HxH: Ryomen... Satoru?

"The match begins!" the announcer shouted loudly.

Martin didn't make a move. Instead, he raised his fists and slammed them together with loud bangs, trying to intimidate his opponent.

Cyr, however, stood motionless, his expression blank, and closed his eyes.

It was strange—his Six Eyes seemed to burden him far more heavily than they had ever affected Satoru Gojo in the original story.

Even though he had possessed the Six Eyes for quite some time now, he still hadn't fully mastered them. Sure, they were powerful and convenient, but the toll they took on him was just as significant.

Even with his eyes shut, the strain didn't ease much.

Was it an issue with him or with the eyes themselves? Surely he wasn't so useless that, after all this time, he still couldn't master a pair of eyes?

It felt like there was a much deeper problem at play…

For that reason, he rarely used Gojo's techniques unless absolutely necessary. His most frequently used ability was Sukuna's Dismantle.

Whenever he used Gojo's techniques, the Six Eyes had to activate as well. And the moment the Six Eyes were in play, the burden increased. The result? Bloody noses and the unenviable experience of fighting while bleeding profusely.

This wasn't the kind of combat experience he had envisioned.

"Are you looking down on me?" Martin yelled, his face red with rage as he stared at the boy standing on the platform with his eyes closed.

Cyr tilted his head slightly. "Oh, no. You've misunderstood."

The moment he took a single step forward, the match was already over.

Martin's body crashed heavily onto the ground, convulsing as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. Before losing consciousness entirely, he heard the boy's cold, detached voice.

"I'm looking down on everyone."

The announcer and the audience fell into an awkward silence. Did that mean they were being looked down on as well?

Breaking the tense atmosphere, the announcer quickly ran down to check on Martin. After confirming his condition, they stood up and declared through the microphone:

"Martin is unable to continue! Hill is the winner!"

"You can advance directly to the 150th floor…" the announcer offered, handing Cyr a pass.

"No, I'll go up one floor at a time," the white-haired boy replied indifferently, casually refusing.

After all, it wasn't every day he had so many opportunities to practice Black Flash on live targets. And the best part? If someone died, he wouldn't have to take responsibility, nor worry about being hunted down as a criminal.

"Are you sure? Contestants below the 150th floor might not provide much of a challenge for you…" the announcer tried to persuade him.

"I don't care about challenges. Luck is all that matters," Cyr replied nonchalantly, waving his hand and walking away, leaving the announcer baffled by his cryptic remark.

Amid the cheers of the crowd, Cyr stepped off the platform and made his way to the 60th floor. Finding a corner to sit in, he waited for the notification of his next match.

"System, there's something wrong with my abilities, isn't there?" he asked, lowering his head and initiating an internal conversation with the system.

[The host's abilities are perfectly fine.] The system's tone was cold, emotionless, exactly like a tool without feelings.

"So the Six Eyes are inherently this burdensome and difficult to control?" Cyr questioned internally.

Was he truly that useless?

[It's because the host's compatibility with Satoru Gojo is only 20%.] The system answered flatly.

"…A compatibility of 20 doesn't mean I can only control 20% of the ability, does it?" Cyr asked, his brows furrowing deeply.

He had assumed that once an ability was unlocked, he'd have full access to it. But now... did his ability control scale with compatibility as well?

[Precisely,] the system answered swiftly.

Cyr's expression fell instantly.

Ah… so Dismantle was only at 30% as well? And not even at its peak 30%. That explained why its power felt so underwhelming.

No wonder the Six Eyes burdened him so heavily. No wonder he felt like their only use was observing energy in others.

It turned out he had unlocked just 20% of their potential.

If he hadn't asked, the system probably wouldn't have mentioned it on its own. It was so unobtrusive, it was almost like it didn't exist.

"I'm so weak," he muttered blankly, his tone so resigned it was almost humorous.

His control over all the abilities he currently possessed hadn't even reached 50%. And there was still a heap of abilities yet to be unlocked.

It was all the fault of this garbage system, never explaining anything properly.

Classic scammer system. If it had human emotions, Cyr could practically imagine it saying in a shifty voice: "20% compatibility and you want 100% power? Dream on."

It fit perfectly with a system that dared to price a weapon at 10 billion.

"No wonder," Cyr murmured to himself. "I was wondering why, even with two of the strongest characters stacked together, I'm still not all that powerful despite both having over 50% combined compatibility…"

"I don't even have half the strength of one of them," he said, before chuckling softly.

Now that he knew the reason, it wasn't so bad anymore.

The issue wasn't that the two strongest characters weren't strong enough—it was that his compatibility wasn't high enough.

When both characters reached 100% compatibility, his control over their abilities would also reach 100%, finally allowing him to wield their full strength.

With that in mind, these two characters were already insanely powerful. And here he was, only wielding a fraction of their strength, yet he was already doing fairly well.

