Transit Hall, as the name suggests, is a secret agency directly under V5, dedicated to ferrying others to the Dark Continent.
On the surface, it is responsible for negotiating with the Gatekeepers about entering and exiting the Dark Continent. Behind the scenes... it actually monitors and contains humans who have returned from the Dark Continent, only to suffer disasters and unfortunately perish, ultimately transforming into unknown monsters.
Southwest corner of the laboratory's south wall, marked [54-714-01], noting the first victim of July 14, 1954, the body twisted into a rope-like experimental subject, suspected to have encountered an unknown disaster that erased human consciousness, suddenly split open to reveal an eye, projecting several images of varying sizes.
Reported by the on-duty personnel, the higher-ups urgently convened a meeting to assess the situation and immediately notified... those related to the incident——
The world's strongest human, Netero!
In early July 1954, it was Netero who led a team, along with Jager Zoldyck and Gourmet Hunter Linne, accepted the commission from the Ancient Gan Yu Kingdom to search for the "Trinity Water", and ventured into the Dark Continent to explore.
Hunter Association.
Headquarters.
An office building emblazoned with a huge [Hunter Association] logo.
Top floor.
A group of four were busy with their own tasks on a large volleyball court.
"Bang bang..." The volleyball was dribbled like a basketball under an old man's legs, Netero, dressed in a vest and shorts, sporting an athletic outfit, smilingly played a ball-snatching game with a gentle, bespectacled boy, around thirteen or fourteen years old.
By the window, two golden pigtails swayed in the wind, Biscuit was so occupied with her "gemstones" that she forgot her apprentice, leaving Wing alone with Netero to entertain themselves. She had secretly bribed Mamen Beans to flip through the documents he brought, searching for news of those rare gemstones.
At a certain moment, a ringtone sounded,
Mamen Beans took out his phone, glanced at it, noticing it was a call from the higher-ups, his bald and smooth head subtly furrowed, forming a line, and he discreetly answered the call. A few seconds later, his expression changed.
He walked quickly and stopped Wing, shouting to the chairman, anxiously heading towards Netero.
"Bang~" The volleyball curved in a pseudo-scientific arc, dodging Wing's pounce, grazed the boy's cheek and returned to Netero's hand.
With a stretch of his old hand, he received it, stopping it steadily on his fingertip.
Netero, with a Buddha-like face and large ears, white eyebrows, and beard, droopy eyes looking on... Mamen Beans clutched the phone, leaned in, and said: "A call from the higher-ups. They said... the victim who once accompanied the Chairman into the Dark Continent, who ultimately perished, seems to show signs of awakening..."
Netero's expression tensed, the Nen pillar naturally emanating from his skull, stabilized into an iron column with his extraordinary control over his body, unwavering over the years.
Yet at this moment, upon hearing the news, it uncharacteristically trembled slightly... Sharp-eyed Biscuit caught this change from the window.
"Old man, what happened?" Shingen-ryu, emphasizing honing the heart, where the heart remains undisturbed by external matters, steadfast like a mountain amid the world's chaos, was the ultimate wisdom Netero often imparted to Biscuit in the past.
Yet the old man, claiming to have tempered his heart into a steel form, now showed a crack...
Biscuit shook her two golden pigtails, struggling to pull her mind away from the "gemstone information," she looked over in surprise...
Netero remained silent, gesturing for Mamen Beans to turn on the television, connecting to the Transit Hall: "See for yourself."
The snowflake-patterned electronic screen suddenly switched to the Transit Hall, in the underground third-floor laboratory, the images projected by the rope-like monster were displayed in split-screen form, transcribed to the Hunter Association.
Visiting the Association this time was supposedly a visit, but in reality, it was Biscuit bringing Wing to let Netero see how her apprentice was doing. Suddenly, they noticed a familiar figure in one of the images. The boy pushed the glasses on his nose and blurted out: "Roy?"
"That's right,"
"It's him...."
In the center of the hazy images, clearly reflected was the boy's ear cuffs of sun and mountains, his expression serious, poised and dignified, intensely gazing at a figure with a wind hood and a red-beaded fishing rod.
West coast of the Urubian Continent, at the northwest corner of the coastal town Vibis, 270 nautical miles out, at a depth of ten thousand meters underwater, within the remains of an underwater relic, a quasi-Gothic church....
Roy, Razor, Ging... and trailing behind them into the church were Wutong and Alena, as soon as they crossed the tall, carved with various male and female professions and appearances reliefs of the church door, their vision immediately wavered, instantaneously changing worlds,
Each entered into an open no-man's land, instantly losing contact with the few people around them.
"Young master!" Wutong, a position behind Roy, was startled at the time, reaching out toward the direction where Roy vanished, grasping at thin air instead.
The young butler's heart shuddered, immediately becoming highly alert, suddenly hearing a strange sound from beside his ear, discreetly tightened his grip on the [Infinite Divine Spear], tracing the source of the sound with his gaze... His narrowly set eyes, screened by gold-rimmed glasses, unexpectedly relaxed... it turned out to be Alena....
Lowering his hand, just as he intended to breathe a sigh of relief, he suddenly sensed a gust of wind hurtling towards him, it was a button wrapped in [Ten], its owner being the Alena right in front of him!
Wutong bent his elbow, raised his hand, shot one bullet accurately at the button, then looked at the woman resembling Alena in front of him, noticing her beautiful eyes, hidden by the blue-light glasses, had lost their usual liveliness, instead appearing dull and lifeless, like a marionette manipulated by others after being plotted against,