Uchiha power in HxH world - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: A Genin’s Awakening and the ‘Heavens Step’ Protocol

The neon-soaked alleyway of Yorknew City was damp, smelling faintly of rotting garbage and ozone, but to me, it was the most peaceful place in the world. I leaned back against the cold brick wall, pulling my trench coat tighter around my newly slimmed frame, listening to the wailing sirens of the police cruisers converging on the slave market two blocks away.

I had done it. I had committed a premeditated assassination, disrupted a massive human trafficking ring, and successfully utilized the Sharingan without burning out my optic nerves.

I was just starting to let my racing heart settle into a normal rhythm when a massive, golden notification screen violently exploded into existence right in front of my face, illuminating the dark alleyway.

‘Ding!’
[Mission Parameters Completed. Secondary Objectives (Hostage Liberation/Syndicate Disruption) forcefully achieved.]
[System has carefully calculated the resulting Effort and Impact variables.]
[EXP +863]

My brow wrinkled, contorting into a mask of pure, unadulterated shock. I blinked, rubbing my dark eyes, half-expecting the glowing numbers to vanish. Eight hundred and sixty-three Experience Points.

Before I could even begin to process the sheer magnitude of that number—considering I had been grinding single digits out of fifty pushups just a few weeks ago—the system chimed again. And again. And again.

It sounded like a slot machine hitting the ultimate jackpot inside my skull.

[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]

A searing, volcanic heat erupted from the very core of my being. I gasped, dropping to my knees on the damp pavement as the system violently forcefully rewrote my biology. This wasn’t the mild, uncomfortable warmth of burning fat. This was a fundamental restructuring of my spiritual and physical limits.

My aura—my Chakra—expanded so rapidly I felt like my skin was going to tear open. The dense, coiled energy in my stomach overflowed, flooding my limbs, my organs, and my brain with absolute, terrifying power.

When the heat finally subsided, leaving me gasping for air and sweating through my designer clothes, another prompt blinked calmly.

[Host has reached Level 24.]
[Threshold Passed: Official Genin Rank Achieved.]
[Notice: Base Chakra scaling has evolved. Post-Level 20, each Level Up will grant +20 CP, replacing the previous +5 CP baseline.]

“Oh, you beautiful, broken cheat code,” I wheezed, a manic, breathless laugh escaping my lips.

This was a paradigm shift. The early levels had been a brutal, unrewarding slog, but crossing the Level 20 threshold had apparently removed the training wheels. My energy reserves were going to skyrocket exponentially from here on out.

I sat back on the wet asphalt and pulled up the stat distribution screen. I had thirty free stat points to play with—the accumulated wealth of six consecutive level-ups. I didn’t need to think too hard about where they were going.

‘Ten points to Strength.’
‘Eighteen points to Agility.’
‘Two points to Intelligence.’

The moment I confirmed the allocation, the changes took hold. My muscles didn’t bulge any further, but they felt impossibly dense, like woven titanium. With 41 Agility, I felt so light I genuinely worried I might float away if I jumped too high.

But it was the two points in Intelligence that triggered the real prize.

‘Ding!’
[Intelligence threshold of 20 reached.]
[Passive Skill Unlocked: Chakra Regeneration. Host now passively recovers 0.2% of maximum Chakra per minute.]

I stared at the text, letting the implications wash over me. 0.2% per minute sounded small, but it fundamentally changed how I could operate. I was no longer a battery that had to be manually recharged through deep meditation or sleep. I was a generator.

I pulled up my updated master status panel to admire the handiwork.

—

Name: Milluki Zoldyck

Bloodline: Uchiha Lv1 (0%)

Level: 24 (72/325)

Affinity: Fire Lv3, Yin Lv5, Yang Lv2

…

Health: 260/260

Chakra: 200/200 [Recovers 0.2% per minute]

Fatigue: 0%

…

STR: 29

AGI: 41

VIT: 24

INT: 20

PER: 19

…

Skill: Sharingan Lv1, Chakra Control Lv3(32%), Transformation Lv1(12%), Clones Lv1(0%), Body Flicker Lv1(19%)

…

[Library]

—

My Chakra had doubled. With 200 units at my disposal, and the Sharingan costing a flat 1 CP per minute to maintain, I could technically keep my red eyes active for over three hours straight. Three hours of slowed-down time, hyper-perception, and perfectly predicted enemy movements.

I leaned my head back against the brick wall, staring up at the narrow slice of the night sky visible between the skyscrapers.

For the past three weeks, an insidious, nagging thought had been festering in the back of my mind. ‘Run away.’ Take the new body, take the system, take a bag of cash, and disappear into the vast, uncharted corners of the Hunter world. Avoid the Phantom Troupe. Avoid the Chimera Ants. Most importantly, avoid Zoldycks.

