Gourmet Hunter (HxH Fanfic)

Winter was still lingering, with spring yet to arrive, and the mountain wind was as sharp as a blade.

Despite the cold, the three figures standing atop the mountain wore thin clothing. Luby, in particular, was dressed only in a vest and shorts, yet seemed unaffected by the freezing temperature.

Uncle Bill conjured a notebook and typed Law's name on the search input.

After he pressed the Enter key, the Aura surging in his body instantly disappeared and he entered Zetsu state, but the laptop in his hand was still there.

On the screen, countless lines of code began to spin and intertwine, swirling like a storm.

"How's it going?" Aya asked, watching the screen closely.

"Give it a moment. The verification parameters are limited to just a name and an appearance, which increases the difficulty of bypassing the firewall."

Uncle Bill's eyes were glued to the chaotic stream of code, and his chubby fingers danced across the keyboard at a breathtaking speed. His fingers seemed like he was playing the black and white keys of a piano, revealing a unique rhythmic beauty.

Despite his rapid typing, the code's movement only slowed down slightly, but it still refused to yield the desired results.

Minutes ticked by, and beads of sweat appeared on Uncle Bill's bald head. His fingers moved faster, creating a blur over the keyboard, which was his fastest possible pace.

Seeing that Uncle Bill had been at it for over half an hour, Aya's expression grew increasingly surprised, though she remained silent, for fear of affecting Uncle Bill's progress in breaking through Law's body data firewall.

At some point, Luby quietly came to Uncle Bill's side and looked at the contents displayed on the laptop screen. Like Aya, he was quite surprised.

'Even though the chaotic code was slowing down, it still hadn't stabilized?'

Even someone as carefree as Luby didn't dare to fool around at this moment. He simply stared at the screen in silence.

Obviously, Luby is also a Nen User. The reason why Law couldn't tell that Luby was a Nen user just now was because Luby didn't use Ten to retain his dissipated Aura. But at this time, he had already used Ten.

For Nen Users, using Ten to contain their Aura at all times is the basic practice. Eventually, one should be able to maintain Ten even when sleeping.

The earlier one starts, the sooner they could maintain a youthful appearance well into their thirties or forties.

Ten is also one of the factors in distinguishing whether someone is a Nen User or not. However, Luby did not use Ten in front of Law, allowing the Aura in his body to dissipate. Therefore, Law did not realize that Luby was also a Nen User at first.

Luby's behavior can be seen as a small means to hide his own power.

An hour passed and Uncle Bill's face gradually turned pale. Meanwhile, the expressions of Aya and Luby, who were watching from the side, became more and more strange. They were well aware of Uncle Bill's Nen Ability, but they had never seen Uncle Bill struggle like this before.

Name, appearance, birthday, blood type, personality...

Any of them is good, as even the simplest appearance can become one of the verification conditions.

Conversely, if Uncle Bill doesn't input any conditions and only rely on the appearance remembered in his head, the difficulty of breaking through the firewall will be the highest. The more known conditions, the easier it was to break in.

With just Law's first name and his visual appearance as the basis, Uncle Bill usually needed about 25 to 30 minutes to crack the firewall.

However, an hour has already passed now, but no matter how hard he tries, he still cannot break through the firewall, let alone infiltrating it.

"I've never encountered anything like this before."

Uncle Bill's fingers maintained their highest speed, trying desperately to tame the unruly code. He hoped to gather the chaotic code and use it as a weapon for his next attack, but after more than an hour, he hadn't even reached the firewall.

Seeing Uncle Bill taking the initiative to speak, Aya and Luby looked at each other.

"Could it be because he gave us a fake name?" Aya hesitated and then asked.

"No, it's his real name."

Uncle Bill confirmed, while his eyes tracking the code rapidly shifting on the screen.

Aya was surprised and said, "Then why is this happening? He didn't seem that special to me."

"I'm sure Law is his real name, but not his full name."

