Something like divine script just appeared out of nowhere four hundred years ago?
What the hell did that mean?
Kurapika asked, "Did a specific person or group pioneer the divine script system at that time?"
"Maybe," Pyon said, noncommittal.
Liam said, "Four hundred years ago was exactly when True Martial King was active. You just said King Wangu Hui Guo Rou might have divine script knowledge beyond your understanding... Is there a connection between the two?"
"Probably."
Liam said, exasperated, "Rabbit-sis, you're being way too vague. That hurts, you know."
"If I remember correctly, we don't actually have a deep friendship." Pyon's expression remained calm. "This is valuable information. If you really want to know, wait until you get your Hunter License and become a real Professional Hunter."
Liam grinned. "It's just a Hunter License. Do I even need to take the exam? I could get one whenever I want! It just depends on whether we have time... What's with that look? You're not thinking of making the exam harder for me, are you?"
Pyon didn't answer that question. Instead, she said, "Since divine script is called script, there's a certain number of characters. The number of divine characters currently mastered by the Hunter Association is already the largest and most complete collection I know of. But even so, no one dares claim these are all the divine characters that exist."
She paused, then continued. "President Netero once said jokingly, 'Assuming there's a general lexicon that collects all divine script, the script we currently have might not even account for one-tenth of that lexicon. Not even enough to fill it.'"
Liam looked thoughtful.
Kurapika suddenly asked, "One-tenth. How did he arrive at that number?"
Pyon glanced at him. "Maybe the President just said it casually."
Kurapika nodded.
Shizuku was squatting on the ground, still observing the line of divine script that Pyon had carved out after analyzing and restoring the broken characters from the Buddha statue's head.
Indeed, as Pyon said, this line of divine script wasn't complicated.
Liam remembered that in the Greed Island arc of the manga, there was an Emitter boxer next to Razor. To perform boxing techniques that could move through space, he'd carved densely packed divine script on the ring, taking up more than half the surface. The rope Wing tied around Gon had only one function: it would break automatically when Gon used Ten. Otherwise, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't untie or cut it...
The more complex and powerful a Nen ability was, the more divine script needed to be inscribed to assist it.
Spatial teleportation abilities were undoubtedly among the most complex types in any supernatural power system.
"Since the divine script in the Buddha's head isn't used for positioning and spatial transmission, what is it for?" Liam reached out and touched the line of divine script on the ground. Because he'd never actually studied divine script knowledge, he couldn't even tell how many "characters" were in this line. "Also, this black jade Buddha statue definitely had positioning and teleportation abilities. There's no doubt about that. Are there other divine characters in the statue that we haven't discovered?"
"It's also possible," Shizuku said, "that the divine script actually used to assist spatial teleportation disappeared on its own."
Liam thought of the divine script space that had trapped Kurapika. With Kurapika's escape, all the divine characters had instantly vanished, as if they had a self-destruct mechanism. He nodded in agreement.
Kurapika said to himself, "The person who made this Buddha statue obviously has many secrets and doesn't want us to know them."
"But he did leave us something," Liam said.
The most important thing was undoubtedly the Nitro Rice preserved in the divine script space.
As for that Nitro Rice, it was unknown whether King Wangu Hui Guo Rou had saved it to enjoy himself in the future, or whether it was really hidden in a secret mountain location for a fated person—or a fated Black Mist Lion, as Liam had joked before.
Pyon looked at the three of them and asked strangely, "In this matter, it seems you have some secrets you haven't told me?"
Liam said seriously, "If I remember correctly, we don't actually have a deep friendship. This is valuable information. If you really want to know, you should wait until we're free one day to get Hunter Licenses and become real Professional Hunters. Then we'll talk."
Having her own words thrown back at her, Pyon still looked calm and nodded slightly, her rabbit-ear accessory swaying accordingly.
She retracted her En.
She'd collected all the information about the black jade Buddha statue. This trip had been quite fruitful.
Finally, Pyon taught Liam and the others the line of divine script recovered from the Buddha statue's head, then left in style.
Before leaving, she warned them, "It's better not to let anyone see this Buddha statue casually, and you should delete all the photos on your phone. I don't think you have the network security to prevent hackers, right?"
Liam expressed his understanding and watched Sister Rabbit leave from the Eternal Library's entrance.