But looking at my newly minted stat block, the calculus had completely changed.

The Zoldyck family was a terrifying den of psychopaths, yes. But they were also the wealthiest, most resourced family on the planet. They had access to high-tier Magical Beast meat that essentially allowed me to farm EXP just by chewing my dinner. Where else in the world was I going to find a consistent, daily supply of Class-D and Class-C beast meat without having to hunt the monsters myself?

Furthermore, if I wanted to level up my combat skills, I needed training partners. Fighting street thugs would only get me so far. If I stayed on Kukuroo Mountain, I was surrounded by the absolute pinnacle of martial artists.

“I’m staying,” I whispered to the neon lights. “It’s a golden cage, but it’s a cage with an unlimited EXP buffet.”

I spent one more day in Heavens Arena. I didn’t gamble; I just walked the streets, ate obscenely expensive street food, bought a few limited-edition manga volumes to keep up the Milluki facade, and generally enjoyed the feeling of not being morbidly obese. But eventually, the vacation had to end.

—

The massive, fog-shrouded gates of the Zoldyck estate loomed over me like the jaws of a mythical beast. I walked through the giant gate, while easily opening the two gates… Which is around 8 Tons of weight.

With Milluki’s strength, he can easily push the 3rd gate as well, if he uses Chakra. But he didn’t do it.

The moment I stepped into the grand foyer of the main manor, the temperature seemed to drop by ten degrees.

Standing perfectly still in the center of the vast, marble-floored room, his hands clasped loosely behind his back, was Zeno Zoldyck.

My grandfather. The former Patriarch. A man who wore a white martial arts uniform with the words “A Kill A Day” stitched into the fabric, and a man whose very presence commanded the air in the room to stop moving.

I froze, my Perception screaming at me. Even standing completely relaxed, the sheer density of the aura radiating off the old man was suffocating. If he wanted to, he could rip my head off before my Sharingan even registered the intent to move.

Zeno turned his head slowly, his sharp, predatory eyes locking onto me. He didn’t blink. He just stared.

Gotoh and the butlers had reported about Milluki’s weight loss, and growth. But reading a report and seeing the reality were two very different things.

Zeno immediately sensed the aura within Milluki’s body, which is pretty huge compared to normal person.

His face, a weathered mask of disciplined neutrality, didn’t shift.

“Well,” Zeno finally said, his voice a dry, gravelly rasp that echoed in the quiet hall. “It looks like it was a very good thing that Killua almost killed you.”

I forced a nervous, slightly arrogant smile onto my face, slipping frantically into the Milluki persona. I slumped my shoulders slightly, breaking my perfect posture to look a bit more sullen.

“I-It’s good to meet you, Grandpa,” I stammered, making sure to let my voice waver just a fraction. “I completed the assassination quota. Goran Vane. Clean hit.”

Zeno didn’t acknowledge the mission report. He took a slow, deliberate step toward me.

“What exactly have you been doing recently, Milluki?” he asked. The question wasn’t conversational; it was an interrogation wrapped in polite curiosity.

I cursed the old man internally. I knew for an absolute fact that his vast network of butlers had documented every single breath I had taken over the last month. He knew exactly what I ate, how many laps I ran around my sector, and what time I went to sleep. He was testing me.

“Nothing special,” I replied, crossing my arms defensively and adopting a whiny tone. “Other than taking my physical training somewhat seriously so Killua doesn’t slice me open again, and having the chefs make me proper, high-protein food… I just play my games. I have a guild to run, Grandpa.”

Zeno stopped a few feet away from me. His eyes seemed to bore directly through my skull, peeling back the layers of my mind.

“Your progress in less than a month,” Zeno said slowly, emphasizing every syllable, “is more than most talented Nen users progress in several years. The sheer density of the aura you are unconsciously radiating is… remarkable.”

I swallowed hard. In my mind, the comparison was stark.

According to the system, 1 Chakra unit is equivalent to 20 Aura units. My chakra is 200 units, means I have aura around 4000 units.

Which is almost like the situation when Killua started learning Nen.

“What kind of training are you doing?” Zeno asked, his tone dropping an octave, carrying the subtle, crushing weight of a command.

My mind raced. I couldn’t tell him about the System. In the world of ‘Hunter x Hunter’, Nen abilities were the most guarded secrets a person could possess. There were specialists out there—like Chrollo Lucilfer—who could steal your abilities if they learned how they worked. More importantly, if the Zoldycks thought my ability was useful, they would dissect me to figure out how to replicate it.

I leaned back, putting on a smug, infuriating smirk.

