Hunter x Hunter: War of the Anime Worlds

After boarding the ship, Xiang Nan casually picked a spot and sat down.

The large vessel—chartered by the Hunter Association—was sailing along a set route, collecting every candidate who had registered for the Hunter Exam and ferrying them all the way to Dolle Harbor.

From there the candidates would pass through the Zaban District, reach a designated restaurant in Zaban City to receive their numbers, and finally enter the exam venue.

So quite a few examinees were already on board.

Naturally, that included two members of the story's "main party," Leorio and Kurapika.

Xiang Nan observed them with interest. Kurapika was tucked away in a quiet corner, reading a book. Leorio—wearing a blue suit and tiny sunglasses—was leaning against the bulkhead and dozing; he wasn't actually that old, but his looks and clothes made him seem very mature.

Both had strikingly distinct auras.

Xiang Nan studied the unique Kurta Clan clothing Kurapika wore, especially the patterns and symbols, committing them silently to memory.

He also noticed several other gazes fixed on the pair.

Those, unsurprisingly, were probably players.

With the system's concealment turned off, even he couldn't easily tell who was a player.

As for Gon, he had already fallen in with a few players who, like him, had boarded from Whale Island.

They were pestering him with nonstop friendly chatter, and Gon found it hard to turn them down. On top of that, other people kept walking up to introduce themselves—obviously players who had boarded early just to meet the protagonist.

Players approached Kurapika and Leorio too. Leorio didn't mind, but Kurapika looked a little uncomfortable and eventually retreated to his cabin.

"So the players on this ship are planning to join the main party, huh?" Xiang Nan chuckled inwardly.

That was certainly interesting.

Joining the protagonists was one viable approach, but canonically Gon and his friends have a tough road ahead, full of danger. The main cast enjoys plot armor; the players don't—one misstep and they could die.

That's the difference between high‑level and low‑level players' thinking.

Take Beishi, for instance: he'd decided not to sit the Hunter Exam this year at all—too hard, too risky.

Lower‑level players, though, all seemed eager to give it a try.

After sitting on deck for a while, Xiang Nan went back to his cabin to rest.

Before long—and exactly as the plot foretold—the ship hit a violent storm. When Gon announced the storm was coming, the captain wasn't the least bit surprised, because an attention‑seeking player had already stolen Gon's line and given the warning first. The captain had clearly grown numb to the oddballs in this year's batch.

Not just the captain: every sailor on the ship was actually an examiner hired by the Hunter Association, assigned to grade the candidates.

Xiang Nan ignored the pitching of the vessel and whatever commotion was going on outside, staying in his room the whole time with a medical text in hand to pass the hours.

The captain's aggressive helmsmanship threw many people into severe seasickness; a lot of them dropped out right there. In the original story only Gon's trio was unscathed, but this time the number topped ten—a total of fourteen people showed no ill effects at all.

Kind‑hearted Gon bustled about the cabins tending the sick, helping the crew furl sails, haul people to safety, and so on. Several players, eager to shine, joined in; the scene was quite something.

Because they knew the plot, the players were confident they could clear the early tests and at least reach the venue. Whether they'd pass the full exam was another matter.

Kurapika and Leorio also had their canonical clash and, after a brief scuffle, became friends. Interestingly, every player tacitly stayed out of that little set piece.

With so many survivors, the pipe‑smoking old captain's expectations were thoroughly shattered. This year's Hunter Exam was clearly going to be spectacular.

After a stormy night the ship reached Dolle Harbor unscathed.

From start to finish Xiang Nan had never interacted with the Gon trio, and once they docked he was ready to leave. With so many players—and even a Nen user—tagging along with Gon, the kid had plenty of protection; there was no need for Xiang Nan to worry.

He intended to head straight for Zaban City.

Joining—or befriending—the main cast simply wasn't necessary for him.

Even so, after disembarking Gon still ran over especially to say goodbye.

"Uncle… you're not coming with us?" Gon asked with a bright grin when he saw Xiang Nan walking away.

Xiang Nan glanced at the cluster of players watching from not far off and shook his head. "I've got some business to take care of. We'll meet again later."

"Okay!" Gon nodded.

With that, Xiang Nan turned and left. He skipped the upcoming Question Test and the raging Forest Trial altogether, took land transport, and went straight to Zaban City.

That very night he arrived in Zaban City and met up with Beishi, Manman, and the others who'd left Whale Island ahead of him.

"A whole bunch of them?"

After hearing Xiang Nan's account of the players on the ship, the group looked at one another and burst out laughing.

In the original story there were only the three protagonists—now it had become a big entourage.

Worse yet, those players stuck to the main cast like glue.

"Just wait—those were only some of them. I'd bet loads of players entered this year's exam, at least a few dozen, all out to make friends with the protagonists. Who knows what they're thinking… to follow the plot? To cling to the main party?" Orban curled his lip and said seriously, "From the Hunter‑verse's perspective, sure, the main cast will achieve plenty and have backing, but they're hardly world‑shaping. The so‑called 'plot line' is just the author using the protagonists' viewpoint to show us the setting."

"Our battlefield spans all the worlds…"

"Don't say that," Beishi chuckled. "Not everyone's confident they can survive to the end. Many players haven't even hit their reincarnation limit or know what that means. For them, just staying alive and growing in this world is already hard enough—so sticking with the main party isn't a bad lifeline."

They were sitting outdoors at a street‑side eatery, eating as they talked.

Zaban City was the region's hub, economically booming, its nightlife awash with neon. On top of that, it hosted the Hunter Exam venue, so tourists had flooded in lately.

Xiang Nan toyed with the number badge in his hand—176.

Manman's badge read 17.

Both of them already held entry qualifications.

What surprised Xiang Nan was that, although Manman had seemed to take a shortcut to the finish, she still placed only seventeenth—unable to beat the veteran Tonpa, who held badge 16.

Among the players, a few might know exactly where the venue was, but very few would dare skip the preliminaries entirely; most chose to play it safe and sit the tests.

Tonpa's experience and savvy truly were something else.

As for Xiang Nan, the fact he'd been issued a badge at all meant the Hunter Association had, at some level, cleared his background—and that eased his worries. His biggest fear was that his military past would make the Association quietly deny him.

"Yet… they never even asked a question, nor did anyone approach me."

Xiang Nan's eyes flickered.

Something felt off.

Getting his badge had been far too easy.

Not what he'd expected.

Given the Association's stance, and the V5's concern, his former identity was way too "sensitive."

He wasn't some nobody: he'd been one of the top decision‑makers in the Republic of Padokea's military and the key figure who brokered diplomatic ties with the Kakin Empire. He never expected to hide that from the V5. Even though he'd faked a discharge and made it look like Padokea had thrown him out, the Association and the V5's higher‑ups couldn't possibly be entirely unwary.

"Someone… is helping me behind the scenes?"

The thought flashed through Xiang Nan's mind.

Who?

Kakin?

"Looks like… the Hui Guo Rou Family has been watching me all along. If it's Kakin, it can only be him."

A single name surfaced in Xiang Nan's thoughts.

~~~

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