natural life aura that should have been emanating from the spectators' heads was gone, which meant that every single one of them was dead. The referee and the other contestant, both Nen users, also discovered this, and their expressions changed drastically.
But soon, they noticed two people still standing at the east and west entrances to the audience seating.
Two seemingly ordinary people.
The two contestants quickly exchanged glances, then charged toward the two individuals at the entrances.
However, just before they could get close, the two suspected culprits suddenly swallowed poison, collapsed, and began convulsing violently. They stopped breathing shortly after.
The same situation played out on every floor above the 200th.
Kastro and Calista, who had long served as Floor Masters at Heavens Arena, had no matches today but had come to watch fights in other arenas. This sudden mass-death phenomenon also affected the venue they were in.
"Calista, did you see that?"
In the audience, Kastro shot to his feet, his expression grave as he stared at a Meteor City resident at the other end of the stands.
Calista, sitting beside him, also stood up. She first glanced at the surrounding spectators who had all collapsed dead, then her gaze also fell upon that Meteor City resident.
"I saw it. A very faint aura emanated from that person, sweeping through the venue in an instant like En, at an extremely high speed," Calista said, her face equally grim.
Kastro's brow furrowed, his voice laced with clear anger. "Although that aura was faint, it was able to kill every spectator in the entire venue..."
There were also a dozen or so 200th-floor contestants in the audience who had come to watch.
At this moment, they were all filled with shock and uncertainty.
Perhaps they weren't as perceptive as Kastro and Calista and couldn't catch that fleeting aura.
But the bizarre scene of tens of thousands of spectators dying simultaneously with almost no warning was enough to fill them with terror.
Just as Kastro and Calista were about to make a move to restrain the Meteor City resident, another group of people swarmed in through the entrance.
It was Morena's team of modified humans, about ten of them.
Their bodies had been modified, granting them powerful physiques.
Although not as strong as Chimera Ants, they were still far superior to ordinary humans.
Moreover, under the enhancement of the Etude of Love ability, all ten of these modified humans had reached the maximum level.
However, due to differences in the difficulty of leveling up, even at the same max level, there were some discrepancies in the intensity of their aura output. By the standards of powerful humans, they were at best considered top-tier.
But even being merely top-tier, they were by no means opponents that the contestants of Heavens Arena's 200th floor could match.
In the vast arena, only Kastro and Calista, who had dedicated themselves to training at Heavens Arena for a long time, could barely contend with these modified humans in terms of aura output.
"Such powerful aura...!"
The other 200th-floor contestants, as well as the two participants on the ring whose match had yet to conclude, all stared in horror at the modified humans in the stands.
The modified humans' bodies surged with aura output at full blast, the bloodlust in their eyes completely undisguised.
But they didn't act immediately.
The reason was simple: they were waiting for their comrades who had not yet reached the max level to arrive.
After all, they themselves were already at the max level. If they eliminated these Heavens Arena Nen users now, it would just be a waste of experience points.
The contestants in the arena were naturally unaware of what the modified humans were thinking. They only felt the naked bloodlust from the enemy's powerful aura and all prepared for battle.
—--
Meanwhile, on the top floor of Heavens Arena.
Hisoka was standing before the floor-to-ceiling window of his luxurious suite, listlessly sticking playing cards to the glass, using this method to kill what he considered equally dull time.
BANG!
Suddenly, the double doors were violently kicked open from the outside. One of the door panels tumbled and crashed at Hisoka's feet with a deafening impact.
Hisoka didn't even raise an eyelid. He simply stuck the last playing card onto the window, completing the final stroke of the name "Morrow."
At the doorway.
A male and a female modified human stepped into the room, their gazes fixed on Hisoka by the window.
"You must be Hisoka, the strongest Floor Master in Heavens Arena."
The woman, her face covered in scars, sized up Hisoka's physique with interest.
The other man, with coarse features, stared at the aura emanating from Hisoka, narrowed his eyes, and said flatly, "Doesn't look like much."
Only then did Hisoka finally turn around to face the two uninvited guests.
On his face, painted with a teardrop and looking somewhat lifeless, a hint of interest gradually appeared.
"So, would you like to play with me for a bit?♠"
Hisoka plucked two cards from the window behind his back. In front of the two, he enveloped the cards in an intensely palpable aura and then began to flick them casually between his fingers.
In the blink of an eye, the two playing cards, wrapped in a sticky pink aura, traced a smooth pink arc through the air.
"Play?"
The coarse-featured man sneered. "Don't be ridiculous. You're not qualified."
"How cold.◇"
Before Hisoka's words had faded, he flicked his wrist, and the two spinning cards shot toward the man and woman respectively.
