The Voyage Office, as the name suggests, is a secret agency directly under the V5, specifically responsible for ferrying others to the Dark Continent.
On the surface, they are responsible for negotiating the entry and exit of the Dark Continent with the Gatekeepers. In the shadows... they actually monitor and contain humans who returned from the Dark Continent but met with disaster, eventually mutating into unknown monsters.
In the southwest corner of the lab's south wall, labeled [54-714-01] and noted as the first victim from July 14, 1954, a specimen twisted like a hemp rope—a monster suspected of having its human consciousness wiped out by an unknown disaster—suddenly split open an eye. It projected several images of varying sizes.
Following a report from the staff on duty, the superiors held an emergency meeting to analyze the situation and immediately notified the person relevant to the incident: the strongest human of the current era, Netero!
In early July 1954, it was Netero who had led a team, including Zigg Zoldyck and the Gourmet Hunter Linne, to accept a commission from the Gukan Kingdom to search for "Triaqua," venturing deep into the Dark Continent.
Hunter Association.
Headquarters.
An office building bearing the massive logo of the [HUNTER ASSOCIATION].
On the top floor.
A group of four was busy with their own affairs on a large volleyball court.
Thump, thump... A volleyball was being dribbled like a basketball between an old man's legs. Netero, dressed in a tank top and shorts for exercise, was smiling as he played a game of keep-away with a polite boy of about thirteen or fourteen wearing glasses.
By the window, two golden twin-tails swayed in the wind. Biscuit Krueger had forgotten her disciple for the sake of 'gems,' leaving Wing alone to deal with Netero's boredom. She was busy bribing Beanman to look through the materials he brought, searching for news of rare gemstones.
At one point, a ringtone sounded. Beanman pulled out his phone, glanced at it, and noticed it was a call from the higher-ups. His bald, round head wrinkled slightly as he answered the call discreetly. A few seconds later, his expression shifted.
He walked quickly, calling Wing to a halt, and hurried toward Netero while shouting for the Chairman.
Bam! In a pseudo-scientific manner, the volleyball traced a curved parabola, dodging Wing's lunging strike and brushing past the boy's cheek to return to Netero's hand.
The old man pointed a finger, and the ball landed steadily on his fingertip.
Netero, with his Buddha-like face, long eyebrows, and white beard, looked over with drooping eyes. Beanman held his phone tight and whispered in his ear, "The higher-ups called. They say... that victim who once accompanied the Chairman into the Dark Continent and eventually met with disaster seems to be showing signs of waking up..."
Netero's expression turned stern. The pillar of Nen naturally surging from his crown had been held steady as an iron pillar through his immense physical control, never wavering for years.
But now, upon hearing this news, it flickered for a rare moment. This was keenly caught by Biscuit at the window.
'Old man, what happened?' In Shingen-ryu, the priority is heart-refinement—a heart undisturbed by external things, standing like a mountain regardless of the wind and rain. This was the famous maxim Netero often gave to Biscuit.
Yet the old man, who claimed his heart was forged from refined steel, showed a crack at this moment.
Biscuit tossed her golden twin-tails, struggling to pull her mind away from "gem intelligence," and looked over in surprise.
Netero said nothing, gesturing for Beanman to turn on the television and connect to the Voyage Office. "See for yourself."
The static on the electronic screen suddenly switched to the Voyage Office. In the basement level three laboratory, the images projected by the rope-like monster were being transmitted to the Hunter Association in a split-screen format.
Wing, who had come to the Association ostensibly for a visit but was actually brought by Biscuit to let Netero see how her new disciple was doing, was shocked to see a familiar figure in one of the frames. The boy pushed up the glasses on his nose and blurted out, "Roy?"
"Indeed."
"It's him..."
In the middle of the misty images, the reflection clearly showed the boy with earrings of the sun and mountains. His eyes were focused, standing steady like a mountain as he stared at the figure in front of him—the one wearing a hood with a red-beaded fishing rod over his shoulder.
On the west coast of the Yorbian Continent, two hundred and seventy nautical miles northwest of the coastal town of Willbes, ten thousand meters under the sea, inside that Gothic church within the undersea ruins...
Roy, Razor, Ging... as well as Gotoh and Elena who followed the three into the church—as soon as they crossed the tall church gates carved with reliefs of various professions and appearances, their vision blurred. In an instant, the world changed. Each person entered a vast, ownerless land, instantly losing contact with those beside them.
"Young Master!" Gotoh was one step behind Roy and was immediately startled. He reached out to grab where Roy had just disappeared, but instead of a person, he grabbed only empty air.
