Hunter x Hunter: War of the Anime Worlds

Xiang Nan had long studied the overall power level of the player base, gathering and analysing a great deal of material.

Under ordinary circumstances—even after clearing all ten Extinction rounds and becoming a fully bound "representative" of the Hunter × Hunter world—a player merely gains the right to bargain with major story characters.

Most average players, until they reach a certain rank, are actually weaker than many cannon-fodder extras in the original manga.

Of course, there are always a few exceptions—people like him and Manman whose strength far exceeds their current level.

Both the grey-haired elder and the one-eyed swordsman were Extinction 7.

By Xiang Nan's yard-stick that put them around the "quasi–floor-master" tier of Heaven's Arena—roughly the level needed to enter the 200-plus floors and rack up five or more wins. Yet the combat power they displayed was clearly beyond that bracket.

Heaven's Arena "floor master" is not as prestigious as one might think: even Zushi eventually became a master, and that group also contains monsters like Hisoka and Chrollo—talent is wildly uneven.

When Xiang Nan calls these two "quasi floor masters," he is comparing them to fighters of Zushi's calibre, not to the true elites.

In short, for Extinction 7 players, one wielding On and the other a special sword art, both already exceeded his expectations.

The elder had chosen a highly niche power-up path inside the Hunter world, while the one-eyed man… was even more unusual.

A little later Xiang Nan and Manman left Mustang Island, taking the elder and the swordsman aboard the warship.

He gave them rudimentary surgery to stabilise their wounds. He had spared them for information: unlike many players, Xiang Nan bears no blanket grudge. If someone does not threaten his interests, he is perfectly willing to let them live.

Seeing the vessel waiting at sea, the captive pair realised at once that his background was anything but simple. Faced with his questions they answered frankly—knowing all too well what refusal would mean.

The elder's name was Pigeon, the swordsman's Orban.

…

"Ah—so that's it…," Xiang Nan murmured as Orban finished his story.

Orban had already taken part in two rounds of the Reincarnation Dimension Placement Matches—the "seeding" phase, so to speak.

According to him, before a player finishes the ten Extinction rounds, the system will periodically send him to other worlds to complete missions; those performances are used to assess a hidden score.

In future, once a player enters the official Reincarnation League, the worlds—and therefore the opponents—he is matched against are chosen according to that score.

"So you faked this Mustang incident to trim down the pool of Extinction 5-plus players, skew the system's balance, and at the same time filter out people strong enough to recruit as team-mates?" Xiang Nan asked.

"Exactly. You may not realise it, but once you've fought a single Placement Match you see the pattern: the ten Extinction rounds are only a warm-up. The system monitors everything you do. Impress it and it 'cultivates' you—missions appear with better rewards and richer resources."

Orban was swathed in bandages and looked miserable, but Nen users can recover so long as the wounds are not fatal—even if Xiang Nan's blows had broken both his arms and a leg.

Xiang Nan could use Nen to halve that recovery time, but until he knew their full story he would not offer.

"Our own results in the Extinction missions were only middling," Orban continued, "and we never got that system 'favor'. Then, in another world, I heard a secret: if, within your starter world, you jump ahead and become one of the few remaining high-level players—say by eliminating other Extinction 5-plus—you force the system to tilt resources toward you simply to keep total player power up. Rarity drives value, right?"

He did not dare lie; Xiang Nan could surely tell.

"At the same time we wanted to identify capable allies. Fewer high-level players means a higher chance the system will throw the good ones together in the same squad."

"Yes, it harms others for our gain," he admitted, "but people risk death for crumbs all the time. We want to reach the endgame—nothing more."

Xiang Nan nodded. "At present the Hunter world holds only a few dozen Extinction 5-plus players. You killed nearly half. Extinction 6 and 7 together, maybe twenty? And Extinction 8… probably just a handful."

"We don't know the exact tally," Orban said. "Among Extinction 7 I've met eleven—including the two of us—across two missions (five-man teams); six are dead, so seven remain."

"Anyone at Extinction 7 who understands the plot and has visited other worlds would spot our trap instantly," he added. "Only Extinction 5s who've never left this world, and Extinction 6s with just one jump, would fall for it."

"Your sword style—did you learn it in Rurouni Kenshin?" Xiang Nan asked.

Orban nodded. "Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū. I only scratched the surface, though—that's why my slashes can project external 'blade aura'."

"Players can spend dimension coins in other worlds to obtain power-ups," he went on. "That's why a world like Hunter, whose baseline power is modest, can nevertheless climb into the top-16. The player who once led Hunter to the very summit used that method—plus deep exploitation of Dark Continent lore. Otherwise, with only what humanity has shown so far, we'd struggle to crack the top 100."

He sighed, touching the patch over his ruined left eye. "Compared to some worlds I've visited, Hunter is unbelievably safe. No rival factions yet flooding in. But after this grace period you'll learn how terrifying the Reincarnation League really is. The two worlds I visited were almost destroyed—stripped by higher-tier worlds for resources."

"And that was the placement level—the lowest difficulty in the multiverse league," he added bitterly. "The only good news is this world's old reputation: thanks to the legend of a certain predecessor, veterans from other worlds still flinch when they hear we're from Hunter × Hunter."

Xiang Nan listened silently. Even after only two "side dungeons," Orban had gathered considerable intel—information that plainly circulated across the player community once someone managed to leave this world.

"What was that predecessor's name?" Xiang Nan asked when he heard the phrase "Dark Continent," his eyes narrowing.

Even Netero, apex of the current pyramid, had only skirted its shore and come back defeated; only Beyond Netero ever made a true attempt.

The player who had once carried Hunter to the top of the League was evidently long dead, his world slot reset by the system—hence the locals knew nothing of him.

"This player… was called 'Mai'," Orban said softly—the name of the one who had once made "Hunter × Hunter" resound throughout the entire multiverse.

~~~

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