During this year, he first went to the Hunter Association to check his Star rating.
Then he wanted to inquire about Chairman Netero's recent situation.
He was told by Beans with a complicated expression that Chairman Netero had suffered a more serious assassination attempt.
It almost led to the entire Hunter Association headquarters being implicated.
Luke: "..."
He deeply regretted this.
There was nothing he could do; Chairman Netero's playful nature was just too much.
Luke, having completed his Star-level advancement at the Hunter Association, was preparing to leave.
However, before he even stepped out of the building, he was stopped.
"You must be Mr. Luke?"
When those striking golden bangs and a warm smile entered his field of vision, Luke immediately knew this visitor came with ill intentions.
"I've heard so much about you for a long time."
Pariston Hill said with genuine admiration.
"To be able to capture such a formidable group as the Kute Gang of Thieves, you're truly remarkable!"
Pariston praised: "And judging by your age, you're so young; you're truly young and promising..."
"Thank you."
Before Pariston could finish speaking, Luke simply nodded calmly at him.
Then he walked straight past him.
"I recently heard that an organization called the Phantom Troupe is active in Ambrossa."
Watching Luke leave, Pariston continued muttering to himself: "The mafias under the Don in Ambrossa have all been wiped out by this organization called the Phantom Troupe."
"Moreover, the place where the Kute Gang of Thieves fell this time also seems to be Ambrossa."
"Even the timing coincides with when the Phantom Troupe wreaked havoc in Ambrossa..."
Seeing that Luke didn't stop at all and continued walking forward on his own, Pariston paused and gave his final sentence: "The Hunter Association and V5 are preparing to send some professional hunters and Interpol agents to Ambrossa to investigate the situation."
"If it's some people of dubious origin, or some problematic businesses, it might be necessary to shut them down..."
Luke's figure gradually receded into the distance until he completely disappeared from Pariston's sight.
Luke seemed to completely ignore everything Pariston said.
He didn't give any reaction, not even a pause, and simply left.
The smile on Pariston's lips slowly faded, his eyes grew deep and unreadable as he watched the direction where Luke disappeared.
It was unclear what he was thinking...
Luke had absolutely no reason to pay attention to Pariston.
His target was the Vice-Chairman of the Hunter Association, a position Pariston also coveted.
In other words, the two of them already had an irreconcilable conflict.
They were true rivals.
So, at this point, what use would any further words be?
Besides, Luke knew exactly what kind of man Pariston was; there was no need for conversation.
They would have to fight sooner or later.
As for Pariston's mentions of the Phantom Troupe, his implied suspicion of Luke's identity, and his threat toward Ambrossa... So what if there were doubts? So what if there were threats?
What did that have to do with him, Luke?
Pariston could never produce proof that he was the Phantom Troupe's leader.
Even if Ambrossa's businesses were destroyed, Luke didn't care.
The Phantom Troupe was rootless to begin with.
At most, they occasionally returned to Meteor City.
They had no real interest in these external forces they had created.
Even in Chrollo's eyes, it was merely a tool for him to familiarize himself with the outside world.
If their personal safety were truly threatened, they could simply withdraw and retreat whenever they wished.
They were quite open-minded about this.
The Phantom Troupe had never cared about anything of their own.
They could easily discard any so-called external treasures.
On the other hand, if Pariston really went too far, he would have to carefully consider whether he could withstand the retaliation from the Phantom Troupe.
Luke, in this respect, was completely fearless and didn't care about Pariston at all.
Not to mention, Pariston wasn't clean either; he was Beyond Netero's undercover agent, with plenty of dirt behind him.
In this situation, it's best to avoid using other people's affairs for political purposes!
After exchanging a few words with Pariston, Luke returned to the network world.
Anyway, with Ging Freecs grinding his achievements outside, obtaining the Double-Star Hunter rank was only a matter of time.
For now, he would continue to make a living through this network development.
Once the internet is deployed to every corner of the world, unless it's in some remote, untouched mountain forest, every corner of the world will be under Luke's control!
This is a far more terrifying level of control than V5's!
It's worth all the effort he has put into the network world.
His life's work!
So much so that for the next period of time, he barely paid attention to the outside world.
It was only through Ickshonpe, who paid attention to the outside world, that he learned of some of the turmoil happening outside.
Well, calling it turmoil was really just a figure of speech.
And it was mainly related to that guy, Ging Freecs.
On one hand, there was the Greed Island.
Someone hired 50 hunters to try to crack the game, but none of them survived.
Among them, three were professional hunters with official hunter licenses.
The wealthy man, Battera, even publicly offered to buy the game for 17 billion Jenny and the game completion Memory Card for 50 billion Jenny.
However... even with such a high price offered, no one was interested.
Greed Island thus became an undefeated legend in the gaming world.
It was later called the dream game, though this was only a matter of some people praising and admiring it.
Besides the game. Greed Island, there was also Ging Freecss's personal affair.
His cousin, Mito, finally succeeded in gaining custody of Gon from Ging Freecss.
Ging didn't say much; he just left a box for Mito to be given to Gon in the future and left.
This officially laid the groundwork for Gon's future journey to find his father and embark on his adventure, beginning his own, Where's Dad journey.
…
The outside world's turmoil didn't bother Luke much.
Even knowing Gon had been born, he didn't go to Whale Island to visit.
Although Gon was the future protagonist of this world, his influence was quite limited.
The places where he would be active were only a few.
The various locations of the Hunter Exams, Kukuroo Mountain, where the Zoldyck Family lived, the Heavens Arena, Yorknew City, Greed Island, and then the Neo-Green Life Autonomous Region, where the Chimera Ants were, as well as the Republic of East Gorteau.