Having managed to cross the sealed metal entrance, Nicholas and the two doppelgangers run along the large corridor for about 5 minutes until they reach a forked path.
"Well, what do we do now Nicholas?" Kai's doppelganger asks.
"We'll split up to inspect where the two paths lead, and we'll stay in touch through earpieces." Nicholas says, taking them out of his inventory and giving them to the two doubles. "You two will go to the right, and I will go to the left."
"Hey, wait a minute. That doesn't sound like a good idea. Once we separate, it's very possible that we could be trapped or cut off by a trap, and that could leave you open and alone to an ambush or a surprise attack from the enemy." Kai's doppelganger argues.
"Given that I'll disappear either way if your double is destroyed, that means I'm the least valuable member of the team, and given that I have more field experience, it would be clever for me to go alone and for you two going together to protect each other."
"That way your doppelganger is less likely to be destroyed, and if something comes to happen by my side, you won't be left all alone against this criminal group."
"It's true that if we both go together, there's less chance of my doppelganger being destroyed, and I know that even though your current level is diminished, you still have enough experience and skill to manage on your own. But if you are wrong in one detail: You are the most valuable member among the three of us!" Nicholas declares pointing at him.
"What do you mean?" Kai's doppelganger asks.
"I have two objectives on this mission: to rescue the captive women and to arrest the criminals. That means your ability to open a portal to anywhere far from this location is crucial." Nicholas starts explaining.
"As you correctly pointed out, being caught in a trap is a possibility, and we also don't know which of the two paths leads to the prisoners' area. The worst-case scenario would be if both paths were traps that would leave us locked in, and my doppelganger was left alone in the prison."
"If you go with him, then he will surely be safe even in an ambush, and if you are lucky enough, you will be able to free the women from this horrific facility."
"Yes, but that's the best-case scenario. What if the women are on your side? Or if you're the one who gets ambushed? If you end up dying on this mission for wanting to save the captives, then it's pointless to me, so it will be pointless to the real one too." Kai's doppelganger responds, showing genuine concern for Nicholas.
"The real boss trusted me to tackle this task despite all my protests. He believed I could do it despite the danger, so surely you do too. Or do you think I'm too weak and careless to succeed?" Nicholas asks sarcastically, but with a look full of resolve.
Seeing that Nicholas doesn't waver in the face of danger, Kai's doppelganger sighs in defeat and rubs his neck before replying with a proud smile. "You've got me there, Nicholas. I can see that you've toughened up from the insecure and fearful boy I knew in the past. Now you sound like a real Hunter."
Smiling contentedly at the praise from the double of Kai, Nicholas proceeds to separate from the two to take the path on the left, which leds to a tunnel with a series of rooms, each one filled with the remnants of several illicit activities.
He moves quietly through the creepy place, listening for any sounds that might alert him of some shady element lurking in the darkness or lead him to his target, and after wandering around the place for what he feels are several kilometers, he reaches what appears to be a large underground warehouse filled with cages.
Walking through the corridors, Nicholas finally sees the women the gang had spoken of, locked up and in bad shape. Some, though frightened and disheveled, are mostly unharmed, implying that they are new arrivals, but most of them are battered, filthy, crouching on the dirty floor of their cells with expressions that reveal their deranged mental state.
Those in the worst condition don't even show emotions. The just sit on the floor of their cells, inert, with lifeless, dull faces and puncture marks on their arms.
'They must be the ones the criminal boss said they were getting addicted to drugs to make them submissive. It's sickening. How dare they do this to people?' Nicholas thinks clenching his fists, anger bubbling up again inside him towards the gang of kidnappers.
As anger, indignation, and violent desires against those responsible for the poor condition of these women begin to cloud his mind, he manages to spot a woman matching the appearance of Catherine Belster, the kidnappers' objective today, in a cage a few blocks away.
'There she is! I got to free her!' Nicholas thinks, running impetuously in her direction.
"Get away from me! Get away from me, you filthy bastard! Don't you dare touch me, you psycho son of a bitch! I'm going to report you and yours to the police!" Catherine screams as she retreats further into her cell, frightened and nervous, but seemingly unharmed.