The young butler's heart tightened as he braced himself. Suddenly hearing a strange sound nearby, he gripped [UNLIMITED DIVINE SPEAR] and followed the source of the noise. His narrow eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses relaxed slightly—it was Elena.
As he lowered his hand and prepared to sigh in relief, he abruptly felt the sound of wind rushing toward him. It was a button wrapped in [TEN], and its owner was the Elena standing before him!
Gotoh flexed his elbow and fired a shot, hitting the button directly. Only then did he look at the woman who resembled Elena, noticing that her beautiful eyes behind blue-light glasses lacked their usual liveliness. They were dull and lifeless, like a marionette being controlled from behind the scenes. Gotoh instantly realized—this wasn't Elena!
At the same time, Roy, Ging, and Razor discovered similar anomalies... as did the real Elena, who was currently alone in an ownerless space, dealing with a magical beast that looked like an elephant but had the face of a tapir.
'I see... the real and the fake... this feeling is somewhat similar to the Unconscious Domain.'
People enter the church with one foot and are pulled into a strange space with the next. Roy watched the misty fog ahead condense into Ging's likeness and finally understood. With a clank, he drew his staff-sword. He realized that perhaps it was the Elephant-Baku, or perhaps the church itself, using its own ability or rules to create this illusion. To get out, it seemed he had to defeat the "enemy" in front of him!
On the other side, just as Roy thought, Ging encountered a fake Razor... Razor encountered a fake Gotoh... One after another, they were split into separate spaces to face their respective opponents.
Hunter Association.
Having spotted Roy, Wing's gaze shifted and he simultaneously noticed Gotoh. The polite boy used a bit of peripheral vision to peek at his master and grandmaster.
Netero frowned in silence, staring at the center screen where the boy had drawn his blade to fight Ging. His old, half-clouded eyes flashed with light from time to time, his thoughts unknown.
"Ging... Roy... Old man, what on earth is going on?" 'Why are the two of them mixed up together?'
Biscuit noticed in the frame that the boy held his blade against the man's fist. [HARD] met [HARD], grinding out brilliant sparks. She crossed her small arms and tilted her head to look at Netero.
The old man stroked his beard. "Beans."
"Here." Beanman immediately leaned in and explained the situation to Biscuit in detail. When he mentioned that the rope-like monster, suspected to be a victim of a [CALAMITY], was somehow related to Ging and Roy... Biscuit's mouth hung open, and she didn't recover for a long time.
"Ho ho ho... don't look at me, this old man doesn't know what's happening either." Netero squinted as he saw Roy unleash an arched, flaming sword light toward Ging's neck, murmuring, "Specifically... perhaps only by asking them can we determine a thing or two."
Biscuit came back to her senses, looking up to see Ging use some method to split off a phantom. The phantom took Roy's strike directly, while the real body abruptly appeared behind Roy, thrusting a fist toward his heart. The old woman's lips curled into a smirk as she teased, "If nothing else, facing Ging... Roy is definitely in for a beating."
"Master, that doesn't look like the real Ging." Wing noticed Ging's fist striking out and felt as if he were right there on the scene, standing where Roy was. He couldn't help but break into a cold sweat for the boy.
Biscuit glared at him. How could she not know what was real or fake?
Even if it wasn't the real Ging... Biscuit glanced aside, where the real Ging was currently trading Nen bullets with a fake Razor. Based on the power alone, she could tell... the fake Ging was a mirror image of the real one. Even if it wasn't as strong as Ging, its strength was at least eighty or ninety percent of the original. It was entirely modeled and shaped based on the person himself. This reflected...
The ability to create so many illusions out of thin air and mold corresponding mirror images based on real people meant the Nen ability and aura capacity of the owner behind the scenes was not to be underestimated.
"That kid isn't that easy to deal with."
The scene shifted. Facing "Ging's" strike from behind, a swamp immediately appeared under Roy's feet as if he had predicted it. He sank into the ground, beautifully dodging "Ging's" punch. In the next blink, he circled behind Ging, suddenly launching a thrust wrapped in flames toward the man's heart.
Netero appraised this move, recognizing it instantly as the one the boy used during the Hunter Exam in the Maimi Wetlands. Back then, a single [BAN KAI] strike had annihilated the Ghost-Head Spider army controlled by Botobai. Moreover, compared to before, the power was greater and the temperature higher, nearly warping the air as it swept through the surroundings in waves.
"Hmph," the old man said softly.
Beside him, Wing and Biscuit witnessed this scene and looked at each other, both seeing a flash of shock in the other's eyes!
"What sharp swordsmanship. It's only been how long... and he's already learned [HARD]..." Wing adjusted his glasses, his bright eyes showing ripples of emotion.
