"Hahaha, you Chimera Ants did an excellent job this time. Not only did you eliminate the bandit leader Jed, but you also completely wiped out those evil remnants of the Shadow clan."
"You Chimera Ants really work cleanly and efficiently, saving us a lot of trouble."
"Well done, keep up the good work." "Leader Meruem, I wonder if you Chimera Ants would be interested in working in my territory?"
"Not at all, these are things I should do. Solving problems for you distinguished gentlemen is my duty."
"Young man, very modest." "Not arrogant or impatient, he's good material."
The above was the conversation when Meruem reported back to those leaders. Having witnessed Meruem's strength, some of the big shots extended olive branches to Meruem. However, he politely declined them all. His occupation of the Republic of East Gorteau hadn't been exposed yet. After all, aside from the royal palace, the entire country was still operating normally, and that Diego was just the real Diego's double. Simply put, no matter what that fake Diego did, the country operated normally. No matter what happened to the royal palace, the outside world wouldn't know. How could ordinary citizens possibly go to the royal palace? Moreover, that country also had the church that Meruem had developed. It had to be said that the Republic of East Gorteau, like NGL, were both quite peculiar countries. One could operate normally without a leader, and the other had no electronic products whatsoever. Thinking about that Nasubi Hui Guo Rou's country from the Dark Continent arc, it had to be said that the leaders of various countries in the Hunter world were all quite distinctive existences.
Besides this, the Hunter Association headquarters suffering a nuclear bomb attack of unknown origin became the second major incident after Chairman Netero's death. The Hunter Association had also suffered multiple terrorist attacks before. But this time was the most severe loss. Fortunately, the association's hunters were usually out on missions and didn't stay at headquarters. Only some administrative personnel, data, and a small number of association members died. Otherwise, while data and facilities were secondary, the most important personnel losses would have been unbearable for the association. You have to know that there were only about 600-700 active, living hunters in total.
"However, the only regret is that Netero, that old guy, actually left that video recording so early. I originally thought that with headquarters suffering devastating damage plus the association chairman's death, it could bring considerable losses to the Hunter Association. It seems I'm still too young. The Hunter Association truly deserves to be a major organization that has existed for hundreds of years. They actually announced to the outside that Netero resigned and retired due to guilt over his own dereliction of duty leading to Heaven's Arena's destruction and the Hunter Association being attacked, pushing both incidents entirely onto Netero's head. But without Netero, let's see who dares to lead a team to cause trouble in my territory." Listening to his subordinates' reports, Meruem held a chess piece in one hand while leaning sideways on his throne.
"Now, due to electing a new chairman, the Hunter Association should be too busy to take care of itself. Just Gon and Killua plus Knuckle, Shoot, and Palm - these few people pose no threat to me at all. Even adding Botobai Gigante and other Zodiac Twelve wouldn't work."
Hunter Association Temporary Meeting Hall
"I don't agree! At a time like this, you still have the mood to elect a new chairman here? Headquarters was attacked! Headquarters! This is blatant provocation against our Hunter Association!" Bushidora, dressed like a Japanese high school delinquent boss with even his art style belonging to JOJO style and looking very impressive, heavily slammed the table in front of him.
"Oh my, oh my, even if we want to retaliate, we should at least investigate clearly who the opponent is, right? And without a chairman, there's no way to take the lead in doing this, right?" Pariston maintained his usual smile. Although Bushidora was only a One Star Hunter, he had quite high prestige in the Hunter Association, belonging to the association's disciplinary committee and often standing up against things he found disagreeable. He belonged to the type of hunter with high presence, and because his strength wasn't too bad, he could participate in Hunter Association high-level meetings. However, his strength was completely inferior to Morel, who was also a One Star Hunter.
"Does this matter even need investigation? Anyone with eyes knows that the person who killed Chairman Netero was that monster calling himself the king of the Chimera Ant race, right? And why are you sitting in the main seat?" Bushidora pointed at Pariston sitting in the center, while spittle continuously sprayed toward Pariston's perpetually smiling face. However, Pariston wasn't drowned by this saliva army. You could imagine that everyone else was sitting on both sides of the table, with only Pariston sitting in the center. Generally speaking, only the leader would sit in that position, right?
"But the high-level officials of various countries have already forbidden us from taking action against those ants, and we also have no evidence proving that the chairman's death is related to those guys." At least on the surface, they couldn't act openly, Pariston added mentally. As for sitting in the main seat, Pariston very naturally avoided this topic.
"Bushidora, calm down. Vice Chairman Pariston is right. Electing a leader now is indeed a crucial matter." Teradein, Two Star Intelligence Hunter, skilled at cultivating talent, looked like a middle-aged politician. Although his combat power wasn't strong, he also belonged to the high-prestige type in the Hunter Association, having after all cultivated quite a few junior hunters, though those hunters were all unimpressive mediocrities.