Uncle Bill's lips were as pale as his face now. He bit down hard on his lower lip and muttered: "Besides, even if the name were fake, it wouldn't matter. As long as I remember his face, I should eventually find a way in."

"But... I can't even see his firewall..."

As he spoke the last word, his voice trembled, not from fear, but from sheer exhaustion.

"Luby, get to work." Aya said with a serious expression as she glanced at Uncle Bill, whose face was covered in cold sweat.

"Looks like it's finally time for the handsome me to step in!"

Luby grinned, making a mock DJ scratching motion. As he bared his gleaming white teeth, his Aura surged forth, condensing around him in the shape of musical notes.

At the next second, the musical notes around Luby shattered like bursting bubbles. It twisted for a moment and then merged back into his Aura and vanished without a trace.

At the same time, Luby stopped what he was doing, looked at Aya, and said seriously: "This handsome guy needs a pair of earplugs."

"Damn it."

Aya cursed under her breath, glanced at the ground, and spotted the earplugs Luby had thrown away earlier, stuck among the rocks.

She quickly ran over, picked up the dust-covered earplugs, and returned to Luby, shoving them into his hand with an annoyed expression, "Hurry up! Uncle Bill looks like he's about to pass out."

Luby looked at the blackened earplugs, frowned, and said with disgust: "My ears are so precious, are you really so cruel to let me use such dirty earplugs?"

"F*ck you."

Aya finally lost her patience. She glared at him and kicked him in the thigh, then said angrily: "If you keep acting like a bitch, I'll personally kick you off this mountain!"

Luby, unfazed by the kick, struck a pose like he was holding up a scorecard and grinned, "I'll give you a solid 60 points for that kick."

"…" Seeing this, Aya closed her eyes in exasperation, feeling utterly defeated.

"You two... can you take this seriously? I'm barely holding on here." Uncle Bill's strained voice interrupted their bickering.

Aya shot him a glance, then shoved the earplugs into Luby's hand and said with a scowl, "Get to work."

"Tch~"

Luby took the earplugs reluctantly and stuffed them into his ears. His expression immediately became serious, and his body began to dance as his Aura surged. Every motion he made flowed with an impeccable sense of rhythm.

The Aura surrounding him took shape, forming musical notes that floated around his body.

[Rhythm of Life]

Luby moved to the beat, stepping in sync with an unseen rhythm. With each swing of his arms, the musical notes swirling around him shot into Uncle Bill's body.

After a moment, a hint of redness appeared on Uncle Bill's pale face, and the speed of his typing on the keyboard increased a little.

"I refuse to believe this… just what kind of monster are you?"

With the blessing of Luby's musical notes, Uncle Bill's expression straightened up.

"Keep it up, Uncle Bill."

Aya cheered him on as she stood by his side.

Five minutes passed... ten minutes passed... fifteen minutes passed...

Finally, the chaotic codes on the screen began to stabilize, slowly forming an image composed of pixelated squares. The figure in the image bore 60% resemblance to Law.

"It's out!" Aya's eyes lit up with excitement upon seeing the image.

Uncle Bill nodded, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes behind the glasses, and he chuckled smugly: "As long as I have verification parameters, there's no firewall I can't break..."

But before he finished speaking, something strange happened.

The pixelated image had barely formed when the screen suddenly went black, as if someone had maliciously pulled the plug.

At the same time, the conjured laptop in Uncle Bill's hand suddenly exploded, turning into surge of Aura, sending Uncle Bill, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, and Aya, who was nearby, flying several meters backward.

When Luby saw this, he froze in his tracks, and stopped using his Nen Ability.

'What is… going on?'

The three of them stared at each other, their faces filled with disbelief. Silence engulfed the area.

"Who the hell is that guy...?"

After a long pause, Aya broke the silence, turning her gaze toward Uncle Bill.

"…That's exactly what I'd like to know."

Uncle Bill looked down at his sweaty hands, which were trembling slightly.

He... has never encountered anything like this before.