“It’s a secret, Grandpa,” I said, tapping the side of my head. “And according to the Zoldyck family code of conduct, Section Four, Paragraph Two: an assassin should never, under any circumstances, reveal the mechanics of their powers and abilities to anyone. Even family.”

The silence that followed was agonizing. I braced myself. I was half-expecting him to manifest his Nen dragon and smash me through the marble floor for my insolence.

Instead, the wrinkles around Zeno’s eyes crinkled. The corners of his mouth twitched upward.

He smiled. It was a terrifying, genuine, incredibly rare expression that somehow made him look even more dangerous.

“You’re citing the code,” Zeno chuckled dryly. “It is good that you are finally starting to take this life seriously, Milluki. For a long time, we assumed you would simply rot in that basement of yours.”

I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Among all the terrifying monsters in this family, Milluki genuinely had the best relationship with his grandfather. Zeno was pragmatic, but he wasn’t mindlessly cruel like Illumi or overwhelmingly oppressive like Silva.

But I wasn’t naive. I remembered the anime. I remembered how much the Head Butler Gotoh loved the Zoldyck family, and how Illumi had ordered the deaths of his own loyal butlers without a single moment of hesitation. Assassins didn’t care about familial love when the chips were down.

Luckily, the absolute, unbreakable rule of the Zoldyck family was that family members could not kill other family members. But other than killing, you can do almost anything… like breaking their body… and make them cripple. As long as I was officially recognized as Milluki, I was theoretically safe from execution.

However, Zeno was the ‘former’ Patriarch. He was retired. The rules were somewhat… flexible when it came to his actions.

Zeno turned away, clasping his hands behind his back once more. “Now that you have proven you are taking your physical and spiritual development seriously, and have successfully completed your monthly quota without hiding behind your tech…”

He paused, looking back over his shoulder. The smile was entirely gone.

“You should also resume the foundational training you abandoned when you were 5 years old.”

My blood ran cold. The smug Milluki persona shattered completely.

“W-What?” I stammered, my heart leaping into my throat.

The original Milluki had quit the Zoldyck foundational training because he was a coward who couldn’t handle the pain. The training wasn’t about martial arts. It was the resistance conditioning. It was the systematic, brutal torture designed to increase the body’s tolerance to extreme agony.

Electric Shock Resistance.
Lethal Poison Resistance.
Nerve-ending Pain Resistance.

“Grandpa, wait,” I said, my body visibly trembling. I took a step back, my body suddenly urging me to turn and sprint back down the mountain. “I-I don’t need that! I’m a tech specialist! I do my assassinations remotely, or with stealth! I don’t get caught!”

Zeno didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t flex his aura. He simply stated a universal, unchangeable fact.

“This is not a suggestion, Milluki.”

With that single, quiet sentence, my fate was sealed. Zeno walked away, his footsteps entirely silent on the marble floor, leaving me standing alone in the grand foyer, hyperventilating.

—

I locked myself in my room, ignoring the massive stacks of unopened anime merchandise. I paced the floor, my mind racing. I couldn’t fight Zeno. I couldn’t fight Silva. I had to endure it.

“Kasuga!” I yelled, my voice cracking slightly.

The butler materialized from the shadows near the doorway. “Yes, Master Milluki?”

“Bring me food. Not the Class-D garbage. Bring me Class-B Magical Beast meat. The highest grade Papa allows me to requisition. And bring it now.”

Kasuga bowed and vanished. Ten minutes later, she returned with a covered silver platter. The meat beneath it was practically glowing, radiating a thick, heavy aura that made my teeth ache just being near it.

I didn’t bother using a knife and fork. I picked the massive slab of meat up with my bare hands and tore into it like a wild animal. I forced it down, swallowing chunks whole, ignoring the burning heat in my throat.

The moment I swallowed the last bite, the system prompt appeared.

“Convert!” I thought desperately.

‘Ding!’
[Biomass converted. High-tier Magical Beast multiplier applied.]
[EXP +100]

A hundred EXP from a single meal. It was an astronomical earning. With Class-B meat, my leveling speed would skyrocket. It was a beacon of hope in the dark.

But the hope was short-lived.

The heavy steel door to my quarters hissed open. It wasn’t Kasuga this time. It was Varg, the massive, broad-shouldered butler who had escorted me to Yorknew City. He wasn’t carrying a tray. He was carrying a set of heavy, insulated iron shackles.

“Master Milluki,” Varg said, his deep voice echoing in the room. “It is time. Please follow me.”

I didn’t resist. I knew better. I walked out of my room, following the giant butler deep into the subterranean levels of the estate. The air grew colder, smelling of damp stone, copper, and ozone.

