The King was invincible, one of a kind.
The King's birth was based on the instinctual, long-cherished wish of the entire Ant race, a result of their collective, selfless devotion.
Therefore, the King...
Was destined to stand at the apex of life, to become the ruler of the world.
Shaiapouf had firmly believed this.
But at this moment, all of that understanding shattered into nothingness.
Shaiapouf fell to his knees as if his soul had been torn from him. Even his spine lost its strength, and with a heart full of ashes, he barely propped himself up with his hands on the water's surface.
There was no "meaning" left.
An aura of gray decay emanated from his body.
Seeing this, Morrow casually flicked his hand, suppressing Shaiapouf's conscious avatar into the depths of the black water.
The mental strength of a Royal Guard was extremely formidable, especially when it concerned the King. The energy that erupted from their Post-Mortem Nen was astonishing.
For Morrow, while this was a bountiful gain, it also brought corresponding risks.
After absorbing a large amount of Post-Mortem Nen, he found it difficult to completely digest the residual conscious power within, and could only resort to suppressive measures for the time being.
This inevitably planted some hidden dangers.
The root cause was that the emotional bond between the Royal Guards and the King far surpassed the bounds of reason.
This was evident from the intense aggression Neferpitou and Shaiapouf had displayed in the conscious space.
However, on the other hand, by simply presenting the King's conscious avatar, he could dismantle this obsession from its source, thoroughly weakening the hidden danger.
Morrow watched with a calm expression as Shaiapouf sank beneath the black water.
Beside him, the King showed no reaction to this outcome.
From the moment he died...
Everything concerning the Chimera Ant race had ended.
The successive deaths of Neferpitou and Shaiapouf only made that end more complete.
"When will you fulfill your promise?"
The King looked at Morrow's profile and asked.
Morrow, however, was watching the ripples spreading from where Shaiapouf had submerged. "There is one more thing to be done."
"What is it?" the King asked again.
Morrow's gaze shifted to the King's face, which held a trace of eagerness. He said calmly, "Wait until I've dealt with the flesh eggs in the courtyard."
"..."
The King was slightly taken aback.
He had overlooked the reserve forces in the courtyard, which were meant to be the starting point for conquering the world.
Now that Neferpitou and Shaiapouf were dead, it was indeed impossible for the human side to allow these Chimera Ant soldiers to hatch successfully.
"Fine."
The King nodded slightly.
A moment later.
Morrow withdrew from the conscious space.
From the King's perspective, which had adopted a human point of view, the flesh eggs in the courtyard indeed had to be dealt with.
Eliminating the Chimera Ant soldiers within them before they hatched was the most logical choice for the human side.
After all, once these soldiers broke out of their eggs, empowered by Nen, they would surely become a considerable threat.
What's more, their numbers were simply too great.
However, the King's understanding of humanity was ultimately too shallow.
He had no idea that if this batch of flesh eggs fell into Pariston's hands, they would never be destroyed. Instead, Pariston would inevitably choose to hatch them.
Even a behemoth like the V5, upon noticing the military potential contained within these flesh eggs, would never choose simple disposal as their first option.
They would only try every means possible to convert them into their own armed forces.
Only after confirming that they were uncontrollable would they consider the option of destruction.
In other words, when tangible benefits were laid before them, human greed and desire would become the strongest driving force for hatching this batch of flesh eggs.
In a sense, humans and Chimera Ants were no different.
One could even say that humans were more cruel than Chimera Ants.
The Chimera Ants' taking and plundering mostly stemmed from an instinctual craving for food and a pure pursuit of their species' evolution.
Their actions were direct and primitive, their motives clear at a glance.
But humans were different.
They were adept at using various pretexts and methods to wrap the essence of their plunder in layers, giving it a cloak of legitimacy.
So, even if individual Chimera Ants were unfathomably powerful, they could never defeat the bottomless malice of humanity.
Morrow had told the King he would deal with the flesh eggs, but his method of "dealing" with them was not as simple as the King imagined.
The benefits were right there.
As long as he wasn't harming others, Morrow had no reason to refuse.
So, what he planned to do was not to eliminate the Chimera Ant soldiers in the flesh eggs before they hatched.
Instead, he would wait for the Chimera Ant soldiers to hatch, and then kill them to gain experience points.
As for how this approach differed from that of someone blinded by profit...
It wasn't important.
For Morrow, it was about identifying a goal and accomplishing it.
That was all.
However, for the matter of hatching the Chimera Ant soldiers, Morrow needed Knov's help.
He planned to borrow Knov's Hide and Seek to temporarily store this batch of flesh eggs.
