Free Web NovelThis bright and beautiful figure, as dazzling as a glass beauty, was Pakunoda, a member of the Phantom Troupe from the Hunter World whom Qin Lun had hunted down.
Originally, there were two members of the Phantom Troupe who truly died by Qin Lun’s hand. One was Uvogin, an Enhancement Type Nen user, and the other was Shalnark, a Manipulation Type Nen user.
Among them, Shalnark was turned into a puppet doll by Qin Lun, but was eventually rescued by the Troupe. On the other hand, Pakunoda chose to sacrifice herself to deliver information about Kurapika and Qin Lun, and was killed by the Judgment Chain that Kurapika had placed in her heart.
When Firecracker Rand was scouting the Troupe’s hideout, he was forced by circumstances to abandon Shalnark, who had already become a puppet doll, and Shalnark was ultimately rescued by the Troupe. Perhaps to avoid exposing the Star Void’s will, the Shattered Starry Sky did not retrieve the puppet doll, which had become an Apostle item, when Qin Lun’s mission ended and he returned. Instead, they compensated the young man with Pakunoda’s figure. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Like Shalnark’s puppet doll, Pakunoda’s figure also trapped the owner’s soul inside and possessed all of Pakunoda’s Nen abilities.
Of course, compared to Shalnark’s puppet doll, Pakunoda’s figure was much weaker. The reason was that she had completely lost her physical body. No matter how powerful her Nen abilities were, without the support of life force, it was like taking away the firewood from under the cauldron.
Additionally, there was one biggest difference between Pakunoda’s figure and Shalnark’s puppet doll, which was also the main reason why Qin Lun had not yet decided whether to use it himself.
Shalnark was a Manipulation Type user. The basis for controlling his puppet doll was his own puppet phone, which could be used while keeping his consciousness obscured, bypassing Shalnark’s self-awareness unilaterally. However, Pakunoda’s figure did not have this feature. In other words, although the figure belonged to Qin Lun, he could not suppress the self-awareness of the Troupe beauty.
Pakunoda and Qin Lun were mortal enemies, and the Troupe members were mostly fearless of life and death. The consequences of releasing her were hard to predict. Although she might not harm her Apostle master, if she pretended to comply but actually disobeyed and gave Qin Lun some false or distorted information, it could be enough to get him killed.
However, Qin Lun was reluctant to sell the figure. One reason was that it was difficult to prove Pakunoda’s memory regression ability to other Apostles, as it required Pakunoda’s own cooperation. The other reason was that Pakunoda’s ability was very beneficial for Apostles collecting world information—it was like a bug. Selling it to someone else just felt too unwilling.
Joey looked down on Qin Lun’s indecisiveness. The “Dissector” believed that if something couldn’t be used, it should simply be destroyed. Moreover, he didn’t think Pakunoda would dare to resist him.
As his consciousness stirred, Pakunoda’s figure glowed brightly in Joey’s palm. Its originally smooth, ceramic-like surface quickly became vivid and lively, soon transforming from a prop into a “living thing.”
“Huh?” Watching the prop in his palm grow larger and larger, Joey threw it away in surprise. Back then, Shalnark’s puppet doll couldn’t grow in size and remained palm-sized forever, but this figure seemed different, as if it could become life-sized.
“I… wasn’t I dead? Where is this…” Pakunoda seemed to have just woken from a dream, her consciousness somewhat dazed. However, her eyes quickly cleared from confusion to clarity.
“You… Qin Lun!” The moment Pakunoda woke up, she was startled. Lightly tapping her toes, she quickly put distance between them.
“Huh, wait, my body…” After taking just a small leap, Pakunoda looked down at her body and froze on the spot.
As a former Nen ability expert, Pakunoda’s control over her body might not be as good as Enhancement Type users like Uvogin, but she could still feel the difference. Compared to her previous body, the only sensation this new body gave her was heaviness, as if she had become an ordinary person without any Nen abilities overnight.
“What did you do to me?” Pakunoda glared angrily at Joey, her shoulders trembling slightly. For her, if her comrades’ lives were the top priority, then Nen ability came second, and her own life was the least important. In fact, any strong person felt the same—losing their combat power was worse than being killed directly.
“Hey, I brought you back to life. Shouldn’t you thank me first, Joey?” Joey grinned, revealing a row of white teeth. The smile that usually looked sunny and bright on Qin Lun’s face always gave off a fierce and terrifying impression on him, showing how different the two personalities’ auras were.
“Huh? You’re not… him?” Pakunoda could easily tell the difference between Qin Lun and Joey. She knew Qin Lun was good at disguising himself, but Joey’s aura was almost impossible to fake—it was a kind of cruelty and brutality ingrained in his bones. It was another extreme of human nature compared to Qin Lun, or even the aloof coldness of the Troupe members.