"I also think the Vice Chairman's proposal is good." A thick-lipped black hunter said. Loupe, Lost Property Hunter, one of the amendment advocates who wanted to modify the Hunter Ten Commandments and part of the trio who stopped Illumi in the original election arc.
Because the Hunter Association was now experiencing major incidents, the Hunter Association didn't decide on the chairman election with just the Zodiac Twelve like in the original work. Instead, they summoned "high-level" members with high prestige and many supporters within the Hunter Association to decide together. Besides the three mentioned above, there were also the oldest hunter in the Hunter Association, Two Star Gourmet Hunter Linne Hors-d'oeuvre, the Hunter Association's mama (cough cough, big sister) Two Star Gem Hunter Biscuit, the Hunter Association's flower One Star Virus Hunter Sanbica, the Hunter Association's mascot who looked like Jynx One Star Cute Hunter Cutie Beautie, and the eternal shut-in known as a denizen of the computer world One Star Hacker Hunter Ickshonpe.
Bushidora, Loupe, and Teradein belonged to the association's anti-chairman faction. Biscuit and Linne Hors-d'oeuvre belonged to the chairman faction - Biscuit belonged to the Shingen-ryu masters while Shingen-ryu was founded by Netero, and Linne Hors-d'oeuvre had an extraordinary relationship with the chairman. As for Sanbica, Ickshonpe, and Cutie Beautie, they were representatives of the ordinary masses in the Hunter Association. Of course, even the Zodiac Twelve who were loyal to Chairman Netero in the Hunter Association were divided into many factions, such as the reform-promoting hawks: Monkey, Rabbit, Rooster. Libertarians: Horse, Tiger, Snake. And the conservative stable faction: Dragon, Ox, Dog, Sheep. There were also two independent from these factions - one joker (Ging) and one fool (Pariston). So the relationships among these "high-level" members of the Hunter Association were very - complicated.
Of course, the above weren't the Hunter Association's highest combat power, just "high-level" members responsible for normal operations and commission affairs, generally responsible for convening or announcing matters. The strongest hunters weren't at the association, and sometimes even Netero couldn't contact them. People with high strength all had rather eccentric personalities, and not everyone had extremely strong power desires. Masters who reached their level generally wouldn't be obsessed with power and just acted according to their whims. Of course, the Hunter Association also had many strong people, like Morel's type, who just generally kept a low profile without showing off. But their actual abilities and overall strength were very formidable existences. Incidentally, because he lacked the achievements from the Ant arc, Morel wasn't known by the general public and still kept a low profile as a One Star Hunter as before.
"Speaking of which, everyone, I have a proposal!" Pariston showed off his white teeth and raised his right index finger.
"I don't want to hear it."
"Seconded!"
"Seconded! +1"
"Seconded! +10086"
"Ahaha, objections are invalid. After all, I'm the Vice Chairman, and compared to everyone, I'm slightly above in official position. I think everyone hopes to finish early too, right? How about this - I'll suffer a bit and work harder by self-recommending as chairman candidate. So can everyone please not participate in the election?" Pariston seemed not to hear the others' complaints and began speaking to himself.
Then he felt the "kind" gazes of everyone present.
"I'll kill you! You ignorant little brat!" Ginta, who had been crying like a sissy over the chairman's death, instantly darkened into a wrathful guardian king.
"Do you want to die?" Although Kanzai didn't intend to act due to his injuries, from the sharp claws he revealed, he might plan to give Pariston a strike while taking advantage of the chaos.
"You damn bastard! I've found you unpleasant since the beginning!" With another slap to the innocent table, Bushidora pointed at Pariston's nose and let loose a tirade. This time, even Teradein and Loupe didn't stop Bushidora. Of course, some people expressed indifference to this, such as Ging with his Aladdin-like head wrapping, Ickshonpe who was still inputting something on his computer, Linne Hors-d'oeuvre who was holding a cup drinking tea, and the soft girl Sanbica. These people maintained an indifferent attitude toward whoever became Hunter Chairman.
"Oh my, everyone don't get so excited. How scary. Aren't you just wasting everyone's time like this? Because the voting results are already clear at a glance." Pariston continued recklessly.
This once again aroused everyone's anger.
"No one here will vote for you!"
"16 people. Everyone present together is only 16 people. Do you know how many people the Hunter Association has in total?..."
"..."
Just as everyone was endlessly arguing about the Hunter Chairman issue, Ging suddenly spoke up.
But really, he who doesn't cry out does nothing, but when he cries out, he startles everyone.
"I'll self-nominate. I want to inherit that old geezer's will."
"...These two guys, I don't want to vote for either of them."
Now everyone reached consensus.
(End of Chapter)
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