After taking in such a talented subordinate and follower, Luke could delegate matters he was unwilling or unable to handle to Kastro.
For example... eliminating rivals.
Once Chairman Netero completely delegated authority to Luke, he became even more unrestrained, acting with the principle of those who obey me flourish, those who oppose me perish.
Over these two and a half years, Luke recruited and promoted a significant number of professional hunters. His method was simple: provide them with related benefits and advantages.
With the help of the House Robot, Luke identified a large group of individuals who could become his supporters, ensuring they had acceptable conduct, abilities, and character. Then, using minor commonalities among them as a foundation, he provided very beneficial ways for them, gradually incorporating more people as like-minded friends and partners.
This helped Luke strengthen his relatively shallow foundation in the Hunter Association. With many professional hunters clearly standing by his side, he gained numerous supporters, who cheered and advocated for him.
With the momentum of so many people behind him, within the Hunter Association, he had become a considerable force.
And those who had opposed Luke from the beginning, well, not that their lives had become utterly miserable, but… Now, within the Hunter Association, they were living in extreme suffocation, even to the point that one could describe them as disgraced and dejected.
Good benefits and favorable policies had nothing to do with them, and even the jobs assigned to them from corporations and government agencies were always the hardest, most dangerous, and most exhausting ones.
Naturally, those opposing cooperative hunters were furious, outraged, and demanded an explanation.
However, facing such surging public opinion inside the association, only a light, floating sentence came from the Vice-Chairman's office: "If you can do it, then do it. If you can't, then don't."
"If you don't want to do it, there are plenty of others who will."
"And even if no one does it, then we'll just cancel the task."
"We do not impose any mandatory requirements regarding task assignments."
No mandatory requirements... Or so he said, but that high-and-mighty, condescending attitude was displayed perfectly before those opposing cooperative hunters.
He practically might as well have pointed at their noses and said with disdain: "A bunch of filthy task-takers, and you dare complain about the tasks you receive? You should be grateful you even get these tasks."
"You oppose me and still expect high-return, easy tasks from me? You must be dreaming!!"
Such blatant statements and implications left those cooperative hunters furious and suffocated with frustration.
They wanted to appeal and protest, but the statements and agreements issued from the Vice-Chairman's office were all conclusions made by the House Robot, based strictly on the Hunter Association's internal regulations.
Every clause conformed to the association's legal framework. One could say they were logical and perfectly justified, leaving no room for criticism.
This caused all cooperative hunters who tried to find loopholes for protest to be rejected.
Even the spiritual pillar they relied on in the end…
"It's truly flawless..."
Inside the office of the Hunter Association's Zodiac Twelve, Pariston rubbed his brow.
On the desk before him lay the hunter regulations, which he had flipped through countless times.
Those regulations recorded every rule of the Hunter Association, the rules that every professional hunter had to obey.
Ever since the Vice-Chairman's office began issuing policies, Pariston would always study each one thoroughly, using the hunter regulations as a reference, checking for noncompliance or conflicts among the many clauses.
But what surprised Pariston was this: Ever since Luke took over the position, and to this very day, not a single policy issued by him had any loophole or issue worth attacking.
At least, according to the association's regulations, Luke's policies were entirely compliant and faultless.
Pariston did not believe that every single policy Luke announced was truly perfect.
But almost the moment those announcements came out, Pariston would open the hunter regulations and read through them line by line, even word by word, digging deeply.
Yet no matter how he read, even until his eyes grew dry, he could not find anything amiss.
Although he vaguely sensed some problems, with Pariston's sharp intuition, he immediately realized that those problems might be traps prepared on purpose, waiting for him to step into them.
Thus, he could only maintain his steady composure and wait for the day Luke made a mistake… but if that was his plan, Pariston was destined to be disappointed.
Luke, as a human, might make mistakes, but in contrast, the House Robot, with its precise computational abilities… Instead of waiting for it to make a mistake, one might as well hope that Ging Freecss could fix his tsundere, willful personality, which would be far more realistic.
"How exactly is he doing it...?"
After waiting nearly five full years, even Pariston could not avoid having such a question in his mind.
Although he considered himself patient and had endured for five years, his doubts grew so large that such thoughts surfaced.
If even his mind couldn't understand it, then one could imagine what those cooperative hunters must have felt.
In these five years, the kind of absurd, miserable life and targeted oppression they suffered... helpless, they could only bow under Luke's tyranny, full of unwillingness, forced to accept his arrangements.
Most had already given up resisting; only a tiny group still stood firm.
They were Pariston's die-hard loyal fans, believing that Pariston would lead them out of this filthy quagmire.
"The Hunter Association today has changed. It's no longer the friendly, caring association it once was."
"With the implementation of these unreasonable policies, the Hunter Association is heading down the wrong path!!"
"What will our association ultimately become!!"
These few people sobbed and cried as they accused the association.
But… basically no one cared.
You could even say no one paid the slightest attention to them.
If all this complaining had any effect, the entire Hunter Association would have been overrun by angry mobs long ago.
Even Pariston, the one they trusted most, did not care at all about their life or death situation.
He only cared about Luke and the doubts in his own heart.
But his question was destined to remain unanswered.
And also…
"It seems I can't stay here peacefully any longer."
The moment the air around him fell silent for an instant, Pariston's eyes turned deep and cold.
Then…