Lock-On × Extreme Tug-of-War

Air resistance wasn't enough to stop high-caliber bullets—especially not when Joey noticed the bullets were laced with Nen.

The key to it lay with the man holding the smartphone. His aura signature revealed a hybrid of Emission and Manipulation.

Not uncommon. Most Nen users don't develop purely within their natural category—often blending abilities from adjacent types.

Weather Report itself was a blend of Emission and Manipulation, after all.

Their ability types were similar, but the execution and purpose diverged drastically.

Thankfully, Joey was fast. After a moment of resistance from the atmosphere, he surged into the corridor.

With Gyo enhancing his eyes, he scanned the enemy—real-time, far more precise than any surveillance feed.

The hallway was thick with heat. Its walls were charred, blackened—only a few strange white markings remained, etched awkwardly onto the surface.

Leftovers from the Royal Army's earlier flamethrower barrage.

Most flamethrower soldiers had already evacuated. The few who hadn't were now charred corpses.

Even insulated suits couldn't save them from that kind of heat.

Farther down the corridor, just beyond his En, lines of Royal Army soldiers were crouched, guns aimed right at him.

Curiously, their guns didn't radiate any Nen. But the moment bullets flew, Joey saw tiny flares of aura appearing mid-flight.

Meanwhile, the phone-wielder's gaze locked on him, pumping Nen into his device.

That's how it worked.

The bullets didn't carry Nen until after firing. Smart. Likely a power forged under a vow and constraint.

Not bad, Joey mused.

But the question wasn't how it worked. It was how to eliminate him—fast.

His tracking was too precise—unreasonable even.

How? Nen always required conditions. No ability offered perfect lock-on for free.

Especially since Joey hadn't even moved in a straight line during his escape from Tier 2.

Yet the bullets tracked perfectly. Something was off.

Which is why Joey chose to bolt through the corridor. Fog gone, he was fully exposed to the Royal Army.

Good thing he wore a fox mask from the beginning.

Still, he suspected his identity was already compromised.

The Army's aggression suggested they'd figured it out. Whether or not he escaped Tier 1, Tier 12 would be thoroughly raided.

Rescuing Melody had revealed his link to that area.

So it came down to how the Royal Army would move.

If they were willing to anger the Second Prince, they might kill his double without warning.

But if they still cared about protocol, the Judiciary would likely join the interrogation—maybe even bringing someone who could break Nen constructs.

Joey had no illusions. They'd act with a "better safe than sorry" mindset.

And that meant his clone was in danger.

He mentally tracked the time since he'd contacted Fugates. Just over ten seconds. Nowhere near enough for her to crawl from the lower decks to Tier 1.

Fugates' power didn't teleport—it created a passage.

From Joey's experience, it took about one minute twenty seconds for her to reach Tier 1's fourth zone.

Adding Kajo's return gate, his escape window was roughly one more minute.

That was the time Joey had to deal with the Royal Army.

They were beyond his En for now, but as he moved, his En moved too.

It had shifted from covering Tier 2 to now stretching toward Tier 4 and the advancing enemy.

He resumed a standard 50-meter En radius.

Once he confirmed Tier 4 was safe, he'd expand it again.

The fastest way to clear the soldiers? Weather Report.

Joey had already found their weak point.

The bullets carried Nen—but the soldiers didn't.

They were ordinary men. And Joey, at full bloodlust, could crush normal minds with spiritual pressure alone.

But he knew that wouldn't be enough.

They were trained soldiers, not civilians. Their willpower was stronger.

That's where brute force came in—Weather Report at full throttle, applied directly onto their bodies.

As Joey's En surged toward the Royal Army, oxygen ignited midair from atmospheric friction. Wind gathered into a gale.

Fire fed on wind. In an instant, the corridor became an inferno.

Gunfire faltered. Bullets whistled past him, burying into the walls.

But the barrage weakened—became erratic.

Joey grinned. Sure, the enemy could track him. Even imbue bullets with Nen.

But they weren't firing themselves. They were ordinary pawns. And Joey? He was a player.

Take out the soldiers—and it didn't matter if the tracker still knew his location.

Would the operator personally come through that fire?

Would those soldiers survive charging into it?

He paused. Tier 2 was eerily quiet.

The Royal Army, though pressured, didn't retaliate.

Part of that was fog. But more importantly, they'd pissed off the Second Prince.

This was her sector.

If Joey were her, and the Royal Army had turned her home into a battlefield, only to get crushed, he wouldn't lift a finger either.

She may have hated the intruder—but after this, she hated the Royal Army more.

Her next move would be to file a formal complaint in the Royal Zone.

They failed to catch the invader. They damaged her turf.

Nasubi Hui Guo Rou would be forced to compensate her—at least politically.

Sensing dying auras fade from his En, Joey contracted it again, shifting focus toward Tier 4.

Time to track Fugates.

He resumed moving—and that's when he noticed something strange.

Ever since he'd been tracked, Joey had been scanning his surroundings.

He didn't believe the lock-on came with no prerequisites.

Then he found it: white painted markings on the corridor walls.

Crude, subtle—he'd ignored them before.

But now, recalling his earlier ambush of Rihan, he was sure.

These markings weren't there before.

During that ambush, Joey had watched every inch of that hall through surveillance.

He'd even attached First Bomb to a fly—one that landed on those very walls.

Back then, the walls were clean.

The moment he saw these marks, he remembered a Nen user from the anime—a gang-hired specialist who used drawings to spy and track.

This was the same technique.

Suddenly, Joey understood the enemy's ability.

They had drawn marks throughout the corridor in advance.

He couldn't see the smartphone screen, but he guessed it displayed a map—likely not just the hallway, but royal chambers too.

So long as Joey stayed within the marked areas, the enemy could pinpoint and tag his movements.

That's how they tracked him.

Raising his eyes, he saw the white lines stretching far down the corridor, no end in sight.

A pain in the ass, Joey thought.

He was specifically marked.

Unless he exited the range of those glyphs, he'd be constantly flagged for attack.

Fire and wind would still hurt soldiers, but they couldn't reach the actual Nen user at range.

Meanwhile, the enemy had likely figured out Joey's ability relies on his En.

They'd seen how the fire stopped when it left that field.

So neither side had gained an upper hand.

The flames behind him slowly began to fade.

Partly due to depleted oxygen, and partly because his En no longer covered them.

Without the weather beast's control, the fire fizzled.

But that brief half-minute blaze had dropped the Royal Army to the floor—groans and screams filled the corridor.

As expected, the smartphone man was untouched.

He'd retreated beyond Joey's En the moment the fire struck.

Fire created through atmospheric friction—without the En, it couldn't be maintained.

Behind him, more soldiers rushed in to replace the fallen, following the smartphone wielder's lead.

But they held the line—ninety meters away.

A clever distance.

Joey's irregular En maxed out around 90 meters.

At that range, even if he launched more fire or wind, the moment it touched them, it would lose Nen support and vanish.

They had him perfectly measured.

But things weren't so simple.

Because when Weather Report unleashed its fury, something else went with it—

—Killer Queen's Wither Heart Strike, from the left hand.

Yes, using it would reveal Joey's identity outright.

But at this point, pretending it was still secret was delusional.

The Royal Army already knew who he was.

(End of Chapter)