In this world with supernatural abilities, the technical capabilities of potential network hackers were hard to estimate. In this world, you could become invincible through boxing, you could become invincible through Gungi. Who knew? Some computer technology genius might be eating hot pot and typing code when they suddenly awakened some super hacker Nen ability and became invincible in the online world.
There was even a type of hunter in the Hunter Association called a Hacker Hunter.
Specialized in hunting hackers!
Liam had suspected more than once that the so-called international server in this world, which stored the identity information, bank records, and medical files of almost everyone worldwide, was the product of a Nen ability. Even if the system wasn't directly created by Nen, it was very likely designed by some Nen-using programmers and engineers.
"Are you still thinking about the divine script?" Kurapika couldn't help asking when he saw Liam had been spacing out in front of the bookshelf for a while.
Shizuku usually wouldn't interfere with Liam's thoughts. Seeing him zone out, she picked up a book and started reading casually.
Liam said, "I was thinking the online world is too dangerous, and the data on phones might not be very safe. Let alone fixing computers."
"But since you mentioned divine script, I do have some ideas." He changed the subject. "If the divine script used for spatial teleportation abilities disappeared along with the divine script space, then what's left? What purpose do the divine characters that didn't disappear serve?"
Kurapika browsed the brand-new books on the shelf. "Do you have any leads?"
"A little, actually."
Liam pulled out a book with a huge black spider on the cover. The title read "The Mysterious Phantom Troupe."
"Why did that cult leader focus on Scarlet Eyes?"
Liam casually opened the book and read aloud. "Two pairs of Scarlet Eyes weren't enough. He even set his sights on the third pair on your face. Not only that, he was willing to sacrifice his own life to get your eyes. His lingering thoughts after death still said he would return, that he would become a god, and so on."
The book's content was disappointing. It was basically written with subjective conjecture, summarizing various online speculations about the Phantom Troupe, including the theory that these spiders might come from Meteor City—but that wasn't surprising, since countless imaginative internet users had basically guessed everything possible. People thought the Phantom Troupe was from the Kakin Kingdom, from some unknown secret island, and there were even those who believed they were a team of thieves composed of Professional Hunters.
The most realistic parts were that Phantom Troupe members all had spider tattoos on their bodies, and the other was the chapter related to the Kurta Clan massacre. The rest was nothing like the Phantom Troupe Liam knew.
Kurapika glanced at the book in Liam's hand. "Scarlet Eyes, Kurta Clan, God, Resurrection... Which of these do you think corresponds to the divine script?"
Liam snapped the book shut and tried to put it back, but Shizuku took it from him.
"God, resurrection—even if they could be achieved, they couldn't be accomplished with just these two lines of divine script. We can basically rule those out." Liam said. "That leaves Scarlet Eyes and the Kurta Clan. Those two seem like the same thing."
Kurapika said, "Unless my ancestors had contact with Kakin's True Martial King, it's hard to imagine the divine script left by King Wangu Hui Guo Rou would be related to this."
Shizuku flipped through the book. "Maybe it's not about Scarlet Eyes, but about the Seven Beauties of the World?"
"Seven Beauties?" Liam shook his head. "Scarlet Eyes are the hardest color to find now. The leader has time to try his luck searching for Scarlet Eyes. It would be more practical to spend some money and energy getting the other six colors."
He looked at Kurapika.
Kurapika said, "I don't know whether the Kurta Clan had any contact with True Martial King and Kakin three or four hundred years ago..."
This was natural. More than two years ago, when the Kurta Clan tragedy occurred, he'd only been about eleven years old. Even if the clan had stories and traditions, he hadn't had time to learn and absorb them all.
"If we remove the special characteristics of the Scarlet Eyes..."
Liam said to himself thoughtfully.
"Could it simply be related to eyes?" Shizuku said while reading "The Mysterious Phantom Troupe."
"Then the cult leader saw some kind of hallucination when he was messing with the Buddha statue?"
Liam and Kurapika looked at each other. "Let's go test it."
But not by scribbling random characters in the library.
Liam and the others went straight to the nearest park and found a secluded open area with few people. Following the technique Pyon had taught them, they concentrated their aura into their fingers and slowly wrote three identical lines of divine script on the ground.
They condensed their aura and stepped on the divine characters they'd drawn.
"Since it's vision, then..."
