Leading Hunter x Hunter to the Top of the Anime Multiverse

"Chiik—!"

Seeing a human approach, several soldier ants immediately dropped what they were doing and charged all at once.

In response, Xiang Nan released his aura (Nen). Without using Nen, even with his practical combat experience, he might not be able to handle them—mainly because the ants' carapaces were so tough and their vitality so astonishing.

"Let's wrap this up fast."

A thought flashed in Xiang Nan's mind.

This was a whole ant nest. Though the ants here were still relatively small, they were numerous; being surrounded by a massive swarm would be dangerous…

The adult-form Chimera Ant soldiers lunged in for the kill, but Xiang Nan was far quicker. The foremost ant was still closing in when a shadow streaked past it—it was the human the ant had marked as prey. Before the ant's eyes could follow, Xiang Nan had already wrapped an arm around the creature's neck, exerted a forceful twist in sync with his speed and momentum, and neatly tore its head off.

He came to a halt precisely in front of a second soldier ant behind it. In that instant, his scalpel—enhanced by Nen—stabbed through its formidable exoskeleton and deep into its brain.

In that short span, two soldier ants were slaughtered on the spot.

Yet Xiang Nan had barely begun. The remaining three ants reacted immediately, with two bounding to his left and right, seizing him in a sudden clamp, their mandibles biting down on his arms. They were creating an opening for their companion.

Once again, Chimera Ants defied Xiang Nan's expectations. Even though he was attacking with Nen, they responded in the blink of an eye.

Against a skilled martial artist without Nen, they might still have been too fast. In mere seconds, these ants had locked onto his position and trajectory, an astonishing display of combat smarts.

The ant in front raised its forelimb hooks—sharp as knives—aiming to slash Xiang Nan's head. But at that precise moment, Xiang Nan, who was pinned in the grip of two soldier ants, suddenly vanished.

All they grabbed was his black windbreaker, suspended in midair.

He had slipped free from inside his coat, swiftly crouching low, evading that devastating strike. His windbreaker, likewise imbued with Nen, had enough toughness to mislead them. The ants were only biting into the coat's cloth, not Xiang Nan's actual limbs.

Taking advantage of their unawareness, Xiang Nan fired off a quick blow—blasting apart the two ants' heads in an instant. To ensure a lethal, irreversible wound, he had to crush their skulls. Only a critical strike like that could stop them for good.

Right afterward, he set his sights on the final soldier ant—whose attack had just missed—and closed in behind it.

One hand gripped the creature's rear skull, while the other clamped around its slender waist. With a fierce upward knee strike plus the force of both arms, an audible snap rang out as the ant's body broke at the waist, bending at a grotesque ninety-degree angle.

After finishing them off, Xiang Nan casually caught his windbreaker as it dropped, tossing it back over his shoulder.

From behind him, rustling noises sounded. At the nest entrance, a swarm of small ants began streaming out. Their massed scuttling made one's scalp tingle. Anyone with a fear of clusters might have fainted at the sight.

Carrying the still-living soldier ant he had captured, Xiang Nan dashed into the forest at full speed, shouting:

"Go!"

He called to Manman, who had been filming from the shadows.

The final soldier ant—its body snapped in two—had lost most of its threat, but it was still alive. Under cover of night, Xiang Nan led the way; Manman followed close. They flew like arrows through the shadowed woods, leaving no chance for the swarm to catch up.

They fled at top speed for nearly an hour before finally shaking off the ants.

Then Xiang Nan met back up with the trembling Silent Cloud, who had stayed behind. The three wasted no time escaping the deep forest.

Even though Xiang Nan's method of dispatching those soldier ants looked clean, it was anything but easy. Even at his level, he faced genuine danger. The outcome felt far from simple.

…

Once the trio exited the Miera mountain range, Silent Cloud at last saw clearly what Xiang Nan held. It was the soldier ant's still-living torso. Its antennae had been cut off; all its limbs removed, leaving only the trunk. The wounds had clotted, yet from its twitching mandibles, one could see it was still alive.

"Y-You… actually captured a live Chimera Ant?!"

She almost panicked. Dawn's first light was breaking. The peril and chaos of the night had left her reeling.

"You two take a rest."

Xiang Nan spoke to Manman and Silent Cloud, then walked off, carrying the ant's remains. During their frantic run through the mountains, Xiang Nan and Manman still seemed fine; but Silent Cloud was thoroughly drained.

He brought the soldier ant deeper into an uninhabited nook of the wilderness. Around him, the early morning sky brightened.

"Screee—screee…"

The soldier ant, immobilized, still wriggled its mandibles in weak defiance.

Xiang Nan's aura flared again. From his windbreaker he retrieved a scalpel plus some medical tools. Raising his brow, he regarded the creature on the ground. Although it was maimed, it remained alive.

"To be able to get an adult-type specimen is surely more than the Kakin Royal Family bargained for."

He spoke with a faint grin. For him, a living specimen had immense research value. And Xiang Nan had gained a decent foundation in biology. This was the perfect chance to utilize that knowledge.

"Most importantly, you'll be useful for my own Nen development, as well as during the future Chimera Ant crisis… The intel you can offer will be quite beneficial." Xiang Nan smiled, gently sliding his scalpel close to the ant's head.

He hadn't expected that the 4th round of the game would involve the Chimera Ants. Without Kakin itself tipping its hand, he'd have spent a lot more time searching. And time, for a player, was the most critical resource.

This mission had effectively "helped" Xiang Nan.

"Mhm… The exoskeleton's hardness is around this level… Alright, I see."

"Internal organs and arrangement… so that's how it's structured."

"Looks like its digestive capacity is quite formidable. The absorption rate for nutrients is high, so this mechanism runs in such a manner…"

"It's an ordinary soldier ant, not yet showing signs of having fused with human genes."

"As for the brain tissue… still pretty rudimentary. Seems the nest's evolving process isn't fully advanced. Though it's the queen who decides an ant's birth rank, from the baseline foot soldier levels here, they haven't grown that strong."

"They've got enviable joint flexibility…"

In the morning light, on a patch of grass, a man meticulously dissected some bizarre creature's carcass, like a scientist enthralled in research—muttering quietly to himself, an obsessed glow in his eyes.

~~~

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