Then, once the eggs hatched in the apartment rooms, he would go in and clean them up one by one.
As for the space in Hide and Seek, it had four floors with a total of twenty-one rooms. Excluding the one room specially used for storing important items, there were still twenty rooms.
That many rooms should be enough to store several thousand flesh eggs.
Subsequently, Morel and his group came before Morrow.
While Morrow was absorbing Shaiapouf's Post-Mortem Nen, Knov, who was in Hide and Seek, had relayed the news of the extermination's successful conclusion to Morel and the others.
The last bit of tension in everyone's hearts dissipated.
Morel glanced at the clone corpses littering the ground, then his gaze fell on Morrow with a hint of hesitation. In the end, just like before, he couldn't help but ask, "Morrow, are you... alright?"
"What could possibly be wrong?" Morrow retorted with a light laugh.
Morel was taken aback, then couldn't help but laugh as well.
He had defeated a monster like the King, so what could possibly happen that would make him worry for Morrow?
"Let's start thinking about what to drink at the celebration banquet!"
"If Master is treating, I think... we can pick something a little more expensive."
"Good point, let's start considering fine wines in the ten-million range!"
Knuckle and Shoot huddled to the side, already seriously discussing their choices for the toast.
Seeing this, Grachan immediately joined the discussion, wanting to use this opportunity to make Morel bleed his wallet dry.
The group spoke without reservation, their voices loud and unrestrained.
Morel, standing to the side, opened his mouth, but in the end, he just shook his head with a smile, letting them decide the wine list for this celebration banquet.
Morrow looked at Knuckle and the others, who were now excitedly researching famous wines worth over a hundred million and even letting out strange cackles. When he retracted his gaze, it happened to meet Morel's.
The two looked at each other for a moment, and an unconscious smile appeared on both their faces.
Not far away, Gel stared at the unharmed Morrow, inevitably recalling the serpentine Nen Beast that had existed as Post-Mortem Will, which he had also dispelled with such ease.
Thinking back to when she first met Morrow several years ago, she now felt that not only was his strength unfathomable, but he was also shrouded in an elusive, mysterious aura.
Her gaze did not linger for long.
Because Menchi and Kalluto strode forward, blocking her line of sight.
The two of them surrounded Morrow, asking detailed questions and concernedly checking if he was injured.
Their actions made the burly Morel, standing to the side, seem somewhat redundant.
He rubbed his nose, took a few steps back, and gave up the space next to Morrow.
Before long, Knov arrived on the scene and brought everyone back into Hide and Seek.
The extermination mission had concluded perfectly with zero casualties, a resounding victory.
However, when the members of the Extermination Team walked into the Hide and Seek room where the medical team was, and saw Netero's withered body, the joy of victory was instantly replaced by gravity.
"How did the Chairman end up like this?" Gel's voice was filled with unconcealable worry.
A doctor in a white coat, who was closely monitoring the medical equipment, answered curtly, "Excessive depletion of his body and aura."
"Can he recover?" Morel asked the most important question.
The doctor in the white coat thought for a moment and replied, "With current 'conventional medical methods,' it will be difficult for him to make a full recovery. However, if he recuperates slowly, recovering seventy to eighty percent isn't a problem, and there's no need to worry about lasting side effects."
"Is that so..." Morel responded in a low voice, his gaze turning to Netero on the sickbed, who was receiving a nutrient infusion.
At this moment, Netero's eyes were tightly shut and his breathing was steady. He seemed to be focused on some kind of deep meditation, so he paid no mind to the group's arrival.
As for the doctor's prognosis, he didn't really care, nor did he intend to accept such a slow recuperation plan.
Conventional medical methods were indeed helpless in this situation, but that old Gourmet Hunter friend of his had ways to help him quickly recover his aura and physical condition.
Once his condition was fully restored, the first thing Netero would do was make Morrow honor one of the conditions for handing over the King, to have a true martial artist's duel with each other.
But before that, as the Chairman of the Hunter Association and the person in charge of this operation, he still had to organize forces to deal with the Chimera Ants that had escaped the encirclement.
Furthermore, although the Extermination Team had successfully eliminated the threat from the King and the Royal Guards, the knock-on effects of the failed encirclement were probably not something that could be resolved by simply making up for it.
Regarding this matter, the V5 would most likely demand that the Hunter Association take primary responsibility.
Netero was mentally prepared for this.
Morel and the others did not disturb Netero's deep meditation.
They had heard the doctor's emphasis on "conventional medical methods" and understood the implication, so their initial worry lessened.
