"Uncle, how did these monsters appear?"

Night had fallen. A fire crackled, and Ron sat before it with Benas by his side. Wooden stakes had been driven into the ground, skewering strips of meat, and nearby hung the skin of a rabbit.

The appearance of the Chimera Ants stirred a suspicion in Ron's mind. In the original story, it had been explained that Chimera Ants drifted from the Dark Continent, where they were nothing more than bottom-tier creatures. Yet, upon arriving on the Human World, once they began consuming humans—and especially Nen users—a new era for Chimera Ants began.

Without Nen, a Chimera Ant was only a slightly stronger magical beast, and the Human World already had no shortage of powerful beasts. But once they gained Nen, Chimera Ants became something entirely different. Combined with their overwhelming reproductive ability, and with the Queen herself being a natural engine of reproduction, the danger multiplied.

Now, however, looking at the timing of Netero's intervention, considering the chronological order of events in the original story, and carefully observing the Chimera Ants characteristics, Ron felt a strong sense of familiarity. He could see the traces of Oster's research. On the bodies of the Chimera Ants, there were distinct signs of artificial interference. They did not seem like naturally occurring creatures, but rather constructs manufactured in a laboratory.

Ron recalled the United States of Sahelta's biological laboratories, which were built upon Oster's research results. The V5 had all been involved.

"The V5 can't possibly be ignorant of the threat posed by the Chimera Ants. Even with Netero himself acting, progress is way too slow, even for their amount of bureaucracy, and NGL has already become a living hell. Yet the V5 remain calm, sending no reinforcements, taking no urgent action. If Chimera Ants truly were creatures that drifted from the Dark Continent, this would not make sense. But if they were creations of the V5, then it explains everything."

Ron had traveled to Fiora, to the United States of Sahelta, and to Begrossé. He understood these nations well. To the ruling class, ordinary citizens were not people at all, but property and resources. They did not care about civilian deaths, but they did care about the loss of assets. Each major power also possessed its own system of abilities—the three great dojos of Fiora, the Nen structures of Sahelta, the sacred sound techniques of Begrossé, and Minpo's system, similar to Fiora's but different in detail.

Every V5 nation was formidable, filled with powerful Nen users. No matter how short of manpower they might claim to be, they could always spare more if they truly wished.

"The Chimera Ants are too similar to Oster's research. Even the methods resemble those of the Underworld Mafia's No. 2 laboratory. To deliberately manufacture a disaster like this is entirely within reason—after all, that is what they always do. The KUTE thieves, the collapse of Taris, the internal strife of Begrossé, the Sahelta elite's treatment of their citizens, and Kakin's Succession War—it all follows the same pattern."

Ron reached his conclusion. "The Chimera Ants are products of the V5, made using Oster's research but twisted away from his true purpose. He sought to break through to S-rank and to create humanoid life. The V5 instead created a race of man-like organisms. Oster himself had sought to create humanoid life, but his experiments no longer produced true humans. Ponzu will one day face the same situation. Once she reaches S-rank, the step forward will far exceed what Oster had ever anticipated.

The Chimera Ants emergence is a massive experiment. What do the V5 want from it? Chimera Ants? Or the eggs that Pariston collected?"

Ron remembered how, in the original story, Pariston had recovered thousands of Chimera Ant eggs. If those eggs all hatched, and the ants obeyed his command, and they learned Nen, then that would be an incomparably strong force. Given enough time, even the lowest Chimera Ant soldiers could reach the level of B-rank Nen users, and many could grow even stronger. The number that could reach A-rank would not be small.

Thousands of such beings—that was an enormous number. Within any V5 nation, there were not nearly that many Nen users of such level. And this was only the result of a single experiment. If one experiment could create such power, what about two? Or three? The cost to humanity was only the lives of civilians from small nations. To the rulers, their deaths mattered little.

"Division leaders, squad captains, soldiers—those that retain fragments of human memory are the ones that can be controlled, the ones worth keeping. The Royal Guard and the King, who lack any trace of human memory, must be eliminated. What the V5 truly want are the controllable forces: division leaders, captains, and soldiers. With their power, the likelihood of successful expeditions into the Dark Continent will rise dramatically."

Humanity had attempted countless expeditions into the Dark Continent before. The mortality rate was staggering. From thousands who set out, only a few ever returned with results. The losses were too great for any nation to sustain. Training so many Nen users under normal circumstances was nearly impossible. But with Chimera Ant experiments, it was different.

Ron's eyes flickered. "If this is true, then humanity is about to enter a new age. An age of great exploration. Through the Chimera Ant experiments, Nen users can be mass-produced and sent into the Dark Continent to search and bring back results. Those results will greatly benefit humanity, and the pace of human evolution will accelerate beyond imagination. It will be like an industrial revolution."

He gazed into the distance. "If that is truly the case, then what kind of future will humanity face? And what heights will Nen users be able to reach? As for Netero's death, it may well have been his own choice—a man at the end of his life, making his decision after witnessing the dawn of a new era."