Because the Zodiacs held a special position within the Association, having been selected by Netero himself and recognized by the Association's internal members, they were also allowed to attend committee meetings.
However, because every member of the Zodiacs had a very different personality, and because they reported directly to Netero and had separate Zodiac meetings of their own, some of them did not take committee meetings seriously. Some had basically never attended this meeting at all.
For example, Ging Freecss, as well as Kanzai, the Tiger.
Of course, there were also people who never missed a session, such as Pariston, Botobai, and Cheadle.
However, today's committee meeting seemed rather unusual.
That was because Netero had demanded that every member of the Zodiacs be present, and he also had something important to tell them after the meeting.
When they connected this to the rumor that had spread through the Association earlier—that Chairman Netero was dissatisfied with the Zodiacs' recent work, wanted to evaluate them, and might even remove them if there were any violations in their work—the Zodiacs, including Ging, were rarely all present.
As for the first half of the rumor, most of the Zodiacs were half-believing and half-doubting. After all, the Zodiacs had already been established for many years. Netero knew exactly what every one of them was like, so why would he suddenly think of evaluating their work?
As for the second half of the rumor, the part about them being removed, most Zodiac members felt that it was complete nonsense.
The Zodiacs were people Chairman Netero had personally examined and appointed back then. How could they possibly be removed just like that? Wouldn't that be the same as saying the Chairman had misjudged them back then, humiliating himself?
Therefore, they guessed that Netero had probably gathered them because he wanted to assign them some troublesome work.
Unfortunately, all one could say was that they still did not understand Netero well enough.
Among the Zodiacs, if one had to say who understood Netero the best, Pariston counted as one, Ging counted as one, and even Cheadle could only count as half.
That was why Ging had specifically rushed over to attend this meeting. He knew very well that Netero might truly get serious and remove at least one Zodiac member!
"So that's Ging? Sure enough, he looks just as sloppy as he did in the original work."
The committee meeting was being held in the largest meeting room of the Hunter Association Headquarters, a place that resembled an auditorium. Aside from the row of people at the very front seated on two rows of conspicuous chairs, Ging and the others were all in the back.
Roy had obtained a pass from Netero, and at this moment, he was sitting together with a group of Temp Hunters. His gaze swept up and down over Ging, who was currently yawning.
A grayish-white long robe, paired with a black-blue collar scarf; a face weathered by hardship, covered in messy stubble. The most eye-catching thing was the pale green headwrap on his head, which resembled something from Arab-style custom.
As one of the world's five greatest Nen users, and one of the five strongest people in the current world, Ging's achievements were more than enough for him to become a Triple-Star Hunter. However, because he found it troublesome, he had never applied for it. Moreover, his intelligence was extremely high. He had accomplishments in multiple fields, including biology, archaeology, linguistics, geology, games, and more. At present, he was the character with the highest displayed intelligence in the manga.
However, Ging's personality leaned somewhat tsundere, and he was also a little shy. He seemed somewhat bad with strangers, but when he encountered serious matters, he would become extremely earnest. When angry, he would bristle up. He had many charm points, and looked like an adorable older man, but he was also a bastard of a father who was not very responsible.
Ging possessed extraordinary charisma. Aside from within the Hunter Association, where he was not very popular among the Zodiacs due to being the Boar and because of his personality, in everyday life, whether it was his friends, such as Kite or Dwun, or his own family, such as Gon and Mito, all of them held admiration and respect for Ging.
And while Roy was sizing Ging up, Ging naturally also noticed Roy's gaze.
"Who is that person?" Ging glanced at Roy from the corner of his eye. "Oh? Is that the manga artist Roy? I heard he also became a Hunter this year, and he was with Gon too. Gon's Nen ability was taught by him, right?"
As a game fan, Ging naturally had some understanding of Dragon Ball, which had swept across the world over the past two years.
Moreover, now that his own son had set foot on the path of a Hunter, it was not as if Ging had not paid any attention at all. Naturally, he had noticed the role Roy had played during that process.
Back when Dragon Ball was adapted into a game, Roy had put forward many excellent suggestions.
When Ging played Dragon Ball-related games, he found them extremely satisfying. Some of the ideas inside had given Ging quite a bit of inspiration as well.
Thus, Ging directly turned his head and looked straight toward Roy's location. When Roy saw Ging's gaze, he also looked directly back at him.
The two of them looked at each other for a few moments. Then they smiled at the same time and both turned their faces away, withdrawing their gazes.
"What? What is it? Is there someone especially interesting over there?" Pyon, the Rabbit, asked while playing with her phone, glancing over from time to time.
"A man carrying a sword sheath. I've never seen him in the Hunter Association before. Is he a newly joined Temp Hunter?" Cheadle, the Dog, pushed up her glasses. Then she paid no further attention and began organizing her materials, waiting for the meeting that was about to begin.
"Oh? Isn't that the manga artist Roy? I didn't expect him to come here too." Pariston's face still carried a gentle smile, but at the same time, a subtle light flashed through his eyes.
"According to the information I've gathered, he once fought Chairman Netero during the Hunter Exam. In that case, his appearance here is probably inseparable from the Chairman as well. In other words, the Chairman has acknowledged his strength too? If that's the case, the Chairman really might replace the Zodiacs. Has he even already decided on a candidate? My, how terrifying. He probably isn't even eighteen yet, right? To possess such terrifying strength before even reaching adulthood—his potential is much greater than Ging's!"
As for the others, they did not even look at Ging. As the Boar, Ging was even more unpopular among the Zodiacs.
Saiyu was the same. He scoffed at the news that Chairman Netero intended to clean up the Zodiacs. He had indeed helped Pariston get rid of many Hunters who opposed him, but with Beyond's help, everything had already been covered up very cleanly. They had even deliberately set up a counter-cover-up...
(End of Chapter)
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