Hunter x Hunter: From Obtaining the World to Beyond Heaven

Anyone with normal intelligence would not recognize this as an ordinary snail, let alone associate it with the chimera ant mentioned earlier.

"The professional hunter named Dia admitted that this was due to the influence of one of his abilities. The Ant King's body automatically underwent a mutation. The principle behind this mutation is the scientific concept of the 'subconscious effect.' He did not reveal the specific details, only claiming that a certain natural weather event he created triggered the 'subconscious effect,' ultimately resulting in the current effect."

"Dia? Is that the [Time Stopper] you mentioned at the last secret meeting?"

Judge No. 4 suddenly spoke up and asked.

He was an elderly man dressed in a well-tailored suit, with an earphone hanging from his ear and a flower on his chest.

His voice had barely faded when Judge Number 5, sitting to his left, spoke up:

"That's him. It seems necessary to reassess him. At least his destructive power has definitely been underestimated."

The others nodded in agreement.

"Assessment? What assessment?"

Judge No. 6 spoke with suspicion, while Judge No. 3, who had previously been at loggerheads with her, suddenly explained in an uncharacteristic manner:

"The existence of certain individuals that exceed the limits will be closely monitored by countries around the world. After all, no one wants an active atomic weapon to be moving around within their territory. Therefore, it is necessary to establish files and analyze them in advance."

"Of course, the energy of state organs is limited and they cannot pay attention to too many individuals. Therefore, how to define 'excessive individuals' is a matter worth discussing."

"Whether it is magical beasts or mythical beasts other than humans, or human individuals with super combat power, the assessment agencies of various countries will use the existing [Five-Level Four-Dimensional Dangerous Creature Assessment System] to evaluate them, which is four dimensions of ferocity, destructive power, quantity, and reproductive capacity, and five levels of A, B, C, D, and E. Finally, the evaluations of various countries will be combined in the secret meeting to arrive at the final assessment."

"During our last secret meeting, we evaluated the [Time Stoppers]..."

"The last secret meeting should have initiated the filing process due to its excessive violence, but Number 3 vetoed it and rejected the agenda."

At this moment, Judge No. 5, who had just spoken, interjected:

"Compared to alien beasts, the ferocity of individual humans is naturally increased by half a level. Therefore, most of the confirmed human individuals with superhuman limits will be registered at the same time, and a special scientific team will be set up for each individual. The purpose is that in extreme circumstances, humans can have the ability to control these individuals."

"This situation has only occurred 8 times in the past century, and none of the overlimit individuals corresponding to these 8 instances have died so far."

"Number 6, your situation is very special. Not only are you too young, but you are also a newcomer. In addition, you are closely related to a certain super-limited individual that we have been paying attention to. To be honest, from a father's point of view, I am not willing to speak to you in this tone, but as the leader of Begrosse, I must remind you in advance not to let too much personal feelings interfere in the secret meeting. Politics is not child's play."

"Oh."

Judge No. 6 replied with a single word and cast a questioning glance at the short-haired female guard behind him.

Guard: "..."

Suppressing the urge to sigh, she handed a newly written outline to Judge No. 6, indicating that she should look at the outline and understand it.

After a long pause, Number 6 finally nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite:

"I see. So it seems you can still do some decent work."

She didn't look at anyone, but everyone knew who she was referring to with the word "you".

'This guy is so annoying...'

Judge No. 3 gritted his teeth imperceptibly, then waved his hand, signaling Shutaina to continue.

"Ahem... Okay, here is the updated danger assessment table provided by the International Biological Control Organization. As you can see, the ferocity, reproductive capacity, number, and destructive power of the [Ant King] have all been adjusted."

"The ferocity level has been reduced from A-2 to E, which means it is not ferocious. It has been observed that when the creature encounters danger, it tends to lock itself into its shell. Although it has toothed mouthparts, it never uses them to bite other creatures."

"The number has been upgraded from E-level to A-level, which means that the number in a nest has increased from 1 to tens of thousands. According to the data, there are now more than 100,000 [Ant King Snails] in Devil's Canyon. However, there is only one three-meter-tall individual, and the rest are small snails of normal size."