Liam concentrated aura in his eyes and waited for a long time. Several park pedestrians passed by in the distance. A gentle breeze blew. Nothing happened.
The same went for Kurapika and Shizuku. They got nothing.
Liam thought for a moment. "Move your feet."
Shizuku removed her foot, revealing the line of divine script she'd been stepping on. Liam extended his hand, gathering aura at his fingertips. He recalled the method the Black Mist Lion Great Elder had used to write blood talismans after dancing, and successfully wrote a line of divine script likely corresponding to the ability contained in the small jade Buddha pendant.
He drew two more the same way.
"Try again now." Liam clapped his hands and stood up.
Shizuku stepped on two lines of divine script with her left and right feet respectively.
Kurapika's eyes narrowed, Nen gathering in his vision.
Liam felt like there was a buzzing sound in his head, and the park scenery in front of him suddenly shattered. He seemed to be in a doomsday-like scene of destruction.
He saw the sky turn gray, purple lightning looming.
He saw the earth cracking, black waves rolling up. Human beings were as small as ants before it.
He saw that in this apocalyptic storm, ant-like humans were like candles, desperately rushing forward, only to be smashed to pieces.
He saw the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara weeping blood tears, the Thousand-foot Tathagata's body broken, God's head severed, angels' wings shattered, and saints singing lamentations... But all of them fell into the endless abyss and were destroyed in the sea of fire.
The light went out. Darkness came.
A huge sense of helplessness and despair surged uncontrollably into his heart, making him want to go mad, to lose his mind.
The gods are dead and everything will end...
Liam exhaled sharply and stumbled several steps back.
Without the two lines of divine script under his feet, all the illusions before him shattered like fragments. The familiar peaceful park scene returned.
Liam panted and touched his forehead, only to find he'd broken out in a cold sweat.
Looking at Kurapika again, he'd fallen to the ground, holding his forehead with one hand, silent, as if he'd been greatly shocked and was questioning his entire existence.
What exactly was that?
Just an illusion?
Doomsday disaster, world destruction?
Was it a prophecy or something that happened in the past?
The fall of gods, dropping like dumplings... But did gods really exist?
Liam couldn't help frowning. True Martial King Old King was a legendary king, after all. He wouldn't create some special effects just to fool people, would he?
And seal it specifically with divine script!
Kurapika came back to his senses and said to himself, "Probably, that's how the cult leader gradually fell into madness. Is this what King Wangu Hui Guo Rou left behind—a record of history or a prophecy of the future?"
Liam said, "Why follow the demon? Unless Old King was actually an ancient monster who lived for tens of thousands of years, how could he have witnessed that scene? And if it's a prophecy, unfortunately, I'm not very good at believing in prophecies and that kind of thing."
The most important thing was that in the Hunter world, so-called prophecies didn't seem to be tragic prophecies like Oedipus—where just because you listen to the prophecy and try your best to prevent it from coming true, the result is that the prophecy happens anyway. Hunter world prophecies were more like guesses about all the probabilities of what might happen in the future, pointing out the most likely probability event.
This was the prophetic effect of the special Nen ability belonging to Neon, the daughter of a certain gang boss. Her prophecy could be used as a warning. As long as people worked together to avoid it, they could prevent the prophecy from coming true.
Even if True Martial King really did predict some kind of doomsday scene in the future...
Let's not even mention whether gods existed in this world. Whether the prophecy would happen as scheduled was another matter entirely.
The main reason Liam didn't completely deny the prophecy was because of the Dark Continent.
Later in the manga, the Black Whale took thousands of people to the Dark Continent, and a group including the Hunter Association insisted on exploring it. Setting aside the manga story, at this very moment, Liam himself was also thinking about exploring the Dark Continent in the future. The Dark Continent not only had longevity rice that brought "hope," but also various "disasters" that accompanied it. If the doomsday in the illusion he'd just seen happened because of the Dark Continent, it actually wasn't impossible...
Liam had a lot racing through his mind for a moment. Then he realized Shizuku was still standing there, stepping on the two divine characters and looking blank. She seemed still immersed in the doomsday illusion, yet appeared completely normal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing takes time, coffee, and a lot of love.If you'd like to support my work, join me at [email protected]/GoldenGaruda
You'll get early access to over 50 chapters, selection on new series, and the satisfaction of knowing your support directly fuels more stories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~