"Catherine, Catherine calm down, I'm not with the kidnappers! I'm not with them, I've come to get you and the others out of this fucking hellhole!" Nicholas states, ripping the cell lock off with his hand covered in Ko and going in to take her out.
"Quick, come out and help me to...! Blurg!"
Nicholas doesn't have time to finish his sentence because as soon as he crosses the cell border, a terrible, muddy, tingling discomfort suddenly runs through his entire body, forcing him to fall to his knees on the ground at the same time as he vomits a stream of black slime.
Catherine Belster is immediately horrified to see this happen, and her panic reaching her braking point, she runs screaming from the cell hoping to escape. But she takes only a couple of steps before she too collapses to the ground, vomiting black slime and trembling in pain.
As Nicholas tries to overcome his discomfort and urge to vomit, he glances anxiously at Catherine and notices someone else has arrived in front of her. It's a tall, robust man with silver hair and thick lips, wearing clothes adorned with various shiny plastic accessories.
"What a let down. The manager of this place said the intruder was a skilled Nen user, but if he can't even notice the trap in the cells, then he must be a weakling." The unknown man says, looking at Nicholas with boredom.
His words immediately make Nicholas wary, and looking around the cell, he notices that it is adorned with several talismans with the word "Agony" written on them, with a longer tape placed just around the edge of the door saying "Those unrecognized will suffer the punishment beyond this point".
'A barrier-type ability, heh. The boss told me about them. They're used as traps that cover a wide area and take effect after someone crosses them. Catherine and I crossed the cell boundary, and this barrier put a curse on us that makes us feel agonizing. That must be what happened.' Nicholas analyzes internally while panting.
Catherine, for her part, does not cope with this condition as well as he does. She remains lying on the floor, trembling with the horrible feeling of her body churning inside like mud, unable to muster the strength to get up and escape anymore.
"Save me. Please, save me. This sensation... it's so painful and horrible. I'm begging you... make it stop!" Catherine pleads in agony, looking up at the man in front of her with streams of tears running down her cheeks.
In response to her helpless state, the man raises his foot, and when he brings it down forcefully with a stomp, the sound of a liquid sloshing fills the place as blood spurts out. "Consider yourself saved, you stupid bitch."
Nicholas, for his part, stands there stunned and panting frantically, his eyes wide open in horror as he stares at the severed corpse of the woman he was supposed to save.
This man had just killed her without hesitation or remorse. He didn't even show any pleasure in doing it. His expression was bored and emotionless, as if he had just squashed a fly with his hand. He isn't just a scum like the other kidnappers, he's a true professional criminal from the underworld.
"Ugh, how disgusting. Now everything's covered in her brains. If that damned Raiker kept a good grip on his wares, I wouldn't have to stoop to make this mess. Oh well, never mind." The unknown man thinks aloud, wiping his shoe on the ground and looking in Nicholas's direction.
"Hey, you weakling. Who are you?"
Nicholas, surprised, remains silent, his breathing quickening and his aura beginning to leak out.
"Didn't you hear me? I'm asking who you are and what family you belong to. Since you know Nen, you're surely from one of the main families. Or are you perhaps operating under contract?"
Finding himself in a weakened state against an enemy with unknown abilities, the smartest thing to do in this situation would be to run to buy time and alert his and Kai's doppelgangers to come here and provide backup. But Nicholas is incapable of thinking rationally right now.
The horrible sensation inside him churning like a mud mass, and the tingling and numbness coursing through his body like long worms cause him such emotional distress that he can't think straight.
Hearing this heartless man speak to him after witnessing him murder Catherine so gruesomely only make things worse, his thoughts becoming increasingly clouded by his growing fury.
"If you cooperate and answer me honestly, I'll give you a quick and painless end. Just like I did to this whore."
This last part against the victim makes Nicholas finally snap, and flaring his bloodthirsty Nen, he lets out a scream full of rage and jumps forward fast like lightning to punch that man in the face.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!" The man shouts furiously, responding with his own punch.
The blow also hits Nicholas in the face and sends him sprawling to the ground spitting blood.
"Cough cough." Nicholas coughs up blood and black slime as he tries to get up again.
