Hunter x Hunter: From Obtaining the World to Beyond Heaven

Chapter 218 Tiger! × A draw with Death

In November 1967, Typhoon Rainforest struck the town of Innsmouth.

A fierce wind blew that night.

The town's only clinic, however, remained brightly lit despite the storm.

The town's only obstetrician and gynecologist and nurse were busy delivering a baby for a woman.

"Wow----"

With a loud cry, a wrinkled baby was born into this cruel world.

The elderly doctor held the baby in his arms and looked at him with loving eyes.

But the smile on her face froze the next moment, turning into disbelief—

The newborn baby's chest was visibly swelling and deflating wildly, like a balloon being constantly inflated and deflated.

'How...how is this possible?'

The doctor was puzzled and uncertain. Could it be some kind of congenital disease?

In this impoverished town, if a child is born with severe disabilities, their fate is most likely to be abandonment...

“My child…Grandma…Let me see him…”

A woman's weak voice came from the hospital bed. In the remote town, almost everyone was related to someone else. The woman who had just given birth was also related to the doctor by blood.

The doctor hesitated for a moment, but still handed the child over.

Regardless, a mother who has risked half her life for her child has at least the right to see her child.

"This child..."

A weak but barely suppressed gasp of surprise came from the hospital bed. The doctor sighed and mourned for the newborn life.

Unexpectedly, the woman looked at the baby with shining eyes and exclaimed:

"So cute! It's so tiny, just like a little shrimp..."

As if by instinct, the moment a woman sees a baby, a sweet happiness wells up in her heart.

Without a second thought, she resolved to protect this wrinkled baby with everything she had!

"I've got it! I'll call him..."

The woman decided to name her child:

"Let's call him—[Kang Zai]!"

In the local dialect, it means "a ferocious beast with immense strength".

Newborn Kang-jae instinctively grabbed his mother's breast and began to suckle blankly.

Boom—!

A deafening clap of thunder echoed through the sky, as if the wheel of fate had begun to turn.

The fierce storm howled and roared.

Unsurprisingly, the hospital experienced a power outage.

Darkness instantly enveloped the ward.

In the midst of the chaos, a sound suddenly rang out in the ward—

boom!

The sound of shattering glass suddenly rang out, and a torrential downpour of wind and rain poured into the small ward, soaking everyone to the bone.

Then came another loud noise, as if something had fallen.

When the hospital regained power, everyone fell silent.

Under the dim emergency lights.

A broken chandelier pinned the mother's head to the ground.

Dark red, viscous blood gushed out, flowing down her neck to her chest.

The typhoon whipped up seawater, turning it into torrential rain.

Rainwater kept pouring in through the window, mixing with blood as it flowed down.

Xiao Kangzai instinctively opened his mouth repeatedly, making "ah ah" sounds amidst the damp cold and fishy smell, searching for something.

At that moment, his mother's blood, the cold rain, and the sweet-smelling breast milk all flowed into his mouth.

It turned into his first taste of breast milk since birth.

This unexpected birth seemed to foreshadow something.

Growing up is an inevitable process of decay, which runs through Kang Jae's first twenty years of life without a single moment of interruption.

The doctor said his heart was different from that of ordinary people.

Not only is it twice the size of a normal person, but its myocardial density is also nearly three times higher.

With each heartbeat, his powerful heart muscle felt as if it were tearing his chest apart.

Kang-jae, unable to engage in strenuous exercise, became known as a strange child in the neighborhood.

His impoverished family couldn't afford to send him to school, and naturally, he had no interest in studying.

As the days went by, Kang Jae, who had miraculously adapted to the enormous heart, gradually began to demonstrate superhuman athletic ability.

With the slightest movement, his heart, like the engine of a state-of-the-art sports car, would continuously provide him with power.

Later, someone told him that he could make a lot of money by becoming a hunter.

So he took the hunter exam that year.

But clearly, his simple mind couldn't grasp anything beyond treasure and battle.

Kang Jae, unable to even find the Hunter Exam venue, could only wander around there for a long time, completely bewildered.

Later, he followed a girl who was probably only fourteen or fifteen years old, and by chance, he found the examination venue and managed to pass the test by sheer luck.

In that hunter exam, only he and that little girl passed.

Kang Jae despises all cowardly and powerless people.

His extraordinary heart made him invincible in battle, but it also burdened him with a huge hidden danger—heart failure.

The day finally came, and a protracted battle took its toll on Kang Jae's heart.

After he fought to the last man and killed the enemy, Kang Jae collapsed.

In the boundless darkness, Kang Jae, who had been tormented by mania and pain for 22 years, finally calmed down.

He thought he had no way out, but after spending an unknown amount of time in the darkness, he suddenly felt his body again.

Opening his eyes groggily, Kang Jae saw a familiar yet unfamiliar person.

Under the operating lights, he blankly asked a very silly question:

"Hey, Kito, am I dead?"

The little girl who once led him to the exam venue is actually performing surgery on him?

This absurd scene made Kang Jae wonder if he had already entered a dungeon (or rather, hell).

Qi Duo was too lazy to pay attention to his nonsense, and while busy with the heart transplant surgery, she casually replied:

"Pretty much. Death has come, but I fought Him to a draw."

I see...

If He comes again, I'll definitely knock Him away!

Unwilling to admit defeat, Kang Jae thought to himself, even forgetting that he hadn't been given anesthesia.

As a result, after recovering from the pain, he screamed and cried out, which forced Qi Duo to punch him to quiet him down.

Kido was summoned by Chairman Netero, who had witnessed Kangzai's terrifying performance before he collapsed and concluded that he was a promising talent.

After learning everything, Kang Jae approached Chairman Netero, whom he had only met once before.

The two then had a long chat and a serious competition.

Having witnessed the existence of people beyond people (or rather, people beyond people), Kang Jae began to work hard to improve himself. Although he still couldn't learn those strange idioms and numbers, he at least gained some common sense.

Later, he had another match with Netero, after which Netero commented on him:

"Kang Zai, if you were to die soon, you might be stronger than I am now."

After gaining Netero's approval, he joined the Twelve Branches, and Netero placed him in the position of Tiger.

To gain Nitro's approval, Kang Jae changed his appearance and dressed up as a tiger.

Perhaps fate truly is at work.

The tiger perfectly matched the name his mother gave him—a beast of immense strength.

Not long after, Kido also joined the Zodiac, by which time she was already a 2-star hunter.

This terrifying speed of promotion once left Kang Zai completely baffled.

Kang Jae is 30 years old this year, but he is still like a child, only remembering to eat, drink, and fight to the limit with the enemy.

Therefore, everyone's unanimous assessment of him is—

He has a bad temper but good skills; he's not very bright but has a tough life; he's unlucky but can't die.

Chapter 119 One Master and Three Servants × Master-Disciple Competition

pat.

Black leather shoes stepped into the puddle, splashing up tiny water droplets.