Towering over the rocky terrain of the badlands stood a colossal, one-eyed humanoid giant. It was clad in a crude, striped loincloth, its impossibly thick muscles bulging like boulders. In its massive, calloused hand, it gripped a fully grown tree trunk that had been stripped of its branches and fashioned into a crude spiked club.
The monster stood at least twenty stories tall. The sheer, overwhelming presence it exuded was terrifying.
Even Gon and Killua, who had just survived witnessing a clash between gods, couldn't help but gasp as the giant loomed over them.
Biscuit, however, remained completely unimpressed. As a Double-Star Hunter, her knowledge of the Greed Island ecosystem vastly exceeded the boys'. She knew exactly what this creature was: a Rank-G Cyclops. It looked intimidating, but it was essentially a low-level mob with a very obvious gimmick.
But as Ryker looked up at the towering giant, a flicker of genuine surprise crossed his face.
The System had projected a floating text box above the Cyclops's massive, single eye.
[Target: Cyclops]
[Traits: {Dark Continent Biomass Aura} (Gray), {Giant Bloodline Fragment} (Purple), {Incredible Strength} (Blue), {Weakness: The Eye} (White), {Low Intelligence} (White), etc.]
Aura from the Dark Continent?! Ryker's eyes narrowed.
It reminded him of Mike, the Zoldyck family's massive guard dog. Mike was also a creature originally sourced from the fringes of the Dark Continent, and he too had possessed a bizarre, un-plunderable Gray trait.
It made sense. Greed Island wasn't actually a virtual reality video game; it was a physical island located in the real world, hidden and isolated by massive Nen spells. Years ago, the Phantom Troupe had even attempted to bypass the game consoles and sail to the island directly, only to be intercepted and teleported away by Razor.
The monsters roaming this island weren't purely digital fabrications or 100% Nen constructs. Many of them were real, biological creatures—likely captured and genetically modified by Ging Freecss and the other Game Masters, then bound by the island's spell system.
"It seems Ging really did travel to the Dark Continent," Ryker muttered to himself. "Hell, he might be partying somewhere on its shores right now."
"Killua! Gon! These monsters are your training targets for today!" Biscuit suddenly barked, pointing at the towering Cyclops. "You must use everything you've learned to defeat it! However... you are strictly forbidden from attacking its eye!"
As a veteran player, Biscuit knew the Cyclops's eye was its fatal weak point. Hitting it there would instantly drop the beast. By banning that strategy, she was forcing the boys to overcome the monster's absurd physical defense through raw combat attrition.
ROOOOAAAR!
As soon as she finished speaking, the Cyclops let out a deafening bellow. It swung its massive tree-trunk club downward, aiming directly at the two boys.
Gon and Killua leaped out of the way just in time. The club slammed into the earth where they had been standing, instantly pulverizing massive boulders and snapping nearby trees like twigs. The sheer wind pressure generated by the swing nearly knocked them off their feet.
The commotion echoed through the badlands.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
Drawn by the roar, several more Cyclopes emerged from the surrounding canyons, their massive single eyes locking onto the interlopers.
One of the newly arrived giants immediately charged at Ryker, raising its massive wooden club high into the air.
SWISH—BANG!
The club came crashing down directly onto Ryker's head.
Exactly as everyone expected, Ryker didn't even flinch. He didn't use a defensive spell or dodge. The massive tree trunk shattered into thousands of splinters upon making contact with his skull.
Under Gon and Killua's bewildered gazes, Ryker calmly reached up and grabbed the giant's descending fist.
He dug his heels into the dirt, flexed his arm, and effortlessly hoisted the twenty-story-tall giant clean off the ground.
BOOOOOOM!
Ryker slammed the colossal monster face-first into the rocky earth. The sickening sound of snapping bones and rupturing organs echoed across the badlands.
Biscuit winced slightly at the sheer brutality of the throw, quickly dodging out of the way as another Cyclops swung at her.
But what truly shocked the Double-Star Hunter wasn't Ryker's strength. It was what happened after the giant died.
In Greed Island, when a monster is defeated, its corpse is supposed to instantly transform into a collectible Spell Card. But the Cyclops Ryker had just brutally suplexed didn't turn into a card. Instead, its massive body dissolved into a cloud of white smoke and vanished entirely from the server's ecosystem.
What?! Why didn't it turn into a card? Did he... did he completely erase it from the game's code?!Biscuit's mind raced.
Ryker, however, knew exactly what had happened.
[DING! You have killed a creature possessing {Dark Continent Biomass Aura}... Auto-Plunder activated!]
[Success! Acquired: {Incredible Strength} (Blue), {Giant Bloodline Fragment} (Purple)!]
Two new traits materialized in his System panel.
The Blue trait was self-explanatory, but the Purple trait—[Giant Bloodline]—was fragmented.
"Interesting. So because these creatures are just heavily diluted clones or hybrid beasts brought over from the Dark Continent, they only drop fragmented traits," Ryker smirked. "I wonder how many fragments I need to synthesize the complete Purple trait?"
Ryker looked around. There were at least fifty Cyclopes lumbering out of the canyons.
"Well, no point in holding back. Let's farm!"
CRACK!