"Damned brat! Looks like you're not such a pushover after all! I take back what I said about finishing you off quickly! I'm going to make you regret picking a fight with a member of the Shadow Beasts!" The man says, lunging at Nicholas, who is still on the ground, and kicking him.
Despite blocking the kick with his arms, Nicholas still coughs up more blood from the impact and is sent flying into a wall. The man then lunges again to land him a punch, but this time Nicholas dodges it, and seeing the punch shattering the wall, they both engage in a bare-knuckle confrontation fueled by rage in both sides.
Despite Nicholas' attempts to effectively apply the fighting skills he has learned during his time as a Hunter alongside Kai, the mysterious man's Nen technique remains strong and relentless.
Furthermore, Nicholas is now cursed and badly injured by that unforeseen Nen ability, and he is also too emotionally upset by everything he has experienced, so his ability to fight is severely diminished.
As a result of all these crowding, Nicholas finds himself unable to defend himself against the assault, receiving several powerful blows that gradually wear down his resistance and performance.
'It's hopeless! I can't overcome his combat strength in my current condition!' Nicholas thinks before the man punches him hard in the stomach.
'I don't have the strength to fight back or defend myself in this state! If I keep fighting him, he'll end up killing me! I don't wanna die!'
His opponent then proceeds to deliver a powerful side kick, and despite blocking it with his forearm, he is sent flying, crashing into a pile of boxes. Amid the rising dust, Nicholas lies covered in blood, vaguely clinging to consciousness.
'The best thing to do is retreat for now. I'll use something from my inventory, like pepper spray or a stun grenade, and take advantage of the distraction to escape and rejoin the doppelgangers. That way I'll have a better chance of surviving this ordeal.'
'But even if I meet with them and run out of this place, I'll still be under this Nen curse, having to feel terrible all the time. And...'
Catherine Belster's image then flashes through his mind.
'Catherine won't be coming back. Not only her, but all these women will be in danger of being sold, murdered or maybe something worse. These guys know their location has been exposed, so they'll try to move. If I abandon them now, it's very likely they'll disappear forever.'
Faced with the thought that everything is too messed up and that there is only one way out of this disastrous situation he finds himself in, Nicholas clenches his hands and teeth in frustration as his opponent slowly approaches him.
'There are no guarantees it will work! It's too dangerous! And I don't want to die!'
'I don't want to die! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!'
"Have you run out of strength already? What a disappointment. You really were a weakling after all. This is what happens when you go up against the mafia community." The man says, looking at Nicholas with contempt.
'But if I don't try, this bastard will be right. I'll be a weakling, incapable of making the decision when it's most necessary. The boss put so much effort into developing this ability exclusively for me, and I accepted it with great enthusiasm despite his warnings. So now I can't betray his expectations! I WON'T!!!' Resolving to risk everything for success, he changes from Ren to Zetsu and raises his gaze defiantly.
"Does this make you feel like a real man? Abusing defenseless women and crushing a rival so cursed he can barely speak without spewing mud and blood. If you look at it carefully, which one of us is the real weakling here, you faggot?!" Nicholas, adopting a behavior uncharacteristic of him, taunts the nameless Nen user to provoke him.
His move succeeds, as the man's face twists in rage with veins bulging, and his aura roars with murderous intent at being mocked by an enemy he already sees as defeated.
"DIEEEEEEE!!!" The man loses his temper and throws a Nen enhanced punch at Nicholas, who closes his eyes tightly, preparing for whatever's coming.
Point of View Switch: Nicholas
"AAAHHH!!!" Opening my eyes with a scream and jumping suddenly, frantically and agitated, I find myself back in my hotel room. "Ah, ah, ah, ah... What?!"
Looking around as I try to compose myself, I see that it's night again, and the altar I set up this morning is once more fully assembled in front of me. The only difference is that the incense stick I had lit burns incredibly fast, turning completely to ash.
"Siiigh. It worked. The ability boss Kai devised for me worked. Oh, thanks to the boss. I really thought I wasn't going to make it this time."
Sighing heavily and running a hand through my hair in relief, I finally understand what's happening. I have successfully used my new Specialist category ability; Saving Point.