"Hmm?"
The King swallowed the last bite of flesh and brain matter, and felt an endless surge of power welling up inside him.
This obvious physical change immediately sharpened his appetite.
He was already extremely hungry, so he immediately looked at Pitou's headless corpse.
When Youpi and Pouf arrived nearby, they saw the King ravenously devouring Pitou's remains like a starving beast.
"King..."
Watching the King's frenzied feast, Youpi and Pouf didn't think there was anything wrong at all.
To them, this was only natural.
However-
They noticed that as the King consumed Pitou, the life force radiating from his body was visibly growing stronger.
"Is this the King's ability...?"
Pouf didn't care about Pitou's death at all. Instead, he was surprised and excited by the innate abilities displayed by the King.
By devouring his prey's life force, he could directly convert it into his own.
In other words-
The more the King ate, the stronger he would become!
Then, as long as enough Nen User is mass-produced, the King could evolve to a level surpassing all living beings in an extremely short time, and then ruling the world will be a piece of cake.
Thinking of this, Pouf's face twisted slightly with excitement.
But soon...
He realized a serious problem.
In order to stably mass-produce Nen Users, they would absolutely need Pitou's Nen Ability...
Pouf's excitement immediately dimmed, and he instinctively looked at Pitou's corpse, only to find nothing but tattered remnants of clothing.
With his appetite fully awakened, the King's eating efficiency was terrifying.
A creature of Pitou's size had been completely devoured in mere moments.
Not even the half-severed arm embedded in his back was spared, as the King plucked it out and shoved it straight into his mouth.
And so, this Royal Guard, whose ability type made her most likely to activate Post-Mortem Nen, was utterly consumed by the Chimera Ant King.
Without Pitou's Nen Ability, there is no way Pouf can expect to be able to produce Nen Users in a stable manner.
However-
After eating Pitou, the King not only grew stronger, but his injuries had also recovered and regenerated at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Not enough!"
The King was not satisfied and suddenly looked in the direction of Moses and Netero.
But when he looked over, he sensed no trace of their presence.
Those two...
Had vanished without a trace, as if evaporated into thin air.
To have such prized prey escape right before his eyes left the King momentarily stunned, then he became furious.
In his eyes, Moses and Netero were undoubtedly supreme delicacies, which can not only capable of providing him with the ultimate gustatory pleasure, but also allowing him to manifest even greater power.
The strong sense of expectation thus generated, after it was dashed, inevitably ignited the most unbearable anger the King had felt since birth.
At this very moment,
Moses and Netero had already been escorted into the Four-Dimensional Apartment by Knov.
If not for this, the two of them would never have been able to escape the King's pursuit.
"Monster…!"
Morel muttered under his breath with cold sweat on his face.
Through the binoculars, he had clearly witnessed the King devouring Pitou, growing visibly stronger, and even healing his injuries in the process.
Leaving aside the fact that the King's Manifested Aura was already absurdly powerful that even Netero's 100-Type Guanyin struggled to breach, he can actually increase his strength further by eating.
From Mo Morel's perspective, even the word 'monster' couldn't fully encapsulate his impression of this creature.
Knov, Kanzai and Bushidora shared similar thoughts.
If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, how could they believe such a preposterous being existed?
"This is bad."
Moses sighed.
He had failed to use Pitou as a trump card to eliminate the King, and worse, he hadn't even been able to extract her in the end.
Now, the result was that the King ate Pitou, becoming stronger and recovering from all the injuries in the process.
At that point, there had clearly been no further opportunities.
Fortunately, he had made Netero retreat beforehand, maximizing the distance between them and the King.
Otherwise, they might not have made it back to the Four-Dimensional Apartment in time.
As for Kyoka Suigetsu...
Whether it could take root stably would only be clear if he got close enough to the King to sense it.
If Kyoka Suigetsu could be activated reliably, then no matter how strong the King becomes, there will be a 100% chance of winning.
Netero didn't say anything, just kept stroking his beard.
Morel and the others looked at each other for a few seconds but didn't say anything.
The whole room was plunged into a relatively heavy silence.
"The more the Chimera Ant King eats, the stronger he becomes."
After a long pause, Moses spoke up, breaking the silence. He looked around at everyone present, and said in a deep voice: "So... we must intercept and kill him before he comes into contact with more Nen Users."
"But how..."
Knov started to speak when he inexplicably remembered Moses's initial proposal to use Poor Man's Rose to blow up the ant nest, and he couldn't help but stop talking.
Now that he thought about it-
If they had taken Moses's advice back then, exaggerated the Chimera Ants' biological threat level to the higher-ups, and then abandoned morality and bottom line and actively asked the superiors to provide a Poor Man's Rose, perhaps the matter could have been resolved once and for all.
As for the subsequent survival environment of NGL, and the large number of casualties that may be caused by the spread of toxins...
Compared to the threat level the King was now displaying, it is nothing.
This was a choice between sacrificing one to save a hundred.
Any reasonable person would choose to save the hundred, right?
'...Wait?'
'What am I thinking about?'
'There's no point in thinking about this right now.'
Knov lowered his head slightly and raised his hand to rub his swollen and painful temples.
The pressure brought by the King had strained his nerves to the limit, so much so that his thoughts began to become a little abnormal.
Then-
Everyone, including Knov, heard Netero speak in a tone laden with unspoken meaning.
"Intercepting and killing him as soon as possible is the only option. This time... may very well be the final battle of my life."
"Huh?!"
Everyone couldn't help but look at Netero.
Seeing the expression on his face at this time, everyone vaguely felt that Netero seemed to have made some kind of resolution.
But they didn't truly understand what Netero was thinking at the moment.
Only Moses knew that Netero had already decided that, in the next confrontation, he would fight the King to the death.
"…"
Moses wanted to say something, but in the end, no words came out.
There were some things he could only talk to Netero about in private, or even discuss with him.
For example, the details of Kyoka Suigetsu...
No matter what, Moses didn't want to see Netero fall in battle, defeated by nothing more than a biological gap.
'Let's talk to the old man first...'
Moses thought in his heart.
Netero had no idea what Moses was thinking. Seeing that everyone was silent, he suddenly issued an order: "I'll leave the Queen and the other Chimera Ants to you..."
Hearing this, Morel instinctively asked, "Then what about you, Chairman? Are you planning to..."
"I need to meet an old friend."
Netero waved his hand without waiting for Morel to finish speaking.