Elena fully understood just how terrible the situation had become.
Her mind worked rapidly as she tried to think of a way to salvage things.
"What happens… now?" Elena asked.
Conrad had already prepared a plan in his mind. But first, he wanted to enjoy himself a little.
"I still have trouble understanding why you did it. I assume you considered the possibility of getting caught before taking such an action," he said.
"After behaving like this, what exactly were you expecting to happen?"
Elena looked directly into Conrad's eyes with a proud smile on her face.
"I'm not some naive child, Conrad!" she said in a strong voice.
"I know trying to use my nen ability on you was a hostile act… If you're going to do something, then do it. There's no need to drag this out."
Honestly, Conrad had not expected Elena to show this kind of attitude.
Elena under the influence of the ability had clearly said she was "afraid of death."
"Hmm…"
"She's a really good actress. Maybe that's exactly why she developed this ability in the first place," he thought.
At that moment, Conrad stood up and picked up the cane resting on the table.
"To be honest, I don't know why you did it…" he said.
He walked toward Elena and stopped only ten centimeters away from her face.
He could feel her breath and smell the fear coming from her.
"Y-You…" Elena muttered, unable to form another word.
At that moment, Conrad lightly swung his cane into Elena's right knee.
A sickening crack echoed through the room as part of her knee shattered.
Elena was about to scream from the pain, but Conrad immediately covered her mouth with his hand.
"You'd better stay quiet."
"Let's not end our fun too early…"
"Right?" he said with a faint smile before swinging again, this time below her right knee.
Another cracking sound echoed out, and tears immediately streamed down Elena's face.
She wanted to scream from the agony, but all she could do was cry.
At that moment, someone knocked on Conrad's hotel room door.
Conrad calmly walked over and opened it.
"Lina, welcome," he said.
Lina nodded and stepped inside.
Conrad closed the door and looked back toward Elena, whose eyes were bloodshot from crying.
"This is my friend Lina. Her nen ability focuses on healing," Conrad explained.
"That means I can hurt you as much as I want… and then heal you all over again."
Elena spoke through the pain.
"Why… why are you doing this…"
"You already learned what you wanted. There's nothing else you can get from me!" she cried.
"I was under orders… I couldn't ignore them…" she added before breaking down into tears again.
Conrad smiled in response to Elena's words.
"Oh, come on, Elena. Wanting to torture someone who tried to control me is only natural. I'm not going to kill you. Even if you beg me to kill you, you won't die."
"As long as I exist, you'll stay alive and continue suffering…" Conrad said before swinging the cane once more.
This time he shattered Elena's right foot.
Despite the relatively light movement, her foot twisted unnaturally.
Lina had already heard the entire story from Conrad and watched everything without even blinking.
Honestly, the revelation that the Hunter Exam and Hunter License might themselves be part of a nen ability irritated both her and Reginald deeply, especially because they had intended to become hunters as well.
Elena tried to scream again from the pain, but Conrad covered her mouth once more.
"Please…" Elena whispered weakly.
"Please let me go… I really didn't want to do this…"
Conrad burst into laughter.
"You really… really didn't want to…"
"What beautiful fantasies you're talking about, you bitch… If you had succeeded, you would've taken the money and delivered information about me. But now you failed, so suddenly you 'didn't want to do it.'"
"Why are you acting so shamelessly?"
"Do you seriously have no shame at all?" he said before swinging the cane again and breaking the bones in Elena's left knee.
"Aghh—" Elena tried to scream, but this time Lina covered her mouth.
"You shouldn't scream. When you use a nen ability on someone and try to control them, it's no different from trying to kill them."
"You're smart enough to know that, right?" Lina said coldly.
Conrad smiled at Lina's words and looked into her eyes.
"You said you created a new ability."
"Now's the perfect time to show it," he said.
Lina smiled.
First, she picked up a piece of paper from a notebook resting on the table.
Using a pen beside it, she immediately wrote "Elena" on the paper and lightly infused it with nen.
A few seconds later, the white paper turned completely black.
Then Lina picked up a small breakfast knife and walked toward Elena.
"Just a little…" she said calmly before making a shallow cut on Elena's exposed shoulder, just enough to draw blood.
She pressed the paper against the blood on Elena's shoulder and waited three seconds.
"Seed—Pain and Life," she whispered after three seconds passed.
A few seconds later, the black paper split apart into fragments and shifted into a reddish color before the pieces entered Elena's wound one by one.
"Good…" Lina said.
"All the conditions have been fulfilled."
Conrad smiled.
"Seed—Pain and Life" was a nen ability that existed within the foundation of Cultivating Hope. It had been inspired by the new creational conditions and Conrad's earlier words.
It was a curse-type ability that needed a Nen Exorcist for to be cleaned out.
Lina needed to write the target's name on paper, activate the ability, and keep the paper in contact with the target's blood for three seconds.
More time Lina spends with target while the target is in pain, more the ability is powerful, the ability also can not be used on people who Lina herself did not see "in pain."
Naturally, these conditions were extremely difficult to fulfill in an actual battle, but once completed, the target would be placed in tremendous danger.
Lina could inflict immense pain on her target and could even kill weak nen users through agony alone, or she could heal them using her own nen.