“Don’t compare me to that hypocrite Qin Lun. You can call me Joey, Joey Foster!” Joey’s crimson eyes shifted, greedily staring at Pakunoda.
Pakunoda habitually crossed her arms, accentuating her full, swelling bosom, completely ignoring Joey’s aggressive gaze. She could sense that Joey’s look held no sexual desire but was more like a venomous snake seeing a frog—it was purely “appetite.”
“Where is this? What about my comrades?” Pakunoda asked indifferently, showing little curiosity about her own resurrection.
There were many Nen abilities in the Hunter World; at the very least, she knew of several “back-to-life” techniques. Moreover, based on how her body felt, she was convinced she wasn’t truly resurrected but merely a form of soul possession.
“Aren’t you able to get the answers you want by asking questions?” Joey reached out, opening his palm, and said, “Come on, let me see if you still have this ability. If you’re useless, don’t blame me for using you as art material, hehe!”
Pakunoda’s eyes flickered. Although she didn’t know what “art material” meant, judging by Joey’s expression, it clearly wasn’t something good.
“Where is this?” The Troupe beauty expressionlessly took Joey’s large hand. “Tower of Durlag, Toril World… So, I’m no longer in my original world?”
Pakunoda’s eyes grew slightly dazed. Countless thoughts rushed through her mind, and for a moment, she felt a mix of emotions, unsure of what to think.
“Hey, hurry up. We don’t have much time to waste!” Joey glanced at the Death Notice and noticed that as the Troupe beauty asked questions, his energy points had decreased significantly. Clearly, Pakunoda’s Nen ability had been transformed into an Apostle Skill, except the consumed Nen was now his energy points.
“Who are you? What’s your relationship with that guy named Qin Lun?” Pakunoda composed herself and quickly asked again. “Apostle, World Mission, Earth Federation, Dual Soul, Dissector…”
Pakunoda’s pupils slowly dilated. The information she obtained through memory regression was completely unexpected. It could be said that reality was even more absurd than imagination, leaving her mind in a tangled mess and her emotions in turmoil once again.
However, Joey didn’t rush her this time. Anyone would need time to digest so much information.
“Dissector… Serial Killer!” Pakunoda’s will was equally steadfast. When she realized what the “Dissector” meant, she shuddered and snapped back to reality. Unconsciously, she had already let go of Joey, as if she hadn’t been holding a human hand but a venomous snake. Now she understood what “art material” meant.
When she was in the Phantom Troupe, she had also killed countless people and was no more merciful toward life than Joey. However, compared to the “Dissector’s” attitude of treating life as a plaything, she still fell short.
“What do you want me to do?” Pakunoda looked at Joey, a flicker of caution in her eyes. After a long silence, she finally spoke again.
“Oh, you’re willing to cooperate?” Joey looked at the Troupe beauty with curiosity. He had originally planned to distance himself from Qin Lun to gain Pakunoda’s cooperation, but he didn’t expect her to be so compliant.
“You’ve left the Hunter World and pose no threat to the Troupe anymore, and Shalnark was rescued. As for Uvogin… the Troupe members who were close to him were Nobunaga, Finkes, and Shalnark. It didn’t include us females. Besides, even if I wanted to avenge Uvogin, what could I do now?” Pakunoda replied expressionlessly.
“You could refuse to cooperate or give Qin Lun some false information later to get him killed directly!” Joey stroked his chin with interest.
“The old Troupe was indeed unrestrained, but we still disdained becoming hypocritical scum like Qin Lun,” Pakunoda said coldly.
“Well said, scum indeed, hahaha!” Feeling the fluctuations from his consciousness, Joey couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Since you and Qin Lun share one body with two souls, you should know about me too. I can help you, but each time I help, you must agree to a condition in exchange. Otherwise, I’d rather sink into eternal sleep!” Pakunoda lifted her head and said proudly.
The Troupe beauty didn’t know much about the spiritual world and didn’t know how to explain Joey and Qin Lun’s dual personalities, so she could only understand it as two souls in one body. In fact, by now, Qin Lun and Joey had somewhat transcended the realm of mental illness—it was almost like two souls coexisting in one body.
“Help me search his memories and figure out the situation in this Tower of Durlag!” Joey chuckled dryly and stopped wasting words. With a flick of his wrist, he dragged the unconscious Lich over. “What’s your exchange condition?”
“He’s… alive?” Pakunoda looked in surprise at the Lich, who resembled a skeleton. She had thought it was a corpse earlier. Shaking her head with a bitter smile, she said, “This Toril World is really interesting. How about this: let me experience the adventures of you Apostles in this world. I don’t want to become a figure again.”
“Deal!” Joey grinned, tossing the Lich high into the air and throwing it in front of Pakunoda. “Get all his secrets out for me—the undead’s goals, the Tower of Durlag’s treasures, traps, dangerous figures… In short, I want him to become a completely exposed ‘specimen,’ from his body to his thoughts.”