We arrived at a set of reinforced iron doors that looked like they belonged on a bank vault. Etched into the steel above the frame were the words: ‘Heavens Step’.

It was a sick, twisted joke. There was nothing heavenly about this place.

Varg pushed the doors open. The room was stark, lit by harsh, buzzing fluorescent lights. The walls were lined with thick rubber insulation and massive, industrial power transformers. In the dead center of the room sat a heavy iron chair, bolted directly into the concrete floor, fitted with thick leather straps and copper contact pads.

“Have a seat, Master Milluki,” Varg gestured toward the chair.

I swallowed the bile rising in my throat. I walked forward and sat down. Varg moved with brutal efficiency, buckling the thick leather straps over my wrists, my ankles, and my chest, securing me tightly against the copper pads.

Another butler entered the room. It was a young woman with short hair, wearing a white medical coat over her black suit. Her hands glowed with a soft, pulsing green Nen aura. A healer.

‘Oh God,’ I realized. ‘They have a healer on standby. That means they’re going to push me to the absolute edge of death, heal me, and do it again.’

“Beginning standard conditioning protocol,” Varg announced, stepping back to a massive control console against the wall. “Initial voltage: 5,000.”

“Wait, Varg, wait—” I started, my voice rising in panic.

Varg threw the heavy, industrial switch.

The world turned into pure, blinding, white-hot agony.

It felt like a million molten needles were simultaneously injected into my nervous system. Every single muscle in my body violently seized, locking up so hard I thought my bones were going to snap under the pressure. I threw my head back, a raw, guttural, animalistic scream tearing out of my throat, echoing off the rubber walls.

The blue system panel flashed frantically across my vision, glitching as the electricity wreaked havoc on my physical body.

[WARNING: Massive Electrical Trauma Detected.]
[Health: 210/260]
[Health: 150/260]
[Health: 80/260]

I couldn’t breathe. The electricity was locking my diaphragm. The smell of burning ozone and singed hair filled my nostrils. My vision went completely dark, the pain overriding every single sensory input I possessed.

[Health: 20/260]
[Health: 9/260]
[WARNING: CRITICAL INJURY. HOST IS NEAR DEATH.]

With a loud, clanking sound, the current abruptly cut off.

I slumped forward against the heavy leather chest strap, my entire body violently convulsing, a line of drool spilling from my slack jaw. I couldn’t form a coherent thought. The pain was still there, echoing in my fried nerve endings like an aftershock.

Through the haze, I felt cool, gentle hands press against my chest. The female butler.

A wave of soothing, warm green aura washed over me. The violent spasms ceased. The agonizing burning in my veins cooled, and the system panel slowly stabilized.

[External Healing Aura Detected. Health Recovering…]
[Health: 260/260]

I drew in a massive, ragged gasp of air, my eyes snapping open. I was completely healed. Physically, there wasn’t a single burn mark on me.

But mentally, the trauma was etched perfectly into my brain.

Varg’s deep, impassive voice cut through the silence of the room, completely ignoring the fact that he had just practically cooked me alive.

“Cycle one complete. Master Milluki’s vitals have stabilized. The healer’s Nen has reset the tissue damage. Prepare for cycle two.”

I stared at Varg in absolute, wide-eyed horror.

“No,” I croaked, my voice weak and raspy. “Please. Varg, I’m a Zoldyck, I order you to stop.”

Varg’s hand rested casually on the heavy metal lever. “My apologies, Master. Master Zeno’s orders supersede all others. Initializing cycle two.”

He threw the switch again.

The white-hot lightning returned, tearing through my screaming body. The world dissolved back into a universe of pure, unadulterated suffering.

The cycle continued.

They shocked me until my Health dropped into the single digits, until my heart was on the verge of stopping, and my consciousness was fraying at the edges. Then, the healer would step forward, wash the physical damage away with her green Nen, and reset the board.

‘Cycle three.’
‘Cycle four.’
‘Cycle five.’

By the seventh cycle, I had stopped screaming. I didn’t have the vocal cords left to manage it. I just gritted my teeth, my eyes rolling back into my head as the 5,000 volts cooked me from the inside out.

‘Cycle nine.’

My dark humor, the only defense mechanism I had left, finally cracked. ‘This is it,’ I thought deliriously, my brain practically frying in my skull. ‘I’m going to unlock the Super Saiyan transformation in the wrong anime universe.’

‘Cycle ten.’

Varg threw the switch one last time. The electricity hit me like a physical hammer. My vision fragmented into a kaleidoscope of sparking blue system errors and absolute darkness. The system alarms blared in my mind, but they sounded like they were underwater, miles away.

My head slumped forward. The leather straps creaked.

The blessed, painless void of unconsciousness finally rose up, swallowing me whole.