"The destructive power has been reduced from A to B-2, which means that there are clear conditions for evasion, but failure to evade will result in irreparable damage and a very high mortality rate. This will be explained later along with the changes in reproductive capacity."

"The reproductive capacity has been changed from B-1 to B-2, which means that the reproductive rate will be as fast as A once certain conditions are met, instead of double-digit reproduction per year."

At this point, Shutainer's expression turned serious, and he projected a picture onto the screen.

It was an extremely horrifying photograph.

In the photo, a fully armed soldier looks terrified, half of his body has turned into the shape of a mollusk, and his body is covered with countless tiny white snail eggs.

Most horrifyingly, half of the soldier's face had transformed into the shape of a snail's head, with a tentacle extending from its eye socket, its white eyeballs hanging from the tip of the tentacle, and its mouth completely transformed into the snail's round mouthparts, revealing tens of thousands of fine teeth in concentric rings.

"Touching is one of the reproductive methods of the [King Ant Snail]. Compared to producing snail eggs and then hatching them, this method clearly exhibits the characteristics of Grade A, namely [explosive growth]."

"Any creature that touches the Ant King Snail itself or other small snails, or even the snail eggs it spits out, will undergo irreversible snailification and become a new source of pollution, and so on endlessly. Therefore, its destructive power and reproductive capacity are set at the current level."

"More than fifty peacekeeping soldiers have been killed in the process of obtaining this intelligence."

"International biological control agencies believe that if it appears in urban clusters, it can cause a city to fall and be completely contaminated in just a few hours, and then spread the contamination to the entire continent within 24 hours at most."

Shutainer said seriously:

"International organizations have issued a warning, hoping that all countries will strictly prohibit research or sampling of this creature, and that no sample may be taken out of the [Devil's Canyon] area."

"Then let's establish a permanent no-entry zone and build a wall around it. Let's leave this to the Hunter Association."

Judge No. 1 made the decision on the spot, casually finalizing the matter, and no one else had any objections.

After all, if anyone were to object at this time, this shrewd politician would be more than happy to pass the matter on to the opponents to handle.

Biological control requires a lot of money. Snails may sound serious, but if they are properly contained, there won't be any problem. Why waste money and resources on meaningless things?

The entire Möbius Lake area is teeming with dangerous creatures. If each one had to be dealt with individually, how long would that take?

Upon hearing this, Shutaina nodded and continued:

"Alright, next up is the third item on the agenda: a second evaluation of the individual codenamed [Time Stopper]..."

Chapter 491 Fertility × Immortality

Shutainer projected a photograph onto the screen.

The image shows a picture of Dia, who looks lazy and bewildered.

"This is an ID photo provided by the [Time Stopper]. After explaining the purpose to him, he instructed me to evaluate it objectively and without personal bias."

"The original words will not be repeated here due to their offensive nature."

"Tsk."

Someone clicked their tongue in displeasure.

Shutaina remained calm, her eyes fixed on the empty podium, as if something were there:

"First is ferocity. In the last assessment, it was rated B+, meaning that it may actively attack humans under different conditions. Also, because it is human, its ferocity level was increased by half a level."

At this point, Judge No. 6 spoke up, clearly displeased:

"What do you mean by actively attacking humans? The number of people he killed is less than the number of people who starved to death by a single decree from one of your great powers. How do you calculate your brutality?"

Upon hearing this, Judge No. 1 adjusted his glasses, chuckled softly, and said in a kind voice:

"The brutality of the Time Stoppers is mainly based on the Typhoon Landing Incident that occurred in Yuksim a few months ago. That incident directly or indirectly caused a huge loss of trillions of jenny in Saherta, and the number of people affected was countless."

"But actually, the amount of money and the number of deaths are minor matters. The most important thing is that, according to intelligence, the [Time Stoppers] drove the typhoon away from Yuksim out of personal emotions, which is an extremely bad thing..."

Upon hearing this, the short-haired female guard behind Judge No. 6 changed her expression and silently lowered her head.