The system had only granted him this tiny portion of power at the beginning and had disappeared ever since. It gave him a total of three abilities, none of them complete. And the Six Eyes? Its burden was enormous. He had to figure out how to use them, extract cursed energy, and train on his own—all while the system remained silent and unhelpful.

"So, these eyes have other abilities I haven't unlocked yet…" Cyr muttered, pressing lightly on his eyelids with his fingers.

No wonder his cursed energy recovery was so slow—at only 20% efficiency, of course, it would be sluggish!

When he reached 100% mastery, it should be more like Satoru Gojo in the original story. While there would still be a burden, it wouldn't be nearly as severe as what he was dealing with now.

"Contestant Hill and Contestant Moon, please report to the 69th Floor, Arena A," the broadcast announced his next match.

Yawning, Cyr got up lazily and made his way toward the arena.

---

By 10 PM, the matches at the Heaven's Arena had ended for the day. They would resume the next morning at 10 AM.

Since the staff members needed rest too, the Arena closed for the night.

Cyr and Maro sat together, tallying their earnings.

"Sir, aside from the first two matches, the odds for your later matches were too low. Even if we placed bets, the profits wouldn't outweigh the taxes and the Heaven's Arena's processing fees..."

"So I didn't place any bets for you after that."

"The winnings from the first two matches came to 40 million Jenny," Maro reported respectfully. Cyr listened absentmindedly, letting the words drift in one ear and out the other.

By the third match, the audience had already realized Cyr's true strength, understanding that he belonged on the 150th floor or higher. As a result, the odds for his matches became so low that betting would've actually resulted in a loss.

"The prize money from my matches barely reached a few million," Cyr sighed.

After all, the prize money below the 190th floor was pitifully low. Above the 190th floor, however, it was said to start at tens of millions per match.

"How far did you get?" Cyr asked, looking at Maro.

"The 80th floor…" Maro replied, head bowed in shame. He felt humiliated by his own weakness.

"Well, that's better than I expected. I was prepared for you to just rot on the 20th floor," Cyr said with a dazzlingly bright, mocking smile.

Maro kept his head down, silent, but inwardly, he agreed with Cyr's words. His previous performance had been abysmal.

"If you don't even know how to use nen, then I assume you haven't developed your own ability yet?" Cyr suddenly asked, resting his chin in his hands.

"Ability?" Maro's expression turned blank, clearly unfamiliar with the concept.

Ah, so he didn't even know about developing nen abilities.

"Well… you probably don't even know your nen affinity then. Let's do a test first." Cyr stood up, grabbed a cup of water, and plucked a leaf from one of the potted plants in the Heaven's Arena's corner, placing it on the surface of the water.

The water divination test was designed for people unsure of their nen affinity. Once the affinity was identified, they could figure out how to develop their abilities.

Cyr himself hadn't taken the test because his nen abilities had manifested unexpectedly. Since they were already there, he didn't see a need to check his affinity.

"Try channeling your energy into it," Cyr instructed, placing the cup of water in front of Maro.

Maro cupped the glass with both hands.

As time passed, the water showed no visible changes.

"Taste it," Cyr suggested.

"…Bitter," Maro replied after taking a sip.

"If the water's taste changes, that makes you a Transmuter," Cyr said, his tone suddenly tinged with interest.

In water divination:

Increased water volume indicated an Enhancer.

A change in color signified an Emitter.

A change in taste revealed a Transmuter.

Movement of the leaf pointed to a Manipulator.

Water crystallizing showed a Conjurer.

Any other reaction was categorized as a Specialist.

Enhancers were the most common type of nen users, often straightforward and stubborn. Emitters were impulsive and quick-tempered, Transmuters were moody and prone to lying, Conjurers were meticulous and neurotic, Manipulators were crafty and persuasive, and Specialists were individualistic, often with natural leadership qualities.

Maro didn't understand what being a Transmuter meant, but since Cyr said it, he accepted it as fact.

"What about you, sir?" he asked, curiosity evident in his tone.

"Me?" Cyr reached toward the glass, and before he could even touch it, the cup exploded with a loud bang, scattering water everywhere.

"Probably a Specialist," he said nonchalantly.

It wasn't the result he'd initially expected—he had guessed Conjurer—but it wasn't too far off.

Kurapika, after all, was typically a Conjurer, but his Scarlet Eyes shifted him into a Specialist. Similarly, Cyr's results might have been influenced by the Six Eyes, which were passive and always active.

If the Six Eyes could be turned off, his result might've been Conjurer instead.

His nen ability, The Wheel of Law, involved effects from multiple affinities, so strictly speaking, his abilities couldn't be confined to a single type.

As for his non-nen abilities, such as the Six Eyes, they aligned with Specialist. His techniques, Blue and Dismantle, could be categorized as Emitter. His would-be domains, Unlimited Void and Malevolent Shrine, were harder to classify.

In the end, the affinities didn't matter much to Cyr.

True strength didn't rely on being limited to a single affinity—powerful users often crossed multiple categories.

°°°

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