Chapter 31: The Cage × The Mercenary Squad

The auction house was divided into three levels, each six meters high.

On the ground floor, just before the staircase leading up to the second level, several security guards in black suits were holding handguns, scanning their surroundings with wary eyes. A man who appeared to be the captain was anxiously clutching his phone, trying to make contact with the outside world.

Only minutes earlier, they had discovered that the main entrance leading to the street had been bizarrely sealed. They had tried to force them open, but the doors felt as though they had fused with the surrounding space, refusing to budge. Only a few smaller side doors remained operational. He had even tried firing his gun at the locks, only to find that some mysterious power rendered the doors impervious to any form of impact.

The building had become a cage, trapping everyone inside.

Outside the auction house, people were already attempting to force their way in.

Drobada stood with his arms crossed, his expression grave as he stared at the main entrance. Without a doubt, this was the effect of a Nen ability. But…

He gathered aura into his eyes, activating Gyo, and saw a shocking sight: the entire building was enveloped in a thin layer of aura. It was this aura that made the ground-floor doors immovable and indestructible!

To seal an entire building and maintain such strength across every wall and door… just how strict a Vow and Limitation must be required to achieve this?

Who activated this ability, and for what purpose?

And those empty cars that appeared out of nowhere, are they the enemy's?

Drobada had called Dia the moment he realized what was happening to explain the situation outside. Firstly, it was confirmed that all exits were sealed, and the windows and walls were seemingly tough enough to withstand a rocket-propelled grenade.

Drobada silently shifted his gaze away from a gangster currently firing a rocket launcher at the windows.

Secondly, he had overheard that someone was screening the parking lot. Thanks to the mandatory real-name registration for parking, they had identified two small sedans with unknown owners. It was highly likely that the enemy had already infiltrated the venue, along with the useless security team responsible for screening entrants, who were now trapped inside as well. The head of the auction was currently venting his fury on anyone in reach.

Dia's side had replied that he had left the venue early and was already off the top floor. He, too, had tried to smash the windows by force, but the result was the same: they wouldn't move an inch.

After some deliberation, the two decided to meet up at a secluded spot in the back of the ground floor. They planned to synchronize their efforts, one inside, one outside, to release a blast of Nen simultaneously against the same wall to punch a hole through.

Drobada retracted his Gyo, feeling little confidence in the plan. He could see that the aura applied to the building seemed to bind the entire structure into a single, cohesive entity, as if it were a single object.

In other words, attacking a wall or a window is no different than attacking the entire building at once. A point-blank attack is being diffused across the entire surface. Of course, it's going to be ineffective.

In a stairwell at the landing of the second floor, Dia hung up the phone and signaled for his two companions to follow him.

Borksen, trailing behind him, felt her scalp prickle as she heard the faint, harrowing screams drifting down from the third floor. She didn't know what was happening, but she knew that if she hadn't listened to Dia and left when she did, her own screams might have been among those echoing from above.

No gunfire, only screams. Is it an enemy attack? How are they doing this? And those windows… even bullets can't break them…

Borksen felt increasingly out of her depth. Subconsciously, she turned to look at Dia, who remained composed. This guy must know something.

The next moment, she heard a slightly husky, ethereal voice: "Dia-san… is that window also a martial artist? Can it also use Nen?"

Momoze had completely shed the gloomy mood she'd been in hours earlier. Her eyes were curved into crescents, looking at Dia with an "amiable" expression.

Dia remained calm, but a bead of awkward cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He pondered for a moment, deciding that at this point, there was no use in trying to deflect her anymore.

"Not exactly, Your Highness. This is clearly the enemy's ability. He's trying to trap us here until we die!"

Momoze finally revealed a look of satisfaction and triumph. A crafty, adorable look played across her slightly chubby cheeks, as if to say, "You can't fool me this time~."

But a second later, she realized Dia had just mentioned an "enemy," and she finally grasped the gravity of their situation. Her face clouded with worry. "Is the enemy very strong, Dia-san?"

"I can only say that their ability is very strong. However, I suspect that the thing currently killing people upstairs is likely the ability of a different person."

Dia's Ripple Radar had been active the entire time. No one knew the situation inside the building better than he did. Earlier, while they were in the main hall, his Ripple sense had begun to vibrate, putting him on high alert. He had then immediately used his radar to perform a meticulous scan of the entire third floor, which was how they had managed to avoid that silent, invisible monster.

In truth, he still didn't know what that thing slaughtering people on the third floor was. When he sent his Ripple energy over, there was absolutely no sign of a physical form. Under normal circumstances, if something existed and made contact with the walls or floor, the Ripple would conduct through it. But now, the Ripple was clearly sensing a physical entity, yet it couldn't conduct through the walls or floors at all.

Does the opponent know how to fly?

Even so, subtle vibrations confirmed that in areas where there were no footprints, a "hovering" monster was absolutely present.

Ability? Nen?

What kind of riddle are they speaking in?

Borksen was completely lost. What's going on? Why does it feel like I'm the only one out of the loop? Also, who is Dia-san? Didn't he go by the name Beliner?

Momoze seemed to have shaken off the self-pity she felt hours ago, her eyes darting around. She noticed Borksen's confusion, but had no intention of explaining it to her. After all, it had taken her three whole days, and several hours of heartbreak, to go from discovering the unusual to forcing Dia to admit the existence of supernatural powers! She wasn't generous enough to help someone else solve the mystery; in that sense, she and Dia were quite alike.

Dia wasn't in the mood for talk, either. In his Ripple Radar, there was more than one enemy…

On the ground floor.

Lakshya crushed a security guard's skull with a nonchalant expression. He was a hulking man in combat gear that clearly marked him as a mercenary, his Ren flowing around him, thick and condensed. Behind him, a man and a woman, also in mercenary garb, were looking crestfallen.

In front of them, a lean, curly-haired man crossed his arms and snorted. "Have you two learned your lesson yet? You let your guard down just because they were normal people, and look what happened, the Captain had to come and clean up your mess!"

"Yes… Vice Captain…" the two replied in drawn-out, dispirited voices.

Vice Captain Maror felt his blood pressure rising. He covered his face with his hand and sighed in frustration. These two rookies had learned Nen less than two weeks ago; they struggled with basic Gyo, yet they dared to look down on professional guards armed with guns. If the Captain hadn't stepped in just now, the female rookie probably would have been killed, ending up in a shallow grave.

They struggled even against mere civilians.

And they had to remember: according to the intel, the target they were here to hunt was the star pupil of one of the Hunter Association's Zodiacs. If he let these two rookies attempt the mission alone, they would have been slaughtered within seconds…