Judging by the sheer disbelief on Bisky's face, the half hour Liam had mentioned was absolutely not what she had experienced.
"For me, the scenery just flickered," Bisky said, brushing a speck of dust from her pink dress. "One second I was looking at you, and the very next, I was popping right back out onto the grass. I honestly thought you got scared and cancelled the ability after a single second."
Seeing the lingering irritation in Bisky's eyes, Liam quickly raised both hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, I already admitted I was wrong for the surprise test. Let's not hold grudges."
Shizuku tilted her head, her dark eyes thoughtful as she looked at the jade-faced Taoist floating nearby. "Is it just a moment in Bisky's perception, or a real, physical moment?"
Her phrasing was a bit tangled, but Bisky, a seasoned veteran who had been navigating the chaotic world of Nen for decades, understood her meaning immediately. She nodded slowly. "Exactly. Did my brain just fail to process the half hour, or does time actually stop for whoever your Nen beast pulls into that sleeve? Because those are two completely different levels of power."
How were they supposed to test that?
Liam looked around the sunlit clearing and suddenly remembered the test subject he had captured earlier. He directed the Taoist Nen beast with a simple thought. The figure gracefully flicked its wide left sleeve, and a blur of white light shot out. It hit the grass and instantly reformed into the small wild bird Liam had caught earlier.
Before the bird could take flight, Liam reached out and swiftly plucked a single grey feather from its wing. A tiny, bright red bead of blood immediately welled up on the exposed skin at the base. Taking advantage of the bird's sudden panic and sharp chirp, Liam repeated his earlier trick.
"Hey, Jaku!" he called out.
The Taoist nun floated over silently. She raised her left arm, the sleeve billowing open, and the struggling bird transformed back into a swirling ball of pure aura before being seamlessly absorbed into the dark fabric.
"Now we just wait," Shizuku said, adjusting her glasses. "After a while, we can bring it back out. If the blood is dried, time flows normally. If the wound is still perfectly fresh, time is stopped inside."
Bisky watched the serene, unmoving Nen beast closely. "This construct always uses its left sleeve to trigger its ability. Did you intentionally leave the right sleeve empty to hold a different power?" She held up her own left and right hands to illustrate her point. "A lot of people design their Nen abilities with that kind of bilateral symmetry. For example, a Manipulator might set it up so their left hand triggers one set of commands, while their right hand triggers a completely different set."
Liam glanced at the empty, gently swaying right sleeve of the jade-faced Taoist and smiled. "That is the plan, yes. But the specific ability for that side has not been fully realized yet. Right now, Jade is only a semi-finished product."
"Judging entirely from the characteristics of the left sleeve, I would guess the right sleeve is also going to be related to spatial storage," Bisky pressed.
Liam nodded in confirmation. "Eventually, it should function similarly to a portable small warehouse."
Bisky shot a subtle glance at Shizuku. If all he needed was a portable warehouse, Shizuku's Blinky was already more than sufficient for carrying everyday items.
But when a Nen user developed their abilities, there were always psychological and practical traces to follow. The better you knew a person, the easier it was to reverse-engineer the logic behind their developing powers. The reverse was also true. If you truly understood the intricate mechanics of someone's Nen ability, you gained a clear window into how their mind worked.
According to Bisky's careful observations over the past few days, there were only two specific things Shizuku's vacuum cleaner could not absorb: living creatures, and objects constructed of pure Nen. Now, Liam's new Nen beast used its left sleeve specifically to bypass the first rule, absorbing living things. The logical conclusion was obvious. The right sleeve, his so-called warehouse, was being designed to store things related to Nen.
Piecing together a few of Liam's previous complaints about mental fatigue, the real answer gradually crystallized in Bisky's mind.
The Taoist Nen beast hovered silently in the warm breeze. While the three of them waited for the hour to pass, Shizuku summoned Blinky and released a small pile of pre-cooked food from its endless storage. They ate a quiet lunch in the grass, tossing a few large cuts of meat to Lumos, who devoured them happily.
Bisky chewed thoughtfully on a steamed bun, her eyes never leaving Liam. He wants to build a system, she realized. He wants to store his various, highly complex Nen abilities inside this beast. When he needs a specific power, he can just summon the Taoist and have it pull the corresponding ability out of the right sleeve.
