"Hurry up and prepare some delicious food."
He didn't care about other people's feelings at all and just gave orders and directed others according to his own aura and desires.
The scene of him asking for food from the Squadron Leaders formed a sharp contrast with the half-dead Chimera Ant Queen behind him.
"This is... The king."
This realization deeply resonated with the Squadron Leaders.
At the same time, outside the Chimera Ant Nest.
"Hmm...?"
Lan in the team suddenly opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the Chimera Ant nest.
"Such brutality, such an overwhelming presence of desire and raw strength… The king has finally been born."
This was not unexpected to Lan. Calculating the time, it was almost time for it to be born.
"This is good; it means everything is unfolding according to the predetermined fate."
He nodded slightly. "With this, the blind box can continue to appear."
After receiving instructions from V5 and the Hunter Association not to act recklessly, Lan knew that the birth of the Chimera Ant king was an inevitable outcome.
He had no intention of stopping it. After all, the emergence of the Ant King was crucial to the blind box he would get later.
Even if he wanted to intervene, with an organization as vast as V5, along with the Kakin Empire and Beyond Netero's faction, there would surely be other forces ensuring the Ant King's birth.
Therefore, Lan no longer did any more useless work.
Still, casually setting up a few small pieces within the Chimera Ant nest wouldn't hurt.
"Perhaps… Things might change a little."
Lan closed his eyes again, regulating his aura and preparing himself.
What they would soon face was the Ant King, the strongest individual entity in the entire world.
Setting aside anomalies like Nanika, in terms of sheer combat power, the Chimera Ant King was the strongest living being in the entire HxH world.
Facing such a creature, it was only natural to take every precaution and be as prepared as possible.
Lan and Netero, who were inside the four-level mansion, both adjusted their states.
Inside the Chimera Ant nest, the hurried sound of small feet running echoed down the corridor.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
"The situation seems to be very bad..."
Peggy ran all the way with sweat all over his forehead.
Compared to the other tall and strong Squadron Leaders, his body was obviously much smaller, and his feet were also very small, so he couldn't take a long step and fell behind.
This also made him the last one to arrive here.
And his running footsteps also startled some of the Squadron Leaders.
Among them was Meleoron, who stood in the corner and tried to reduce his presence as much as possible to gain a little insignificant sense of security.
"Peggy..."
At the edge of the corner of the team, he first spotted Peggy's running figure.
At the same time, a flood of past memories surged in his mind.
Back before the Chimera Ant nest had been surrounded by humans, back when he, as a Squadron Leader, was outside… Slacking off, not inspecting his subordinates to ensure they were properly performing their duties, that was when he had been captured by a human.
To this day, Meleoron could never forget that moment.
He had been caught by a man dressed in a black trench coat, exuding a level of power so overwhelming that it erased any of his thoughts of resistance.
He had trembled in despair, convinced that his life was about to end.
But to his surprise, the man didn't kill him.
Instead, the man asked him a question: "Do you want to leave the Chimera Ant nest and live a peaceful life?"
At that time, Meleoron only felt that the other party was joking or simply playing a trick on him.
Thinking that he was about to say goodbye to this world, Meleoron simply gave up.
"Yes! Of course, I do. Who doesn't want to live a peaceful life?"
Meleoron sat down on the ground. "If I had a choice, I would rather be a student studying than an ant who is a squadron leader!"
He took out the cigarette he had snatched from the human from his arms, lit it, and took a nice puff.
The subconscious and very skillful action proved that he was a heavy smoker in his previous life.
"Good. That's exactly the kind of answer I was hoping for."
The powerful human seemed to have heard a satisfactory answer and nodded slightly at him: "Next, you just need to do what I say. I won't say that I can guarantee that you can live a peaceful life in the second half of your life, but at least you can keep your life in this Chimera Ant Extermination."
While Meleoron was staring at the man with a cigarette in his mouth, the human man turned around.
"I will contact you when it's time. You just need to show me the results that satisfy me. I will keep my word."
After he said that, Meleoron felt his eyes blurred, and then he found that the human man had just left here.
If it weren't for the faint voice coming from the air, Meleoron would have thought that what he had just seen was an illusion.
"Oh, and by the way… The scholar you admire? Your foster father from your past life? He's inside this very nest."
"He's probably the most knowledgeable among all the Chimera Ants here."
The most knowledgeable…
Meleoron muttered to himself, repeating the words of that human.
At that moment, it was as if a long-sealed memory had been unlocked.
On his way back to the nest, fragmented recollections surfaced in his mind.
And eventually, they all led to a single person.
The most intelligent, the most scholarly, the wisest being among the entire Chimera Ant Nest…
Meleoron's eyes flickered with realization as he watched the exhausted, sweat-drenched figure of Peggy rushing toward them.
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