Even without using Nen for assistance, just by recuperating slowly, Chairman Netero's body could recover for the most part.
Looked at this way, the situation wasn't too severe.
On the other side.
In a corner of the room, Morrow made his request to Knov about gathering the flesh eggs.
Faced with this seemingly superfluous request, Knov asked bluntly, "Why wait for them to hatch? Dealing with them now is less risky, isn't it?"
"Just consider it a personal indulgence of mine," Morrow gave a half-true reason. "I want to use them to further hone the effects of my 'Starlight' ability. Although the combination of Starlight Convergence・Cosmic Choreography was already very strong, dealing with a large number of Chimera Ant soldiers at once was indeed an effective way to temper it."
"..."
Knov fell into a brief silence, wanting to say something but holding back.
Your strength is already so off the charts, yet you won't even let go of this kind of training opportunity? he thought.
Besides, rather than this method of training, shouldn't he be more worried about whether Morrow would accidentally punch through Hide and Seek?
However, since it was Morrow's request, he would naturally cooperate fully.
He wouldn't hesitate even if it meant going out of his way to create a special spare key for Morrow for convenience's sake.
This was both an acknowledgment of Morrow and a way to make up for his own past attitude.
He admitted that he had been too loud with Morrow back then.
At the same time Morrow was planning how to maximize the use of this batch of flesh eggs.
—--
Faced with the failure of the Stone Wall's sniping attempt and the Extermination Team's perfect cleanup of the King and the Royal Guards, Pariston had no choice but to order the airship fleet to withdraw.
And the flesh eggs he had his eyes on had to be abandoned.
Subsequently, Pariston reported the plan's failure to Beyond, who was far away in the Kakin Empire.
"It failed...?"
Beyond's voice, full of astonishment, came from the other end of the communication line. "I should be able to assume that when you laid out this plan, its success rate was as high as 99.9%, right?"
"Yes," Pariston's tone was somber. "Regrettably, Morrow, who took the initiative to intervene in this incident, happened to be that 0.1%."
"..."
The other end of the line fell silent, followed by a soft sigh.
Pariston rarely heard Beyond sigh.
He could roughly guess Beyond's reaction now; he was probably regretting not having taken Morrow's life back then.
And feeling regret over something was also not Beyond's style.
It was just that this plan was too important, so important that... it allowed for no mistakes.
But now that it had failed, he had to consider other remedial measures.
Seeing that the other side had been silent for a while, Pariston suddenly spoke up:
"Although the Extermination Team successfully dealt with the King, we can absolutely use the failure of the previous encirclement operation to our advantage. If we handle it well, forcing Chairman Netero to step down is not impossible."
He had forcefully interfered with the personnel arrangements for the encirclement operation back then precisely to have an extra card up his sleeve.
However, at the time, he didn't think this card would ever be used.
Because, as Beyond had just said, a 99.9% success rate for the plan was equivalent to a 99.9% death rate for Chairman Netero.
Who would have thought...
This seemingly idle move would turn out to have a rather crucial role.
"Not enough."
Beyond's voice came from the communicator, short and low.
Pariston's eyes flickered. Although he couldn't discern the emotion in the other's words, he could grasp their deeper meaning.
Merely forcing Netero to step down was indeed not enough.
Because as long as the Chairman wasn't dead, all the deployments already in place would be difficult to advance.
What's more, Beyond's current situation could be described as an arrow on the bowstring, ready to be fired.
Unless he was willing to bear the consequences of breaking his word to the King of the Kakin Empire.
If that were to happen, his meticulous plans, which had been laid out over decades, would be ruined in an instant.
No matter how open-minded a person was, they could never accept such an outcome.
Pariston instantly understood the predicament Beyond was facing, yet he still calmly reminded him:
"Although Jerome said he saw the Chairman's physical condition become extremely poor, I still believe... that trying to kill the Chairman through other forceful means without exposing our identities is almost impossible to succeed."
"Mm."
Beyond naturally agreed with Pariston's judgment, then said in a calm tone that betrayed no emotion, "So, I will do it myself."
"..."
This time, it was Pariston's turn to be silent.
But a light shone in his deep, deathly-still eyes.
Compared to methods like hiring assassins, having Beyond personally end the Chairman brought him a more sincere sense of pleasure.
As for why?
There was no particularly complex reason.
For the twisted-hearted Pariston, he simply believed that such an ending was worthy of the weight of Netero's life.
Just the thought of it was enough to make him feel gratified and happy.
Perhaps when he was calmly reminding Beyond just now, Pariston's heart was already hoping for Beyond to make such a choice.
Was that a form of inducement?