Hunter: I Became Stronger After Death

The cold sensation beneath him and the jostling from the vehicle as it traveled over a rough road.

Both constantly reminded Moro—

This was reality.

He had clearly brushed against death, yet when he opened his eyes again, he found himself back a year ago.

Moro was momentarily stunned, unable to suppress the memories surging from the depths of his mind.

A year ago, he had awakened in this same caged compartment.

The unfamiliar surroundings and the suffocating confinement naturally intertwined with the cold, jostling motion to create an overwhelming sense of panic that dominated all his emotions at the time.

Now, as his thoughts returned to the present, Moro didn't react like he had before—screaming in terror out of pure panic.

He quickly calmed himself and once again glanced around at his surroundings.

Through the dim light filtering in from the small openings in the vehicle, he could see two rows of iron cages arranged along the long compartment. Each cage held a naked person.

Moro was one of them, completely bare.

His gaze swept across the others in the cages. There were males and females, all around his age—approximately 14 to 16 years old.

As he looked at the other captives, the faces in his memory gradually overlapped with the people before him.

While Moro was observing the others, his movements upon waking had drawn their attention. The other captives turned to look at him.

Most of their gazes were blank and indifferent. Only two or three showed signs of confusion.

Moro ignored them and lowered his head to avoid the many eyes directed at him.

What exactly… is going on?

Fragments of memory flashed in his mind: Feitan's cold, rage-filled eyes, vivid and almost replaying before him.

The sensation of a sharp, icy blade slicing across his face and severing his life force still lingered.

This feeling was like a venomous snake coiled tightly around his heart, chilling him to the bone.

But—

Placing his hand over his chest, Moro could feel the strong, steady rhythm of his heartbeat.

He was alive!

Confirming this fact, Moro closed his eyes, trying to calm his turbulent emotions.

This strange, miraculous escape from death made him acutely aware of how precious the ability to breathe truly was.

After a moment, Moro slowly opened his eyes and, while keeping his head lowered, glanced at the back of his right hand.

The ring-shaped tattoo was still there!

This realization lifted his spirits.

He remembered clearly that the tattoo had only started to appear the day after he first crossed over into this world and had taken several days to fully form.

But at this moment, in this timeline, the tattoo was already complete.

This was a notable difference.

Focusing on the tattoo, Moro moved his right hand closer to the light to examine it more carefully.

Under the faint illumination, Moro quickly noticed a change in the tattoo.

The once-filled white rings had turned pitch black.

Moreover, the infinity symbol at the center of the tattoo was gone, replaced by—

Lv.1.

Moro's expression shifted. The blackened rings made it clear that this upheaval was most likely caused by the tattoo.

But as for the infinity symbol being replaced by Lv.1, he had no idea what it meant.

Is this some kind of "level-up" system?

For no particular reason, Morena's image flashed through Moro's mind.

"Lv." symbolized levels, and Morena's nen ability was famously tied to a leveling system.

It was hard for Moro not to draw connections.

But was there truly a link between the two?

If the effect of the rings allowed him to return to a point one year before his death, then what role did the level symbol, replacing the infinity sign, play in this system?

Lowering his gaze, Moro sorted through the information he knew.

While contemplating, he unconsciously raised his left hand and gently brushed the tattoo on his right hand.

"Hm?"

At that moment, Moro noticed a new mark on the back of his left hand—a red 'X' symbol.

The edges of the symbol were dark as ink, emanating a foreboding aura.

"What is this…?"

Moro's pupils contracted as his attention locked onto the new 'X' symbol.

Suddenly—

His consciousness wavered, like a small boat being swallowed by a whirlpool. For a brief instant, everything felt unstable and blurred.

In the span of a single breath.

Feitan's figure reappeared before Moro's eyes.

This time, his image was so vivid that even the icy killing intent lurking beneath Feitan's rage was tangible.

Slash!

The feeling of a blade cutting his face, the suffocating grip of death on his throat—all of it came back, magnified.

In the next moment, endless darkness enveloped him.

Moro experienced a chillingly realistic replay of his death.

Then, his consciousness wavered again, blurring briefly before another vision appeared.

This time, it was an image of a heart being gripped by two pitch-black hands.

Moro stared at the heart, and a realization abruptly surfaced in his mind.

The heart, clenched tightly by those dark hands, was his own.

This inexplicable understanding, like a stream of data forcibly downloaded into his brain, left no room for doubt.

With it came new information—a term: "Death Node."

"Hm?"

Suddenly, his consciousness returned to reality.

Moro blinked, realizing he was still in the same position as before.

"Death Node?"

He muttered in disbelief, slowly raising his head to stare at the rusted bars in front of him. Sighing, he leaned back against the opposite bars with a faint sense of helplessness.

Death Node—

It represented the exact time of his death: June 23, 1997.

On that day, he had died at Feitan's hands.

Afterward, he was reborn to the moment he had first crossed over into this world: June 7, 1996.

Undeniably, he had been granted a second chance.

However, the death node etched onto his being would not disappear simply because he had been reborn.

If he couldn't destroy the Death Node by June 22, 1997, his heart would shatter into pieces, sending him back to the embrace of death.

The only way to destroy the Death Node was to personally kill the one who had created it before the original time of his death.

In this case, that meant he had to kill Feitan within the next year, even though Feitan was entirely unaware of this connection.

Only then could he rid himself of the curse of the Death Node.

"One year…"

Moro exhaled deeply. The image of those black hands clutching his heart gave him the eerie sense of being trapped, like Kurapika under the vow of the Judgment Chain.

A Death Node was still better than dying outright.

Besides…

Moro glanced at the level symbol in the center of his tattoo.

Though he didn't yet know the exact function of the level system, it didn't seem like a bad thing.

If he could figure out how to advance from Lv.1 to Lv.2, the effect would likely become clearer.

For now, though, his priority was dealing with the current situation.

Moro refocused, his gaze passing over the rusted iron bars.

The truck carrying them would arrive at a psychiatric hospital in a few hours.

Officially, it was a mental institution, but in secret, it dealt in human trafficking and organ trading.

From the moment they were locked in these cages, Moro and the others had already been branded as livestock.

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