The coarse-featured man and the scarred woman had been on alert the moment Hisoka started flicking the cards.
Now, seeing the two cards flying toward them, they each reacted immediately.
The coarse-featured man confidently chose to catch them head-on, while the scarred woman, being more conservative, intended to dodge sideways and launch a counterattack simultaneously.
However, in the instant the cards flew halfway across the room, Hisoka's speed was so fast that he left only an afterimage in his place.
While their attention was still focused on the cards, he appeared behind them like a phantom.
The moment his figure materialized, Hisoka's hands, like blades, precisely struck both of their vital points. Then, without pausing, he strode out of the room.
"Unqualified.♣"
The little interest he had felt was now completely gone.
To focus on playing cards that were slower than a person during a fight?
This made Hisoka lose interest instantly, and naturally, he lost the desire to "play properly" for the first time in a while, instead opting to kill these two modified humans in a blink.
Thud...
The heavy sound of bodies hitting the floor came from behind him.
Hisoka paid it no mind and walked straight toward the elevators.
A moment later.
He arrived at the arena where Kastro and Calista were.
As soon as he stepped into the venue, he saw dozens of corpses lying on and around the ring.
Among them were both modified humans and Heavens Arena contestants.
Kastro and Calista were surrounded by seven people. Both were clearly injured, and the aura around them was in disarray.
"Need a hand?♦"
Hisoka walked down the aisle to the lower spectator stands, casually resting his hands on the railing as he looked at the chaotic battle on the ring.
Kastro and Calista both heard his voice, but being besieged by seven powerful modified humans, they couldn't spare the attention to respond.
Seeing that Hisoka only spoke and didn't act, the seven modified humans decided to focus their power on finishing off Kastro and Calista first.
Hisoka received no response and said in a lazy tone, "Looks like you don't.♠"
He sighed with some disappointment and turned as if to leave.
On the ring, Kastro and Calista were frantic.
Their situation was extremely dire. If not for the excellent chemistry they had developed from their frequent sparring sessions... they would have likely been overwhelmed and killed by the team of modified humans long ago, let alone managing to hold on this long after desperately taking down several of the enemy's experts.
If Hisoka were to intervene now, even if he couldn't turn the tide, he could at least bring a glimmer of hope.
Seeing Hisoka leave, the modified humans suddenly intensified their assault, wanting to finish the two off quickly and then go after Hisoka.
But in that very instant, Hisoka, who had been walking away down the aisle, used the sticky and elastic properties of his Nen ability to abruptly pivot and return to the ring at super high speed.
Playing cards fluttered like butterflies in his hands, and amidst the chaotic fight, he sliced through the vital points of two modified humans with incredible precision.
This thunderous strike instantly shocked the remaining modified humans.
The intensity of one's aura output often doesn't equate to a Nen user's combat power.
Hisoka's fast, ruthless, and precise strike was a perfect illustration of this point.
"Lying is a Transmuter's privilege, you know.♥"
He squinted, holding a blood-stained playing card in front of him.
A few minutes later.
The last modified human fell, unwilling to accept defeat.
Also falling were Kastro and Calista, who were on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.
"These people... just who are they...?" Kastro gasped for breath.
Hisoka stood on the ring, not even breathing heavily, and said slowly, "They're from Meteor City."
"How do you know?" Calista looked up at Hisoka.
Hisoka replied without a change in expression, "I guessed.♠"
—--
The mass-death event that occurred at Heavens Arena was also happening in real-time all over the world.
Within a single day, countless people died. Many cities were reduced to a fraction of their population and completely paralyzed.
The V5 and the International Permit Agencies activated their emergency response plans at top speed, but they still couldn't prevent the reality of massive population deaths worldwide.
They could only preliminarily define this event as a fifth calamity and shuddered at the foreseeable chaos to come.
Compared to the other four calamities, this one that had appeared so suddenly was undoubtedly devastating.
However, the panicked personnel of the V5 and the International Permit Agencies had no idea that something even more terrifying was yet to come...
The killing power unleashed by the Death God could easily take the lives of ordinary people.
But for him, this was not a drain on his power. Quite the opposite... the mass death of humans would, in fact, strengthen the Death God's power.
This was one of the reasons the Death God had chosen to join forces with Morena.
A sudden mass-death event of this scale was impossible to cover up.
Through the rapid spread of media and the internet, the world learned of the terrible news in an extremely short amount of time.
The panic of living on borrowed time spread even faster, reaching every corner of the globe.
And at this moment, Morrow was still researching how to use Divine Script to establish a portal connected to the Wolf Spirit's Nen space.
But soon, his phone began to ring incessantly, and text messages flooded in like snowflakes.
They were all messages from his friends.
(Translated by yourtl.app)