Steiner couldn't get a clear answer from her.
And as a special agent from the International Travel Permit Office, he was just as confused about the sudden chaos breaking out.
The exhausting royal succession battle of the Kakin family, which had caused so much tension and conflict, was supposed to be over.
The next heir had already been chosen.
The coastline was close by, and everything should have been back on track.
But just when things seemed to calm down a bit, a sudden rebellion erupted from top to bottom, and no one could stop it.
Now, thinking back, regretting not taking more action seemed pointless.
Steiner felt a bit down.
Tokarine noticed and gave him a hard pat on the back, almost pushing him forward.
Even though he caught his balance, Steiner kept coughing and looked at Tokarine with confusion.
"Sorry," Tokarine pulled back his chubby hand, "I meant to comfort you, but I guess I was too rough."
Steiner rolled his eyes and, after the coughing stopped, turned back and asked, "So, what do we do now?"
"Let me rest for a moment first," Tokarine rubbed his hands together, "Using the 'Spiral Slide' takes a lot of Nen..."
"Nen..." Steiner hesitated, then asked, "I've heard you talk about Nen abilities before, and I even read about them in the International Travel Permit Office's archives."
"Yeah, yeah," Tokarine nodded casually, "What about it?"
Steiner tried to recall what he'd read: "The book said that anyone, with enough training, can eventually learn Nen abilities. But growing stronger after that depends on talent, effort, and luck."
Tokarine nodded again. "Yes, there's such a saying."
Steiner gained confidence from her nod and licked his lips before continuing, "So... if I…"
Tokarine glanced at him and saw the desire and plea in this glasses-wearing man's expression.
She sighed. "I'm telling you, Nen isn't as simple as you think. Even just getting started takes different amounts of time for each person."
"I can learn. I'll work hard to learn," Steiner insisted.
"You've already missed the best age to start learning Nen," Tokarine said bluntly.
"Besides, trying to cram now — you expect to protect yourself before the next monster attack? That's just wishful thinking."
Steiner's face went pale instantly. He lowered his head in disappointment.
But Tokarine kept talking, chatting away: "Let me think… what's the fastest record for learning Nen?"
"Oh, right. It was those three rookies who became pro Hunters earlier this year. They were all under twenty."
"Under twenty?" Steiner thought about his own age. Yeah, he really was too old.
Tokarine nodded like she was bragging: "One of them you've met — Kurapika from the Hunter Association's exploration team."
"Kurapika… him…" Steiner remembered that young man.
He stood out during the two-month voyage, calming multiple small-scale riots with remarkable calm and strength.
Steiner knew him because he'd seen Kurapika's figure many times while handling the aftermath of those riots.
But unfortunately, even Kurapika couldn't stop the chaos that happened just hours ago.
Tokarine continued, "The other two didn't come. They're over in the Six Continent, I think. Their names are something like Killua and Gon…"
"Did you know? They supposedly learned and mastered Nen in just a few hours. You could say their talent is insanely high."
Steiner was a bit surprised. He wasn't completely clueless about Nen, and mastering it in just a few hours was definitely something terrifying.
"Did you know?" Tokarine added unexpectedly, "That's not even the most impressive part. Kurapika's teacher is even stronger!"
"Kurapika's teacher?" Steiner blinked. "Who is it?"
"'One of the Twelve Zodiac—Rat' Germain." Tokarine wasn't trying to be mysterious. "I only heard this, just rumors. It doesn't mean it's true."
Germain?
Steiner also knew that name. He had seen it before in the 'Report on Chimera Ant Invasion' and the 'Twelve Zodiac Members List.'
Germain was one of the only two members of the Twelve Zodiac who didn't participate in this colonization voyage. The other was 'Boar' Ging.
Before hearing more, Steiner looked up and saw Tokarine hesitating, as if wanting to say something else.
"Go ahead," Steiner said, pursing his lips. "I won't spread whatever my lifesaver says to others."
Tokarine chuckled, "Anyway, I heard Germain only became a professional Hunter at the start of last year, and in just three months, he reached 'One-Star Hunter' rank."
This time, Steiner was genuinely shocked.
Before joining this colonization voyage, he had crammed a lot of knowledge and knew the Hunter Association's ranking system.
Though 'One-Star Hunter' was the lowest official rank, it wasn't something every professional Hunter could easily get.
Now, there's someone who became a "One-Star Hunter" in just three months?
That's really unbelievable.
"How did he do it?" Steiner couldn't help but ask.
"It's simple," Tokarine answered as calmly as she could, though a smile played at her lips, as if she were the one who did it.
"You just have to kill several members of the 'Ten Dons' Shadow Beast Squad' and the 'Phantom Troupe.'"
"'Ten Dons'?" Steiner knew who they were — the leaders of the ten most notorious mafia families across the six continents.
But he also knew that the International Travel Permit Bureau and other global agencies were deeply tied to the 'Ten Dons.'
Dirty money needs a place to be cleaned.
These 'Ten Dons' and the 'Three Big Mafia Families of Kakin' all traveled on the Colonial Expedition ship and stayed on the same deck as other high-profile society figures.
According to confidential reports, the invitation letters to the 'Ten Dons' were personally delivered by agents from the Kakin royal family.
They wanted the 'Ten Dons' and the 'Three Mafia Families' to establish their influence on the New Continent and jointly maintain order there.
The 'Ten Dons' who happily boarded the BW1 ship probably never imagined something like this would happen near the end of their voyage.
The 'Shadow Beast' is an assassin group under the 'Ten Dons,' but they hadn't been heard from much recently.
Steiner didn't pay much attention to mafia subgroups — after all, he was the assistant chief of the International Travel Permit Bureau's special operations division, with his own duties.
The 'Phantom Troupe' was even more famous than the 'Shadow Beast.' Though notorious, they had seemingly disappeared lately.
So, Germain has ties with them?
Tokarine said, "Germain became the 'Fastest One-Star Legend' by defeating them."
"But none of us knew this was only the beginning."
"After that, both the 'Shadow Beast' and the 'Phantom Troupe' were completely wiped out by Germain and his companions."
"'The Ten Dons' never mentioned avenging Germain again, the 'Shadow Beast' never reformed, and the 'Phantom Troupe' vanished without a trace."
Steiner opened his mouth wide, just like when he first realized the chaos of BW1.
It turned out, the disappearance of those two vicious organizations was all connected to that Germain guy?!
Wait, Steiner thought carefully again.
He clearly remembered Germain became part of the 'Zodiac Twelve' because of last year's Chimera Ant Extermination War...
In other words, this man became a professional Hunter, and in just his third month, he was already a One-Star Hunter, and by the next year, he had reached the Zodiac?!
While amazed, he also quietly wondered— why didn't Chairman Netero bring someone this strong over?
Even if it wouldn't have stopped that big chaos, at least they would have had someone reliable to count on now.
*******
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