Ryker vanished, transforming into a streak of golden lightning. He tore through the badlands, ricocheting off canyon walls and moving in jagged, impossible Z-patterns. Every time he passed a Cyclops, he didn't even bother throwing a punch; he simply drove his lightning-infused body straight through their massive chests like an artillery shell.
In less than five minutes, the entire canyon was reduced to absolute rubble.
Dozens of towering giants wailed in agony before collapsing, their bodies dissolving into white smoke before they hit the ground.
The System prompts chimed continuously in Ryker's mind like a slot machine paying out a jackpot.
[Success! Acquired: {Incredible Strength} (Blue)...]
[Success! Acquired: {Giant Bloodline Fragment} (Purple)...]
As the identical traits piled up in his inventory, the System automatically began synthesizing and upgrading them.
After slaughtering roughly eighty Cyclopes, the dozens of Blue [Incredible Strength] traits merged into a single, brand-new Gold trait: [Monstrous Strength].
Not bad. Even mosquito meat is still meat. Farming mob drops until they synthesize into a Gold trait is a classic RPG strategy, Ryker thought, satisfied.
But the real prize came from the Purple fragments.
[DING! Synthesis Complete! You have acquired the fused trait: {Giant Bloodline} (Double Purple)!]
Ryker's eyes lit up.
Double Purple? Let's check the description.
[Trait: Giant Bloodline (Double Purple)]
[Effect: A biological blueprint derived from lifeforms originating on the Dark Continent. Permanently enhances the host's genetic structure, exponentially increasing muscle density, skeletal durability, and baseline vitality/lifespan to levels far exceeding normal human limits. (Note: Does not cause gigantism in the host.)]
Ryker let out a sigh of relief. He had specifically queried the System beforehand to ensure the trait wouldn't actually turn him into a twenty-story-tall freak. He had no desire to become a literal giant.
"A massive boost to vitality and base durability? Perfect," Ryker smiled. "I feel like Whitebeard now. Gurarararara! Be my son!"
As soon as he equipped the trait, Ryker felt a profound, fundamental shift deep within his cells. The already absurd density of his muscles compacted even further. If his body had been comparable to solid iron before, it was now equivalent to military-grade tungsten steel. His life force—his sheer biological vitality—surged.
No wonder humanity is considered to be living in a tiny puddle on the edge of the world. The creatures from the Dark Continent operate on an entirely different biological scale, Ryker mused, clenching his fist. Just absorbing a diluted bloodline from a low-level mob gave me a noticeable permanent stat boost.
While Ryker was busy experiencing genetic ascension, Gon and Killua were engaged in a desperate, grueling battle for survival.
Because Biscuit had forbidden them from attacking the Cyclops's eye, they were forced to slowly chip away at the monster's massive health pool using blunt-force Nen attacks. For two young boys who hadn't even mastered the advanced applications of Nen yet, taking down a twenty-story giant through sheer attrition was a monumental task.
"Their defense is insane! And their attacks are stronger than any human we've fought in Heavens Arena!" Killua shouted, dodging a massive club swing. "Are giants actually real?!"
"Keep hitting its legs! We have to bring it down!" Gon yelled, panting heavily.
Biscuit watched the boys struggle, occasionally correcting their stance or shouting instructions. But her mind kept drifting back to Ryker.
She had watched him slaughter the entire canyon of Cyclopes in under five minutes. But what truly unnerved her was the subtle change in his presence afterward.
It wasn't an increase in his Nen aura. It was something deeper. A purely biological pressure. Standing near Ryker now felt like standing next to an apex predator—like a hyena staring up at a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was an instinctual, genetic suppression.
Did his physical body... just get stronger? Biscuit wondered, utterly baffled. How is that even possible? He didn't train; he just killed some low-level mobs!
Thirty grueling minutes later, Gon and Killua finally managed to topple their assigned Cyclops.
The massive beast roared in defeat, collapsed onto the rocky ground, and vanished with a poof. In its place, two small, glowing cards floated gently down to the earth.
[Card No. 72: Giant Cyclops (Rank G-333)]
[Description: The largest species among the one-eyed giants. Highly territorial and aggressive, but possess very low intelligence. Their eye is a fatal weak point.]
"We did it! Brother Ryker, look!" Gon cheered, waving the card triumphantly, his clothes soaked in sweat and covered in dirt.
But their celebration was cut short.
"It took you half an hour to defeat a single Rank-G mob," Biscuit's cold, unimpressed voice cut through their joy. "Your movements are sloppy, you waste far too much aura, and your footwork is atrocious. I'd grade your performance as barely passable."
Gon and Killua's shoulders instantly slumped.
"Don't worry, boys. Just listen to Bisky and keep training. Eventually, you'll be as strong as me," Ryker chuckled shamelessly.
They continued their trek through the badlands. A few minutes later, a low, rumbling hiss echoed through the canyon.
Gon and Killua froze as a massive, hill-sized reptile slithered into view. It was a terrifying, dark-scaled beast that looked like a cross between a Komodo dragon and a T-Rex.
"A-Another monster! And it looks way meaner than the giant!" Gon stammered.
"If the giant was Rank-G, this thing has to be at least Rank-A!" Killua gulped.
Ryker, however, strolled leisurely to the front of the group, his eyes practically glowing with greed.
[Target: Melanin Lizard]
"What a wonderful place Greed Island is," Ryker smiled predatory. "A literal all-you-can-eat buffet of traits!"
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