Acquiring multiple, endless Nen abilities through a single overarching power. That kind of greedy ambition was not exactly new in the Hunter world. But Liam's approach was smart. He was likely limiting the storage exclusively to his own personal Nen abilities. That strict limitation would drastically lower the difficulty of development and require far fewer heavy restrictions. Yes, it meant he had to go through the extra steps of summoning the beast and having it manifest the power, but those small steps would save his brain from melting. He would no longer need to constantly maintain the agonizing mental models of a dozen different Nen abilities at all times.
Thinking about the sheer practicality of it, Bisky chuckled inwardly. Sure enough, everyone who was too greedy for power eventually arrived at the exact same crossroads. Using one primary Nen ability as a vehicle to carry the rest was the only way to save the human mind from collapsing under the strain. Most people who took this route planned it from the very beginning. Liam, however, was retrofitting the solution after realizing the heavy consequences of his own boundless potential.
After they had rested for roughly an hour, Liam gave the mental command. The Taoist nun gracefully flicked her left sleeve once more. A ball of aura shot out and solidified into the small grey bird, which landed clumsily in the grass.
Bisky reached out with lightning speed and caught the bird gently in her hands. She parted the feathers to examine the spot where Liam had plucked it. The tiny bead of blood sitting on the skin looked exactly as it had an hour ago. The moment the bird entered the real world, the blood finally broke and began to flow slowly, soaking into the surrounding down.
"Your ability, if used properly, is going to be terrifyingly useful," Bisky said, looking at Liam with absolute seriousness. "And I see another massive advantage. Whether your Nen beast is actively using its ability, maintaining the pocket space, or just sustaining its own physical existence for over an hour now, your personal aura output has not weakened significantly."
Liam stretched his legs out on the grass. "This Nen beast acts as its own battery. It relies on a sequestered pool of aura to maintain itself. As long as I am just using Universe in the Sleeve to hold a target, and not actively making the beast fight in combat, the energy consumption is actually very low."
Since this was the absolute first time he had fully released the construct for a prolonged test, Liam was just as relieved to confirm the math.
Bisky focused a sharp layer of Gyo into her eyes, scrutinizing the flow of energy wrapping around Liam's body. "I can see that the active aura pool in your body is down by about one-sixth or one-seventh of your usual maximum. So you invested roughly five or six thousand aura directly into the beast."
Liam smiled. "Spot on."
He snapped his fingers. The jade-faced Taoist nun instantly lost her physical form, collapsing into a swirling mass of bright aura that surged rapidly back across the clearing and sank directly into Liam's chest.
Shizuku focused her own eyes with Gyo. Just as she suspected, the moment the Nen beast returned, the volume and density of Liam's aura spiked dramatically, returning to its monstrous baseline.
"That kind of consumption rate is far too low for such a powerful spatial hold," Bisky pondered aloud, tapping her chin. Suddenly, a knowing smile spread across her face. "There has to be a heavy restriction balancing the scales. Let me guess. If your Nen beast has a living target trapped inside its left sleeve, you absolutely cannot recall the beast back into your body until you release them. Right?"
Liam gave her a bright thumbs-up. "As expected of an experienced veteran."
Shizuku spoke up from her spot on the grass, her tone entirely analytical. "If an enemy is absorbed into the sleeve, they are completely removed from the fight, which puts them at a massive disadvantage. But on the flip side, if you cannot recover the Nen beast, Liam, your total aura pool is permanently handicapped by several thousand points for the duration of the capture. That gives the enemy's remaining companions a distinct advantage against you."
"That does not matter," Liam said, a confident grin spreading across his face. "Because I have companions of my own."
He looked over at Shizuku. "Once I capture someone annoying, I can just walk over, release them directly into your buzzing chainsaw formation, and let you grind them into dust. Oh, speaking of which, Shizuku, have you finally decided on a proper name for your chainsaw ability?"
Shizuku thought about it for a long, quiet moment, staring down at her hands. "Um. I think I will call it Chainsaw Woman."
Bisky let out a loud, pained groan, burying her face in her hands. "That is the most random, uncreative name I have ever heard."
Liam just laughed, standing up and stretching his arms high above his head. He closed his eyes, extending his senses outward. Far across the island, he could feel the faint, rhythmic pulsing of the Star Marks Jaku had planted in the various coastal towns.
He opened his eyes, his expression sharpening with energy. "Alright. Enough resting. It is finally time for us to get to work."