It was indeed [HARD]... Biscuit's smirk halfway through felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over her schadenfreude, freezing her heart to the core. She looked at the boy again... it was as if she were seeing him for the first time; she almost didn't recognize him.
Her beautiful large eyes stayed glued to the screen.
Using the [SWAMP SPACE] for a counter-ambush, Roy's flaming burial pierced the air. He had used [BAN KAI] immediately. With his back to the boy, "Ging" had no time to turn around. No one knew what method he used, but he simply called out softly, "Tortoise, come."
The illusory figure of a massive soft-shell turtle descended, firmly enveloping "Ging" and helping him block Roy's thrust, which was wrapped in temperatures nearing ten thousand degrees!
Arcs of black "Heavy Water" flickered on the turtle's back, diffusing the sword's momentum while extinguishing the flames. Vaguely, a desolate cry could be heard, as if coming from ancient times, piercing the soul and causing Roy's heart to tremble. He immediately focused his mind!
[HINT: THE [MONSTER ENCYCLOPEDIA] HAS BEEN EXPANDED... DETECTED MAGIC BEAST [DEEP WATER]... NOW RECORDED...]
[DEEP WATER TURTLE: C-RANK ORGANISM (RATING BASED ON CHIMERA ANTS)]
[MANIFESTED AURA: C (870,000 / 1,000,000)]
[POTENTIAL AURA: B (4,000,000 / 10,000,000)]
[INNATE NEN ABILITY: "HEAVY WATER" (NOTE: HEAVY WATER IS EXTREMELY COLD WATER, APPEARING IN A SOLID STATE... CONTACT RESULTS IN BEING FROZEN. BECAUSE ITS FREEZING POINT IS FAR BELOW ZERO, IT IS TITLED "HEAVY")]
[THE DEEP WATER TURTLE IS AN EXTREMELY RARE BEAST CAPABLE OF MANIPULATING "HEAVY WATER"]
The panel's notification sound surfaced in Roy's ears because of the turtle's appearance. The boy felt like his blade had struck a block of ice, unable to move an inch. He retracted the blade and struck out with his left hand in a [MAGNETISM · REPULSION] palm strike. His palm was wrapped in [HARD], slamming heavily against the turtle's solid shell. He tried to avoid the [HEAVY WATER] freezing by using this non-contact method while using internal force to create vibrations inside the turtle to break its shell.
"Ging" once again did as he had to dodge Roy's first strike, splitting into another phantom. He took Roy's palm strike directly, and when he reappeared, he was already over a hundred meters away, instantly putting a short distance between himself and Roy.
"Contract... my Nen ability allows me to form contracts with various magic beasts, rare beasts, or phantom beasts, establishing a partnership to drive them or simply borrow a certain 'talent' or 'Nen ability' from them..."
Roy's palm strike hit nothing. In his mind, he immediately recalled the "heart-to-heart" words the man had spoken to him on the ship. Seeing the phantom dissipate into mist after his strike... clearly, it was another type of magic or phantom beast.
Sure enough: [HINT: [MONSTER ENCYCLOPEDIA] HAS RECORDED...]
[PHANTOM WOLF: C-RANK ORGANISM]
[MANIFESTED AURA: C: 240,000 / 1,000,000]
[POTENTIAL AURA: C+: 790,000 / 1,000,000]
[INNATE NEN ABILITY: PHANTOM (NOTE: THE PHANTOM WOLF CAN USE ITSELF AS THE SOURCE TO CREATE A PHANTOM IMAGE TO DECEIVE THE ENEMY)]
It wasn't a clone, but it excelled in being flexible and versatile. Roy narrowed his eyes, sensing the difficulty. He slapped his waist.
Clank!
Yukibashiri was unsheathed. The snow-white katana flashed with a silvery glint and was caught by the boy's empty left hand. Together with the staff-sword [LUNAR WANE], Roy held one in each hand, gripping them firmly.
Hunter Association.
Wing was stunned; he didn't know when the boy had started practicing dual-wielding. Glancing at the adjacent screen...
The real Ging and the fake Razor were trading "Nen bullets," replicating Razor's moves one-for-one. It left the polite boy wide-eyed, wishing he had more eyes to record these spectacular battle scenes into his mind so he could observe and learn from them later.
"Hmm... the mirror image has roughly eighty percent of the original's power."
Comparing the battle between Ging and Razor to the one between Roy and Ging... seeing the boy again after half a year...
Netero knew that with Roy's talent, his progress would definitely be rapid. But... the old man never expected that the boy could now fight Ging to such an extent.
For a moment, his hands felt itchy. Even the volleyball spinning on his fingertip was nearly throwing off sparks.