Because they had to take care of Queen Oito and Steiner — two ordinary people — and kept encountering attacking monsters along the way, the group followed the mechanical flying ball for half an hour before finally reaching their destination.
However, along the way, Germain confirmed one more thing.
Some of the fallen monsters were transformed passengers from BW1, while others were Chimera Ants.
Gradually, more people in the group realized that Chimera Ants were among the monsters.
Especially Shizuku and Kurapika, who had fought Chimera Ants before, and Steiner from the International Permit Agency, who had studied Chimera Ants.
But why were there Chimera Ants on the Hypothetical Continent?
After the Chimera Ant disaster on the Six Continents, the result was that the formed Chimera Ants, if they unconditionally surrendered to humans and accepted lifelong surveillance, could be spared.
Meanwhile, the thousands of unhatched Chimera Ant eggs in the Republic of East Gorteau were immediately collected by Chairman Netero.
But when it came to dealing with these Chimera Ant eggs, he struggled for a while.
He couldn't just release all the thousands of ants that would hatch from these eggs back into the wild. That would start a new disaster.
Yet, constantly monitoring thousands of Chimera Ants—who could only be controlled by Nen users—was a pressure no organization on the Six Continents could bear.
In the end, Chairman Netero decided to use drugs to turn the eggs into "stillbirths," stopping them from hatching and showing them one last mercy.
Chimera Ants were indeed powerful fighters, but when there were thousands of them, their nature and the difficulty of managing them had to be considered.
It was cruel, but no one could be sure whether this batch of Chimera Ants would become more like humans or remain ants after hatching. What would their stance be?
Even more uncertain was whether some humans, out of selfishness or plain foolishness, would push for the Chimera Ants to become legal citizens, with their own land and nation.
If this was mishandled, in a hundred or two hundred years, Chairman Netero would be seen as a criminal against humanity.
By then, the expanding Chimera Ant population would gradually consume human lands and ask a soul-crushing question—
"This land was given to us by the Chimera Ant God. Why do you humans occupy it?"
Only by controlling a certain number of Chimera Ants could one have "good" Chimera Ants.
Unless the standards were lowered from the start—then the person in charge of thousands of Chimera Ants wouldn't care if they caused destructive disasters for human society.
Germain thought of the original story's timeline, where after Chairman Netero self-destructed, the person who collected these thousands of eggs was Pariston, the "Rat" of the Hunter Association's Zodiacs.
If I were Pariston, how would I use these thousands of Chimera Ant eggs?
I would, after leaving the Zodiacs, secretly transport them in batches to the imaginary continent here.
Then, I'd tell Beyond Netero, who's already freed from the "Blood Oath Shackles," to negotiate alone with the Hunter Association, even letting them detain him if necessary.
As long as everything goes smoothly, as long as the colonization voyage back to the Dark Continent can be pushed forward.
When the BW1 ship arrived at the Imaginary Continent and began to land, the passengers were horrified to discover that they would have to face thousands—perhaps even more—of Chimera Ants.
But thousands of Chimera Ants alone were not enough to completely break the BW1 colonization expedition.
With the Twelve Zodiacs and other Nen users present, unless Meruem and his three Royal Guards were resurrected, the most they could cause was a huge chaos.
At this moment, Pariston could coordinate with "Saiyu," the Monkey of Zodiacs still hiding among the Twelve Zodiacs. Together, they could work inside and outside the chaos to rescue Beyond.
By the time the BW1 colonization expedition finished dealing with the Chimera Ant disaster, Beyond's well-prepared exploration team would have already set off.
King Nasubi of Kakin probably knew about this as well, as he and Beyond had a mutually beneficial relationship.
Beyond helped him accomplish the great feat of delivering over two hundred thousand sacrifices onto the BW1 ship and then to the Imaginary Continent.
In return, King Nasubi would provide everything Beyond needed to travel to the Dark Continent—anything, no matter what it was.
Also, when Beyond returned with "Hope" or whatever else he obtained, he would receive full support.
By then, Beyond would no longer need to return to the Six Continents.
The new Kakin Empire established on the Imaginary Continent would be strong enough to support his multiple trips to the Dark Continent, even more convenient than when he was in the Six Continents.
As for why there were Chimera Ants already here, it was because the Queen who wandered to the Six Continents was born on the Imaginary Continent.
This place had already become a nest for the Chimera Ants.
Seeming to confirm Germain's thoughts, the mechanical flying sphere carried them away from the mountains and instead arrived beside the crashing waves below steep cliffs.
Here, they saw a fortress almost fused into the steep mountain walls.
A huge metal gate stood on a wide channel leading to an external harbor, with water rushing loudly.
Many lookout holes and gun barrels protruded from the walls, firing at a group of attacking monsters below the stone cliff, turning them into a splatter of blood and debris.
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