Judge No. 1's eyes turned serious:

"This means that even with power far exceeding that of a normal human individual, the mind of the [Time Stopper] is not much different from that of an ordinary human. This is a very troublesome weakness. In order to prevent such a weakness from being exploited, we may need to make a lot of preparations to help him."

Yes, help him, don't take advantage of him.

As an elder standing at the pinnacle of human political wisdom, his intelligence could not possibly be so low as to attempt to control or exploit a "superman".

Anyone who has studied basic social sciences knows that only relationships based on mutual help and shared interests are the most enduring and stable.

Even if two camps are not equal, if one side tries to suppress or control the other, they will eventually head towards an uncontrollable abyss.

【Mutual benefit and harmonious coexistence】—this is the political wisdom that the elder has always possessed, and it is also the principle of conduct that most of the judges present today agree with.

Zero-sum games and the like are just old political thrillers from that era. They're just for fun. In reality, what normal person would gamble with the fate of a billion people?

Of course, while making money through harmony is important, ruthless methods are also indispensable, but there's no need to flaunt them every day.

Judge No. 1 continued:

"Exceeding limits are not only dangerous creatures that need to be controlled, but also valuable assets to humanity. For example, Isaac Netero of the Hunter Association, we have never been stingy in giving him fame, fortune and respect."

"As long as he is willing to contribute to peace and stability for humanity..."

An old voice suddenly interrupted:

"Even if you are unwilling to contribute to humanity, at least don't treat your fellow human beings as ants and be indifferent to them."

It was the second adjudicator, who hadn't spoken until now, who finally spoke. He was an elderly man with white hair dressed in simple traditional clothing.

Judge Number 2 calmly tapped the table with his fingertips, first offering an explanation for interrupting Judge Number 1:

"I apologize for interrupting you, Number 1, but the task of maintaining the stability and peace of humanity as a whole cannot be entrusted to any individual. A young person in his early twenties should not bear such a huge responsibility."

"How to deal with individuals who exceed the limits has always been a major problem, and there is no consensus among countries."

“Generally, unless the situation becomes absolutely intolerable, we will exercise maximum patience. So even though many people died at Yuk-hsin’s hands, we will not pursue his responsibility in consideration of the bigger picture.”

"But this is not a special case for the [Time Stoppers]."

"Fifty years ago, Netero explored the Dark Continent twice and single-handedly challenged martial artists from all over the world. The number of people who died as a result was more than the number of deaths caused by the typhoon that hit the mainland."

"In addition, there is Maha Zoldyck of Kukuroku Mountain, who was once known as 'ten kills a day with no taboos.' He has become much more low-key now, but we never ask about him. In fact, the entire Zoldyck family has been given a transcendent status."

"But similarly, Netero's leadership of the Hunter Association and the Zoldyck family's agreement to contain the mist-like creatures [A] are both manifestations of their sense of responsibility towards humanity. The Hunter Association is to Netero, and the Zoldyck family is to Maha, just as a scabbard is to a sword—something that humanity must grasp."

"Without this thing, humanity can never fully trust these superhuman individuals."

"This is not a threat or any harsh words. In fact, it is already extremely restrained for the human group to bow down to the individual. Whether we can find that perfect balance is also a manifestation of the wisdom of the individual who has transcended limitations."

At this point, Judge No. 2 suddenly changed his tone, his voice carrying a hint of relief:

"However, judging from the current outcome, the [Time Stoppers] do possess this wisdom, especially as citizens of the Mingbo Republic..."

Judge No. 4 quickly interrupted him:

"Don't talk nonsense. What citizen or not? Hunters have never had a nationality. Don't try to use nation-states to morally blackmail them."

Judge No. 2 responded calmly:

"Their marriage certificate was submitted to the Civil Affairs Bureau of Loy City. In terms of civic consciousness, the [Time Stoppers] clearly identify more with the Republic of Mingbo..."

"Marriage contract? What marriage contract?"

Judge No. 3 frowned, as if he had heard some unfamiliar term.